The Washington Capitals are set to play the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night. The Capitals, coming off of a poor performance in St. Louis, will be looking to turn their road trip around before making their way to Colorado on Wednesday.
Head coach Spencer Carbery revealed in his pregame media availability that Swedish defenseman Rasmus Sandin will make his return from injury against the Wild. Sandin’s return means that Ethan Bear will sit out healthy for the first time since he signed with the team in late December.
Sandin will start on a pairing with Trevor van Riemsdyk. TVR did not play against the Blues on Saturday. His return to the lineup means that Alex Alexeyev will bow out after playing in his first three games since November 24.
Sandin is also expected to retake his spot on the second power-play unit. He got in some work with that group at Monday’s practice in St. Paul.
With those changes, this is what we can expect the defense corps to look like when the team hits the ice.
Capitals defense pairings
Carbery elaborated on why Bear was chosen to sit out after the skate. This is the second time that the rookie bench boss has been left wanting a little more from the free-agent signing since the second week of January.
“Felt like, just with the numbers that we have, him taking a step back – feel like his game has been good in stretches and not so good in some other stretches,” Carbery said Tuesday. “St. Louis wasn’t great for him individually, as for a lot of our guys, so it’s not like he’s the only one in that situation. But just feel like he could use a little bit of a step back, come out of the lineup, talk to him about a few things.
“He’s working on some things with Mitch Love, just to get a little bit more. He’s still not where he needs to be from the injury, coming back from that, and integrating into our system and being able to go out there and whether it’s breakout retrievals, reading the rush, all those little things. It’s just not seamless for him quite yet.”
Bear has two points (1g, 1a) in 11 games with the Capitals this season. The team has struggled mightily with him on the ice at five-on-five, seeing just 41.4 percent of the shot attempts, 32.7 percent of the expected goals, 35.1 percent of the scoring chances, and 36.9 percent of the high-danger chances.
They have also been outscored 10-3 in those minutes.
Twin Cities stills#ALLCAPS | @MedStarHealth pic.twitter.com/kvt6tHikxk
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 23, 2024
The Capitals will also see a change in net as Darcy Kuemper was the first goaltender off the ice at the morning skate. Kuemper will get the nod against his former team just as Charlie Lindgren did against the Blues. Lindgren is expected to jump right back into the fray Wednesday night against the Avalanche.
Kuemper posted a shutout in his last start, a 2-0 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on January 16. The win was a nice bounce back for the veteran backstop after he had allowed three or more goals in his four other starts in 2024.
The Wild have struggled this season and currently sit near the bottom of the Central Division. Dean Evason, former Capitals assistant, was fired by the team as head coach in late November. He was replaced by John Hynes but the team hasn’t fared much better under his watch.
Minnesota is six points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 12 teams ahead of them in the conference standings. They will come into Tuesday night’s matchup riding a two-game win streak after downing both the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes.
