SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 11/7

You Again -Five weeks ago in Pittsburgh, the Caps and the Penguins hooked up for the first of their four regular season games. It was a wild one from the outset; the two teams combined for five goals on just seven shots in the first eight minutes of play. Things settled down somewhat thereafter, but the two teams combined for 13 goals and Pittsburgh prevailed in overtime by a 7-6 count on Kris Letang's power-play goal.

Playing for the second time in as many nights, the Caps were happy to pull a point from a game in which they trailed by two goals in the third period. T.J. Oshie scored twice in 21 seconds in the final frame, helping Washington to garner that point.
Neither of these two teams have reached peak performance yet in the early going of the 2018-19 season, and both enter Wednesday night's game with identical 6-4-3 records in a tight Metropolitan Division chase where only five points separates the eight teams.
Hey, Nineteen - For the last 12 seasons, hockey fans in the Washington area have had the sublime pleasure of watching Nicklas Backstrom ply his trade here in the nation's capital. One of the game's most cerebral players and one of the best two-way pivots in the game, Backstrom will be honored before tonight's contest for his recent achievement of reaching the 600-assist plateau for his NHL career.
While Backstrom ranks seventh among all active NHL players with an average of .984 points per game over his career, he also excels in his own end of the ice, as he showed on Monday when he and his linemates combined to bottle up Edmonton offensive dynamo Connor McDavid at five-on-five.
After Wednesday's morning skate, Caps coach Todd Reirden expounded on what makes Backstrom such a special two-way player.
"His hockey sense," Reirden begins, "his understanding of the position. His knowledge of what other high-end players see, feel, react to. He understands how those type of players go about thinking about the game offensively. So there's your best approach to defending against those guys is understanding truly how they see the game and what they go through, so knowing different areas that guys really excel in.
"Whether it's McDavid's speed or [Sidney] Crosby's ability to play down low and really puck-protect as well as anybody or [Evgeni] Malkin's ability to beat you one-on-one, every opponent has something that differentiates them, that makes them the elite of the elite. Nick is in that category and he is able to understand what those guys that are in that group of elite players are trying to accomplish. So I think that helps him understand how to defend against them. And again, his work ethic and his attention to detail makes up for the rest. He's in the right spot, he works hard, he works at his craft. He understands the importance of important times in the game and areas that he really needs to focus in on and be solid, and he's done a great job in that capacity for us in the last few years."
Backstrom, who will turn 31 later this month, is the senior member of the Caps corps of centers in terms of tenure here in the District and in terms of games played (828) in the league. As such, he has significantly influenced the other Washington pivots, and in particular the youngest of them, Travis Boyd. Boyd will be appearing in his 10th career regular season game in the league tonight.
"I have great appreciation for Nick every day," says Boyd. "For me, it would be an absolute dream of mine if I could model my game after his and do things even half as well as he can. I watch him a lot - I watch him closely like all of the centers do - and that pass he had to [T.J. Oshie in the Edmonton game] was out of this world. He put it right on the tape, too, which is crazy. He is so skilled as a passer; I don't know if I have ever seen a better passer.
"But he's not just a good offensive player. He does all the small things right, he is hard to play against and he is so smart. He doesn't need to be the most physical guy in the defensive zone, because he knows what the other guy is thinking. One time [in Monday's game], McDavid tried putting it around him and Nick just cut it off with his stick, as calm as could be, and out of the zone we went.
"So yeah, I've got great appreciation for Nick, and I've got great appreciation for all of the centers here; [Evgeny Kuznetsov] and Lars [Eller] too. For me, trying to get my foot in the door in this league and trying to make a name for myself, I'm watching Nick and all the other centers every single day when I'm at the rink. Just being around them and watching them in practice and watching them in games helps me every single day."
Forecheck, Please - The Caps have permitted 3.69 goals per game this season, tied for 27th in the NHL in that category. When Washington earned a 4-2 win over Edmonton on Monday in its previous game, it marked the first time in five games and just the second time in 10 games that the Caps limited the opposition to two or fewer goals.
Talking to Caps defenseman John Carlson prior to the game against the Oilers, he noted the importance of a consistent forecheck in Washington's ongoing process of getting its own end buttoned down a little tighter, in terms of having a greater forechecking presence in the attack zone and in having bodies back to help mitigate the opposition's forechecking efforts in the Caps' zone.
"I think the forecheck is a huge deal," says Carlson. "Nowadays, guys can skate so fast and they're in such great shape that whoever wins the forechecking battle, you're going to get the puck back. It's really what it comes down to nowadays is just work ethic. And on the defensive end, the more guys we have working back that's the only way we can get the puck out cleanly, is to make a couple of good plays against tough forecheckers. That's the trend I've been seeing. I think it will be important for us to execute on our breakouts and to get it deep behind their [defense] and work on them."
Washington executed that part of the game well enough to take down the Oilers on Monday, and will now look to do the same against the Penguins. Wingers have to help break the opposition forecheck in Washington's end, and the Caps' defensemen have to do their part to fuel the forecheck in the offensive zone.
"It's putting pucks in the right places," says Caps defenseman Madison Bowey. "I know [Monday] we did a great job of keeping it away from [Edmonton goalie] Cam Talbot. Every goalie in this league can play the puck and usually makes a great outlet pass and has it in their repertoire. For us, it's just making sure that we give our forwards the best chance to get on pucks quick, and give them the best opportunity to get the puck back.
"That's the biggest thing, that and holding the lines. When we are holding the lines - I know [Carlson] does it really well and [Matt Niskanen] does it really good - but when we're holding that line and making it tough for opponents to break out, that goes a long way and that's when you see our transition to offense come in handy and we take our opportunity and focus on that more."
Encore, Encore - Seeking to tame his team's unusually high goals against average, Reirden made some line adjustments heading into Monday's game against Edmonton, a team that rides its top six forwards hard and a team that features a strong one-two punch up the middle with McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Those moves involved shifting a pair of defensively responsible wingers - Dmitrij Jaskin and Chandler Stephenson - to the top six to supply a bit of defensive conscience to the Caps' top two lines.
The strategy worked well as one Edmonton goal came on the power play and the other came seconds after the expiration of a power play; the Caps gave the Oilers very little at five-on-five. Pittsburgh also features a strong middle of the ice with Crosby and Malkin, so transitioning from the Edmonton game to the Pittsburgh game should be a reasonably smooth segue for the Capitals.
"I'd say that the way that Edmonton sets up their lines is similar to how Pittsburgh does it," says Reirden, "and I think at the end of the day, they want to be like Pittsburgh has been over the last few years. I think it's a difficult matchup and if you want to compare Draisaitl and McDavid [to] Crosby and Malkin, those are younger guys that are up-and-coming.
"There's a very bright future ahead in Edmonton. But that being said for us, it's different types of players but it's definitely extremely dangerous and for us it does set up well for us with how the line changes were made with - as I talked about prior to our game against Edmonton, based on things that we can look to gain offensively out of it, but some of it was so that the proper matchups were set up for me throughout our four lines.
"That was able to be on the forefront of how we had success by moving Stephenson to that line, where he can provide a little bit more defensive element to that line. You move [Jakub] Vrana down and they're able to convert on those chances early on by having some more skill on that particular line. And then we talk about the Ovechkin-Kuznetsov line by adding Jaskin to a little bit more defensive-thinking player and a guy who likes to hang on to the puck in the offensive zone and doesn't allow offensive players to go play in your own end. So there was obviously a lot of thought that went into it and it'll be similar tonight."
In The Nets - Two nights after Pheonix Copley made 31 saves against Edmonton to earn his second consecutive victory, Braden Holtby gets the net back for the Caps. Holtby will be seeking his fifth win of the season, and he will be looking to halt a personal three-game slide (0-2-1).
Lifetime against the Penguins, Holtby is 8-9-3 with two shutouts, a 3.10 GAA and a .906 save pct.
Pittsburgh's Matt Murray is also in the midst of some struggles in the net; he has lost four straight (0-3-1) and has been pulled from two of those starts. That being the case, the Penguins are going to go with Casey DeSmith in goal tonight in D.C.
DeSmith has been sharp this season in seven appearances, four of them starts. He is 2-0-2 on the season with a shutout, a 2.25 GAA and a .932 save pct. He will be making his first career start against Washington.
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
PITTSBURGH
12-Simon, 87-Crosby, 17-Rust
62-Hagelin, 71-Malkin, 72-Hornqvist
59-Guentzel, 15-Sheahan, 81-Kessel
10-Wilson, 7-Cullen, 46-Aston-Reese
Defensemen
73-Johnson, 58-Letang
8-Dumoulin, 2-Ruhwedel
3-Maatta, 6-Oleksiak
Goaltenders
1-DeSmith
30-Murray
Injuries
4-Schultz (fractured lower left leg)
19-Brassard (lower body)

Scratches
41-Sprong
50-Riikola