Washington Capitals Morning Skate News: Pheonix Copley Gets the Start in Goal Tonight
The Washington Capitals hit the ice on Sunday morning at MedStar Capitals Iceplex for final preparations before their primetime matchup with the Winnipeg Jets. The Pheonix will try to rise above the Jets as they’ll turn to Pheonix Copley between the pipes.
The Capitals will go for their seventh win in a row which will would tie a season-long that they set back in November 16th that ran through the 30th. Ironically, before that streak began the Capitals met the Jets where they lost 3-1 as well as lost T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov to injuries.
Jakub Vrana scored in that game and Copley also got the start. With Braden Holtby sick before the game, the Capitals had to call up an emergency backup goaltender. The guy who would get the thrilling night of a lifetime was named: Gavin McHale, the goaltending coach of the University of Manitoba women’s ice hockey team.
Copley stopped 21-of-23 shots for a .913 save percentage in the loss. He’ll look for redemption tonight. This season Copley carries a 14-5-3 record in 20 starts with a 3.06 GAA and .901 save percentage. It’s been a roller coaster first year for him with the big club in Washington but he’s adapted well backing up Braden Holtby.
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Like Holtby with his five-game winning streak, Copley has a winning streak of his own. Copley has won four in a row with his last starting coming back on Feb. 24 against the Rangers. In that contest, which saw the Capitals win in overtime thanks to Evgeny Kuznetsov. Copley stopped 26-of-31 shots for an .839 save percentage.
The Capitals have no changes to their lineup tonight from their last game as far as forwards and defensive parings are concerned. Here were the line rushes from morning skate.
Forwards
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Vrana-Backstrom-Oshie
Hagelin-Eller-Connolly
Burakovsky-Dowd-Boyd
Defense
Kempny-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Orpik-Jensen
The Capitals will look to the energy of the home crowd once again as this game should have a playoff-like feel between two very good teams. Isabelle Khurshudyan of The Washington Post reported that Capitals coach Todd Reirden planned to give Holtby a well-deserved night off with a big stretch of Capitals games coming up in Pittsburgh on Tuesday and Tampa Bay on Saturday.
With both goaltenders hot right now, tonight is sure to be a great test for Copley. The Jets have 40 wins which is identical to the Capitals. They just scored eight goals on the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday for an 8-1 win. Like the Capitlas, their offense has scored 230 total goals on the season. They also boast the fourth-best power play in the NHL with a success-rate of 25.7 percent.
SHAVINGS (via Game Notes)
- The Capitals are 49-27-5-9 all-time against the Jets.
- Alex Ovechkin leads the NHL with 46 goals and he’s one point shy of becoming the 48th player in NHL history to record 1,200 career points.
- Andre Burakovsky is on a three-game goal streak, his first three-game goal streak since Jan. 16-21, 2017.
dark. Next. Game Preview: Washington Capitals vs. Winnipeg Jets
Puck drop is at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington.