The undefeated Vegas Golden Knights (3-0-0) will compete in their first road tilt of the 2024-25 season when they take on the Washington Capitals (0-1-1) tonight at Capital One Arena.
Vegas completed a sweep of its season-opening three-game homestand with a 3-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday after defeating Colorado (8-4) and St. Louis (4-3).
Vegas will face a Capitals team that suffered a 5-3 loss to New Jersey in its only game of the season.
Like the Golden Knights, the Capitals have a lot of new pieces in the mix after a busy offseason.
Through creative trades and an aggressive approach in free agency, Washington added defensemen Matt Roy (who was injured in Washington’s season opener) and Jakob Chychrun as well as forwards Pierre-Luc DuBois, Andrew Mangiapane, Taylor Raddysh and Brandon Duhaime.
Not to mention a certain goaltender by the name of Logan Thompson.
The former Vegas netminder was dealt to the Capitals for two third-round draft picks on the second day of the NHL Entry Draft after requesting a trade. Thompson wanted a chance to be a No. 1 goalie. That wasn’t really an option in Vegas because of Adin Hill, though Thompson understood why Hill, who backstopped the Golden Knights to a Stanley Cup championship in 2022, was the guy in Sin City.
Thompson, who got his start with the Capitals organization after signing with Hershey and playing for the ECHL South Carolina Stingrays in 2019-20, is set to make his Capitals debut tonight against his former club.
Thompson won both of his starts in preseason, demonstrating his ability to battle and come up with huge saves.
He knows he has his work cut out for him against his former team.
“They started off the year really strong, so we’ve got to be prepared for that,” he said. “They’re a contender every year; they’re gonna come out hard, and we just gotta play our game and focus on our details.”
Many of those details have yet to be ironed out considering Washington has played just one game after wrapping up its preseason 10 days ago. Charlie Lindgren, who is currently competing with Thompson for the starter’s role, was in net when the Capitals suffered a 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils.
The Capitals, who are celebrating their 50th season in the NHL, are coming off an unexpected trip to the playoffs after mounting a late rally and squeezing in as the second wildcard team. However, they got swept by the New York Rangers in the first round, which played a role in the team’s offseason strategy.
Like Bruce Cassidy and the Golden Knights, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery is still trying to find the right combinations up front (though he did very little experimenting during training camp).
Specifically, Carbery is completely splitting up the third line, which was on the ice for three of New Jersey’s four goals — two of which were scored by former Golden Knights forward Paul Cotter — prior to the empty-net tally.
“We’ve got to make a change on that third line to try to figure out a way to be able to deploy that line, so it’s as easy as that,” Carbery said.
Mangiapane will move down to the third line to play with center Hendrix Lapierre, and Jakub Vrana will make his season debut in his second stint with the Washington Capitals. Vrana was a member of the team when the Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018 but was traded in 2021. He signed a PTO this summer and made the team out of camp.
Aliaksei Protas will move up to the top line to skate with Dylan Strome and Alex Ovechkin, who will move to the right side for tonight’s game. Sonny Milano will serve as the healthy scratch.
The second and fourth lines will remain the same, and Dylan McIlrath will step in for the injured Roy.
For Vegas, Cassidy switched Alexander Holtz and Victor Olofsson during the second period of Sunday’s game against Anaheim, so it’s likely he’ll stick to the new-look lines tonight in Washington, where he coached for parts of two seasons from 2002 to 2004.
The Golden Knights were sloppy in Sunday’s win, committing multiple glaring turnovers, three of which led to clear-cut breakaways. They will have to clean things up tonight on the road against a Capitals team hungry to get its season going.
It also took a long time for the Golden Knights to find their game. Ilya Samsonov kept the game tied at 1-1, but getting off to a better start will be important tonight, especially against a rusty Capitals team.
In addition, Vegas needs to continue to move the puck well on the power play. Ideally, the Golden Knights can find a way to capitalize on the man-advantage. Vegas is 3-for-9 on the year, while Washington scored once on three opportunities against New Jersey.
Adin Hill, who will face his former goalie partner, needs to be much sharper. He may have a 2-0-0 record to start the season, but his 3.50 goals-against average and .870 save percentage leave much to be desired. To be fair, those numbers aren’t truly indicative of his play, but he needs to come up with more saves.
These teams split the season series last year. Vegas holds a 9-3-0 record in the all-time regular-season matchup.
