Jakub Vrana is getting a special teams promotion that may take his numbers into the next stratosphere.
Vrana, who has 19 goals this season – all at even strength, replaced Evgeny Kuznetsov on the Capitals’ first powerplay unit Friday during practice.
NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti posted the details.
At practice today, Capitals have made a change on the first PP unit with Vrana replacing Kuznetsov, who is on the second unit.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) January 10, 2020
So, the Capitals first PP unit was Oshie, Vrana, Backstrom with Ovechkin and Carlson.
Second unit was Wilson, Eller, Kuznetsov with Leipsic and Orlov.
Then, Ovechkin and Carlson switched to work with Wilson, Eller and Kuznetsov and Leipsic-Orlov went with Oshie-Vrana-Backstrom.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) January 10, 2020
The Capitals have had the worst powerplay in the NHL since December 1. The team went 0 for 5 in their 3-2 loss against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Vrana has six powerplay points on the season (all assists) from the second powerplay unit while Kuznetsov has scored six times – third-most on the Capitals behind Alex Ovechkin (9) and TJ Oshie (7).
Vrana talked about his promotion after practice.
“You been watching them for almost three years now,” Vrana said. “I’ve learned a lot. It’s a big opportunity and I want to obviously take advantage of every chance I got. Just gonna be make sure you prepared to go out there and do your best.”
“It’s a good opportunity and I want to obviously take advantage of every opportunity I get.” — Jakub Vrana on being switched to PP1. He’s got 19 goals this season, all at even strength. #Caps pic.twitter.com/TTPksrQ4Sq
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) January 10, 2020
When asked about the change, Capitals head coach Todd Reirden explained that it was more about spreading the talent across the two units and the need to outwork the other team on the PK. He did not cite any players specifically in his response.
“We looked at a couple different things at practice that we worked on,” Reirden said. “For us, the focus is to improve [on the powerplay]. We haven’t been where we’d like to be since maybe around the early part of December. For us, we want to spread some of the talent out and go with a little bit of a shorter shift mentality where we can win some more puck battles. Right now we’re not winning enough puck battles and gotten outworked in some areas. I think by having a fresher group out there then I think our success level for puck battles and executing better will improve. That’s what we took a look at today.
“It’s a five-man job recovering that puck,” Reirden continued. “Teams are pressuring and penalty kills continue to evolve and get better. We’ve got to do the same as a power play. To me, it comes to outworking. Even though you have an extra guy, you still have to outwork them and then you have be able to execute when you have that puck. I think you have a better advantage when you’re fresh.”
This season, teams have slacked off covering the Kuznetsov/Backstrom shot. Putting Vrana in Kuzy’s spot with his elite shot could force that to change and open Ovechkin up more in his office.
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