Season Of The Shark – The Caps get their first look at the resurgent San Jose Sharks tonight at SAP Center when they finish up their sixth set of back-to-back games this season. The Caps carry a season-high five-game winning streak into Wednesday’s game with the Sharks, and a win tonight would ensure a victorious four-game trip; the Caps won the journey opener Sunday afternoon on Long Island and took the second game from the Kings in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.
Sophomore star Macklin Celebrini had 25 goals and 63 points in 70 games as a rookie last season and he was a Calder Trophy finalist. This season, he has elevated his game significantly with a League-high 26 assists and 40 points – second only to Nathan MacKinnon’s 46 – in just 27 games.
“I think he’s certainly elevated his game and taken it to a whole another level,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “Will Smith, the [William] Eklund kid as well, I feel like is now feels like a comfortable NHL player. All those guys are become a real problem for opposing teams in the NHL.”
Sharks GM Mike Grier brought in a few veterans to help in the room with San Jose’s youthful roster, including longtime Caps defenseman Dmitry Orlov, who signed here as a free agent after spending a couple seasons in Carolina.
“You make some moves in the offseason, you bring in some veteran players like Dmitry Orlov, who we all know,” says Carbery. “[John] Klingberg, [Alexander] Wennberg now being comfortable. You’ve got some quality NHL players there, and [Ryan Warsofsky] is a good coach, so I’m not surprised at all about the steps they’ve taken this year, and how they’re sort of surprising teams and being above .500 and maybe speeding up their rebuild process and the steps of the young players. Because he’s not only a good coach, but he’s a good developer of young players, and so all of those guys are getting a lot better.
“So, yeah, it’s not surprising for me. Maybe for some people on the outside, but we’re going to have our hands full, no doubt.”
One thing the Caps may also have is slightly better health going into Wednesday night’s game with the Sharks. Earlier in the afternoon, Washington loaned forward Bogdan Trineyev to AHL Hershey, indicating that center Nic Dowd is likely healthy enough to return to the lineup; he has missed the last eight games with an upper body injury.
Asked whether Washington would have any lineup changes for tonight’s game, Carbery replied thusly: “Yeah, there’ll be a bunch. I can’t go through them all right now, but just make sure you have your pen handy for warmup.”
There you have it. That means disregard the “possible” lineup shown below, which has been the lineup for each of the first two games of this road trip.
Where I Lead Me – In addition to the five-game winning streak they carry into tonight’s game, the Capitals are 8-1-1 since returning from their most recent four-game road trip, played entirely in the Eastern Time Zone over a span of eight days from Nov. 6-13. They went 1-3-0 on that trip, and when they arrived home from that journey, the Caps held a 2-6-1 record in their previous nine games.
That rugged stretch followed a strong 6-2-0 start, prompting some questions about who the Caps really were at that stage of the young season. These last 10 games have gone a long way toward answering those questions.
The Caps lost the first two games of that four-game trip in November at Pittsburgh and at Tampa Bay, respectively, but both games were tied heading into the third period.
“I think that’s what you saw last year; you start to build confidence in those moments,” says Carbery of the success on the current trip. “At the beginning of the year, for the most part, you’re coming out on the wrong end; we would make a mistake, or they would make a play, and next thing you know, you lose the game. Okay, it happens once, it happens twice. Now, you start to lose a little bit of confidence when you get back into those moments.
“So I feel like just us getting our swagger back of being able to close games out, whether it’s tied and we’ve got to get it to overtime or whether we’re tied going into the third period, and we’ve got to find the game winner. I just feel just feel like we’re a lot more comfortable going through these third periods and holding leads, or when the game’s tied.”
The numbers bear that out. During Washington’s first eight games of the season when they went 6-2-0, they were fourth in the League at controlling shot attempts at 5-on-5 (55.30 pct.) and they were seventh in the NHL in lead time, at all strengths, playing 199:11 of those eight games with a scoreboard lead.
Over the next nine games (2-6-1), Washington had the worst record in the entire NHL, despite controlling shot attempts at virtually the same rate (55.31 pct.) which ranked third in the circuit over that span. But the Capitals’ amount of lead time at all strengths during those nine games dipped to 126:02, 28th in the NHL over that span. Whenever the game was tied during those nine games, the Caps were outscored by 9-6, and their 40 percent goal share in that situation ranked 27th in the NHL.
Now, let’s take a look at the last 10 games in which Washington owns an 8-1-1 mark. The Caps are controlling 50.67 pct. of shot attempts, 15th in the NHL. They’ve also held a scoreboard lead for 357:34 in those 10 games, most lead time in the League across that stretch. And when the game is tied – as it was heading into the third period last night in Los Angeles – the Caps have outscored foes 12-3 in the last dozen games, and that 80 pct. share is tied with Minnesota for tops in the League.
In The Nets – Tuesday night in Los Angeles, Logan Thompson made 24 saves to earn a 3-1 victory for himself and the Capitals, his fourth consecutive win. Wednesday night in San Jose, Charlie Lindgren will be seeking to follow that up with his fourth consecutive victory.
In his last four appearances – three starts – Lindgren is 3-0-0 with a 2.47 GAA and a .900 save pct.
Lifetime against the Sharks, Lindgren is 0-1-0 in a single appearance – a start — with a 3.07 GAA and a .906 save pct.
For the Sharks, we’re expecting to see Yaroslav Askarov between the pipes tonight. In 17 appearances this season, Askarov is 10-6-1 with a 2.96 GAA and a .910 save pct.
Askarov won his lone career start against Washington; he is 1-0-0 against the Caps with a 1.85 GAA and a .931 save pct.
Askarov’s only win over Washington was also the first victory of his NHL career; it came on Dec. 30, 2023 when he was still a member of the Nashville Predators, who won a 3-2 shootout decision at Capital One Arena in that game.
Askarov is one of the nearly 200 different netminders to surrender a goal to Caps captain Alex Ovechkin; Ovechkin scored late in the third period of that game nearly two years ago, tying the contest at 2-2 and helping the Caps pick up a point in a shootout loss.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Capitals and the Sharks might look on Wednesday night in San Jose:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
72-Beauvillier, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
21-Protas, 34-Sourdif, 43-Wilson
22-Duhaime, 24-McMichael, 9-Leonard
15-Milano, 29-Lapierre, 53-Frank
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Healthy Extras
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
87-Trineyev
Injured/Out
26-Dowd (upper body)
80-Dubois (lower body)
SAN JOSE
Forwards
73-Toffoli, 71-Celebrini, 2-Smith
72-Eklund, 21-Wennberg, 81-Gaudette
96-Kurashev, 10-Dellandrea,51-Graf
84-Regenda, 23-Goodrow, 75-Reaves
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 37-Liljegren
38-Ferraro, 3-Klingberg
6-Dickinson, 22-Iorio
4-Leddy, 85-Mukhamadullin
Goalies
30-Askarov
33-Nedeljkovic
Healthy Extras
4-Leddy
63-Ostapchuk
85-Mukhamadullin
Injured/Out
5-Desharnais (upper body)
53-Skinner (lower body)
