SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

Long Road Home - Having just played four straight road games to close out October, the Caps now continue their journey with a gratuitous home game in the middle of the trip. A night after taking a 3-2 shootout setback from the Hurricanes in Carolina, the Caps make a quick stop at home to host the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday. The Caps will be right back on the road on Wednesday when they head to the Motor City for a Thursday night date with the Red Wings.

Washington is in the midst of a stretch in which it will travel to play nine consecutive games, a stretch that ends after its return from Detroit when the Caps can finally settle in for a four-game homestand.
The Caps will be in the area for approximately 36 hours, less time than they spent in each of the previous two road cities they visited.
Brown To Blue - Hours before Tuesday's game, the Caps announced that winger Connor Brown underwent surgery on his right knee to reconstruct his ACL. Brown is expected to be sidelined for 6-8 months. He suffered the injury in the first period of the Caps' Oct. 17 game against Vancouver, his fourth game in a Washington uniform.
The Caps dealt a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft to Ottawa to obtain Brown on July 13 of this year, and he is in the final season of his contract.
In other injury news, John Carlson (lower body) will miss a second straight game tonight. He is day-to-day. According to coach Peter Laviolette, the Caps are "working through some things in the room," and there is a possibility that Joe Snively could draw into the Washington lineup tonight as well. For last night's game in Carolina, Snively was the lone healthy extra on the Caps' roster.
New Faces - The Caps made a number of offseason acquisitions this past summer, and they were counting on Brown to help them mitigate the early season absences of top six forwards Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson. Although the Caps lost Brown before he had much of a chance to show what he can do, they rest of Washington's offseason acquisitions have acquitted themselves well through the first 10 games of the season.
Goaltenders Darcy Kuemper and Charlie Lindgren have both been excellent, keeping the Caps in every game and giving them a chance to win every night thus far this season. Center Dylan Strome has been a good fit in the top six, putting up a couple of goals and seven points in 10 games while averaging a career high 18:05 per night in ice time.
On the back end, there is only one new face, that of veteran defenseman Erik Gustafsson, who signed a one-year deal with the Capitals on July 13. The 30-year-old Swede was a 2012 draft choice of the Edmonton Oilers (fourth round, 93rd overall), but he later signed with Chicago as a free agent and broke into the NHL with the Blackhawks in 2015-16.
Gustafsson put up a monster season with Chicago in 2018-19 - his third season in the NHL - totaling 17 goals and 60 points in 79 games, including four goals and 18 points on the Hawks' power play. Gustafsson also played for Calgary, Philadelphia and Montreal before a return engagement with the Hawks last season.
So far, Gustafsson's transition to the D.C. area has been smooth, both on and off the ice.
"It's been good, actually," he says. "Moving here with a family and everything, I was a little nervous, but everyone has been so great over here. It's family-friendly area to live in, and the team's just been awesome to be around the guys and everything.
"Playing wise, I think it's been good. I think we play well, me and [Trevor van Riemsdyk]. We just try to stay connected and help the team win every game we play."
The pairing of Gustafsson and van Riemsdyk has logged 93:43 together at 5-on-5 through the season's first 10 games, more than any other defensive duo on the team. During that time, the Caps have had 26 high danger scoring chances to just 17 for the opposition, which is on brand with Gustafsson's reputation as an offensive blueliner who makes an excellent first pass.
Gustafsson didn't any prior connections with most current Caps before arriving here in Washington. He played briefly with Lindgren in Montreal and with Strome and van Riemsdyk in Chicago, and he skates with injured Washington winger Carl Hagelin in the summers back home in Sweden.
One of the highlights of Gustafsson's career to date was his short stint with the Canadiens. Acquired from the Flyers at the trade deadline in the midst of the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season, Gustafsson was able to play for in the Stanley Cup Final series for the first time in his career as the Habs went on a storybook run to the final against Tampa Bay.
"That meant a lot," he says. "I had a tough start to the season in Philadelphia, and it meant a lot to me and my career, too. I had never been that far in the playoffs, so to get the whole way to the Final, you learn what you have to do to be prepared and be ready.
"Tampa Bay was obviously too good for us, and you know how hard they work. Seeing that was a good thing for me too; you have to work hard every day, and not just in summer, you've got to keep going during the season, too. That's what I'm trying to do here, just get better every day."
In his 10 games with the Caps, Gustafsson has collected three assists. With Carlson out of the lineup on Monday in Carolina, Gustafsson teed up Alex Ovechkin's 785th career NHL goal, putting the puck right in the captain's wheelhouse. The helper was Gustafsson's first power-play point with the Caps, and he finished the night with a season high 18:55 in ice time, which is essentially his career average. Gustafsson has averaged 18:51 a night over the course of his seven seasons in the NHL.
In The Nets -Playing for the second time in as many nights, the Caps will turn to Lindgren in net tonight against Vegas. Lindgren has been excellent in two previous starts, both against high octane offensive teams. He was on the short end of a 3-2 decision in Toronto on Oct. 13 and turned in a stellar performance in defeating the Devils 6-3 on Oct. 24 in New Jersey.
On the season, Lindgren is 1-1-0 with a 3.09 GAA and a .925 save pct. Lindgren has seen a total of 80 shots in his two starts with the Caps. He won his only previous career start against Vegas almost exactly five years ago, on Nov. 7, 2017 with Montreal in a 5-2 victory, making 29 saves.
For the Golden Knights, we're expecting to see former Caps farmhand Logan Thompson in the nets in a rare battle of righty-catching netminders. Thompson is off to a terrific start this season, with a 4-2-0 mark in six starts to go along with a 1.69 GAA and a .943 save pct.
Thompson has already authored a pair of shutouts this season, a 27-save effort against Chicago on Oct. 13 and a 29-save whitewash of Anaheim in his most recent start on Oct. 28.
All Lined Up - Here's how we expect the Caps and the Golden Knights to look when they take the ice on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 73-Sheary
24-McMichael, 92-Kuznetsov, 90-Johansson
59-Protas, 20-Eller, 39-Mantha
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
9-Orlov, 57-van Riemsdyk
42-Fehervary, 3-Jensen
56-Gustafsson, 52-Irwin
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
91-Snively
Injured
19-Backstrom (hip)
28-Brown (lower body)
43-Wilson (knee)
62-Hagelin (hip)
74-Carlson (lower body)
77-Oshie (lower body)
VEGAS
Forwards
20-Stephenson, 9-Eichel, 61-Stone
19-Smith, 71-Karlsson, 81-Marchessault
22-Amadio, 21-Howden, 8-Kessel
28-Carrier, 10-Roy, 55-Kolesar
Defensemen
23-Martinez, 7-Pietrangelo
3-McNabb, 27-Theodore
14-Hague, 2-Whitecloud
Goaltenders
36-Thompson
33-Hill
Healthy Extras
15-Leschyshyn
17-Hutton
43-Cotter
Injured
6-Weber (ankle)
39-Brossoit (hip)
41-Patrick (upper body)
90-Lehner (hip)