SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

Come On Let's Go -Some five months after their last meaningful contest, the Capitals reconvene tonight to break the seal on another 82-game season when they host the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena. An eventful summer of offseason surgeries and transactions is behind us now, and the 2022-23 NHL season is underway, with the Caps and Bruins set to join the fun in a few hours.

After more than two decades of coaching in the NHL, Peter Laviolette gets as pumped as the rest of us for opening night.
"Especially because it's at the end of training camp," he says. "It means that we're finally here and training camp is over, and the guys are ready to play. Everybody's excited - fans, organization, coaches, players. Everybody's excited to get going."
For the first time in franchise history, the Caps will debut an entirely new goaltending tandem with no holdovers from the previous season. With back-to-back games on tap to start the season, we're likely to get our first regular season look at Darcy Kuemper tonight and Charlie Lindgren on Thursday in Toronto, and if the contracts are a reliable indicator, these two should be shouldering the netminding chores for the Caps for the next three seasons, the length of Lindgren's deal. Kuemper is signed for two years beyond that.
With Nicklas Backstrom, Carl Hagelin and Tom Wilson out of the lineup for the foreseeable future, the Capitals will rely on offseason acquisitions Connor Brown and Dylan Strome to augment a versatile group of complementary players already in the organization to mitigate the absences of the three injured forwards.
Aside from the offseason addition of Erik Gustafsson, Washington's blueline corps remains the same. The Caps will lean on the familiarity of the defense and the core group of forwards remaining from the team's 2018 Stanley Cup championship squad as they integrate the new netminding tandem and the newly acquired complementary players.
The likes of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, T.J. Oshie, Lars Eller, John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov have helped the Caps out to two straight strong starts in the last two seasons, and they'll be relied upon to maintain their high standards of play for another season, and especially until Wilson and Backstrom are able to return.
"Those are guys you can't just replace and we're going to need them," says Caps forward Marcus Johansson, suiting up for his first home opener here since 2016. "We want them in the lineup and then they bring so much both on and off the ice, but the depth that we have now is a good sig; we have such a good team without them as well. And the depth that we have is big for times like these, when you're missing two of your most important guys. Everyone's going to have to pull the same way here and for however long it takes for them to get back, and I think we have a group that can do that."
Powering Up - When Washington roared out to a 5-1 opening night win over the New York Rangers last Oct. 13, it scored a trio of power play goals. But as the season wore on, the Caps' power play scuffled while missing key players such as Backstrom, Oshie, and Anthony Mantha for long periods of time.
At season's end, the Caps' 18.8 percent success rate with the extra man ranked 23rd in the NHL, the team's lowest finish since 2006-07, Ovechkin's second season in the League and the season prior to Backstrom's arrival in D.C.
During the preseason, the Caps were effective with the extra man. They routinely managed a lot of offensive zone time and were creative in generating high danger scoring chances, good looks and some goals as well. In six preseason contests, Washington was 4-for-16 with the extra man for a 25% success rate, albeit in a tiny sample size and against substandard penalty killing outfits.
"The power play was a little bit more challenging last year, just with regard to a lot of the guys that were out of the lineup," says Laviolette. "And listen, we can't complain about those things because they happen. They happen through the course of the year, but sometimes they do have a direct impact on your team.
"Nick Backstrom is one of the best half wall guys - maybe ever - and so he's just really, really good at what he does when he's in that space over there. And so you take that piece out for over half the season. T.J. Oshie is one of the best guys to put in that middle spot. And when he's in and out of the lineup, or not at 100%, or he's not there for us it takes away. A guy like Mantha that comes out of the lineup, and that's what he was bought here for, being down on that goal line and making things happen. And so it was just kind of tough.
"I felt like once we got our pieces back in place and they got up to speed a little bit more, I felt like the power play was back and clicking and contributing. But it was an up and down year. We've got to be better. The specialty teams can make a difference in a game. There's just a lot of confidence in the power play and what they've been able to over such a long stretch of time, that we'll be able to get back and be consistent with what we're doing."
Brown and Strome were both effective on the power play during the preseason and will be relied upon to contribute with the extra man with the season getting underway.
"Last year I mostly played down low, kind of in front of the net or off to the side," says Strome. "I've been talking to some of the guys here a little bit, Kuznetsov mainly, and he said they kind of rotate around a lot and look for those seams.
"Anytime you have the man advantage, I think it's important to at least build momentum for your team and to try to create some good chances. I obviously love having the puck on my stick and to try to make plays and feeding guys when they're open. I got to learn from a guy like Patrick Kane last year and previous years where you've got to be ready at any time, because he'll find you and put it on your tape. I'm looking forward to the chance to play with some of these amazing players that they have here and hopefully help the power play."
From the 2008-09 season through the 2020-21 campaign, the Washington power play managed to finish in the League's top five in seven of 13 seasons, including three straight seasons at No. 1 from '12-13 through '14-15. They're seeking to return to the top quarter or third of the League in 2022-23.
Spotlight Hits You - Caps winger Anthony Mantha arrived in Washington in April of 2021, at the trade deadline of that late-starting, truncated campaign in the midst of the pandemic. He got into 14 late-season games with the Caps that spring, then got his first taste of the Stanley Cup playoffs as the Bruins dismissed Washington in a five-game first round series.
Last season, Mantha suffered a serious shoulder injury in the Caps' 10th game of the season, an ailment that required surgery and kept him out of the lineup until early March. Although Mantha has been here in the District for 18 months now, he has played in just 51 regular season games in a Caps' sweater, totaling 13 goals and 31 points.
Now into his prime seasons, the 28-year-old Mantha is hoping for a healthy season ahead in which he can showcase his talents without the interruptions that have plagued him since arriving here.
"It would be awesome to get 82 [games], I won't lie," says Mantha. "I'm just excited. Obviously, every camp you're just excited for a couple of exhibition games to get back into it, and then the season is going to start real quick. My goal is to be healthy this year and try to help this team win, and for me personally, it's just to bounce back and have a great season."
Mantha has shown tantalizing glimpses of his ability. The 6-foot-5, 234-pound winger scored in each of his first four games in a Caps' sweater upon arriving from Detroit in April of 2021, becoming the first player in franchise history to achieve that feat. But consistency has eluded Mantha in his short time here, and the player and the team are hopeful that health will help bring consistency in 2022-23.
With Wilson expected to miss the first several weeks of the season, the Caps will need to rely on a committee of complementary players to make up for his absence. But they believe that Mantha can bring some of the elements they're missing while Wilson rehabs from surgery.
"With any player, I think consistency is a big part of it," says Laviolette. "And there's no question that that [Mantha] has had games where you'd like to go into the season and pencil him in there, and give him that opportunity. And he will get an opportunity. But then like anybody, no matter who we're talking about with that opportunity, you've got achieve the results that we're looking for. And I think that Anthony has the potential to do that. He's big, he's strong, he's skilled. He'll get an opportunity, and we'll see what he can do."
No one player is capable of replacing Wilson, but Mantha showed he has the ability to be a physical force when he's motivated to do so. In Game 1 of the playoff series against Florida last May - the same game in which Wilson was injured early in the first period - Mantha laid 10 hits while also picking up a power-play assist and logging over 19 minutes.
"Obviously Tom is his own person," says Mantha. "No one plays like him. He is so intense, and he wins his battles all the time and makes massive hits here and there. But if I could throw the body a couple of more times a game, it obviously gets me into the game and gets the other team's defensemen on their heels a little bit, and hopefully creates some turnovers. That's what Tom does so well. He's so quick to get in on that forecheck that the other team is just throwing the puck away. Hopefully I can bring that a little bit more - at least at the start of the year - and try and get it going through the whole year."
In The Nets - When Kuemper takes to the ice on Wednesday night to make his first start in a Capitals' sweater, he'll also be appearing in his 300th career NHL game, and he'll be doing so as a Stanley Cup champion. Kuemper helped backstop the Colorado Avalanche to the Stanley Cup last June, hoisting the coveted chalice on June 26 in Tampa.
Last season ran later than most, making for a short summer for those like Kuemper who were fortunate enough to play in the last game of the season. In a summer in which he had to plan for his day with the Cup, find a new employer and then get settled in a new city, Kuemper found that the one thing he didn't have time to do was to fall out of shape.
"The summer was short, and it flew by," he says. "It was obviously a lot of fun and everything you dream of growing up, being able to bring the Cup home and celebrate with friends and family. The nice thing was that once I got into training, I felt like I didn't have to get back into shape; it was kind of a different feeling where it had been so little time off that you were kind of just maintaining that game conditioning, which was nice getting ready for the next season."
Kuemper played in a career high of 57 games last season, winning 37 of them. With Washington, he can likely expect a similar workload. The Caps' own recent championship in 2018 was achieved with a handful of the core players who are still here in D.C., and that helped make Washington a favorable landing spot for Kuemper, who signed a five-year contract with the Caps three months ago.
Over the course of his NHL career, Kuemper has scuffled against the Bruins. In seven lifetime appearances against Boston, Kuemper is 1-6-0 with a 3.03 GAA and an .894 save pct.
For Boston, we are expecting to see Linus Ullmark in net for tonight's season opener. The 29-year-old Ullmark is set to embark upon his eighth season in the NHL, and he is starting his second season with Boston. With the B's last season, he established a career high 26 victories (26-10-2), and he also posted a 2.45 GAA and a .917 save pct.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Ullmark is 4-5-1 in 10 appearances, with a 2.96 GAA and an .892 save pct.
All Lined Up - Here is how we believe the Capitals and Bruins might line up for Wednesday's season opener in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 28-Brown
59-Protas, 17-Strome, 39-Mantha
90-Johansson, 20-Eller, 77-Oshie
73-Sheary, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 3-Jensen
56-Gustafsson, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
24-McMichael
52-Irwin
91-Snively
Injured
19-Backstrom (hip)
43-Wilson (knee)
62-Hagelin (hip)
BOSTON
Forwards
71-Hall, 37-Bergeron, 74-DeBrusk
18-Zacha, 46-Krejci, 88-Pastrnak
10-Greer, 13-Coyle, 12-Smith
17-Foligno, 92-Nosek, 94-Lauko
Defensemen
27-Lindholm, 25-Carlo
6-Reilly, 75-Clifton
28-Forbort, 67-Zboril
Goaltenders
35-Ullmark
1-Swayman
Healthy Extras
11-Frederic
23-Studnicka
Injured
48-Grzelcyk (shoulder)
63-Marchand (hip)
73-McAvoy (shoulder)