Logan Thompson and Connor Hellebuyck will go face-to-face in a preview of likely 2025 Vezina Trophy finalists on Saturday night.
The netminders are the top two in the NHL this season, as per MoneyPuck, they sit first and second in the league with a combined 59.1 goals saved above expected. No goaltender in the league comes even close to their marks, with Seattle’s Joey Daccord sitting third in the stat with 12.4 fewer than Thompson.
Hellebuyck comes into the night’s action winner of his last four starts after an 8-2-1 month of January. Thompson, pregame, was revealed to be the NHL’s Second Star of the Month in January after he finished the month undefeated in regulation with an 8-0-1 record.
| Goaltender | W/L/OT | GAA | SV% | SO | GSAE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Logan Thompson | 23-2-3 | 2.05 | .927 | 2 | 28.7 |
| Connor Hellebuyck | 32-7-2 | 2.00 | .927 | 6 | 30.4 |
“I got the chance to meet him a couple of years ago at the All-Star Game,” Thompson said of Hellebuyck to Tarik El-Bashir. “He was a great guy to me. He’s obviously been a tremendous goalie in this league for many years. He’s more of a well-established guy with a big career. I’m just excited to play against him tonight. I’m already excited to step on the ice with him.”
The two goalies matched up four times when Thompson was with the Vegas Golden Knights the past three seasons. They have split those four games right down the middle, each going 2-2. In his career, Thompson is 3-1 against the Jets with a 2.90 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage. Hellebuyck has fared better statistically against the Capitals in 12 career appearances, going 5-5-2 with a 2.23 goals-against average, a .925 save percentage, and two shutouts.
Washington and Winnipeg split their season series down the middle last season, but the Capitals are historically dominant against the Jets/Thrashers franchise. The Caps are ahead in the all-time series with a 56-38-5 record and have won 18 of the last 24 matchups dating back to the end of the 2012-13 campaign.
Saturday night’s matchup will be the first this season between the only teams in the NHL with more than 70 standings points. The two conference titans have swapped places at the top of the league several times over the past few weeks, but the Jets currently hold the top spot with 75 points to the Capitals’ 74. However, Washington has the better points percentage, playing two fewer games.
“I actually think there’s quite a few similarities [between the Capitals and Jets],” Spencer Carbery said pregame. “In size of the team, physicality, not necessarily in the sense of pushing a team around, but just real hard work, big, strong, goaltending, for sure. Balance through the lineup, I think is something that we take a lot of pride in. We feel like we’re as deep as any team in the National Hockey League and can play four lines and three sets of D. I think they would probably say the same thing.”
The Capitals come into the game winners of seven of their last 10 games, earning at least one point in nine of the games. Winnipeg is red-hot, winning five games in a row and eight of their previous 10.
