#CapsNucks Skate Shavings: Western Random

Sunday's Caps game against the Vancouver Canucks is the only contest Washington will play against a Western Conference foe in a span of 22 games. Washington is 7-2-0 against Western foes this season.

Sunday's game will finish off the season's series with Vancouver; the Caps downed the Canucks by a 5-2 count in British Columbia on Oct. 29. The Canucks will be the third team the Capitals are finished with this season. Washington went 2-0 against Winnipeg in 2016-17 and 3-0 against Buffalo, so the Capitals will be seeking their third clean sweep when they face the Canucks on Sunday.

The Two Car - Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen went awkwardly into the boards late in the first period of Wednesday's game against the Boston Bruins. Niskanen left the game with an upper body injury and he did not return; he also missed Friday's game against the Sabres in Buffalo as his streak of 189 consecutive games played came to a halt.

But Niskanen did practice with the Capitals on Saturday, and Caps coach Barry trotz said on Sunday afternoon the blueliner would return to the lineup against the Canucks. Washington reassigned defenseman Aaron Ness to AHL Hershey on Sunday morning, another strong indicator that Niskanen would be ready for game action against Vancouver.

"I wanted to join the group today," said Niskanen after Saturday's practice. "I was cleared to do that. I needed a little extra work because I haven't been on the ice for a few days. I tested a few things out and thought it went well so far."

Niskanen is a key component on the Washington blueline corps. He plays on both special teams, draws shutdown responsibilities against the oppositions top forward lines and his average nightly workload of 22:01 is second on the team behind only John Carlson (23:29).

Keeping Them On The Ice - Niskanen's quick return to action keeps the Caps at the top of the league in a very important but often overlooked aspect of the game: fewest man games lost.

Roughly a third of the way through the season, the Caps enter Sunday's game with a total of 10 man-games lost to injury, fewest in the NHL. T.J. Oshie missed seven games with an upper body injury, and Niskanen, Paul Carey (illness) and Lars Eller (lower body) each have missed one contest.

Oshie's injury was listed as a "week-to-week" situation, but he was back in the lineup less than three weeks after suffering the initial injury.

"I think it's huge for your consistency of your group," says Trotz. "It says a lot about the ability of your staff and your players to do the right things to get back real quickly."

Washington's total is a far cry from the teams at the other end of the injury spectrum this season. Detroit has lost 191 man-games because of injury and Edmonton 176 so far in 2016-17.

Even with Brooks Orpik, John Carlson and Jay Beagle missing chunks of the campaign in 2015-16, the Caps finished the season with the third fewest man-games lost to injury (127) last season, behind only the New York Rangers (97) and Chicago (122).

The Great Race -When the Capitals woke up to Sunday morning's NHL standings, they find themselves with 35 points in 26 games, a pace that would lead to an impressive 110-point season if maintained over a full 82-game slate. Those 35 points would put the Capitals in first place in the Pacific Division, second place in the Atlantic Division, and in third place in the Central Division.

But in the Metropolitan, the Caps' point total puts them fifth, although that's also somewhat deceiving. The Capitals are technically two points in arrears of fourth-place Philadelphia, but the Flyers have also played four more games than Washington.

Given the difference in number of games played by teams to this point in the season, the best measure of a team's record is points percentage. By that metric, the Capitals own the fourth best record in the NHL (.673) and the third best mark in the Metro, ahead of both the second-place Rangers (.672) and the fourth-place Flyers (.617).

It's a bit of a fluke that the Caps own the league's fourth best record but are the fifth place team in their own division. What doesn't appear to be a fluke is the relative strength of the Metro Division and the Eastern Conference. Nineteen teams have reached the 30-point level this season; 11 of those teams hail from the Eastern Conference and six of them come from the Metro.

The top five Metro teams all enter Sunday with winning streaks of at least two games, and each of those five clubs has earned at least six wins in its last 10 games. It's been impossible for teams to make up ground in the Metro, and impossible to create separation.

"I'm cheering against every one of them every night," says Trotz, "and they're cheering against us every night. You just realize how good the Eastern Conference is this year. You look down [the standings] and there were some teams that were a little bit down. You look at the last two years; I think two years ago we didn't have as much balance in the Eastern Conference. There were six or eight teams you knew were going to be in and there was just going to be a fight for the rest.

"Now, all those teams have drafted well and their young players have developed. The free agent signings are probably a little more prominent in the East than in the West last year, and maybe even the last two years. All of a sudden the Eastern Conference and even the Metro Division, there is absolutely zero breathing room. So every game is an important game, because every game has an effect on the standings.

"If you have a little run of bad luck or poor play, you could find yourself - after 82 games - being on the outside [of the playoff picture]. And looking at the standings right now, there is going to be two or three teams that are playoff worthy that are not going to get in."

Oh For Ovechkin -Caps captain Alex Ovechkin is tied for the team lead in goals with Marcus Johansson. Both players have a dozen goals on the season. But Ovechkin enters Sunday's game with a seven-game goal drought. He had a six-game dry spell in 2011-12 and another in 2014-15, but it's been quite a while since Ovechkin has gone more than seven games without lighting the red lamp.

Seven years ago at this time, Ovechkin was in the midst of an eight-game goal-scoring slump. That dry spell ran from Dec. 9-23, 2010 and overlapped with Washington's notorious eight-game losing streak (0-6-2) in the run up to the 2011 Winter Classic Game against the Penguins in Pittsburgh.

Ovechkin also had a nine-game dry spell - matching the longest of his NHL career - from Nov. 17-Dec. 2 of that season. That stretch in which he scored just two goals in a span of 19 games from Nov. 17-Dec. 23, 2010 stands as the most fallow of his NHL career. Ovechkin finished that '10-11 season with 32 goals, the lowest total of his career for an 82-game season.

During the life of his current seven-game dry spell, Ovechkin has had 24 shots on net and he has collected three assists. He's currently third on the team in scoring with 19 points in 26 games. Lifetime against the Canucks, he has six goals and eight points in 13 games.

In The Nets - We're relatively certain Braden Holtby will get the net for Washington. He enters the game with a 12-6-2 mark on the season. He has one shutout, a 2.18 GAA and a .923 save pct.

Lifetime against Vancouver, Holtby is 2-1 with a 2.36 GAA and a .920 save pct. in three starts.

For the Canucks, Jacob Markstrom starts for the second time in as many nights. He was in goal for Vancouver's 4-2 loss to the Panthers in Florida on Saturday night. Veteran netminder Ryan Miller was injured earlier on the Canucks' trip - on Thursday in Tampa - and untested rookie Thatcher Demko will be backing up Markstrom, who is 6-5-2 with a 2.76 GAA and a .903 save pct. on the season.

Markstrom is seeking his first career win against Washington. He's 0-4 in four career appearances against the Caps, with a 3.99 GAA and an .878 save pct.

All Lined Up - Without the benefit of a morning skate before today's 5 p.m. game between the Caps and the Canucks, we're not sure how the lineups will look today and likely won't know for certain until pregame warm-ups. But here's a guess at how the Caps and Canucks could look for today's game at Verizon Center:

WASHINGTON

Forwards

8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 14-Williams

90-Johansson,19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie

65-Burakovsky, 20-Eller, 13-Vrana

26-Winnik, 83-Beagle, 43-Wilson

Defensemen

27-Alzner 74-Carlson

9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen

44-Orpik, 88-Schmidt

Goaltenders

70-Holtby

31-Grubauer

Injuries

None

Scratches

4-Chorney

10-Connolly

VANCOUVER

Forwards

22-D. Sedin, 33-H. Sedin, 20-Sutter

21-Eriksson, 60-Granlund, 46-Megna

47-Baertschi, 53-Horvat, 14-Burrows

50-Gaunce, 45-Chaput, 9-Skille

Defensemen

27-Hutton, 44-Gudbrandson

5-Sbisa, 51-Stecher

88-Tryamkin, 55-Biega

Goaltenders

25-Markstrom

35-Demko

Injuries

8-Tanev (lower body)

15-Dorsett (back surgery)

23-Edler (hand)

30-Miller (lower body)

36-Hansen (fractured rib)

63-Larsen (upper body)

Scratches

62-LaBate