Washington Capitals bench boss Peter Laviolette announced following the team’s morning skate on Wednesday that Vitek Vanecek will get the start in goal against the Rangers in the team’s season opener Wednesday night.
According to Laviolette, Vanecek separated himself from Samsonov in training camp.
Vitek Vanecek will be the starting goalie vs the Rangers tonight, per Laviolette.
“Just thought is camp, for me, I thought it was really good. Separated himself a little bit. For that, he gets the opportunity to start.”
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) October 13, 2021
Vanecek went 29-10-4 with a 2.69 GAA and a .908 save percentage in 37 games played last season. Samsonov went 13-4-0 with a 2.61 GAA and a .908 save percentage in 19 games played last season.
Head coach Peter Laviolette discusses Alex Ovechkin’s latest status, Vitek Vanecek in net, as well as Hendrix Lapierre’s expected NHL debut tonight against the Rangers.#CapsRangers | @socios pic.twitter.com/XvkiFPmBH2
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 13, 2021
The Capitals kick-off their 2021-22 campaign tonight at 7:30 PM. The game will be carried nationally on TNT.
By Jon Sorensen
Surprising, but not really. If he outworked Samsonov, good for VV.
Good for him. Sammy has a lot riding on this year too. If he disappoints again…boy the Caps have such high hopes for him to be the franchise goaltender as the long term Holtby replacement. VV is good but if they want to contend these next few years might have to get a bigger upgrade for the future before it’s too late.
No doubt. Hopefully this is a kick in Sammy’s pants (again). He needs to focus and get after it. I tracked him closely since draft/2025. He needs time to get hot, but when he does get hot he is top-5 caliber netminder.