GAME THREAD (18/82): Vegas Golden Knights at Washington Capitals (ft. School House Rock)

WHO: Vegas Golden Knights at Washington Capitals

WHAT: 18th game of the year, third game of four-game road trip

WHERE: Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.

WHEN: 4 p.m.

HOW: AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, NHL.TV

Golden Knights projected lines

Jonathan Marchessault — William Karlsson — Reilly Smith

Max Pacioretty — Paul Statsny — Mark Stone

Tomas Nosek — Cody Eakin — Cody Glass

William Carrier — Nicolas Roy — Ryan Reaves

Brayden McNabb — Nate Schmidt

Nic Hague — Shea Theodore

Jon Merrill — Deryk Engelland

Marc-Andre Fleury

Malcolm Subban

Capitals projected lines

Alex Ovechkin — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie

Jakub Vrana — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson

Chandler Stephenson — Lars Eller — Garnet Hathaway

Brendan Leipsic — Nic Dowd — Travis Boyd

Michal Kempny — John Carlson

Dmitry Orlov — Radko Gudas

Jonas Siegenthaler — Nick Jensen

Braden Holtby

Ilya Samsonov

Storyline of the game

It’s a rematch of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, as the Golden Knights continue their road trip in D.C. against the Capitals. Vegas has lost three of its past four games, with each loss coming in overtime. The Capitals, meanwhile, are one of the hottest teams in the league. Washington enters on a five-game win streak and a 10-game points streak (9-0-1).

• Capitals defenseman John Carlson leads all defensemen with 26 points (eight goals, 18 assists). The next highest-scoring defenseman is Carolina Hurricanes blueliner Dougie Hamilton with 17. He had a three-point game on Thursday at Florida after going pointless in the previous two games.
• Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore is looking to break out of a bizarre slump. After scoring his lone goal of the season on Oct. 10, Theodore has only three points in the past 13 games. Theodore leads all Golden Knights defensemen with six points (one goal, five assists). If Vegas wants to steal this game, someone on the blue line needs to have a big night.