Washington Capitals open Round Robin against Tampa Bay Lightning
Washington Capitals hockey is back.
The Washington Capitals are back in action. After two days of hockey finally coming back, they finally get their turn to take the ice at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. First up, the Caps will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning, a playoff foe that was all too familiar to them.
They met in the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals where the Caps won the first two games, dropped the next three but rallied to win the final two games behind back to back shutouts from Braden Holtby. Holtby will get the start in goal looking to replicate the same success.
As far as this year goes, the Caps swept all three regular season games against the Lightning and have won four straight dating back to last season. The Caps have earned a point in each of their last five games against Tampa Bay.
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The Caps are coming off a 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes and although it was just an exhibition the team looked good. Alex Ovechkin scored twice and Evgeny Kuznetsov added a goal of his own. Kuznetsov is two goals shy of passing Dale Hunter (25) for the fourth most playoff goals in franchise history and four points shy of passing Mike Ridley (80) for fifth on the franchise’s playoff point list.
Today will be the Caps first game in 147 days. Their last contest taking place on March 9th at Buffalo where they fell in a shootout. Since 2015, the Caps have had 39 playoff wins and they’re tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the most in the NHL during that span.
The Caps started out hot in the regular season with a 26-6-5 record but went 19-16-3 since in their final 38 games of the regular season. Now none of that matters. They got a long break behind them and they’re fresh and ready to go.
What separated us now brings us together.
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) August 3, 2020
Today we restart the journey.
Let’s go the distance.#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/v22HJFk0Aq
John Carlson left the ice during Wednesday’s exhibition game but practiced with the team on Saturday after an awkward fall to the boards in the third period. Caps head coach Todd Reirden told the media prior to today’s game that Carlson will be a game time decision.
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The Caps will continue the Round Robin on Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers and on Sunday against the Boston Bruins. The game times for those games will be announced. As far as today’s game goes, puck drop is at 4 p.m. and you can catch the game on NBC Sports Washington locally and nationally on the NBC Sports Network.