SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

Here Comes Sunshine -The Caps and the Florida Panthers open their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against one another tonight at FLA Live in Sunrise, Fla. Caps captain Alex Ovechkin will play tonight after missing the final three games of the regular season with an upper body injury, and Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad is also expected to return after missing the final 20 games of the regular season with a lower body ailment.

All Down The Line -At the 2022 NHL trade deadline, the Caps made a pair of acquisitions to bring in a pair of veteran Swedish forwards, Marcus Johansson and Johan Larsson. Johansson was originally a Caps' first-round pick (24th overall) in the 2009 NHL Draft, and he skated in over 500 games with the Caps through 2016-17, when he was dealt to New Jersey.
Larsson was originally a Minnesota second-rounder (56th overall), but he has played the lion's share of his 488 career games in the League with Buffalo, and will be making his Stanley Cup playoff debut tonight against Florida. Both Johansson and Larsson are adept at the defensive side of the game, and both fit with Washington's deadline philosophy and needs.
"Coming into the deadline, our focus was to give some flexibility to the coaches," said Caps GM Brian MacLellan at the time. "They have patterns of how they're using guys on certain lines, and I think both the guys we brought in give them more flexibility position-wise and skill-wise. One [Johansson] is a complementary offensive player and one [Larsson] is a good defensive player. So the hope is that we can find some combinations that work for us as a team, and everybody's comfortable with their role and we go from there."
Since being reacquired from Seattle on March 21, Johansson has played all three forward positions and has played on each of the team's top three lines. Larsson was still recovering from sports hernia surgery when he was obtained on that same day, so he has skated in four fewer games than Johansson, and his slot in the lineup has been more defined; he has generally been assigned with filling the void left by the absence of Carl Hagelin, a fourth-line and penalty killing fixture who suffered a season-ending eye injury late in a March 1 practice session.
"I think that they've been really good in the roles that they've been asked to play," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of his team's two deadline day acquisitions. "I think Johansson has done a really good job of fitting in anywhere on the top nine and providing some really good minutes. I've really liked the way he's played, the 200-foot game both ways. Offensively he seems to have some sort of an impact in the game; defensively, he's responsible.
"I thought that Larson has come in and done a good job of trying to step in for Carl, and [we're] missing him, and that acquisition has been really good as well. It gives us that line that we're looking to take on some heavy minutes from the defensive zone."
For the entirety of last season and most of this one, Hagelin was written in ink on the left side of Washington's fourth line with Nic Dowd and Garnet Hathaway. Larsson has skated in 14 games for the Caps, most of them in that slot left empty with Hagelin's absence.
"It's hard to compare them," says Hathaway. "I think Carl brought so many things that no one else will ever bring - Stanley Cups, experience - and we played great together. And Larry's a different player, and it's one that we're working to learn how to communicate without talking really, trying to figure out where exactly we are at all times. And I think we've taken strides in that sense.
"He's a great player; he's smart with the puck, makes great plays. I think for us to be successful is playing fast as a line. It's a different speed from seeing Haggy going straight down the ice compared to making those plays where we're close together. We're not wasting time spending in our own zone, and we can make small plays to get out of the zone quickly and move through the neutral zone. In that sense, just not wasting time and looking faster than other lines that we're playing."
Hagelin joined his teammates on the club's last road trip of the season, and he is in Florida with his mates for this trip as well.
"Certainly losing Carl isn't an easy thing," says Laviolette. "He's a big part of our team. He's big in the locker room, he's a huge part of the defensive line, and part of the penalty kill. And so that's still a big loss for us. You might not measure like asking about [Ovechkin] and whether he's back; you don't measure it that way. But from a team standpoint and a coaching standpoint, missing a guy like Carl is a big piece for us.
"He's just a positive influence in the locker room. He's part of our team and we're all happy he's here."
In The Nets - For the second time in as many seasons, Vitek Vanecek gets the opening night nod in goal for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Last spring, Vanecek got the Game 1 start in the first round against Boston, but had to leave the game after suffering a lower body injury just over 13 minutes into the first period. Those 13 minutes are the sum total of Vanecek's postseason experience; he allowed one goal on four shots.
Along with Boston and the New York Rangers, Washington is one of three Eastern Conference teams who enter the 2022 postseason without any career Stanley Cup playoff wins among the goaltenders on their respective rosters.
Way back in September, after the first day of training camp, Laviolette had this to say about his team's two young netminders, Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov:
"For me, [2020-21] wasn't always perfect for our team, because there were always things going on. But I always thought that our goaltending gave us a chance to win. There was an odd night - like on any night - where a goalie doesn't have the night that he looks to have, but for the most part I thought those guys competed when they got in there, I thought they did a good job, and we're looking for them to get better.
"Now they're both coming into a year where they've really taken on some experience with regard to the league, and they're trying to be that person who takes the crease. And so they have that whole year under their belt, and we look for them to be better than that, better than they were last year."
Throughout the 2021-22 season, the two young goaltenders traded short runs as the starter, with mixed results. They had 82 games with which to "be better" than they were over 56 games last season, and they still had more than their share of ups and downs. Both had excellent games and excellent stretches of consecutive starts, but both also had nights where they would look up at the scoreboard and see the opposition with three or four goals before the shot counter got to 20.
Laviolette has experience with navigating his way through the playoffs with multiple goaltenders; he won a Cup with Carolina in 2006 and reached the Cup Final with Philly in 2010 with multiple netminders.
"I've said before; I think both goaltenders have had points in the year where they're really good," says Laviolette. "But Vitek's body of work has been just a little bit stronger, but it's close. They've both given us big wins, enough where we've had a successful season. Vitek we gave the start to last year as well, and it didn't go the way he wanted or as planned with regard to that. But the body of work that he had this year I think just earns him the nod for Game 1."
Lifetime against the Panthers, Vanecek has made just one appearance, under somewhat strange circumstances here in Florida on Nov. 4 of last year. Samsonov was expected to start, but wasn't ready to take the crease for opening puck drop, so Vanecek was the surprise starter. Soon afterwards, Samsonov suddenly reappeared on the bench and took over at 1:45 of the first, before Vanecek even faced his first shot.
However, Samsonov struggled and was removed at 7:16 of the second, following the third Florida goal. He yielded three goals on 18 shots and Vanecek stepped back into the crease to finish what he started. Vanecek ended that game with 36:22 on the clock, and he stopped 13 of 15 shots, getting saddled with a 5-4 overtime loss.
Veteran Sergei Bobrovsky is in net for Florida. Now in his 12th NHL season, Bobrovsky has amassed 13 playoff victories (13-23) over the years, and his lone playoff series win came when Columbus stunned Tampa Bay in the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Lifetime in the playoffs, he has a 3.24 GAA and an .899 save pct.
Lifetime against the Caps in the regular season, Bobrovsky is 10-13-5 with a shutout, a 3.05 GAA and an .898 save pct. in 30 appearances. In the 2018 playoffs against Washington, he went 2-4 with a 3.18 GAA and a .900 save pct. in six contests.
All Lined Up - Here's how we expect the Caps and Panthers to look for Tuesday night's first-round series opener in Florida:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 73-Sheary
90-Johansson, 19-Backstrom, 43-Wilson
39-Mantha, 20-Eller, 77-Oshie
22-Larsson, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 3-Jensen
57-van Riemsdyk, 2-Schultz
Goaltenders
41-Vanecek
30-Samsonov
Extras
6-Kempny
24-McMichael
52-Irwin
Injured/Out
62-Hagelin (eye)
91-Snively (upper body, AHL rehab assignment)
FLORIDA
Forwards
23-Verhaeghe, 16-Barkov, 10-Duclair
11-Huberdeau, 9-Bennett, 28-Giroux
17-Marchment, 15-Lundell, 13-Reinhart
94-Lomberg, 27-Luostarinen, 70-Hornqvist
Defensemen
52-Weegar, 5-Ekblad
42-Forsling, 7-Gudas
8-Chairot, 62-Montour
Goaltenders
72-Bobrovsky
30-Knight
Extras
3-Kierstad
18-Hagg
19-Thornton
32-Carlsson
40-Lindbohm
55-Acciari
98-Mamin
Injured/Out
65-Nutivaara (lower body)