The Washington Capitals traveled south to Florida for a two-game set against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers to wrap up this week. First up is the Lightning, who the Capitals haven’t seen since before the holiday break.
The team will be without shutdown center Nic Dowd for both games, recalling forward Pierrick Dube from the AHL’s Hershey Bears on Wednesday in his absence.
Head coach Spencer Carbery revealed pregame that Dube will not make his NHL debut against the Lightning, instead going back to Nicolas Aube-Kubel who has been a healthy scratch the last two games.
Carbery did leave the possibility of Dube making his debut against the Panthers on Saturday. The rookie bench boss was seen chatting with Dube on the team’s bench at their optional morning skate on Thursday.
“Definitely a chance he gets in [the lineup] in Florida,” Carbery said. “Just checking in with him to see how the season has been going. He’s had a tremendous year thus far in Hershey. We saw him in camp. Just picking his brain on why he’s been so successful this year, some of the things he feels he’s really fine-tuned inside of his game. Just give him a few cues for when and if he gets into the lineup of things he needs to be aware of at this level and inside of our structure.”
Aube-Kubel will jump back into the team’s lineup likely as one of the wings on a fourth line now manned by Aliaksei Protas down the middle. Carbery spoke at length after practice on Wednesday about the opportunity Protas will now get as one of the team’s centers.
“Unfortunate the circumstances, but I think it’s good timing,” Carbery said. “His game is in a pretty good spot. When it comes to playing center we’ve worked a lot with him on awareness, his feet moving whenever he gets the puck, and some net-front stuff. Now, playing center I look at puck battles, your faceoffs, down-low coverage. As a centerman, you get into those situations 10-15 times more in a game than you would as a winger.
“It’s something that I’ve had in the back of my mind throughout the years – getting a good, solid look at Protas in the middle. How does that affect the rest of the group? Number one, him taking ownership of that role and being real solid as that, call it fourth-line center.”
Charlie Lindgren will get his second start in a row after making 37 stops against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night. Lindgren recorded his 11th win of the season in that start and is now 11-8-4 on the season with a 2.62 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage.
The Lightning come into Thursday night’s contest currently occupying the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. They have lost two games in a row to the Panthers and Ottawa Senators by a combined 13-4 score.
