SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 4/13

Home, Home Again - The Caps kick off a two-game homestand against the Philadelphia Flyers tonight, and in a perfect world these will be the last two games ever without fans in attendance at Capital One Arena.

At the conclusion of this brief homestand, the Caps head out on a four-game road swing, and when they return from that tour to host the New York Islanders on April 27, fans will be permitted to return to the big barn on F St., to 10 percent capacity.
Although Washington lost its most recent home game to the Bruins last Thursday night, the Caps are 7-2-0 in their last nine at home.
New Faces - Monday's NHL trade deadline came and went, and with it, three now former Capitals went and two new Caps have arrived on the scene, more or less.
On Sunday, the Caps sent defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for a third-round draft pick. In the final minutes before the deadline, the Caps pulled one of the biggest deals of the deadline season and also made another swap to add forward depth.
In one of the biggest deals of the season, the Caps sent forwards Jakub Vrana and Richard Panik to Detroit along with Washington's first-round choice in the 2021 NHL Draft and its second-round pick in 2022 in exchange for winger Anthony Mantha.
Mantha participated in Tuesday's morning skate and will be in the Caps' lineup tonight for the first time, skating on a line with Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie.

"It's going to be awesome," says Mantha. "They're two great players and I'm excited to see what I can bring to their duo. Hopefully it clicks right away and we score a couple tonight."
Backstrom and Oshie will help Mantha assimilate with his new team on the ice, slightly over 24 hours after he learned of the trade.
"I think mostly for myself, try not to turn the puck over," says Oshie, asked what he can do to smooth Mantha's transition. "Let him play in the fun zone, down in the [offensive] zone. And lots of chat out on the ice. I don't feel like me and Nick are hard guys to get a read out of on the ice, so it'll just be a lot of talk, read and reacting and try to build some chemistry here."
"It's a lot, getting traded," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We told him not to worry. We gave him a little bit of systems information, but just told him to come in here and play hard and have fun tonight and we'll move him in the direction of the system as it happens. It's always a little bit of a change when you get traded, but we feel this is a guy that can help us."
The addition of Mantha gives Laviolette a trio of power forwards - along with Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson - at his disposal, and Mantha's ability to play both wings gives the bench boss some options and flexibility in terms of deployment.
"I feel like he is a top six forward," says Laviolette. "We did a lot just to get through some games in a number of days, but eventually we'll get back to some lines that we're a little bit more comfortable with. This is a starting point; he plays the right side as well. So this is a starting point for tonight."

"He's got size, he can play the game fast, he's got a great set of hands. I didn't see a lot of him the last five years. Talking with [Caps GM] Brian [MacLellan], this is somebody he has really liked for a long time. If you go back and watch the way he plays the game, you can see the skill level and the size and speed, and you can see it translate."
Caps defenseman John Carlson has played against Mantha and he has faced Ovechkin and Wilson for years on the practice rink. There likely aren't enough true power forwards in the NHL for each of the NHL's 31 member teams to have one each, and now the Caps have three of them.
"I think they're all match-up nightmares," says Carlson. "All three of them are very skilled, but they all play physically in different ways and certainly it's tough to handle a big man that can skate. I'm looking forward to having [Mantha] here and getting to know him and playing alongside him."
Mantha and the Red Wings were in Raleigh where Detroit faced the Hurricanes on Monday night, but instead Mantha went to the rink to say his goodbyes, pick up his gear and head to D.C. via car service.
"I'm excited," says Mantha of the trade. "Obviously it was a bit of a surprise [Monday]. I woke up from a pregame nap and all of a sudden I was traded. It's been a busy day yesterday, I traveled down here and I'm ready to go today and it's going to be a fun journey."
His new teammates are happy to have him.
"I think Mo is a good addition to the team," says Oshie. "He is with me and Nick today, so we'll see him more tonight. But it's always hard playing against him; he is a big body. It's very hard to take the pucka way from him, and he finds ways to score goals, so it's going to be exciting to try to get him the puck out there and see what he can do.
"On the flip side, I think it's been well documented socially and in the media and stuff how well I got along with [Vrana]. I'm going to miss him. It's part of the business. I've been here for a while and a lot of friends have been traded away or I've been traded away from a lot of good friends. I wish him all the best and I hope he goes down there and kills it, and he is the star player that we know he is."
Also ahead of Monday's deadline, the Caps sent a fifth-round pick to the Flyers for veteran forward Michael Raffl, who is capable of playing all three forward positions. The 32-year-old Austrian has skated in 504 regular season NHL games, all of them with the Flyers.
"I thought that was a really good addition," says Laviolette of Raffl. "He plays some center, which I think is important going into the playoffs, to have another centerman. He is probably a little bit more comfortable on the wing but has played center and can hold his own in the face-off circle at 50 percent."
Laviolette was the Flyers' coach when Raffl was a rookie in the league in 2013-14, but the coach was replaced after Philly lost each of its first three games that season.
"I had Raffl for a blink of an eye in Philadelphia," recalls Laviolette, "and he had just gotten there and I had just left so there wasn't really a crossover between us, but he went on to have a pretty good role as a dependable player.
"He is big, he's strong, he's heavy in the battle. I think he is pretty detailed defensively, and yet you can always find him around the net in the offensive zone. I think he's got good instincts in the offensive zone and is the type of player that you would want going into the playoffs."
Raffl won't be suiting up against his former Flyers teammates tonight as he is working his way through an upper body injury.
"I believe he was out in his last game and didn't play, so he is dealing with something," says Laviolette. "We don't feel like it's going to be anything that's going to be way long term, but we need to get him here - he's not here yet - and just do an evaluation and do what's best for him in getting ready for the playoffs."
In The Nets - Ilya Samsonov gets the net for the Caps tonight against Philadelphia. Vitek Vanecek started and won each of Washington's two weekend road games, and no Caps goaltender has started as many as three straight games since Samsonov returned from the COVID-19 protocol list in late February.

The condensed schedule this season is relentless and merciless, and it has become even more so in the wake of postponements and games being rescheduled throughout the league. Even still, Laviolette is seemingly asked weekly whether he feels the need to establish either Samsonov or Vitek Vanecek as the team's clear-cut No. 1 netminder heading into the playoffs.
Laviolette's response is always the same.
"We haven't done that this year," he says. "We sit where we sit, we've had some success and we've done it by using two young goaltenders that don't have a lot of experience. I think it would be a mistake to tab one guy and run him in 13 of the last 15 or 16 games that we have and say, 'This is our guy.' I think for that reason, to just keep these guys doing what they're doing, having them compete each day to be the great goalie and to start in net that they have been for us. I think that's important, and so we'll probably just continue to push that way."
Samsonov will be gunning for his 10th win of the season tonight, and he has claimed three of his previous nine victories over the Flyers, all of them in Philadelphia. Lifetime against Philly, he is 3-0-0 in four appearances (three starts), with a 2.50 GAA and a .922 save pct.
Brian Elliott gets the net tonight for the Flyers. He has won four of his last five starts, allowing two or fewer goals against in three of them. Lifetime against Washington, Elliott is
All Lined Up -Here is how we expect the Caps and the Flyers to look on Tuesday night in the District when the Caps open a two-game homestand:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
39-Mantha, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
73-Sheary, 20-Eller, 10-Sprong
62-Hagelin, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
4-Dillon, 2-Schultz
33-Chara, 3-Jensen
Goaltenders
30-Samsonov
41-Vanecek
Out
6-Kempny (Achilles' tendon)
17-Raffl (upper body)
Extras
57-van Riemsdyk
Taxi Squad
23-Sgarbossa (F)
28-Carr (F)
38-LaDue (D)
40-Pilon (F)
31-Anderson (G)
PHILADELPHIA
Forwards
25-van Riemsdyk, 14-Couturier, 86-Farabee
93-Voracek, 28-Giroux, 11-Konecny
21-Laughton, 13-Hayes, 19-Patrick
23-Lindblom, 58-Laczynski, 62-Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
9-Provorov, 61-Braun
6-Sanheim, 8-Hagg
53-Gostisbehere, 5-Myers
Goaltenders
79-Hart
37-Elliott
Out
48-Frost (shoulder)
Extras
55-Morin
57-Allison