Washington Capitals Daily Report – 3/29

The Capitals held their final practice at Kettler this morning before departing on their three- game road-trip. The Caps take on the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia tomorrow (Wednesday) night. Puck-drop is 8:00 PM, and will be televised on NBCSN as the “Wednesday Night Rivalry” game of the week.

Morning Skate
With nothing left to win in the regular season, other than possibly a few personal accolades, it looks like Coach Trotz was mixing things up this morning, to keep things interesting. Practice lines at morning skate:

Offensive Lines:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Burakovsky
Williams-Backstrom-Oshie
Beagle-Johanssonwilson-Chimera
Winnik-Richards-Wilson

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

Photo: @brittmchenry

News and Notes

The Capitals’ 54 wins are tied for the fourth-most wins through a team’s first 75 games of a season in NHL history.
Washington has tied the franchise record for wins in a season (2009-10: 54) and is eight points shy of matching the franchise record for points in a season (2009-10: 121)
Cooking with the Caps, a Washington Capitals Cookbook presented by SuperFd Catering, is now available for purchase, with proceeds benefiting DC Central Kitchen. More info here:
“Caps Talk” is a two-hour daily call-in show from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday on Caps Radio 24/7.

Trotz won’t say if Orlov is playing tomorrow. Said they had a chat about the miscues and Orlov’s role on the team.

— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) March 29, 2016

Trotz on Dmitry Orlov’s status vs. Flyers tomorrow: “He’s on the plane with us.” Wouldn’t say if he’d play or not.

— Katie Brown (@katiebhockey) March 29, 2016

Dmitry Orlov on turnovers: ‘Especially before the playoffs, I understand if I’m going to play I can’t do this.’ #CapitalsTalk

— Chuck Gormley (@ChuckGormleyCSN) March 29, 2016

The @washcaps clinch the Presidents’ Trophy! @TJOshie77 joined #NHLTonight after last night’s win to talk about ithttps://t.co/ekitHVmVE2

— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) March 29, 2016

Capitals @ Flyers
As noted, the Capitals are on their way to Philadelphia this afternoon for their game against the Flyers tomorrow night. The game is potentially a first-round playoff preview and should be highly contested. The Flyers are battling Detroit for the final Wild Card spot and need to win the game. For the Caps, this will be a good test to see where the team stands, as well as great preparation for the team, should the first round collision materialize.

Other Stories
Caps Clip Columbus, 4-1 (Dump N’ Chase)
Post-Game Notebook: Caps 4, Jackets 1 (Dump N’ Chase)
Barry Trotz post-practice interview (Video) (Monumental Sports)
Nate Schmidt – post-practice interview (Video) (Monumental Sports)
T.J. Oshie – post-practice interview (Video) (Monumental Sports)
Braden Holtby – post-practice interview (Video) (Monumental Sports)
Nicklas Backstrom, the Power Play and the Threat of a Shot (Japer’s Rink)
Tom Wilson has a lot to celebrate against Columbus (CSNMA)
Barry Trotz was way ahead of you in worrying about the Caps’ motivation (WaPo)
No champagne for Caps after Presidents’ Trophy clincher (WaPo)
Quietly lurking Isles would ‘hate to be’ powerhouse Capitals -Cal Clutterbuck (New York Post)

Play-off Scenarios
The Capitals clinched the 2015-16 Presidents’ Trophy with a 4-1 win against Columbus on Monday, securing the best record in hockey for the 2015-2016 season. The Capitals will face the second Wild Card team in the opening round of the playoffs, scheduled to start on or around April 14th. If the playoffs started today the Capitals would face the Philadelphia Flyers.