Home / News / Dylan McIlrath appears set for Capitals debut, Joe Snively remains in lineup after big game

Dylan McIlrath appears set for Capitals debut, Joe Snively remains in lineup after big game

By Chris Cerullo

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February 16, 2023 11:31 am

The Washington Capitals jumped onto the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Thursday for their morning skate before a pivotal matchup against the Florida Panthers. The two teams are currently in a fight for one of the few still available playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

Caps head coach Peter Laviolette appears to have made some interesting choices with his lineup for the game.

The most major being that recently recalled defenseman Dylan McIlrath is slated for his Caps debut.

Here is how Lavy fully set up his team before a big night via The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir.

McIlrath, who is a former Panther and the current Hershey Bears’ captain, has not played a single NHL game since the 2019-20 season with the Detroit Red Wings. In 44 games at the AHL level this season, McIlrath has recorded 10 assists.

On that incredibly bad Red Wings team from 2019-20, McIlrath did not do well in his 16 games with the team. When he was on the ice at five-on-five, the Wings saw only 43.5 percent of the shot attempts, 37.5 percent of the expected goals, 41.4 percent of the scoring chances, and 36.8 percent of the high-danger chances. He is also a natural right-sided defenseman with a right-handed shot and is set to play on the left side of Martin Fehervary. He is not fleet of foot.

The forward lines from Tuesday night’s loss to the Carolina Hurricanes will stay the exact same against the Panthers. That means that Aliaksei Protas will stay out of the lineup in favor of Joe Snively. Snively almost single-handedly created three goals for the Caps in that 3-2 loss to Carolina.

Snively played a total of 13:36 of ice time in the game, which was the sixth-fewest minutes on the team despite him being the driving force behind all of the team’s offense. Snively combined on the team’s de facto top line with Dylan Strome and Oshie. When the trio was on the ice at five-on-five together, the Capitals’ held a plus-five differential in high-danger chances.

“He came in and played really well,” Laviolette said postgame. “Joe has played well before here too, but it was really nice to see him get going. It’s nice to have Joe in there. He did a great job and he’s been a good player for us. There was an opportunity for him tonight and he did a good job.”

The only other news on the forward front is that according to NBC Sports Washington’s Matt Weyrich, both Tom Wilson and Nic Dowd skated once again with the team. Wilson donned a regular jersey while Dowd was still in a dark blue non-contact sweater. The two injured forwards did the same at Wednesday’s optional practice.

Weyrich also reports that Darcy Kuemper was the first netminder off of the ice at the skate. Kuemper will make his third start in the last four games after being the goalie of record against the Bruins and Hurricanes. He stopped 54 of 58 shots he faced in those two games.

The Panthers arrive in DC just two points back of the Capitals for the second Wild Card playoff spot in the East so they could tie it all up with a regulation victory. The Caps do have one game in hand over Florida.

Headline photo courtesy of @That_WriterGirl/Twitter

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