The Washington Capitals will be back on home ice for the first time in almost two weeks when they skate out for warmups before their matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night. The Capitals got in their first morning skate back home at MedStar Capitals Iceplex and absent was veteran winger TJ Oshie.
Oshie also missed the morning skate before the team’s win over the Calgary Flames but was fine to play later that night. Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery believes that will be the same against the Maple Leafs.
“I think [he’ll be okay for the game],” Carbery said. “Just maintenance him missing morning skate but I think he’ll be good for tonight.”
The rookie bench boss confirmed that if his assumption that Oshie will be good to go is true, the Capitals will rock the same lineup they have the past few games. Here’s a refresher on how that will look.
“Feeling like we’ve got a pretty good mix right now with Miroshnichenko finding a nice fit there,” Carbery said. “Pacioretty, Sonny Milano, and Lappy finding a little bit of chemistry there on the third line but you can interchange any of our three or four lines. We feel like we’ve got a little bit of consistency there and some chemistry developing and hopefully, we keep that going as we come home now off the road trip.”
Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Mike Sgarbossa, and Ethan Bear remain healthy scratches as they were to end the road trip. Darcy Kuemper will continue to stay out of the net with just his one start in March as Charlie Lindgren is on a tear as the team’s number one.
Lindgren has a 6-2 record in eight March starts with a 1.76 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage. Per MoneyPuck, he stopped 1.71 goals above expected in the win against the Flames and now is at 14 total on the season in that category which is good for seventh-best among all starting goalies in the league.
“[Lindgren’s recent play] is a little bit reminiscent of the beginning of the year, I feel like,” Carbery said. “He’s just in the zone right now. I think him consistently starting games as well has helped. Us giving the ball to him and playing game after game now. Feels like he’s in a real good rhythm and he’s got a ton of confidence and guys have a ton of confidence in him so he’s in a real good spot.”
The Maple Leafs will come into Wednesday night’s game on the back half of a back-to-back after they lost to the Philadelphia Flyers on the road on Tuesday night. Toronto currently sits third in the Atlantic Division with 85 points and are uneven overall of late, winning just five of their last 10 games.
The last time the Capitals and Maple Leafs played, Toronto came out with a 4-1 win all the way back on October 24. Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal of the season in the loss.
