Evaluating Ivan Miroshnichenko's first three NHL games
Ivan Miorshnichenko got called up by the Washington Capitals last week and played in three games before getting sent to Hershey. How did he do and what could he work on?
The Washington Capitals had a pretty decent week other than a shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning that could've gone either way. One of the biggest postives of a better Capitals season than we all expected is the youth movement and that continued with the call up of Ivan Miroshnichenko.
The 2022 first rounder made his NHL debut on Dec. 20 against the New York Islanders, logging 10:14 of ice time. In his three games he has averaged 9:33 minutes of ice time.
With the Hershey Bears to start the season he has recorded 15 points in 27 games with eight goals and seven assists. He ranks tied for eighth among the AHL in goals and leads Bears rookies in goals, assists, and points. He also ranks tied for third among all Hershey skaters in goals while his seven even strength goals are the second most on the team.
After their game on Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning the Caps sent Miroshnichenko along with Hendrix Lapierre back to the Bears. It appears that Max Pacioretty could be making his return to the ice soon which would mark his Capitals debut in turn.
Capitals coach Spencer Carbery spoke to the media on Saturday about the rookie:
"Similar to what we saw in the preseason, there's, you could see the offensive instincts from him in the first couple games. There's two or three sequences each game: probably more so, I thought he was better in the Islanders game than the Columbus game - back to back, travel, tough for a young player, first time going through that, playing in a hostile environment - of where you see he's in good spots offensively and the puck finds him."
The holiday break league wide concludes tomorrow when the Caps are in New York to take on the Rangers at MSG.