SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes From Caps' Morning Skate

The Heart Of Saturday Night -The Caps take the ice for one last Saturday night home game tonight, facing the Florida Panthers in a game that means nothing for the Caps but quite a lot for the Cats. Washington's faint playoff hopes were mathematically extinguished earlier in the week, and the Caps are merely playing out the remaining schedule, as was all too evident in a lackluster 6-2 loss to the Canadiens in Montreal on Thursday in their most recent foray onto the ice.

Washington is limping its way into and through this final week of a 2022-23 regular season that now cannot end soon enough. When a lower body injury prevented winger Anthony Mantha from suiting up for Thursday's game in Montreal, the Caps were left to roll with just 17 skaters against the Canadiens. The Caps recalled winger Beck Malenstyn from AHL Hershey on Friday, and he will play tonight against Florida while Mantha remains sidelined.
However, Caps' captain Alex Ovechkin is also ailing with an upper body injury. He did not partake in Saturday's morning skate, and is a game-time decision for Saturday's game against Florida. If he is unable to go, the Caps will again go into action with one fewer skater than the maximum of 18.
The Caps are seeking to shake off a five-game skid (0-4-1) when they take on the Panthers tonight. Florida enters the game with a five-game winning streak, and it needs a victory to keep pace with the Penguins in the wild card chase. Pittsburgh won on Saturday afternoon in Detroit.
"I would like us to finish strong," says Caps' coach Peter Laviolette. "I would like us to represent ourselves in a way that is winning hockey, and to feel good about it at the end of the night. But we've got to make sure that we do things the right way, put the right effort in and with that, you can find success."
Sea Change -Malenstyn will suit up for an NHL game for the first time since Nov. 1, when his strong five-game early season stint with Washington came to a sudden and abrupt halt. Early in the first period of a game against Vegas at Capital One Arena that night, Malenstyn suffered a broken finger when he blocked a Nicolas Hague point shot. The injury required surgery, sidelining the 25-year-old native of Delta, B.C. until late in December, when he was reassigned to Hershey.
It's the second time that Malenstyn's career has been stalled by an injury; he missed the entirety of the 2020-21 season with a torn Achilles' tendon.
"Obviously, it's frustrating," says Malenstyn. "You go through a full missed season with an injury, and then I'm able to get through last season reasonably clean. I felt really good for those first couple of games up here this year, and then the finger set me back a bit.
"I felt really good in those five games I was here for, and all I did was play my game. I kept it pretty simple, I didn't try to play outside myself. So I'm going to try to do the same thing here and hopefully continue the same way."
Washington's fifth-round pick (145th overall) in the 2016 NHL Draft, Malenstyn has played 20 NHL games with the Caps over three seasons, but he is still seeking to prove and establish himself at this level. While these final four games of the season may not hold much meaning for many of Malenstyn's teammates, that's not true for him.
"It's a great opportunity for me," says Malenstyn. "Anytime you get the chance to come up here and play, you've got to make the most of it. So whether it's one [game] or four, I just want to step out there and take it by the reins and just play my game, simple."
During Malenstyn's earlier stint with the Caps this season, he skated the left side of a line with Nic Dowd and Garnet Hathaway. Before suffering an eye injury on March 1 of last year, Carl Hagelin had been an excellent fit on that line with Dowd and Hathaway, and of the cast of several wingers who have since had auditions in that spot, Malenstyn has looked like the best fit, albeit in a short sample size.
"I think he fits in really well - when I played with him, at least -- just because we were on the same page and we're doing the same things," says Dowd. "Our goal is to get out of the [defensive] zone as quickly as possible by playing good defense and closing on guys, and making it making it hard for guys to play and to have space. And unless there's a really open play to be made the neutral zone, I think Beck's game is good because he doesn't mess around with it.
"I know what he's going to do; he gets it in and then he does a really good job of forechecking. He is a lot like [Hathaway]; he turns it up and he forces turnovers and that allows the other two guys to get in there and get possession. And then and you'll start seeing that he can make plays, like he did against Nashville [on Oct. 29] and in those games when he was up [with the Caps].
"He's just consistent with what he does, and he makes it easy for really anybody to play with him, because he does the same thing over and over and over. And once he gets into the zone, he has the ability to make plays. And the biggest is he just makes it hard on other teams, other players, other [defensemen]. He forces them to rush plays, and that's what creates those turnovers, and then we get [offensive] zone time."
A good showing in these final four regular season games could help to put Malenstyn in the minds of the hockey operations department as one of the top candidates to skate the left side of a line with Dowd and Nicolas Aube-Kubel next season.
"He's fast, he can skate, he's got good speed to him, he's physical, he finishes all of his hits," says Laviolette of Malenstyn. "It's going to be a good game for him to get into tonight, because Florida's got some physical players in their lineup. He is a good defensive player as well. When he was here, he played really well."
In The Nets - Charlie Lindgren starts for the Capitals tonight against Florida. Making his 30th appearance and 25th start - both career highs - of the season, Lindgren is aiming for his 14th victory.
And speaking of victories, it's a victory for the 29-year-old Lindgren to have spent the entirety of the 2022-23 season in the NHL, a first for him in his pro career.
"I still kind of pinch myself honestly," says Lindgren. "It's been a long road to get here. I know. It hasn't been sunshine and rainbows; it's been a lot of hard work and resiliency. And for me to be here in Washington, there's honestly no other place I'd want to be. I think we've got such a great group of men here. We've got a really, really great staff just full of good people.
"And overall, I think I've played some really good hockey. You look back in that month of December, I thought that was some of the best hockey I've played. I'm still just trying to plug away here, and I want to end strong and go into the summer feeling good about my game. But obviously, it's been amazing. I'm 29 years old and for it to be my first full year in the NHL, I don't think a lot of guys experience that. I think most guys get there when they're 23, 24 or 25. Honestly, I feel like I'm still in my prime, which I know I am. I still feel young but it definitely took me a little bit longer to make it full time.
"But now that I'm here, I definitely feel like I belong. And this team and this organization has really treated me with nothing but nothing but first class."
Lifetime against the Panthers, Lindgren is 2-2-0 with a 2.92 GAA and a .908 save pct. in four appearances (three starts).
Veteran Panthers' netminder Sergei Bobrovsky is battling an illness, so Alex Lyon is the expected starter for Florida tonight, giving us a battle of undrafted goaltenders from the state of Minnesota on this Saturday night in the District.
After three years of collegiate hockey at Yale, Lyon signed with Philadelphia seven years ago this week, about a week after Lindgren signed with Montreal as an undrafted free agent. He saw action in four separate seasons with the Flyers, before spending last season in the Carolina organization, and getting into two games with the Hurricanes.
Lyon signed with the Panthers this season and has played in a career high 12 games for the Cats, posting an 8-3-1 record with a 2.87 GAA and a .916 save pct., and notching his first career NHL shutout on April 1 at Columbus.
Coming into tonight's game, Lyon carries a five-game winning streak, during which he has forged a 1.40 GAA and a .961 save pct. In his most recent outing on Thursday against Ottawa, Lyon made 56 saves - the second-most ever by a Florida netminder - in a 7-2 trouncing of the Senators.
Lifetime against the Caps, Lyon is 0-1-1 in three appearances (two starts) with a 3.24 GAA and a .918 save pct.
All Lined Up - Here's how the Caps and the Panthers might look on Saturday night in DC:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 19-Backstrom, 59-Protas
73-Sheary, 92-Kuznetsov, 16-Smith
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 96-Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Jensen
52-Irwin, 27-Alexeyev
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
35-Kuemper
Healthy Extras
None
Injured/out
28-Brown (lower body)
39-Mantha (lower body)
57-van Riemsdyk (upper body)
62-Hagelin (hip)
77-Oshie (upper body)
FLORIDA
Forwards
23-Verhaeghe, 16-Barkov, 10-Duclair
27-Luostarinen, 15-Lundell, 19-M. Tkachuk
94-Lomberg, 12-E. Staal, 13-Reinhart
21-Cousins, 6-White, 54-Smith
Defensemen
42-Forsling, 5-Ekblad
18-M. Staal, 62-Montour
28-Mahura, 7-Gudas
Goaltenders
34-Lyon
72-Bobrovsky
Healthy Extras
4-Fitzgerald
Injured/out
9-Bennett (groin)
70-Hornqvist (concussion