New Scene – Anthony Beauvillier woke up Friday in Las Vegas, woke up Saturday in Arlington, and he will wake up Monday morning in Anaheim with his new Capitals teammates. Obtained from Pittsburgh on Friday morning in a trade deadline deal, Beauvillier is expected to make his debut in a Caps sweater this afternoon against Seattle.
With 13 goals on the season to date, Beauvillier becomes the 11th Washington skater who has cracked the double-digit level in goals this season.
“Just his identity,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery, asked what he hopes to see from his newest player today. “And that’s just him moving his feet, playing with pace, competing on pucks. I’m not too worried about the structure part of it and some of the details, although he plays with detail, so he should be in good shape there. So realistically, just some pace, and compete on pucks.”
Heading out on a weeklong road trip should help Beauvillier become more familiar with his new teammates, but the Caps’ upcoming schedule should also aid his transition. Washington doesn’t have any back-to-back sets of games until April, and its ongoing every-other-day game rhythm continues through this trip, so there are practices slated for each stop on the upcoming journey. And the Capitals have 19 games remaining to see how Beauvillier fits best and with whom.
“For sure,” says Carbery. “And each day, not just games. You would think of just each game him getting more acclimated, but I look at it as each day, whether it’s practice, film sessions, one-on-one or team stuff, he’ll just get more and more comfortable with the group and how we play, certain individual expectations, learn about the different lines, and our players and their tendencies and communication.
“There is a lot that he will pick up on the fly, and hopefully – in whatever it is, a week or so – he’ll be dialed in and completely caught up to speed with the team game and individually, what he needs to do inside of that. We’ll find out quickly, and like I said [Saturday], he’ll start here [on the right side of the Nic Dowd line]. I think it’s a good starting point with Dowd’s line, but we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Hump de Bump – Friday’s 5-2 victory over Detroit was a comeback triumph; the Caps fell down by a pair of goals in the front half of the first frame before rallying for five unanswered goals, the last four of which were scored in a span of 8 minutes and 28 seconds in the front half of the third period, and two of those four goals were shorthanded.
Aliaksei Protas started the scoring parade, tying the game at 2-2 on a shorthanded goal just 51 seconds into the third. He later scored Washington’s fourth goal and assisted on Tom Wilson’s shorthanded goal; Protas and Wilson became the first Caps in almost exactly 19 years (Ivan Majesky, March 8, 2006) to record two shorthanded points in the same game.
But it was Protas’s second goal at 5:17 of the third that was the backbreaker for the Red Wings, and a thing of beauty for the Capitals. Washington went nearly the full 200 feet in a few ticks of the clock on that goal, with two vastly different passes to set up the Protas finish, both of them impeccably executed.
From in front of his own net, Caps defenseman John Carlson spent a full 10 seconds surveying his options, then he spotted Connor McMichael on the left side of the ice at the Detroit line. Carlson snapped a sharp stretch feed to McMichael, who seamlessly bumped it to Protas in stride, as the big forward was gaining the zone. Having gone to the glove side on his shorthanded goal less than five minutes earlier, Protas this time fired a shot past the blocker of Detroit goaltender Cam Talbot.
A day later, McMichael provided his perspective on the play.
“Originally, I saw Johnny with the puck, and I was going to cut to the middle and be an option in the middle,” recounts McMichael. “But I’ve played with Johnny long enough; I know that when he looks at me and he looks away, and I know the puck is coming.
“So, I knew it was coming. And then I saw Pro flying through the middle of the ice, and I knew if I just got it through, he'd have a good chance to get in. I just wanted to get it off my stick, especially since I saw the [defenseman] stepping out towards me. I knew if I just put it in an area to him, he'd be able to skate into it and get it home.”
Against a team that had played and traveled the night before, and had seen its 2-0 advantage turn into a 4-2 deficit on two perfectly executed passes a couple of zones apart, that goal was a backbreaker for the Wings.
“I’d say it was a backbreaking goal for them. They were dictating most of the game up until that point, and we came out pretty hard in the third period. And honestly, credit Pro, he put us on his back on that first shorthanded goal, and made a hell of a play to get us going. And it felt like right after that moment, we were flying, we had the puck most of the period, and we were creating things.
“For them, we knew they were tired. We knew that if we scored a couple quick ones, they would back off a little bit and not come as hard as they were throughout the game. So yeah, it was a couple huge plays by Pro.”
“So, that's a set play,” says Carbery of the second Protas goal. “And when I say ‘set play,’ those are routes that those guys are running, and they know all the options off that; it's not just one option. There are multiple options off where those guys are going, so that's part one. When I watched that [Saturday] morning and I cut that clip, it's five guys completely connected and on the same page with exactly where everybody needs to be. The timing was perfect.
“Then the next part of it is the skill of and ability of Mikey in that situation. Because what happens there when you get pucks on the wall there – and this is why wingers work so hard at this, constantly day to day – the [opposing defenseman] is either going to do one of two things. He's either going to pressure him, or he's going to back off. And those are really the two things that he's evaluating, and for him to evaluate that – is he pressuring him, or is he not – and make a split second decision [half a second] are hard plays, and for him to recognize that the [defenseman] stepped on him there and pressured him, so now he's got to make a play through his triangle, through his feet, because he knows he's got speed coming through the middle.
“That's just a really, really elite play by Mikey there. And the timing, obviously, is perfect, and the finish is outstanding. So yeah, there's a bunch of layers to it, but it was a really good situation where we're completely connected as a group, and then two guys make real high end plays. And Johnny, the pass too is pretty impressive as well, because he threads that through their F1, who he recognized his stick went this way, and he threads it through on a line and yeah, and I agree it was a big turning point goal in the game.”
With three points in a span of five shifts in the third period of Friday’s game, Protas has now totaled 54 points (25 goals, 29 assists) in 63 games this season. That’s one more point than he recorded (13 goals, 40 assists) in 169 games in his three-year NHL career prior to this season.
Protas and McMichael were both drafted in the 2019 NHL Draft in Vancouver, and both have emerged as significant top six scoring threats this season.
“I’ve played with him now for four or five years, and I knew ever since the day I first skated with him there was a lot of potential in him,” says McMichael. “Big body, wasn't as good a skater as he is now, and I knew if he figured that out, and figured out to use his big frame in different situations, he'd be a really effective player.
“I don't think it's crazy to call him a star player in this League. He has really taken that next step, and good examples was [Friday] night. That's what star players do; when not much is going on, he takes over the game. Yeah, I can't be happier for him, he's one of the hardest working guys I’ve ever played with. He is really detailed in practice, working on little things he thinks he needs.”
In The Nets – On Jan. 23 in Seattle, Charlie Lindgren came off a short stint on injured reserve and delivered a 22-save shutout performance over the Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena. Today in DC, Lindgren gets the net against Seattle once again. He has won three of his last four starts (3-1-0, 2.97 GAA, .854 save pct.).
Lifetime against Seattle, Lindgren is 3-0-0 in three appearances – all starts – with the aforementioned shutout, a 0.67 GAA and a .972 save pct.
Former Caps goaltender Philipp Grubauer picked up the win for the Kraken on Saturday afternoon in Philly, so we are expecting to see Joey Daccord between the pipes for Seattle this afternoon. On the season, he is 21-17-3 with a shutout, a 2.64 GAA and a .911 save pct.
Lifetime against Washington, Daccord is 1-2-0 in three appearances – all starts – with a 1.69 GAA and a .950 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we believe the Capitals and the Kraken might look on Sunday afternoon in DC:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 21-Protas
88-Mangiapane, 20-Eller, 16-Raddysh
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 72-Beauvillier
Defensemen
38-Sandin, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
42-Fehervary, 3-Roy
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Extras
27-Alexeyev
52-McIlrath
53-Frank
Out/Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
SEATTLE
Forwards
17-Schwartz, 10-Beniers, 84-Kakko
19-McCann, 51-Wright, 95-Burakovsky
20-Tolvanen, 9-Stephenson, 7-Eberle
21-Eyssimont, 15-Hayden, 12-Kartye
Defensemen
29-Dunn, 6-Larsson
24-Oleksiak, 62-Montour
41-Evans, 28-Mahura
Goaltenders
35-Daccord
31-Grubauer
Extras
8-C. Fleury
Out/Injured
None
