The Washington Capitals spend Thursday night with the Seattle Kraken (7 PM ET, Monumental Sports Network in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market) at Capital One Arena for the first tilt between the two teams this season. Washington took three out of four points against Seattle last season, including a 4-1 win on home ice on December 9, 2022.
Schedule
Seattle: continue six-game road trip after opening it with a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday, their first game in five days
Washington: continue five-game homestand (tied for their longest of the season) and stretch where they host eight of 10 games (2-2-1 so far) at Capital One Arena
How Each Team Is Doing
Seattle: has won seven straight, points in 11 in a row (9-0-2)
Washington: beat Los Angeles Kings, 4-3, on Sunday after dropping six of their previous seven (1-4-2)
Standings
Seattle: 17-14-9 (.538 points percentage — fifth in Pacific Division, tied for ninth in Western Conference with Arizona Coyotes); tied with Edmonton Oilers (who have three games in hand) for final wild-card spot in Western Conference in actual points, two behind Nashville Predators (with one) for the first, four behind Los Angeles (three) for third in Pacific
Washington: 19-13-6 (.579 points percentage — tied for third in Metropolitan Division, sixth in Eastern Conference with New Jersey Devils); point back of Tampa Bay Lightning (one) for final wild-card spot in Eastern Conference in actual points, two behind Philadelphia Flyers/New York Islanders (two on each) for third in Metropolitan entering Wednesday
Team Leaders
The graph documents each teams’ player leaders. Neither team has a player within the league’s top-35 in goals, top-25 in assists, nor top-55 in points.
Team Statistics
The following chart shows Seattle and Washington’s game averages entering Thursday’s contest. It could be a low-scoring affair as both teams are among the NHL’s bottom-six in goals and bottom-eight in shots-per-game.
The next graph examines both teams’ underlying numbers at five-on-five. Seattle bests Washington in every category.
Injuries/Illnesses
Seattle
- C Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (leg)
- G Philipp Grubauer (lower-body)
Washington
- C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
- RW Sonny Milano (upper-body)
- D Rasmus Sandin (illness)
- LW Alex Ovechkin (undisclosed)
Expected Goaltending Matchup
The graph shows the statistics of Thursday night’s likely battle of the crease.
Projected Lines
Seattle
Tomas Tatar – Matty Beniers – Jordan Eberle
Jaden Schwartz – Alexander Wennberg – Brandon Tanev
Eeli Tolvanen – Yanni Gourde – Oliver Bjorkstrand
McCann – Tye Kartye – Andre Burakovsky
Dunn – Larsson
Jamie Oleksiak – Will Borgen
Brian Dumoulin – Justin Schultz
Daccord
Chris Driedger
Scratched: C Devin Shore, RW Kailer Yamamoto, D Ryker Evans
Washington
Hendrix Lapierre – Strome – Tom Wilson
Max Pacioretty – Evgeny Kuznetsov – T.J. Oshie
Aliaksei Protas – Connor McMichael – Anthony Mantha
Beck Malenstyn – Nic Dowd – Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Martin Fehervary – Carlson
Trevor Van Riemsdyk – Nick Jensen
Joel Edmundson – Ethan Bear
Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren
Scratched: D Alexander Alexeyev, LW Matthew Philipps
Betting Odds (Odds Shark)
Seattle: -155, Washington: +130
Over-under: 5.5 (-120 over, +100 under)
By Harrison Brown