SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

December's Dream - November was a difficult month for the Caps in terms of scheduling and dealing with injuries. Washington played most of its November games without four or five key players and with a handful of recalls from AHL Hershey in the lineup on a nightly basis, and it still managed a more than respectable 9-4-2 mark while playing 15 games in 30 nights, including 10 of them on the road.

The team started December with an off day on Wednesday before reconvening for Thursday's morning skate ahead of tonight's game with Chicago, and there is finally some good news to report on the injury front.
Defenseman Justin Schultz was on the ice and taking reps with partner Trevor van Riemsdyk this morning, and Schultz appears to be good to return to the Washington lineup tonight after a three-game absence because of an upper body injury.
And furthermore, forwards Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie and Conor Sheary were also on the ice with their teammates, albeit in dark blue non-contact sweaters. Each of the three players stayed out late after the skate ended, working with Caps coaches and tonight's scratches for a long period of time.
December gets underway with at least the hope of some of those players returning to the lineup at some point soon.
"Yeah, I hope so," says Schultz. "It's been a grind. We've had a tough schedule and it's not easy. But yeah, you see these guys [one the ice] and hopefully they're getting close. Hopefully soon we'll have all the big boys back in the lineup."
Keep It Together - While Schultz was out of the lineup for the last three games, Dennis Cholowski filled in for him, logging between 13-17 minutes in those three games. Given the rust he must have accumulated from watching the first quarter of the season from the press box, Cholowski filled in admirably, though he did take a costly cross-checking penalty in the third period of Tuesday's loss to the Panthers in Florida.
But with Schultz back in the lineup, Washington's foundation is restored. The Caps' group of six defensemen stayed intact for the first 20 games of the season, the only such unit in the League to do so over that span. Defense is a team concept that requires buy in from the forward group and key saves and bailouts at key times in the game from goaltenders, but the Caps have found a touchstone in their top six this season.
"It was good to see Cholo in there a little bit and to watch him play, so that was a positive that comes from it," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette, "but our six defensemen have been a mainstay on our back end. There have been no changes, there have been no [defensemen] swapping pairs. They have found a really good chemistry together. I think that's one of the reasons why we've become a good defensive team - it's a team thing - but all six defensemen have done a really good job of playing hard defense, breaking pucks out of our end and using each other. There's a real good chemistry, so it's nice to get [Schultz] back in there."
Among the best of the six at playing hard defense and breaking pucks out of the Washington end has been the tandem of Nick Jensen and Dmitry Orlov. Among all NHL defensemen with 300 or more minutes of work this season, both Jensen and Orlov rank among the League's top 25 in defensive-zone face-offs, according to naturalstattrick.com. And despite that fact, both also rank among the top three in the League among defensemen in 5-on-5 goals for.
Jensen has been on the for 26 goals for and just seven against at 5-on-5, and his goals for pct. of 78.79% is second in the League to only Calgary's Rasmus Andersson (80.77%). Orlov has been on for 24 goals for and seven against, and his goals for rate of 77.42% is third in the NHL.
Now playing in his fourth season with the Caps, Jensen ascended from the third pairing last season to what is essentially Washington's shutdown pair this season, and he has done so with aplomb. Jensen leads the NHL with a plus-21 and his ice time is at 19:33 a night, up from 17:18 per game last season.
Jensen's own overall game has been trending upward since weeks prior to start of the pandemic, but he believes that Washington's team's defense has never been better in his time here in the District, which will be three years in February.
"Yeah, absolutely," says Jensen. "From what I've seen, this is definitely the best stretch we've played. I can't say it just because of the six defensemen. Honestly, the success we've had defensively is all six guys - [seven] including the goalie - in the [defensive] zone playing as one unit and making it really hard on the other team to play any offense in our zone. I think we've definitely done a really good job of that, and it's the best I've seen since I've been here."
Back In The Saddle Again -Caps winger Daniel Sprong played in 42 of Washington's 56 games last season. On five separate occasions, he sat out for a game or more as a healthy extra. In his first games back in the lineup after sitting out, he totaled four goals in those five games, accounting for a good chunk of his 13 goals on the season in 2020-21.
Sprong sat out each of the last two games after his line was on the ice for a pair of 200-foot rush goals against Florida on Friday, a game in which he logged just 9:21 in ice time and took only one shift in the third period after the second of those 200-foot goals against.
Tonight, Sprong returns to the lineup on the left side of a unit with Lars Eller and Tom Wilson, and Laviolette has faith in him to make a mark in his return.
"I think Spronger's going to have a good game tonight," says Laviolette. "We want to see a real strong player on both sides of the puck. We know that he can shoot the puck and he's capable of scoring a goal. We want to see a 200-foot player going both ways, offensively and defensively.
"There's been conversations with Daniel, there's been video, and we want to make sure that it's not just about his shot and scoring goals, that it's a complete game. I would expect a big game. After you come out for a couple of games, you get a chance to catch yourself when you get reinserted back into the lineup. That's an opportunity to do real positive things, and I'm pretty confident he's going to have a good game tonight."
In The Nets - Twenty-three games into the 2021-22 season, the Caps have had a fairly equal split of their goaltending duties to this point. Both Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek have made a dozen appearances thus far, and Samsonov has occupied the crease for six more minutes (667 to 661) than Vanecek. Zach Fucale also logged 60 minutes in the Washington nets in a road shutout of the Red Wings last month.
After Samsonov started each of Washington's last four games - doing so for the first time in his NHL career - Vanecek gets the net tonight against the Blackhawks. Vanecek's last start was on Nov. 21 in Seattle when he played the second of a set of back-to-back games with travel and an early start time, a far from ideal situation. The Caps lost that game, 5-2.
"Vitek has been a great goalie for us since I've been here and he's gotten a chance to play," says Laviolette. "We want to get him going; he's been sitting for quite a while. We went with Sammy, and Sammy had a good run. For me, it's just about getting Vitek back in there and giving him an opportunity. He's been a real good goaltender for us."
Vanecek is 4-3-4 on the season with a 2.52 GAA and a .906 save pct. He will be facing Chicago for the first time in his NHL career.
Veteran netminding stalwart Marc-Andre Fleury gets the start for the Hawks tonight. In his first season with Chicago, Fleury got out to a rocky start, largely because of the play in front of him. But he has settled into a groove of late, going 4-2-0 with a shutout, a 1.50 GAA and a .955 save pct. in his last six appearances.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Fleury is 24-14-2 with four shutouts, a 2.62 GAA and a .911 save pct. in 42 appearances.
All Lined Up -Here's how we expect the Capitals and the Blackhawks to look on Thursday night in the District when the two teams meet for the first of two times this month:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 59-Protas
10-Sprong, 20-Eller, 43-Wilson
62-Hagelin, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
47-Malenstyn, 24-McMichael, 49-Leason
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 3-Jensen
57-van Riemsdyk, 2-Schultz
Goaltenders
41-Vanecek
30-Samsonov
Extras
23-Sgarbossa
38-Cholowski
52-Irwin
Injured
19-Backstrom (hip, week-to-week)

39-Mantha (upper body, indefinite)
73-Sheary (upper body)
77-Oshie (lower body)
CHICAGO
Forwards
38-Hagel, 19-Toews, 88-Kane
12-Debrincat, 77-Dach, 17-Strome
8-Kubalik, 13-Borgstrom, 16-Khaira
38-Slavin, 22-Carpenter, 86-Hardman
Defensemen
48-Kalynuk, 4-S. Jones
6-McCabe, 5-Murphy
56-Gustafsson, 82-C. Jones
Goaltenders
29-Fleury
32-Lankinen
Extras
23-Kurashev
52-R.Johnson
Injured
44-de Haan (back)
58-Entwistle (ankle)
61-Stillman (lower body)
90-T. Johnson (COVID-19 protocol)