The Washington Capitals returned to work on Sunday for an optional skate following their 5-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. They next host the Detroit Red Wings on Monday to wrap-up their three-game home stand.
The Capitals changed the practice to “optional” on Sunday morning.
#Caps will hold an optional skate at noon. https://t.co/0OgKUxGcEi
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 18, 2022
The team also announced Sunday morning that forward T.J. Oshie, who suffered a non-contact injury in last nights game against the Maple Leafs (more here), is “day-to-day” with an upper body injury.
Capitals say T.J. Oshie (upper body) and Nic Dowd (lower) are both day to day and will not participate in their optional practice today.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) December 18, 2022
Nic Dowd (lower body) did not play in Saturday’s game vs TOR and is also “day-to-day”. He also did not skate at the optional today.
STAT OF THE DAY – JUST WIN, BABY
Despite the convincing 5-2 victory, the Maple Leafs took control of possession 11 minutes into the game last night, and led in even-strength shot attempts 63-41 for the game.
The Maple Leafs also led in even-strength expected goals for (xGF) 3.06 to 2.30 for the game. That highlight’s another excellent game by Charlie Lindgren, who was +1.06 in goals differential (xGA – GA).
The next graph plots the expected goals for percentage (xGF%) for each of the Capitals skaters at even strength.
The graph highlights the excellent game played by the Capitals third line of Anthony Mantha, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Sonny Milano. The defensive pairing of Nick Jensen and Dmitry Orlov also had a good game.
[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
After a significant dry spell and demotion to the third line, Jake Karabela is finally beginning to heat up. He scored his third goal in the last four games last night against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
HOME TOWN BOY KARABELA#StormCity |#TheStormisComing pic.twitter.com/bqmTKZ3TPI
— Guelph Storm (@Storm_City) December 17, 2022
He has eight goals and nine assists in 32 games played and is a -22 on a struggling Guelph team.
SHAVINGS
And finally, one more for the collection:
They’re glowing! I feel like I’m watching hockey in the Metaverse lol pic.twitter.com/dwBAXV17cK
— Vanessa (@bigsportsvan) December 18, 2022
The Capitals honored former arena organist Bruce Anderson at last night’s game. We wish Bruce well in his retirement.
The Capitals next host the Detroit Red Wings at Capital One Arena on Monday night. Puck drop is set for 7PM.
By Jon Sorensen
We have almost $13million on IR and almost $16million on LTIR both of which I believe don’t count at present against the cap. Some of that won’t be back this year but I think we’re still looking at $20million returning. Am I right? That’s a lot of salary to have to trade, waive, cancel, or send down to Hershey.
We are approaching decision time, by the end of January at the latest, as to what direction this team goes.
Seems like a number of us have been visiting CapFriendly worried about the return of the injured.
Hey Novafyre, as Dwgie infromed me last week, only LTIR doesn’t count against the cap so those on regular IR, their salaries are currently being counted against the Cap. Back and Wislon, 2 big contracts will have to be worked in.
I posted this last week – please share your thoughts
From what I can tell, utilizing Cap Friendly, is that the Caps have about 2.5m/3m space right now. Backy is 9.2m. So that leave 6.5m ish to free up
I believe bringing him on would require moving 2 players. The only individual players that would free enough space up is Carlson, Ovi, and Kuzy.
Orlov, Oshi and Mantha are in the 5-6m dollar range. Eller at 3.5, but as much as trading a center makes sense, will they really do that when 19 could have any type of setback. I’d think GM would want to wait at least a couple of weeks to see how Nick plays and if he stays healthy before trading a top 3 center, on a playoff type roster. If they trade Eller and then Backy has a setback, the Caps are now have put themselves in a corner a bit. Yeah, Connor can handle, but I think they don’t want to put him there until next year. Anyway, I think Mantha is the one to go plus another. If they do move Eller, they still have to move a sizable contract and the Caps are a bit exposed at the Center positions despite what some fans may think. Oh, and Wilson is coming so the Caps really need to free up about 12m….
Do they trade Kuzy? He’d have a lot of interest, get a good return and then make it possible to only have to move 2 players – say Kuzy and Mantha, If this were to happen, I think it would say a lot about how GM and Lavy feel about Stromme.
If you go to CapFriendly and look at the published “teams” under Capitals, you’ll see I have two posted under this name. One includes everyone off LTIR (minus Hags and Brown) and added Alexyev which worked. Looks like Alexyev is close to returning. And then I have one with Oshie on LTIR which solves a lot of problems. Short version is, there are ways to make it work. Reason is, we aren’t taking on a full 9.2M for Backstrom. It will be prorated.
I was actually playing around on CapFriendly today. I expect to see Fever, Wilson, Beck, and Keumper all back in next couple of weeks. That means four bodies coming out. Goalies are easy. Johansen goes back easily as Emergency Callup. Looks like Snively will be first waiver cut. Than Protas (for free) or NAK. Then the other when Backstrom comes back.
This current roster has great chemistry right now. Of course, you want to see the pervious starters back in lineup, but keeping the chemistry will be tough.
Been dabbling a bit with Cap Friendly as well. I believe the two big decisions ahead are what to do with Alexeyev, as he would require waivers to return to Hershey, and a decision between Beck Malenstyn and NAK. One will need to be placed on waivers.
They don’t need to do anything with Alexyev right now. he could go on LTIR once Backstrom comes back. But generally concerning we haven’t heard anything and haven’t seen him. That was a nasty shot to the head and he has had concussion issues.
I would certainly prefer to keep Beck over NAK. But i think Snively goes first. Milano (and Sheary) both play his role of speedy top 6. Snively is on a one-way 800k x2 so that may deter some on waiver wire.
It’s seems this year injuries have been more of a mystery than the usual. Not a word on Alexeyev, Fehervary, etc. feels like a conscious effort to limit info,
Glad I’m not the only one feeling this way.
Might make some decisions easier if Osh ends up on LTIR next.