The Washington Capitals held an optional gameday morning skate Tuesday morning at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida. They face the Florida Panthers tonight before heading to St. Louis to close-out their three-game road trip against the Blues on Thursday.
LINES AND PAIRS AT MORNING SKATE
Sonny Milano moved to the top line at practice on Monday. The team did not go through line rushes at their optional skate Tuesday morning, but it’s anticipated the Capitals lines will look something like this tonight:
Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Sonny Milano
Marcus Johansson – Dylan Strome – Conor Sheary
Connor McMichael – Lars Eller – Anthony Mantha
Aliaksei Protas — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway
Erik Gustafsson — John Carlson
Martin Fehervary — Nick Jensen
Matt Irwin — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Darcy Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren
Extras: Alexander Alexeyev, Joe Snively
Suspended: Nicolas Aube-Kubel (2 more games)
Injuries: Dmitry Orlov, Nicklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson, T.J. Oshie, Connor Brown, Beck Malenstyn.
The Capitals visit the Florida Panthers tonight at FLA Live Arena for the first of three meetings between the teams this season. It is the first meeting since the two teams met in the first round of last years playoffs. Florida took the first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series between the two teams in six games last May.
Based off yesterday’s practice, the Cats should look like this tonight:
Verhaeghe – Barkov – Tkachuk
Lomberg – Lundell – Reinhart
Luostarinen – Bennett – White
Cousins – Staal – HornqvistForsling – Montour
Staal – Ekblad
Mahura – GudasBobrovsky
Knight— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) November 15, 2022
The Panthers also took two of three regular-season meetings, including both games in Sunrise, against Washington although all of them were played throughout November 2021.
Coach Maurice says it’ll be Sergei Bobrovsky in net tonight against Washington.
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) November 15, 2022
Puck drop from FLA Live Arena can be seen on NBC Sports Washington in-market or ESPN+ out-of-market starting at 7 PM ET.
FLORIDA MAN
Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin has recorded 88 points (43g, 45a) in 68 career games versus Florida (1.29 P/GP). Ovechkin ranks first all-time in career goals, assists and points against the Panthers.
Ovechkin has recorded 15 points (8g, 7a) in his last 10 games against Florida, including three three-point efforts in the previous five games. During the Capitals’ First Round playoff series against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers last spring, Ovechkin recorded six points (1g, 5a) in six games. Ovechkin has scored 15 goals in 29 career games against Sergei Bobrovsky, the eighth-most goals Ovechkin has scored on a single goaltender. Ovechkin has scored two goals in two career games against Spencer Knight. [More from the Capitals here]
STAT OF THE DAY – DOT IMPROVEMENTS
Today’s “stat of the day” revisits the Capitals faceoff winning percentage, which currently sits at 46.4% [Click to enlarge].
Since bottoming out on October 29 in Nashville, the Capitals faceoff winning percentage has been steadily on the rise. The question remains, when and where will the average level out?
BONUS STAT – MINDING THE NETS
Today’s bonus stat checks in on the Capitals goaltending tandem, with a look at their expected goals differential. (xGA – GA). Click to enlarge.
Darcy Kuemper and Charlie Lindgren remain well into the positive in xGA – GA. 16th and 17th best among all netminders with 150+ mins.
DOWN ON THE FARM
Capitals first round draft pick Ivan Miroshnichenko scored again today. He’s scored in four-consecutive games.
WHAT A ROCKET 🚀
🚨 Ivan Miroshnichenko #ALLCAPS
1-0 Omskie Yastreby #MHL pic.twitter.com/bGBaa5kGLY— Hockey News Hub (@HockeyNewsHub) November 15, 2022
Capitals center prospect Ryan Hofer recorded another multi-goal game on Friday. The 20-year-old center has 12 goals and seven assists in 17 games played so far this season (1.11 points/game)
Sick with the flow and this is all he knows.
H to the O-F has another multi-goal game!#ForEverett x @Capitals pic.twitter.com/dJxZN783lF
— Everett Silvertips (@WHLsilvertips) November 12, 2022
Capitals forward prospect Ludwig Persson dented the twine in a recent international junior tournament (more on tournament here).
Ludwig Persson #AllCaps with the equalizer. 1-1 (assist by Oscar Asplund) pic.twitter.com/SkNdMCx2Kt
— Patrik Bexell (@Zeb_Habs) November 9, 2022
The Washington Capitals announced on July 15 the signing of Persson to a three-year entry-level contract. He will earn $775,000 in each of the first two seasons of the deal and $800,000 (NHL) in the third and $82,500 in the AHL. The Capitals selected Persson with their third round pick (#85 overall) of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.
Excited to see the top line get to work tonight.
I have little, if any, faith in our NHL team, as currently constructed. Can’t wait to see these youngsters at the NHL level though. The kids look alright (to paraphrase Mr. Townshend)
Nice pull from Pete. 👊👍
Or Roger?
I like to correctly attribute that line to Pete Townshend, since most kiddies these days think it came from the TV show.
So hard to educate millenials
Jon,
With Perrson a 3rd round pick in the 2022 draft, wasn’t it rather early for the Caps to sign him to an entry level contract? It also meant they couldn’t sign Has, right? What am I missing here? If he was signed early, do you know why?
You aren’t missing anything, Jonathan. You are correct. My take is that the team saw a lot in Persson at development camp in July and signed him right away. It’s a good sign for him.
As for Has, the team was running low on available contracts (50 total allowed), so I guess they didn’t see enough from him yet. Fortunately the Bears signed a few prospects (Bear Hughes, Has, etc.) as a means of keeping the players close to the Capitals organization.
Right after the draft, I did a little research on Persson, and what I read is that Persson has potentially NHL offensive skill, but needs to work on defense. I guess they plan on bringing him to Hershey in a year or so.
Agree, Kim. He just turned 19 in early October, so my guess is they try to bring to Hershey next season.
Does that make him a “Persson of Interest”?
Sorry, couldn’t help myself. I violated the punal code
Can I like this twice? Bravo! Bravo!
👍👏👏👏
I am going to “borrow” for future post headline.
Be my guest. Though I wonder if I should be copywriting it. If he becomes a star player, I could be selling t-shirts.
Yes… what Jon said. Also interesting that Perrson and other 2022 draft picks had a Hershey part of their contract published as well leading some to think they may try to have them play in AHL in next year or two (not this year).
Yep. Persson just turned 19 in October, so my guess is Hershey is in the cross hairs for next season.
Still no mention of Lavi.
Good, maybe he will go quietly into the night.
Wish.
its a hard spot we are in right now. Lots of bodies coming and going. Our 13/14th forward not doing enough to be in the lineup consistently. All of this leads to a lot of line juggling. So good on staff for trying to find the right mix, but still leads to more inconsistency. It is a catch-22. But I like seeing Milano on first line. I would like to see
OV-Kuzy-Milano
Sheary-Strome-Mantha
Snively-Eller-Protas
Mojo-Dowd-hathaway
Like to see Mantha move up. Like Snively speed with Eller and Protas. I like Mojo on 4th line which is where he was pegged in training camp. We need to establish 4th line.
Like your lineup except making one change….Eller out as 3rd line C and putting in CMM. Give the kid a shot of 10-15 games at his natural position. Putting him in a wing does nothing for the team or his development. If you want to play Eller move hi to wing on the 4th line in place of MoJo.
Milano and Strome looked good together. Guess it makes sense to break them up.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mike Vogel. Heard his name often enough but was wondering who the interviewer was before I played the vid. Now I know.
So NBCSW pregame said snively in, McM out. dwgie26 gets his wish on that. Alexa also said something about Milano and Sheary switching but not sure what she meant.
Yep, Snively in, McMixhael out.
So Sheary shifted from left to right.
Rays have forgotten how to score. Down 1-0 midgame to Orlando. Clay in net.
I hope Joe makes me look good! Haha.
Man that Barn is empty!
At the end of two, is it Snively with the smallest 5on5 time? No, it’s Strome, our only goal scorer!