Peter Laviolette accomplished a major milestone during the Capitals’ 2-1 shootout victory over Bruins on Wednesday. The win marked the 650th victory in Laviolette’s career.
Lavy became the 15th coach in NHL history to accomplish the feat.
The Washington Capitals hung on to beat the New Jersey Devils on Saturday. With the victory, Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette accomplished a bit of history.
Laviolette tied Jim Schoenfeld for the winningest start in franchise history as a new head coach.
The Washington Capitals got off to a rare good start during an afternoon game against the New Jersey Devils. The Caps scored three goals in the first 13:40 of the first period, seeming like they’d cruise to an easy victory over the second-worst-in-the-East Devils. Instead, they turtled in the second and watched New Jersey score two unanswered goals. The third didn’t go much better until THE SNEK struck.
After being benched for most of the second period, Vrana returned in the third and scored on a breakaway.
The goal sapped the Devils of momentum. And while it wasn’t the game-winner, [wink] we know who really iced the game.
Peter Laviolette is tinkering with his top nine again and promoting a player to the top line that he healthy scratched multiple times earlier in the season.
Conor Sheary will skate with Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov on the team’s top trio against the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday while Lars Eller has been returned back to the third line. Nicklas Backstrom, the Capitals’ top scorer, will skate between Jakub Vrana ond Tom Wilson on the second line, which will arguably be the Capitals’ most dangerous line.
In December, Peter Laviolette was enthusiastic about the NHL’s new pandemic rules requiring coaches to wear masks because of the added privacy it would give him. “Nobody will see what’s coming out my mouth,” the intense bench boss joked. “My mother will be happy.”
On Tuesday, there was no hiding Lavy’s f-bombs as Capitals players started practice not as sharp as he would have liked.
By Ian Oland 1 week ago
The Washington Capitals will turn to rookie Vitek Vanecek for the eleventh straight game on Tuesday with Ilya Samsonov still out of the lineup.
Vanecek, who was named the NHL’s Rookie of the Month in January after not losing in regulation, has cooled off considerably in February. Vanecek is 0-3 in his four February starts, giving up 3.75 goals per game and posting a .846 save percentage.
Despite Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman noting that Vanecek looks “worn out by the workload” in his latest 31 Thoughts column, Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette will turn to the 24-year-old again against the Penguins.
If you go the NHL’s stat site, go to teams, and then sort by goals against per game, you see the Capitals right near the top: 3.77 per game, second highest in the league, behind only Ottawa.
That’s atrocious. It paints a picture of the Capitals — now nursing a four-game losing streak — as a disaster. But I don’t think that picture is accurate.
By Peter Hassett 2 weeks ago
Peter Laviolette has coached against Alex Ovechkin since the Russian superstar entered the National Hockey League in 2005-06. Laviolette was the bench boss for two teams that frequently played Ovechkin’s Capitals during the regular season, the Carolina Hurricanes (Southeast Division) and the Philadelphia Flyers (Atlantic/Metropolitan). He got very familiar with Ovechkin as an opposing player.
Since being named head coach of the Capitals in the fall, Laviolette has gotten to know Ovechkin better as both a team captain and a person. And in a conversation with 106.7 The Fan’s Sport Junkies earlier in the week, he revealed what things stood out.
Monday against the Bruins, Tom Wilson fought for the first time this season. The 6-foot-4 Wilson threw hands with 6-foot-2 agitator Trent Frederic, who had 148 PIMs with the AHL Providence Bruins last season.
At the time, the Capitals were leading 3-2 with 11:11 remaining in the third period. The Capitals would go on to lose the game 5-3.
By Ian Oland 1 month ago
The Washington Capitals have yet to lose a game in regulation. Winning some unlikely games and snagging a ton of loser points in overtime have put them in a cushy position in the league-wide standings: first.
That will not last. Even though this is the Weird Year, and even though the Caps have been terrifically fun so far, they’re probably not the best team in the NHL. It’s too early to draw strong conclusions, but that’s one thing we can know with some confidence.
And there are more — trends or patterns or glitches that are worth nothing, even if we’re duty-bound to put a super big caveat on everything.
By Peter Hassett 1 month ago
