The Washington Capitals returned to work on Tuesday for one more practice in advance of their tilt with the New York Islanders on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena. A reminder that puck drop on Wednesday is at 7:30PM on TNT.
PRACTICE
Alex Ovechkin returned practice today after taking a maintenance day yesterday.
Nic Dowd took a maintenance day and didn’t skate with the team this morning.
Craig Smith participated in today’s practice after leaving practice yesterday because of a lower-body injury.
The Capitals forward lines and defensive pairs at Tuesday’s practice, courtesy of Tom Gulitti/NHL.com.
Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Tom Wilson
Anthony Mantha — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Craig Smith
Aliaksei Protas — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie
Conor Sheary — *Matt Irwin — Aube-Kubel
Martin Fehervary – John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin — Nick Jensen
Alex Alexeyev — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Darcy Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren
*Irwin subbed for Dowd
STROME ON THE RANGE
Dylan Strome recorded two points (1g, 1a) on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, extending his point streak to four games (2g-5a–7p). It marked Strome’s third multi-point effort in his last four games and his 15th multi-point game of the season, which trails only Alex Ovechkin (20) for the most on the team.
Strome has recorded 20 points (6g, 14a) in his last 14 games and a team-leading 17 points (5g, 12a) in 12 games in March. Strome has played 58 career games in the month of March and has recorded 57 points (21g, 36a), marking his highest point total in a single calendar month in his career. [MORE HERE]
STAT OF THE DAY – LET’S FACE IT
Last week we noted that the Capitals had finally reached a significant milestone with regards to faceoffs, as they hit the 50% mark for the first time in more than two years. Since that post the team has continued to rapidly improve their overall faceoff winning percentage, which now sits at a season high of 50.4%.
The rapid improvement of the Capitals faceoff winning percentage leads one to wonder which players are responsible for the improvement.
Today’s stat of the day simply plots the faceoffs won, faceoffs lost and faceoff winning percentage for all Capitals player that have taken at least one draw this season.
Unsurprisingly the return of Nicklas Backstrom (52.0%) has helped buoy the teams faceoff winning percentage. Nic Dowd also continues to impress at the dot, particularly during penalty kills. Dylan Strome has also improved in recent weeks and is nearing 50% mark.
[The statistics used in this post are courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, MoneyPuck 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
Ivan Miroshnichenko and Omskie Yasterby have advanced to the semi-finals of the Kharlamov Cup. They defeated Tolpar 5-4 on Monday to take the quarterfinal series. They begin their semifinals series with CKA-1946 on April 3.
Ivan Miroshnichenko is pumped up following Omskie Yasterby’s quarterfinal series clinching victory over Tolpar on Monday. They next face CKA-1946 in the semifinals of the the Kharlamov Cup. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/Zf0wGJQ0ut
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) March 28, 2023
All five of the Capitals prospects playing in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) (Haakon Hanelt, Ryan Hofer, Dru Krebs, Alexander Suzdalev and Jake Karabela) have advanced to play in the CHL postseason, which begins on Friday. [MORE HERE]
SHAVINGS
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Sask. goaltender who drove a car into a house suspended from junior hockey. [CTV News]
- Bettman says Senators won’t move out of Ottawa with sale of team. [TSN]
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Report: Larionov calls for Russia to ‘withdraw’ from IIHF over suspension. [Sportsnet]
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Goaltending has cratered across the NHL in March. [TSN]