SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 11/5

Entertaining Edmonton On Election Day Eve - The Caps' five-game homestand continues on Monday when they host the Edmonton Oilers in the second and final meeting between the two teams this season. The two teams hooked up in Alberta late last month, with Edmonton prevailing, 4-1.

What can the Caps take from that loss against the Oilers in October and put to their use tonight?
"I think we showed signs of breaking their tendencies down, breaking their aggressiveness down," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "You look at any team and you're going to have some good portions of the game, something to exploit and a lot to get better on. I think that was a game that we would have liked to have had a better effort all around, and we get our chance back tonight."
For the second time this season, the Caps will come into tonight's game on the heels of consecutive losses. They've yet to string together consecutive wins, but they're still two points ahead of the pace they set last season, when they also scuffled out of the starting gate, but finished off fairly well.
"I think we can be a lot better," admits Carlson. "We're starting to realize what our identity or M.O. is in terms of how we'd like to play the game, and when we're executing on those things, we're a heck of a team that can hem teams in for a long time and play hard defense. There are just too many gaps in between those good periods for us right now that are giving us trouble in terms of our success."
Back In The Saddle Again - Caps center Travis Boyd will see his first action of the 2018-19 season tonight, manning the middle of Washington's fourth line with Jakub Vrana and Devante Smith-Pelly on his wings. Boyd suffered a lower body injury late in the Caps' preseason, and missed the first month of the campaign as a result.
After playing for AHL Hershey in two injury rehab games over the weekend, Boyd is ready to go. Even though he is making his NHL debut for this season tonight, he'll also be playing his third game in four nights, which should help him feel like he is right back in the midseason swing of things.
"I'm really happy I went down to Hershey and played a couple of games this weekend," says Boyd, "get some game reads back, some game touches, and even to get hit. To get hit or give a hit or battle in the corner is stuff that you can't really simulate in [practice]."
Drafted way back in 2011, the 25-year-old Minnesota native is finally beyond his entry level deal and seeking to carve out a niche for himself at this level after making his NHL debut last season, ultimately appearing in eight regular season contests and one playoff game. The training camp injury was a difficult setback.
"It's been tough," says Boyd. "My biggest goal coming into training camp this year was to play game one; it was to make the team out of camp for the first time in my career and then it was to play the first game of the season for the first time in my career. That was big, and I thought I put myself in a good situation to do that and then ultimately ended up getting hurt. There is nothing you can do about it."
Boyd and Vrana have shown some chemistry together at the AHL level over the last couple of seasons, and now they're hoping to replicate it here in Washington.
"Lots go into some of those decisions that are made," says Caps coach Todd Reirden, who has altered all four of his forward lines heading into Monday's game with Edmonton. "We know that they've had some success in the past together, and it spreads out our four lines and allows us to play four lines. The speed that [Vrana] has and a little bit of the playmaking ability that Travis has, and putting Travis into his first game of the year, I think comfort-wise that's a good situation for him to utilize some of the skills that he brings to the table."
"I like how the four lines spread out for us tonight in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of each individual line, and maximizing strengths is part of that equation."
"[Vrana] and I have played together for the better part of two seasons in Hershey," says Boyd. "So I'm definitely really comfortable playing with him and happy to see him on my left. I know he can fly, but he likes to make plays and we have had great chemistry ever since we started playing together in Hershey. I'm excited to get out there tonight with him, and hopefully we can make something happen."
Young 97 - Oilers center Connor McDavid is arguably the best player in the NHL, and he is in town tonight for the only time this season. McDavid has won consecutive Art Ross Trophies as the league's leading scorer, and he is tied for second in the circuit in that department this season.
Although the Caps mostly kept him in check in their game against the Oilers late last month - he did get an empty-netter late in the contest - McDavid managed to get a trio of breakaway opportunities in that contest. They'll have another opportunity to try to rein him in tonight.
"On a full ice rush, defensemen are going to have a big challenge with him because he can build up speed better than almost anyone," notes Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen. "He is really dangerous and can really move, so those full ice rushes are going to be a big challenge for us to have a good gap, keep him in front of us and try to deflect him to the outside.
"On neutral zone stuff, I think we can clog it up on them. If we can do that, we can force some turnovers at the line and maybe some bad dumps where we might be able to get some easy breakouts. If we can have McDavid playing in his own end more than ours, that's a good strategy."
McDavid enters Monday's game with a seven-game scoring streak (five goals, five assists) and with nine goals and 21 points in just 13 games on the season. His combination of speed and skill is unmatched around the league.
"He has a high, high skill level obviously, but he can do it at such a fast pace," says Niskanen. "There are a handful of guys in the league who are such good skaters, and they don't slow down at all when they get the puck, and they still have the vision to make a play and have a lot of tools.
"The thing that jumps out to me in the times I have played against him and have seen him on TV is he is so fast at pulling away. Backcheckers don't catch him. If he gets a step on a defenseman and he has room to get to the net, he is gone. You have to always know where he is, and stay above him. Give yourself some extra room if you have to."
In The Nets -After Braden Holtby suffered consecutive losses at Montreal and at home against Dallas to start the month of November, the Caps are going to go with Pheonix Copley in goal tonight against the Oilers. Copley has five career appearances and three starts going into tonight's contest, but this will be the first home ice start of his NHL career.
"We kind of had a plan before," says Reirden, "and we liked how he played in Calgary and we want to get him a home game and a home start. We've got to continue to build that position as well, and get him opportunities and see if he can take advantage of those opportunities."
Copley is 1-1-1 on the season with a 3.55 GAA and an .882 save pct.
Cam Talbot gets the net for the Oilers on Monday in the District. Normally one of the league's workhorse netminders, Talbot has watched three of Edmonton's last five games, as backup Mikko Koskinen has reeled off victories in each of those three games.
During the course of his NHL career, Talbot is 3-4-0 in eight appearances against Washington, with a 2.31 GAA and a .924 save pct.
All Lined Up - Here is how we expect the Capitals and the Oilers will look when they meet on Monday night to close out the 2018-19 season's series between the two teams at Capital One Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 23-Jaskin
18-Stephenson, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
65-Burakovsky, 20-Eller, 10-Connolly
13-Vrana, 72-Boyd, 25-Smith-Pelly
Defensemen
6-Kempny, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen
29-Djoos, 22-Bowey
Goaltenders
1-Copley
70-Holtby
Injuries
43-Wilson (league suspension)
44-Orpik (lower body)
Scratches
26-Dowd
EDMONTON
93-Nugent-Hopkins, 97-McDavid, 91-Caggiula
22-Rieder, 29-Draisaitl, 39-Chiasson
27-Lucic, 18-Strome, 98-Puljujarvi
16-Khaira, 28-Brodziak, 44-Kassian
Defensemen
77-Klefbom, 6-Larsson
25-Nurse, 4-Russell
13-Garrison, 83-Benning
Goaltenders
33-Talbot
19-Koskinen
Injuries
2-Sekera (Achilles)
8-Rattie (upper body)

Scratches
5-Gravel
56-Yamamoto