SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

I Got A Mind To Go To Chicago - It's been more than a couple of years, but the Capitals are back in the Windy City for a Wednesday night game with the Blackhawks. The contest is the middle match of a three-game road trip that concludes on Friday night in Winnipeg.

The Caps and Hawks hooked up earlier this month in Washington, with Chicago engineering a 4-3 comeback victory in the shootout on Dec. 2.
Tonight's tilt against the Hawks is the first of three straight games against Western Conference opponents, and that trio of games will be followed by a pair of road games against Metropolitan Division foes, accounting for Washington's five remaining games between now and the NHL's annual holiday pause from Dec. 24-26.
Nick Of Time - Tonight marks Washington's 29th game of the season, and it will be the first for which Caps center Nicklas Backstrom suits up to play. Unfortunately, it will also be the first game that fellow Caps pivot Evgeny Kuznetsov does not play in 2021-22.
Backstrom was activated onto Washington's playing roster on Wednesday afternoon, minutes after the team announced that Kuznetsov joins Caps right wing Garnet Hathaway in COVID-19 protocol. Center Nic Dowd and defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk are off the protocol list, and they'll be able to play tonight, but they won't be able to travel with the team to Winnipeg. The Caps take on the Jets on Friday in the finale of the team's current three-game road run.
When it started this stretch of three road games on Saturday in Buffalo, Washington was missing six regulars from its lineup, the highest number of absences for any single game this season. The return of Backstrom, Dowd and van Riemsdyk would have cut that number in half, but today's addition of Kuznetsov to the list of unavailable players pushes the number back up to four.
In addition to Hathaway and Kuznetsov in protocol, Tom Wilson is absent because of an upper body injury sustained last Friday in a game against Pittsburgh and Anthony Mantha is out long term after undergoing shoulder surgery in early November. Wilson is traveling with the team, and he took part in Wednesday's optional morning skate ahead of tonight's game against the Hawks, but he is still listed as day-to-day.
A third of the way into the season, the Caps still haven't been able to ice the optimal lineup they envisioned having for this season at any point, and they won't be able to do so at any point in the foreseeable future, either. In the meantime, they've managed to not only keep the ship afloat, but to keep it moving forward at a good clip.
"There's been a lot of adversity," says Caps left wing Carl Hagelin. "For us as a team, we've found a way to be fairly consistent in the games, getting a lot of wins. And at the end of the day, that's what matters. I think we have that mindset - every single guy - that whatever gets thrown at us, we're just going to handle it.
"There are a lot of good players on this team. Everyone's ready for a bigger role, so when you get guys that have been getting them in games, they've done a good job. But obviously you want every guy back, and we're hoping that a couple of guys are going to trickle in here in the upcoming weeks."
The Distance - As the Capitals' list of ailing/unavailable players hopefully begins to dwindle, the team is still extremely aware of what is going on around and throughout the NHL right now in terms of COVID-19 infections, to the point that on Tuesday night it made an organizational decision to alter its travel plans for the rest of this current road trip.
Washington's original itinerary had the team departing Chicago for Winnipeg immediately after Wednesday's game, which is typical of team travel in the League. The Caps were then slated to practice on Thursday afternoon in Winnipeg in preparation for Friday night's game against the Jets.
Instead, the team will stay over in Chicago after Wednesday's game, and it has canceled Thursday's practice in Winnipeg. The Caps will fly to Winnipeg on Thursday afternoon, after they learn their Thursday morning test results.
"We one hundred percent realize what's going on in the world," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "And this is a part of the world that we live in. We do everything that we can to try and be safe with testing. And now that we've had a few inside of the protocols that we have to abide by now inside the room, and so we're doing everything that we can to stay safe, and that's really all we can do."
There is more lag time in learning test results in Canada, and under current rules, those who test positive while they are north of the border must quarantine for two weeks and aren't permitted to depart via air during that period of time.
"Everything's been a little bit different this year with regard to just the way things have gone from an injury standpoint, and now COVID starting to mix in a little bit for us," says Laviolette. "And so, with all these adjustments that we have to make, I've got to give our guys a lot of credit because we've maintained a level and a standard and they played hard regardless of who's in the lineup. Whatever circumstances have come in front of us, our guys have handled it and they've done a really good job, so I'm really grateful that they've kept on point and continued to push regardless.
"And the trip [to Winnipeg] we have coming now where it might be a little bit different, that's just kind of part of it. And so we'll deal with it. You go in expecting to win tonight, and when this one's over you're going in expecting to win the next one."
For more than a week now, the Caps have been in "enhanced protocol," which includes mandatory masking in team facilities, on planes and buses and in hotels, except while actively eating or working out. It also includes a ban on patronizing restaurants and bars on the road, as was the case throughout the abbreviated 56-game regular season in 2020-21.
"You were certainly hoping and thinking that this year was going to be a little different, a little better," says Hagelin. "Less cases, everyone's vaccinated, and a lot of guys have their booster. But that's not the case. It's one of those things, so you've just got to deal with it. We love playing the game, so we do whatever we can to prevent ourselves from getting it."
Every member of the Caps' traveling party is tested daily - including off days - and players and bench personnel undergo additional testing upon arrival at the arena before the game.
"We have a lot of protocols in place for a reason, and our medical staff does an excellent job," says Dowd. "There are some things that they just can't control, but when we're in the facilities, everything is sprayed down and we're wearing masks.
"Guys are doing their best to keep their distance from each other as much as you can, but it's a pandemic. I think we're all going to get this at some point, it's just how viruses work. But the unfortunate thing is the timing of it. If you get it in the season, it's so much different than if you get it in the summer or something like that when it affects people's work."
Infections around the League have soared over the past few days, and most players are being as diligent as they can in an effort to avoid being infected, and they're also cognizant of how fortunate they are to be tested frequently and to have the care that they're getting if they do get infected.
"Guys in the NHL are really fortunate because we have great care, and we're fortunate enough where we still get paid through all of it," says Dowd. "And we get tested every day, and we have a lot of people to help our families out. All in all, I think our medical staff is doing a great job of controlling what they can control, and assisting us and our families through all of it."
In The Nets - Ilya Samsonov gets the net for Washington on Wednesday night. Samsonov will be making his eighth start in the team's last 10 games. He is 5-2-0 in his previous seven starts over that span.
Samsonov's most recent start was last Friday in Washington in a 4-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He has not suffered successive regulation losses in regulation since Feb. 2-27, 2020 when he lost four straight decisions in regulation at the tail end of his rookie season. Samsonov will be making his first career start against Chicago on Wednesday.
For Chicago, we're expecting Marc-Andre Fleury to be in net tonight. Fleury will be the subject of a pregame ceremony tonight, honoring him for his 500th career NHL victory, which he achieved via a 30-save shutout over the Canadiens in Montreal on Dec. 9.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Fleury is 25-14-2 with four shutouts, a 2.62 GAA and a .911 save pct. in 43 appearances.
All Lined Up - Given the optional morning skate and the afternoon upheaval in Washington's roster, we're not sure how the Caps will look tonight in Chicago, but here's a guess:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 20-Eller, 59-Protas
73-Sheary, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
24-McMichael, 23-Sgarbossa, 10-Sprong
62-Hagelin, 26-Dowd, 47-Malenstyn
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 3-Jensen
57-van Riemsdyk, 2-Schultz
Goaltenders
30-Samsonov
41-Vanecek
Extras
38-Cholowski
52-Irwin
Injured
21-Hathaway (COVID-19 protocol)
39-Mantha (upper body, indefinite)
43-Wilson (upper body)
92-Kuznetsov (COVID-19 protocol)
CHICAGO
Forwards
12-Debrincat, 17-Strome, 88-Kane
38-Hagel, 19-Toews, 20-Connolly
8-Kubalik, 77-Dach, 23-Kurashev
58-Entwistle, 36-Slavin, 22-Carpenter
Defensemen
4-de Haan, 44-S. Jones
6-McCabe, 5-Murphy
61-Stillman, 56-Gustafsson
Goaltenders
29-Fleury
32-Lankinen
Extras
13-Borgstrom
34-Gabriel
82-C. Jones
Injured
13-Borgstrom (illness)
16-Khaira (concussion)
52-R. Johnson (broken clavicle)
90-T. Johnson (neck)