The Washington Capitals are on a five-game road trip that first sees them making a visit to The Shark Tank in San Jose. The Capitals are coming off of a blowout loss to the Edmonton Oilers in their last matchup and head coach Spencer Carbery has made some tweaks to his lineup in response.
The team got on the ice for their optional morning skate on Monday and those changes to the lineup became clear. According to The Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson, the primary change will see Nicolas Aube-Kubel take a seat in the press box for the game.
Given the NAK news and how things looked at practice on Sunday, here’s what we can expect the Capitals to look like on Monday night.
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
McMichael-Strome-Phillips
Milano-Lapierre-Protas
Malenstyn-Dowd-Mantha
Fehervary-Carlson
Sandin-Jensen
Edmundson-TVR
While Anthony Mantha appeared to be the extra forward rotating through the fourth line at Sunday’s skate, he stays in the lineup for the time being. NAK will be joined as a healthy scratch by defenders Alex Alexeyev and Lucas Johansen.
With the caveat that they start the vast majority of the shifts outside of the offensive zone, that fourth line of Beck Malenstyn, Nic Dowd, and NAK has posted poor numbers in its six games together. In over 61 minutes at five-on-five with them on the ice, the Capitals have seen just 34.4 percent of the shot attempts, 30.7 percent of the expected goals, 34 percent of the scoring chances, and 40.3 percent of the high-danger chances.
Mantha has combined with Dowd positively in the past. In just under 68 minutes together at five-on-five over the past two seasons, the Capitals have seen 53.3 percent of the high-danger chances.
The other major shift in the lineup is Connor McMichael’s move back to the wing to accommodate Hendrix Lapierre’s return due to TJ Oshie’s injury. 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 Sunday. “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.”
Matthew Phillips will also see his first game since November 14. The speedy winger has just one point in his last 10 games but has been one of the team’s most positive outlets at five-on-five. With him on the ice, the Capitals see 57.7 percent of the expected goals.
On defense, Martin Fehervary will check into his first game since November 10. He’ll jump right back onto the top pairing next to John Carlson. Carlson is still skating the most time on ice per game in the entire NHL at 26:12.
After Charlie Lindgren was blitzed for five goals against Edmonton, Darcy Kuemper will take back the starting reins against San Jose. Kuemper won his last start, a 24-save effort against the Buffalo Sabres five nights ago. Kuemper has a 5-3-2 career record on the road in San Jose with a 2.79 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
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: Katie Adler/RMNB
