SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

Save It For Sunday - The Caps are in Toronto for a late Sunday matinee match with the Maple Leafs, the finale of the season's series between the two teams. Toronto won over Washington here by a 3-2 count back on Oct. 13 in the Caps' second game of the season, and Washington returned the favor in the District with 5-2 victory on Dec. 17, a victory fueled by Erik Gustafsson's first career hat trick.

Washington starts off a two-game road trip here in Toronto, finishing out its January slate and seeking to improve upon a 5-6-1 record this month. The trip concludes on Tuesday in Columbus with the Caps' third meeting with the Blue Jackets this month.
Keep On Moving -With two games left between now and their bye week, the Caps - and some other teams around the League - may need to guard against looking ahead to that midseason oasis. But the Caps don't have that luxury; they started slowly in the first quarter of the season before turning on the jets in the second quarter. After putting together a rather ordinary January, the Caps are sitting in the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, but they've played more games than many of their pursuers.
"I hope we're not that," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We talk about it. We're not in the position. All you've got to do is to look a little harder at the standings in a different way, and you find out that you're not as comfortable as you think you are. We've got games played on teams, and these points matter. And I think the guys realize that. So it's obviously a big game against a really good team, a top team in the League, and we're going to need to be ready."
The Caps can't afford to look beyond either of these last two games before their bye week. They need points, they've lost five of their last eight and six of their last 10 games, and they've dropped two straight on the road.
"We just have to know what made us successful in our prior game, and what didn't make us successful out west," says Caps center Lars Eller. "Be aware of that, cautious of it, and mindful of it. And go execute and play with speed again.
"We can also just look at the standings and realize that there is no room for losing three or four in a row. Do that, and you're out [of the playoff picture]. We just lost like four of the last five or something like that [Ed: it was five of seven], I don't know exactly, and now every game is like a playoff game to stay in it. So every game is critical right now."
"The Leafs had a [subpar] game [Friday], so they're going to have their best effort, probably," says Caps center Evgeny Kuznetsov. "So we've got to match that, and we know that they're pretty good at home. So it's very important for us to establish the way we want to play right away and to control the game because those two points are very important for us to grab.
"So it's important for us to establish our game right away because of the way they play at home and in their house. It's going to be hard for us to comeback if we fall a couple of goals down, so we've got to make sure that we're ready come five o'clock [Sunday]."
The Killing Floor - In their last six games, the Caps have only been tasked with a total of eight penalty killing missions. They've successfully snuffed out all eight - and they've killed off 10 straight overall, going back to Jan. 14 vs. Philadelphia - and in killing off the only penalty they had to kill on Thursday's 3-2 shootout win over the Penguins in Washington, the Caps not only held Pittsburgh without a shot on net, they generated a trio of excellent scoring chances of their own. All of three of those chances came off Eller's stick during a stretch of one-man dominance in the Pens' end of the ice.
Eller fired twice on net from in tight, and a third try hit the goalpost. The Caps didn't score shorthanded, but more importantly, they protected what was a 1-0 lead by keeping the Pens' power play at bay. The Pittsburgh extra man unit entered that game with six power-play goals in its previous four games (6-for-14, 42.9%).
"I'm just trying to be aggressive and a little bit opportunistic," says Eller of his mindset in that situation. "Sometimes you need a little bit of luck, and for some bounces to come your way. But at the same time, if you're not there to work for them, you'll never know if they're going to be there. And that can be really discouraging for the other unit that you're going up against. If they're playing 30 seconds in their own zone, that's pretty discouraging. So that's what you're trying to do."
Also important was limiting the Pens to just that one power play opportunity, late in the first period. With an average of just 2.69 times shorthanded nightly, the Caps are the League's third-most disciplined team this season.
"Anytime you can keep their power play down in the defensive zone and trying to get the breakout they want and disrupting things," says Laviolette, "that's obviously a good thing, to get a chance or even to score a goal at times. It's a really big thing for a penalty kill.
"I think the penalty kill has been excellent. It's really been a progression from the beginning of the year, and the players are really starting to understand what [assistant coach] Scotty [Allen] has been looking for from them, and it's been really effective."
In The Nets - Darcy Kuemper is in net for Washington today in Toronto. For the first time this season, Kuemper will be making a fifth straight start today, and he is also between the pipes for the ninth time in Washington's last 10 games.
"Both of our goaltenders were really relied upon this year," says Laviolette. "When Kuemps went down, Chucky [Lindgren] went in there and he did an unbelievable job. He came in and he got [NHL] Player of the Week and he ran off a bunch of wins in a row, and he did a really good job for us.
"More than anything, as a coach you want to know that you've got two good, capable goaltenders. And right now Kuemps has been getting a little bit of a run here with the starts, but there's a lot of confidence in Chucky and the way he plays the game, too."
Kuemper is 10-4-3 in his last 18 starts, with four shutouts, a 2.31 GAA and a .925 save pct. He is coming into today's game off a 35-save performance on Thursday against the Penguins.
Lifetime against the Leafs, Kuemper is 3-2-0 in six appearances (five starts), with a shutout, a 2.50 GAA and a .909 save pct.
For the third time in as many meetings with the Leafs this season, the Caps will face former Washington netminder Ilya Samsonov. On the season, Samsonov is 16-5-2 in 23 appearances (22 starts) with a couple of shutouts, a 2.37 GAA and a .916 save pct.
In his most recent start here on Friday night against Ottawa, Samsonov's five-game point streak (4-0-1) came to a halt when he was dented for six goals on 34 shots in a 6-2 loss to Ottawa.
Lifetime against Washington, he is 1-1-0 with a 3.50 GAA and an .870 save pct. in two appearances.
All Lined Up - Here's how we believe the Caps and the Maple Leafs might look on Sunday afternoon in Toronto:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 77-Oshie
39-Mantha, 92-Kuznetsov, 73-Sheary
15-Milano, 19-Backstrom, 90-Johansson
96-Aube-Kubel, 20-Eller, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
56-Gustafsson, 57-van Riemsdyk
9-Orlov, 3-Jensen
52-Irwin, 42-Fehervary
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
27-Alexeyev
59-Protas
Injured/out
26-Dowd (lower body)
28-Brown (lower body)
43-Wilson (lower body)
62-Hagelin (hip)
74-Carlson (upper body)
TORONTO
Forwards
58-Bunting, 91-Tavares, 16-Marner
19-Jarnkrok, 15-Kerfoot, 88-Nylander
47-Engvall, 64-Kampf, 28-Anderson
12-Aston-Reese, 29-Holmberg, 24-Simmonds
Defensemen
44-Rielly, 3-Holl
55-Giordano, 37-Liljegren
38-Sandin, 25-Timmins
Goaltenders
35-Samsonov
60-Woll
Healthy Extras
18-Benn
74-McMann
Injured
8-Muzzin (neck)
30-Murray (ankle)
34-Matthews (knee)
48-Dahlstrom (shoulder)
78-Brodie (rib)
89-Robertson (shoulder)
98-Mete (lower body)