SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 10/22

Top Of The Trip - Washington's first extended road trip of the young season gets underway from Vancouver tonight when the Caps take on the Canucks at Rogers Place. The trip included a team dinner on Saturday and will include a team-building event and two more games - in Edmonton on Thursday and Calgary on Saturday - before the Caps stop home for a couple of practices. They'll head back out on the road next week for the trip finale, a Nov. 1 game against the Canadiens in Montreal.

Five-on-Five Alive - Heading into their most recent game - a 6-5 shootout loss to Florida at Capital One Arena last Friday - the Caps had scored just two goals at five-on-five in their previous three games. This was after they scored 11 goals at five-on-five in their first three games of the season.
Washington netted four of its five goals at five-on-five against the Panthers, getting three of those goals from secondary sources. Three of those tallies came in the second period after Caps coach Todd Reirden shook up the forward lines in the wake of a dismal first period performance.
"We changed the lines up a little bit, and I thought the chemistry we had in the second and the third was outstanding," says Reirden. "I thought it added a little bit more jump to our game. I think the emotional investment has to be there from the start of our team wants to have success. You can't just show up and play the game. So, emotionally invested and some line adjustments are a good start for us tonight and we will move forward from there."
But the Caps have also yielded 19 five-on-five goals in seven games; only three teams have permitted more. They'd obviously like to keep the goals coming but they know they need to be much stingier in that regard in their own end of the rink.
"Structurally, it's continuing to work through the process," says Reirden. "It doesn't happen overnight despite the fact that we had the success we did last year playing virtually the same system. You still have to restart. I've said it often times, that the players don't watch video all summer like we do. It has to be retaught and re-emphasized, and sometimes you have to learn some hard lessons, and we have on a few different occasions. Let's hope that we continue to grow in certain areas as a group."
Beags Gets His Bling - Former Caps center Jay Beagle signed a four-year deal with Vancouver as a free agent last summer, and on Monday morning, his ex-Washington teammates presented him with his Stanley Cup ring in the Capitals locker room, just before the team's Monday morning skate.

Beagle's teammates gave him a standing ovation as Alex Ovechkin presented the hard-working pivot with his ring, and they then implored their former teammate to give a brief speech, which he did.
Beagle is the only player in pro hockey history to win a Kelly Cup (ECHL) championship, a Calder Cup (AHL) championship and a Stanley Cup title. When he departed the District last summer, he was the team's third longest tenured player, trailing only Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.
"It was incredible," says Beagle. "I didn't really know what to expect. I thought they would just give me the ring kind of [quietly]. I didn't really know all the boys were going to be there. It's just a special moment; it's kind of one last moment with the Caps and it's always good to see you guys, it's always good to see the boys. I was with the organization for such a long time that it's family, and it's home.
"It's pretty special. To have one last moment with the guys and to have them present the right like that, it was pretty cool."
"It's very special," echoes Backstrom. "He's been with the Caps for a long time and I couldn't be happier to welcome him in and let him have his ring. I think he was just glowing when he got that ring. It was a fun part and I'm sad to see him leave, but at the same time, it's part of the business. It seems like he is doing all right here. But he's a great guy, great hockey player, and great teammate. No one deserves it more than him."
It's been a big week for Beagle and his family, which grew by one just a couple days ago when they added their third child and first girl, daughter Millie, to the clan. Congrats indeed to Beags, who epitomizes what our great game is all about - hard work, dedication, being a great teammate and a great human.

Blueline Blues -Only two of the Canucks' seven rostered defensemen - Alexander Edler and Ben Hutton - are Vancouver draft choices. In the third round of the 2004 NHL Draft, the Canucks expended a third-round pick (91st overall) on Edler, who has spent his entire NHL career with Vancouver.
Coming into Monday's game against the Caps, Edler has played in a total of 766 games for Vancouver. Since they tabbed Edler, the Canucks have drafted a grand total of 30 other defensemen. Those 30 blueliners - including Hutton - have combined to play a grand total of 761 games in the NHL, including the games they've played for other clubs besides the Canucks.
With 339 career points in the league, Edler surpassed Mattias Ohlund (325 points) as the Canucks' all-time leader in scoring among defensemen last season, and he is 15 games shy of matching Harold Snepsts for the most games played by a Vancouver blueliner. Those other 30 blueliners the Canucks drafted over the years have combined for 46 goals and 159 points, again including numbers they posted while with other organizations.
On the plus side, Vancouver does have a trio of defensemen who were high choices in recent drafts that could help the Canucks write a better ending to this tale of blueline woes. Vancouver chose Olli Juolevi with the fifth overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft; he was the first blueliner taken in that draft. The 20-year-old Juolevi is now in his first season as a North American pro, skating with the Canucks' AHL Utica affiliate.
This past summer, the Canucks spent each of their first two picks on blueliners, taking Quinn Hughes at No. 7 overall and Jett Woo at No. 37. Hughes was the second defenseman chosen in 2018, behind only Rasmus Dahlin, who went first overall to Buffalo. Hughes is in his second season at U. of Michigan and Woo is skating for WHL Moose Jaw.
Juolevi and Hughes are the first defensemen the Canucks have taken in the top seven picks of a draft since 1998 when they chose Bryan Allen at No. 4 overall.
Vancouver's current roster has 10 former first-round draft choices on it, including a trio of defensemen imported from other NHL organizations. Erik Gudbranson was Florida's first choice (third overall) in 2010, Derrick Pouliot was Pittsburgh top pick (eighth overall) in 2012 and Michael Del Zotto went at No. 20 overall to the New York Rangers in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, seven slots ahead of Washington's John Carlson.

In The Nets -Braden Holtby gets the net for Washington in the first game of the trip. Holtby was pulled from his most recent start on Friday against Florida after yielding four goals on 11 shots in 20 minutes of work. He was not saddled with the shootout loss in that game, and enters Monday's game with a 3-1-1 record on the season, but with a 3.73 GAA and an .881 save pct.
Lifetime against the Canucks, Holtby is 3-2-0 with a shutout, a 2,.64 GAA and a .907 save pct.
For Vancouver, Anders Nilsson gets the net on Monday. He has claimed three of the Canucks' five wins on the season to date and is 3-1-0 overall with a 2.26 GAA and a .925 save pct.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Nilsson is 1-3-1 with a 3.30 GAA and an .890 save pct. His lone victory against Washington came here in Vancouver nearly a year ago, when he stopped 25 of 27 shots he faced on Oct. 26, 2017 in a 6-2 win over Washington.
All Lined Up - Here is how we expect the Capitals and the Canucks will look when they take the ice for Monday night's game at Rogers Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 25-Smith-Pelly
18-Stephenson, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
13-Vrana, 20-Eller, 10-Connolly
23-Jaskin, 26-Dowd, 65-Burakovsky
Defensemen
6-Kempny, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen
44-Orpik, 29-Djoos
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
1-Copley
Injuries
43-Wilson (league suspension)
72-Boyd (lower body, week-to-week)
Scratches
22-Bowey
79-Walker
VANCOUVER
Forwards
77-Goldobin, 53-Horvat, 6-Boeser
47-Baertschi, 88-Gaudette, 18-Virtanen
26-Roussel, 20-Sutter, 21-Eriksson
59-Schaller, 60-Granlund, 64-Motte
Defensemen
23-Edler, 8-Tanev
27-Hutton, 44-Gudbranson
5-Pouliot, 51-Stecher
Goaltenders
25-Markstrom
31-Nilsson
Injuries
40-Pettersson (head)
83-Beagle (fractured forearm)

Scratches
4-Del Zotto
9-Leipsic