Alex Ovechkin is becoming a father of two boys. Ovechkin’s wife, Nastya Ovechkina, announced the gender of her baby in an Instagram post celebrating her recent baby shower. Sergei is going to become an older brother.
The party was organized by Varvara Orlova, Dmitry Orlov’s wife.
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.
Braden Holtby is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. Despite Brian MacLellan making it pretty clear that the team was holding onto Holtby and would talk contract with him after the year, the Capitals general manager was asked by the media during his press conference on Wednesday if Braden would still be on the team after the trade deadline.
“Braden? Yeah,” a surprised MacLellan said. “I think our story has been the same the whole year. He’s our guy and we’re going to try and compete for a (Stanley) Cup. We want him playing the top of his game at the end of the year.”
The Washington Capitals decided to hold Ilya Samsonov out of tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Kings. According to the Washington Post’s Samantha Pell, Samsonov is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Slated to back up Braden Holtby, Samsonov yielded his spot on the bench to Vitek Vanecek, who was called up early this afternoon. Vanecek was recently named MVP of the 2020 AHL All-Star Game.
Martin Fehervary is not the only player the Capitals are calling up today. They have also summoned AHL All-Star Game MVP goalie Vitek Vanecek from Hershey.
The reason for Vitek’s recall is because Ilya Samsonov left practice early this morning after getting injured by an Alex Ovechkin shot during a rush drill.
The puck struck Sammy on the chin area of his mask. The force of the shot knocked the bucket off his head.
Ilya Samsonov will start against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Super Bowl Sunday.
The nationally telecast home game on NBC would normally be a slam-dunk start for Braden Holtby. However, after defeating the Ottawa Senators 5-3 Friday and winning 11-straight decisions, Samsonov will receive consecutive starts for the second time this season.
Ilya Samsonov recently did a long interview with sport24.ru’s Daria Tuboltseva. The interview was translated by Merdan16 on the Capitals’ Reddit and proofed for correction by RMNB’s Igor Kleyner. The Capitals’ rookie goaltender spoke about his special season in a remarkably low-key way.
“My job is to go out and play hockey,” Samsonov said when asked that he’s beginning to get buzz for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s best rookie. “I don’t think about personal prizes.”
But when the conversation turned to Braden Holtby, Samsonov showed both admiration and empathy.
On January 15th, Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov joined John “JohnWayne” Casagranda of Caps Gaming to play some NHL 20 and FIFA. There was some good-natured chirping throughout the Twitch stream, as Kuznetsov and Casagranda went head-to-head, with a few interesting insights into the Capitals’ gaming habits, including Kuzy and rookie goaltender Ilya Samsonov’s daily battles on both NHL 20 and FIFA.
Samsonov even mentioned the two played against each other regularly to The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell in November, saying, “He’s constantly losing. He doesn’t have enough experience. He’s playing poorly, to be honest.”
But when Scott Allen caught up with Kuznetsov after the Twitch stream, he denied that it was quite that bad. “We pretty much play every day,” Kuznetsov told Allen. “Last three days, he won one game. We play 10 times. So, suck on that, Sammy.”
However, it might not be as simple a victory as Kuznetsov is making it out to be.
By Donya Abramo 3 months ago
Braden Holtby was benched for the third period after giving up four goals on 22 shots. The Holtbeast was replaced in net by rookie goaltender Ilya Samsonov.
“I just felt like it was the right move at the time. That’s something we talked about as a staff and I felt comfortable doing it. I let [Ilya] know as soon as the second period was over that he would be going in,” Capitals head coach Todd Reirden said.
Samsonov and the Capitals responded, scoring five unanswered goals and pulling out a thrilling 6-4 victory over the New York Islanders. Because the Caps ultimately tied the game with Samsonov in net, he became the goalie of record and accomplished some more history in the process.
By Ian Oland 3 months ago
On January 5, the Washington Capitals overcame a two-goal deficit in the final minute of the third period to beat the San Jose Sharks in overtime. A comeback of this nature was the first in franchise history. 13 days later, the Caps one-upped themselves against the New York Islanders — one of the best shutdown teams in the third period — and former bench boss Barry Trotz.
The Capitals faced a 4-1 deficit after Devon Toews beat Braden Holtby wide open in front of the net with 2:35 left in the second period. The fourth-line forward then added insult to injury, flapping his arms and mocking Evgeny Kuznetsov with the bird celebration.
The complexion of the game changed after that.
By Ian Oland 3 months ago
