The Washington Capitals have been without their captain, Alex Ovechkin, for three games due to his fractured left fibula. The team is 1-2 in those games, and their biggest struggle has been an obvious one: getting five-on-five goals from their forward lines.
In the three games, the Caps have scored just three goals at five-on-five, two of which have come from their forwards. Head coach Spencer Carbery spoke with 106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies about those offensive woes with Ovechkin out of action on Wednesday morning.
“I think we’re starting to get adjusted to it,” Carbery said. “I think the first couple games, there was a little bit of a void. I would probably say the biggest thing is we’re still trying to find forward line combinations that can get going a little bit with some chemistry. So, our five-on-five scoring has really dipped over the last few games.
“Now, it doesn’t mean the process wasn’t good – we created some really good chances against Florida, we just couldn’t finish. So, the finishing has dried up a little bit. With him being out, and that line of Stromer, Protas, and Ovi was so good for us early on, we’re just trying to find that mix of what has a little bit of chemistry and what that looks like and then the Dubois line and obviously Eller’s line and Dowd.”
Carbery has used three different first lines in the three games without Ovechkin. He first tried Andrew Mangiapane with Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas against the Colorado Avalanche, then Ivan Miroshnichenko against the New Jersey Devils, and finally Tom Wilson against the Florida Panthers.
None of the trios produced a goal, and the Capitals were outscored 1-0 with Strome and Protas on the ice at five-on-five. Before Ovechkin’s injury, the line had outscored their opponents 16-5. Strome and Protas’s numbers at five-on-five are also falling behind, with Washington seeing just 49.1 percent of the shot attempts, 23.6 percent of the expected goals, 43.5 percent of the scoring chances, and 16.7 percent of the high-danger chances in their minutes.
Strome, who had 15 points in nine games before Ovechkin’s injury, has just one point in his last three outings. Protas has been held off the scoresheet entirely.
The reconfiguring of the top line has also impacted the team’s other three lines, as pieces from those pre-established connections have been moved around the lineup. However, one consistent figure in the lineup has been Lars Eller, the team’s third-line center.
“He’s been huge because he’s sort of stabilized that third line,” Carbery said. “We’ve moved Lapierre to the wing, and he’s had a couple of his best performances of the year, so that’s helped him a lot. Being able to kind of stabilize that with Lars, and Mangiapane has started to play real well alongside him, so that’s been a huge added benefit for us, especially as we’ve hit a little bit of a lull in some five-on-five scoring.”
Carbery will hope the rest of his lineup can find some of that same instant chemistry that Lapierre, Eller, and Mangiapane have when the Capitals meet the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night. The Lightning have been vulnerable to poor defensive games this month, giving up seven goals in two separate games against the Winnipeg Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets.
