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Christian Djoos will sit, Philipp Grubauer will start in goal against Senators

By Ian Oland

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February 27, 2018 3:04 pm

Washington Capitals head coach Barry Trotz is making several lineup changes ahead of the team’s game against the Ottawa Senators.

Goaltender Philipp Grubauer will earn the start a night after he relieved Braden Holtby against Buffalo. After another poor team effort on defense, Holtby scuffled, giving up four first period goals on 17 shots against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Holtby has given up 26 goals in parts of the last six games, with a record of  0-4-2. This will be Grubauer’s fourth start in the Caps’ last eight contests.

Trotz, it appears, will also make a surprising yet not really all that surprising change on defense to get the newly acquired Jakub Jerabek into the lineup.

The Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan and NBC Sports Washington’s Tarik El-Bashir have your updates from this morning’s optional skate.

Eleven players participated in practice.

The Caps’ newest D-man will likely get a sweater.

Grubauer will start.

The scratches this evening will be Christian Djoos, Madison Bowey, Alex Chiasson, and Travis Boyd, who was promoted earlier this morning.

Rookie Jakub Vrana, who has been scratched five times in the last 14 games, will get a jersey, but another one of the team’s talented young players will sit.

Trotz, it appears, will bench Christian Djoos for tonight’s game. Djoos, 23, who’s been one of the team’s best defenders this season, will sit over Brooks Orpik.

The 2017-18 season for Orpik, 37, has been among the worst in the NHL.

From Pat’s snapshot:

I know to many the criticisms of Brooks Orpik seem like beating a dead horse at this point. But it would be hard to overstate just how bad he’s been this season. Kevin at Japers’ Rink had a good article recently that showed Orpik is performing worse than John Erskine was during the season Erskine was so bad that it ended his career. It’s not as if this is just an advanced stats argument and the coaching staff can somehow ignore it because it’s not showing up on the score sheet. Check out just how bad Orpik’s on-ice goal differential has gotten lately.

Orpik has the third worst possession numbers (43.7 shot-attempt percentage) among any defenseman in the NHL (minimum 600 minutes at even strength).

One scratch is not a big deal. But these types of roster decisions by Barry Trotz continue a pattern which gives preference to poorly performing veteran players over better performing young players.

The decision suggests Trotz prefers veterans to the detriment of his own team or is struggling to evaluate the play of his own players. Perhaps Trotz believes scratching Orpik could create a problem in the locker room or diminish Orpik’s leadership role. Orpik is one of the team’s alternate captains and serves on the team’s leadership committee.

Or [puts on tin foil hat] it could be something deeper. The Orpik signing was criticized by NHL analysts in 2014. Orpik’s first three seasons in Washington, when considering his diminished play in Pittsburgh, must be considered a huge success (especially last season), despite his numbers being buoyed by talented young players Dmitry Orlov and Nate Schmidt (both of whom are now first pairing defenders).

Perhaps Trotz and GM Brian MacLellan, who are both reportedly in the last year of their contracts, are defensive about the signing and will not acknowledge its problems. Not benching Orpik and arguing he’s playing well, which Trotz and MacLellan have done despite evidence to the contrary, perpetuates a narrative that the signing was – and remains – a good one.

Orpik has a $5 million-plus salary. Benching an asset that expensive may not look good in a performance review with ownership. Regardless, there is not much of an evidence-based argument, especially with the team’s two new defensemen, Michal Kempny and Jerabek, that Orpik should continue to get a jersey – especially over Christian Djoos.

Yet here we are.

Tonight’s game marks the second in as many nights for the Caps. Then the team will have a three-day break before their outdoor game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Headline photo: Cara Bahniuk

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