Washington Capitals: 3 ways to quickly fix their current slump

#2 Forwards

The Caps may need to juggle their forward lines a bit. Like I said, the team held an optional morning skate but here’s what the forward lines looked like in yesterday’s practice:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Sheary
Mantha-Backstrom-Wilson
Johansson-Eller-Oshie
Larsson-Dowd-Hathaway

As you notice, the extras here are Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Connor McMichael. But here’s where it gets interesting. Pell reported after the optional that Michal Kempny, Matt Irwin, and AJF were all on the ice for the scratches skate. McMichael wasn’t there.

Head coach Peter Laviolette likes to say that the Caps are “working through some things in the room.” They are working through some things in the room as I’m typing this. The impression that I get based on what Pell said was that perhaps Laviolette changed his mind and is going to play Connor McMichael after all.

It would be the logical thing to do at this point. McMichael represents the future of the team and may very well be the face of the franchise after Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom hang up their skates.

The more playing time McMichael gets, the better. Lars Eller has been on a decline and I think it would be better to move him to wing and give McMichael the opportunity to center the third line.