Get On The Right Track Baby – Last season, the Caps nearly spoiled a pretty good start to the season by coming out flat and staying flat for weeks in the aftermath of the NHL’s annual three-day holiday hiatus. The Capitals entered the 2023-24 holiday break in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings, but when they won just five of 18 games (5-11-2) coming out of that break, they tumbled to 12th in the Eastern standings, seven points out of the final wild card spot they would eventually manage to nail down in mid-April.
Last week, Caps coach Spencer Carbery talked about breaking the ’24-25 season into three parts: the part before the holiday break, the current stretch after the break leading up to the Four Nations Tournament in mid-February, and the stretch drive leading up to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Washington has 21 games in that middle section of the season, and it is seeking to avoid a midseason tumble like the one it experienced at this time last year.
The Caps have come out of the break with a reasonable 2-1-1 mark, but Carbery shook up three of his team’s four forward lines and two of its three defensive pairings at Friday’s practice ahead of today’s matinee match with the New York Rangers. Complacency in the dog days of the NHL season can be problematic, and a midseason shakeup of the lineup is common occurrence around the League.
The most notable of those local lineup alterations likely involves moving Connor McMichael – one of four Caps skaters with 15 or more goals on the season – from the wing back to his natural center position.
“I’m looking for a few things,” says Carbery of the shift of McMichael to the middle. “One is his speed on display, and that’s with and without the puck, to be able to use his feet and use that to be noticeable all over the rink. So speed, number one.
“Two, I want him to have the puck more. So now, hopefully we see some more instances through the game where he is carrying the puck through the neutral zone on an entry and not stuck on the wall, carrying a puck, getting the puck in the middle of the ice off of a breakout, and now he is attacking through the neutral zone. So hopefully we see some of that.
“I’ve talked about this before; Mikey is such an intelligent player. And whenever we move him around, it just seems so seamless. So I don’t anticipate it – now, it’s been a while [since he played center] – being a real difficult transition for him, because he is so versatile and he is so intelligent.”
Got My Mojo Working – While Washington has struggled to score at its early season rate of late, great goaltending and consistently solid defense – plus some timely special teams contributions – have kept the Caps up toward the top of the League’s standings.
Heading into the holiday break, the defensive duo of Martin Fehervary and Matt Roy had performed quite well for the Caps. In over 104 minutes on the ice together at 5-on-5, the duo had controlled the lion’s share of shot attempts (54.87 percent) and scoring chances (58.82 percent), and they had been on the ice for just one goal against over that span.
But in the four games coming out of the break, the duo has scuffled. They’ve controlled just 44.79 percent of shot attempts and 38.78 percent of scoring chances in just under 45 minutes together. And they’ve been on the ice for four goals against in those four games.
The pair will be split for today’s game with the Rangers’ Jakob Chychrun will skate with Roy and Fehervary will be paired with Trevor van Riemsdyk.
“For whatever reason, it’s just dropped off a little bit,” says Carbery of the Fehervary-Roy tandem. “And I'll explain it like this: sometimes for a [defense] pair, you go out there and you're doing a lot of the same things, you feel the same, you feel like you're making the same reads, puck plays, and for whatever reason, they're going a little bit south on you, and pucks are ending up in the back of the net.
“It’s just a bad run of – I wouldn't call it luck, because there's some self-inflicted stuff – but you just get a few things that don't go your way, and now it snowballs. And now the pair has kind of lost not confidence, but it just keeps accumulating and happening. And you're going, ‘Geez, what's going on? Why are we the guys that are constantly out here for chances against and goals against? And you never like to see that as a coach, and you want to help them through it. And one of the ways to help them through it is just split the pair and get the and get them away from each other, give it a different look. And then inevitably, I'm sure we'll go back to that at some point, because they've been fine for large stretches.
“But for right now, I'll use a card analogy. You're at a table, and you're playing blackjack. The table goes cold, and you get up and you walk away, and you change tables. This is just a way – as a coach – to be able to just change the mojo of the back end.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson sets out for his 16th win of the season on Saturday afternoon against the Rangers. Thompson has permitted two or fewer goals against in 12 of his previous 15 starts, posting an 11-2-2 mark with a 2.06 GAA and a .928 save pct. across that span.
Among goaltenders with 600 or more minutes in the crease this season, Thompson ranks sixth with a .927 save pct. at 5-on-5, according to naturalstattrick.com. Thompson’s .849 save pct. on high danger scoring chances ranks ninth among the same group of netminders, and his 7.15 goals saved above average ranks 10th.
Lifetime against the Rangers, he is 2-1-0 in three appearances – all starts – with a 3.00 GAA and an .895 save pct.
In consecutive contests to close out their current homestand, the Caps will be seeing the two oldest goaltenders in the NHL. Two nights after they dropped a 4-3 shootout decision to 40-year-old Marc-Andre Fleury and the Minnesota Wild, the Caps go up against 39-year-old Jonathan Quick and the New York Rangers.
Today in DC, Quick will be gunning for his 400th career NHL victory. With newly signed New York netminder Igor Shesterkin on injured reserve because of a lower body ailment, Quick is expected to see the lion’s share of the crease duty in Shesterkin’s absence. The Rangers have managed only five wins in their last 20 games overall (5-15-0), and Quick has earned two of those five victories, including the most recent one, a 2-1 home ice victory over the Bruins on Thursday.
Lifetime against Washington, Quick is 9-8-0 in 17 appearances – all starts – with a 2.58 GAA and a .908 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we believe the Caps and the Rangers might look on Saturday afternoon in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 16-Raddysh
21-Protas, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
13-Vrana, 24-McMichael, 20-Eller
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 88-Mangiapane
Defensemen
38-Sandin, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
42-Fehervary, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Extras
27-Alexeyev
52-McIlrath
63-Miroshnichenko
Out/Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
NEW YORK
Forwards
10-Panarin, 16-Trocheck, 13-Lafreniere
20-Kreider, 93-Zibanejad, 91-Smith
50-Cuylle, 72-Chytil, 65-Berard
84-Edstrom, 39-Carrick, 26-Vesey
Defensemen
55-Lindgren, 23-Fox
79-Miller, 17-Borgen
18-Vaakanainen, 4-Schneider
Goaltenders
32-Quick
70-Domingue
Extras
6-Jones
22-Brodzinski
Out/Injured
31-Shesterkin (upper body)
73-Rempe (NHL suspension)
