Washington Capitals Daily Report – 4/18

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Jon Sorensen
morning-skate
Photo: @BenRaby31

The Capitals held morning skate at 11:30 AM at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Puck-drop for Game 3 is set for 7:00 PM.

MORNING SKATE

CaptureThe practice lines at morning skate:

Offensive lines:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Richards-Johansson
Winnik-Beagle-Wilson

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

The Caps lines look to be the same as the first two games of the series. Michael Latta, Taylor Chorney, Mike Weber and Stan Galiev look to be the healthy scratches tonight. Caps rolling up to Wells Fargo this morning for morning skate:

Flyers:

Steve Mason was the first goalie off the ice for the Flyers this morning and will get the start tonight for Philadelphia. A snip-it from the Flyers morning skate, via Caps Hayley Milon:

 

NEWS AND NOTES

General

  • Viewing Party for Game 4 at Verizon Center on Wednesday April 20th as the Capitals take on the Flyers in Philadelphia. More info and Sign-up here:
  • Tune in to “Caps Talk” today from 4-6PM for live reports Philadelphia and calls from Caps fans. Listen here:

Series:

  • The Capitals have never won a Game 3 when up 2-0 in best-of-7 format.

Players

  • Alex Ovechkin is one point shy of tying Dale Hunter (72) for 1st place on the Capitals playoff points list.
  • Braden Holtby‘s 41 saves is 2nd time a Capitals goalie had 40+ in regulation playoff win. Holtby did it vs Boston in 2012. Holtby ranks fourth in NHL playoff history (min. 25 GP) in career goals-against average.
  • Marcus Johansson is the 3rd Capitals player with at least 2 assists in first 2 playoff games. (Calle Johansson & Joe Juneau). Johansson is the first Capitals player with 2 straight multi-assist games in playoffs since Jaromir Jagr vs TB in ’03.
  • Jason Chimera on that flukey Game 2 goal on Steve Mason: “The crowd went crazy and I was wondering what the hell happened.” (@mgionnatto)
  • Alex Ovechkin on dealing with a hostile road crowd: “Well it’s not my first year in NHL, so it’s kind of easy” (@dcsportsbog)
  • T.J. Oshie says the Caps will ‘try to take the crowd out of it, which is probably not going to happen.’ (@ChuckGormleyCSN)

Flyers

  • The Flyers have recalled RW Colin McDonald from their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Prospects

  • Vitek Vanecek made his AHL debut tonight with the Hersey Bears and he made his presence known as he made 25 saves to help the Bears win 2-1 in the shootout over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. More here:

SCENES FROM PHILLY

 

RINK LINKS:
Series Shifts to Philly for Game 3 (Mike Vogel)
The Narrative: Physicality, Slick Swedes and Snider (Japers’ Rink)
The Noon Number: Playoff MoJo (Japers’ Rink)
Ready for Emotional Game 3 (NHL)
Alex Ovechkin notes: Rain Man of Sticks visits Congress (SI)
One Flyers forward thinks the close calls are going the Caps’ way (WaPo)
Alex Ovechkin pre-game interview (Video) (04/18/16)
Braden Holtby pre-game interview (Video) (04/18/16)
Washington Capitals: Five Takeaways From Their Game 2 Victory (The Hockey Writers)
The Caps’ penalty kill is really, really good. They would like to see it less. (WaPo)
Alex Ovechkin’s physical presence making a difference in series (WaPo)
For a couple Caps, it’s weird seeing Dave Hakstol leading playoff-opponent Flyers (WaPo)
A slapstick goal paves way for the Capitals to a 4-1 win. Now, can they make this a short series? (WaPo)
The Capitals haven’t played their best yet, but they haven’t needed to against the Flyers (WaPo)

About Jon Sorensen

Jon has been a Caps fan since day one, attending his first game at the Capital Centre in 1974. His interest in the Caps has grown over the decades and included time as a season ticket holder. He has been a journalist covering the team for 10+ years, primarily focusing on analysis, analytics and prospect development.
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