Call Me Up – Caps’ center Evgeny Kuznetsov missed practice on Monday and Tuesday because of illness, and Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery hinted on Tuesday that the club might summon a forward from AHL Hershey in the event that Kuznetsov was still south of the weather on Wednesday.
Prior to Wednesday’s optional morning skate, the Caps recalled veteran center Mike Sgarbossa from Hershey. Minutes later, Kuznetsov took to the ice for morning skate. As to which (perhaps both?) will be in the lineup tonight, that remains to be seen.
“He will be ‘to be determined’ tonight,” said Carbery upon the completion of Wednesday’s morning skate, in reference to Kuznetsov. “He skated this morning, which was a positive step. But he is more of a game time decision.”
The 31-year-old Sgarbossa is a veteran of 65 NHL contests scattered over seven different seasons with four different clubs, including the Panthers. Sgarbossa skated in 29 games with the Cats – his single-season high in the NHL – in 2016-17. Now in his sixth season with the Capitals’ organization, Sgarbossa has totaled two goals and six points in 17 games with Washington, accumulated in parts of three seasons.
With three wins in four games on the homestand to date, the Caps are aiming to finish with a flourish in tonight’s homestand finale against the Panthers.
“The last couple of years, they’ve been a team that comes in and competes really hard,” says Caps’ right wing Tom Wilson. “You’ve got to be ready for them. They have a well-rounded group over there, and they’re playing really good hockey the last couple of years.
“They were a benchmark team probably the last two seasons, and it’s early this season. So we’ve got to make sure that we’re ready, that we’re focused, and play our game on home ice, controlling the game and making smart decisions. I think it’s a big game to grab.”
Trouble Weighs A Ton – After claiming the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top regular season team in 2021-22, the Panthers advanced to the Stanley Cup Final last season before bowing to Vegas. The Cats are quietly one of the stronger Eastern Conference teams, though they are playing without a pair of key pieces of their blueline corps, Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour. Both players are recovering from offseason shoulder surgery, and both could be back later this month or early next month.
“I think they’re doing a good job with missing some key pieces there on the back end, and also with Sam Bennett being out for the majority of the year,” says Carbery of the Panthers. “From a skating perspective, I’ve just noticed that those two guys are really elite skaters. I remember playing [against the Panthers] in that [playoff] series last year, and you notice them up in the rush, and active in the offensive zone.
“[They’re] a lot to handle, so certainly when you’re missing two players of that caliber, it’s going to hurt your team. But I also think that the way they play and with guys coming into their lineup, it’s real seamless from a standpoint of shot volume. It seems like there is a lot of continuity with what they’re trying to do as a team, and their identity of attacking the net and getting pucks to the interior, and bodies and their forwards are getting to those areas, the [Sasha] Barkovs of the world and [Matthew] Tkachuk and those guys.”
Washington has won only three of its last 11 games (3-5-3) against Florida, and it enters tonight’s game having lost four straight games in regulation against the Panthers. More worrisome for a Caps’ team that’s still trying to find its way offensively, Florida has scored three or more goals in each of those last 11 games against the Caps, and it has scored four or more goals in nine of the 11 contests.
With defenseman Joel Edmundson sidelined with a hand injury for each of the first 10 games of the season, the Caps have deployed a three-player platoon in his absence, using youthful defenders Alex Alexeyev, Hardy Häman Aktell, and Lucas Johansen. Tonight, they’ll also be missing blueliner Trevor van Riemsdyk, so both Alexeyev and Häman Aktell will be suiting up for tonight’s game.
Given Florida’s firepower capability, its identity as a shot volume team that sends bodies and pucks to the net, and its ability to strike for multiple goals in a short time span, the Caps can expect to have their hands full in their own end at times tonight. How Washington handles those situations could determine the outcome of the contest.
“We’ll focus some little strategic things inside of our system that we’ll make adjustments to based on our opposition,” says Carbery. “But the big areas against a team like Florida is we need to do a good job protecting our net. And it’s not rocket science; you have to be able to box out early and get under sticks.
“Early box outs and tying up sticks, and controlling the net front is really important. [Getting into] shot lanes, for our wingers. And I think the big one is can we limit [them]? They’re going to get in our zone, they’re going to get possession. It’s going to happen; it’s part of the game.
“Can we limit their [offensive] zone possession to one shot, and then we exit? Can we limit it to one possession where they go low to high, we get a block, and it exits? That’s the key against these [high shot volume] teams, because once it becomes one [shot], two, three – now you’re going to break down. Now you get fatigued, and then eventually, someone is going to get beat to the net. It’s going to be a tip, rebound, Tkachuck, back of the net.
“So if we can limit that time and the amount of times they're able to deliver to our net, and retrieve that puck and exit, that is really, really critical. And you'll be able to see that live. If we're able to do that, I feel like we can get to our game. If we’re not, then it's going to be a lot of those sustained shifts, where now all of a sudden you're in some trouble.”
Just The Two Of Us – For the better part of the Alex Ovechkin era in Washington, the Capitals have been known as an offensive juggernaut. Among teams that have been in the NHL for the entirety of Ovechkin’s 19-season NHL career, the Caps have the third best points percentage (.607), and they rank second in average goals per game (3.07), trailing only Pittsburgh (3.13). Over the last two decades, the Caps have been more likely to roll over teams with goals in volume, as opposed to eking out 1-0 and 2-1 victories.
This season, things have flipped a bit, at least to this point. Washington has won five of its first 10 games, scoring two or fewer goals in three of the victories. The Caps scored three goals in a 3-1 win over San Jose last weekend, but the third of those was an Evgeny Kuznetsov empty-net goal.
Last season, the Caps scored two or fewer goals in nearly half (38 of 82) of their games. Washington went 3-30-5 last season when scoring two or fewer goals, so it has already matched its total of wins in such games, doing so a mere 10 matches into this season. Thus far in 2023-24, the Caps are 3-4-0 in games in which they light the lamp on two or fewer occasions.
A decade ago at this time, the Caps were in the midst of a remarkable stretch in which they went almost three full calendar years without winning a game in regulation in which they scored two or fewer goals. The streak spanned four seasons and three coaching regimes.
In between a 2-0 win over Toronto on March 11, 2012 and a 2-1 victory over the Hurricanes in Raleigh on Dec. 4, 2014, the Caps went 166 games without winning a game in regulation in which they scored two or fewer goals. Washington posted an overall record of 81-62-23 during that stretch, a span in which Dale Hunter, Adam Oates and Barry Trotz were the Washington bench bosses.
In The Nets – With Washington starting off a stretch of three games in four nights tonight against Florida, Darcy Kuemper is back between the pipes tonight for the Capitals. Kuemper started seven of the Caps’ first 10 games this season, and he has forged a 3-3-1 record to go along with a 2.94 GAA and an .899 save pct.
Given that the Caps have provided Kuemper with a combined total of just 11 goals worth of offensive support scattered over those seven starts, his record is impressive. Lifetime against the Panthers, he is 3-5-0 with a shutout, a 2.79 GAA and a .914 save pct.
Veteran goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky gets the net tonight for the Panthers. Now in his fifth season with Florida, Bobrovsky is starting for the 10th time in the team’s first dozen games tonight.
All Lined Up – Here is how we believe the Capitals and Panthers might look when they take the ice in the District on Wednesday night:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 92-Kuznetsov, 77-Oshie
21-Protas, 24-McMichael, 39-Mantha
47-Malenstyn, 29-Lapierre, 45-Phillips
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Jensen
4-Häman Aktell, 27-Alexeyev
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
79-Lindgren
Injured
6-Edmundson (hand)
19-Backstrom (upper body)
26-Dowd (upper body)
57-van Riemsdyk (lower body)
67-Pacioretty (torn Achilles’ tendon)
Scratches
23-Sgarbossa
46-Johansen
FLORIDA
Forwards
17-Rodrigues, 16-Barkov, 13-Reinhart
23-Verhaeghe, 15-Lundell, 19-Tkachuk
27-Luostarinen, 82-Stenlund, 21-Cousins
94-Lomberg, 18-Lorentz, 7-Lockwood
Defensemen
42-Forsling, 91-Ekman-Larsson
77-Mikkola, 7-Kulikov
28-Mahura, 6-Reilly
Goaltenders
72-Bobrovsky
41-Stolarz
Injured
5-Ekblad (shoulder)
9-Bennett (lower body)
12-Gadjovich (upper body)
62-Montour (shoulder)
Scratches
26-Balinskis
74-Asplund
