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Darcy Kuemper Skates, Nicklas Backstrom And Tom Wilson Travel With Team For First Time And Skate In Non-Contact Jerseys: Notes From Morning Skate In Winnipeg

Jon Sorensen


The Washington Capitals made their way to Winnipeg, Manitoba on Saturday in advance of their tilt with the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night. The team held their gameday morning skate at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg at 11:30AM ET on Sunday.

The Capitals forward lines and defensive pairs this morning in Winnipeg courtesy of Samantha Pell/Washington Post:

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Conor Sheary
Sonny Milano — Evgeny Kuznetsov — T.J. Oshie
Marcus Johansson — Lars Eller — Anthony Mantha
Aliaksei Protas — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway

* Joe Snively — John Carlson
Trevor Van Riemsdyk — Nick Jensen
Lucas Johansen — Matt Irwin

Charlie Lindgren
Hunter Shepard
Darcy Kuemper

* Erik Gustafsson left morning skate early and did not return. There was no update on his status. Joe Snively filled in during rushes.

Charlie Lindgren was in the starters net and looks to get the start tonight against the Jets.

Darcy Kuemper was on the ice, the first time he’s been on the ice since being injured Dec. 3. Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson also skated with the team this morning in non-contact jerseys. This is the first time the two have traveled with the team this season.

Laviolette said after morning skate that Backstrom and Wilson will travel with the team from this point forward, so another step for them in their road back.

Dmitry Orlov also skated. Martin Fehervary (upper body injury) and Alex Alexeyev (upper body injury) did not skate. As a result of the injuries to Fehervary and Alexeyev, the Capitals officially recalled defensemen Lucas Johansen and Dylan McIlrath from Hershey earlier in the day on Sunday.

IN THE ‘PEG

The Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets open their season series in the North on Sunday night and will close it 12 nights later. Washington swept the regular-season set vs. Winnipeg last season, including a 5-2 win north of the border on December 17, 2021, and is 15-3-2 in their past 20 against them dating back to March 2013.

Action from Canadian Life Centre can be seen on NBC Sports Washington in-market or ESPN+ out-of-market starting at 7 PM ET. Game preview here: 

STAT OF THE DAY – HEATING UP

Today’s stat of the day is taken from yesterday’s positive trends update (here if you missed it). It plots the expected goals for percentages (xGF%) for all 29 of the Capitals games so far this season. [Click to enalrge].

The Capitals averaged 44.93% for the first nine games of the season, 50.85% for the middle 10 games of the season and 53.36% over the last 10 games of the season.

[The statistics used in this post are courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and the NoVa Caps Advanced Analytics Model (NCAAM). If you’d like to learn more about the statistical terms used in this post, please check out our NHL Analytics Glossary]

DOWN ON THE FARM

Alexander Suzdalev scored again last night. He know has 17 goals and 21 assists in 28 games played so far this season.

But once again, possibly his greatest highlights were a couple of his shot attempts that failed. He first tried a between-the-legs shot:

Minutes later he would try The Michigan…again.

Ivan Miroshnichenko stepped down a league (VHL) to get a game in on Saturday while the KHL All-Star weekend is going on. Nothing significant to report from his game, but it’s good to see Avangard’s management focused on continuing his conditioning.

SHAVINGS

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