Anthony Mantha Skates With Extras, Alex Alexeyev Skates With Starters: Notes From Capitals Morning Skate In The Desert

The Washington Capitals made their way westward on Wednesday in advance of their tilt with the Arizona Coyotes tonight in Tempe, Arizona. Puck drop from the miniaturized Mullet Arena is set for a late, but manageable 9:00 PM ET.

The lineup is largely the same as the last game against the Minnesota Wild. The forward lines and defensive pairs at “morning” skate, courtesy of Samantha Pell/Washington Post:

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Sonny Milano — Nicklas Backstrom — Tom Wilson
Conor Sheary — Lars Eller — T.J. Oshie
Marcus Johansson — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Garnet Hathaway

Erik Gustafsson — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Dmitry Orlov — Nick Jensen
Alex Alexeyev — Martin Fehervary

Charlie Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper

Extras: Right-wing Anthony Mantha, forward Aliaksei Protas and defenseman Matt Irwin

Injuries: Left-wing Carl Hagelin (hip), right-wing Connor Brown (ACL), defenseman John Carlson (upper body), and center Nic Dowd (lower body)

YOTES

The Capitals begin a three-game road trip tonight when they visit the Arizona Coyotes at Mullett Arena for the second of two meetings between the teams this season. Washington has a record of 37-31-12-4 all-time versus the Coyotes. More here.

Hi from Mullet Arena for 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) dating back to Dec. 5, including seven-straight from Dec. 5 to Jan. 5, which established a new franchise record. Since Dec. 5, the Capitals have outscored opponents 39-20 (4.33 GF/GP, 2.22 GA/GP) on the road. More here.

STAT OF THE DAY – EXPECTED GOALS DIFFERENTIAL

We’ve mentioned the expected goals metric quite a bit this season, as in season’s past. I should mention that if you need a mid-season refresher on the stat, we have a definition in our NHL Analytics Glossary. Of course, if you ever have any questions you can always send us a message in the comments or via e-mail.

The Capitals have risen from a season low of -5.12 in mid-November and at the bottom of the league to +6.78 expected goals 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 Persson had a nice assist for BIK Karlskoga in last night’s HockeyAllsvenskan action.

David Lilja 🚨
Ludwig Persson 🍎#Hockeyallsvenskan #bikkarlskoga #allcaps
🎥 C More pic.twitter.com/Mx5gDCDUdV

— SwehockeyGIFs (@swehockeygifs) January 18, 2023

Oskar Magnusson had a redirect for a tally for AIK, also in HockeyAllsvenskan action last night.

Oskar Magnusson with the redirect for the tally in last night’s HockeyAllsvenskan action. He has 5g, 9a in 34 games played this season. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/mXNa9oj4BR

— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) January 19, 2023

Bogdan Trineyev scored his second career KHL goal today. He continues to skate with Dynamo’s KHL club and seems to have found a steady starting spot at left wing on the second line.

Bogdan Trineyev with his 2nd goal of the season for KHL Dynamo. Remains starting at left wing on the second line. #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/U6eyHZ0cCp

— Capitals Prospects (@jon_m_sorensen) January 19, 2023

A solid season in the KHL will have him primed for a return trip to Hershey this fall.

SHAVINGS

And finally, awesome artwork from “Falling In Sand”:

#ALLCAPS [🎨: @fallinginsand] pic.twitter.com/iLcXllLMmj

— #ALLCAPS (@JonItBe) January 19, 2023