SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 1/30

Bear Witness - Two of the NHL's top teams will tangle for the first time this season on Saturday night in the District when the Capitals host the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena. The game marks the first time Washington blueliner Zdeno Chara will face his former team, and it also could feature the return of the league's two leading goal-scorers from last season, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin and Bruins right wing David Pastrnak.

"I don't think it's going to be as much about me playing against the Boston Bruins," says Chara. "These are two really good teams playing two points that are going to be out there [Saturday] to grab. I'm going to prepare the same way, just like I've been preparing for many years and many games."
"I think the Boston Bruins are a very good team, a very deep team. They have everything that you ask from your team and your players. [They're a] well-structured team, play with a lot of speed and skill. I think it's a great challenge for us [Saturday] night."
The Ills -Ovechkin has missed the Caps' last four games while on the League's "unavailable due to Covid protocol" list, but and he and defenseman Dmitry Orlov returned to the team's practice facility today. Both were on the ice for Washington's morning skate, but only Ovechkin participated in line rushes. It seems possible that Ovechkin could play tonight, but unlikely that Orlov will be in.
According to Caps coach Peter Laviolette, Ovechkin's presence in the Washington lineup for Saturday night's game will be a game-time decision.
"We're going to talk about that and make a decision today with regard to Alex," says Laviolette, adding that the determination on Ovechkin will be a game-time decision.
"He is back, he is available to us, and we'll make those decisions today," says Laviolette when asked about Orlov.
Two Capitals remain on the League's COVID list, center Evgeny Kuznetsov and goaltender Ilya Samsonov.
"These two players [Ovechkin and Orlov] have been released [from the list] and are available to our team," says Laviolette. "The other two players remain in quarantine."
In addition to the Caps' COVID list quartet being whittled down to a duo, Laviolette provided updates on center Lars Eller and defenseman Justin Schultz. Eller suffered an upper body injury on Tuesday against the Islanders and did not play in Thursday's rematch. He did skate briefly before Saturday's morning skate, but was sporting a non-contact sweater and did not participate in the skate itself. Schultz left Thursday's game early in the third period with an upper body injury, the result of taking a puck up high.
"They're both right now still day-to-day," says Laviolette. "It's good to get Lars back on the ice. You see he wasn't really in the mix [this morning], and I think he is working his way back to try to get to a position where he can help us. Justin is doing good, but he was not on the ice today."
Driver 8 - The last time Ovechkin missed as many as four games was more than a decade ago, when he was shelved for six games - the longest absence of his career - because of a shoulder injury. While rehabbing from that injury in November of 2009, Ovechkin was able to skate while he was healing. When he showed up at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Saturday morning, he also took to the ice for the first time since Jan. 19 when the Caps dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to the Penguins in Pittsburgh.
Minutes after he left the ice this morning, we were able to have a conversation with the Caps captain. We started by wondering how he is feeling.
"Well obviously, it's not good," says Ovechkin. "But I thought it would be worse. I felt the puck, I skated a little bit, and I told Lavi I'm ready to go."
Asked how many minutes he thought he could play tonight if he does play tonight, Ovechkin responded with an impish smile.
"Depends on the situation, but I think 25-30."
This being a regular season game, it won't last long enough for Ovechkin to play 25-30 minutes, and 20 would seem like a stretch for a 35-year-old guy who hasn't been on the blades in 10 days. But he's Alex Ovechkin, and we're not.
What will be the biggest challenge in coming back after such a long absence and only a morning skate under his belt, even if he were to play a more manageable amount such as 15-20 minutes?
"I think for me, it's just to feel the rhythm and get back to game mode," says the Caps captain. "I'm pretty sure it's not going to be easy. The first couple of shifts are going to be hard shifts - short and hard, obviously. But for me it's about just getting my rhythm, getting my breath back, feeling the puck. Don't mess around, just go out there and play hard and smart."
Was he able to stay active and try to stay in shape over the last 10 days?
"Yeah, I have a gym," says Ovechkin. "I rode the bike, I did some workouts, I went outside for running. But obviously, not much you can do out there besides sitting and watching TV and spending time with my wife. That's about it."
In previous absences from the lineup, Ovechkin was able to watch from the building or from the press box and he wasn't stuck in his home for the entirety of his absence from the lineup. What was it like watching on television?
"Obviously it's a tough situation," he sighs, "but nothing anybody can do. But the boys did a great job, collected some points. It doesn't matter who is in the lineup, it just matters to get those points."
After playing four games after a short camp, he sat and watched the next four games. Did he glean any new insights as to the Laviolette style of play while watching?
"When you watch the game, you feel like you can do some different stuff as a player," Ovechkin observes. "But overall, you can see that when we play an aggressive style and when we play smart, we have some pretty good [scoring] chances."
Whenever Ovechkin takes the ice for the next time for game action, he is one goal shy of matching former Capital and Hockey Hall of Famer Mike Gartner for seventh place on the NHL's all-time goals ledger. Ovechkin sits at 707 while Gartner finished a 19-year NHL career with 708.
Stop That Train - For the last four games - two against Buffalo and new against the New York Islanders - Caps center Nic Dowd and linemates Carl Hagelin and Garnet Hathaway have had the assignment of shutting down the opposition's top line. While Hagelin has been tasked with this sort of responsibility previously in his career, it's newer to Dowd and Hathaway, who've been mainly fourth-liners throughout their respective NHL careers. But all three are relishing their role.
When you know you're going up against the opposition's top line, does it change your preparation for the game?
"No, I don't think so," Dowd says. "I'd like to think that I've been preparing for this opportunity every time I practice and every time I skate. And now that it's come to this point, I think I've done a good job of getting ready for it. Saying that, I think it helps playing with two guys who are also really prepared.
"A guy like Hags has had a lot of different roles in his career for different teams. Hath is a guy who is a little bit like myself, who has had a certain role for a while here in Washington, and then we've been given this opportunity and I think we're both ready for it. Not to say it's not a learning experience at times, but we're both older guys who have played some games and we take full responsibility for how we play every night, and I think we do relish the fact that we get to this, and that it is one of our more important ways to contribute."
Dowd and company kept Jack Eichel and his linemates off the board at 5-on-5 in the first two games of the current homestand, prompting Sabres coach Ralph Krueger to tweak his top unit and later praise the Caps' checking group as a "premier defensive unit in the National Hockey League against anybody." Not only has the Dowd trio been on the ice for just one even-strength goal against in eight games, that line has been on the ice for six goals for, including one in each of the last four games.
Late in Thursday's game against the Islanders, a clearly frustrated Mathew Barzal took a misconduct penalty that gave him a head start to the showers over his teammates. He was then at the tail end of two straight games against the Caps' checking unit, and Barzal himself is the guy who scored the only goal against the Dowd line.
"You know, it's funny," said Hathaway after that game. "We still talk a lot about stuff we do well and stuff that we can do better. Obviously we've got to be on our toes every single shift.
"That [Barzal] line we played against tonight is fast. They were just in our [defensive] zone a few times, and we kept them to the perimeter. But I thought tonight, even when we didn't control the puck in the [offensive] zone, we broke out of our zone really well. We didn't spend a lot of time in the neutral zone and we were smart on our changes, and we didn't put ourselves in a bad spot. It's a lot easier to play defense when you don't do that."
Dowd is finding that being able to play two straight games against the same foe is a benefit given his line's added shutdown responsibility. It also helps out on draws; Dowd won 65 percent of his face-offs on Thursday night while his teammates won a combined 30 percent.
"I actually like that," Dowd says of the consecutive contests, "because you do learn tendencies on guys and playing against them twice you have the ability to frustrate them, and you try to do that. And you also get to take a lot of draws against the two guys I played against in the previous four games, and that helps a lot. You get your timing and your rhythm and it makes you a little more successful on the dot.
"I think the face-offs are so key, just because if you give those guys the puck for an extra 10 or 15 seconds, or 20 seconds, that makes a big difference for those top line guys. I mean, look at our top guys. If they have the puck for an extra five seconds, it can be in the back of the net."
Speaking of Washington's top guys, Dowd and company have seen a fair amount of those fellas in practice over the years. That's helped prepare them for their current role, too.
"We play against some of the best players in the world every day," he says. "And to be honest, the way the lines were set up, we were always playing against the top lines in practice. I think that helps a lot, learning and watching and practicing against those guys."
Tonight, their task will be facing one of the league's elite scoring lines, the Patrice Bergeron line with Pastrnak and Brad Marchand.
"You do have to respect who they are and what they've accomplished," says Dowd. "I think that goes across to our guys as well. If I was lining up against Nicky [Backstrom] and Ovi, you have to respect their game and have a decent understanding of it.
"I think playing these back-to-back games helps give you that understanding. But I think the best way to play defense is to play in the offensive zone. You keep those guys down there because a lot of high end guys don't want to play in the [defensive] zone, and you know they get paid to play in the [offensive] zone. "I think that's what has made us so successful is that, we clog up the neutral zone and then we play a lot of time in the [offensive] zone. Hopefully after the game, the other line is kind of looking around thinking, 'Well you know, we didn't really have the puck that much.'"
Rocket 88 - Pastrnak had offseason hip surgery in September, and he is expected to make his 2020-21 debut against the Capitals tonight.
"I'm sure he'll bring offense," says Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy of the return of his team's top offensive threat. "He'll find pucks and get some looks. It's [more about] can he recover from a shift or a long shift if he gets stuck in his end? He's probably not real used to the physical play, even though we tried to get him up to speed in practice; it's just not the same.
"Washington is more of a big, physical team, so that will be a challenge for him - to make sure he plays with his head up and understands that it's live now. That's always the biggest challenge I think for anybody coming off a long layoff is the extended puck battles, the physical play, the traffic. Everyone has skated, everyone has handled pucks, it's the other stuff that they've got to be ready for. I imagine there'll be some rust to shake off, he is no different from anybody else. But we'll try to get him through it.
"As for his usage, we're just going to play that by ear. He is in great shape, he looks good out there, but we're going to have to monitor that and like I said, see how he recovers. And some time, and score and game situation will dictate the other part of it."
In The Nets - For the seventh time in nine games this season and for the sixth contest in a row, Vitek Vanecek will be in net for Washington on Saturday night. Vanecek is 4-0-2 on the season, which is also the sum total of the 25-year-old rookie netminder's NHL career. He owns a 2.75 GAA and a .915 save pct.
"He's been really good," says Laviolette. "Vitek has given us a chance to walk away with points in games. This is the perfect example of opportunity being given to somebody and that person making the most of it. Everybody gets opportunity at some point, and from there it's what you do with it. And he certainly has made the most of his opportunity."
In starting his sixth straight game tonight, Vanecek becomes the first rookie Caps goalie to do so since Michal Neuvirth had the crease for six straight contests nearly a decade ago, from Feb. 21-March 2, 2011. If Vanecek is able to help his team earn a point tonight, he will match Jim Carey's franchise record for most consecutive starts earning a point from the start of a career. Carey went 6-0-1 in his first seven starts back in March of 1995.
Veteran Tuukka Rask is expected to be in net for Boston on Saturday. Rask is 3-1-0 with a 2.13 GAA and a .905 save pct. in his four starts this season, and he has yielded two or fewer goals in three of those outings. Lifetime against Washington, Rask is 3-11-5 with a couple of shutouts, a 3.10 GAA and an .892 save pct.
All Lined Up - Here's how we believe the Capitals and Bruins might look on Saturday night at Capital One Arena when they meet for the first of eight times in 2020-21:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
13-Vrana, 19-Backstrom, 43-Wilson
8-Ovechkin, 77-Oshie, 14-Panik
62-Hagelin, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
73-Sheary, 23-Sgarbossa, 10-Sprong
Defensemen
33-Chara, 74-Carlson
4-Dillon 57-van Riemsdyk
34-Siegenthaler, 3-Jensen
Goaltenders
41-Vanecek
31-Anderson
Out
2-Schultz (upper body, day-to-day)
6-Kempny (Achilles' tendon)
20-Eller (upper body, day-to-day)
30-Samsonov (on "unavailable due to Covid protocol" list)
92-Kuznetsov (on "unavailable due to Covid protocol" list)
Extras
9-Orlov
28-Carr
Taxi Squad
1-Copley (G)
16-Maillet (F)
39-Fucale (G)
42-Fehervary (D)
64-Pinho (F)
BOSTON
Forwards
63-Marchand, 37-Bergeron, 88-Pastrnak
21-Ritchie, 46-Krejci, 83-Kuhlman
11-Frederic, 13-Coyle, 12-Smith
10-Bjork, 52-Kuraly, 14-Wagner
Defensemen
79-Lauzon, 73-McAvoy
75-Clifton, 25-Carlo
67-Zboril, 86-Miller
Goaltenders
40-Rask
41-Halak
Out
27-Moore (lower body)
28-Kase (upper body)
48-Grzelcyk (lower body)
74-DeBrusk (undisclosed)
Extras
None