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Washington Capitals: Big Lineup Changes After Game 3 Loss

ByAndrew Gillis|
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 26: T.J. Oshie #77 of the Washington Capitals celebrates his goal against the Ottawa Senators during the second period at Capital One Arena on February 26, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 26: T.J. Oshie #77 of the Washington Capitals celebrates his goal against the Ottawa Senators during the second period at Capital One Arena on February 26, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Ahead of Game 4, after an embarrassing Game 3, Washington Capitals coach Todd Reirden has made some lineup changes.

Every Washington Capitals forward line will have a new player on it. Travis Boyd will replace Chandler Stephenson and Christian Djoos will find himself in the press box, as Jonas Siegenthaler will take his place on the back-end.

Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstom and T.J. Oshie will be the top line, a line that didn’t need much of a jolt. The move will send Tom Wilson down to the second line to skate with Jakub Vrana and Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Backstrom has been the team’s standout these playoffs with goals in the first two games, and three overall. Oshie scored a nice end-to-end goal in Game 2, but has otherwise hasn’t been great.

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The second line is where these changes seem to be fitted for, as Wilson will slide down and take a twirl with Vrana and Kuznetsov.

In the regular season, the trio had a Corsi Percentage of 52.09 percent and outscored their opponents 11-3. While a high save percentage boosted that, the Capitals could certainly use some secondary scoring this series.

Which brings us to the third line, which hasn’t scored an even strength goal this series. Andre Burakovsky will bump up to skate with Lars Eller and Brett Connolly. Eller had an empty-net goal in Game 1.

The move is clearly designed to try and spark some offensive in the bottom six forwards for the Capitals, which have had a tough go of things at five-on-five this series.

On the fourth line, Carl Hagelin will slide down and skate with Boyd and Nic Dowd. None of Hagelin or Dowd have registered a point this series, but the (very) early returns on those three as a line were good for possession numbers. With Hagelin and Boyd’s speed on the fourth line, that could create some matchup problems for Reirden to be able to play with.

Defensively, John Carlson and Nick Jensen will skate together, as will Dmitry Orlov and Matt Niskanen. The change will be on the third pair, where Siegenthaler will make his playoff debut skating with Brooks Orpik.

The defensive end of the ice was a war zone for the Capitals on Monday night, as the team couldn’t make breakout passes with ease due to the forecheck of the Hurricanes.

The lineup changes for the Capitals weren’t drastic, but they were certainly noticeable enough to take a longer look at.

If they end up panning out, the Capitals will have found the cure, at least in this series, to the five-on-five mystery which has plagued them for the majority of the series’ 180 minutes thus far.

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