The Washington Capitals are in need of a win in front of their fans and they look to get one tonight.
Coming to town is another tough foe. The Toronto Maple Leafs who sit third in the Atlantic with a 4-2-1 record. They played the night before and earned a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild. The Washington Capitals are coming off a brutal loss to the Colorado Avalanche and will go with Ilya Samsonov in goal tonight to try and right the ship.
The lineup will also look different tonight. With the hot streak T.J. Oshie is on, he got promoted to the top line while Tom Wilson moves to the second line. Another switch is Jakub Vrana dropping to the third line with Carl Hagelin moving up to the second.
Date: October 16, 2019
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Where: Capital One Arena
TV Broadcast: NBC Sports Washington
Radio: WJFK 106.7 The Fan, Caps Radio 24/7
Live Streaming: ESPN+ has a free 7-day trial that includes live streaming for this game on all your smart devices! Besides NHL games, ESPN+ features a selection of live games from MLB, MLS, Serie A, FA Cup, and EFL. Get in on the action with Live UFC Fight Nights, 30+ Top Rank Boxing cards, Grand Slam tennis from Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open.
Garnet Hathaway, who’s been a solid depth signing thus far is also on the third line while Richard Panik dropped to the fourth line with his struggling start to the season.
Here are the lines and defensive pairings for tonight:
Forwards
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Hagelin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Vrana-Eller-Hathaway
Leipsic-Stephenson-Panik
Defense
Siegenthaler-Carlson
Orlov-Gudas
Jensen-Lewington
Don’t freak out or overreact Caps fans. Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic reported after morning skate that coach Todd Reirden said there isn’t any goalie controversy. After a frustrating outing, he’s taking some time to “reset”.
Michal Kempny is once again out tonight but his return is coming very soon. Reirden noted that he’s available for Friday’s game against the New York Rangers but there’s no definitive timetable.