SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 10/17
Caps seek to shore up their five-on-five play against a rebuilding Rangers team that comes into the District on short rest, more
Five games into the 2018-19 regular season, the Caps have been all over the map, playing well for long stretches but also struggling in certain areas. But the Caps' schedule has been all over the map, too. Two weeks into the campaign, Washington has already played two sets of back-to-back games, had a stretch of three games in four nights, and has also had "breaks" in the schedule of five and three days in duration.
Each of the Caps' first five foes this season was a playoff team from last spring. Starting with tonight's game against the Rangers, the schedule serves up eight straight non-playoff teams from last season. Washington will also play its next 11 games without a back-to-back anywhere in the bunch.
The Fives -Washington owned an 11-7 advantage in five-on-five scoring through its first three game of the season, but the Caps have been outscored by a lopsided 8-1 count at five-on-five in their last two games, leaving them at a 12-15 disadvantage in those situations on the season. Only Detroit and Pittsburgh have permitted more five-on-five goals per game than Washington in the early going.
"I think you just keep working towards it," says Caps winger T.J. Oshie. "There are times when it is going to go in for you, and times when it is not. Last game, I hit a post late; the puck flipped up on my backhand for an empty net - what I felt like was an empty-netter - and it went over the net.
"You just don't really think about the bad luck side of it or what is going wrong, and focus on what's going right, which is scoring chances and which is generating momentum. And you just keep building on it. You can focus more in practice on scoring goals, but other than that, you just come back the next game, work hard and hope they start going in."
Washington yielded five goals at five-on-five in last Thursday's loss to the Devils in Newark, and those sort of games are going to happen a few times a season. But permitting three goals at five-on-five to Toronto on home ice - as the Caps did in their most recent game on Saturday - will always make it difficult to gain standings points on those nights.
Last season, the Caps permitted 154 goals at five-on-five, finishing 13th in the league in that department. It's fairly critical in the league these days to keep that number below two per game, as Washington managed to do last season.
"I felt like our forecheck was really good for two periods against Toronto," says Caps coach Todd Reirden, "and that's part of the reason they weren't able to generate any offense. And then we turned the puck over through the neutral zone and we allowed them to get transition offense.
"For me, it's the management of the puck through the neutral zone, it's about coming in a three-lane attack at them through the neutral zone where we have options. And then when we're not able to enter, we have to put a puck in an area where we can get it back and establish our forecheck, especially against teams in back-to-back games where we want to make their defense work."
Rebuilding The Rangers - Early in this decade, the New York Rangers undertook a massive rebuilding project to upgrade their fabled Madison Square Garden facility in midtown Manhattan. The rebuild took a few years and it cost $1 billion, but most seem to view it as a smashing success that will extend the life of the structure for decades to come.
Off the ice, the Rangers are now in the midst of a rebuilding, one the team can only hope goes as well as the renovations to MSG. When the Rangers missed the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring, it ended a run of seven straight postseason appearances and 11 playoff berths in the previous 12 years. They reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2014 and made it to the Eastern Conference final in 2012 and 2015, but are still seeking their second Stanley Cup championship since 1941.
After choosing defenseman Brady Skjei with their first-round (28th overall) choice in the 2012 NHL Draft, the Rangers were without a first-round pick in each of the next four drafts, and they were without a second-round choice in two of those four drafts, too. In 2013, the Rangers' first pick was the 65th overall choice. They chose for the first time at No. 59, No. 41 and No. 81 in the next three drafts, through 2016.
Realizing they needed to restock the cupboard, the Rangers have held onto and have accumulated first-round picks in the last two drafts. New York had picks No. 7 (center Lias Andersson) and No. 21 (center Filip Chytil) in 2017, and the Rangers had three first-rounders in 2018, exercising picks at No. 9 (winger Vitali Kravtsov), No. 22 (defenseman K'Andre Miller) and No. 28 (defenseman Nils Lundkvist).
The current Rangers roster includes eight homegrown draft choices from Henrik Lundqvist in 2000 to Chytil in 2017. Nine other New York draft choices are scattered around the league playing for other NHL clubs, and the Rangers don't have much to show for those players. On their current roster, the Blueshirts have only Brett Howden, Vladislav Namestnikov, Tony DeAngelo and Pavel Buchnevich to show for deals involving the likes of J.T. Miller, Carl Hagelin, Artem Anisimov, Derek Stepan and other drafted players they've dealt away in recent years.
In The Nets - Braden Holtby gets the net for Washington, making his fifth start of the season. He is 2-1-1 to date with a 3.25 GAA and an .896 save pct. Lifetime against the Rangers, Holtby is 10-9-1 with a shutout, a 2.42 GAA and a .920 save pct. in 21 appearances.
Lundqvist started for the Rangers on Tuesday against the Avs, recording his second win of the season. Lundqvist has been excellent in the early going, starting five of New York's six games to date and posting a 1.99 GAA and a .939 save pct. to go along with his 2-3-0 record.
Tonight finishes up New York's second set of back-to-backs on the young season, and the Rangers went with backup Alexandar Georgiev in the second half of their first set of games on consecutive nights. They lost that Oct. 7 game to the Hurricanes in Carolina, with Georgiev yielding seven goals in the 8-5 loss. so it's possible we will see Lundqvist in net for New York again tonight. He faced 33 shots in 65 minutes on Tuesday night.
Lifetime against Washington, Lundqvist is 21-12-5 with four shutouts, a 2.66 GAA and a .908 save pct.
All Lined Up - Here is how we expect the Capitals will line up for Wednesday night's game against the Rangers at Capital One Arena, the first of four games between the two Metropolitan Division rivals in 2018-19. And here is how the Rangers lined up for Tuesday's tilt against the Colorado Avalanche (New York did not conduct a morning skate on Wednesday):
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 18-Stephenson
13-Vrana, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
65-Burakovsky, 20-Eller, 10-Connolly
79-Walker, 26-Dowd, 25-Smith-Pelly
Defensemen
6-Kempny, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen
44-Orpik, 29-Djoos
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
1-Copley
Injuries
43-Wilson (league suspension)
72-Boyd (lower body, week-to-week)
Scratches
22-Bowey
23-Jaskin
NEW YORK
Forwards
20-Kreider, 93-Zibanejad, 17-Fast
72-Chytil, 13-Hayes, 36-Zuccarello
26-Vesey, 21-Howden, 90-Namestnikov
8-McLeod, 23-Spooner, 95-Lettieri
Defensemen
76-Skjei, 44-Pionk
33-Claesson, 22-Shattenkirk
18-Staal, 42-Smith
Goaltenders
30-Lundqvist
40-Georgiev
Injuries
24-Nieves (concussion)
39-Beleskey (shoulder)
Scratches
54-McQuaid
77-D'Angelo
89-Buchnevich
