The Washington Capitals goaltenders have been the talk of the town recently as head coach Peter Laviolette told reporters last week that the team was, “just looking for a little bit more consistency.”

Vitek Vanecek bounced back from a poor outing against the Boston Bruins with a shutout against the New York Islanders. It is now Ilya Samsonov‘s turn to tend the goal as he will get the second half of a back-to-back versus the Vancouver Canucks.

The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell also reports that Dmitry Orlov and Carl Hagelin are both out of COVID protocol and now activated but since they haven’t practiced for a good amount of time, their status is up in the air for tonight’s game.

ROSTER UPDATE: #Caps activate defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Carl Hagelin

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 16, 2022

Sunday’s start will be Samsonov’s first since giving up four goals in two periods to the St. Louis Blues on January 7 before he was pulled in favor of Zach Fucale. On the season, he holds a 13-3-3 record with a 2.76 goals-against average and a .903-save percentage.

TJ Oshie is also an injury doubt as he left the Caps’ game against the Islanders after only playing 1:46 of ice time.

The Canucks come into town under former DC bench boss Bruce Boudreau in the midst of a brutal road trip that saw them lose to the Panthers, Lightning, and Hurricanes before taking on the Capitals. Their 16-18-3 record has them second-to-last in the Pacific Division and with quite the hill to climb to get back into playoff contention.

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB