The Washington Capitals need a win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night to keep their season alive. After dropping two games on the road at the Lenovo Center, the Caps have returned home for a second-round elimination game at Capital One Arena.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery ran his team through line rushes at the team’s practice on Wednesday morning, showcasing big changes to his forward lines. With the team down 3-1 in the series, no line remains the same from the 5-2 loss they suffered in Game 3.
“We evaluate every single position of the team and look at ways that we can put the team in the best position possible,” Carbery said Wednesday. “You use a lot of different factors… and you take it all into account.”
Alex Ovechkin took a maintenance day and did not skate, meaning Ethen Frank served as a placeholder on the team’s top line with Dylan Strome and Anthony Beauvillier. The first-line trio that includes Ovechkin will be the same as the one that started the series after a successful five-game run against the Montreal Canadiens. Beauvillier was a point-per-game player in the first round with five points (1g, 4a) in five games.
Strome is the lone point-per-game player on the Capitals in the playoffs with 11 points (2g, 9a) in nine games. Ovechkin recorded his lone point in the Hurricanes series, a five-on-three goal, in Monday night’s loss.
Pierre-Luc Dubois will lead a familiar second line with Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson on his wings — a combination Carbery used successfully during the regular season but has only shared the ice for 39 total seconds at five-on-five in the playoffs. During the regular season, with the three players on the ice, the Capitals owned 56.2 percent of shot attempts, 57.7 percent of expected goals, 56.9 percent of scoring chances, and 54.9 percent of high-danger chances.
The most notable change comes on the club’s third line as Connor McMichael, a winger for the vast majority of the year, has been slotted back in his natural center position between Ryan Leonard and Andrew Mangiapane. McMichael takes over for veteran Lars Eller, who looks like he could be a healthy scratch in Game 5. The 24-year-old forward was briefly put back down the middle in early January, but only for two games.
“No different than putting him at left wing or right wing,” Carbery said. “He’s a good hockey player. He helps us in a lot of different areas. Penalty kill, power play, his pace of play. When he’s using his feet, his quickness to evade big, long defenders. He’s a good player for us. He has been all year.”
Despite playing a top-six wing role for the bulk of the season, McMichael was unfazed by the change.
“Really comfortable, I think,” he said. “I played a couple games there this year, and there’s been shifts where I’ve been plugged in just with guys in the box or whatever it may be. I played that position my whole life, so I think it’s going to be pretty seamless for me. It’s something, even in practice a few times this year, I jumped in line rushes up the middle, just to stay fresh. So I think I’ll be good.”
The fourth line is the most battle-tested of all the lines, playing 323:40 together during the regular season. Nic Dowd, Brandon Duhaime, and Taylor Raddysh have been reunited sporadically throughout the playoffs (32:43) and posted great five-on-five results. During their postseason shifts together, the Caps have seen 61 percent of expected goals, 62.4 percent of scoring chances, and 64.3 percent of high-danger chances.
The team’s defense pairings remain the same from Game 4 in Raleigh. Alex Alexeyev remains slated to play with Trevor van Riemsdyk despite skating just 5:48 of ice in Monday’s loss and sitting out the entire third period.
Outside of Eller, Frank, Dylan McIlrath, and Ethan Bear appear set to be healthy scratches. None of the latter three players has made any playoff appearances in either series.
