The Washington Capitals held their game-day morning skate Thursday morning at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. They will face the Islanders in a two-game set tonight and Saturday in New York before the two teams return to the District for their series season finale on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena.

The Capitals and Islanders will meet tonight for the sixth time this season (3-2-0). John Carlson leads the Capitals with seven points (4g, 3a) against New York this year, and Nicklas Backstrom leads the Capitals with five assists.

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Here’s the latest from morning skate:

MORNING SKATE

Justin Schultz did not skate with the team this morning and did not travel with the team. He will be a scratch tonight against the Islanders. Trevor van Riemsdyk will get the start tonight in Schultz’s place.

Laviolette: Raffl will play. Schultz out (did not travel with the team. #ALLCAPS

— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) April 22, 2021

Zdeno Chara said after practice he is feeling better and good enough to go tonight against the Islanders.

Michael Raffl will play in place of Daniel Sprong tonight.

Lines At Morning Skate

Capitals lines at AM skate:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Mantha-Backstrom-Oshie
Sheary-Eller-Raffl
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway

Orlov-Carlson
Dillon-TvR
Chara-Jensen

*No Schultz on the ice (lower body, day to day)
**Looks like Raffl will make his Caps debut

— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) April 22, 2021

Ilya Samsonov will get the start in goal tonight against the Islanders.

Laviolette: Ilya Samsonov will start in goal tonight. #ALLCAPS

— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) April 22, 2021

ANTHONY MANTHA

• Mantha became the first player in franchise history to score a goal in each of his first four games with the Capitals and is currently riding a five-goal goal scoring streak.
• In four games together, Anthony Mantha, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie have skated for 41:52 at five-on-five and recorded three goals. The trio has a 63.24 shot attempt percentage (43 shot attempts for, 25 against), a 65.91 shots for percentage (29 shots for, 15 against), a 65.52 scoring chance for percentage (19 scoring chances for, 10 against) and a 63.64 high-danger shot attempt percentage (7 high-danger shot attempts for, 4 against). In four games as linemates, the trio is expected to score 2.09 five-on-five goals together per game.

MEDIA AVAILABILITY

TOP POWER PLAY

• The Washington Capitals enter tomorrow’s game versus the New York Islanders with the top power play unit in the NHL (27.6%).
• The Capitals scored two power play goals on Sunday against the Boston Bruins, the fifth time in their last seven games Washington has recorded multiple power play goals.
  
• Since April 10, spanning five games, Washington has converted on 10 of their 23 opportunities (43.5%).
• T.J. Oshie leads the Capitals with 10 power play goals this season – which is tied for second in the NHL – while Alex Ovechkin has nine.
• Washington is the only team in the NHL to have two players record at least nine power play goals this season. Additionally, the Capitals have had nine different players score a power play goal, already equaling last season’s output.

REMAINING GAMES AND STRENGTH OF SCHEDULES

By Jon Sorensen
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