Caps Take on Sens in Ottawa
Missing Brown and Kuznetsov, Caps conclude a run of four straight games vs. Canadian foes on Thursday
The Caps conclude a stretch of four straight contests against Canadian opponents when they take a one-game trip north to face the Senators in Ottawa on Thursday night. The game is the first of two visits to Canada's capital city for the Caps this season; they'll return for a Dec. 22 game here, the front end of a set of back-to-backs leading into the NHL's holiday break.
Four games and a week into the season, the Caps find themselves already dealing with lineup absences, and that's in addition to the long-term absences of forwards Nicklas Backstrom, Carl Hagelin and Tom Wilson, which the team has been dealing with since the start of training camp last month.
Former Senators winger Connor Brown - obtained in a July deal with Ottawa to help mitigate Wilson's absence early in the season - went into the boards awkwardly after a hit from Vancouver's Noah Juulsen early in the third period of Washington's 6-4 win over the Canucks on Monday. Brown left the game - his fourth in a Caps' sweater - immediately and did not return. He has not been on the ice for practice in the two days since.
On Wednesday morning, the Caps announced that Brown would be out of action on a long-term basis.
"Anytime you hear somebody's out long term, it's not good," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We were really excited to have him here as part of our organization, and it's disappointing for us and disappointing for him. It's unfortunate."
Late on Tuesday, the Caps learned they would be without center Evgeny Kuznetsov for Thursday's game in Ottawa. Kuznetsov was issued a hi-sticking minor on Canucks defenseman Kyle Burroughs in the second period of Monday's game, and upon further review, the NHL's Department of Player Safety opted to tack on an additional one-game suspension. Kuznetsov won't play in Ottawa, but he will be eligible to suit up again on Saturday night in D.C. when the Caps stop at home to host Los Angeles.
Forwards Connor McMichael and Joe Snively have been healthy scratches for each of the Capitals' first four games this season, but they might both find themselves in the lineup on Thursday in Ottawa. The Caps also recalled winger Beck Malenstyn from AHL Hershey on Wednesday morning. The 24-year-old Malenstyn has skated in 15 games with Washington, including a dozen of them last season.
"We've been doing it for a while now," says Laviolette, of dealing with lineup absences. "Guys are going to have to step up and fill different positions. There's been a couple of guys [McMichael and Snively] sitting out of the lineup who are really excited to get in there."
In this space last week, we published a piece about Washington's depth - particularly at the forward position - and how the number of versatile forwards on the Caps' roster gives Laviolette a lot of flexibility both vertically and horizontally across the team's forward depth chart. And for the second straight season, that depth and that flexibility will be tested before the end of October.
Conor Sheary is one of the primary examples of that depth, and he has flashed that flexibility already in the first four games of the season. After scoring two goals in the first three games of the season while skating on the left side of Washington's fourth line, Sheary scored the game-winner in the third period of Monday's game against Vancouver, and that tally came while he was skating the right side of the Caps' top unit.
"Obviously it's unfortunate," says Sheary. "With Brownie out and the suspension to Kuzy and guys going down, it's part of the job I guess, but it's also unfortunate. But at the same time, that's why we have depth on our team and in this organization, so guys can come up and play roles. It's more of the same from last year, and we just need guys to step up and play bigger roles and do a job for our team."
Thursday's game is just the second road game for the Caps this season; they fell 3-2 to the Leafs in Toronto a week ago in the first of those four straight games against Canadian foes. In between that loss and Thursday's game in Ottawa, the Caps downed Montreal 3-1 and Vancouver 6-4 to sweep a two-game homestand. They'll be aiming for a third straight victory on Thursday in Ottawa.
After starting the season with road losses to divisional foes in Buffalo and Toronto, respectively, the Sens came home and outlasted Boston by a 7-5 count in a barnburner of a home opener on Tuesday.
In the game against the Bruins, the Senators jumped out to a 3-0 lead, only to see the Bruins knot the score at 3-3 with a pair of goals in the first 90 minutes of the second period. Ottawa seized momentum right back with three goals in four and a half minutes in the middle frame, but the B's carved into the lead again, making it a 6-5 game on David Pastrnak's goal in the waning seconds of the period, the seventh goal of the stanza. The Sens added an insurance marker while keeping Boston off the board in the third, securing their first win of the season.
Over the summer, the Sens made a deal with Minnesota for veteran goaltender Cam Talbot. But a rib injury suffered in the preseason has Talbot on the shelf, so the Sens have entrusted their goaltending duties to veteran Anton Forsberg, who established career bests with 46 games, 44 starts and 22 victories for Ottawa last season. He has started each of the Sens' first three games this season, and is currently backed up by journeyman Magnus Hellberg.
Forsberg debuted in the NHL just under eight years ago. Now with his sixth different NHL organization, he earned more than half of his 38 career victories in 2021-22, a season after he was claimed off waivers three times in a span of just over two months.
