The Washington Capitals held a Friday practice ahead of their tilt against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday (1:00 P.M. ET on NBC Sports Washington). Here is the latest from Medstar Capitals Iceplex.
Capitals
A little shakeup occurred with lines and pairs today. Centers Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov switched lines: Backstrom on the second and Kuznetsov on the first line. Head Coach Todd Reirden is “unsure” if he will keep the switch-up for tomorrow’s matinee against the Devils, but he wanted to see it looked in today’s practice.
Forward Brendan Leipsic drew onto the fourth line for Travis Boyd.
Newly acquired defenseman Brenden Dillon remained on the first pairing with John Carlson, Michal Kempny bumped onto the second pair with Dmitry Orlov, and Jonas Siegenthaler was back on the third pairing for Radko Gudas with Nick Jensen.
Capitals Friday practice lines:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Vrana-Backstrom-Oshie
Hagelin-Eller-Panik
Leipsic-Dowd-HathawayDillon-Carlson
Kempny-Orlov
Siegenthaler-Jensen*Kuznetsov moves up to 1C, D pairs shuffle, Leipsic back in
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) February 21, 2020
Goaltender Ilya Samsonov will be in net for Washington tomorrow. Braden Holtby will start on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Ilya Samsonov will be in net against New Jersey on Saturday. He’ll be playing on his 23rd birthday.
Braden Holtby will be in net against Pittsburgh on Sunday.
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) February 21, 2020
Sergei, Ovechkin‘s son, skated with papa this morning.
Sergei Ovechkin working on his dangles this morning. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/ryzemDKmWv
— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) February 21, 2020
Here to make your day better with a visit from #OviJr 🥺#CapsDads pic.twitter.com/AM9o0yWq28
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 21, 2020
We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for the cuteness that is Ovi and #OviJr 🥰 pic.twitter.com/At3BcbzcRX
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 21, 2020
Devils
The boys got a need for speed. #WeAreTheOnes | #NJDevils pic.twitter.com/3oLE0w21Fe
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) February 21, 2020
Lines and pairs in Jersey:
No changes at #NJDevils practice today. Everything the same from last night: pic.twitter.com/HGC1TVzGnF
— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) February 21, 2020
The Devils have assigned goaltender Louis Domingue to the AHL’s Binghamton Devils after clearing waivers today.
#NJDevils NEWS: Goaltender Louis Domingue, who cleared waivers earlier today, has been assigned to Binghamton (AHL).
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) February 21, 2020
Defensemen Will Butcher (upper-body) and Sami Vatanen (lower-body) were not on the ice this afternoon.
⚠️ #NJDevils Will Butcher and Sami Vatanen not on the ice for practice today.
Both dealing with injuries. Lower-body for Sami, upper-body for Will.
— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) February 21, 2020
The Goodest Boy: Daily Post on Captain
friyaaayyyy zoomies !!! pic.twitter.com/XyPpoOI2Uc
— Captain (@CapsPup) February 21, 2020
Essential Links
Caps GM Brian MacLellan doesn’t think the Capitals are playing the right way (NBC Sports Washington)
By Della Young
New home, new jerseys. #NHLTradeDeadline
– Alec Martinez (@amartinez_27)
– Tyler Toffoli (@tytoff16)
– Brenden Dillon (@BDillon04)
– Blake Coleman (@BColes25) pic.twitter.com/tuIyZNuA2V— NHL (@NHL) February 21, 2020
I like the idea of switching the centers and new D pairs to just see if some different combos spark something. Gudas has not played the same lately, don’t know what’s wrong there. Sammy needs some work and good to save Holts for the big matchup on Sunday. Good luck Caps, need to start turning it around very soon now.
Agree, Marky. I might have done the switch even a bit sooner, for, like you said, just a shot at reviving the lines.
Was TB that bad?
No, not at all. It feels like Reirden is trying to find a spark.
Gudas plus 20
Kempny plus 15
And yet they were absolute garbage as a pair.