When Ilya Samsonov takes the net tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes, he’ll be the first Washington Capital goaltender to do so in the new decade. It’s poetic in a way, as it stands to reason that the first-round draft pick and upstart rookie will be a common sight guarding the Caps’ goal for much of the 2020s.
But with 29 appearances on the current campaign to Samsonov’s 14, the net still belongs to Braden Holtby... or at least it does for the time being.
Holtby’s recent stretch of poor play — one of the poorest of his impressive career, which we’ll unpack more in a moment — and Samsonov’s relative reliability have lent a sense of credibility to the idea that the future is now in the Capitals’ net.