Losers of five of their last six games, Ilya Samsonov (16-4-1) will get the start in goal on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils. Saturday will mark Samsonov’s 23rd birthday.
Braden Holtby (21-13-5), who has been spectacular lately, will get the nod against the first-place Pittsburgh Penguins.
Ilya Samsonov will be in net against New Jersey on Saturday. He’ll be playing on his 23rd birthday.
Braden Holtby will be in net against Pittsburgh on Sunday.
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) February 21, 2020
During practice on Friday, head coach Todd Reirden opted to keep the lines predominantly the same. The most significant tweaks Rierden made was moving Evgeny Kuznetsov to the first line and dropping Nicklas Backstrom to the second.
Capitals Friday practice lines:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Vrana-Backstrom-Oshie
Hagelin-Eller-Panik
Leipsic-Dowd-HathawayDillon-Carlson
Kempny-Orlov
Siegenthaler-Jensen*Kuznetsov moves up to 1C, D pairs shuffle, Leipsic back in
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) February 21, 2020
That change may not hold either.
Todd Reirden said after practice that he's not sure if he'll go keep Kuznetsov and Backstrom on those lines tomorrow vs. New Jersey, but wanted to look at those combinations today.
Sounds like Gudas will be out, though. https://t.co/ZocNm8dz4T
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) February 21, 2020
