SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 11/14

Back-To-Back - It's been more than a month since the Caps have had to play games on back-to-back nights, but that run ends tonight in Winnipeg when they face the Jets, a night after a 5-2 win over the Wild in Minnesota. Washington has won the front end of all three of its back-to-back sets, but it is winless (0-1-1) in the back half.

Tuesday's win came with Pheonix Copley in goal; he made 26 saves to earn his third straight victory. The Caps defense in front of him was sturdy, combining to block 20 shots on a night in which the Wild forechecked well and spent a fair amount of time in Washington's end of the ice.
"They're pretty aggressive," says Caps winger Tom Wilson of the Wild. "So sometimes it feels like you get hemmed in a little bit because their [defensemen] are always coming down, and they throw everything to the house.
"I thought we did a pretty good job at collapsing, and for the most part we kept stuff to the outside. Cops had an amazing game; made some big stops when we needed them. It's tough against a team in their building when they're playing that aggressive. Sometimes you get hemmed in, but once you get down to the other end you make it count, and you get up a few, and keep playing from there."
Caps coach Todd Reirden was able to ease up on the minutes for his top forwards, and none of Washington's top six ended up playing more than 17 minutes on Tuesday.
"That was really big for me," says Reirden, "When you're able to get off to a decent start like we did, we were able to pull back some of those minutes. We have not liked our paly thus far in back-to-backs, I'll put it that way, so this was an opportunity for me to pull back some of our bigger guys and get them so that they are a little fresher tonight, and can hopefully take advantage of a fresh team that's waiting for us here, a dangerous one. So we've got to be at our best if we want to have an opportunity to take two points out of this building."
Excellent At Xcel - With Wilson in the Washington lineup for the first time in 2018-19, the Caps were finally able to ice a full complement of healthy and available forwards for the first time this season, and Reirden was able to slot them all where he wanted. The results were strong as each of the team's top three lines created a goal at five-on-five and all nine of the forwards on those lines recorded at least a point in the process.
Lars Eller's line - with Andre Burakovsky and Brett Connolly - manufactured the game's first goal in the first period, and it also scored what would prove to be the game-winner early in the second period, Burakovsky's second goal of the season.
"I think we found a way to get some chemistry back together," says Burakovsky. "I think in past years, me and Conno and Lars have been playing well together. At the start of the season maybe we didn't find it as much as we wanted to, but I think we brought it back today and we played a really solid game together."
Eller's line was up against that of Joel Eriksson Ek, a 21-year-old center with 102 games worth of NHL experience. Eller, like Eriksson Ek, was a first-round draft choice in the NHL, going 13th overall in the 2007 NHL Draft. Eriksson Ek was taken 20th overall eight years later.
In what turned out to be a three-goal game, the two-goal swing Eller's line was able to create loomed large in the Washington victory.
"Regardless of what the other lines do," says Eller, "one of the goals going into a game is to always beat your opposition - who you're facing - because you can't control what the other lines are doing. That's always important, but especially when you're facing some of the best teams in the league."
"I really liked Lars' game [Tuesday]," says Reirden. "I thought right from the first period he was really going, just really a lot better decisions with the puck. He is obviously on track for a career year offensively. He is a guy who was huge for us in our run last year, to be able to get some production from our third line. That's something that he has done a great job of offensively this year.
"I thought he had one of his stronger games of the year, setting up two goals. And just the way he managed the puck and allowed his linemates to have success was a really important aspect of the game [Tuesday] night."
In The Nets -After Copley made 26 stops to earn his third straight victory in Tuesday's win over the Wild, Braden Holtby gets the net on Wednesday in Winnipeg against the Jets. Despite stopping 93 of the last 99 shots he has faced over his last three starts, Holtby is just 1-2-0 over that span. He lost consecutive home starts to Columbus and Arizona, respectively, getting just a single goal's worth of offensive support in each of those starts.
Lifetime against the Jets, Holtby is 10-3-2 with a couple of shutouts, a 2.36 GAA and a .926 save pct.
For the Jets, Connor Hellebuyck will be in net. He is 3-1-0 with a 2.52 GAA and a .923 save pct. in four career appearances. Lifetime against Washington, Hellebuyck is 2-1-1 with a 2.40 GAA and a .926 save pct.
All Lined Up - Without benefit of a morning skate for Washington, here is how we believe the Capitals and the Jets will look when they tangle on Wednesday night in Winnipeg:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
13-Vrana, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
10-Connolly, 20-Eller, 65-Burakovsky
18-Stephenson, 72-Boyd, 25-Smith-Pelly
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
34-Siegenthaler, 2-Niskanen
29-Djoos, 22-Bowey
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
1-Copley
Injuries
6-Kempny (illness)
44-Orpik (lower body)
Scratches
23-Jaskin
26-Dowd
WINNIPEG
27-Ehlers, 55-Scheifele, 26-Wheeler
81-Connor, 18-Little, 85-Perreault
13-Tanev, 17-Lowry, 29-Laine
19-Petan, 9-Copp, 28-Roslovic
Defensemen
44-Morrissey, 8-Trouba
7-Chiarot, 33-Byfuglien
70-Morrow, 57-Myers
Goaltenders
37-Hellebuyck
30-Brossoit
Injuries
5-Kulikov (upper body)

Scratches
48-Lemieux
83-Niku