SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

Rebound -Coming off a 6-3 setback at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opener of a three-game road trip on Sunday night, the Caps are seeking to get right on Tuesday night in Florida when they take on the Panthers in the middle match of the journey.

Since the start of the 2020-21 season, Washington is 29-15-3 in games following a regulation loss. This season, the Caps are 5-2-0 in games following a regulation loss, and they've outscored the opposition by a combined 24-15 in those games.
"I think we have a really veteran team, and I think that plays a lot into it," says Caps center Nic Dowd. "And honestly, guys are probably pretty pissed off with how we performed last game. And it's not fun to see things about injuries making differences and this and that. I think with the guys we have in the lineup, we have more than the capabilities to win hockey games. We just had a bad outing last game, so we'll be looking at getting going early tonight."
Stack 'Em Up -As we near the quarter mark of the 2022-23 season, six teams have eclipsed the 20-point barrier, with three of those - New Jersey, the New York islanders and Carolina - residing in the same division as Washington, the Metropolitan Division. At the other end of that spectrum are eight teams with 13 or fewer points. In the middle of the bell curve are 18 teams with anywhere from 14-19 points, including a cluster of nine clubs with either 16 or 17 points.
Coming into tonight's game, the Caps (7-8-2) are one of four 16-point teams. There are a lot of good hockey teams in the middle of that curve right now, and the teams that are able to win games in bunches are the ones that will ultimately elevate their way out of the cluster. The Caps haven't yet been able to win more than two in a row in 2022-23, which isn't surprising given the spate of injuries and some of the schedule challenges they've been dealing with this season.
Nevertheless, we can't help but wonder what it will take for the Caps to put together a patch of consecutive wins here as we head into the back half of November.
"If I knew, I would fix that, right?" chuckles Caps center Evgeny Kuznetsov. "The League keeps getting better. I still believe that because we are missing a lot of guys, it could work for you or could work against you. And for us, we do feel like we need those guys a lot, but at the same time there is a lot of responsibility on us.
"I really feel like we can put a few games that we like together, and it's not just in terms of results, it's about the game. We might lose the game, but after the game we want to sit here and say, 'That's how we have to play.' We need a couple of those type of games, where we are going to like the way we played."
All that stated, the Caps have been in thick of 16 of the 17 games they've played to date, and they believe they should have collected a few more points along the way to this point in the campaign.
"It feels like we should be winning a lot more of those games," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "And that's from experience, from expectations and from what it feels like. We've got to find ways to win, whether we deserve it or not. The better teams find ways.
"Yeah, we're not getting the doors blown off for 99 percent of the season, but it's a results-based thing and it doesn't matter what happens throughout a game; we've got to have those big moments - score one late, tie it up late, go ahead - whatever it is, we've got to be better with those situations, and I think that's what we expect from each other.
"And that is the main thing: our expectations. And how it feels in here is that we are severely underperforming."
Washington will be missing eight players from its lineup tonight, and it has made at least one adjustment to its lineup for eight straight games. It's unknown at this time whether that streak will continue tonight. But often a lack of stability can lead to a lack of consistency.
"Right, but that's not from the good life," says Kuznetsov of the ongoing lineup shuffles. "It's because somebody's hurt or they don't see something. But there's not a lot of guys who can change right now so we don't have a lot of realistic options."
"It's been a little challenging," says Dowd. "Even going back to games like Detroit and Vegas, we're in those games right there, we have an opportunity to win those games, and looking back, to let those games slip away is frustrating because you mount a pretty good 60 minutes against some good teams in tough situations and you don't come out with the outcome that you want.
"I think stacking those [wins] back-to-back, we have such a veteran team and we've all been here before in a ton of different circumstances, we have a lot of knowledge and we have more than the capability to do that.
"Disregarding all the injuries that we've had this year, I think consistency has been our biggest problem. Every game, we've had something that has not helped us, whether it be special teams, maybe one or two mistakes, giving up a goal at the end of periods or start of periods, something like that that have kind of been our Achilles' heel, and it hasn't been a consistent 60 minutes that can then roll into the next game."
Before you can start stacking up the wins, you've got to get the first one. The Caps will take aim on that tonight in Sunrise.
Cold November -As the Capitals prepare to take on the Panthers tonight, they are halfway through their 14-game November, and they own a 2-4-1 record in the month to date, a mark that has them on pace for their first sub-.500 mark since 2014-15 and the first time they've finished below "NHL .500" since 2011-12 when they went 5-8-1 in November, a record that led to Dale Hunter taking over the coaching reins from Bruce Boudreau late in that month.
The Caps were 9-4-2 in November last season, and they put up a franchise best 10-2-2 mark in November in 2019-20. Dating back to the 2014-15 season when they were 6-6-2 in the season's second month, the Caps have had at least eight victories every November and they own a cumulative 55-22-7 November record from 2015-16 through last season.
In The Nets -Darcy Kuemper gets the start for the Caps tonight in Florida. Kuemper is coming off a hard luck start on Sunday in Tampa in which he yielded four goals on nine shots in less than a period of work, but two of the goals glanced past him after hitting Washington defenders in front and the other two came on the Tampa Bay power play.
Prior to Sunday's game, the last time Kuemper was pulled early in a start was also against the Lightning, in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on June 20 when he departed midway through the contest after being dented for five goals on 22 shots. In his next start two nights later, Kuemper stopped 37 of 39 shots in just over 72 minutes of work to help Colorado to a 3-2 overtime win in Game 4, giving the Avs a 3-1 series lead.
Lifetime against the Panthers, Kuemper is 3-3-0 with a shutout, a 2.40 GAA and a .921 save pct. in seven appearances, all starts.
Sergei Bobrovsky is the expected starter in net for Florida tonight. On the season, Bobrovsky is 3-4-1 in eight starts with a 3.29 GAA and an .897 save pct. Lifetime against Washington, he is 10-13-5 with a shutout, a 3.05 GAA and an .898 save pct. in 30 appearances, all of them starts.
All Lined Up -Tuesday's morning skate was an optional one for Washington, so we're guessing at how the lineup might look for the Caps, but here's a guess as to how the two teams might look when they take the ice on Tuesday night at in Sunrise in the first meeting of the season between the two teams:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 15-Milano
90-Johansson, 17-Strome, 73-Sheary
24-McMichael, 20-Eller, 39-Mantha
59-Protas, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
56-Gustafsson, 74-Carlson
42-Fehervary, 3-Jensen
52-Irwin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
27-Alexeyev
91-Snively
Injured
9-Orlov (lower body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
28-Brown (lower body)
43-Wilson (knee)
47-Malenstyn (upper body)
62-Hagelin (hip)
77-Oshie (lower body)
96-Aube-Kubel (NHL suspension)
FLORIDA
Forwards
23-Verhaeghe, 16-Barkov, 19-Tkachuk
27-Luostarinen, 9-Bennett, 6-White
94-Lomberg, 15-Lundell, 13-Reinhart
21-Cousins, 12-E. Staal, 70-Hornqvist
Defensemen
42-Forsling, 62-Montour
18-M. Staal, 5-Ekblad
28-Mahura, 7-Gudas
Goaltenders
72-Bobrovsky
30-Knight
Healthy Extras
None
Injured
10-Duclair (torn Achilles tendon)