News

Sonny Milano Skates In Non-Contact Jersey, Darcy Kuemper Set To Start: Notes From Capitals Optional Morning Skate

By Jon Sorensen·


The Washington Capitals held an optional gameday morning skate this morning at 10:30AM at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. They host the New York Islanders tonight at 7:30PM on TNT, and will depart for Tampa, Florida immediately following the game in advance of their tilt with the Lightning on Thursday night.

OPTIONAL MORNING SKATE

Sonny Milano skated in a non-contact jersey at Capitals’ morning skate. He missed Saturday’s game against the Penguins with an upper-body injury.

Lines and pairs were not skated during the optional morning skate. The Capitals lines and pairs from Tuesday’s practice :

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Tom Wilson
Anthony Mantha — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Craig Smith
Aliaksei Protas — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie
Conor Sheary — Nic Dowd — Aube-Kubel

Martin Fehervary – John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin — Nick Jensen
Alex Alexeyev — Trevor van Riemsdyk

Darcy Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren

From The Other Side

Islanders at their morning skate, courtesy of Tom Gulitti/NHL.com:

Parise-Horvat-Fasching
Engvall-Nelson-Palmieri
Lee-Pageau-Holmstrom
Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck

Pelech-Mayfield
Romanov-Pulock
Bolduc-Dobson

Sorokin
Varlamov

DARCY KUEMPER

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper is expected to start tonight versus New York, which will mark his 350th NHL game. Kuemper has won his last three starts against the Islanders, dating back to last season. In those three games, Kuemper has recorded a 2.29 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage.

The Capitals limited the Islanders to just 18 shots in their last meeting on March 11, the fewest shots they have allowed in a game this season. Kuemper stopped all 18 Islanders’ shots he faced in the win, with his only goal against coming on an own goal. Among goaltenders with at least 45 starts this season, Kuemper ranks seventh in the NHL in goals-against average (2.76) and eighth in save percentage (.911). Kuemper’s five shutouts are tied for the most in the NHL, tied with the Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin and Colorado’s Alexandar Georgiev. [MORE HERE]

STAT OF THE DAY – SHOOTING PERCENTAGE

Today’s stat of the day looks at each of the Capitals shooting percentages at five-on-five for the seas0n.

Nic Dowd’s shooting percentage is incredible, as more than 1 in every 4 shots he takes finds the back of the net. Sonny Milano, T.J. Oshie and Dylan Strome are also firing at very  high success rates.

[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

    • Defenseman Dru Krebs was named to the WHL’s Central Division’s second all-star team.
    • Hendrix Lapierre scored his first goal since January 14 against the Toronto Marlies Wednesday morning.
    • The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli is reporting that the Washington Capitals have signed goaltender prospect Mitchell Gibson to a one-year deal. Gibson is also expected to sign an amateur tryout agreement (ATO) with the Hershey Bears, which will allow him to join the team this season. [MORE HERE]

SHAVINGS

  • Predators keep shooting victims in mind during Bruins upset. [ESPN]

  • Lambert’s impact with Islanders. [NHL.com]

  • Top 50 free agents [Daily Faceoff]
  • And finally, the Great 8 and son Sergei held a workout on Monday.