SKATE SHAVINGS — News and Notes from Caps Morning Skate
Sailing To Philadelphia – The Caps are in Philadelphia Tuesday night for their penultimate game prior to the NHL’s Olympic break, and the first of their four meetings against the Flyers this season.
Washington will enter the break with 59 games played, the most of any team in the League, so it will have a short 23-game slate coming out of the break. That means most other clubs in the League who are jockeying for playoff position with Washington will have games in hand on the Caps.
It also means these final two games – tonight in Philadelphia and Thursday at home against Nashville – are crucial as the Caps try to extend their modest three-game winning streak and maximize the number of points they collect between now and Friday’s onset of the Olympic break.
In The Middle Of It All – Last night in Washington, Nic Dowd skated in his 500th game as a Capital, becoming the 33rd skater and 34th player to do so. Dowd is just the 14th of those players who was not a Washington draft choice; he came to the Caps as a free agent signee on a League minimum contract in the summer of 2018, weeks after the Caps hoisted the Stanley Cup for the first time.
Dowd marked the occasion by scoring a huge assured goal midway through the third period, and he also made a strong play in the offensive zone to set up the game’s first goal early in the second period, after the Caps had spotted the Isles a 1-0 lead in the first.
Justin Sourdif’s development has likely been accelerated somewhat by playing with responsible veteran wingers like Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson. Although Dowd is seen around the NHL as a reliable bottom six pivot who can kill penalties, win face-offs and shut down opposing top six units, he is also a communicative player that coaches — even before Carbery’s arrival — would sometimes deploy with younger and/or newer players to the organization, to help them become acclimated to the Washington system and style of play.
Dowd wouldn’t seem like a natural fit as a centerman for skilled wingers like Ethen Frank and Ryan Leonard, but that trio has been an effective one for the Caps in the last few contests.
“No doubt,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “And for that line to be able to play in the situations that I’m deploying them in [is proof]. Ethen Frank to me – I don’t know if he is classified in the NHL stat pack as a rookie, but to me – he is a rookie. [Frank is not classified as a rookie, but if not for his age – 28 on Thursday – he would have entered the season as a rookie.]
“He has a handful of games last year in the League. I know he finishes the year with us, but he’s a first-year player. To me, Ryan Leonard obviously is Ryan Leonard. So, Dowd, to be able to center those guys and lead the way and help sort of guide them through games and communication stuff [is valuable].
“And the way that I deploy them is they play in every situation – [including defensive] zone starts against top six – and so that’s pretty significant for two young wingers, and you’ve got to attribute a lot of that to Nic Dowd, his leadership, and then how he commands the ice and how he controls defensive and offensive situations and help helping make it easier on his wingers.”
In The Nets – Clay Stevenson has started and won each of Washington’s last two games, and he will try to make it three for three tonight in Philadelphia when he gets the starting assignment against the Flyers.
Stevenson made 19 saves on Saturday to help the Caps overcome the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in overtime and he stopped 29 shots on Monday night in a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders. With Logan Thompson (upper body) and Charlie Lindgren (lower body) both unavailable, Stevenson has stepped in and been a big positive in the Caps cobbling together their modest three-game winning streak after Lindgren grabbed the first of the three wins – with just fumes remaining in his tank – last Thursday in Detroit.
Stevenson joined the Caps last Thursday morning in Detroit, hustling to Motown from Rochester, where he made 27 saves to help AHL Hershey to a 3-1 road win over the Americans on Wednesday night.
Tonight in Philadelphia, Stevenson makes his first set of starts on back-to-back nights at the NHL level, seeking his fourth victory in a span of seven nights.
“I thought he looked solid in game one, and he looks solid again [Monday] night,” says Carbery. “He made some big saves in some key moments. Think about him keeping that game at 1-0 with his save at the end of the first on the power play on [Bo] Horvat, big save there. And then a few others. I couldn’t tell on the replay if he got a piece of the Horvat breakaway in the second, but even if he didn’t, for him to take away what Horvat was trying to do there and keep that game at, I think it was 2-1 at that point, so that would have tied the game. “I’ve liked him in both starts.”
At 6-foot-5 and 196 pounds, Stevenson fills the net well, and similar to Olie Kolzig a couple of decades back, when he is at the top of his game, he seems to make good shooters sometimes put too fine a point on it, and they miss the mark.
In their first start against the Canes, the Hurricanes missed the net as many times (22) as they got shots on net. On Monday night, the Isles missed the net 20 times, had 23 shots blocked, and put 30 shots on Stevenson.
“If a guy misses the net, for sure,” says Carbery. “If it goes on net, you force the goalie to make a save. But a lot of times, the reason that the shooter is missing the net is because there is not a lot to shoot at. So, lay being on his angle and challenging shooters and being a bigger guy, can’t help but draw your attention to him making shooters miss the net. Hopefully, he can continue to do that.”
Stevenson has yielded four goals against in his two NHL starts this season, three of them on turnovers committed right in front of him where he had little chance to make a stop on the subsequent shot.
On the season, he is 2-0-0 with a 1.97 GAA and a .923 save pct.
For the Flyers, we are expecting to see Dan Vladar in goal tonight. Signed to a two-year deal as a free agent last summer, Vladar has been a big part of the Flyers’ resurgence this season. The former Bruins and Flames netminder is 16-8-5 on the season with a 2.50 GAA and a .903 save pct.in 31 appearances (30 starts). The 16 victories represented a career best for his six-year NHL career.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Vladar is 3-2-0 in five appearances – all starts – with a 3.59 GAA and a .871 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and the Flyers might look on Tuesday night in the City of Brotherly Love:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 72-Beauvillier
21-Protas, 34-Sourdif, 43-Wilson
9-Leonard, 26-Dowd, 53-Frank
22-Duhaime, 29-Lapierre, 15-Milano
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
33-Stevenson
68-Bjorklund
Healthy Extras
47-Chisholm
52-McIlrath
87-Trineyev
Injured/Out
24-McMichael (upper body)
48-Thompson (upper body)
79-Lindgren (lower body)
80-Dubois (abdomen)
PHILADELPHIA
Forwards
29-Grebenkin, 22-Dvorak, 11-Konecny
38-Michkov, 46-Zegras, 10-Brink
52-Barkey, 27-Cates, 74-Tippett
44-Deslauriers, 14-Couturier, 91-Grundstrom
Defensemen
6-Sanheim, 55-Ristolainen
8-York, 9-Drysdale
24-Seeler, 47-Juulsen
Goalies
80-Vladar
35-Kolosov
Healthy Extras
19-Hathaway
36-Andrae
Injured/Out
18-Abols (lower body)
33-Ersson (lower body)
71-Foerster (upper body)
