Washington Capitals Daily Report – 2/10

Photo: @washcaps

The Capitals have made their way to Minnesota. The Capitals will be looking for their fifth-straight win when they square-off against the Minnesota Wild Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Afternoon Practice
The team held their daily skate at Xcel Energy Center today at 2:00 PM EST. Mike Richards took a maintenance day today, and did not participate in the team’s practice this afternoon. Practice lines for this afternoon’s practice:

Offensive lines:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Johansson-Wilson
Galiev-Laich-Latta

Defensive pairs:
Schmidt-Carlson
Alzner-Niskanen
Orlov-Chorney

The team is currently scheduled to hold morning skate at 11:30 CT on Thursday.

News and Notes

As per WaPo, there’s a chance Brooks Orpik plays tomorrow, but even if he doesn’t, he might take warmups. In any case, all signs point to a return soon. When he does get back into the lineup, he’ll start on third pair.
Richards status for tomorrow night’s game is unknown. The team will re-assess tomorrow.
After last night, the Caps became the first team in NHL history with 39 wins through their first 52 regular season games.
The Capitals remain are still the only team in the NHL with single-digit losses.
Alex Ovechkin’s empty net power-play goal last night ended a streak of 18 consecutive power plays without a goal, yet the Caps still have the number one ranked power play in the NHL.
The Wild has lost 14 of 17 games in 2016 (3-10-4), 11 of the past 12 games (1-9-2), six in a row overall since Jan. 21 (0-4-2) and six straight at home since Dec. 28 (0-3-3).

Richards injury may have occurred here:

Standings