Washington Capitals defenseman Christian Djoos, who has missed the last five games with an upper-body injury, joined the team for practice once again on Friday morning and took a normal workload, which signals that he will probably be available for the Capitals’ game on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils (7 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington). However, he did not participate in line rushes.
After the Capitals’ power-play went 0-for-5 in their 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, center Evgeny Kuznetsov was replaced by forward Jakub Vrana on the first unit. Since December 1, the Capitals are 13.7% efficient on the power-play, which is 30th in the NHL.
Forward Brendan Leipsic and defenseman Dmitry Orlov skated with the first unit of Vrana, center Nicklas Backstrom, and forward T.J. Oshie. Both Carlson and Ovechkin switched to the second unit of Kuznetsov, forward Tom Wilson, and center Lars Eller after starting out with the first one.
Goaltender Braden Holtby appeared to be in the starters’ net, which means that he will likely start against the Devils on Saturday.
Capitals Lines
Capitals lines at practice:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Wilson
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Hagelin-Eller-Panik
Leipsic-Dowd-HathawayKempny-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
Siegenthaler-Gudas— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) January 10, 2020
The Capitals made no changes from their 3-2 loss to the Flyers on Wednesday.
Post-Practice Interviews
Ilya Samsonov doesn’t have the typical backup goalie role for the Caps and he’s continued to impress in his rookie season #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/HkMzB7nad9
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 10, 2020
Capitals’ Today
CAPS TODAY: Ilya Samsonov has the third-highest quality start percentage (.714 qs%) among goaltenders with at least 16 games, only trailing Arizona’s Darcy Kuemper (.840 qs%) and Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry (.789 qs%). More info on Samsonov and the Caps at https://t.co/HecIC0ECg1 pic.twitter.com/3epacZ6IYJ
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 10, 2020
By Harrison Brown
Pingback: Capitals Re-Work Power Play, Prepare For New Jersey Devils (Photos) | NoVa Caps
Bravo! Caps Coaching re-tools the Power Play.
Now they need NJD to cooperate and deliver six stupid stick-penalties to the Caps tomorrow night. Outworking the opponent, for a change, might facilitate this. And it wouldn’t hurt to take fewer than two stupid minor penalties themselves … and oh by the way, not deliver a nice, juicy boneheaded shorthanded goal to NJD
Caps have LOTS of talent in top ten forwards and top-4 defensemen. It’s good to apply a new mix of special teams, which have been anything but special since Thanksgiving
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