SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 5/3

First We Take Manhattan -The Caps are in New York City for their final two road games of the 2020-21 season. They'll take on the Rangers in a pair of contests on Monday and Wednesday night. Both teams come into Monday night's game on the heels of shutout losses at home in their most recent outings. The Rangers fell 4-0 to the Islanders on Saturday at Madison Square Garden while Washington absorbed a 3-0 whitewashing at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the District on Saturday night.

Playing without captain Alex Ovechkin for the last four games and without top defenseman John Carlson for the last two, the Caps have seen their 5-on-5 offense slow to a trickle. Since they bagged half a dozen goals at 5-on-5 in a 6-3 win over the Islanders in New York on April 24, they've managed only three goals at 5-on-5 in the three games since, going 1-1-1 in those contests.
Both Ovechkin and Carlson skated on Monday morning, but the presence of both players in the lineup for tonight will be a game-time decision. Further muddying the look of Washington's Monday night lineup is the absence of T.J. Oshie, who will miss Monday's game while attending to a personal family matter.
It's not just a matter of what the lines and pairs will look like for tonight, it's unsure at this point whether the Caps would be able to dress a full complement of 18 skaters if both Ovechkin and Carlson are unable to go on Monday night in Manhattan.
"It was great that they're both out there," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "They're participating in full. They look good, and they will be game-time decisions tonight."
Asked whether the Caps might dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen with Oshie unavailable, Laviolette answered in the affirmative.
"That would be a possibility," says the Caps coach. "If we don't have enough forwards, 11 and seven would be a possibility. But that's if John were available. There are a lot of things in the air with regard to the lineup."
With Washington's playoff berth already sealed and secured, there is no reason to rush either Ovechkin or Carlson back to the lineup.
"I think the biggest thing is their health," says Laviolette of his two ailing stars. "At this point in the season, the biggest thing is their health. We're not hiding anything; you see them out there practicing and participating in full. And yet, when you get to a game, it's a different strain. I feel like there are more demands on your body. And so at that point, we're making a decision as to what's in the best interests of our team, what's in the best interest of that player.
"And so while we'd love to have them in the lineup at this point with a handful of games to go, we want to make sure we're doing the right thing."
New York will also be missing a handful of key regulars because of injuries, with forwards Chris Kreider and Brett Howden and defenseman Jacob Trouba among the ailing.
The Rangers are coming to the end of a 17-game stretch of games played exclusively in the New York metropolitan area. From April 6 through May 5, the Rangers will have played 17 straight games without boarding a plane. They've played 11 home dates, four games at Long island's Nassau Coliseum and two at Prudential Center in Newark over that span.
Despite a shutout loss to the Isles in its most recent home game, New York is 9-3-0 in his last dozen home games, and it has outscored the opposition by a combined 54-29 during that stretch.
In The Nets - Vitek Vanecek gets the net for the Capitals against the Rangers tonight. Vanecek is coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday night in his most recent outing. He will be taking a crack at his 19th win of the season; he leads all rookie goaltenders in wins and is tied for eighth in the League overall. Vanecek needs two more victories this season to join Michal Neuvirth (27 victories in 2010-11) and Bob Mason (20 victories in 1986-87) as the third Caps rookie goaltender to notch 20 wins in a season.
Vanecek is making his 33rd start of the season tonight, the most by a Washington rookie since Neuvirth had 45 starting assignments as an NHL freshman. In his last 22 appearances, he is 13-6-2 with a couple of shutouts, a 2.48 GAA and a .911 save pct.
In four starts against the Rangers this season, Vanecek is 1-3-0 with a 2.80 GAA and a .902 save pct.
Igor Shesterkin is expected to be in net for the Rangers on Monday. He'll be starting for the fourth time in his career against the Caps, and he has yielded two or fewer goals against in each of his three previous appearances against Washington.
On the season, Shesterkin is 15-12-3 with two shutouts, a 2.44 GAA and a .920 save pct. In his three appearances against the Caps, he is 3-0-0 with a 1.67 GAA and a .946 save pct.
All Lined Up - Here is how we expect the Caps and the Rangers might look on Monday night in Manhattan:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
73-Sheary, 19-Backstrom, 39-Mantha
17-Raffl, 20-Eller, 10-Sprong
62-Hagelin, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
4-Dillon, 2-Schultz
33-Chara, 3-Jensen
57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
41-Vanecek
30-Samsonov
Out
6-Kempny (Achilles' tendon)
77-Oshie (personal)
Extras
None
Taxi Squad
23-Sgarbossa (F)
28-Carr (F)
31-Anderson (G)
38-LaDue (D)
40-Pilon (F)
NEW YORK
Forwards
10-Panarin, 93-Zibanejad, 89-Buchnevich
13-Lafreniere, 16-Strome, 24-Kakko
74-Kravtsov 72-Chytil, 43-Blackwell
33-Di Giuseppe, 17-Rooney, 12-Gauthier
Defensemen
79-Miller, 23-Fox
25-Hajek, 6-Jones
51-Reunanen, 42-Smith
Goaltenders
31-Shesterkin
40-Georgiev
Out
8-Trouba (upper body)
20-Kreider (undisclosed)
21-Howden (foot)
27-Johnson (sports hernia)
55-Lindgren (upper body)
Extras
22-Bitetto
47-Barron