Jakub Vrana will be a healthy scratch for the fourth time this season when the Washington Capitals play the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night. Vrana will come out of the lineup in favor of Ivan Miroshnichenko, who will be making his season debut.
The 28-year-old winger has seven points (4g, 3a) in 16 games this year. He has two goals in his last four games, but head coach Spencer Carbery felt those offensive contributions weren’t enough to offset his defensive weak spots.
“I think it’s just, with V, there’s the give and take,” Carbery said pregame. “He’s got the speed, the offensive ability, the shot, and then he has to really work on his game without the puck, and that’s always been him his whole career. So, when you’re creating enough to offset the without-the-puck play, we’re in a good spot. You put up with some misses defensively, but when the ledger starts to move [the wrong way], that’s when we have to get it back to even.
“That’s where I feel like we’re at. There’s just a few plays a game defensively where we’re getting exposed, and it’s costing us in certain situations. And if you’re not creating and scoring and creating a ton of opportunities even in his limited ice, then the ledger becomes unsustainable from a coaching standpoint.”
The Capitals have sagged defensively overall this month and have abysmal five-on-five numbers with Vrana on the ice. During his 82:06 of five-on-five ice time in November, they’ve seen just 43.4 percent of the shot attempts, 29.9 percent of the expected goals, 35.4 percent of the scoring chances, and 21.4 percent of the high-danger chances.
Vrana’s departure from the lineup will also impact the club’s power play. Washington used the Czech winger on the right flank of their second unit in Friday’s loss to Colorado. Miroshnichenko has been practicing with the unit on the left side, so Hendrix Lapierre will likely slide into Vrana’s spot to make way for the young Russian.
