The Washington Capitals will meet the New York Islanders on Friday for the first of three games between the two teams this season. Washington enters play after a 2-0 road trip in Florida and a day off for Thanksgiving.
Due to the rare 3 pm start, the Capitals did not hold a morning skate. Head coach Spencer Carbery met with the media and revealed that the only confirmed lineup change from Wednesday night’s victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning would be Logan Thompson starting in net.
The Capitals will be without Alex Ovechkin for a fifth straight game. They are 2-2 in the previous four games without their captain.
“Warmup will determine if [we make any changes],” Carbery said. “I don’t want to make any definitive – but it’ll look relatively the same. LT will start in net.”
Lines against Lightning
With Ovechkin out, Carbery has been tasked with finding new line combinations that balance his team’s depth while keeping up their high-scoring pace. While the top six forward group has seen the most reconfiguring, Washington’s third line, led by the recently reacquired Lars Eller, has impressed the second-year bench boss enough to stay a constant in the last two games.
“Little bit of chemistry developing,” Carbery said. “I think Lappy’s starting to feel more comfortable on the wing. I’ve liked Mangiapane’s game. I think Lars has stayed pretty consistent with the way he’s looked each game, but I think Mange has taken a step – the last couple of games have been his best as a Capital. I think that’s a huge part of it.”
The Capitals have been dominant with the line on the ice at five-on-five, seeing 76.9 percent of the shot attempts, 76 percent of the expected goals, 88.6 percent of the scoring chances, and 82.5 percent of the high-danger chances. Washington has outscored the opposition 2-1 in their 23:19 of ice time together.
Washington’s first line is the most in flux lately, with one of its wings vacated by Ovechkin. Andrew Mangiapane was first tried in the hole, then Ivan Miroshnichenko, and then Tom Wilson. Taylor Raddysh replaced Wilson in the back half of the win against the Lightning.
Carbery is hopeful that the replacement by committee approach is now over. The Capitals out-attempted Tampa Bay 6-2 and scored a goal once Raddysh was moved to the right of Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas.
“We tried Willy there. Raddy felt like was trying to create a spark,” Carbery said. “Raddy and Stromer have some chemistry from junior, and have played together and know each other real well. Trying to make that work, and a lot of it is on Stromer and Pro. I felt like in the second half of that Tampa game, they really found themselves and started to play at a higher level, started to carry some play, create some entry opportunities, and have some O-zone shifts.
“I put a lot of the responsibility on those two guys to make that right winger fit and work and to be productive. As much as it’s on that right winger to take that opportunity, it’s also on those two guys to be playing at the level that they were at when O was in the lineup.”
Strome and Protas combined for four points (2g, 2a) against Tampa Bay. Raddysh picked up an assist on Strome’s third-period goal.
The Islanders will arrive at Capital One Arena having lost their last two games. With an 8-10-5 record, New York sits above only the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Metropolitan Division. They are scoring just 2.48 goals per game, the third-worst rate in the NHL.
