The Washington Capitals expect to face a disgruntled group of Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena.
The Oilers, who fell in the Stanley Cup finals each of the past two years, are off to a slow start this season. They lost, 5-1, to the Buffalo Sabres on Monday before traveling to Washington. Getting blown out by the Sabres, who haven’t made the playoffs since 2011, can be particularly difficult to swallow as losses go.
“We expect to see their best,” Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery said Wednesday morning. “With the way things went in Buffalo, I’m sure they’re not happy with the way that game went. Going to need to be ready.”
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Edmonton’s superstar forwards, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, earn top billing on every opponent’s scouting report. McDavid is tied for second in the NHL with 30 points, and Draisaitl’s 13 goals are one off the league lead.
McDavid is one of the fastest players in the NHL, and he combines that speed with elite puck skills, vision and instincts. Every time he’s on the ice, there’s a chance he’ll put a defender on the kind of career highlight reel that no one wants to be on.
“He’s fast. It can be, obviously, intimidating at times, depending on how your gap is,” Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun said. “If you’re gapped out and he’s coming, you’re in [trouble], for sure. You’ve got to be a little desperate and find a way to just do your best not to let him get to the middle of the ice and get a great look.”
On the power play, the Oilers are third in the NHL at 30.8 percent. They will be a significant challenge for Washington’s struggling penalty kill, which ranks 26th at 72.6 percent.
Draisaitl is particularly dangerous from the low areas of the ice on the power play. He shoots a one-timer that Carbery compared to Alex Ovechkin’s in terms of its lethality, and he can execute it from the sharpest of angles along the goal line. And penalty kill units can’t station a player on Draisaitl exclusively — doing so offers up too much space for McDavid and the rest of Edmonton’s talented players.
“Their ability to move around and manipulate a penalty kill is probably the best, and then [Draisaitl’s] moving around, Connor’s moving around,” winger Tom Wilson said. “They’re just trying to find that opening, and [Draisaitl] can kind of shoot it from wherever. Obviously, you have to be aware of it, and the reason that they keep having success with it is because they’re able to create a lot of movement and manipulate the other team’s structure and then find the seam. We’ll be aware of it. We’ll do our scout and do our best to try and stop it.”
How to watch Oilers at Capitals
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Capital One Arena
TV: TNT
Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM)
Records: Edmonton 9-8-4; Washington 9-8-2
Projected lineup
Washington Capitals
Forwards
Connor McMichael — Dylan Strome — Alex Ovechkin
Aliaksei Protas — Justin Sourdif — Tom Wilson
Anthony Beauvillier — Nic Dowd — Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime — Hendrix Lapierre — Ethen Frank
Defensemen
Martin Fehervary — John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun — Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren
Edmonton Oilers
Forwards
Matt Savoie — Connor McDavid — Jack Roslovic
Vasily Podkolzin — Leon Draisaitl — Andrew Mangiapane
Trent Frederic — Adam Henrique — Zach Hyman
Mattias Janmark — David Tomasek
Defensemen
Darnell Nurse — Evan Bouchard
Mattias Ekholm — Brett Kulak
Jake Walman — Alec Regula
Ty Emberson
Goaltenders
Stuart Skinner
Calvin Pickard
Pregame reading
It’s not just the lack of goals. Aliaksei Protas’s ‘whole game’ is off.
Connor McMichael shifted to wing and rediscovered a spark for the Capitals
Why can’t the Capitals win in the shootout?
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