Here's how TJ Oshie's injury will impact the Caps lineup
Filling Oshie's role is a big ask but a player like Daniel Sprong looks poised for a bigger opportunity
The Caps announced on Thursday that TJ Oshie is out week-to-week with a lower body injury.
Chances are, this happened on a shot block that hobbled Oshie during the Caps loss Wednesday night to Detroit. But how Oshie was injured doesn’t matter at this point; what matters now is how the Caps move forward.
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Oshie is about as difficult to replace as any player on the roster. He’s a play-driving top-six forward. He’s trusted defensively by the coaching staff. He’s considered a steadying presence skating with youngsters like Connor McMichael or Hendrix Lapierre. He’s a key cog on the top power play unit. Add this Nick Backstrom’s injury, and well…yikes.
The Caps will likely give different players a chance in a bigger role. But initially the obvious choice seems to be giving Daniel Sprong a bigger role.
Forward lines
These are the lines we last saw from the Caps on Wednesday against Detroit:
The easiest switch would be to put Sprong, a righty-shot, on the right side where Oshie was, alongside McMichael and Anthony Mantha. I think this is most likely because any major changes could involve breaking up the Caps top line. The coaching staff will probably hesitate to do this given how much that line has scored this season.
With Sprong in, the lineup would look like this:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Mantha-McMichael-Sprong
Lapierre-Eller-Sheary
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway
This would likely result in a change in deployments for the forward lines. I think the biggest changes will be:
The Dowd lines will function more as a second line than a bottom-six line and they’ll get even more defensive zone draws
Minus Oshie, the McMichael line will be sheltered
Could we see the first line get some defensive zone draws? Eh, I doubt it
Eller is the second-most trusted center in this lineup, but can you really see Laviolette putting a lot of trust in a line with Lapierre and Sheary on the wings?
But perhaps Peter Laviolette will decide he needs a line to help shoulder the defensive load with the Dowd line, allowing him to further protect the Kuznetsov line and the rookie forwards from defensive deployments. If the Caps decide to go this direction, I’d imagine Tom Wilson would skate with Lars Eller and possibly Anthony Mantha. In this scenario, the lines could look something like this:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Sprong/Sheary
Mantha-Eller-Wilson
Lapierre-McMichael-Sprong/Sheary
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway
I really doubt the Caps go this way mainly because:
I don’t think the coaching staff wants to break up the top line
It’s highly unlikely the coaching staff would skate Lapierre and McMichael together
But it would give Laviolette two lines he’s trust defensively, an offensive first line, and a line to shelter
The Caps could also call up a forward that changes the dynamics of the lines. When a forward is recalled, perhaps it will be a defensively responsible forward that will swap in for Lapierre and/or McMichael to give the lineup more of a defensive balance and give Laviolette more options.
Power play
This seems like it should be pretty straight forward. Wilson will likely slide up from the second unit into the Oshie spot in the slot. Given that Wilson’s replacement on the second unit will be a right-handed shot, Sprong seems like the only logical choice to take Wilson’s spot on the second power play unit.
Oshies is going to be difficult to replace. Given how long he’s out, we may see Laviolette try different lineup and line combination to cover for Oshie’s absence. To start, I think Sprong will see a bigger opportunity.
Hey Pat, I heard Backstrom was skating today in full pads. Perhaps he'll be back in the lineup in the near future? If so, how do you think that impacts the line combinations?