The Capitals are making some tweaks as they continue to make do without Ovechkin.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — After suffering back-to-back losses for the first time this season, the Washington Capitals are shaking things up as they continue to make do without captain Alex Ovechkin in the lineup.
At a busy practice on Sunday, head coach Spencer Carbery made some notable changes to the line combinations.
Taylor Raddysh moved to the top-6, skating on the second line with Connor McMichael and Pierre-Luc Dubois. Meanwhile, Tom Wilson was promoted to the first line to operate with Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas.
"Try and get a fresh look at things, get a bit of a spark," Wilson said of the line changes. "There's a lot of good players in this room, so whoever you're playing with, you're going to be able to find chemistry, you're going to be able to make things happen. So excited to get a new look."
The bottom-6 also saw some tweaks; while the third line of Hendrix Lapierre-Lars Eller-Andrew Mangiapane stayed the same, Nic Dowd skated between Jakub Vrana and Ivan Miroshnichenko. Brandon Duhaime was not on the ice as he took a maintenance day and is expected to dress on Monday against the Florida Panthers, so look for Vrana to draw out.
Washington's shakeup up front is Carbery's attempt to try and spark some more offense at 5-on-5, though the bench boss wouldn't commit to those lines sticking against the Florida Panthers on Monday.
The Capitals, who were leading the league in goals per game and managed to score at least three in a game on all but two occasions going into their first game without Ovechkin, have just three goals in the last two games, with just two of those coming at even strength.
"We can do a better job of being a little bit hungrier, a little bit harder on the interior," Carbery said.
On defense, Carbery's new pairings that debuted against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday stayed intact, as John Carlson worked with Martin Fehervary, Jakob Chychrun with Trevor van Riemsdyk and Rasmus Sandin with Matt Roy.
Washington is headed on a two-game road swing in the Sunshine State, which also marks the team's annual mentors' trip. Ovechkin, who is still nursing a broken left fibula, will be on that trip, travelling with his father-in-law, Kirill Shubsky.
While Ovechkin's timeline of 4-6 weeks remains the same, it will be a positive to have him around the team as it looks to put a quick end to a two-game slide.
