The Washington Capitals are back at home after a rather unsuccessful three-game road trip that saw them take just one of six available points. To get back on track and in the win column, they’ll need to defeat the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.
At the team’s morning skate, head coach Peter Laviolette put his forward lines into a blender. Only one trio of the four he set out against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday has remained together.
Here is how that heavily updated lineup looks via The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell.
Ovechkin-Strome-Sheary
Protas-Kuznetsov-Milano
Mantha-Eller-Aube-Kubel
Johansson-Dowd-Hathaway
Gustafsson-Carlson
Fehervary-Jensen
Irwin-TVR
The only line fully sticking together is the fourth line made up of Marcus Johansson, Nic Dowd, and Garnet Hathaway. Thursday was the first game that Johansson was tried on the left wing of the team’s primary checking line. That move was something that the Caps tried a bit in the preseason but went away from once the real schedule started. The Caps with that line on the ice at five-on-five, out-attempted the Blues 14 to 3, out-scoring chanced them 8 to 0, and out-high danger chanced them 4 to 0.
The most notable change is Alex Ovechkin once again being separated from Evgeny Kuznetsov. Ovi and Kuzy have skated over 135 minutes together this season at five-on-five and now The Great Eight is back with Dylan Strome who is the other center he has spent frequent time with at just over 90 minutes.
With Ovechkin and Strome out on the ice together at even strength this season the team has scored just two goals compared to the six with Ovechkin and Kuznetsov. The change has forced Kuznetsov to the second line where he will skate between Aliaksei Protas and Sonny Milano.
That trio was united during Thursday’s game in St. Louis and had some moderate success, out-attempting the Blues 7 to 2 when on the ice. Kuznetsov playing in the middle of two wingers with good defensive metrics seems like a natural fit and it should be interesting to see Milano get an extended look next to a very talented, creative offensive center similar to his past situation in Anaheim next to Trevor Zegras.
On the third line, Nicolas Aube-Kubel returns from his NHL levied three-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Tampa Bay’s Cal Foote. He’ll immediately jump back into the bottom six and get into the game against his former team with who he won the Stanley Cup last season.
Aube-Kubel’s teammate on that Avalanche team, Darcy Kuemper was the first goaltender off of the ice and will be Saturday’s starter for the Caps according to Pell. Both players are expected to receive their championship rings after the game.
Darcy 💜 pic.twitter.com/yM9EBpxTYa
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 19, 2022
The Avalanche will come into the action winners of five of their last six. The Caps have slipped to seventh in the Metropolitan Division.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
