SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

Last Call - Tonight at Capital One Arena, the Caps close the book on a star-crossed, injury-riddled campaign that they were able to keep together with duct tape, some spackle and some bondo through the first half of the season, but which came apart at every nail thereafter. The Caps host the New Jersey Devils in tonight's 2022-23 finale, a game that means nothing for Washington, but one which carries meaning and opportunity for the visiting Devils.

Washington enters its season finale with a total of 434 man-games lost this season, the third straight season - spanning the entire 220-game tenure of Peter Laviolette behind the Caps' bench - in which the team has been missing one or more players because of injury for every single game. The total of 434-man games lost is the most for Washington since the 1998-99 Capitals suffered their way through 511 man-games lost to injury.
That '98-99 team plummeted from 92 points and the franchise's first ever Stanley Cup Final appearance in the spring of 1998 to a 68-point finish in the injury-plagued '98-99 season, a 24-point dip and the club's worst showing since 1981-82.
This year's model will miss the postseason for the first time in nine years, and its dip will be somewhere from 19 to 21 points south of last season's total, depending upon the outcome of tonight's game.
The injuries haven't let up at any point this season. Washington started the season with three regular players missing and never got below that number. Seven players were unable to play in its most recent game, a 5-2 loss to the Bruins in Boston on Tuesday.
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin has missed each of the team's last three games, but he took the ice for Thursday's morning skate, and he - along with a few others - will be a game-time decision for tonight's game.
"There's a lot of guys out on the ice there this morning," says Laviolette. "So we've got some game-time decisions going on with regard to who is in and who is out."
Despite being out of the playoff picture for several games now, the Caps have generally left it all out on the ice over their last three games - all of which came against teams with something tangible to play for - and hanging in against all three opponents despite being undermanned and eternally banged up.
Expect to see more of the same tonight.
"There's some guys that in that Boston game and in a very tough situation in the back-to-back, there's guys that I really liked, and I thought they really, really competed hard," says Laviolette. "I thought the [Dylan] Strome line was really on point with the way they played the game. And I noticed other players as well; I'm just using that line as an example. You could just see the effort that they're putting in, and I'd like to see that from our group tonight.
"It's not always perfect inside of a game when you have that many players on the ice. There's always an off night here and there, but I would like to see a really good effort by our group tonight."
Conor Sheary manned the left side of that aforementioned Strome line, with Tom Wilson on the right side. Laviolette expects to keep that trio together tonight, and whenever Sheary steps onto the ice for the first time tonight, he will achieve a rarity for the Caps in these last two seasons, becoming the only Washington player who appeared in each of the team's 82 games in either of the last two seasons. For Sheary, it's the first time in his career he has played in every one of his team's games.
"It's definitely a different experience for me," says Sheary. "It's the first time in my career. Usually you'll get a two- or three-game injury within the middle of the season, and you're able to sit back and to rest a little bit. But this year was kind of 'go, go, go' the whole time.
"Obviously eliminating the COVID testing and that probably added to no one [playing all 82] last year; guys missed time because of that. But I'm just happy to be healthy and available every night, and I try to bring what I can. I'm fortunate to be in the situation that I am."
For the Devils, tonight's game is an opportunity to erase a pair of franchise records and to potentially climb their way to the top of the Metropolitan Division standings. New Jersey enters tonight's game with 110 points (51-22-8), one shy of Carolina for the top spot in the Metro. Carolina visits Florida tonight in its own regular season finale. The Devils have never won a Metro Division title, and their last division crown came in 2009-10 when they finished atop the Atlantic Division with 103 points.
New Jersey also has the opportunity to erase a pair of single-season standards from its franchise record books. The single-season franchise mark for points is 111, established in 2000-01 when the Devils fell in the Cup Final to Colorado. And with 51 victories this season, New Jersey has already matched its single-season standard of 51, set in 2008-09. A win in Washington tonight would give the '22-23 Devils that mark.
Way back in 1974-75, the Capitals and the Kansas City Scouts entered the NHL together as expansion teams, the 17th and 18th members of the League at that time. The Scouts lasted only two years in K.C. before moving to Denver and becoming the Colorado Rockies. They moved to New Jersey and became the Devils in 1982-83, the same season in which Washington made its first-ever trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs after missing out in each of the first eight seasons of its existence.
This season marks the eighth time the Caps have missed the postseason in the 40 years since that initial eight-year drought.
Emergency On Planet Earth -Caps' goalie Charlie Lindgren routinely leaves it all out on the ice every night, but he has had to battle particularly hard in his two most recent outings, a 4-2 loss to the Panthers in Washington on Saturday and the previously mentioned setback to the Bruins in Boston on Tuesday.
Florida teed up 77 shots on the Washington net in Saturday's game, getting 37 of them on net. And on Tuesday in Boston, the Bruins pumped 60 shot attempts in his direction, getting 36 of those through to Lindgren in just over 45 minutes of work.
Just past the five-minute mark of the third, Lindgren departed the game with an upper body injury, the first of his 26 starts this season he was unable to finish. In the first five minutes of the third, Lindgren stopped 11 of 12 shots he faced in a Boston barrage, notably denying Pavel Zacha while extending his bare right hand to do so; Lindgren had lost his stick and his catching glove in an earlier dazzling stop during the same sequence.
After making a remarkable save on Taylor Hall from the top of the paint, Lindgren departed for the night - and as it turns out, the season - with the injury.
That left the Caps in need of an emergency backup goaltender for tonight's game against New Jersey, and that's where Reid Cooper, goaltender for the NCAA Division III Curry College Colonels enters the picture. Following a stellar senior season at Curry, Cooper was hanging out at home Tuesday night when his world took a quick and surprising turn.
"I was sitting on the couch at home watching a movie with a couple of roommates," says Cooper. "And I got a call from Danny Brooks from the Washington Capitals. And I popped right off my couch and went from there."
As the Caps were flying home from Boston after Tuesday night's game, the wheels were set in motion to get Cooper to Washington to serve as Darcy Kuemper's backup for Thursday's game against the Devils, and to get his parents to the District as well.
By Thursday morning, Cooper was on the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, and using his catching glove to make a stop on Ovechkin's first morning skate shot on net against him.
"First shot today was from Ovechkin," says a beaming Cooper. "Just lots of handshakes today; everyone's been so nice. It's been great so far."
A native of Corman Park, Saskatchewan, Cooper was a teammate of Caps' goaltending prospect Clay Stevenson at BCHL Coquitlam in 2017-18. He played under assistant coach and former Caps' forward Matt Herr during part of his stint at Robert Morris University, and his teammates at Curry College include two sons of Hockey Hall of Famer Teemu Selanne, Eetu and Leevi.
With Curry this past season, Cooper fashioned a 20-6-1 record to go along with a 1.92 GAA and a .922 save pct. He was named the Commonwealth Coast Conference's Goaltender and Co-Player of the Year for '22-23, and also earned CCC First Team All-Conference honors. He also backstopped the Colonels to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Even with all those accolades, no goaltender at any level is sitting on his couch and anticipating the call that came Cooper's way on Tuesday night.
"No, you see it happen every once in a while," says Cooper. "And you see how lucky those guys are. And it just kind of happened to be me, and I'm just really thankful. I can't thank the Caps enough for the opportunity."
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Cooper turns 25 on July 1, and his collegiate career is now behind him. Like most hockey players who have played at a high level, he is still seeking to ascend that ladder, and hopes to get a deal to turn pro at some level this summer.
"My dream has always been to play in the NHL," he says. "I guess we'll go from here. This is obviously a great opportunity, but we'll see what happens throughout the summer.
A group of Cooper's Curry College teammates made the drive down from Boston and watched their teammate on the ice with the Washington Capitals, and then they went and wandered around in the District afterwards. Two nights ago, such a sudden journey south wasn't in their plans, either.
"I saw it happen with Toronto there," says Cooper. "And I guess the same thing happened with the Caps. I saw Lindgren went down, and then I got the call right there. I'm pretty thankful for this opportunity; it's been great so far."
In The Nets -With Lindgren unavailable for tonight, Kuemper gets the start for Washington in tonight's season finale against New Jersey. Kuemper will be making his 56th start of the season, one shy of his career high established with the Cup-winning Colorado Avalanche last season.
Lifetime against New Jersey, Kuemper is 0-5-3 with a 2.43 GAA and a .920 save pct. in eight appearances (seven starts).
New Jersey's starter for tonight is unknown at this time. Both Vitek Vanecek and Mackenzie Blackwood were on the ice for the Devils on Thursday morning, but the team has also recalled Akira Schmid from the AHL.
Lifetime against the Caps, Blackwood is 2-8-1 with a 3.73 GAA and an .867 save pct. in 11 appearances (all starts). Vanecek is 1-0-0 in two career appearances (one start) against his former team, with a 1.50 GAA and a .952 save pct. Schmid is 1-0-0 in one career start against the Caps, with a 1.85 GAA and a .909 save pct.
All Lined Up - Here's how the Caps and Devils could look for Thursday's season finale in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 16-Smith
73-Sheary, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 92-Kuznetsov, 91-Snively
47-Malenstyn, 59-Protas, 96-Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Jensen
52-Irwin, 27-Alexeyev
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
97-Cooper
Healthy Extras
None
Injured/out
26-Dowd (upper body)
28-Brown (lower body)
39-Mantha (lower body)
57-van Riemsdyk (upper body)
62-Hagelin (hip)
77-Oshie (upper body)
79-Lindgren (upper body)
NEW JERSEY
Forwards
90-Tatar, 13-Hischier, 18-Mercer
18-Palat, 86-J. Hughes, 63-Bratt
96-Meier, 70-Boqvist, 17-Sharangovich
44-Wood, 14-Bastian
Defensemen
71-Siegenthaler, 7-Hamilton
33-Graves, 6-Marino
88-Bahl, 28-Severson
43-L. Hughes
Goaltenders
35-Ullmark
1-Swayman
Healthy Extras
2-Smith
20-McLeod
41-Schmid
56-Haula
Injured/out
42-Lazar (undisclosed)
45-Bernier (hip)