Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Washington Capitals 11/8/2024

The Pens look to salvage their road trip against one of their oldest foes tonight

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (5-8-2, 12 points) @ Washington Capitals (9-3-0, 18 points)

When: 7:30 p.m. ET

How to Watch: Streaming exclusive game on ESPN+ and Hulu

Pens’ Path Ahead: The brief road trip is over after tonight, the Pens return home to Pittsburgh to play the Dallas Stars on Monday and then the Detroit Red Wings come to town on Wednesday before the Pens head out to Columbus next Friday night.

Opponent Track: The Capitals had a three-game winning streak come to an end last Sunday in Carolina but got back to their winning ways with a 3-2 home victory over Nashville on Wednesday night. Quick turnaround for Washington, who have to travel to St. Louis for a game tomorrow night.

Season Series: This is the first of four PIT/WSH games this season, the Pens return to DC on January 18th for the next meeting. Then the Capitals come to the ‘Burgh on Feb. 22nd and for the final game of the regular season on Apr. 17th.

Hidden Stat: The Penguins have points in five-straight visits to Capital One Arena (4-0-1) and are 6-1-1 in their last eight road games against the Capitals. That’s only inertia from the past at this point, but gotta hang your hat on something these days..

Getting to know the Capitals

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Aliaksei Protas - Dylan Strome - Alex Ovechkin

Connor McMichael - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Tom Wilson

Andrew Mangiapane - Hendrix Lapierre - Sonny Milano

Brandon Duhaime - Nic Dowd - Taylor Raddysh

DEFENSEMEN

Martin Fehervary / John Carlson

Rasmus Sandin / Matt Roy

Alex Alexeyev Trevor van Riemsdyk

Goalies: Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren

Potential Scratches: Jakub Vrana, Dylan McIlrath

IR: TJ Oshie, Nicklas Backstrom, Jakob Chychrun

—The graceful injury departures of Oshie and Backstrom provided an opportunity to use their significant cap space on upgrades, and the Caps put it to good use by adding Dubois, Mangiapane, Chychrun and Roy to their team in large part due to that money opening up (and flipping out the bad contract of Darcy Kuemper).

—The Capitals have faithfully rotated Thompson and Lindgren in goal for every other game. That would mean it’s Lindgren’s crease tonight if they stick to it, but we’ll see if they break that protocol since Thompson is 6-0 on the year (and they have another game tomorrow night anyways).

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

—As always, Ovechkin is the straw that stirs the drink for the Caps. He’s scored a goal in five straight games and overall is red hot with a 11 points (6G+5A) in his five-game scoring streak. Ovechkin’s hot start puts him at 861 career goals, 34 shy of taking over first place in the all-time record books.

—Protas at 6’6” and 225 watching him is kinda imaging if Radim Zohorna was good. He’s made major strides recently and is looking like a great third wheel on the top scoring line.

—Connor McMichael (drafted in 2019 four spots after Sam Poulin, gahh) is another ascending young player this season in Washington. He had a breakout 33-point season last year where he solidified his spot in the NHL lineup and is building upon that big time so far this season.

—Kyle Dubas raised some eyebrows taking in the WSH/NSH game earlier in the week, but considering his duties with Team Canada it made a lot of sense for him to be there to get eyes on potential players like Steven Stamkos, Ryan O’Rielly, Logan Thompson and Tom Wilson. Wilson picked up some Team Canada buzz after scoring five goals in the first four games of the season but has leveled off since the early start (1G+2A in the last eight games).

And now for the Pens

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Evgeni Malkin - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell

Drew O’Connor - Lars Eller - Cody Glass*

Michael Bunting - Noel Acciari - Jesse Puljujarvi

Anthony Beauvillier - Blake Lizotte - Valtteri Puustinen

DEFENSEMEN

Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves / Ryan Shea

Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic, Joel Blomqvist

Potential Scratches: Jack St. Ivany, Kevin Hayes (day-to-day injury)

IR: Matt Nieto (knee surgery), Bryan Rust (week-to-week lower body injury)

—*Glass left last night’s game in the first period due to an accidental headbutt to his face from Eller. This could put the Pens at 11 healthy forwards— which is important since it means that a player like Emil Bemstrom or Sam Poulin could potentially be recalled today under emergency circumstances (and not be subjected to waivers on the way back down) should Glass be unable to play.

—That said, the Pens could sure use Rust’s return if he’s up for it. It’s the awkward position that he needs time to get back close to 100% so he isn’t limited and doesn’t re-aggravate his leg injury (again), and yet the team really, really needs a player of his caliber to get back.

—Let’s be clear that there is absolutely no indication at all that this will happen, but wouldn’t it be fitting in the legacy of Pens/Caps if Pittsburgh brings Tristan Jarry back from AHL banishment in time for this game and he stands on his head in a victorious effort? That’s the most wishful and possibly unrealistic thought possible, but at this point it sounds so ludicrous that it might actually work. (Or it would be the biggest backfire ever).

Sid vs. Ovi, year 20

Both Crosby and Ovechkin are still playing extremely well, but we’re much closer to the finish of the historic rivalry that has steered the NHL into its modern day.

Tonight will be the 70th all-time head-to-head matchup, Crosby and the Penguins hold a 40-25-4 record against Ovechkin and Washington. Below are the head-to-head stats in the regular season:

Player GP G A PTS

Sidney Crosby 69 31 59 90
Alex Ovechkin 69 37 30 67

Not only is the Crosby/Ovechkin rivalry one of the NHL’s biggest individual matchups in history, but it’s also the league’s current longest-standing rivalry. Sid and Ovi are the only two players in the NHL to play for the same team since the beginning of the 2005-06 season coming out of the lockout. In fact, along with Corey Perry, Brent Burns, Marc-Andre Fleury and Ryan Suter, the Pens’ and Caps’ respective captains are only a handful of players still active in the league this season that played back then.

Ovechkin is signed through 2025-26, making this perhaps the penultimate season of seeing the two all-time legends share the ice.