SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 11/26

Three Rings, No Circus - The Caps are in Brooklyn on Monday night, finishing off a feverish patch of scheduling in which they'll play for the fifth time in eight nights. The pace seems to agree with the Capitals, who carry a five-game winning streak into Monday's game with the Isles, the first meeting this season between the two Metropolitan Division rivals.

Four years ago tonight, the Caps faced the Islanders in Uniondale at the old Coliseum, and Washington carried a quite ordinary 9-8-3 record into that contest. A newly cobbled Caps coaching staff of head coach Barry Trotz and assistants Blaine Forsythe, Lane Lambert, Todd Reirden and goaltender coach Mitch Korn were preparing to face the Islanders for the first time on Nov, 26, 2014.
Fast-forward four years, and the location has changed - the Isles play most of their home games in Brooklyn now - but so have the loyalties. That stalwart Caps coaching staff stayed together for four seasons and delivered a Stanley Cup title to the District in 2017-18, but that was their last season together. Trotz, Lambert and Korn have moved on to the Island, and they'll be looking to defeat their former employers tonight.
Reirden and Forsythe remain in Washington, and they'll be looking to defeat their former comrades, the same guys with whom they've spent countless hours over the last four years running practices and benches, watching video, eating meals, running pre-scouts, riding on planes and buses and endlessly discussing all aspects of the great game we all love. These guys know one another extremely well, and they'll be looking to use that knowledge - as well as the knowledge of each other's respective teams - against one another for the first time.
But first, the Caps will soften up the Long Island Three by presenting them with their Stanley Cup rings - in the Washington locker room - a couple of hours ahead of game time.
"Yes, for sure we are," says Reirden, asked if he was really letting an opposition coach into his team's room just ahead of the game. "It's awesome. It will be a great, great experience to be able to see his face when we give him that Stanley Cup [ring], and Lane and Mitch as well. It's been great as we've gone through in distributing those rings to those who earned them in different road cities, and obviously tonight is a very special one, so I'm looking forward to it."
This Monday night Metro match is Washington's 14th game in 26 nights, and it's the last night of the team's annual Mentors' Trip, as the dads and Mentors were on hand for Saturday's 5-3 win over the Rangers in Manhattan. On Sunday, the Caps took a day off with their mentors to explore the many splendors of the Big Apple while the coaching crews on both sides spent some time game-planning for Monday.
"We've got a lot of stuff going on right now, just with the Mentors' Trip and important games," says Reirden. "Obviously it's an opponent that is playing really good hockey that is much improved from last year, and we know that Barry has had a big role in that. We're familiar with some of his coaching tendencies and some of those type of types from the last few years, and it will be something that will be a really different type of challenge.
"Any time you're coaching against someone that you've looked up to and worked with, it always creates a little bit of a different situation; I just had a similar one against Detroit the other day with [Wings assistant coach] Dan Bylsma. When you spend a lot of time - day in and day out - with your coaching partners, when they're on the other bench it's always a little different. But the competitive fire gets going, and it's an important game for our team."
November Nights - Since they dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Dallas Stars in Washington on Nov. 3, the Caps own an 8-3-0 record, tied for second best in the league in that span, behind only the Buffalo Sabres (9-1-0). A better team commitment to defense and an improved penalty kill are at the root of that improvement.
Washington is plus-11 at five-on-five in those last 11 games, and only the Tampa Bay Lightning (plus-12) has a better five-on-five goal differential over that timespan. On the other side of the coin, the Caps are still spending more time than they'd like in their own end, too. The Caps rank third from the bottom in the circuit with just 45.49% of all shot attempts at five-on-five, since Nov. 3. (stats via naturalstattrick.com)
"I think that's the one thing we've been doing well, staying patient and on the same page in our own end," says Caps goalie Braden Holtby. "Our exits are pretty good right now, but a lot of time we're getting to their blueline and it's coming right back at us again, especially in the last half of the game. You do want to try to make plays and help the rushes, especially early on in the game, but I think one thing we can probably get better at and smarter at - especially when we have the lead going into the last half of games - is wearing teams down."
The Caps have also scored a raft of goals off the rush of late, and those goals don't allow for much o-zone time. They've also missing two key performers - Evgeny Kuznetsova nd T.J. Oshie - for the last five of those 11 games, and the identity and chemistry of their collective forward group is altered to some extent in their absence.
"Putting it behind their [defensemen] is something that Todd and the coaching staff have been preaching and telling us to do," says Holtby. "It's just one of those areas where we haven't gotten burned on it lately, but there are times where it could have gone the opposite way.
Bottom line, the Caps have played well in their own end for the last 11 games on the whole, but they'd still like to spend a little less time there. And they need to start spending a little less time there. On the plus side, they've put together a strong run and they're collecting points while not playing to their collective ceiling.
"That's one of those things where it took us a while to figure it out last year," says Holtby. "But because we've done it before, we want to make sure that it doesn't take us that long again, to buy into that team aspect, because the win is more important that any other statistic or anything like that. It's getting there. The one really good thing is that we're committed in our own end right now, and that's a good sign. It's just a matter of making sure we build that out."
Start Me Up - Caps center Evgeny Kuznetsov took the ice on Monday morning at Barclays Center, but he did not participate in the morning skate with his teammates and won't suit up on Monday in Brooklyn. Kuznetsov went out on his own after the Caps' morning skate, taking his first twirl since he went down with an upper body injury in a Nov. 14 game against the Jets in Winnipeg.
In The Nets - Holtby returns to the net on Monday against the Isles. He took Saturday off after backstopping the Caps to a 3-1 win over Detroit on Friday, making 31 saves to earn his eighth win of the season. Holtby has now allowed two or fewer goals against in five of his last six appearances, and has a 1.59 GAA and a .953 save pct. over that stretch.
Lifetime against New York, Holtby is 14-4-3 with a 2.46 GAA and a .919 save pct.
For the Islanders, we're expecting to see Thomas Greiss in goal. Greiss is 4-1-0 in his last five starts, but his qualitative numbers aren't as strong over that stretch - he has a 3.11 GAA and a .908 save pct. On the season, Greiss is 8-3-1 with a 2.40 GAA and a .928 save pct.
Lifetime against Washington, Greiss is 2-1-1 in four games with a 2.49 GAA and a .926 save pct.
All Lined Up -Here is how we believe the Capitals and the Islanders will look when they meet on Monday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the finale of their two-game Mentors' Trip to New York City:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 43-Wilson
13-Vrana, 20-Eller, 10-Connolly
65-Burakovsky, 72-Boyd, 25-Smith-Pelly
18-Stephenson, 26-Dowd, 23-Jaskin
Defensemen
6-Kempny, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen
29-Djoos, 22-Bowey
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
1-Copley
Injuries
44-Orpik (lower body)
77-Oshie (upper body)
92-Kuznetsov (upper body)
Scratches
34-Siegenthaler
NEW YORK
Forwards
18-Beauvillier, 13-Barzal, 12-Bailey
27-Lee, 29-Nelson, 7-Eberle
14-Kuhnhackl, 51-Filppula, 47-Komarov
17-Martin, 11-Fritz, 15-Clutterbuck
Defensemen
2-Leddy, 55-Boychuk
4-Hickey, 6-Pulock
3-Pelech, 24-Mayfield
Goaltenders
1-Greiss
40-Lehner
Injuries
16-Ladd (lower body)
53-Cizikas (lower body)
Scratches
10-Gionta
21-Sbisa
32-Johnston