Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line – The Caps start off their two-game tour of Florida – and the team’s Mentors’ Trip – tonight in Sunrise where they will face the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in the first of three meetings this season, and the only one on the road.
Coming off back-to-back losses for the first time this season, the timing is right for the Caps to get a lift from having their dads and mentors along for the ride.
“For them to be a part of the trip,” begins Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery, “a two-game trip down to Florida, and against two really good teams, [starting with] the defending Stanley Cup champion, who I think is in a similar situation to us, going through a little bit of adversity right now, as far as losing a few games. And it'll be a really good test for us, and hopefully the mentors being here and with us can give us a little bit of extra energy.”
After arriving on Sunday afternoon, the Caps held a team dinner at their South Florida hotel on Sunday night. The mentors attended Monday's morning skate and sat in on the team's video pre-scout in preparation for tonight's tilt against the Panthers.
“It’s an awesome experience, just to have your dad here to see what you do and every day,” says Caps’ winger Andrew Mangiapane, whose dad Peter is on the trip. “My dad was a big reason as to why I'm here and why I'm in the NHL, so for him to come and experience the lifestyle, and meet some new players, new faces, new coaches and things like that, it's great for him. I’m happy that he's here, because it’s great for the parents just to bond and gel and meet new people and things like that.
“Obviously you're going to want to travel to a nice climate and a nice area, and obviously Florida is up there. One year, [when I was with Calgary] we went to Vegas and that was fun there, maybe a little too much fun, right? But yeah, Florida is a perfect place for it and get some nice weather. I'm sure that they're going to go down to the water, go to the beach, and just have fun and relax. And they should; it is a vacation for them. I know a lot of parents took time off work to be here and take their vacation days, so it is still a kind of vacation, even though their kids are working.”
This is Washington’s 15th Mentors’ Trip, and the team is 18-9-0 on previous journeys, dating back to the first one in February of 2008, which was also in South Florida and Tampa. After falling in the opener of last season’s Mentors’ Trip against the Panthers, the Caps went to Boston and won the second game, blanking the Bruins 3-0 behind Charlie Lindgren, a game that sparked their successful late season push to a playoff berth.
Local Natives – Two of the kids and two of the dads find themselves at home on the road on this trip. Both Jakob Chychrun and Brandon Duhaime were born, raised and played youth hockey in the area, and both of their dads played professionally.
Jeff Chychrun was drafted by Philadelphia in 1984 and he played 262 NHL games in eight seasons of an injury-shortened career, winning the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 1992. Trevor Duhaime was the Capitals’ ninth-round choice (190th overall) in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, and he split his one pro season between AHL Baltimore, ECHL Hampton Roads and CHL Fort Worth in 1992-93.
The younger Chychrun and the younger Duhaime were among the first wave of young Floridians to ascend to the NHL, and their parents have been close since the youngsters were playing youth hockey. They’ve all witnessed the rise of the Panthers from expansion team to Cup champs.
“I was talking to Trevor Duhaime earlier about when we came to the area,” says Jeff Chychrun. “And they built Incredible Ice in Coral Springs, and that’s where we met. But the transformation has been amazing. They have really good ownership now, which has really helped market the team with the Violas – similar to the Vinik family in Tampa – and that’s really helped the growth of it.
“But it helped with the on-ice success, too. I coached the ’92 junior Panthers, and those boys were all five years old when the Panthers made their run [to the Cup Final] in ’97, so there was a bit of an influx and an uptick in hockey then. Now, we’re starting to get it from all over the place; people are coming down from all over the country and living here, and they like to go into the rink and cool off, and enjoy the sport.”
I’ll Be Your Mirror – Following Florida’s Monday morning skate, Cats’ coach Paul Maurice noted that he sees similarities between his Panthers and the Capitals. And Carbery concurs.
“Yeah, we have very similar systems that we play,” says Carbery. “And even before they won it last year, there are a lot of things you can appreciate about the way that Florida plays, and how Paul has everybody on the same page, and there’s a consistency from line to line. That’s what I think we try to do and we try to replicate, is making sure that we have an identity to the way we play and that it’s consistent through our entire lineup – three pairs of [defensemen] and four lines.
“Obviously, they’re at the top of the heap when it comes to the way that they play, and being really, really consistent with that. But we try to replicate a lot of the things that they do well, not coincidentally. It wasn’t like we took a model and said, ‘Hey, we want to look like the Florida Panthers,’ but we prioritize some of the main foundational things that they do are very, very important to our team and our identity as well.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson is Washington’s expected starter tonight in Florida. On the season, Thompson is 8-1-1 with a 2.58 GAA and a .914 save pct. in his 10 starts. In his last six starts, he is 4-1-1 with a 2.16 GAA and a .935 save pct.
In two career appearances – both starts – against the Panthers, Thompson is 1-1-0 with a 3.50 GAA and a .905 save pct.
Spencer Knight is the expected starter for Florida tonight. On the season, Knight is 3-3-0 in seven appearances with a 2.72 GAA and an .897 save pct. He won three consecutive starts from Oct. 15-Nov. 2, but has dropped each of his last two since.
Knight will be making his first career start against Washington, but he has made two prior relief appearances against the Caps, going 1-0-0 with a 5.59 GAA and an .861 save pct. in just under 54 minutes between the pipes.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we believe the Capitals and the Panthers might look when they take the ice on Monday night in Sunrise:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 16-Raddysh
29-Lapierre, 20-Eller, 88-Mangiapane
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 63-Miroshnichenko
Defensemen
6-Chychrun, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
42-Fehervary, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Extras
13-Vrana
27-Alexeyev
52-McIlrath
Out/Injured
8-Ovechkin (lower body)
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
FLORIDA
Forwards
17-Rodrigues, 16-Barkov, 13-Reinhart
27-Luostarinen, 9-Bennett, 19-Tkachuk
23-Verhaeghe, 15-Lundell, 25-Samoskevich
10-Greer, 92-Nosek, 70-J. Boqvist
Defensemen
42-Forsling, 5-Ekblad
77-Mikkola, 7-Kulikov
88-Schmidt, 26-Balinskis
Goaltenders
30-Knight
72-Bobrovsky
Extras
12-Gadjovich
34-A. Boqvist
Out/Injured
None
