Two days after defeating the San Jose Sharks 8-3, the Washington Capitals returned to the ice for their morning skate on Monday at Crypto.com Arena. The Capitals play the Los Angeles Kings later tonight before returning home for a date against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.
Capitals’ head coach Peter Laviolette made several small changes to his lineup and defensive pairings, most notably flipping three players.
Per The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir, this is how the Capitals took line rushes.
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Mantha-Backstrom-Oshie
Milano-Strome-Smith
Sheary-Dowd-NAK
Sandin-TvR
Irwin-Carlsson
Alexeyev-Iorio
Kuemper
Lindgren
At forward, Laviolette promoted TJ Oshie to the second line with Anthony Mantha and Nicklas Backstrom and dropped Craig Smith to the third line, after the forward scored twice against the Sharks.
COUNT IT pic.twitter.com/HWAqdaRjyM
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 5, 2023
First goal as a Cap! pic.twitter.com/wDMmgVI0ZS
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 5, 2023
On defense, Laviolette broke up the Gabriel Carlsson-Vincent Iorio third pairing — both players played together in Hershey — and put Matt Irwin with Carlsson and Alex Alexeyev with Iorio.
Darcy Kuemper was the first goaltender off the ice and will start.
Defensemen Nick Jensen and Martin Fehervary, who are both out day-to-day due to injuries, skated with non-contact jerseys.
The Capitals will look to extend their winning streak to three against a Kings team that sits third in the Western Conference and has won three in a row. The last time the Capitals won three straight was a stretch in late 2022: December 22 through December 27.
