As The Years Go Passing By - The Caps conclude a busy calendar 2021 tonight in Detroit against the Red Wings where they will play their 89th regular season game of the year. Washington enters tonight's tilt with a 55-21-12 record, the fifth best record in the NHL and the third best in the Eastern Conference from a points percentage (.693) perspective.
SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate
Washington is 5-2-2 in the month of December, and it has had three of its games this month postponed until later in the season. The Caps are 14-4-3 in their last 21 games, and their .738 points percentage over that span is fourth best in the league.
Start Me Up -When Washington last visited the Motor City on Nov. 11, it had to endure a swift start from a Wings team that spent the first half of the first period buzzing around the Caps' end of the ice. Zach Fucale, making his NHL debut in goal for the Caps that night, made eight of his 21 saves in the first half of the first frame. At night's end, he was the proud owner of a 2-0 shutout victory.
The Caps haven't allowed a first-period goal in four games and they've scored the game's first goal in five straight games, seven of their last eight, and in 23 of 32 games this season (h/t Carter Myers). With three regulars out on the blueline once again tonight, they'll seek a better start than they had their last time through town.
"We talked about it this morning; it was the first 10 minutes," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "The first 10 minutes, the [shots] were 8-1 and they outchanced us 6-1. That's not good enough, and so we talked about that start and being ready to play. After that, I thought we were really good in the game."
Capital Youth - Defenseman Lucas Johansen is expected to make his NHL debut tonight in Detroit, two nights after Alex Alexeyev did so in D.C. against Nashville.
Johansen - Washington's first-round choice (28th overall) - is in his fifth pro season, but he was limited to a combined total of just 14 AHL games over the last two seasons because of injuries and the pandemic. He played in 22 of Hershey's 26 games this season, totaling three goals and seven points to go along with a plus-14.
The left-handed rearguard from Vancouver celebrated his 24th birthday last month, and he will celebrate his NHL debut tonight, becoming the eighth player to make his NHL debut for Washington in a span of just 33 games this season, and the third to do so in as many games; Joe Snively made his debut for the Caps against Los Angeles on Dec. 19.
For the last several seasons, opportunities for young players have been few and far between. The team has been strong, consistently good, and durable, and the Caps haven't had to make frequent recalls from Hershey in nearly a decade now.
"If there's one thing that you could definitely say is a positive from this year, it's that a lot of guys didn't get a lot of looks for a long time, for good reason, I think," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "I know if that was me, that would suck, and that's hard because a lot of these guys have been waiting three, four or five years for their chance to show what they can do. And I think from our standpoint, they deserved that chance and just never had the right opportunity to fill the minimal voids that we have had to deal with.
"It's great for them as players and people because they've really put in the effort and stayed near or at the top of their game, where they need to be when they do get called up. And it's great to see how much of an influence they've had on us.
"When you have a lot of young guys, it brings a different juice into the locker room. It's nice as an older guy coming in every morning and seeing five or six guys with the biggest smiles on their faces, and seeing them going through the first days of their career. I think that's been a positive for us on the backside of it, and on the ice they've been huge contributing factors to our success."
This season marks just the fourth time in franchise history that the Caps have had eight or more players make their NHL debuts inside of the first 40 games of the season, and the first time it has occurred since 1981-82. Eleven different players made their NHL debuts for Washington in the first 40 games of the team's maiden NHL season of 1974-75, and the Caps had 10 players make their debuts in the first 40 games of both the 1979-80 and 1981-82 seasons.
The last time the Caps had more than eight debuts in a season was 2013-14 when they had nine: Julien Brouillette, Connor Carrick, Nicolas Deschamps, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Michael Latta, Peter LeBlanc, Nate Schmidt, Patrick Wey and Tom Wilson.
You may notice a thread among those four previous teams with so many debuts; none of them made the playoffs.
Jeannie Needs A Shooter - The Caps have been one of the best teams in the NHL at shot suppression this season, ranking second in the League in that department going into tonight's game. But quietly, the Caps have started putting a lot of pucks on opposition netminders of late.
Although they rank 15th in the circuit with an average of 32.2 shots on net per game, the Caps have poured 35 or more shots on net in each of their last five games. Over that short stretch of games, they've averaged 39.8 shots a night to rank second behind Calgary, which played only two games during that span.
"Just continue to try and get that identity in the offensive zone," says Laviolette. "And when you go back five games, there's some personnel out [of the lineup], people who can put some points up on the board. That's been nice to see. That part of it's been good.
"We always talk about defense before we do offense; we feel like we're going to generate pucks at the net and scoring goals. We feel like that's going to happen. The one thing that you can control is defense, and how hard you defend. The last game was pretty good and we'll need to follow that up tonight just because they're a good young team - they're skilled, they're fast and they're creative. They have a lot of skill in the lineup. We're going to have to be good defensively."
In The Nets - Ilya Samsonov gets the net for Washington against the Wings. He is coming off a 17-save performance on Wednesday against Nashville, a game in which he snapped a two-game personal losing streak (0-1-1) and raised his record to 12-2-2 on the season.
Although he has permitted three or more goals against in seven of his last nine starts, Samsonov has a 6-2-1 record over that stretch.
Samsonov won his lone career start against the Red Wings, stopping 25 of 27 shots here in Detroit to help the Caps to a 5-2 win on Nov. 30, 2019.
We aren't certain which of Detroit's two netminders will get the crease tonight. Thomas Greiss started when the Caps were here last month, but the Wings were running a rotation of Greiss and Alex Nedeljkovic early in the season.
Just before Thanksgiving, Nedeljkovic started a run in which he played 10 of 11 games. That stretch ended when he did not dress for Detroit's most recent game, a Dec. 18 victory over the Devils in Motown.
Nedeljkovic has never faced Washington; Greiss is 5-4-1 with a shutout, a 2.21 GAA and a .924 save pct. in 10 career appearances against the Capitals.
All Lined Up - Here's how we believe the Capitals and the Red Wings might look on Friday night in Detroit:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
73-Sheary, 19-Backstrom, 49-Leason
24-McMichael, 59-Protas, 77-Oshie
62-Hagelin, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
6-Kempny, 57-van Riemsdyk
22-Johansen, 52-Irwin
Goaltenders
30-Samsonov
1-Copley
Extras
23-Sgarbossa
27-Alexeyev
Injured/Out
2-Schultz (COVID-19 protocol)
3-Jensen (COVID-19 protocol)
10-Sprong (COVID-19 protocol)
20-Eller (non-COVID illness)
38-Cholowski (COVID-19 protocol)
39-Mantha (upper body, indefinite)
41-Vanecek (COVID-19 protocol)
42-Fehervary (COVID-19 protocol)
DETROIT
Forwards
59-Bertuzzi, 71-Larkin, 23-Raymond
14-Fabbri, 24-Suter, 92-Namestnikov
73-Erne, 27-Rasmussen, 11-Zadina
90-Veleno, 37-Rowney, 89-Gagner
Defensemen
65-Dekeyser, 53-Seider
82-Oesterle, 17-Hronek
18-Staal, 28-Lindstrom
Goaltenders
39-Nedeljkovic
29-Greiss
Extras
21-Renouf
31-Pickard
48-Smith
Injured
2-Leddy (COVID-19 protocol)
15-Vrana (shoulder)
22-Stephens (lower body)
70-Stecher (wrist)
