The 20-year-old is making the most of his time with the Capitals.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — It took some time, but Ivan Miroshnichenko is finally finding his game with the Washington Capitals.
While it may not be showing up on the scoresheet, the young Russian's recent play has put him on the radar as he's embracing his fourth-line role and making the most of his ice time.
Over the last few games, there has been an evident jump in Miroshnichenko's step; he's navigating the ice better, playing with more confidence and taking care of the puck at both ends of the ice while working on the fourth line with Brandon Duhaime and Nic Dowd.
"He's done a really quality job of understanding and earning more trust from the coaching staff and playing on that line, and he's embraced that," coach Spencer Carbery said.
At 5-on-5, Miroshnichenko leads all Capitals skaters in Corsi-for percentage (58.12) and shots-for percentage (62.79). Though he's only played in 12 games, his ice time and responsibility continue to increase, correlating with his obvious improvement.
"He's around the puck offensively, generating, getting a few shots. They're not going in for him right now, but that tells me he's progressing in the right direction and those will start falling for him," Carbery added. "He'll get hot, a couple of those will go in and then it'll be a really good situation for him and his opportunity to play more minutes."
Miroshnichenko's evolution didn't happen overnight, though. The 20-year-old was called up to help fill in with Alex Ovechkin recovering from a broken leg, but that wasn't the role that he took on.
Instead, Carbery put him on the fourth line, challenging the young winger to work on the fundamentals of his game and work his way up the lineup for more ice time.
"What I noticed now at the beginning playing eight, nine minutes with Dowder, trying to be reliable, get pucks out, make good decisions with the puck, be in good spots positionally, and that was fine. Did a good job," Carbery noted. "Now what he's progressed to is he's gotten more confident, more comfortable and now you're seeing him generate a few looks a game. And that to me is the next step. It shows me that a player is getting more and more comfortable and with that comes more trust."
As he embraces his new role at the highest level, Miroshnichenko is also making the case for an extended look after Ovechkin's eventual return, as he's capitalized on his opportunity and fit in seamlessly on that fourth line.
And at the end of the day, Carbery's looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.
"He's just going to continue to earn more opportunity if he plays the way that he is, because he's reliable with all of his decisions, reads, all the things with the puck," Carbery said. "He doesn't look like a young AHL player anymore."
