The Washington Capitals split their first two regular-season games on the road and are back at MedStar Capitals Iceplex to prepare for their home opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Ahead of Wednesday night’s game, head coach Spencer Carbery tweaked his forward lines and defense pairings, with one especially noticeable change on the team’s checking line.
Capitals lines at 10/6 practice
The “first” and “fourth” line right wings swapped places as Anthony Beauvillier returned back to his slot from last season with Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome. Meanwhile, Ryan Leonard was moved down the depth chart to play with Boone Jenner and Justin Sourdif.
After the skate, Carbery stressed that Leonard wasn’t being demoted in any way, believing the change may give Leonard more five-on-five minutes because he deploys the two trios so differently.
“We deploy Stromer and O in such a unique way that (they) are so used to and so comfortable with and understand the matchups that we’re after and understand their deployment from an O-Zone start standpoint,” Carbery said. “I just felt like putting Leno in that – I want him to play in some more defensive situations. Not only because I think he can do well in that, but I want him to develop because he’s worked really hard at it, and I’ve seen some really positive signs of growth in his game in that department.
“It’s not a huge, significant move. Yeah, optically it’s like, ‘Huh, that’s weird.’ But from a minute standpoint, he might even play more five-on-five minutes with Sourdi’s line. If you’re thinking any bit of that as a demotion based on Ryan Leonard’s play in the first two games, absolutely false, because I thought he’s shown really well in the first two games. I’ve been really impressed with the player that he looks like this year comparatively to last year.”
Unlike Leonard, Beauvillier has chemistry with Ovechkin and Strome and has experience handling their unique deployment strategy, with the three spending over 400 minutes of five-on-five ice time as a unit last season. With them on the ice, Washington saw 52.2 percent of shot attempts, 52.4 percent of expected goals, 51.6 percent of scoring chances, and 50.8 percent of high-danger chances.
“I mean, lots of familiarity,” Beauvillier said. “Obviously playing with them quite a bit last year, and it’s exciting. I think whenever you get a chance to play with Stromer and O, obviously two really good players, it’s fun, and hopefully we get back to where we were last year and get our chemistry going again.”
Carbery is also correct that Leonard’s five-on-five ice time really shouldn’t decrease, as through the first two games, Beauvillier has played 22:42, and Leonard has played 22:35. However, Beauvillier is yet to receive a single five-on-five zone start in the offensive zone, while Leonard has already received five, which ranks third on the team behind Ovechkin (6) and Jakob Chychrun (6).
The only other lineup change comes on defense, as Dylan McIlrath jumps into active duty with Matt Roy still out with a lower-body injury. Roy’s absence has moved each right-handed defenseman up a pair, with McIlrath now set to play with rookie Cole Hutson. Roy is unlikely to play against Pittsburgh after missing practice this week, so McIlrath should make his season debut on Wednesday.
“This isn’t something that’ll be set in stone,” Carbery said. “It’ll be a lot of game flow, matchup, special teams. I wouldn’t be too worried about who’s going to play the most. Everyone is going to have to do a little bit more. Matt Roy’s a huge part of our D-corps, a huge part of that right side.”
Pittsburgh will come to DC after a 3-2 loss to Clay Stevenson and the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night. The game will also be Washington’s first since Ovechkin announced he will be retiring after this season.
