The Washington Capitals returned to work for practice on Friday following their 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks Thursday night. They next host the New York Rangers in the final game of their three-game homestand on Saturday afternoon. Puck drop is set for 1PM.
The Capitals forward lines and defensive pairs at practice on Friday, courtesy of Tom Gulitti/NHL.com:
Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson
Sonny Milano — Dylan Strome — T.J. Oshie
Marcus Johansson — Nicklas Backstrom — Conor Sheary
Lars Eller — Nic Dowd — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Martin Fehervary — Nick Jensen
Erik Gustafsson — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Matt Irwin – Dylan McIlrath
Alex Alexeyev
Charlie Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Craig Smith, acquired from the Boston Bruins on Thursday, has not yet made his way to Washington.
Devante Smith-Pelly is in town for tomorrow night’s ceremonial puck drop to celebrate black history month. He stopped by MedStar Capitals Iceplex this morning.
Devante Smith-Pelly is here at Capitals practice today. Here he is chatting up Alex Ovechkin on the bench. pic.twitter.com/L7HvimKZn9
— Matt Weyrich (@ByMattWeyrich) February 24, 2023
It’s good to see the Stanley Cup Champion back at MedStar.
👋 DSP pic.twitter.com/KjsISWqHap
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 24, 2023
Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin met with Rangers’ Artemi Panarin and Vladimir Tarasenko before practice. The Rangers practiced at 1PM at MedStar.
Ovechkin and Kuznetsov were catching up with Rangers Russian players before practice. Rangers practicing here later pic.twitter.com/exztXFXJDG
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) February 24, 2023
STAT OF THE DAY – SHOOTING PERCENTAGE…AGAIN
Today’s stat of the day revisits the Capitals team shooting percentage at five-on-five after 60 games this season. [Click to enlarge].
The Capitals led in shots on goal 43-21 and shot attempts 64-38 against the Ducks on Thursday night. Unfortunately only two of those shots found the back of the net. As a result, the Capitals shooting percentage continues to plunge, now at 7.77%, which is 25th in the league.
[The statistics used in this post are courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, MoneyPuck 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 was recently called up to Frolunda in the SHL, and recorded his 100th minute at the SHL level before being returned to BIK in HockeyAllsvenskan league.
Ludwig Persson är tillbaka i BIK Karlskoga igen, men igår nådde han 100 miunuter i SHL med oss! pic.twitter.com/E9My1o6SFc
— Frölunda HC (@frolunda_hc) February 22, 2023
SHAVINGS
- Today the Capitals invited film producer Kwame Mason, artist Rob ZIlla and Devante Smith-Pelly into the room to talk about the importance of celebrating Black history in hockey as well as debut this year’s new gear and theme song.
Today the Capitals invited film producer Kwame Mason, artist Rob ZIlla and Devante Smith-Pelly into the room to talk about the importance of celebrating Black history in hockey as well as debut this year’s new gear and theme song. #ALLCAPS | #BHM pic.twitter.com/bL3EskEyzM
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 24, 2023