SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate

Facing Philly - The Caps are back in action on Thursday afternoon in Toronto, facing the Philadelphia Flyers in the middle match of round robin play ahead of the start of next week's commencement of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Flyers rattled Boston by a 4-1 count in their round robin opener while the Caps dropped a 3-2 shootout decision to Tampa Bay.

Washington had difficulty against the Flyers during the regular season, winning one of the four meetings (a 2-1 shootout win in Philly last November) between the two teams, and failing to score more than two goals in any of the games. The Flyers put a 7-2 beating on the Caps in a Saturday night game in the District in February, and Philly downed the Caps 5-2 in the District on March 3 in what turned out to be Washington's home finale for the 2019-20 regular season.

"Something we looked at during the four months away from the rink, was looking at teams that you had trouble with," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "Why did we have trouble with those teams? How can we get better? And now there is a little different element to it with how things are set up [in the round robin].

"Just looking at how they're playing in the first couple of games here, they're playing extremely well, just as they were right before the pause. It'll be a challenge tonight. They're a deep team of young players and talented veteran guys. They finished where they did in the standings because they had a good season and they have good players."

After spinning their wheels for several seasons in which they generally competed for one of the lower playoff berths in the Eastern Conference, Philly underwent a bit of a metamorphosis not unlike that of the Capitals half a decade or so ago. The Flyers brought in Cliff Fletcher as their GM, and he brought in veteran NHL head coach Alain Vigneault while adding veteran defensemen Matt Niskanen and Justin Braun to the fold last summer.

Back in the summer of 2014, the Caps promoted Brian MacLellan to GM, hired veteran NHL coach Barry Trotz, and inked free agent defensemen Niskanen and Brooks Orpik, to good effect and a Stanley Cup championship in 2018.

Like the Caps did in their first season under Trotz and then-assistant Reirden, Philadelphia significantly trimmed its goals against in its first season under the new regime, and the Flyers were the league's best team at shot suppression in 2019-20, allowing an average of just 28.7 shots on net per game.

"They're a very deep team," says Reirden of the Flyers, "a young team that continues to mature and in different situations they're getting more comfortable. But they really made a push this year prior to the pause, and that goes all the way through their team. Their young goaltender continues to get better - a young guy and a talented guy - and they've got a really good backup in [Brian] Elliott as well. Their defense is deep; they've got extra guys that are NHL players that are on the sidelines waiting to get in. And then their forward group is talented and very dangerous. You see a guy like [Sean] Couturier's game just continue to get better and better and better. But it's not just him, it's their whole group. They've got some good chemistry and they're playing well, so it's going to be a real challenge for us."

Back in 2013-14, Vigneault took over the reins of the New York Rangers. He led the Blueshirts to the Stanley Cup Final that season. Caps winger Carl Hagelin was a member of that Rangers team that ultimately fell in the Cup Final to Los Angeles.

"He is a guy who likes when his team plays quick," says Hagelin of Vigneault. "He doesn't like his [defensemen] to hold onto the puck too long; they don't mind sending high flippers [out of the defensive zone] and have the forwards go after pucks. It's definitely a skating game, that's for sure. But also it's a team game where guys take short shifts and do a lot for the team. I think that's the type of team they're trying to be."

Rockin' Robin - Washington is seeking to overtake Philadelphia in the round robin standings, and the Caps will need a regulation victory on Thursday to achieve that objective. More importantly, the Caps are aiming to get their overall game to the next level as they prepare for the start of the 16-team, four-round Stanley Cup Playoff tournament beginning next week. Today, they'll be aiming to build upon a good performance in Monday's round robin opener against the Lightning.

"I think you could see that we started off a little slow, and then we just started finding our game, says Hagelin of his team's performance in Monday's round robin opener against the Lightning. "We started skating a little more, we started playing a smarter style of hockey and getting pucks behind the other team. At this time of year, being in the playoffs, every team is going to play well defensively. They're going to have five guys coming back, and there won't be many odd-man rushes.

"I think we learned that throughout the game, that if we play the way we can - grind other teams down - then we'll be a successful team. These two games coming up here against Philly and Boston are going to be key for us to find our rhythm, find momentum, and obviously get some confidence as a player."

Hagelin has played nine seasons in the NHL, reaching the playoffs after all nine of those seasons, winning two Stanley Cups and reaching the Cup Final on three occasions. With 129 career playoff games, he is tied with Caps captain Alex Ovechkin for 18th place among all active NHL players.

"It's a little bit different," says Hagelin, "especially for us being in these round robin games. But in saying that, I still think there was great intensity in that first game. I think the two teams were emotionally invested, as you could see with [T.J.] Oshie's fight and a lot of good hits. You could see two teams that were working hard on both sides of the puck.

"It's an exciting tournament, that's for sure. And we need to get that win today."

Rolling In The Deep - With the start of the actual Stanley Cup Playoffs still days away, the Caps have already found their depth tested after just one exhibition game and Monday's round robin opener.

First, they lost the services of rookie goaltender Ilya Samsonov, who suffered an off-ice injury during the League's four-month pause and will be unavailable for the duration of the playoffs. Late in Washington's exhibition game against Carolina, Norris Trophy finalist John Carlson got tangled up awkwardly and left the game. He has not played since and is expected to be a game-time decision for the game against Philadelphia. And center Lars Eller has departed the bubble to return home for the impending birth of his family's second child, so he will be out of the lineup for a brief spell.

"John will be a game-time decision," says Reirden. "He is having treatment again this morning, and then we will see where he is at for game time. In terms of who will be coming into our lineup, it will be Travis Boyd. And how our lines are configured, you'll see in warm-up."

Veteran blueliner and former Flyer Radko Gudas stepped in for Carlson and helped the Caps limit the NHL's most potent offensive team to two even-strength goals in 65 minutes of hockey on Monday, and the Caps will count on more of the same from Boyd during Eller's absence. Boyd will slot into Eller's spot in the middle of Washington's third line, between Hagelin and Ilya Kovalchuk.

"That's definitely what it's all about," says Reirden. "If you look back on any of the past Cup winners - including ourselves a few years ago - you have to have depth, you have to have different people step up at the right times and contribute. That's what helps career-defining moments, and whether people take advantage of them or they don't.

"For us, we knew it was going to be important. We knew that at some point Lars was going to be leaving, so we knew someone was going to be needed in that spot. Once we weren't able to bring Samsonov with us [to Toronto], now we had to have someone [Vitek Vanecek] as our new backup goaltender. And then obviously unfortunate to have John hurt in that exhibition game.

"But that's the strength of the group and our team, and our leadership and getting through these situations. Tonight without those players will be a challenge, but it's a great opportunity for some other guys."

Flexible Flyers - The Flyers are expected to make a lineup adjustment for Thursday's game, too. Michael Raffl was injured in the Boston game and isn't expected to play against Washington, so Joel Farabee will slot in and see playoff action for the first time in his young career. The 20-year-old Syracuse native was Philly's first-round (14th overall) choice in the 2018 NHL Draft, and he totaled eight goals and 21 points in 52 games with the Flyers in 2019-20, his first pro season.

"I think I'm pretty confident right now," says Farabee. "I've been with the team with a little bit now, so it kind of just feels like another game. We got the exhibition game in, so it helped my game out a bit. I'm excited to play. Obviously when you miss a game, you're kind of itching to get back. I'm excited to go, and it's going to be a lot of fun."

During the regular season, Farabee saw some power play time and was also deployed occasionally while the Flyers were a man down.

Along with Farabee's presence in the lineup, the Flyers' late-season trade deadline additions of veteran bottom-six pivots Derek Grant and Nate Thompson gives Vigneault a bevy of penalty killing options up front.

"With the addition of Nate [Thompson] and Derek [Grant]," says Vigneault, "we added two guys that can also play on the penalty killing [unit]. So right now I've got seven or eight guys - and Joel is one of those players - that I trust in those situations.

"If you look at so far in the two games we have played, I've been able to almost throw four [penalty-killing] duos out there. When you're able to throw three to four duos out on a two-minute penalty, it means you're not spending a lot of time in your end, it means that you're playing fast, you're putting a lot of pressure on the opposition, you're not giving the opposition a lot of zone time. That's what we've been able to do, that's how our PK has been effective.

"Hopefully I can keep doing that here moving forward. Boston was a big test with their great power play and their great players. [Thursday], we've got another big opponent with a big weapon on their power play. So hopefully I'll be able to get those duos out there and they will all be effective."

In The Nets - Braden Holtby gets the net for Washington on Thursday against the Flyers, three days after limiting the Lightning to two goals on 28 shots in 65 minutes of work.

In 89 career playoff starts, Holtby has limited the opposition to two or fewer goals against in 54 of those starts (60.7% of his starts), and he did so in all six of his previous playoff games against the Flyers in 2016. Holtby is 39-15 in those 54 starts, with 11 of the wins and six of the losses coming in overtime.

Of those 39 victories, 21 came by the margin of a single goal, and Holtby had two other games in which he allowed only two goals through 60 minutes only to surrender a third goal in overtime. In those 54 playoff starts in which Holtby has yielded two or fewer tallies, the Caps have scored an average of just 2.46 goals per game in support of him.

In NHL history, only five goaltenders have a better percentage of playoff games with two or fewer goals against: Turk Broda (65.3%), Eddie Belfour (63.4%), Dominik Hasek (63%), Chris Osgood (62%) and Martin Brodeur (62%). All but Osgood are Hockey Hall of Famers.

Largely because of a lack of offensive support in the postseason, Holtby has a lower overall lifetime playoff winning percentage (.539) than all of those other goaltenders.

During the Caps' run to the Stanley Cup championship in 2018, he permitted two or fewer goals in 12 of his 22 starts, and Washington went 11-1 in those dozen games. (Stick tap to Caps' manager of media relations and content Tommy Chalk and NHL Stats for the core of those numbers.)

For Philadelphia, Brian Elliott gets the start on Thursday. In 45 games (43 starts) worth of Stanley Cup action with four different teams, Elliott is 16-25 with a 2.76 GAA and a .903 save pct.

Lifetime against the Capitals, Elliott is 10-7-0 with a 3.09 GAA and an .895 save pct.

All Lined Up - Here's our best guess at how the Caps and Flyers might look on Thursday afternoon in Toronto in the middle match of a trio of round-robin games for both teams:

WASHINGTON

Forwards

8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson

13-Vrana, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie

62-Hagelin, 72-Boyd, 17-Kovalchuk

14-Panik, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway

Defensemen

4-Dillon, 9-Orlov

6-Kempny, 33-Gudas

34-Siegenthaler, 3-Jensen

Goaltenders

70-Holtby

41-Vanecek

Out

20-Eller

30-Samsonov

74-Carlson

Extras

1-Copley

10-Sprong

16-Maillet

24-McMichael

27-Alexeyev

42-Fehervary

47-Malenstyn

64-Pinho

78-Lewington

PHILADELPHIA

Forwards

28-Giroux, 14-Couturier, 93-Voracek

21-Laughton, 13-Hayes, 11-Konecny

49-Farabee, 38-Grant, 62-Aube-Kubel

25-van Riemsdyk, 44-Thompson, 18-Pitlick

Defensemen

9-Provorov, 15-Niskanen

6-Sanheim, 5-Myers

8-Hagg, 61-Braun

Goaltenders

37-Elliott

79-Hart

Out

12-Raffl

23-Lindblom

Extras

3-Welinski

10-Andreoff

34-Lyon

48-Frost

53-Gostisbehere

54-Zamula

59-Friedman

67-Ustimenko

82-Bunnaman