Nov. 26 vs. Winnipeg Jets at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Winnipeg Jets (12-9-0)
Washington Capitals (12-9-2)
The Caps head into the back half of their four-game homestand on Wednesday night when they host the Winnipeg Jets’ lone visit to the District this season. Wednesday’s contest is Washington’s annual Thanksgiving Eve home game, and the homestand concludes Friday when Toronto comes to town to supply the opposition for the Caps’ traditional Black Friday matinee.
After dropping the homestand opener to Tampa Bay on Saturday, the Caps got back on the winning track with a 5-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday. Nursing a 1-0 lead late in the second period against the Jackets, the Caps erupted for three goals in the final three and a half minutes of the middle frame to put the game out of reach.
Justin Sourdif had two very different secondary assists on the trio of late goals. First, he recognized he wasn’t going to get all the way around Columbus defender Jake Christiansen, so he left a behind-the-back feed for linemate Aliaksei Protas, who redirected it to Tom Wilson, just over the boards on the weak side, and staring at an open net. Wilson’s goal made it 2-0.
“I thought I had a step on the [defenseman], half a step I guess,” says Sourdif. “And it was a pretty sharp angle, so I did a quick shoulder check and saw Pro there. And obviously Pro, he sees everybody there on the ice, and one-touches that over to Willie, and it’s in the back of the net. It was a quick, bang-bang play and it was nice.”
After Jakob Chychrun scored his second goal of the game on a Washington power play with 14.7 seconds left in the middle period, advancing the advantage to 3-0, Sourdif won the ensuing center ice draw from Adam Fantilli, and the Caps broke back into Columbus ice, forcing a right dot face-off with just 2.8 seconds on the clock.
Sourdif found that was just enough time to spark another goal, this time without moving his feet.
After Fantilli was tossed from the circle, Sourdif swiftly and cleanly swept the draw from Dmitri Voronkov, and through his own legs to Alex Ovechkin, who instantly teed up a John Carlson one-timer from the high slot. Carlson’s fifth goal of the season took just 1.1 seconds off the clock, putting the visitors in a demoralizing 4-0 hole.
The Chychrun and Carlson goals were officially a dozen seconds apart, becoming the fastest two goals by a pair of blueliners in franchise history. After a run of nearly 47 years, Rick Green and Robert Picard have been bumped from the record books. That duo, respectively, struck at 3:20 and 3:40 of the first period of a Jan. 3, 1979 game against Los Angeles at Capital Centre, scoring the first two goals of the game in an 8-3 Washington win.
When Martin Fehervary converted a Connor McMichael feed in the third, the Caps had four goals from their back end for the first time since Dec. 17, 2022 when Erik Gustafsson’s hat trick was supported by a Trevor van Riemsdyk tally in a 5-2 win over Toronto.
On the season, Washington’s 19 goals are the most any team has had from its blueline corps and Chychrun’s career-high eight-game point streak (five goals, six assists) is the longest by an NHL defenseman this season.
Logan Thompson made 22 saves to pick up his 40th victory in a Washington sweater, and matching Ilya Samsonov (59 games) as the fastest goaltender to reach that plateau in franchise history.
En route to the first Presidents’ Trophy in franchise history last season, Winnipeg roared out to an 8-0-0 and then a 15-1-0 start. This season, the Jets opened at 5-1-0 and 9-3-0, but they’ve tumbled back to earth a bit since. Winnipeg hits town with three wins in its last nine games (3-6-0).
Perhaps more concerning for the Jets – and the architects of the US Men’s Olympic Hockey team – is the status of star Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. Last week, Hellebuyck underwent knee surgery, and he is expected to be sidelined for the next four to six weeks.
Last season, Hellebuyck led the NHL with 47 wins (47-12-3) and 63 games. Since the start of the 2017-18 season, no NHL goaltender has played more games (500) or started more games (493) than Hellebuyck, and it’s not even close. That the Jets goaltender has eight fewer wins (291) than Tampa Bay’s Andrej Vasilevskiy (299) over that span is more a reflection on the overall quality of the teams from those two organizations across that stretch; Hellebuyck’s qualitative numbers (2.53 GAA, .919 save pct.) are right there with those of Vasilevskiy (2.50, .917) since ’17-18.
Hellebuyck has won three Vezina Trophies over that span and has also been a finalist twice while Vasilevskiy has one Vezina Trophy and has been a finalist on four occasions across those same eight seasons.
Winnipeg is starting a five-game road trip on Wednesday in Washington. The Jets won the opener of a three-game homestand over Columbus last Tuesday, but fell to Carolina and Minnesota, respectively, in the next two. They’re carrying a modest two-game slide into the trip opener.
