Washington Capitals Daily Report – 2/26

Photo: @washcaps

The Capitals host the re-surging Minnesota Wild tonight at Verizon Center. Puck-drop is 7:00 PM. The Caps will be looking to rebound and start a new winning streak following Wednesday nights loss the the Canadiens.

The complete game preview for tonight’s game can be found here: The Caps will be heading to Chicago tomorrow following practice (11:30 AM) for their game against the Blackhawks on Sunday. Sunday’s Blackhawks-Capitals game is NBC’s game of the week. Puck-drop is 12:30 PM.

Morning Skate
Michael Latta missed practice due to illness (Flu). Newly acquired Mike Weber is back in Buffalo, as his wife also just gave birth. Practice lines for morning skate:

Offensive Lines:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Williams
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Chimera-Johansson-Wilson
Laich-Richards-Galiev

Defensive Pairs:
Schmidt-Carlson
Alzner-Niskanen
Orpik-Orlov

Jason Chimera went down in a collision this morning, left practice, but would return for the finish of practice. T.J. Oshie provided a little puck-juggling for the fans in attendance today:

.@TJOshie77 doing #OshieThings at practice today. #CapsWild #RockTheRed https://t.co/ZOTYoZxUaK

— #HoltBeast (@washcaps) February 26, 2016

Braden Holtby was the first off the ice at practice this morning, which typically signifies that he will get the start in net tonight for the Capitals. The Wild, who played last night in Philadelphia, did not hold a morning skate today, but it is likely Devan Dubnyk will get the start.

Various outlets are reporting that Taylor Chorney could be in tonight’s line-up. Trotz would not confirm, or speculate who would be a healthy scratch should Chorney play tonight. Sounds like it could be Orlov.

Dmitry Orlov MAY be a healthy scratch for the first time tonight in favor of Taylor Chorney. #CapitalsTalk

— Chuck Gormley (@ChuckGormleyCSN) February 26, 2016

News and Notes

The NHL trade deadline is Monday at 3:00 PM.
With a win tonight, the Capitals will match their total wins from all of last season (45).
Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan held a press conference with local media, which mostly centered on the approaching trade deadline and existing roster and salary cap situation. You can read more about the key take-aways here:
Congratulations to Marcus Johansson, who welcomed his first child late Thursday afternoon. Both Mom and baby girl are doing fine.
If you haven’t done so already, be sure to check out the new Capitals daily call-in show, “Caps Talk”, every weekday from 4-6PM. You can tune-in here:
The Caps are giving away HoltBeast action figures at tonight’s game. For more information you can check it out here: