During All-Star Weekend, Braden Holtby suggested to John Carlson, the winner of the NHL’s Hardest Shot competition, that he should replace Alex Ovechkin on the left dot of the powerplay.
“Yeah. I should, yeah,” Carlson responded smiling. “I don’t know if he’d like it though.”
With Ovechkin suspended Friday for skipping the league’s All-Star Game, Carlson had a chance to do so against the Calgary Flames, but Capitals head coach Todd Reirden has other ideas.
Right wing TJ Oshie will move to the Ovi Spot™ on the Caps first powerplay unit.
Capitals practicing PP now
Oshie in Ovechkin's spot in left circle on first unit.
Wilson in Oshie's usual spot
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) January 31, 2019
Tom Wilson will slide into Oshie’s normal spot in the middle of the ice.
During Oshie’s 130:31 of ice time on the powerplay, he’s notched three goals and three assists while Wilson has scored twice, including a tally that made Nicklas Backstrom second on the Capitals all-time points list.
As for the rest of the Capitals lines, Chandler Stephenson will replace Ovechkin on the first line, while Andre Burakovsky has been bumped to the fourth line. Dmitrij Jaskin remains out of the lineup.
So, these are Capitals lines now:
Stephenson-Backstrom-Oshie
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Connolly-Eller-DSP
Jaskin-Boyd-Burakovsky— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) January 31, 2019
Friday’s contest against Calgary will mark Ovechkin’s first missed game since April 2016, breaking a 214 consecutive games streak.
When asked about the suspension, Ovi referred reporters to Gary Bettman on the matter.
Full Alex Ovechkin quote on missing Capitals' game tomorrow vs. Flames: "Ask Gary about it. It's his decision if you miss All-Star Game, you have to skip it. I just do what rules say."
— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) January 31, 2019
Headline photo: @Capitals
