Washington Capitals

Washington Capitals

Carbery has been particularly impressed with the recent play of his second line, featuring a rookie Justin Sourdif centering Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson. The Capitals have absolutely dominated their five-on-five minutes with the trio on the ice, seeing 74.9 percent of shot attempts, 89.8 percent of expected goals, 83.7 percent of scoring chances, and 86.2 percent of high-danger chances.

Friday, the Russian forward, who led Hershey in goals last season, skated for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury in mid-October. First spotted by Bears Hockey Nation, Miroshnichenko participated in Hershey's morning skate as evidenced by a photo the team published on social media. Miro, wearing a white #10 jersey, is on the bottom - third from the left.

Plus: Despite not recording a point, Ryan Leonard stood out. The 20-year-old was buzzing all night with seven shots on goal, and a particularly excellent shift towards the end of the third where he led a flurry that ended with a Rasmus Sandin goal aided by his screen in front. For a team looking for a spark offensively, this was an encouraging sign.

The matchup marks the third game of the Caps' current four-game road trip, which will end Thursday against the Florida Panthers. According to The Washington Post's Bailey Johnson, the Capitals will go with virtually the same lineup as they did in their 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, with the only change seeing Declan Chisholm coming in for Trevor van Riemsdyk. Logan Thompson will get his 11th start of the season.

But let's talk about where it went wrong in this one game - and no, it wasn't special teams (although they did fail to score on their single power play opportunity and gave up a goal on their one-and-change times shorthanded). Thanks to a nice goal by Brandon Duhaime early and some luck by way of a Tampa own goal in the second, this was a 2-2 tie heading into the final frame of regulation.

📸: RMNB After emphatically ending their four-game losing streak last night against the St. Louis Blues, the Washington Capitals are back in action 24 hours later to take on their biggest rival: the Pittsburgh Penguins. The matchup pits Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby against each other for the 74th time in the regular season. Ovi enters the game hours after reaching the 900-goal milestone.

As director of hockey analytics, Barnes was instrumental in incorporating data-driven decision-making into the day-to-day processes of the hockey operations department, overseeing the development of player valuation systems, trader tools for management, predictive frameworks for roster portfolio term risk, and technology to convert the insights of hockey operations management, scouts, and coaches into actionable metrics," the Capitals' description of Barnes' previous role reads.

The Caps' losing streak hit four games over the weekend, the power play has more questions than answers and more in today's clips. Your savory breakfast links: A few leftovers from Saturday's shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres. [RMNB] The Washington Capitals' losing streak hit four games this weekend, a sharp contrast to last season's vibes. [WaPo ($)] What in the world is going on with the Caps? [THN]