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Peter Laviolette changes up lines ahead of second Penguins game

By Ian Oland

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January 19, 2021 12:21 pm

The Washington Capitals are retooling their lines again ahead of their second game against the Penguins this season. The middle six is where the most change has happened.

Head coach Peter Laviolette has bumped Daniel Sprong up to the second line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Jakub Vrana. Laviolette has also placed TJ Oshie on the third with Lars Eller and Richard Panik.

Tom Wilson, who was double shifted last game, was returned to the top line with Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin after spending some time early this season on the second.

Laviolette was recently critical of how few shot attempts the team has generated early in the season. After the morning skate, he praised the work Eller and Panik has done and explained that the changes were done to give the lineup more balance.

“First of all, I think Richard Panik has played really well. And I think Lars Eller’s last two games have been excellent,” Laviolette said per The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir. “So trying them with TJ (Oshie) is just a different switch to see where it is. It gives us a balance on all four lines. Obviously, different roles for different lines but for me those two players (Panik and Eller) have played well and putting them with TJ is an opportunity for them to continue to push, not only play well defensively but to push a little bit more offensively.

Vitek Vanecek will also make the second start of his career.

He stopped 96.8 percent of the shots he faced in his NHL debut on Friday.

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB

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