SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 12/8

I Went Back To Ohio - Washington's three-game road trip this week started on Tuesday in Vegas, where the Caps won the Stanley Cup over the Knights on June 7 of this year. On Saturday night, the trip concludes in Columbus, where the Caps finished off their first-round series with the Blue Jackets the last time they were in town.

Columbus won the first two games of that playoff series with the Caps last April, and Washington needed a clutch Lars Eller goal midway through the second overtime period to avoid going down 0-3 in the series. From there, the Caps won four straight to oust the Jackets on move on to a second-round date with the Penguins.
Saturday marks the Caps' first trip back here since they won Game 6 of that first-round set here on April 23.
A single point separates these two teams going into Saturday night's game, which will determine which team wakes up on Sunday morning atop the Metropolitan Division Standings.
"They're obviously a well-coached team that plays hard," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "[They are] extremely physical on the forecheck when they get a chance. They're good at home, especially a Saturday night like tonight, they'll be flying tonight for sure.
"We can expect a live opponent tonight, and it's a good challenge against these guys. It's very similar to how we've felt against teams that have knocked us out in the past in the playoffs. I think they have a little bit of that burning inside them, so they're a very tough opponent for anybody, but especially us, given our past history with them."

Top Trios -The top forward lines on both sides have been surging of late. Columbus' top line of Artemi Panarin, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Cam Atkinson have combined for 39 goals in 28 games this season, with 32 of those tallies coming at even strength. That threesome has totaled 24 goals in 17 games since the start of November.
Atkinson has a 12-game scoring streak (13 goals, seven assists) going, a run that is one game shy of matching the franchise record established by Ryan Johansen. Back in 2014-15, Johansen put up a point in 13 straight contests to set that Columbus franchise standard.
Although Washington is still missing right wing Tom Wilson from its first line, its top unit of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Andre Burakovsky - who is filling in for Wilson - has combined for 36 goals in 28 games, with two-thirds (24) of those goals coming at even strength. Ovechkin has picked up a point in 10 straight games (nine goals, five assists), his longest scoring streak in more than a decade.
Both teams get a fair amount of secondary scoring from lower down in their respective lineups, and Saturday night might come down to whichever team can generate more in the way of a secondary attack. Columbus prevailed over the Caps in the only previous meeting between the two teams this season, taking a 2-1 decision in Washington on Nov. 9. All three goals in that game came on the power play.
Finally, both teams also feature a group of active blueliners that help fuel its attack. Columbus defensemen have amassed 16 goals and 58 assists on the season while Washington's rearguards have combined for 14 goals and 57 assists in 28 games. More of Columbus' blueline production comes at even strength thand does Washington's.
"They're extremely active," says Reirden of the Jackets' blueline group. "It's important that we play defense as a five-man group tonight, because their defensemen are looking to beat our forwards up the ice all of the time, and they can skate, that's for sure.
"They've done a good job over there with their roster and in building three [defensive] pairs that can add offensively. It's really important that we focus on putting pucks behind them and making it difficult for them to break pucks out when we have our opportunities tonight. Puck management I think will play a large factor in how success goes for the Capitals tonight."

Ailing Men -Washingtxon recalled forward Riley Barber from AHL Hershey on Friday, moving T.J. Oshie to injured reserve to accommodate the move. Barber isn't expected to play tonight, but that's a fluid situation that could change, as the Caps have a couple of forwards whose presence in Saturday night's lineup is not yet certain, for various reasons.
Barber was Hershey's leading scorer with 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists) at the time of his recall.
In The Nets - Braden Holtby gets the net back for Washington tonight after Pheonix Copley backstopped the Caps to a 4-2 win over the Coyotes in Arizona on Thursday. After winning five straight starts, Holtby has dropped two in a row, yielding 10 goals on 52 shots in the process.
Lifetime against Columbus, Holtby is 14-5-1 with a shutout, a 2.60 GAA and a .915 save pct.
Sergei Bobrovsky will be in goal for the Blue Jackets on Saturday. When the Caps encountered the Jackets and Bobrovsky just under a month ago in Washington, the Columbus netminder was on a hot streak, and he limited the Capitals to one power-play goal in a 2-1 Jackets victory. That 33-save performance against Washington was one of five games in a span of six starts in which Bobrovsky yielded exactly one goal, and he won all five of those games.
Bobrovsky is now in the midst of a seven-start run in which he has surrendered three or more goals in five of the seven, winning four of the seven decisions and facing fewer than 30 shots on net in five of the seven contests.
Lifetime against Washington, he is 8-10-4 with a 2.93 GAA and a .904 save pct.

All Lined Up -This is how we expect the Caps and the Blue Jackets will look when they meet in Ohio's capital city on Saturday night at Nationwide Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 65-Burakovsky
13-Vrana, 92-Kuznetsov, 10-Connolly
18-Stephenson, 20-Eller, 25-Smith-Pelly
23-Jaskin, 26-Dowd, 72-Boyd
Defensemen
6-Kempny, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen
34-Siegenthaler, 22-Bowey
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
1-Copley
Injuries
43-Wilson (upper body)
44-Orpik (lower body)
77-Oshie (upper body)
Scratches
24-Barber
29-Djoos
COLUMBUS
Forwards
9-Panarin, 18-Dubois, 13-Atkinson
71-Foligno, 38-Jenner, 77-Anderson
17-Dubinsky, 10-Wennberg, 91-Duclair
37-Hannikainen, 20-Nash, 28-Bjorkstrand
Defensemen
8-Werenski, 3-Jones
27-Murray, 65-Nutivaara
4-Harrington, 58-Savard
Goaltenders
72-Bobrovsky
70-Korpisalo
Injuries
None
Scratches
14-Kukan
45-Sedlak
53-Carlsson