The Washington Capitals hit the ice for their second, full on-ice session of 2023 Training Camp on Friday. The Capitals’ roster may be split into three separate groups during their skates, but the team’s new lines and defense pairings appear to already be emerging under new head coach Spencer Carbery.
Unlike Peter Laviolette who would tinker near daily with his lines, Carbery has remained consistent early as the team learns his new system and strategies. And for good reason.
The Capitals’ first preseason game is on Sunday while their season-opening matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins is only two weeks away.
The Capitals’ big league lines and pairings across the three groups have been:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Mantha
Milano-Kuznetsov-Wilson
McMichael-Strome-Oshie
Malenstyn-Dowd-Protas
Sandin-Carlson
Fehervary-Jensen
Edmundson-TVR
As reported on Thursday, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom have been reunited on the team’s top line. The legendary duo have been joined by comeback candidate Anthony Mantha to form a trio that has rarely skated together at five-on-five (19:16) since Mantha was acquired from the Detroit Red Wings in 2021.
“It feels like back in the day,” Backstrom told RMNB’s Katie Adler after practice.
Under Laviolette, Ovechkin and Backstrom’s play at five-on-five together was not as positive as their early years. In slightly under 387 five-on-five minutes together, the dynamic duo saw just 43.5 percent of the shot attempts, 41.8 percent of the expected goals, 42.4 percent of the scoring chances, and 35.5 percent of the high-danger chances. The Caps were out-scored 22 to 19 in those minutes.
The same can be said of the team’s current second line of Sonny Milano, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Tom Wilson, who have skated less than half an hour together at five-on-five (28:52) since the former Ducks forward was picked up in free agency last year. Kuznetsov and Wilson have an extensive history of playing together though, racking up over 1,341 five-on-five minutes since the start of the 2019-20 season alone.
Before last season, Kuznetsov and Wilson had out-scored opponents 63 to 53, but that took a turn for the worse in 2022-23 as the Caps were out-scored 14 to 7 in the almost 183 minutes of ice time they shared. Wilson saw the ice just 33 times due to recovery from ACL surgery and a small fracture in his ankle while Kuznetsov dealt with severe bouts of inconsistency, posting his worst scoring season in the league (55 points) in almost a decade. Kuznetsov cited on Thursday he played through an undisclosed injury last season.
Kuznetsov was excited about the prospect of playing with Milano and Wilson to start the season and was enthusiastic about the team’s depth overall. “I feel like 12 or 15 forwards that we have can all mix and we can all play hockey,” he said. “So, it’s on us to make sure we always execute what the coaches want because the coaches’ plan is very important.”
Dylan Strome leads the third line after a career year (65 points) saw him finish behind just Alex Ovechkin for the team lead in scoring. He’s paired with TJ Oshie who missed out on a 20-goal season last year by just one marker as he dealt with another injury-plagued campaign. Perhaps the most notable addition to the entire lineup, Connor McMichael, finishes the line.
McMichael made the Caps out of camp last season but got into just six NHL games before the Capitals optioned him to the minor leagues. From there, Connor played 57 games in Hershey where he posted 39 points (16g, 23a) in 57 games as well as led the Bears in playoff goals (6) on the way to a Calder Cup victory.
McMichael’s Cup-winning mates, Beck Malenstyn and Aliaksei Protas, take up residence on a new-look fourth line with Nic Dowd. Both of Dowd’s former lineys, Carl Hagelin and Garnet Hathaway, are no longer with the team anymore. While Malenstyn spent most of the season in Hershey, Dowd and Protas formed quite the successful partnership in the NHL.
With Protas and Dowd on the ice together at five-on-five in over 284 minutes, the Caps saw 53.6 percent of the shot attempts, 59.3 percent of the expected goals, 56.9 percent of the scoring chances, and 58.8 percent of the high-danger chances. Those numbers are made even more impressive by the fact that they held an offensive-zone faceoff percentage of just 12.7 percent due to how often they started their shifts in a more defensive position.
On the backend, Carbery is looking at an ultra-offensive first pairing of Rasmus Sandin and John Carlson. Sandin was acquired last season at the trade deadline from Toronto as Carlson was still out of the lineup recovering from a fractured skull and severed temporal artery. That means the two have only skated in 10 total games on the same team and shared the ice at five-on-five for just 48:31.
General manager Brian MacLellan said Thursday that he envisions John Carlson serving a mentor-type role with Sandin moving forward. “They both have a real good feel for the game,” he said. “I would assume they communicate a lot during the year. John does a really good job with that.”
The more familiar duo of Martin Fehervary and Nick Jensen serves as the team’s second pair. After being separated from his previous, season-long partner Carlson last year, Fehervary skated almost 520 five-on-five minutes with the dependable Jensen. Both players are coming into the season after signing extensions that will keep them Caps through the 2025-26 season.
The lone new face on the backend, Joel Edmundson, makes his first appearance on the third pairing with former Carolina Hurricanes teammate Trevor van Riemsdyk. The two played 139 minutes together at five-on-five in Carolina four season ago and the results were poor despite that Canes team being one of the very best in the league from a process stats perspective.
With the two on the ice, the Canes saw just 47.5 percent of the shot attempts, 42.6 percent of the expected goals, 46.2 percent of the scoring chances, and 39.2 percent of the high-danger chances. For comparison’s sake, in TVR’s 512 five-on-five minutes without Edmundson, the Canes saw 55.2 percent of the shot attempts, 55.6 percent of the expected goals, 57.3 percent of the scoring chances, and 51.7 percent of the high-danger chances.
Currently, players that received NHL sweaters last season that are on the outside looking in are names like Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Joe Snively, Alex Alexeyev, Lucas Johansen, Dylan McIlrath, and Vincent Iorio. Free-agent acquisition Max Pacioretty is also out of the picture for now solely due to recovery from Achilles tendon surgery.
The Caps will open their preseason against the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday where we should get a look at more of the team’s younger talent that will be trying to push into the lines and pairings conversation in the coming weeks.
Headline photo: Katie Adler/RMNB
