Capitals vs Predators Live Blog and Updates (October 29, 2022)
This is your place to check for updates and comment with the Capitals vs Stars game on October 29, 2022.
After being shut out 2-0 by the Dallas Stars, the Washington Capitals will look to regain their mojo against the Nashville Predators in Music City. Playing the Preds has been nice to them recently. Washington won both games against Nashville last season.
The Capitals will have no line changes starting Thursday and Darcy Kuemper will get the start for the seventh time in nine games.
What to pay attention to? There’s a disturbing trend developing for this Capitals team. They are not consistent in their efforts to reach the net. NBC Sports Washington showed a remarkable graphic pregame. In the Capitals’ four wins this season, they’ve scored seven goals from 10 feet or less. In the four losses, they scored no goals from close quarters. The Capitals have bet on a lot of indirect fire where they find backdoor players. When teams looked for that, Washington seemed to struggle 5-on-5.
Evgeny Kuznetsov hasn’t scored a goal this season and has been invisible away from Alex Ovechkin at times. Peter Laviolette relegated the Russian center player to the second line and second unit on the power play. Can Kuzy find chemistry with Marcus Johansson and TJ Oshie against the Preds?
The Capitals and Predators are average teams at the start of the season. The Capitals are 4-4 and the Preds are 3-4. As a team, Nashville played a pretty good defense (25 goals against), but they struggled to get the puck in the net, scoring 22 goals as a team – good for 25th best in the NHL.
Tonight’s game is on NBC Sports Washington. The puck drop is a little after 8 p.m.
Pre-game links
Lines
Lineys!#CapsPreds | @JackDaniels_US pic.twitter.com/ndr8HZ5vSA
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 29, 2022
#Preds Head coach John Hynes confirms there will be no line changes tonight against Washington:
Forsberg – Johansen – Duchene⁰Granlund – Glass – Niederreiter⁰Trenin – Sissons – Jeannot⁰Smith – McCarron – Sanford
Josi – Fabbro⁰Ekholm – Carrier⁰McDonagh – Lauzon
Saros
—Emma Lingan (@emma_lingan) October 29, 2022
1st period
The Capitals gave up a breakaway 13 seconds into the game in Nashville. Darcy Kuemper made a superb save on Yakov Trenin to keep him scoreless. The Predators have 3 of the first 4 shots on goal. After two Predators collided near the blue line of the defensive zone, Marcus Johansson ran alone towards Juuse Saros, but his shot hit the crossbar. This game is loose and already looks like it could be a 7-6 game.
TJ Oshie is missing from the bench.
The Capitals got the first power play though it was sketchy. The Caps ceded a golden chance shorthanded to the Predators. Then Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome collided when entering the zone. Strome immediately left the ice afterwards, but did not miss a shift.
John Carlson is absent from the bench.
Saros stopped Anthony Mantha on a breakaway with his left skate.
The Predators hit a post with a point shot on the power play. The puck went past Kuemper’s glove but he was bailed out by the iron.
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