The Washington Capitals have made the long trip out west for their annual California road trip and the first stop is in San Jose. The team got on the ice inside SAP Center on Sunday for a practice before they’re set to do battle with the Sharks on Monday night.
Injured forward TJ Oshie did not make the plane for the trip after he suffered a scary injury against the Edmonton Oilers. Oshie’s absence has forced head coach Spencer Carbery to tweak his forward lines and we got our first look at those changes at practice.
Here is how the team lined up via The Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson.
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
McMichael-Strome-Phillips
Milano-Lapierre-Protas
Malenstyn-Dowd-NAK
Fehervary-Carlson
Sandin-Jensen
Edmundson-TVR
Alexeyev-Johansen
The primary change made to address the new hole in the team’s lineup on the wing seems to be moving Connor McMichael back to the left wing after the 22-year-old had a long run of games at his natural center position. McMichael has five points in his last seven games and will now be paired with the team’s goal-scoring leader, Dylan Strome.
“Just a way to get Hendrix back into the lineup,” Carbery said after the skate. “We could move Lappy to the wing but just feel like it’s a little more comfortable for him to go in the middle with the line that he played with a couple games ago. [McMichael’s] ability to move seamlessly to the wing is probably our best option.”
Lapierre jumps back into the fray after sitting out as a healthy scratch against the Oilers. Carbery has immediately put Lapierre back with Sonny Milano and Aliaksei Protas after that trio had a standout game against the Columbus Blue Jackets a little over a week ago.
In that 4-3 win, Lapierre had a career best night with three points (1g, 2a) and the line as a whole combined for eight points (3g, 5a). Carbery was a big fan of their performance, directly crediting them for the victory in his postgame comments.
“That line I thought was the difference in the game for us,” Carbery said, later adding, “It’s one thing (for Lapierre) to do a few things — and Pro as well and Sonny Milano — to do those things and chip in with a goal obviously that’s huge and important, but the guys recognize when you single-handedly get the team two points, and that’s what happened…Those three goals that they score, that’s the difference in the game. That’s the two points in the win column for us, and that’s because of their line.”
Matthew Phillips also appears to be drawing back into the lineup after he has sat out the past three games. To make room for his return, Anthony Mantha is being used as a rotational winger on the fourth line.
“He’s sat a few games and now with Osh not being available just a good opportunity to get him back into the lineup right out of the game on the road trip,” Carbery said. “Get him into a role where he can best utilize his skillset. That was the thought process there.”
Mantha has been back from having his eardrum ruptured by an errant shot for three games now. He has yet to record a single point and has only two shots on goal combined in his last two outings.
On defense, Martin Fehervary looks ready to make his own return from injury. Fehervary has been out of action since November 10 against the New Jersey Devils with a lower-body injury.
Fehervary had been skating on the team’s top defense pairing next to John Carlson before he got injured and has now returned to that spot. The move forces Rasmus Sandin back down to the second pair next to Nick Jensen.
All of the changes come after Carbery expressed his frustration with how poorly the team played in their 5-0 loss to Edmonton. “Yeah, wasn’t good at all,” Carbery said postgame. “Wasn’t good at all. Right from the drop of the puck, not good.
“It’s really disappointing,” he continued. “We’ve done a lot of good things and I’m sure we’ll talk about that. It’s disappointing — you’re going to lose games in this league, you’re not going to have your best — to play like that coming off Thanksgiving before we go on the road, to me it’s a very very immature game from almost something you would expect from a young team that thinks they’re already in California and halfway on the plane before it starts.”
The Sharks will come into Monday’s game sporting the worst record in the NHL (4-15-2). They did pick up a 4-3 win against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday after losing three-straight games prior.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
