The Washington Capitals took to the ice at UBS Arena in Belmont, New York, Saturday for their morning skate. Later, they will take on the New York Islanders for their 67th game of the season.
The Islanders sit seventh in the Eastern Conference standings and hold the first wild card spot while the Capitals are in 11th and trail the Isles by seven standings points. The Caps play the Islanders three times over the next month.
“It’s a big one,” Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said. “It’s a big game tonight. If we want to move up the standings, this is clearly one of the teams we have to catch and beat.”
MoneyPuck has the Caps’ playoff chances at 2.7 percent.
Laviolette iced the same forward lines as he did for the team’s 3-2 shootout loss to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
Notably, Martin Fehervary and Nick Jensen skated on the second pairing and are officially game-time decisions.
Here’s how the Capitals lined up per the Washington Post’s Roman Stubbs.
#Caps are on the ice in New York for a.m. skate ahead of tonight’s game against the Islanders. Lines/pairs:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Milano-Strome-Oshie
Mantha-Backstrom-Smith
Sheary-Dowd-NAKSandin-TvR
Fehervary-Jensen
Irwin-AlexeyevKuemper
— Roman Stubbs (@romanstubbs) March 11, 2023
Darcy Kuemper appears likely to start again for the seventh straight game.
The players were joined at the rink by their fathers for their annual mentors’ trip. The team and dads began their trip Friday after practice as they took off for New York.
Catching the boys' morning skate just like the old days pic.twitter.com/a7ejtIglwI
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 11, 2023
“I think it’s a really good time with your dad,” Laviolette said. “When you’re in professional sports, you’re away from your original family that you grew up with as a kid and possibly someone who got you into the sport, helped you with sports when you were younger. You don’t see your family quite as much. So to get an opportunity to take your father or mentor or mother, whoever it might be, on a trip like this, it’s a pretty special time for the players, but maybe even moreso for the dads, where they get a chance to hang out with their kids and see what they do on a daily basis. I think when you’ve been to a few of them too, a veteran team, I think they really enjoy seeing each other as well. The dads, they meet at some point, but then you’re on your third or fourth or fifth mentors’ trip, you get to see friends. That’s a pretty cool thing.
“We had a pretty good time last night having a dinner, having the players introduce who they brought on the trip,” he added. “That was pretty cool.”
After the skate concluded, the team announced it had re-signed Trevor van Riemsdyk to a three-year extension.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
