SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

Sometime To Return -Exactly three months after suffering a fractured skull and severed temporal artery, Caps' defenseman John Carlson is expected to return to the Washington lineup for tonight's tilt against the Chicago Blackhawks at Capital One Arena. Carlson's injury occurred on Dec. 23 in a game against Winnipeg, the same night Caps' captain Alex Ovechkin scored two goals to move past Gordie Howe (801) and into second place on the NHL's all-time goal scoring list.

"It feels great," says Carlson of his impending return. "It feels like a normal routine again, like normal stuff that you're used to. I think that's the hardest part, just coming in at different times, being in different spots, being away, being home. It doesn't feel the same, and I'm goad to be back here now."
Carlson has missed 42 games this season, including each of the team's last 36 games. Without him in the lineup, the Caps' season took a slow but inexorable turn in a southerly direction. They're 18-10-2 in the 30 games Carlson has played this season, but Washington managed just a 15-21-6 mark in the 42 games he missed.
"Just a really important piece to our team," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of Carlson. "We felt it the minute he left, and it's really good to get him back. He's worked hard to put himself in a position to be in shape and ready to go, healthy, and we're excited to have him back."
Without Carlson, the Caps were unable to win more than two consecutive games, managing that modest feat only twice. The random and freak injury came when Carlson was felled by a rising Brenden Dillon slapshot, and the team's quest for a ninth straight playoff berth - and a ninth straight season at a pace of 100 points or better - likely crumbled to the ice with him. Over the last 36 games since his injury, the Caps played to a 14-18-4 record, ranking 29th among the League's 32 teams in points pct. (.444) over that span.
"Just playing hockey," says Carlson, asked what's he is most looking forward to tonight. "You put in a lot of work all summer long, all season long, all rehab long, whatever it is, and you want to go out there and use it. That's what we all want to do, play the game we love and have fun with it, and that's what I'm going to be doing."
At this time five years ago, the Caps were in the stretch drive of the magical 2017-18 season, the season after which they claimed their first Stanley Cup title in franchise history. In the years since hoisting the Cup in the spring of 2018, the championship team has slowly eroded by virtue of trades, retirements and departure via free agency.
At the outset of this season, the Caps still had eight members of that Cup championship team on their roster. Lars Eller (to Colorado) and Dmitry Orlov (to Boston) were traded away ahead of the March 3 trade deadline, leaving half a dozen '17-18 Cup champs on the club in the District.
Tonight, in game number 73 of the season, marks the first time that all six will take the ice for the same game in 2022-23: Carlson, Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, T.J. Oshie and Tom Wilson. Also, tonight marks the first time this season that Washington's list of injured/unavailable players is fewer than three; only Connor Brown (knee) and Carl Hagelin (eye/hip) are still sidelined.
Twenty different Caps' players have missed time because of injury or illness this season, amassing a total of 394 man-games lost among them. Last season, no member of the Caps managed to play in all 82 games, and the team played zero of its 82 games with a full complement of players, an onerous streak that will climb to 164 games when this season draws to a merciful close on April 13.
And half of the players among that remaining Cup core - Backstrom, Carlson and Wilson - have missed more than half of this season. From opening night against Boston last Oct. 12, the Caps have been chasing health, the standings and many of the 72 games they've played over that span. They have 10 games left, and they can't possibly get any healthier than they are when they take the ice tonight; neither Brown nor Hagelin will play in those final 10 games.
"At the end of the day, too, it's nice to get your guys back as well," says Laviolette. "A guy like Carly coming back in after three months, if we had another John Carlson in the minors, we would have played him. You're talking about an elite defenseman. He's been a Norris [Trophy]-cailber defenseman, a 70-plus point defenseman for the last eight years or so. Those players are hard to come by, and when they come out of the lineup, you feel it, and it's nice to have him back in there."
Look Into The Future - Carlson's return also enables the Caps to put what would likely be their 2023-24 group of top six defensemen on the ice for the first time. The right side is expected to feature Carlson, Nick Jensen and Trevor van Riemsdyk and the left side sports Alex Alexeyev, Martin Fehervary and Rasmus Sandin. Each of the right-handers is under contract for the next three seasons, and Sandin is signed for next season. Both Alexeyev and Fehervary will be restricted free agents this summer.
"I think we're going to look at a couple of different things," says Laviolette, when asked whom Carlson would be paired with for his return tonight. "But Marty and Sandin stand out for us. I think we'll probably start with Marty, but I think we're open to change that too, based on what we might need from a shutdown [defense] pair. So those pairings, we'll look at it. But I think we're going to start that way, with Marty."
Carlson and Fehervary played over a thousand minutes together at 5-on-5 last season, but they have logged less than 70 minutes together thus far in this star-crossed season for the Caps.
Last season, Washington had each of its top six defensemen play at least 72 games, with all six ending up between 72-79 games played at season's end. This season, only Jensen and van Riemsdyk will be able to appear in as many as 72 games for Washington. Matt Irwin, the team's ostensible seventh defenseman these last two seasons, played in just 17 games last season but has appeared in 55 contests in '22-23.
Both Jensen and van Riemsdyk are in the midst of career seasons offensively, and both recently signed three-year contract extensions to remain in D.C.
"There's lots of guys that jumped in there," says Laviolette. "Obviously [van Riemsdyk] and Jens, their minutes go up, but even those guys were dealing with some things, and so more guys are coming in and out of the lineup. When [Erik Gustafsson] was here, I thought Gus did a great job of handling some of those minutes and moving up and really taking charge. I think that's what has to happen."
In The Nets - After suffering an upper body injury at practice this past Saturday, Caps' netminder Darcy Kuemper was unavailable to the team for each of the last two games. He has been cleared to return and is expected to be in the crease tonight for Washington.
Kuemper is making his 49th start of the season tonight and is seeking his 21st victory. Lifetime against Chicago, Kuemper is 6-2-1 in 10 appearances (eight starts) with a shutout, a 2.39 GAA and a .919 save pct.
For Chicago, we are expecting to see veteran Anton Khudobin between the pipes. The 36-year-old veteran is up from AHL Rockford on an emergency loan basis after the Hawks obtained him from Dallas in the Max Domi deal three weeks ago. He will be making his first start and appearance as a member of the Blackhawks, and he will be seeing his first NHL action in over a year, since January of last season when he was still with the Stars.
In 24 games with AHL Texas this season, Khudobin went 13-4-4 with a 2.89 GAA and an .899 save pct. His most recent start at any level came on Feb. 3 when he stopped 23 of 27 shots in a loss to Grand Rapids.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Khudobin is 5-5-2 in a dozen appearances (all starts) with a shutout, a 2.63 GAA and a .914 save pct.
All Lined Up - Here's how the Caps and Blackhawks might look on Thursday night at Capital One Arena:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
39-Mantha, 92-Kuznetsov, 16-Smith
59-Protas, 26-Dowd, 73-Sheary
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Jensen
27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
52-Irwin
96-Aube-Kubel
Injured/out
28-Brown (lower body)
62-Hagelin (hip)
CHICAGO
Forwards
27-Reichel, 89-Athansiou, 23-Kurashev
90-T. Johnson, 11-Raddysh, 17-Dickinson
14-Katchouk, 15-Anderson, 16-Khaira
86-Hardman, 53-Robinson, 58-Entwistle
Defensemen
82-C. Jones, 4-S. Jones
25-Tinordi, 5-Murphy
44-Kaiser, 22-Zaitsev
Goaltenders
31-Khudobin
32-Stalock
Healthy Extras
None
Injured/out
19-Toews (illness)
24-Bjork (undisclosed)
26-Wagner (undisclosed)
28-Englund (hamstring)
34-Mrazek (groin)
43-Blackwell (undisclosed)
52-R. Johnson (concussion)
70-Guttman (shoulder)