The Washington Capitals cancelled their gameday morning skate at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Wednesday morning. Head coach Peter Laviolette did meet with the media when the team arrived at the arena this afternoon at 5PM.
Laviolette confirmed that Darcy Kuemper will get the start in goal for the Capitals. He wouldn’t detail lines for tonight, but did say that it will be the same lineup as Sunday.
Same lineup as Sunday but we won’t know combos for sure until warmups. #Caps
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) January 11, 2023
Carter Hart will get the start in goal for the Flyers.
PROJECTED LINEUP
The projected forward lines and defensive pairs, based on Tuesday’s practice at MedStar:
Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Sonny Milano
Lars Eller — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie
Conor Sheary — Dylan Strome — Tom Wilson
Marcus Johansson — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway
Erik Gustafsson — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Dmitry Orlov — Nick Jensen
Alex Alexeyev – Martin Fehervary
Darcy Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren
Extras: Anthony Mantha, Matt Irwin, Nicolas Aube-Kubel
PHILLY
The Capitals visit the Philadelphia Flyers tonight at Wells Fargo Center for the third of four meetings between the teams this season. The Capitals have won their first two games against Philadelphia this season and are 9-2-0 in their last 11 games at Wells Fargo Center. In addition, Washington has won a franchise record seven-straight road games.
TREVOR 500
Capitals defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk is expected to play in his 500th career game tonight in Philadelphia. van Riemsdyk’s older brother, James, is a forward on the Flyers and played his 900th career game on Monday against the Buffalo Sabres. van Riemsdyk has played 135 of his 499 career games with Washington (also 206 GP with Carolina and 158 GP with Chicago). More here.
#Caps Trevor van Riemsdyk will play in his 500th career game tonight in Philadelphia. van Riemsdyk’s older brother, James, played his 900th career game on Monday against the Buffalo Sabres. Both joined @MayHockeyNBCS ahead of tonight’s game for @NBCSWashington pic.twitter.com/tBhxVTjalH
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 11, 2023
van Riemsdyk also enters tonight’s game one point shy of 100 career points (21g-78a-99p). van Riemsdyk, who has recorded ten points (4g, 6a) in 43 games this season, is on pace to establish a single-season career high in points for the second consecutive season (2021-22: 1g-16a-17p in 72 GP). van Riemsdyk ranks second on Washington in shorthanded ice time per game (2:35) and blocked shots (82) and is tied for second in plus/minus rating (+9). In addition, his four goals rank third among Capitals’ defensemen. More here.
STAT OF THE DAY
Today’s stat of the day looks at the expected goals differential (xGF – xGA) for each of the Capitals skaters so far this season. [Click to enlarge]
Erik Gustafsson leads the team with a +4.96 differential. Again, with a salary of just $800k, Gustafsson has to be in the discussion for best overall offeseason acquisition by Capitals GM Brian MacLellan.
Martin Fehervary is at the bottom with a -4.16 differential. It should be noted that the number is likely why we are seeing Fehervary drop to the third pairing, however, prior to that he was on the second pairing, which is primarily utilized for defense and stopping the opposition’s best forwards.
[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 scoring his first career goal in the KHL on Sunday, Bogdan Trineyev (#88) recorded the primary assist on Dynamo’s game-winning goal late in the third period against Salavat Ufa on Tuesday.
After scoring his first career goal in the KHL on Sunday, Bogdan Trineyev (#88) recorded the primary assist on Dynamo’s game-winning goal late in the third period against Salavat Ufa on Tuesday. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/UlfPYQrdoO
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) January 11, 2023
As mentioned earlier this week, Capitals forward prospect Ryan Hofer was part of a blockbuster trade that sent him from the Everett Silvertips to the Kamloops Blazers. Hofer met with the media in Kamloops for the first time on Tuesday.
HOF! 💪
Ryan Hofer is in the house!🔥 pic.twitter.com/caUjCqXznf— Kamloops Blazers (@blazerhockey) January 11, 2023
As for prospect games today and tonight, Jake Karabela and the Guelph Storm visit the Hamilton Bulldogs and the Hershey Bears host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at Giant Center.
And finally, we wish fellow DMV’er Sam Anas a speedy recovery from abdominal surgery.
Thank you to everyone for the well wishes, I’ll be back stronger than ever! Unfortunately, I didn’t wake up from surgery with a new 8-pack though 😂 https://t.co/LXoLw0tX5d
— Sam Anas (@samanas7) January 10, 2023
By Jon Sorensen
One scratch is sending a message, two scratches begins to become a little more than that.
van Reimsdyk brothers rather quietly creating a family business. Props to them.
There’s one more brother. But he didn’t make it to the NHL.
Varna all over again.
I see that Todd Nelson will be coaching the Atlantic at the AHL All Stars and that Mike Vecchione and Ethen Frank will be representing the Bears. I thought we’d be providing a goalie.
Caliber of healthy scratches in Hershey is becoming very impressive. Sutter and Gersich (and others) are pure space casualties.
Tough spot for a number of those players. They are likely riding the pine for a while.
You’d think the AHL roster limit would match the NHL but … guess not?