I’m On An Island – Exactly 34 weeks after he ascended to the summit of the NHL’s all-time goals ledger, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin and his teammates are back at UBC Arena for the third time since that occasion, and playing a Sunday matinee here for the first time since Ovechkin’s record-breaking goal in an April 6 afternoon game here.
Today’s Metro Division match is the third meeting between the two teams this season; they’ve split a pair of two-goal decisions, with each team winning on the road.
“I really liked our game here [on Oct. 11], and then didn’t like our game [at home on Oct. 31] at all, even though it was tight,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I just thought we were really, really sloppy in that game. And so, sort of a tale of two games, of us doing a good job here, and then not so good at home. So, we’re going to have to correct some of those things, especially the most recent game.
“There are some things that they do specifically that gave us issues. So, we’ll make sure that we identify those and make sure it’s clear of what we’ve got to do a better job of today.”
In the two prior meetings, each team has scored five goals. All five Washington goals were scored at 5-on-5, while New York struck for three special teams goals – two on the power play and one shorthanded – plus an empty-net goal, and just a single tally at 5-on-5.
“That’s so secret, that’s a strength of ours as a group,” says Carbery of his team’s 5-on-5 game. “So any team we play against, their special teams are much improved from last year. Any time that we can keep games at 5-on-5, we feel comfortable.”
A Pair To Beat A Full House – Historically, whenever the Caps’ hockey operations department has been able to achieve the rare feat of adding a couple of top four defensemen in the same offseason, good things follow.
Back in 1982 when freshly appointed general manager David Poile engineered the six-player blockbuster swap with Montreal to bring Rod Langway and Brian Engblom to the District, the Caps had never made the playoffs in their eight-season NHL history to that point. But with that deal as a springboard – and Engblom to Los Angeles for Larry Murphy a year later – the Caps went on a run of 14 straight playoff appearances, the longest run of its kind in franchise history.
In the summer of 2014 after taking over the GM position from George McPhee, Brian MacLellan – now Washington’s president of hockey operations – added Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik as unrestricted free agents. Five straight seasons with 100 or more points followed, along with a pair of Presidents’ Trophies and the first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history in 2018.
In July of 2024, MacLellan made a swap with Ottawa to obtain Jakob Chychrun, and he signed Matt Roy to a six-year deal as an unrestricted free agent. Those two additions were a couple key ones among seven players the Caps brought in that summer, and the group of newcomers combined with the team’s returning core put up a 20-point standings improvement last season and won the team’s first playoff series since it won the Cup in 2018.
Chychrun has since signed an eight-year contract extension, and he and Roy are a couple of the 10 players the Caps have under contract for at least two more seasons beyond the current one. Both players had excellent ’24-25 campaigns in their first seasons with Washington, and both have turned it up a notch or two this season, and they’ve done so while playing together for the last month or so.
Last season, Chychrun logged over 600 minutes at 5-on-5 with Trevor van Riemsdyk and Roy did the same with Martin Fehervary, their most frequent partners from last season. Shortly after Rasmus Sandin – who started the season playing with Roy – was injured in an Oct. 21 game with Seattle and missed the next five contests, Chychrun and Roy were paired and they’ve been together since.
“What’s interesting is it wasn’t great last year,” Carbery said last week of the pairing. “So I was a little hesitant going into this year to put them together. I talked to both guys before the season, and asked them how they feel with one another, and this was when we weren’t going with that pair to start. Why do you think it didn’t work? What could we do in the future, if we potentially went to that pair?
“I got some interesting insight from them personally, because sometimes you watch the film or you read the numbers, but your best source is to go to the guys, and ask them how they feel on the ice and is there anything that sticks out as to why we are successful, and why we aren’t, and what could we do better to help it in the future.”
Whatever they’re doing is working fabulously.
For the season, Chychrun has been on the ice for 32 goals for at 5-on-5 in 25 games, second only to Colorado’s Cale Makar (33). And among defensemen who have logged at least 425 minutes of 5-on-5 duty to date – a group of 59 players as of this Sunday morning – Roy is tied for second – with Makar – for fewest goals against at 5-on-5, with just 10. Veteran Vegas defender Shea Theodore leads with nine.
Those numbers obviously reflect time spent with other partners as well. Across their 233 minutes and 57 seconds on ice as a duo, Chychrun and Roy have been on the ice for 20 goals for and a mere five goals against, all while controlling 60.32 percent of the shot attempts during that time.
On the surface, the pairing of Chychrun – a high-end, dynamic offensive talent with a bomb of a shot – with the more defensive oriented Roy seems like a classic NHL defense duo along the lines of Rob Blake and Matty Norstrom with the Los Angeles Kings of yesteryear, along with several other examples. But that would be selling both players short.
Since entering the League as a precocious and rare 18-year-old blueliner, Chychrun has greatly improved his defensive acumen. And Roy has displayed excellent puck moving ability, good decision making with the disc, and excellent instincts as far as when to pinch in the offensive zone and when to jump up in the rush.
“I think that’s something everybody seems to obsess over,” says Chychrun of that stereotypical pairing. “I think there’s more that goes into it than just pairing an offensive guy with a defensive guy. But that’s something that people love to talk about.
“For me, I love playing with Matty. Matty is a guy who, when he’s playing with confidence, he makes great plays with the puck and he has a lot of poise with the puck. And obviously, we all know how he defends and how tough he is to play against. Yeah, it’s an underrated side to his game. I think when he’s when he’s going well, he wants the puck and he wants to make plays, and he wants to be creative and look for the open guy. And he’s really good at it, so I’ve definitely enjoyed playing with him a lot. And he’s a guy that I touched on it before, but I have a great relationship with him off the ice as well, and it obviously goes a long way too.”
There are 45 defense pairings that have logged 225 or more minutes together to this juncture of the season, and the Chychrun duo leads them all with 4.1 expected goals/60, according to Money Puck. They’ve controlled 60.2 percent of all shot attempts, second only to the Nate Schmidt/John Marino duo in Utah (62 percent).
“We were playing Chychy with Riemer a lot,” explains Carbery. “And we felt like if we could get him into a spot where he’s got a real comfortable partner with Matt Roy, it felt like it kind of solidified our top four, and then it gives you a little bit of consistency there. I’ll give you an example. If Riemer comes out of the lineup, now Chychy’s got to play with a different partner again. So that was part of the reason we went to that pair, and kudos to those guys, because they’ve been very, very effective, right from jump street on them getting together.
“I feel like they’ve built some good chemistry, I think some of the things that we’ve pointed out and talked about, I think they’ve taken to heart and really paid attention to, on maybe why it wasn’t successful last year, and they’ve sort of made some adjustments and done a real good job.
“So, a lot of credit goes to both of those guys, because Matt Roy flies under the radar, where Chychy gets a lot of the accolades – the goals, the assists, the power play time – where Matt Roy has done an excellent job this year not only in his role of being a really good puck mover and defender, but also enabling Jakob Chychrun to be as productive offensively as he has.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson was excellent in earning his 10th win of the season on Friday afternoon over Toronto, making 20 saves and limiting the opposition to two or fewer goals against for the 13th time in 17 starts this season.
Lifetime against the Islanders, Thompson is 3-2-1 with a 2.48 GAA and a .913 save pct. in six appearances, all starts.
For the Islanders, we’re expecting to see Ilya Sorokin between the pipes this afternoon. In eight October starts this season, Sorokin was 3-4-1 with a 3.40 GAA and an .877 save pct. In eight November starts, he is 4-3-1 with a pair of shutouts, a 2.01 GAA and a .926 save pct.
Lifetime against Washington, Sorokin is 5-5-1 in 11 appearances (all starts) with a 2.28 GAA and a .923 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Capitals and the Islanders might look on Sunday afternoon in New York:
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
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
87-Trineyev
Injured/Out
26-Dowd (upper body)
80-Dubois (lower body)
NEW YORK
Forwards
27-Lee, 13-Barzal, 29-Drouin
51-Heineman, 14-Horvat, 49-Shabanov
10-Holmstrom, 64-Ritchie, 11-Duclair
32-MacLean, 53-Cizikas, 7-Tsyplakov
Defensemen
48-Schaefer, 6-Pulock
3-Pelech, 77-DeAngelo
38-Mitchell, 24-Mayfield
Goalies
30-Sorokin
33-Rittich
Healthy Extras
16-Gatcomb
34-Boqvist
Injured/Out
21-Palmieri (lower body)
28-Romanov (upper body)
40-Varlamov (lower body)
44-Pageau (upper body)
74-Bear (undisclosed)
