The Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins will do battle for just the second time this season on Tuesday night. The Capitals, losers of four in a row, will face off against a Pens team that is in its hottest streak of the season so far.
According to The Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson, the Caps will get a bit of a boost on the backend as Martin Fehervary will be back in their lineup after missing a game with an upper-body injury. Fehervary’s return and Ethan Bear’s second game with the team means that a regular is coming out of the lineup.
Head coach Spencer Carbery revealed during his post morning skate media availability that Trevor van Riemsdyk will be healthy scratched. TVR has played in 30 games so far this season, only missing out on four contests due to injury.
Carbery telegraphed this move a bit last week when he had TVR skating on an extra defense pair with Alex Alexeyev before this past weekend’s set of back-to-back games against the New York Islanders and Nashville Predators. Bear did not end up playing against the Islanders and Fehervary had to miss the Nashville game due to his injury so no change had to be made until this point.
TVR is likely the chosen sacrifice due to his handedness and Carbery’s old-fashioned approach to having defenders not play on their off-hand side.
While Carbery did have Nick Jensen skating with Alexeyev at Monday’s practice, TVR was just getting regular reps in case Fehervary was not able to dress against Pittsburgh. Jensen is a stalwart on the team’s penalty kill where he plays on average three minutes per game making him tough to replace.
On the season, TVR has gotten into 30 games and recorded six points (6a). The 32-year-old rearguard is skating 18:19 of ice time per game which is ranked fifth-best on the team among regular defenders. He ranks sixth-best if you include the 20:05 that Bear skated in his debut.
In goal, the Capitals will start Darcy Kuemper. Charlie Lindgren was not healthy enough to return to practice on Monday so Hunter Shepard remains with the team. Kuemper has given up 10 goals in his last two starts, both 5-1 losses.
Kuemper overall this season has amassed an unimpressive 8-8-2 record with a 3.16 goals-against average and a .892 save percentage. In his career, Kuemper is 3-4-1 with a 3.08 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage against the Penguins.
Pittsburgh comes into Tuesday night’s matchup riding a three-game winning streak and having won seven of their last 10. Both the Capitals and Penguins are sitting at 40 standings points with the Caps holding one game in hand.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
