Game Preview: Washington Capitals at Pittsburgh Penguins 2/22/2025

Penguins hockey is back.

Who: Washington Capitals (36-11-8, 80 points, 1st place Metropolitan Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (23-25-9, 55 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division)

When: 3 p.m. ET

How to Watch: National broadcast on ABC and ESPN+ (also SN360, TVAS)

Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens don’t get to ease back into play after the 4 Nations Face-Off break. Less than 24 hours after tonight’s game wraps up the team is back at PPG Paints Arena for a meeting with the New York Rangers. Later this week the Penguins take on a home-and-home set with the Flyers in Philadelphia on Tuesday and Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Opponent Track: The Capitals have lost in regulation just one single time in the calendar year 2025. The team went 2-0-3 in the last five games before the break, most recently conceding a 5-4 shootout loss to the Utah Hockey Club.

Season Series: The Pens took the first game of this season series 4-2 at Capital One Arena in November, but more recently lost 4-1 in Washington D.C. in January.

Hidden Stat: The Capitals have won five of their last six games against the Penguins playing at PPG Paints Arena.

Hidden Stat II: Before the San Jose Sharks traded Mikael Garland to the Dallas Stars, the Capitals were the only team in the NHL not to send a single player to the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Getting to know the Capitals

Projected lines (from practice this week)

FORWARDS

Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Tom Wilson

Connor McMichael – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Aliaksei Protas

Andrew Mangiapane – Lars Eller – Ethen Frank

Brandon Duhaime – Nic Dowd – Taylor Raddysh

DEFENSEMEN

Rasmus Sandin / John Carlson

Martin Fehervary / Matt Roy

Jakob Chychrun / Trevor van Riemsdyk

Goalies: Logan Thompson, Charlie Lindgren

Scratches: None

IR: None

• Alex Ovechkin, who is 16 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record, had goals in four of his last five games prior to the break. Having now gotten an extended rest for the first time since suffering a broken leg in November, he enters the post-break with 27 games left this season to chase the record.

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

• Logan Thompson hasn’t manned the Capitals’ net for a regulation loss since Dec. 17. He’s marked a .932 save percentage with two shutouts while leading the Caps to a 12-0-3 record in his 15 most recent starts.
• Connor McMichael, who had 24 points (14 goals, 10 assists) in the first 24 games of the season, has seen his production fallen off since the start of December to 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) in 31 games. Head coach Spencer Carbery told reporters on Thursday that he’s hoping McMichael will bounce back and “have a real good finishing stretch to the season” (h/t RMNB’s Chris Cerullo.)
• The Caps are running one of the top five penalty kills in the league with an 82.6 percent success rate through 55 games.
• The Capitals have reasonable hope of finishing the season as the top seed in the East. The Caps have a nine-point lead over the Florida Panthers for the conference lead, and Tankathon says the Caps have one of the five easiest schedules remaining this season. (The Pens, unfortunately for their ever-slimming playoff hopes, are facing a top-ten strength of schedule down the stretch.)

And now for the Pens

Projected lines (from yesterday’s practice)

FORWARDS

Rickard Rakell – Evgeni Malkin – Bryan Rust

Michael Bunting – Cody Glass – Emil Bemstrom

Anthony Beauvillier – Kevin Hayes – Philip Tomasino

Danton Heinen – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari

DEFENSEMEN

P.O. Joseph / Kris Letang

Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves / Vincent Desharnais

Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist

Potential Scratches: Sidney Crosby (?) Matt Nieto, Ryan Shea, Boko Imama (upper-body injury)

• Updates from Michelle Crechiolo: Sidney Crosby will be a game-time decision today, Evgeni Malkin has been back at practice.

• Does Crosby have an arm injury? Sullivan hedged about it when asked on Friday, but said “yes” when asked if the captain was moving in the right direction with his health.

“Right now, we’ll probably make him a game-time decision. He was obviously excused from practice today, but he’s feeling good.”

• If Crosby is able to play, it will mark the 72nd time he and Ovechkin have faced off during the regular season. Pens PR provided a great look at the two captains’ regular-season stats in past regular-season matchups:

Player GP G A PTS

Sidney Crosby 71 31 61 92

Alex Ovechkin 71 37 30 67