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Trip On The Strip: Capitals Fold In 6-2 Defeat To Vegas At The Fortress

By Harrison Brown·
Photo: @Capitals

The Washington Capitals got blown out by the Vegas Golden Knights by a score of 6-2 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night. Washington has never won a regular-season game in Las Vegas (0-4-1).

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper got pulled at 12:05 of the second after allowing four goals on 18 shots (.778 save percentage) before Charlie Lindgren made seven saves on nine (.778) shots in relief.

Washington remains three points up over the Pittsburgh Penguins (who have four games in hand) for the first wild-card in the Eastern Conference and a point behind the New York Rangers (three) for third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Capitals’ Lines at Vegas

Anthony Mantha — Dylan Strome — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Sonny Milano — Nicklas Backstrom — Tom Wilson
Conor Sheary — Eller — T.J. Oshie
Marcus Johansson — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Garnet Hathaway

Erik Gustafsson — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Dmitry Orlov — Nick Jensen
Alexander Alexeyev — Martin Fehervary

Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren

Scratched: D Matt Irwin, C Aliaksei Protas

Injured: LW Alex Ovechkin (lower-body, missed first game, out day-to-day); D John Carlson (upper-body, 13th, indefinite); RW Connor Brown (ACL, 45th, indefinite); LW Carl Hagelin (hip, 49th, indefinite); C Nic Dowd (lower-body, third, indefinite)

The only lineup change from Washington’s 4-0 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday was Mantha, who was a healthy scratch for the last two games, coming in for Ovechkin.

Vegas’ Lines

Chandler Stephenson — Jack Eichel — Phil Kessel
Reilly Smith — William Karlsson — Jonathan Marchessault
Paul Cotter — Nic Roy — Keegan Kolesar
Michael Amadio — Byron Froese — Jonas Rondbjerg

Nic Hague — Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb — Kaedan Korczak
Alec Martinez — Ben Hutton

Logan Thompson
Adin Hill

Scratched: D Daniil Miromanov

Injured: G Robin Lehner (hip, 47th, entire season); C Brett Howden (lower-body, 26th, indefinite); C Nolan Patrick (upper-body, 47th, entire season); D Zach Whitecloud (lower-body, 17th, month-to-month); D Shea Theodore (leg, 18th, week-to-week); RW Mark Stone (upper-body, fourth, week-to-week); LW William Carrier (upper-body, third, day-to-day)

First Period

Scoring

2:18, 1-0 Vegas: Martinez buried a wrister from a sharp angle into a wide open net after Stephenson’s shot from down low rang the left post.

7:36, 2-0: Roy tipped Marchessault’s cross-ice feed that went over Jensen by the right pad of Kuemper on a two-on-one after getting the puck in the defensive zone.

Shots: 10-6 Vegas

Other Notable Stats: Vegas, who had no giveaways while Washington tallied three, won 57% of the draws and led 5-2 in takeaways. Washington led 19-9 in hits but both teams failed to score on one full power-play opportunity each way.

Second Period

Scoring

2:15, 3-0: Amadio wristed one past the glove of Kuemper after Stephenson picked up a turnover by Jensen at the left half-wall and fed Amadio all alone in the slot.

12:05, 4-0: Froese’s wrister from the left dot off the rush squeaked past the blocker of Kuemper. Lindgren replaced Kuemper after the goal, Froese’s first in the NHL since February 9, 2021.

13:39, 5-0: Cotter snuck behind the defense, picked the puck up, deked, and put one under the pad of Lindgren on the backhand after Roy poked it away from Mantha at the blueline and it went to Cotter down low.

18:21, 5-1: Oshie tipped a wrist shot by Gustafsson, who reached the 20-assist mark for the third time in his NHL career (2018-19: 43, 2019-20: 20) on the play, from the top of the dot over the blocker of Thompson in the slot. Oshie became the sixth Capital to reach the 10-goal mark this season (Ovechkin: 30; Strome: 11; Sheary: 11; Johansson: 11; Dowd: 10).

Shots: 21-14 Vegas (including 11-8 in the second)

Other Notable Stats: Washington, who was held off on two power play opportunities, led 33-20 in hits. Vegas led 10-7 in blocked shots and had only one giveaway while Washington tallied seven.

Third Period

Scoring

4:00, 6-1: Cotter once again scooped a loose puck, deked, and backhanded a shot through the legs of Lindgren for his second of the game after a board battle behind the net.

10:42: 6-2: Johansson tipped Van Riemsdyk’s point shot past Thompson’s blocker from the slot. The 32-year-old’s 12 goals rank second on Washington this season, two of which have come against Vegas.

Shots: 27-22 Vegas (8-6 Washington in the third)

Other Notable Stats: Washington, who went scoreless on three power plays, led 40-28 in hits. Vegas, who gave the puck away just thrice compared to eight times for Washington and won 57% of the faceoffs, led 17-9 in blocked shots and 15-7 in takeaways.

Next game: Tuesday at Colorado Avalanche (9 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market)

By Harrison Brown