The Washington Capitals pulled off a road comeback on Wednesday night that was shades of their 2018 Stanley Cup run.
Down 2-0 in the first period to the current defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues, the Capitals slowly rallied with a goal from Alex Ovechkin to put Washington on the board as well as power play goal from Dmitry Orlov in the second. The game headed to overtime and Jakub Vrana came through.
Braden Holtby stood on his head, stopping 20-of-22 shots for a .909 save percentage. On Friday night it is finally the highly anticipated NHL debut of Ilya Samsonov.
Date: October 4, 2019
Time: 7:00 p.m. eastern
Where: NYCB Live/Nassau Coliseum
TV Broadcast: NBC Sports Washington
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Samsonov was selected in the first round in 2015 at 22nd overall. He had a good training camp and beat out Vitek Vanecek and Pheonix Copley for the backup job. It became official just hours before the Capitals took the ice in St. Louis to begin the season when the team placed Copley on waivers. Despite this, Copley cleared and is now with the Hershey Bears keeping the goaltending depth in the Capitals organization intact.
🎥: Caps goalie Ilya Samsonov talks with @VogsCaps before making his first @NHL start Friday night on Long Island#ALLCAPS #CapsIsles pic.twitter.com/QfmVKRP2DV
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 3, 2019
Per the game notes, Samsonov is one of just 13 goaltenders drafted by the Caps to make their NHL debut with the franchise and the 13th to make his first appearance under the age of 23.
The Capitals had an optional practice at Nassau Coliseum on Thursday afternoon. Michal Kempny, who’s still recovering from the hamstring injury he suffered in March, once again practiced in a normal contact jersey. Per Isabelle Khurshudyan of The Washington Post, Kempny is out for Friday’s game.