SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

Work For Your Money - After the better part of a week away from the rink, the Caps and Columbus Blue Jackets are back in action on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena. The taxi squad and daily virus testing are things of the past, and the Caps enter tonight's game with no players in COVID-19 protocol for the first time in weeks.

Washington placed defenseman Dennis Cholowski on waivers on Tuesday afternoon, and it returned winger Brett Leason to AHL Hershey, leaving the roster at the maximum of 23.
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin took part in the morning skate and has exited COVID-19 protocol; he is expected to be in the lineup tonight. As they prepare to take on the Blue Jackets tonight, the Caps are still missing three key players because of upper body injuries: goaltender Vitek Vanecek and wingers T.J. Oshie and Anthony Mantha.
Gonna Move -Tuesday's date with Columbus was originally slated for April 28 and was to be Washington's final home game of the season. But Washington needed to make up a postponed game from Dec. 23 - a road game against the Isles - and that game was shoehorned into a set of road back-to-backs on the season's final weekend, forcing the move of the game against the Blue Jackets into this window.
Washington has 35 games remaining, tied for the fewest among the 16 Eastern Conference clubs. The Caps' stretch drive slate will start out in a leisurely fashion with eight games over the remaining 21 days in February, followed by 13 games in 31 days in March and 14 contests in the first 29 days of April.
Starting tonight against Columbus, the Caps will play 17 games between now and the March 21 trade deadline. Washington has five sets of back-to-back games remaining, none of them in the next four weeks. The Caps play three sets of back-to-backs in a 19-day stretch in March and they have two more sets in April.
While Washington has relatively few games to play then rest of the way, that also means fewer opportunities to catch up with the teams ahead of them in the Metro Division and Eastern Conference standings. And while playing 35 games over a span of 81 nights isn't particularly grueling, the schedule thickens considerably for the Caps once they're through February. Washington plays its final 27 games over a span of 60 nights, which includes a five-day break from March 29-April 2.
"Looking at our schedule, once we get through this next two weeks, it seems pretty jam-packed for us so I can't really imagine sneaking too many more games into that window," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "I think those are all results-based answers. For me, I'd like to play every other day; I think that's kind of a good formula and where I feel most comfortable in routine and all of that kind of thing.
"But it's going to be wild coming down the stretch. I think you'll see that over the next little stretch with teams making up a lot of games and certainly down the stretch when we finish the season out. Probably in the long run, it's better to have a more balanced schedule. But from a standings perspective, I think we would love to have some more games to play right now."
Get Right - Washington started the season with a 14-3-5 run up to its last game in November. But since that torrid start, the Caps have been no better than ordinary with a record of 11-10-4 in their last 25 games. They have won only six of those 25 games in regulation, and most of those wins were over teams who won't be making the playoffs this spring.
Clearly, they're looking to replicate that first quarter performance as they head into the final 35 games of their schedule tonight against the Blue Jackets. As the head into the stretch run, the Caps are as healthy as they've been in some time. But it's been more than just a lack of health that's ailed them over the last two months.
"I think there's more to it than that," says Caps center Lars Eller. "I think we have to raise our game a little bit in certain areas. It always seems there's something; a lot of games it's been different things sacking us and costing us points, so there are a lot of areas I think we need to sharpen up on and be significantly better.
"But it just comes down to every single guy looking at themselves and saying, 'What can I do?,' and keep growing and hopefully we learn from these mishaps, because it's not just like one area. It's not only the power play, and it's not just one individual. There's a lot of areas we can improve in and we need to here, going forward."
They can start tonight by being better at home, where they've won three of their last 11 games (3-7-1) and haven't even held a lead in the last 341 minutes and 6 seconds they've played, dating back to early in the second period of a Jan. 16 game against Vancouver.
"I think our foundation has been that we've played real good defense when we're really successful, I think that's been our MO and we let the offense take care of itself," says Carlson. "Over the last little while, we've just been hit or miss on certain things. Obviously, our power play hasn't been good. And our penalty kill was great, and then we had a couple of bad outings with that, or we'd play bad defensively. Some games we play good and just don't score. It's been kind of ticky tack or one thing after the next in that sense.
"But for us, we always talk about taking care of our end and letting our offensive structure and the talent that we have take care of that without thinking about it. So defense first, and score goals because we're good enough."
"I think one of the biggest things is the confidence that goes into it and knowing that it wasn't a fluke that we played that well early on," says Caps right wing Garnet Hathaway. "It wasn't a different team; it's the same guys in that room. So having that mentality that it is possible and we can play better than we have been is the first step toward that mindset."
In The Nets - Six nights after making his first NHL appearance since April 6, 2019, Caps goaltender Pheonix Copley will make his first NHL start since that same date, tonight against Columbus.
Copley was excellent in relief against the Oilers last week, stopping 21 of 22 shots and giving the Caps a chance to dig out of an early 3-0 hole to tie the game before falling on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' shorthanded goal late in regulation.
"Every time I get a chance out there I want to prove that I'm capable of playing a lot of games and I'm capable of sticking in this league," says Copley. "That's always my mindset when I get the chance, and hopefully that will be soon."
Copley turned 30 last month, and he has been in the midst of a sustained hot streak for the last two months. Beginning with a Dec. 11 start at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Copley is 9-3-1 over span of 13 starts, with two shutouts, a 1.75 GAA and a .934 save pct. He allowed two or fewer goals against in each of his last five starts with Hershey, and he did so in 10 of those last 13 starts.
In one career appearance against Columbus, Copley is 0-0-1 with a 1.75 GAA and a .909 save pct.
For Columbus, we're expecting to see Elvis Merzlikins in the crease tonight, the third different netminder to start for the Jackets in as many games against Washington this season. Merzlikins has had the lion's share of the netminding chores for the Jackets this season, but he will be facing Washington for the first time in his NHL career.
All Lined Up - Here's how we believe the Caps and the Blue Jackets might look on Tuesday night in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 73-Sheary
91-Snively, 19-Backstrom, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 20-Eller, 10-Sprong
62-Hagelin, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 3-Jensen
57-van Riemsdyk, 2-Schultz
Goaltenders
1-Copley
30-Samsonov
Extras
6-Kempny
52-Irwin
59-Protas
Injured/Out
39-Mantha (upper body, indefinite)
41-Vanecek (upper body)
77-Oshie (upper body, day-to-day)
COLUMBUS
Forwards
14-Nyqvist, 38-Jenner, 29-Laine
28-Bjorkstrand, 34-Sillinger, 93-Voracek
16-Domi, 7-Kuraly, 59-Chinakhov
23-Gaunce, 96-Roslovic, 64-Fix-Wolansky
Defensemen
8-Werenski, 2-Peeke
44-Gavrikov, 27-Boqvist
5-Bayruether, 46-Kukan
Goaltenders
90-Merzlikins
70-Korpisalo
Extras
53-Carlsson
Injured/Out
17-Danforth (lower body)
22-Bean (lower body)
24-Gerbe (hip)
40-Tarasov (lower body)
42-Texier (finger)
50-Robinson (lower body)
52-Bemstrom (COVID-19 protocol)