After earning their first Ovechkin-less win of the season against the Florida Panthers Monday night, the Washington Capitals will look to capture another two points against the Tampa Bay Lightning to close out their annual Mentor’s Trip.
For the first time since Ovechkin came out of the lineup, the Caps plan to run the same set of lines in a second-straight game, keeping Tom Wilson in a first-line role besides Aliaksei Protas and Dylan Strome.
Wednesday’s matchup against Tampa Bay will mark Ovechkin’s fourth game missed due to a fractured fibula.
Forward lines
Per the Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson, Charlie Lindgren will get the start in net.
Head coach Spencer Carbery explained Monday that he hoped stabilizing the lines would help develop chemistry among the group. He noted that the team’s largely stable lines over the first quarter of the season had helped contribute to the Caps’ hot start, something he aimed to replicate even with Ovechkin watching from the press box.
“For the most part I thought it was pretty solid [last game],” he said. “We’ll try to stay with it to create a little bit more chemistry with the lines. That, I think, was a luxury maybe we don’t speak enough about at the beginning of the year. It was so consistent with our four lines and so you could feel the chemistry building and guys knew exactly where each other we’re going to be, and the communication was so clear on each line.
“And now you have an injury and things are moving around a little bit, so we’ve got to find some combinations that work, and I liked last game. I thought there were some good things and hopefully we can just continue to build on that. And like I said, that chemistry can only increase as as they get more reps together.”
Carbery also discussed playing Jakob Chychrun with Trevor van Riemsdyk and John Carlson with Martin Fehervary, something he’s done intermittently over the last few games. He noted Chychrun’s offensive contributions — including a three-point night against Florida — weren’t reliant on his pairing.
“Chych’s done such a good job and [we] feel like, whether he’s playing with Riemer or John, he’s going to be able to do some things that help us with the puck offensively at the offensive blue line. As long as we’re getting him the minutes and getting him out on the ice enough and getting him against certain matchups and playing with certain lines, I think we’re in good shape.”
Instead, Carbery explained, the swap allows him to use Carlson in more defensive roles rather than purely on an offense-focused top pairing.
“It’s more of being able to utilize John in some more defensive roles with Marty and their numbers have been so good together. And so now, utilizing John, because he’s such such an underrated defender — people don’t think about that. He’s first over the boards penalty kill and can play against anybody’s top line.
“So being able to use him and Marty, especially when you have some of these matchups like the Point line tonight, it just gives us a little bit of an added deployment to be able to be a little bit more specific, as opposed to just John and and Chych as our two quote unquote ‘best offensive defenseman’ playing together.”
Wednesday night’s game will conclude the team’s 15th annual Mentors’ Trip after a game in Washington and two games on the road. After closing out Monday’s practice, the Caps welcomed their mentors out on the ice for a group photo.
So far, the mentors have proven something of a good luck charm: per Caps PR, the team has posted a record of 19-9-0 with them in attendance since 2008. Players and mentors alike will look to boost that record even further against Tampa.
