News and Notes from Tuesday’s Capitals Morning Skate: Who’s in Goal? Who’s In/Out on the Fourth Line?

Posted on January 9, 2018 by
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Photo: @Capitals

The Capitals hit the ice on Tuesday morning for a gameday morning skate at Kettler Capitals Iceplex to prepare for their game tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. Washington looks to avenge a brutal 6-2 loss in Vancouver that happened back in October when these teams last met. Coming off a thrilling overtime win over the Blues the other night, the Capitals have three games in the next four nights before the team gets some rest with a bye week. Here are the news and the notes from Tuesday morning. 

LINES

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Vrana-Kuznetsov-Wilson
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Orpik-Bowey

NEWS
After rotating with Jakub Vrana on the second line in Monday’s practice, Andre Burakovsky was back on the fourth line. This time he was at the right wing position, which is normally occupied by Alex Chiasson. Chandler Stephenson returned to the lineup back on the fourth line at the left wing after serving as a healthy scratch during Sunday’s game.

Philipp Grubauer will get the start in goal tonight. Grubauer carries a 2-5-3 record with a 2.70 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage. In his career vs. the Canucks, Grubauer is 1-0-0 with a 2.12 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage.

As mentioned earlier, the Capitals will have a bye week after their game on Friday at Carolina and prior to this past Sunday’s game with the Blues, the Caps had four days off in terms of game action. Trotz met with the media and discussed his reasoning behind not only his forward rotation but the goalie rotation as well, stressing the importance of everybody getting playing time with the odd January schedule.

SHAVINGS

  • The Capitals are 44-40-9-1 all-time against the Canucks and 5-4-0 over the last nine meetings.
  • The Capitals are riding a season-high nine-game home win streak, the longest home winning streak in the NHL this season.
  • The Capitals are the only team in the NHL without a homeless since the beginning of December.
  • T.J. Oshie has earned 21 points (7 goals, 14 assists) in 26 career games against the Canucks.
  • Evgeny Kuznetsov has earned 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists) in eight career games against Vancouver and has earned a point in five straight games against the Canucks (Oct. 22, 2015-Oct. 26, 2017).
  • Tom Wilson has scored four goals in eight career games against Vancouver, themes goals Wilson has scored against a single franchise.
  • The Capitals are 25-1-1 in games where they score at least three goals, 19-0-0 when they score at least four goals and 10-4-0 in games where they outshot their opponents.
  • Nicklas Backstrom recorded the game-winning goal against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday. The goal was the 197th of his career, passing Bengt-Ake Gustafsson and tying Alexander Semin for fifth not he Capitals all-time goals list.

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By Michael Marzzacco

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