The Washington Capitals had the day off in Pittsburgh on Monday following their 6-3 loss to the Penguins on Sunday afternoon. The two teams will finish their two-game set tonight with puck drop set for just after 7:00 p.m.
MORNING SKATE
The Caps held their gameday morning skate at 11:30 this morning at PPG Paints Arena.
Lines
Head coach Peter Laviolette shuffled the top two lines from Sunday’s game. Lines at morning skate:
Capitals lines at morning skate, per team:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Vrana-Backstrom-Wilson
Sheary-Eller-Panik
Hagelin-Dowd-HathawayDillon-Carlson
Chara-Schultz
Orlov-JensenVanecek
Anderson— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) February 16, 2021
It looks like Vitek Vanecek will get the start once again.
FROM THE OTHER SIDE
Tristan Jarry will get the start in goal once again for the Penguins.
Tristan Jarry will start in net for Penguins again tonight, says coach Mike Sullivan.
Rest of lineup (D Marcus Pettersson, who has missed last 9 games) are game-time decisions.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) February 16, 2021
MEDIA SESSIONS
Tom Wilson and Zdeno Chara
Peter Laviolette
SHAVINGS
- Nicklas Backstrom leads the Capitals with 18 points (7g, 11a) in 13 games this season, tied for the eighth-most points in the NHL.
- Backstrom’s goal against the Penguins on Sunday marked his 250th career goal. He became the fourth player in franchise history to reach the mark (Alex Ovechkin: 711g; Peter Bondra: 472g; Mike Gartner: 397g).
- Backstrom’s 250th career goal passed Peter Forsberg (249g) for the fourth-most by a Swedish-born center (Mats Sundin: 564g; Henrik Zetterberg: 337g; Kent Nilsson and Thomas Steen: 264g).
- Backstrom is currently five assists shy of 700 career assists, where he would become one of three active players and the fifth Swedish-born player in NHL history to reach the mark, joining Nicklas Lidstrom (878), Henrik Sedin (830), Mats Sundin (785) and Daniel Alfredsson (713).
- Backstrom’s 0.72 assists per game are tied for the second-most among active NHL players with at least 500 assists, and that is tied for the 17th-highest rate in NHL history among players with 500 assists.
By Jon Sorensen
Are we expecting any retaliation on sindey after his slewfoot on Eller that the league ignored?
Tom Wilson just received a three-game suspension for us talking about retaliating against Sidney.
Slew foot was on Dowd but they gave the penalty to Ruhwedel. I don’t know the protocol in hockey when a star player does something like that. Do they retaliate against SC or do the Caps make someone else pay? Not sure but he should pay for that, star player or not…
Good point, Marky. I had forget they actually did call a penalty on the play. There is a chance (very slight) they missed who’s leg caused the slew foot, but at least a penalty was called.
When I saw the replay there were legs and sticks and skates, kind of hard to see the angle from behind. I’m glad Dowd is ok. I really thought he was seriously hurt.
Roger that. Same here.
Thats a lot of money on the 3rd pair
No question. For a team up against the salary cap, you have to look there to find some financial relief via trade.