Washington Capitals: Top 3 key players to watch against Devils
The Washington Capitals return home after a successful road trip rocking the Screaming Eagle jerseys for Turnback Tuesday Reverse Retro night. Tonight they host the New Jersey Devils, a team they’ve had success against so far this season.
The Caps are coming off a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers to end the road trip 4-1-0. Alex Ovechkin scored to tie the game which ignited a three unanswered goal comeback. Dmitry Orlov doubled the lead and Nick Jensen scored his first goal as a Capital for icing on the cake.
Who are the top 3 key players to watch in tonight’s game? Read on to find out.
#3 Vitek Vanecek
The Caps held a morning skate and Vitek Vanecek was in the starter’s net. Peter Laviolette confirmed after the skate that he will get the start tonight against the Devils. The kid is a stud.
Vanecek holds a record of 10-5-3 which is the most wins by a rookie goaltender this season after he was thrown the starter’s responsibilities when Ilya Samsonov tested positive for COVID-19. This has the potential to mark the second consecutive season the Caps have had a rookie goaltender finish in the top two in wins after Samsonov finished with 16 last season.
#2 Alex Ovechkin
Alex Ovechkin ignited the Caps rally on Sunday night which included three unanswered goals. He now has eight goals this season and sits four goals shy of passing Phil Esposito for the sixth most goals in NHL history. Ovechkin’s most recent goal was his 363rd career goal on the road, passing Steve Yzerman for the second most in NHL history.
Ovechkin has scored against 145 different NHL goaltenders. There have been 6,469 players in NHL history who have scored 145 or fewer goals in their NHL career. Ovechkin carries a 0.61 goals per game rate which is the highest among the NHL’s eight players in the 700 goal scoring club.
Ovechkin has 146 multi goal games which is 62 games more than Sidney Crosby who has the second most since Ovechkin’s rookie season in 2005-06. Ovechkin has more multi goal games than 2,616 players have total goals during that span.
Ovechkin trails Mike Gartner by two seasons with 15 career 30 goal seasons. At 1,296 career points, Ovechkin is four points shy of becoming the 35th player in NHL history to reach the 1,300 career point mark.
https://twitter.com/Capitals/status/1368736474779185154
Can Ovechkin work his magic on home ice against the Devils. Tune in to NBC Spots Washington tonight to find out. It will be fun.
#1 Nicklas Backstrom
Nicklas Backstrom has been a red hot scoring machine and recently he joined the 700 assist club. He became the first player to reach that mark in franchise history on Friday night against the Boston Bruins. Backstrom became the second fastest player (Sidney Crosby 856 games) and the 23rd fastest player in NHL history to reach the 700 assist mark, doing so in his 979th career game.
Backstrom became the 25th player in NHL history to reach the milestone before his 1,000th NHL game and of the 24 players to accomplish this feat, 23 are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Among the top five assist leaders in franchise history, three are currently on the Caps: Backstrom, Ovechkin 562 assists, and John Carlson 388, 5th). Excluding the Vegas Golden Knights, only the Columbus Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks, and Winnipeg Jets have three active franchise assist leaders on their roster.
Backstrom has 10 goals and 17 assists for 27 points in the hottest start to a season in his career. Whether he is on the first line or the second line, he continues to produce. Honestly we love to see him setting up Alex Ovechkin goals on the top line. His 700th apple came to Jakub Vrana.
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Puck drop tonight is at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington. Which player are you watching closely tonight?