The Washington Capitals got on the ice for their morning skate on Tuesday before a home matchup with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Caps will return to the more familiar Metropolitan Division action after two rough losses to Central Division competition.
Alex Ovechkin will also be honored before the game for scoring career goal number 802 which lifted him past Gordie Howe for second place on the NHL’s all-time, goal-scoring list.
At the skate, the Caps had their full, regular complement of forwards at the skate and after those two losses, it appears like head coach Peter Laviolette has changed every single one of his forward lines.
This is how the team lined up via The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir.
#Caps morning skate lines ahead of #CBJ:
Ovechkin-Strome-Wilson
Mantha-Kuznetsov-Smith
Milano-Backstrom-Oshie
Sheary-Dowd-NAKSandin-Jensen
Alexeyev-Fehervary
Irwin-CarlssonExtras: Protas, Carlson and Fucale
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) March 21, 2023
The new top line is one that has been rarely tested this season as they’ve only skated just a shade under eight minutes together as a full trio. The Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome connection has been a great one overall this season as with those two on the ice together five-on-five, the Caps have seen 51.4 percent of the shot attempts, 55.2 percent of the expected goals, 53.9 percent of the scoring chances, and 54.7 percent of the high-danger chances. Tom Wilson has cooled off lately so this could be a move to jump-start his production again.
The second line sees the return of Anthony Mantha to the lineup. Mantha has been a healthy scratch for the past two games after a 22-game stretch that saw him produce only a single goal and five total points. He’ll be centered by Evgeny Kuznetsov who appears to be no worse for wear after being taken out of Sunday’s game by a blindside hit from Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba. The Caps had listed Kuzy as day-to-day with an upper-body injury on Monday.
It’s a similar story to the first line with the third line. Sonny Milano, Nicklas Backstrom, and TJ Oshie have shared the ice at five-on-five this season for just 132 total seconds.
Nic Dowd’s fourth line is the only one with any real familiarity factor and even then he’s only shared the ice at five-on-five with Conor Sheary and Nicolas Aube-Kubel for close to 43 minutes this season. Dowd and Sheary have not been a successful combination at all this year. The Caps see just 37.6 percent of the shot attempts and 46.1 percent of the expected goals with them on the ice at even strength.
The defense pairs have also shifted around a bit. According to El-Bashir, Trevor van Riemsdyk is out because his wife is expecting. He’ll be replaced on the top pair by a returning Nick Jensen. Jensen has missed the last two games and five of the last eight due to injury.
El-Bashir also reports that regular number one netminder Darcy Kuemper will not be ready to get back into the crease against Columbus. Charlie Lindgren will be the Caps’ starter again on Tuesday. Lindgren faced 40 shots against the Wild and stopped 35 of them.
The Blue Jackets were recently mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. They have lost three games in a row and eight of their last 10. They will also be without head coach Brad Larsen due to a death in his family.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
