SKATE SHAVINGS — News and notes from the Caps’ Morning Skate

Show the way – Playing without captain Alex Ovechkin for the first time this season, the Caps take to the ice tonight against Colorado in the opener of a two-game homestand. Ovechkin is expected to miss 4-6 weeks of action with a broken left fibula.

Washington is 4-0-1 in its last five games and has trailed by a total of 7 minutes, 6 seconds over the more than 300 minutes of hockey played in those contests. With five goals in his last two games — one in each of five straight periods before going down with the lower-body injury in the sixth period — and a league-leading 15 total goals, Ovechkin has been a driving force in Washington’s strong start to the season. But he has not been the only force.

The Caps have a better roster than they’ve had in the last three seasons (when they were a combined 4-13-0 in games Ovechkin missed), and they’re playing some of the best hockey they’ve played in that span, too . Now it’s a matter of sticking with what they’ve been doing while not trying to play Superman on an individual basis.

“What I’m hoping to see is our level of urgency,” Caps coach Spencer Carbery begins, “our competitiveness right up there with our standard as good as it’s been all year, so that would be number one. Number two, which I think might be a bit more important is that our group doesn’t try to get out of character because they feel like they have to do something extraordinary to make up for our captain’s absence.

“Giving more and doing more must be done in the right way. And if you take it a little too literally and try to do things outside the scope of our structure, sometimes it can go the other way. So we have to be careful that we’re not trying to save the world and everybody’s not trying to be Alex Ovechkin and ‘I’ve got to make something happen here and I’ve got to shoot this puck in the back of the net here,’ and now it’s high and wide, and it’s a breakout (for Colorado), and now Nathan MacKinnon is suddenly on an (odd-man rush). It’s just things like this that we have to be aware of.”

Given the way his side have been playing of late, Carbery is understandably reluctant to shake up his lineup too much in the absence of one player. Andrew Mangiapane takes Ovechkin’s place on the top line, but he plays on the left side with Aliaksei Protas on the right. And Hendrix Lapierre, a center by trade, will step into the left wing vacated by Mangiapane, alongside Lars Eller and Jakub Vrana.

“Yes, it’s a more natural decision to put (recently recalled winger Ivan Miroshnichenko) in the lineup,” admits Carbery. “Play on the wing, that’s where he plays, right shot. But Lappy has been here all year, and he’s been working and seeing games from a wing perspective, knowing that this opportunity could come up, and knowing that he’d be able to not just rely on a center injury (to get back to the lineup) or just go into that position.

“I feel like he’s a good fit. For the first game here, I’m going to give him an opportunity to go into the lineup on the wing, he’s going to play some powerplay, get him out there and see if he can be productive in that role. “

Shutdown Checklist – Six nights ago in Denver, the Capitals posted a 5-2 victory over the Avalanche at Ball Arena. As the Caps battle for a season series win tonight in DC, they will look to summon some of the defensive toughness that helped deliver that victory.

Washington held the NHL’s leading scorer — Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon — without a shot on net for more than 22 minutes on the ice that night, the first time he’s been shut out in 79 games dating back to Nov. 27 of last year. The Caps limited the Avs’ top six to just four shots on net, and the entire Colorado squad was held to 19 shots, its lowest total this season.

“There’s a lot that goes into it,” Caps defenseman John Carlson says. “And I’m sure they’ll be looking at the tape, just like we will be, and what they’ve done since and what have you. But those are special players that just have to be completely shut down, and you never go into a game and expect to hold MacKinnon without a shot or whatever it is. But it’s very positive for our group to play that suffocating brand of hockey. It’s big against teams with such star talent and we see hopefully after the same result.”

“It doesn’t happen often,” says Caps defenseman Matt Roy. “It was great to see. I think it takes five guys, you need a unit of five out there and you have to have them dialed in and ready to go when they’re on the ice, and against MacKinnon, (Mikko) Rantanen and especially (defenseman Cale) Makar. But you need a team that’s dialed in and plays a good team game. And if everyone plays together, you’ll have a better time shutting them down.”

Given the overall improbability of their performance, a repeat performance seems unlikely. But the Caps should have a pretty good memory of what went into that effort last Friday in Denver as they aim to neutralize a very dangerous offensive team again.

“We’re going to talk about some of the same things we talked about before the Colorado game,” Carbery says. “And we also want to make sure our guys are well aware that their guys are going to watch the same film and they’re not going to be happy with the way their games went in Colorado.”

In The Nets – Logan Thompson is the expected starter for the Capitals tonight as he looks to extend his point streak – already the longest of any goaltender at the start of their Caps career – to 10 straight games (8-0-1). At 1.16 wins above replacement this season (moneypuck.com), Thompson ranks seventh among all goalies with five or more appearances.

In his most recent outing, Thompson defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in Sin City on Sunday, making 40 saves and stopping all 25 shots he faced in the third period. Lifetime against Colorado, Thompson is 1-1-0 with a 2.55 GAA and a .907 save percentage. in two appearances both start.

Last week in Denver, the Caps faced — and ultimately chased — Justus Annunen because Alexandar Georgiev was sidelined with an upper-body ailment. Georgiev is expected to be back in action for the Avalanche tonight; he only missed two games. Georgiev was last in net on November 13 against Los Angeles, a game in which he needed to make just 13 saves to record his fourth win of the season and third in a row.

Lifetime against Washington, Georgiev is 6-5-1 in a dozen appearances with a shutout, a 2.95 GAA and a .904 save percentage.

Everyone lined up – Here’s what we think the Capitals and Avalanche could look like when they take the ice Thursday night in the district:

WASHINGTON

Extenders

88-Mangiapane, 17-Strome, 21-Protas

24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson

29-Lapierre, 20-Or, 13-Vrana

22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 16-Raddysh

Defenders

6-Chychrun, 74-Carlson

38-Sandin, 3-Roy

42-Fehervary, 57-van Riemsdyk

Goalkeepers

48-Thompson

79-Lindgren

Additional

27-Alekseyev

52-McIlrath

63-Miroshnichenko

Out/injured

8-Ovechkin (lower body)

15-Milano (upper body)

19-Backstrom (hip)

77-Oshie (back)

COLORADO

Extenders

62-Lehkonen, 29-MacKinnon, 27-Drouin

13-Nichushkin, 37-Mittelstadt, 96-Rantanen

94-Kiviranta, 82-Ivan, 25-O’Connor

28-Woods, 17-Kelly, 51-Kovalenko

Defenders

7-Toes, 8-Makar

49-Girard, 42-Manson

58-Kylington, 70-Malinski

Goalkeepers

40-Georgiev

60-The announcement

Additional

3-Ludvig

9-Tynan

44th Rooster

Out/injured

5-Poolman (main)

20-Colton (foot)

92-Landeskog (knee)