The Washington Capitals make their way west on Wednesday before their tilt with the Arizona Coyotes tonight in Tempe, Arizona. puck drop from Miniature Mullet Arena Set late, but manageable 9:00 PM ET.
The lineup is essentially the same as the last game against the Minnesota Wild. Forward line and defensive pair at “Morning” skate, courtesy Samantha Pell/Washington Post:
Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Sonny Milano — Nicklas Backstrom — Tom Wilson
Conor Sheary – Lars Eller – TJ Oshie
Marcus Johansson — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Garnet Hathaway
Erik Gustafsson — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Dmitri Orlov — Nick Jensen
Alex Alexiev — Martin Feharvery
Charlie Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Additional: Right-hander Anthony Mantha, forward Aliaksei Protas and defenseman Matt Irwin
Injury: Left wing Carl Hagelin (hip), right wing Connor Brown (ACL), defenseman John Carlson (upper body), and center Nick Dowd (lower body).
YOTES
The Capitals begin a three-game road trip tonight when they visit the Arizona Coyotes at Mullet Arena for the two meetings between the teams this season. Washington has a record of 37-31-12-4 all-time vs. the Coyotes. More here.
Hi from Mullet Arena for the Capitals Morning Skate! pic.twitter.com/MCBcE0WMkc
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) January 19, 2023
The Capitals have won eight of their last nine road games (8-1-0) since Dec. 5, including seven straight from Dec. 5 to Jan. 5, which set a new franchise record. Since Dec. 5, the Capitals have outscored road opponents 39-20 (4.33 GF/GP, 2.22 GA/GP). More here.
Stats of the day – Expected goals are different
We’ve mentioned the expected goal metric quite a bit this season as in seasons past. I should mention that if you need a mid-season refresher on the stat, we have a definition of our own NHL Analysis Glossary. Of course, if you have any questions, you can always send us a message in the comments or by e-mail.
The Capitals are up from a season low of -5.12 in mid-November and a league-low +6.78 expected goal differential. That’s now good enough for 13th best in the league.
[The statistics used in this post are courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and the NoVa Caps Advanced Analytics Model (NCAAM). If you’d like to learn more about the statistical terms used in this post, please check out our NHL Analytics Glossary]
Down on the farm
Ludwig the person BIK had a nice assist for Karlskoga in last night’s hockey Allsvenskan action.
David Lilja 🚨
Ludwig Persson 🍎#HockeyAllSvenSkan #bikkarlskoga # all caps
🎥 C more pic.twitter.com/Mx5gDCDUdV— SwehockeyGIFs (@swehockeygifs) January 18, 2023
Oscar Magnuson There was a redirect for AIK, also in hockey Allsvenskan action last night.
Oscar Magnuson with redirects for a list of last night’s hockey Allsvenskan action. He has 5g, 9a in 34 games this season. # all caps pic.twitter.com/mXNa9oj4BR
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) January 19, 2023
Bogdan Triniyev Scored his second career KHL goal today. He continues to skate with the KHL club Dynamo and appears to have found a steady starting spot on the left wing on the second line.
Bogdan Triniyev with his 2nd goal of the season for KHL Dynamo. The second line starts from the left wing and remains. # all caps pic.twitter.com/U6eyHZ0cCp
— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) January 19, 2023
A solid season in the KHL will set him up for a return to Hershey this fall.
shaving
And finally, the awesome artwork from “Falling in Sand”:
# all caps [🎨: @fallinginsand] pic.twitter.com/iLcXllLMmj
— #ALLCAPS (@JonItBe) January 19, 2023
