Laviolette not ready to commit to a plan for rotating the goalies originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
One of the biggest storylines surrounding the Capitals heading into the season was the goaltending. A team with Stanley Cup aspirations was going to try to win with a goalie tandem that had a combined 26 games of NHL experience. Just how head coach Peter Laviolette managed that tandem was going to be something to watch for and, three games into the season, he himself is still working out how best to manage the pair.
Ilya Samsonov entered the season as the presumptive starter. He played in 26 NHL games last season and has been highly regarded since being drafted in the first round of the 2015 draft. Vitek Vanecek entered the season with no NHL experience. He was drafted in the second round of the 2014 draft and, had Henrik Lundqvist not had to sit out the season due to a heart condition, his NHL debut may not have come at all in the 2021 season.
But expectations matter little once you get into the games. In a 56-game season, Laviolette has to determine how to rotate the goalies in a way that he feels gives the team the best chance to win on any given night and not just rely on what the expectations for each goalie were coming into the season.
For now, Laviolette still won't commit to a constant rotation or leaning on the hot-hand in order to determine who starts.
"It'll probably be a little bit of both," Laviolette said Monday. "For me, I think I've got to evaluate everything. They're both young goalies. They'll both get the opportunity to fight for the crease. At some point I think if somebody gets hot or we feel like somebody's playing well or possibly playing better -- and that doesn't have to be set in stone either that that's it for the rest of the year because they are young goaltenders -- we may lean towards that person a little bit more."
Thus far, neither goalie has played poorly. Samsonov allowed four goals in the first game, but Laviolette still praised his effort noting several of the goals were on the backdoor leaving little chance for Samsonov. Samsonov also played in Sunday's game against Pittsburgh. Though he made a critical mistake with a turnover behind the net that led to a goal, he also made a number of big saves.
Vanecek, meanwhile, was spectacular in his NHL debut, stopping 30 of 31 shots against the Buffalo Sabres.
But with only two games for Samsonov and one game for Vanecek, Laviolette says he still needs time to evaluate both netminders before he gets locked into a plan for how to rotate them.
"Right now, we're just in an evaluation period," Laviolette said. "Sammy's done some good things in the games that he's had. He's got three out of four points for us. Obviously, Vitek had a terrific game and we'll talk to the goalies when they get off the ice today and make a decision with what we're doing. I think they both played well to this point, but we'll continue to evaluate."
