Washington Capitals: Top 3 key players to watch against Avalanche

#2 Ilya Samsonov

Two games in, Vitek Vanecek has proven himself. If Ilya Samsonov wants to, he has to earn the trust of the coaching staff and team. Tonight Samsonov gets his first chance and he faces a big test with a high flying offensive Colorado attack.

I don’t think I need to get into what happened off the ice but here’s a quick little recap: ATV accident during quarantine, showing up late to a team function, winding up on the COVID-19 protocols list twice. There’s a little more to it like hanging out in a hotel room with the other Russians but that was all of their faults for doing that, not just Samsonov’s.

Okay now that that’s over with, let’s get into what happened on the ice the last two years. Samsonov had a good rookie season backing up Braden Holtby in 2019-20. In that season, Samsonov went 16-6-2 with a 2.55 goals against average and a .913 save percentage. Last season he split duties with Vanecek, going 13-4-1 with a 2.69 goals against average and a .902 save percentage.

Goaltending has been a topic of discussion among Capitals fans ever since they traded back for Vanecek with the Seattle Kraken as well as only extended Samsonov to just one more season. The message was clear, it’s now or never for Samsonov.