SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

The Heart Of The Matter - Minutes before the Caps took to the ice for morning skate on Tuesday in preparation for tonight's contest with the Carolina Hurricanes, general manager Brian MacLellan and the team announced that captain Alex Ovechkin would be away from the team to attend to a family matter and the health of a loved one.

There is no precise timetable for Ovechkin's absence or his return, and the Caps also announced the recall of forward Joe Snively from the team's AHL Hershey affiliate. Snively took part in Tuesday's morning skate, but he will not be in the lineup tonight.
"It's tough sometimes, life's tough," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "When it comes to family and parents, that's what matters. He's going to go deal with some things right now, and we support him."
Prior to Tuesday's morning skate, Ovechkin addressed his teammates.
"Alex is a very proud guy, and he cares about this team and his teammates, and this organization," says Laviolette. "It was important for him to talk to the players and the team."
As to how long the Caps might be missing Ovechkin, Laviolette says, "I don't see him back in the foreseeable future."
Up to this point of the season, Ovechkin has missed just one game, a Jan. 21 contest in Vegas against the Golden Knights. A lower body injury kept the captain out of that contest, and the Caps took a 6-2 drubbing without him that night.
Even with Ovechkin in the lineup, the Caps have been scuffling to score for a few weeks now. He leads the team with 32 goals, more than twice as many as any other player on the team. With Ovechkin out, Marcus Johansson (13) is now Washington's leading goal scorer.
"The most important thing is family, right?" says Caps center and longtime Ovechkin teammate Nicklas Backstrom. "I understand what he's probably going through, but for us as a team, we're all aware of the situation and we're in a tough stretch here coming up. Teams are winning, so we have to do that, too. We've got to chip in for each other and make sure we really start playing as a team here."
Ovechkin's absence on the power play will be felt keenly because he tends to stay out for the full two minutes of most of Washington's man advantage opportunities. This season, Ovechkin has been on the ice for a League-leading 269 minutes and 34 seconds worth of Washington's total of 289 minutes and 52 seconds of power play time, so he has been on the ice for 94.6 percent of the Caps' total power play time.
"Obviously teams are used to seeing [Ovechkin] at his office," says Backstrom. "And we all know what he is capable of from there and how he can score from there. We're definitely going to miss him, but at the same time, we have to find other ways to create chances and try to capitalize there."
With 10 of Washington's 34 power-play goals on the season to date. Ovechkin has netted nearly a third of the team's extra-man output and he has assisted on eight of those 34 goals, so he has had a hand in more than half of the Caps' power play output this season.
"He is such a good power play guy," says Caps defenseman Erik Gustafsson of Ovechkin. "We're going to miss him these couple of games here. It's going to be a little different. The team is going to see how we play, and maybe we can find opportunities to score goals, because we've got to be better than that."
The Caps have scored on just 10.8% of their power play opportunities in the last 14 games, ranking 30th in the NHL over that span. In its last seven home games, Washington is 1-for-18 (5.6%) with the extra man. But like the rest of the Caps' roster, the power play unit has been a revolving door for essentially the last two seasons.
"There is something that comes up every day, and it just keeps changing things a little bit," says Laviolette. "We didn't practice [Monday] with the back-to-back games [over the weekend], and we got a chance to work on it for five minutes this morning. But again, these guys have been together for a while and they've played in different situations together, and it shouldn't be that much of an adjustment. But certainly not having him on the power play will be a difference."
"Normally it's two righties up top and now it's two lefties up top," says Caps' right wing T.J. Oshie of the team's power play alignment. "So different things are going to open up, and it will keep [opponents] on their toes and us a little fresh, and maybe that will sharpen us up a little bit and we'll have some more success."
Paddle Forward - Tonight's game is the first of two with the Hurricanes this week. The second one is the one that will draw the spotlight, it's the Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series game on Saturday night under the stars and the lights at Raleigh's Carter-Finley Stadium.
But the Caps are desperate for points and they can't be caught looking ahead to the weekend, not when they're facing the League's second-best team and one that is 24-4-3 since Nov. 26. Carolina sits atop the Metro Division standings, and the Canes sit high on a short list of clubs who are favorites to win the Stanley Cup this spring.
The Canes are a high shot volume team, and they're a relentless team on the forecheck. The Caps will have their hands full with Carolina in two of their next three games.
"We want to play fast," says Caps defenseman Erik Gustafsson, when asked how best to deal with the Hurricanes' forecheck. "We've got to go down after they dump it in and we've got to go down quick, help each other, talk, and then move it quick. And I think if you don't have anything, just try to freeze it and don't try the 'hope' plays or put anything into the middle, because they're going to be there because they're so hard, working hard and forechecking hard with three or four guys. I think the best plan is just to move it quick and be an option for everyone."
And even if the Caps are able to weather the storm in their own end, they'll also need to dial up their attack a good bit - even in Ovechkin's absence - if they hope to gain some traction in the standings and hold onto their current spot as one of the Eastern Conference's two wild card teams.
The Caps have scored two or fewer goals in nine of their last 14 games, going 6-8-0 over that span, and winning three of the games in which they scored two or fewer goals, the only three games they've won all season under those circumstances. At home, they've been limited to two or fewer goals in each of their last six games, going 2-4-0.
"You've got to score goals to win games," says Backstrom. "You're not going to win games with just one goal. But I think we've got to be a little more urgent out there. We've got to be a little hungrier around the net and create those second chances. And when we get our chances too, we've got to capitalize."
"You've got to shoot the puck to score goals," says Gustafsson, who has 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) in his last 23 games. "We as defensemen, we've got to move the puck quick on the blueline, and make a quick decision because everyone is so good to get into the shot lane now. You've got to get a quick shot on net, and then just shoot to score.
"And you can move down the wall, and when we get in the cycle, we're pretty dangerous, all of us guys out there. We've just got to move our feet, move it quickly and when we get a shot, tee it up."
In The Nets -Darcy Kuemper gets the start in net for the Capitals tonight. Kuemper is coming off a sturdy 27-save performance on Saturday afternoon in Boston, an outing that resulted in a 2-1 Washington win over the League's top team in its toughest building, Kuemper's 16th victory of the season.
Lifetime against Carolina, Kuemper is 1-2-1 with a 3.44 GAA and an .897 save pct. in five appearances (four starts).
For Carolina, we are expecting to see Frederik Andersen in net tonight. On the season, he is 11-4-0 with a 2.65 GAA and an .895 save pct.
Over the course of his career against the Capitals, Andersen is 7-4-2 with two shutouts, a 2.79 GAA and a .907 save pct. in 13 appearances, all starts.
All Lined Up - Here's how we believe the Caps and the Hurricanes might look on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
73-Sheary, 92-Kuznetsov, 39-Mantha
15-Milano, 19-Backstrom, 90-Johansson
59-Protas, 17-Strome, 77-Oshie
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
91-Snively
Injured/out
8-Ovechkin (personal)
26-Dowd (lower body)
28-Brown (lower body)
43-Wilson (lower body)
62-Hagelin (hip)
74-Carlson (upper body)
CAROLINA
Forwards
86-Teravainen, 20-Aho, 24-Jarvis
37-Svechnikov, 82-Kotkaniemi, 88-Necas
48-Martinook. 11-Staal, 71-Fast
23-Noesen, 26-Stastny, 21-Stepan
Defensemen
74-Slavin, 8-Burns
76-Skjei, 22-Pesce
44-de Haan, 5-Chatfield
Goaltenders
36-Kahkonen
47-Reimer
Healthy Extras
15-Coghlan
Injured
51-Gardiner (hip)
67-Pacioretty (torn Achilles)
73-Kase (concussion)