The Washington Capitals had the day off on Thursday following their 3-2 overtime victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night. The team made their way to Northern California Thursday morning in advance of their next tilt, with the Sharks Saturday afternoon.
The team held practice at Sharks Ice in San Jose at 2:15 PM ET on Friday. Nick Jensen and Martin Fehervary, both injured against Anaheim on Wednesday, did not practice.
As a result, the Capitals announced prior to practice that they have recalled defenseman Vinny Iorio and Gabriel Carlsson from Hershey and re-assigned Dylan McIlrath to the Bears. [More Here.]
Rasmus Sandin’s visa issues have been resolved, and as a result, can play tomorrow at San Jose.
The Capitals forward lines and defensive pairs at Friday’s practice, courtesy of Tarik El-Bashir.
Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson
Anthony Mantha — Nicklas Backstrom — Craig Smith
Sonny Milano — Dylan Strome — T.J. Oshie
Conor Sheary — Nic Dowd — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Rasmus Sandin — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Alexander Alexeyev — Matt Irwin
Gabriel Carlsson – Vinny Iorio
Darcy Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren
Extras: Aliaksei Protas
TOM THE BOMB
Tom Wilson scored two goals on Wednesday against the Anaheim Ducks, including the game winner 1:09 into overtime. The goal marked Wilson’s third career overtime goal and 19th career game-winning goal. Wednesday also marked his second-multi-point effort in his last three games and third multi-point effort in 14 games this season.
Wilson has scored five goals in six games since returning to the Capitals’ lineup on Feb. 18, four of which have come at even strength. Wilson, who missed the Capitals’ first 42 games of 2022-23 and seven additional games since his season debut on Jan. 8 due to injuries, has recorded nine points (7g, 2a) and 50 hits in 14 games. [MORE HERE]
STAT OF THE DAY – FACEOFFS – SO CLOSE!
Today’s stat of the day catches us up on the Capitals team faceoff winning percentage. [Click to enlarge].
After terrible start to the season, the Capitals battled back and were just about to cross above the 50% threshold for the first time in more than two seasons. They hit 49.92% on January 17th, but since then have been gradually falling off. As a result, it’s looking more and more likely rising above 50% will have to wait for another season.
DOWN ON THE FARM
Joe Snively sniped two tallies in Wednesday night’s Bears victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Joe Snipely! Joe Snively with his second goal of the game, gives the Bears a late 4-3 lead. #HBH #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/FTkU0KOZCJ
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) March 2, 2023
Henrik Borgstrom has been relatively quiet this season, but made an eye-popping play on Wednesday night.
Nice play by Henrik Borgstrom, finishes with the score, his 8th goal of the season. Bears lead 1-0 early. #HBH #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/GebiJeXnr0
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) March 2, 2023
Reminder, Per NHL rules, a player must be on an The AHL roster at 3 ET today in order to be eligible to be sent down from the NHL at any time for the rest of the season.
SHAVINGS
- .Jakub Vrana was traded from the Red Wings to the Blues earlier in the day on Friday [NoVa Caps]
- Trade deadline tracker – a listing of all trades. [Daily Faceoff]