Nashville Cats – The Nashville Predators are in town for their only visit to the district this season and the Caps will put their six-game home winning streak on the line against the Preds on Wednesday night.

Both the Caps and Preds have suffered losses in their previous games; The Caps lost a 4-2 decision to the Hurricanes in Carolina on Sunday, while the Preds drew and lost 3-0 against Los Angeles on home ice on Monday night. Before these losses, the Caps had won eight of nine previous games and the Preds had picked up points in five of six games (4-1-1).

Both teams will try to get back on the beam tonight. The Caps lost their season opener and then won five in a row. They lost again in Tampa on October 26th and then won three straight. They want to continue this pattern starting tonight.

Nashville dropped five straight points to start the season, but the Preds improved to 4-1-1 in their next six games before bowing to the Kings on Monday.

Washington will bring defenseman Matt Roy back into the lineup after a 10-game absence due to a lower-body injury he suffered early in the second half of Washington’s opening game against the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 12. The Caps activated Roy and they returned defenseman Vincent Iorio to AHL Hershey.

Five on Five Alive – Eleven games into the 2024-25 season, one of the many key differences between this season’s Caps and last year’s model is the team’s effectiveness at 5-on-5 play all over the ice.

After 11 games last season, the Caps had deployed a 5-4-2 system and scored just 14 goals at 5-on-5, ranking 31st in the NHL in that category. At the same time, Washington had conceded 25 goals in 5-on-5 play, ranking 19th in the league.

This season, the Caps are second only to Vegas with a total of 34 goals at 5-on-5 (40, more than Washington in a game), and they have conceded 22 goals at 5-on-5 and are tied thus in 12th place in the league.

“If I could put it more simply and succinctly,” Caps coach Spencer Carbery said, “I feel like we’re just a much better team offensively and we can control the game with the puck, so we have the puck.” About that Additionally, for long periods of the game last year I felt like we didn’t have as much control of the puck and didn’t threaten as much, even though we were a good team and found ways to win.

“And this year I feel like we’ve gotten a lot better at moving the puck when we get it and finding a way to get it into the offensive zone and stay there longer. And if we lose it, we get it back faster and then return to the offensive zone or attack from the rush. I just feel like we own the puck and we end up controlling it more this year than we did last year.”

“The best way to describe it is: We are connected,” says Caps forward Connor McMichael. “We all know where the puck is supposed to go or where it’s going to go and we just make simple reads and play off each other. I think that was the biggest help for us. The last game in Carolina wasn’t the way we wanted to play, nor was it the way we had played in the first ten games.

“But when we play connected, we look and play much faster. And that takes up a lot of time and space for the opposition.”

There is also the question of personnel. Not only did the Caps’ offseason additions fit seamlessly into Washington’s roster and locker room, but some of the Caps’ younger players also made significant strides in the first few weeks of the season. But it’s not just about staff either.

“I think we did a really good job of retaining pucks better,” said Caps defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. “Obviously adding a guy like (Pierre-Luc Dubois) and (McMichael) taking a step and (Aliaksei) Protas taking a step just gives our team a whole different dynamic. And I think we did a good job of just sticking to our game plan, wearing the teams out and understanding things that work in the first half of the game. Let’s say you wear them out, even in one shift, it’s like you wear them down with a few shots, pull up, (puck goes) up, shoot. And when they get tired, the beautiful plays open up.

“And I think we recognized that better and stuck to the game plan, and we have a lot of big bodies that can skate. As a (defender), I know it’s a chore to deal with a number of our guys on the forecheck. So if we stick to that early on and get into our game and get the game going our way, the nicer plays open up and then obviously we score a lot more points than we did last year. It was nice.”

Goalkeeper Charlie Lindgren sees the fast game McMichael is talking about.

“For me, we play with more speed,” says Lindgren. “I feel like we look like a faster team. We get into the forecheck quicker, we put pressure on their attacks, I think the support is better. There’s something special about these first 10 or 11 games, and in most of these games we look like a completely different team than we did last year.”

Speaking of something completely different, another standout aspect for Washington early this season is the amount of time it has played with the lead. Eleven games into last season, the Caps ranked 31st in the NHL with a lead time of 124:11 out of 672:02 of total time played. At this point last season, Washington had held the lead for less than 20 percent of the game.

In the 2024-25 season, the Caps are 371-17, second only to the New York Rangers (376-36). Washington led in nearly 56 percent of the 664 minutes of hockey played this season.

In the networks – Logan Thompson makes his sixth start this season tonight against the Predators as the Caps’ goaltending rotation continues. Thompson joins Tomas Vokoun as the second goaltender in franchise history to win each of his first five decisions with the team, and he will look to match the mark set by Vokoun – a longtime Predators goaltender who won each of his first six starts with the Capitals won in 2011-12.

Lifetime against Nashville, Thompson is 3-1-0 in four appearances – all starts – with a 2.28 GAA and .933 save percentage.

Juuse Saros is the likely starter for Nashville; He started in 10 of Nashville’s first dozen games this season and went the distance. Saros is 3-6-1 this season with a 2.83 GAA and .902 save percentage.

Lifetime against the Caps, Saros is 5-3-0 in eight appearances – all starts – with a 2.65 GAA and .912 save percentage.

Everything lined up – Here’s what we expect the Capitals to look like tonight, and here’s how the Predators lined up for their final game on Monday in Nashville:

WASHINGTON

Forward

21-Protas, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin

24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson

15-Milan, 29-Lapierre, 88-Mangiapane

22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 16-Raddysh

defender

42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson

38-Sandin, 3-Roy

27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk

goalkeeper

79-Lindgren

48-Thompson

Extras

13-Vrana

23-Sgarbossa

52-McIlrath

Lost/injured

6-Chychrun (upper body)

19-Backstrom (Hip)

77-Oshie (back)

NASHVILLE

Forward

9-Forsberg, 90-O’Reilly, 14-Nyquist

91-Stamkos, 13-Parssinen, 81-Marchessault

17-Jankowski, 82-Novak, 77-Evangelista

68-L’Heureux, 10-Sissons, 36-Smith

defender

76-Skjei, 59-Josi

45-carrier, 3-lauzon

7-Del Gaizo, 2-Schenn

goalkeeper

74-Saros

41-Wedgewood

Extras

26-Tomasino

47-McCarron

57-Fabbro

Lost/injured

None