The Washington Capitals will keep their flipped lines together from the third period of Tuesday’s 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. Capitals head coach Todd Reirden threw TJ Oshie on the first line and bumped Tom Wilson down to the second. It paid immediate dividends. After failing to register a shot through the game’s first two periods, Alex Ovechkin scored on the first one he had, a brilliant pass from Oshie in the corner. Ovi would add two more in the next 4:34 to score the first natural hat trick of his career.
Reirden kept the lines together this week during practice and this morning made a change to the defensive pairings.
Capitals expected lines vs Flyers:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Hagelin-Eller-Panik
Leipsic-Dowd-HathawayKempny-Carlson
Orlov-Fehervary
Siegenthaler-Gudas*Fehervary in for Jensen
*Oshie and Wilson flip lines— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) February 8, 2020
Rookie defenseman Martin Fehervary will replace Nick Jensen on the second pairing. The Slovak defenseman was called up this morning after being sent down for salary cap reasons on Thursday. The Hershey Bears held him out of last night’s game.
Head Coach Todd Reirden addressing the media after morning skate, previews tonight's #CapsFlyers matchup pic.twitter.com/X1Lp0h0VcG
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 8, 2020
“We wanted to get Martin in again after his game the other day,” Reirden said. “Kinda how his season has gone just with how we had to work things in terms of sending him down and bringing him back up again. But wanted to see him again so we’ll see him beside Orlov.
“[We’re] continuing to evaluate him and see where he is. That’s what we’re really doing – taking inventory of where our defense is at. Not so much about taking somebody out but seeing what we have. We’re getting into a bit of a rotation that way.”
Both players shoot left, but Reirden expects Orlov to spend more time on his off-hand.
“I think you’ll see Orlov a majority of the time on the right,” Reirden said. “But with our system and how things go, a lot of times you’ll end up on either side with the motion and the movement in the offensive zone or going back for a rush you end up on the opposite side. Martin has been doing that in Hershey and preparing for that spot. Obviously, Orlov we’ve seen a number of times in that spot so we’ll take a look at that combination tonight.”
The game will be Fehervary’s fifth this season and second consecutive game. Tuesday, he skated with Radko Gudas.
