Metropolitan Notes: Santini, Ho-Sang, Hunwick, Niskanen, Vesey
The New Jersey Devils got back into the win column Saturday after failing to win their previous four games. Despite that fact, New Jersey remains in first place with a 10-4-2 record in a tough Metropolitan Division. Yet, the team’s 2-1 victory Saturday against the Florida Panthers was a defensive effort in which many players praised the play of unheralded defenseman Steven Santini, according to The Record’s Andrew Gross.
The physical 22-year-old defenseman only played in 38 games a year ago, but is a mainstay on the team’s defense this year. The former second-round pick from 2013, showed off his physicality against Florida with big hits, most notably a hit in which he dumped the Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov into his team’s own bench in the second period. Santini got plenty of ice time with 23:42, was credited with four hits and was smart enough to avoid a penalty when challenged by Panthers’ enforcer Micheal Haley in the third period.
- New York Islanders Joshua Ho-Sang made the most of his emergency recall Saturday when he scored a goal against the St. Louis Blues last night, according to Arthur Staple of Newsday. Ho-Sang, the team’s first-round pick in 2014, had played six games with the Islanders to start the season, but was sent down to work on improving his in-game mentality — knowing when to drive to the net and when to dump the puck. Ho-Sang had put up two goals and four assists in six games during that span with the AHL Bridgeport Sound Tigers, but with Anthony Beauvillier day-to-day, Ho-Sang got his chance to redeem himself. He can stay up on an emergency basis for 30 days or 10 games, but the team could always officially recall him as well.
- Jonathan Bombulie of The Trib Live writes that Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Matt Hunwick, who has already missed 12 games due to a concussion diagnosed on Oct. 17, has hit a plateau in his recovery and will be held off the ice for a few more days. “He’s been having a tough time getting over that last hurdle, and so they want to take a little bit of a different approach to try to get him over that last hump,” coach Mike Sullivan said.
- NBC Sports Tarik El-Bashir writes that Washington Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen will travel on the team’s upcoming road trip to Nashville and Colorado, according to head coach Barry Trotz. Niskanen, who has been on LTIR since Oct. 14 due to an upper-body injury, will not suit up tonight against the Edmonton Oilers, but could be ready to suit up for one or both of the away games this week. The Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan tweets that Niskanen has been cleared for contact, but is not “full go” and may or may not be ready for games this week. A key veteran defender, the team’s defense would get a big boost upon his return.
- New York Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey went straight to the dentist after Saturday’s victory over the Edmonton Oilers, according to Newsday’s Steve Zipay. The 24-year-old wing took a Zack Kassian skate to the mouth in the second period. Two of Vesey’s teeth had to be removed from his lip. Despite the injury, Vesey returned for a shift in the third period and wore a protective plastic cage attached to the lower part of his helmet. He is day-to-day.
Liam O'Brien Assigned To AHL Hershey
- The Capitals announced that they have returned Liam O’Brien to Hershey of the AHL. The physical winger has played in three games with Washington this season, collecting five penalty minutes while averaging 6:55 per game. He also has a pair of goals in nine minor league contests. The move was made with the team expecting winger Brett Connolly to return to the lineup on Sunday from his head injury.
Capitals To Try To Play Backstrom In More Offensive Situations
Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom is among a handful of Washington players who haven’t produced up to their typical levels yet this season. Through 16 games, he has 13 points but that’s still off his usual 70-point (or greater) pace. As Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post points out, the team has been deploying Backstrom in more of a defensive role in the early going and while he is more than capable of being a strong defender, the usage has taken away some of his offensive opportunities. Head coach Barry Trotz acknowledged that he will try to use Backstrom in more of an attacking role when Washington is at home when they will have more control over the line matchups.
Metropolitan Notes: Bailey, Hagelin, Stephenson
The New York Islanders may have come out of last night’s performance with a loss, but it definitely didn’t feel like one. For one, the team’s offense, particularly the power play, seems to have hit its stride and the team finds itself putting up solid numbers. A lot of that credit goes to their top line of John Tavares and Anders Lee. However, it’s the third man on that line that deserves quite a bit of credit, according to Newsday’s Arthur Staple, who gives much of the line’s success to Josh Bailey.
Bailey has been the key to the team’s offensive firepower, especially on the power play and has helped fix that power play which started the NHL season at a 0-for-20. The scribe points out that while Tavares and Lee have combined for five of the team’s nine goals, all coming since their Oct. 19th game against the New York Rangers, it is Bailey’s passing work that has made the difference. The 28-year-old winger is among NHL leaders with six power play assists since then and has had nine assists in the last four games, giving him 13 assists this season. In fact, since the start of last year (the 2016-17 season), Bailey has racked up 56 assists and only 10 players in the NHL have more than him, including names like Connor McDavid, Erik Karlsson, Patrick Kane and Niklas Backstrom.
Unfortunately, for the Islanders while that’s great to see him taking that next step, its also another cause for concern as he is in the last year of a five-year, $16.5MM deal. He undoubtedly will expect a raise, likely a significant one and suddenly along with Tavares, the team will have their work cut out for them this offseason.
- Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post Gazzette writes that Pittsburgh Penguins’ fourth-line wing Carl Hagelin is well aware that his offense needs to step up. The recently scratched wing has struggled this year offensively. While he’s never been an offensive juggernaut, the 29-year-old has struggled with just a goal and an assist in 14 games. Add that to the $4MM the team owes his this year and next year, his struggles even stand out more. Mackey writes that it’s his shooting percentage that has fallen off a cliff since last year. His 4.4 percent shooting percentage is way down from his earlier career averages of 9.4 percent.
- Mike Vogel of NHL.com writes that the Washington Capitals’ line of Lars Eller, Tom Wilson and Chandler Stephenson is thriving in the three games that they’ve been paired together. Eller and Wilson have played together quite a while, but it has been the addition of Stephenson, who replaced the injured Brett Connolly that has made the difference in the line. The 23-year-old might finally be breaking into Washington’s lineup after only playing in 13 games combined in the last two years. So far, his one goal and two assists in four games looks solid. In the three games, the Eller-Wilson-Stephenson line has posted three goals and eight points, the most of all the Capitals lines. The success of the back-end line is welcome since the top six lines have struggled recently.
Ilya Samsonov Suffers Concussion
- Capitals prospect Ilya Samsonov has been diagnosed with a concussion, notes J.J. Regan of NBC Sports Washington. The 20-year-old is widely considered to be one of the top goaltending prospects in the league after a strong showing in the KHL and at the World Juniors last season. His 2017-18 campaign isn’t off to as strong a start though as he has posted a 2.78 GAA and a .912 SV% through his first 16 games with Metallurg Magnitogorsk, well off the marks of 2.13 and .936 he played to last year.
Minor Transactions: 11/02/17
The NHL schedule is packed full tonight with 12 games, and teams are making some final adjustments to their lineups. As always, we’ll keep an eye on all the minor moves right here. Check back throughout the day for more updates.
- The Washington Capitals have sent Anthony Peluso to the minor leagues and recalled Liam O’Brien, swapping a 28-year old forward for one five years his junior. Peluso had gotten into two games with the Capitals, but was used sparingly on the ice. O’Brien, a similarly physical player, has more upside than Peluso and could be used more regularly should get into a game. In 14 career NHL games, including just one last year, O’Brien has two points.
- As expected, Mike Reilly and Luke Kunin have been recalled by the Minnesota Wild. Their assignment was just to save a few dollars on the cap during the Wild’s off day.
- Following the news that David Backes would miss the next two months due to colon surgery, the Boston Bruins have placed him on injured reserve and recalled Austin Czarnik from Providence. Czarnik is up on emergency conditions, and it’s not clear if he will get into the lineup right away. The Bruins take on the Golden Knights tonight, but already had 13 forwards up with the team including Jordan Szwarz who was called up yesterday.
- Tucker Poolman has been sent back to the AHL by the Winnipeg Jets. Poolman, 22, had been a healthy scratch in the team’s last five games and needs to continue his development somewhere. Though he has shown enough to warrant a long stint in the league, the Jets simply don’t have room for him just yet.
- The Vancouver Canucks have sent Anton Rodin back to the AHL without him getting into a single game. The Canucks don’t play again until Saturday, and likely want Rodin to get into the Utica Comets lineup Friday night. The 26-year old has one point in three games for the Comets so far this season.
Metropolitan Notes: Vigneault, Atkinson, Johansson, Reinhart
New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault might not have much time left to repair the sinking ship. The New York Post’s Larry Brooks writes that he believes that Vigneault has one more game left to prove he can turn the Rangers disastrous start of 3-7-2 around. He will get that game Tuesday against the 8-1 Vegas Golden Knights.
While Brooks admits that it is his belief and he’s heard nothing to suggest that will happen, he points out that the team’s struggles to start the season, especially falling behind 3-0 in the first period to the equally struggling Montreal Canadiens shows that Vigneault may not be the answer. A coaching change may be the only way to breathe some life into the franchise who were heavily criticized for their efforts in thejr 5-4 loss.
Brooks also points out that the team’s poor start in first periods has been a key issue for New York. The team has been outscored 3-0 in the first two minutes of 12 games this season; 5-1 in the first three minutes of games; 6-2 in the first four minutes; 8-3 in the first six minutes; 10-4 in the first 10 minutes and 12-4 in the first 12 minutes of games. He writes this is inexcusable and is bad enough to physically allow so many early goals, but the team is also unengaged mentally the moment the puck is dropped.
- The Columbus Blue Jackets may have to do without winger Cam Atkinson for a little while as he suffered a lower-body injury, according to The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline (subscription required). The team’s leading scorer for the past two years had a rough game, suffering a lower-body injury in the first period, a puck to his helmet during the second period and then sustained another hit to his lower body that knocked him out of the game in the third period. Portzline said an announcement won’t be made until Monday as the team didn’t practice today. Atkinson has four goals and an assist in 11 games this year. Rookie Pierre-Luc Dubois moved up to replace Atkinson for the remainder of the game.
- Andrew Gross of Northjersey.com writes that winger Marcus Johansson is day-to-day after tweaking his lower body in pre-game warm-ups before Saturday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes. The scribe wrote that it was not a pre-existing injury, but the team choose to hold him out as a precaution. Johansson, who the Devils picked up in an offseason trade with the Washington Capitals, has been a solid contributor for New Jersey this year, having put up three goals and two assists in nine games this year.
- NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti wonders whether the Washington Capitals might not consider claiming defenseman Griffin Reinhart, who was put on waivers this morning by the Vegas Golden Knights. At $800K and at just 23 years of age, Reinhart might be a good investment for a team that has little cap room and little blue line depth. Reinhart, the fourth overall pick in the 2012 draft, could be claimed by several teams in need of depth on defense. Unfortunately, the Capitals cannot take solace that they will get a high waiver claim even though the team presently sits at 5-5. CapFriendly reported today that current waiver priority is still based on last year’s record. Priority will switch to present standings starting on Nov. 1.
Eastern Notes: Smith-Pelly, Andersen, Fedun
A few days ago, Washington Capitals head coach Barry Trotz hinted that bottom-six winger Devante Smith-Pelly might be nearing a promotion to a better line. Well, NBC Sports’ Tarik El-Bashir writes that tonight will be that promotion as the 25-year-old has been moved onto the team’s top line alongside Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov in their game against the Edmonton Oilers.
Smith-Pelly, who came to Washington this offseason, has had a very inconsistent career, starting when he was a highly-touted prospect and was drafted in the second round in 2010 by the Anaheim Ducks. Despite his junior success and his success at the AHL level, the winger had trouble figuring things out at the NHL level and quickly found himself bouncing around different teams. He signed a one-year, $650K deal with Washington this offseason after a one-year stint in New Jersey a year ago in which he tallied just nine points in 53 games.
Now, with the Capitals, he has started to show some of his skills and has earned the trust of Trotz. While he’s yet to score a goal, the belief is that his talents might be a perfect fit alongside Ovechkin and Kuznetsov. Smith-Pelly will replace Jakub Vrana, who moves to the team’s second line next to T.J. Oshie and Niklas Backstrom, who is returning after missing a game due to illness.
“He deserves it. He’s put in the work. His game is such that he needs to move up in the lineup,” Trotz said on Smith-Pelly’s promotion.
Brett Connolly In Concussion Protocol
- The Capitals will likely be without winger Brett Connolly for at least the next two games as he has been placed into concussion protocol, notes Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post. Anthony Peluso, who was recalled yesterday, is likely to take his spot on the roster while Tyler Graovac (upper-body injury) was transferred to injured reserve.
Capitals Recall Anthony Peluso
The Washington Capitals have made a minor roster move this evening, announcing the recall of Anthony Peluso. The 28-year-old right wing will look to make his Caps debut in his most recent NHL recall, after signing with the team as an unrestricted free agent this off-season.
With Tyler Graovac, another relatively new addition in Washington, headed to the injured reserve, GM Brian MacLellan made the call to the AHL’s Hershey Bears and decided on the veteran Peluso. A long-time member of the Winnipeg Jets, Peluso skated in 142 NHL games over four seasons with the club, recording 14 points.
However, Peluso is not a player called upon for offense; he is more a specific replacement for Graovac rather than the true next man up. In those same 142 games, Peluso logged 277 hits – including more than two hits per game in 49 games in 2015-16 – and has built up a reputation as a plug-and-play grinder. Considering his OHL, AHL, and even ECHL offensive production leaves a lot to be desired, no one is pretending that Peluso has room to develop into a top-nine scorer. Yet, he knows his fourth line role and plays it well with a hard-nosed edge. Capitals fans have embraced the overtly aggressive game of Tom Wilson; there’s no reason to think that Peluso couldn’t soon be a fan-favorite should he carve out an enforcer role in Washington.