Photo: Debbie Pierce
Coach Trotz once again demonstrated his desire to keep things fresh this season, by mixing up the Capitals forward lines again on Saturday morning.
The Capitals, currently on a five-game winning streak, held morning skate at Kettler on Sunday, and will have the day off on Monday. Before heading for some down time, Coach Trotz once again made changes to the forward lines:
The new lines are the same line combinations used by Trotz in the latter half of last night’s game against the Florida Panthers. TJ Oshie returns to the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. This top-line combo was primarily responsible for the 3rd period comeback against the Panthers, scoring two goals in the third period.
Justin Williams returns to the second line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Marcus Johansson, and Tom Wilson returns to the third line with Lars Eller and Andre Burakovsky.
Game stats seemed to indicate that the Burakovsky, Eller and Wilson line found decent possession success in the game. The new third line combo also netted a tally in the third period against the Panthers.
It’s becoming a little more clear that Trotz’s line changes may have less to do with level of play, and more about keeping things fresh for the team, but the apparent success of last night’s third line may result in something of a little more permanent of a change.
In other news, with a day-off tomorrow, today’s practice was a little extra taxing for the boys.
By Jon Sorensen
