The Washington Capitals held their gameday morning skate at 10:30 this morning in advance of their tilt with the Florida Panthers tonight at Capital One Arena. Puck drop against the Panthers is set for 7PM ET. [GAME PREVIEW]

MORNING SKATE

The forward lines and defensive pairs at Capitals morning skate, courtesy of Tom Gulitti/NHL.com.

Anthony Mantha — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Conor Sheary
Sonny Milano — Nicklas Backstrom — Marcus Johansson
Joe Snively — Dylan Strome — T.J. Oshie
Aube-Kubel — Lars Eller — Garnet Hathaway

Erik Gustafsson — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Dmitry Orlov — Nick Jensen
Dylan McIlrath — Martin Fehervary

Darcy Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren

Extras: Aliaksei Protas, Alex Alexeyev, Matt Irwin

Darcy Kuemper was the first goalie off the ice at morning skate, and is expected to start tonight against Florida.

Dylan Strome moved up to the first power play unit. Laviolette said yesterday they moved puck well against the Hurricanes, but need to shoot more.

Capitals PP1: Gustafsson, Backstrom (Ovechkin spot), Oshie, Strome, Johansson

PP2: Orlov, Kuznetsov, Sheary, Mantha, Milano

If Dylan McIlrath plays tonight, it will be his first NHL game since Dec. 10, 2019 with Detroit at Winnipeg.

Tom Wilson (lower-body) and Nic Dowd (lower body) also skated, but didn’t take line rushes. Dowd donned a no-contact jersey.

CAPS-CATS

The Washington Capitals host the Florida Panthers on Thursday for the first time since Florida eliminated Washington in Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoff first-round series last May. Florida also took the first meeting of this season between the two teams by a score of 5-2 at FLA Live Arena on November 15.

Bring on the Cats pic.twitter.com/s3koKOlV2j

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 16, 2023

The Capitals are 67-44-9-12 all-time versus Florida and have won two-straight games against the Panthers at home.

Action from Capital One Arena can be seen on NBC Sports Washington in-market or ESPN+ out-of-market.

STAT OF THE DAY

Today’s stat of the day takes a look at the Capitals rolling average for their expected goals for percentage (xGF%) through the first 55 games. [Click to enlarge].

The Capitals season average has dropped over the last eight games since hitting a season high of 51.96% on January 19. They currently sit at 51.20%.

[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

Bobby Nardella scored with 1:29 remaining in regulation Wednesday night against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Wilkes-Barre. The goal ultimately sent the game to overtime.

The Nard Dog! Bobby Nardella ties it up with a shot from the point. Game is heading to OT. #HBH #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/WacPNlQaaB

— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) February 16, 2023

Ryan Chesley is expected to miss the games versus the Nittany Lions this weekend due to an upper body injury suffered in last Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Wisconsin. Gophers coach Bob Motzko indicated that Chesley will not play until March, at the earliest. “(Chesley) will come back in the playoffs sometime…Injuries are part of sports. They happen, you’ve just got to roll on.”

SHAVINGS

• Fake sports memorabilia worth millions seized. [ESPN]
• Rain is currently forecasted for Friday in North Carolina, which could cause havoc with team practices set for Friday evening. Here’s the latest from Raleigh in advance of Saturday’s Caps-Canes Stadium Series game: