SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

Long Monday - For the fourth consecutive Monday, the Caps find themselves in game action. Tonight they host the Edmonton Oilers in what will make for an elongated game day, thanks to a rather unusual 8 p.m. start time. Washington is in the midst of a season-long four-game homestand, and each of the first three games of that homestand will feature a different start time.

With the Oilers in town, the Caps are seeking to put a halt to a four-game slide (0-2-2), a skid that started last Monday night in Carolina - an organically elongated game via the shootout - that resulted in a 3-2 defeat. Washington led past the midpoint of all four of those games but was unable seal the deal on any of them, though it did claim a point in each of the first two.
"I feel like we've played well enough to win games, but we haven't won them," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "There's things that we can do better to push that to a win. We're in position to win them. We're in a good position to win them, and we haven't gotten it done. I think there's things that we can do better, but maybe if it would have turned into a win last year, it's it's turned into a loss in the last four games. So we'll just keep working at it."
Featuring the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the high-octane Oilers always present a difficult challenge, and that will be especially true if - as is entirely possible - Washington finds itself missing both John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov from its lineup tonight. The Caps lost Carlson in the first period of an Oct. 29 game in Nashville and Orlov went down in the first period of Saturday's loss to Arizona in the homestand opener.
Carlson stayed out on the ice long after the regulars departed following Monday's optional morning skate, so he will not be in the lineup tonight. Orlov did not skate this morning, and his availability for tonight will be a game-time decision.
If Orlov also misses tonight's game against the Oilers, it will mark only the third game in the Capitals' last 927 games in which both Carlson and Orlov have been out of the lineup at the same time since April 6, 2010, at the tail end of Carlson's first NHL season. The two blueline stalwarts were drafted a year apart - Carlson in 2008 and Orlov in 2009 - and they've formed the durable core of the Washington defense for the better part of the last decade. With 896 career games played, Carlson ranks behind only Calle Johansson (983) on Washington's all-time list for games played by a blueliner. Orlov (656) just passed Sergei Gonchar (654) to move into fifth place on that same list.
Orlov missed the entire 2014-15 campaign while recovering from wrist surgery, but Carlson was in the midst of a consecutive games played streak that eventually stretched past 400 games at the time. After returning to active duty after that wrist surgery at the outset of 2015-16, Orlov kicked off a lengthy consecutive games streak of his own, reaching 401 games before he landed on the COVID-19 list in January of 2021.
Both Carlson and Orlov skated in all 82 games for the Caps in 2017-18 when Washington won the Stanley Cup, and the Caps are just 4-7-3 in the 14 games Carlson has missed since then.
If Orlov isn't able to suit up for Monday's game, Lucas Johansen would draw into the Washington lineup. Johansen made his NHL debut last Dec. 31 in Detroit and would be seeing his first regular season action with the Caps since that night.
Brand New Start -For the second straight game, Washington will have a new forward with previous NHL experience make his debut in a Caps sweater. Sonny Milano skated 13:20 for the Caps on Saturday against Arizona in his Washington debut after inking a free agent deal with the Caps on Oct. 15, and tonight winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel follows in those skate steps two days after he was claimed off waivers from Toronto.
"We like the way he skates, he competes, he hits," says Laviolette of Aube-Kubel. "He has an impact on the game in a different way.
"He's one of the guys that leads the League in hits - he's top 10 - he finishes his checks, plays the game hard, competes hard. He's an easy guy to like."
Aube-Kubel was Philadelphia's second-round choice (48th overall) in the 2014 NHL Draft, chosen 32 selections after Milano went to Columbus with the 16th overall pick in the first round of that same draft. Following a prosperous junior career in the QMJHL, Aube-Kubel turned pro at the tail end of the 2015-16 season with AHL Lehigh Valley.
He made his NHL debut with the Flyers early in the 2018-19 season, but he was used sparingly and played in just nine games that season. Called up again midway through the 2019-20 season, he recorded his first NHL point - an assist - in his first game that season, and he carved out a larger role for himself, finishing the season with respectable totals of seven goals and 15 points in just 36 games - with a 14.6% shooting pct. - while averaging 11:17 a night in ice time.
Aube-Kubel spent the entirety of the 2020-21 season with Philly, skating in 50 of the team's 56 games. But his shooting pct. and production declined, and he finished with three goals and a dozen points. A year ago this month, Colorado claimed him off waivers from Philly, and he posted 11 goals and 22 points in 67 games with the Avs, solid production for a guy skating less than 10 minutes (9:49) a night, and his shooting pct. was back up to 14.1% in his time with the Avs.
After winning the Cup in Colorado last spring, Aube-Kubel signed a one-year, one-way deal with Toronto, carrying a salary cap hit of $1 million. The Leafs waived Aube-Kubel after just six games early this season, and he now gets a fresh start in Washington.
"It's sort of a second chance, but I feel like I didn't have much of a chance in Toronto," says Aube-Kubel. "I didn't get much ice time. I know what I'm capable to do, and the settings here are really good. It's a really good fourth line, with guys that I thought were hard to play against, so it's kind of fun to join them now and be able to push them the same way."
With Monday's morning skate an optional affair, there is no firm indication as to where Aube-Kubel would slot into the Washington lineup. He has seen mostly fourth-line duty over the course of his 175-game NHL career, with scant penalty killing time and just a bit of power play time from his first season in Philly. But it's not a given that Aube-Kubel would skate on the Caps' fourth line with Nic Dowd and Garnet Hathaway, a line that would feature three right-handed shots if configured that way.
With forwards Tom Wilson, T.J. Oshie and Connor Brown all missing from the lineup because of injuries, Washington is facing a dearth of right-handed shots at the moment, so it might make more sense to keep Aube-Kubel on the right side of another line, though Laviolette didn't express concern over the possibility of three right-handers on the same line when queried about it after Sunday's practice.
"I think guys bump around a little bit," says Laviolette. "He has played left wing, we knew that prior to the pick-up, that he played left wing. But again, we might move the lines a little bit, too. He might end up on the right side. But he does play both wings."
Having played 13 games against the Caps - tied for his most against any club in the League - Aube-Kubel feels a certain familiarity with his new team. He also believes he is capable of chipping in some offense, something the Caps are in dire need of at the moment.
"It's always what you bring to the game and how the coach sees your role," he says. "I always find a way to satisfy coaches that way and I feel yeah, if I can find a way to get more offensive ice time and am put more in those situations, hopefully I can unlock there and help the team."
In The Nets - Charlie Lindgren gets his fourth start of the season tonight against Edmonton. Lindgren has been excellent in his first three starts, giving Washington a chance to win each of them, posting a save pct. above .900 in each of his three assignments to date. He carries a 1-1-1 record into tonight's game with a 3.03 GAA and a .919 save pct.
Lindgren has seen an average of 37 shots per contest in his first three starts with Washington. He will be making his first career appearance against Edmonton tonight.
Edmonton opens up a four-game road trip here in the District tonight, and the Oilers are also starting a set of back-to-backs tonight; their trip continues in Tampa Bay tomorrow night, so they'll split the goaltending chores between the two games.
Stuart Skinner gets the net tonight for the Oilers, facing Washington for the first time in his NHL career. A third-round choice (78th overall) in the 2017 Draft, Skinner debuted with the Oilers early in the abbreviated 2020-21 season, winning his lone appearance. He went 6-6-0 with Edmonton last season in 13 appearances (a dozen starts) and is off to a strong start in 2022-23.
Skinner enters tonight's contest with a 2-2-0 record in five appearances (four starts) this season, with a 2.10 GAA and a .944 save pct.
All Lined Up - With a reminder that the Caps conducted an optional morning skate and that Orlov's status is still to be determined, here's how the Caps might look on Monday night and what we expect the Oilers to look like as they take the ice against Washington at Capital One Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 73-Sheary
15-Milano, 17-Strome, 90-Johansson
39-Mantha, 20-Eller, 96-Aube-Kubel
59-Protas, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 3-Jensen
56-Gustafsson, 57-van Riemsdyk
46-Johansen, 52-Irwin
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
35-Kuemper
Healthy Extras
24-McMIchael
91-Snively
Injured
9-Orlov (lower body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
28-Brown (lower body)
43-Wilson (knee)
47-Malenstyn (upper body)
62-Hagelin (hip)
74-Carlson (lower body)
77-Oshie (lower body)
EDMONTON
Forwards
93-Nugent-Hopkins, 97-McDavid, 13-Puljujarvi
91-Kane, 29-Draisaitl, 18-Hyman
37-Foegele, 71-McLeod, 10-Ryan
14-Shore, 55-Holloway, 56-Yamamoto
Defensemen
25-Nurse, 5-Ceci
27-Kulak, 2-Bouchard
28-Murray, 22-Barrie
Goaltenders
74-Skinner
36-Campbell
Healthy Extras
80-Niemelainen
Injured
41-Smith (undisclosed)
77-Klefbom (shoulder)