SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

Hurt A Little Everyday - Washington has played without center Nicklas Backstrom for the entirety of the season to date, and it played without center Nic Dowd earlier in the week, in a road win over the Senators in Ottawa. Heading into tonight's game against Arizona, it looks as though the Caps will be without Dowd once again, and they'll definitely also be without right wing T.J. Oshie.

In the third period of Wednesday's game against Detroit, Oshie suffered a lower body injury while blocking a Danny Dekeyser point shot. Oshie is out and is listed as "week-to-week." The Caps recalled right wing Brett Leason from AHL Hershey to replace Oshie on the active roster, but when Dowd left Friday's morning skate with his persistent lower body ailment, the door opened for Leason to make his NHL debut tonight.
"You guys know it, everyone knows it, Osh is one of the best in the league on the ice and one of the best in the league off the ice," says Caps right wing Tom Wilson. "It'll take everyone to rally, and hopefully it's not too long and he is back and doing his thing."
Leason was Washington's second-round choice (56th overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft. He had one goal in his first five games with the Bears this season.
"We had to go through it last year quite a bit," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of the sudden spate of injuries. "And we were able to keep the ship moving the way it needed to move. And we've had to deal with it with Nick Backstrom, and then Dowder came out for a game and that complicated it.
"Guys have to step up and take advantage of an opportunity. A guy like Leason gets recalled and he's available to us; he's off to a good start down there. Other guys inside the lineup have to do it. It's more of a team mindset of trying to make up for one person. There's not another T.J. Oshie waiting to come up in the minors right now, so as a group we've got to pull together and make sure we get that covered."
Leason is in his third pro season now, and he was one of the last few players cut at the end of training camp. He found out on Thursday even that he would be heading to The Show, and he took the morning skate today.
"Over the summer, I got stronger, and I worked a lot on my skating, too," says Leason. "That was huge, and I think it definitely showed. I did good on the skate test, and I just feel faster and feel more powerful."
"He's been a pro for a couple years now," says Wilson of Leason. "It's the same sport, just a different level. It's the best level in the world, but it's still the same game you've been playing your whole life. He'll be fine, he's a big body, he's got a lot of skill - sneaky skill. I think he's been playing well in Hershey and he obviously got rewarded and has been called up. We'll see if he plays tonight."
Desert Wind -The Coyotes roster features a quartet of ex-Caps, three of whom got their professional starts in the Washington organization. Most notably, longtime fan favorite Jay Beagle - who celebrated his 36th birthday earlier this month - is now with the Coyotes after spending the last three seasons with Vancouver. Beagle went to Arizona in multi-player deal over the summer, in the swap that sent defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson to the Canucks.
Travis Boyd - Washington's sixth-round choice and another member of the Caps' 2018 Stanley Cup team along with Beagle - also went from Vancouver to Arizona over the offseason, signing as a free agent on Aug. 3. Boyd played 85 games with the Caps scattered over three seasons before signing with Toronto as a free agent ahead of the 2020-21 season.
During their days in the Caps' organization, both Beagle and Boyd played with Liam O'Brien, who cracked Washington's opening night roster in 2014-15 and played 17 games scattered over three seasons with the Caps. O'Brien was with Colorado last season, and he signed with the Desert Dogs on July 28.
Finally, winger Dmitrij Jaskin is also with the Coyotes. After several seasons in St. Louis, the Caps claimed Jaskin off waivers from the Blues at the start of the 2018-19 season. He got into 37 games with Washington that season before moving on to Moscow of the KHL, where he excelled for the last two seasons. Jaskin signed a contract to return to the NHL with the Coyotes over the summer.
In The Nets - Ilya Samsonov is slated to start Friday night's game against the Coyotes, his first starting assignment since Monday night when he was in net for Washington's 7-5 win over the Senators in Ottawa. Tonight marks Samsonov's third start of the season, and he has won both of them. He absorbed an overtime loss last Saturday in relief of Vitek Vanecek, accounting for his 2-0-1 record.
Since entering the NHL in 2019-20, Samsonov has been the benefactor of a significant amount of offensive support, and this season has started in similar fashion for him. When Samsonov is in the crease, the Caps have scored 5.90 goals per 60 minutes in support of him, tops in the NHL. Vanecek's offensive support is 2.71 goals per game this season, ranking 23rd among netminders with three or more appearances.
Last season, Samsonov ranked second in goal support (3.68) among goalies with 15 or more appearances while Vanecek was 14th at 3.18. During Samsonov's rookie season of 2019-20, he led the NHL with 3.70 goals per game in support while partner Braden Holtby (3.06) was 22nd among goalies with 20 or more appearances.
All that offensive largesse has contributed to Samsonov's sparkling career record of 31-10-4 entering tonight's game. He has made one lifetime start against Arizona, taking a 3-2 shootout loss against the Coyotes here in Washington on Nov. 11, 2019 in his sixth career start in the League.
For Arizona, we're expecting to see Czech goaltender Karel Vejmelka between the pipes tonight. A fifth-round pick (145th overall) of the Nashville Predators in the 2015 NHL Draft, Vejmelka signed as a free agent with Arizona this past May and made his NHL debut on Oct. 16 at Buffalo, making 32 saves in a 2-1 shootout loss.
On the season, he is 0-3-1 with a 3.15 GAA and an .899 save pct. in five appearances.
All Lined Up - Here's how we believe the Caps and Coyotes might look when they take the ice on Friday night at Capital One Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
39-Mantha, 24-McMichael, 10-Sprong
62-Hagelin, 20-Eller, 21-Hathaway
73-Sheary, 29-Lapierre, 49-Leason
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 3-Jensen
57-van Riemsdyk, 2-Schultz
Goaltenders
30-Samsonov
41-Vanecek
Extras
38-Cholowski
52-Irwin
Injured
19-Backstrom (hip, week-to-week)
26-Dowd (lower body, day-to-day)
77-Oshie (lower body, week-to-week)
ARIZONA
Forwards
67-Crouse, 29-Hayton, 9-Keller
93-Jaskin, 22-Larsson, 81-Kessel
26-Roussel, 72-Boyd, 16-Ladd
38-O'Brien, 83-Beagle, 36-Fischer
Defensemen
6-Chychrun, 86-Stralman
14-Gostisbehere, 77-Soderstrom
46-Lyubushkin, 61-Mayo
Goaltenders
70-Vejmelka
50-Prosetov
Extras
21-Eriksson
54-Dineen
Injured
8-Schmaltz (upper body)
10-Dzingel (upper body)
17-Galchenyuk (upper body)
25-Timmins (lower body)
40-Hutton (lower body)