Welcome To My Island – For the first time in over a year, the Caps are visiting the division rival Islanders. During the 2023-24 season, both of Washington’s visits here came in the early part of the season, the 2023 portion. They were here on Nov. 11 and Dec. 29 of 2023 and weren’t here at all in calendar 2024.
Now, they’ll visit Elmont twice in a span of span of 10 nights. No word on what second prize might be.
With five goals in his last four games, and 894 for his NHL career, Alex Ovechkin needs one goal to become the League’s all-time leader; he enters today’s game all even with Wayne Gretzky. We know one thing, and that is that Ovechkin’s 895th career goal will be scored with a goaltender between the pipes.
“He doesn’t want to go out and score on an empty net to break the record, and I appreciate that,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “We have six games left; he wants to break the record and have that moment be where he shoots a puck past a goalie. And I have a lot of appreciation for that.”
Once again, all eyes are Ovechkin for obvious reasons, but today’s tilt has massive meaning for the Islanders as well.
“I think that’s going to be the challenge this morning,” says Carbery, “and relying on our leadership group, veteran group, coaching staff to get the group refocused. And especially with the early start; we’re not getting the morning skate [because] we take the day off yesterday and to travel and reset physically and mentally.
“But I think our guys understand the circumstances surrounding today with where the Islanders are at, so we’re going to need our best here. You’re looking at a team that I’m assuming – which is probably a safe assumption – that they feel like their seasons on the line, and this is due to die time for them. And so that means that we’re going to need to have our best today in order to have success here.”
It Hurts Me Too – The Caps have enjoyed a remarkable run of good health throughout much of this season, but they’ve developed another dent in their health armor. Days after losing goaltender Logan Thompson to an upper body injury, the Caps lost forward Aliaksei Protas to a lower body injury; the big Belarussian departed Friday’s game with Chicago after getting tangled up with a Chicago defenseman in front of the net.
“Protas will be out, [Anthony] Beauvillier comes back in, and Chucky [Lindgren] starts,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery.
“Lower body, week-to-week,” came his reply as to the ailment and the prognosis, or as much as can be revealed on those fronts.
Beauvillier spent the first seven seasons of his career here on the Island. He has two goals and five points since joining the Caps in a March 7 trade with Pittsburgh.
“I thought since coming over, he has fit in really, really well with our group, not just on the ice, but off the ice as well,” says Carbery. “I feel like he compliments our locker room. He is a really easy to like human being. He’s a great person – as you guys all know – so that part has been seamless.
“His game, especially early on – and I’ve talked about this a lot – he’s such a Swiss army knife; he can go anywhere in your lineup, play either wing. Heck, I even had some conversations about him potentially playing center for a little bit if we needed to utilize him there, which he did in junior. And just his tenacity on the puck, I know he’s not the biggest guy, but he’s fearless going in, whether it’s to forecheck pucks, net front, wall battles, all that stuff, which fits in really well with our identity as a team, and his pace that he plays with. So he’s just constant; his motor is go, go, go, go, go.
“The last few games I’ve felt like our line switched up a little bit. We’ve moved some guys around, and their line struggled a little bit. He came out for a little reset last game, and he’ll come back right back in tonight. We’ve got some extra forwards, so right now, we’re just making sure that everybody stays involved. in him coming back to Long Island. I think it’s important that he comes back into the lineup, and I know and I’m confident that he’ll put his best foot forward.”
In The Nets – Lindgren goes for victory No. 19 – and he is aiming for Washington’s 50th team win in its 50th season – today. Lindgren prevailed over Chicago on Friday night in Washington, stopping 19 of 22 shots in the process.
Lifetime against the Islanders, Lindgren is 1-0-0 in two appearances – both starts – with a 2.70 GAA and a .921 save pct.
For the Isles, we’re expecting to see Ilya Sorokin in the crease today, seeking his 29th victory of the season; his career high is 31 wins, established in 2022-23.
Lifetime against Washington, Sorokin is 3-3-1 in seven appearances – all starts – with a 2.41 GAA and a .918 save pct.
In three career games against Sorokin, Ovechkin is without a goal in just four shots on net.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we believe the Capitals and the Islanders might look on Sunday afternoon on Long Island:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 9-Leonard
88-Mangiapane, 20-Eller, 16-Raddysh
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 72-Beauvillier
Defensemen
38-Sandin, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
42-Fehervary, 3-Roy
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
31-Shepard
Extras
27-Alexeyev
52-McIlrath
53-Frank
Out/Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
21-Protas (lower body)
48-Thompson (upper body)
77-Oshie (back)
NEW YORK
Forwards
27-Lee, 14-Horvat, 21-Palmieri
7-Tsyplakov, 44-Pageau, 10-Holmstrom
18-Engvall, 53-Cizikas, 20-Fasching
17-Martin, 32-MacLean, 16-Gatcomb
Defensemen
3-Pelech, 6-Pulock
28-Roanov, 4-DeAngelo
24-Mayfield, 8-Dobson
Goaltenders
30-Sorokin
50-Hogberg
Extras
2-Reilly
11-Duclair
26-Perunovich
34-A. Boqvist
Out/Injured
13-Barzal (lower body)
40-Varlamov (lower body)
