The Washington Capitals have made the quick trip north to take on the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.
After winning three games in a row heading into the contest, the Capitals have increased their playoff odds back into the double digits. With that success, head coach Spencer Carbery isn’t changing anything from the club’s 6-4 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.
“No lineup changes,” Carbery said pregame.
Projected Capitals lineup for 4/2 game against Devils
The Capitals sticking with the same forward lines means Hendrix Lapierre will again line up on the wing next to Pierre-Luc Dubois and Tom Wilson. Carbery liked what he saw from that trio against the Flyers.
“I thought the line was pretty solid for the most part, five-on-five,” Carbery said.
Thursday’s game will also be Cole Hutson‘s first chance to respond to his third-period benching against Philadelphia. Hutson played his second career NHL game against the Devils last month, skating 17:04 of ice time in a 2-1 victory.
In net, the Capitals will go back to Logan Thompson for a ninth straight start. The game will also be the 200th in Thompson’s career. He has played seven of those games against the Devils, posting a 4-0-3 record with a 2.87 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage.
“I think he’s done an exceptional job all year long,” Carbery said. “He’s started the year as our sort of 1A guy, got the opportunity to run with the starter’s job and was tremendous out of the gate, arguably the best goaltender in the league for the first portion of the season.
“You would like to have Charlie (Lindgren) playing a little bit more than he is, but because of our circumstances as a team, we’ve felt like it’s been do-or-die for quite some time now, and Logan’s earned that opportunity to play in these big games for our team, and he’s done a great job.”
The Capitals come into the game three points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and four points back of the New York Islanders for third in the Metropolitan Division.
The Devils, who are seven points back of the Capitals, lost their last game, 4-1, to the New York Rangers. The team’s number-one netminder, Jacob Markstrom, got into a goalie fight with Rangers backstop Igor Shesterkin.
