SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

Traction In The Rain -Winners of three of their last four games, the Caps will open up their December slate of contests tonight in Seattle against the Kraken, which eked out a 9-8 overtime victory over the Kings in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

For some of the back half of November, the Caps liked several aspects of their game, only to find the results lacking. And while it's likely too early to tell whether they've turned a corner quite yet, it does seem as though the results are starting to catch up to the game on the ice, or maybe some of the bounces are at least evening out a bit.
Washington has been effective at suppressing shots of late, holding the opposition to fewer than 30 shots on nine of its last 13 games, dating back to a Nov. 3 contest in Detroit. The Caps are third in the NHL with 54.5% of all shot attempts at 5-on-5 over that stretch, belying a 5-7-1 record over that stretch.
"On some nights I do," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette, asked whether the results are starting to catch up to what's actually happening for most of the 60 minutes on the ice for the last month or so. "There's games where I don't think we got the win when I actually think we played well enough to get the win.
"I've thought the last four games have been pretty good, both from shot suppression but as well as offense, too. I think we've been pushing to generate offensively as well. We've just got to keep going."
Their challenge tonight will be to keep going against a Kraken team that has been pouring pucks into nets of late, scoring 26 goals in its last four games.
"They're really pushing the numbers," says Laviolette of the Kraken. "They push the pace; they're one of the top teams in the League on the rush. We're actually walking down a road where I think I've said that for three games in a row; New Jersey, [Vancouver] and now Seattle are top rush teams, and so we'll have to really sharp with our decisions and what we do tonight."
Having just faced the Devils and Canucks to start this trip may be a benefit for Washington as it tries to contain the Kraken in Seattle tonight.
"It does because I think we played pretty well in all three games in handling an opponent with a high [potency] offensive team," says Laviolette. "And so there's a lot to pull from it, and to try and give that positive reinforcement on what we need to do."
Close To Home - After the Caps' morning skate in Seattle today, Laviolette was asked whether he had ever prepared to play a team that gave up nine goals in its previous game while allowing eight.
"No," he said. "It's happened, but not very often. Nine is a big number. Seventeen is a big number. I don't know if it's a real reflection - a 9-8 score - but they're certainly having a good year from an offensive standpoint."
And while Laviolette has not previously prepared a team to take on one that scored nine and yielded eight in its previous game, he was - prior to Tuesday night, anyway - the last NHL coach whose team scored eight goals and did not win the game.
Back on Oct. 27, 2011, Laviolette was behind the Philadelphia Flyers' bench when the Winnipeg Jets claimed a 9-8 victory over the Flyers in Philly. While Tuesday's Seattle-L.A. game was the first 9-8 overtime decision in League history, the game in Philly just over 11 years ago almost got to extra hockey, but Winnipeg's Andrew Ladd snapped an 8-8 tie late, scoring the game-winner with 66 seconds left on the clock.
Philly scored first in that game, only to fall behind 5-1 on five consecutive Winnipeg goals by five different skaters - including Jim Slater, now a member of the Caps' player development team - in less than 20 minutes of playing time. Down 6-2 with less than six minutes left in the second, the Flyers roared back with five goals of their own in less than nine minutes of playing time to retake the lead early in the third, 7-6.
After the Winnipeg victory, both coaches were rather stunned, as was the case two nights ago in Los Angeles.
"You go goal by goal and you talk about it, but there's different reasons," said Laviolette that night, in an Associated Press account of the contest. "The bottom line is it isn't good enough. You'll never win any games (allowing nine goals). Well, the majority of the time you won't win many games when you have to score 10. We'll go back and we'll work on everything."
"It's the strangest game I've been a part of, it was like an NFL game," Jets coach Claude Noel said. "We can't make a lot of logic out of what we did there."

"I thought to myself, 'Self, you're a sick man trying to make logic of this,'" Noel added. "I had the rosary out, I had everything going tonight."

Coming On Strong - After finishing with a 27-49-6 record and just 60 points - third fewest in the NHL - last season, its maiden voyage in the circuit, the Kraken has emerged as a force in the Pacific Division and the League in its sophomore campaign. A mere 22 games into the season, the Kraken is already more than halfway to its point total from last season, and it has already authored two winning streaks of five or more games, including the six-game streak it carries into tonight's tilt with the Capitals.
With an average of 3.82 goals per game this season, Seattle features the League's third most prolific offensive attack, led by ex-Caps winger Andre Burakovsky, the team's leading scorer with 23 points (nine goals, 14 assists). The Kraken carved out a 9-8 win over the Kings in Los Angeles on Tuesday night in its most recent game, and it scored eight goals in its most recent home game, an 8-5 victory over San Jose here on Nov. 23.
In The Nets - Darcy Kuemper will be in net for Washington on Thursday, seeking a fourth straight win. In winning each of his last three starts, Kuemper has stopped 84 of the 87 shots he faced. With 18 games and starts, Kuemper is tied for the League lead with Anaheim's John Gibson in both categories and Kuemper's total time in the crease of 1029:52 leads all NHL goalies. His .917 save pct. on the season ranks 11th in the circuit among goalies with at least 10 appearances.
Kuemper won his only previous career start against Seattle, stopping 25 of 28 shots in a 7-3 Colorado victory here just over a year ago.
We are expecting to see former Caps netminder Philipp Grubauer in the crease tonight for Seattle against his former club; Washington drafted Grubauer in the fourth round (112th overall) of the 2010 NHL Draft, and he appeared in 101 games in six seasons in Washington, serving as Braden Holtby's backup when the Capitals claimed the Stanley Cup following the 2017-18 season.
Lifetime against the Caps, Grubauer is 2-1-1 in four appearances, with a 2.78 GAA and a .920 save pct.
All Lined Up -Here's how we expect the Capitals and the Kraken to look when they take to the ice on Thursday night at Climate Pledge Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 73-Sheary
15-Milano, 92-Kuznetsov, 77-Oshie
90-Johansson, 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
96-Aube-Kubel
Injured
9-Orlov (lower body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
28-Brown (lower body)
43-Wilson (knee)
47-Malenstyn (upper body)
62-Hagelin (hip)
SEATTLE
Forwards
17-Schwartz, 21-Wennberg, 95-Burakovsky
19-McCann, 10-Beniers, 7-Eberle
13-Tanev, 37-Gourde, 22-Bjorkstrand
91-Sprong, 9-Donato, 25-Kuhlman
Defensemen
29-Dunn, 6-Larsson
24-Oleksiak, 4-Schultz
28-Soucy, 3-Bergen
Goaltenders
31-Grubauer
30-Jones
Healthy Extras
8-Fleury
67-Geekie
Injured
27-Donskoi (upper body)
60-Driedger (torn ACL)