SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

One More Saturday Night - It's Saturday and the Caps are spending it in the big barn on F St. where they will host the League's hottest team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Both the Leafs and the Caps have been playing well of late, but both come into tonight's tilt on the heels of regulation losses in their most recent contests on Thursday night.

While the Caps suffered a 2-1 loss at the hands of the Dallas Stars here in the opener of a three-game homestand, the Leafs absorbed a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Rangers in New York. That setback was the first Toronto has suffered in regulation in more than a month; the Leafs blow into town with a 12-1-3 mark over their last 16 games while Washington is 8-3-1 in its last dozen games.
Both teams will be seeking to bounce back into the win column tonight in the District. Washington was more than happy with the way it played in Thursday's loss to the Stars, but it was frustrated with the result.
"There was a lot of good things that we did," says Caps' coach Peter Laviolette. "It's just frustrating when you've been pushing from underneath the whole time, and you still get what you want inside of that game and it doesn't go your way. We're probably all just a little bit frustrated, with the score probably more than anything.
"But for the most part we've been playing good hockey. It's been giving us a chance to be successful; it gave us a chance to be successful the other night. Tonight will be no different playing Toronto; they've got a terrific team and lots of firepower. They've had a really good year to this point. We're going to have to be on point with our game, so more of the same is required."
Tight Like This - Scoring in the NHL is at its highest since the 1995-96 season, which makes Washington's recent stretch of stingy defensive hockey all the more impressive. Aside from Tuesday's game in Chicago in which the Hawks managed to score a third goal with 69 seconds remaining in regulation, the Caps have limited opponents to two or fewer goals in five of their last six games (5-1-0) and in eight of their last dozen games (8-3-1).
Over the last decade or decade and a half of Caps hockey, when the team gets hot for an extended period of time it tends to be related to a sustained offensive outburst over a period of several weeks. But this time around, it's been defense, goaltending and special teams that have fueled the Caps' recent rise.
On the season, the Caps rank 13th in the NHL with an average of 2.88 goals against per game. But the Caps have yielded eight goals into an empty net (at 6-on-5) this season, tied for fifth most in the League. When those goals against are removed from the equation, the number dips to 2.63 goals against per game. And over their last dozen games, the number is 2.25 goals against per game, which is fourth best in the circuit over that span.
Given the state of scoring in the League as mentioned above and the fact that the Caps have not had their nominal top six blueliners healthy and intact in the lineup for more than a month and a half now, and that they've faced a number of potent offensive teams of late, this stretch of play has been particularly impressive.
"It's definitely not just the defense that's playing the defense," says Caps blueliner Nick Jensen. "We're doing it as a unit of five, as you should. Teams are attacking as a unit of five, so you definitely have to defend as a unit of five, and I think our forwards have been doing a good job of helping us out and helping us close, and we're playing in-your-face hockey in the [defensive] zone. The less [defensive] zone we have to play the better. So we've been playing good defense, but we haven't had to play as much as we normally do. We're playing a lot of [offensive] zone time instead, which is a good thing."
The numbers support what Jensen is saying. Caps defensemen have combined for 15 goals thus far this season, with more than half of that total - eight - coming in the last 10 games. Caps defensemen have been excellent all over the ice of late, laying out to block shots and breaking pucks out efficiently in their own end and making good reads and keeping plays and shifts alive at the other end, and doing their part to help fuel the attack.
With Washington ranking 21st in the League in average goals for per game (2.97) on the season, keeping goals against down has been paramount in the team's recent climb in the standings.
"Foundationally, that's what you would rather have, not a hot offense that cures all the pain," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "Certainly, we would like to score more goals and feel like we maybe deserve to score a little bit more than we have, but I think it's a good reminder of just how hard it is to score in this League, and what it takes on a nightly basis to beat good defenses and to beat good goalies.
"We want to combine that with how we have been playing responsibly, and I say 'responsibly' but we're still an attacking team. We've definitely shored up on odd-man rushes [against] a lot and we've been keeping the front of our net clear a lot better than we have in the past."
"I think defense is always a commitment to the guys, to work ethic," says Laviolette. "It's a commitment to the details. Defense is a lot of work. There's nothing glamorous about it. Scoring goals is glamorous. Playing in the offensive zone is fun. Defense is hard work and you've really got to pay attention and sacrifice. But the guys have done a really good job and we've been able to do a pretty good job of holding the opposition's chances and quality chances low."
In The Nets - Although Charlie Lindgren saw his personal five-game winning streak stopped in a 2-1 loss to the Stars on Thursday night, he permitted two or fewer goals against for the fifth time in his last six starts. In seven December appearances (six starts) in the Washington nets, Lindgren has posted a 5-2-0 record with a 2.06 GAA and a .928 save pct. Ten of Lindgren's 22 career NHL victories have come in the month of December.
Lifetime against the Maple Leafs, Lindgren is 0-1-0 in a single start, with a 3.18 GAA and a .923 save pct.
We are expecting to see ex-Caps netminder Ilya Samsonov between the pipes for the Leafs tonight. In his first season with the Leafs, Samsonov has been stellar through the first third of the season, posting a 9-2-0 record with a pair of shutouts, a 1.70 GAA and a .939 save pct. He picked up his first win as a member of the Maple Leafs against the Capitals in Toronto on Oct. 13, winning 3-2 with a 24-save effort against his former team.
Samsonov made his 100th career appearance in his most recent start, a 7-0 whitewash of the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 13 in Toronto. He enters tonight's game with wins in each of his last five appearances and having allowed just four goals over that span. Samsonov is 5-0-0 over that run, with the two shutouts, an 0.86 GAA and a .967 save pct. Since he last allowed a goal three starts ago against San Jose on Nov. 30, he has stopped 65 straight shots in a span of 152 minutes and 32 seconds of work.
All Lined Up - Here's how we believe the Capitals and the Leafs might look when they take to the ice on Saturday night at Capital One Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 73-Sheary
15-Milano, 92-Kuznetsov, 39-Mantha
90-Johansson, 20-Eller, 77-Oshie
59-Protas, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
56-Gustafsson, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 3-Jensen
52-Irwin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
31-Shepard
Healthy Extras
46-Johansen
91-Snively
96-Aube-Kubel
Injured
19-Backstrom (hip)
27-Alexeyev (upper body)
28-Brown (lower body)
35-Kuemper (upper body)
42-Fehervary (upper body)
43-Wilson (knee)
47-Malenstyn (upper body)
62-Hagelin (hip)
TORONTO
Forwards
58-Bunting, 34-Matthews, 88-Nylander
62-Malgin, 91-Tavares, 16-Marner
15-Kerfoot, 64-Kampff, 47-Engvall
12-Aston-Reese, 29-Holmberg, 28-Anderson
Defensemen
55-Giordano, 3-Holl
38-Sandin, 37-Liljegren
78-Brodie, 25-Timmins
Goaltenders
35-Samsonov
30-Murray
Healthy Extras
18-Benn
24-Simmonds
48-Dahlstrom
Injured
8-Muzzin (neck)
19-Jarnkrok (groin)
44-Rielly (sprained MCL)
89-Robertson (shoulder)
98-Mete (lower body)