Here are some news and notes from the optional skate:
- Mike Green was skating in the scratches’ skate and will not play tonight. The other scratches will be Cody Eakin and D.J. King.
- Tomas Vokoun was the first goaltender off of the ice, and as expected, will be the starter tonight. From other reports I gathered, it appears that Rick DiPietro will be the starter tonight between the pipes for the Islanders.
- About half of the team took today’s skate. Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin, Mike Knuble, and Nicklas Backstrom are among the players who did not skate today.
- Knuble talked about the importance of coming out strong tonight on the strength of a win last night against the Hurricanes: “It’s a trap you fall into. It’s a team, if you look at their record and the fact they haven’t scored a lot of goals, and it’s very easy to think you will have another night like you did last night. They show up and play their hardest against us. They put you on the heels really quickly. They come out buzzing, and you know that, and you can talk about it, and know it’s going to happen, but can you be prepared for it?”
- Marcus Johansson talked to us about playing with Troy Brouwer: “ Yeah, he’s very easy to play with. He works hard and always does his job 100%.” Then talked about playing with Eakin (who scored his first goal last night in Raleigh): “ It was very easy to play with the both of them [Eakin and Brouwer]. They both work hard and skate a lot and make good plays.”
- Coach Boudreau talked about the fact that he has cut playing time for some players: “That’s never been an issue. Nobody has come up to me and showed me a game sheet and said ‘Listen, I’ve only played this.’ And as long as we are successful, I think everyone has one goal. And the core of this team, quite frankly, has been involved with a lot of the success outside of the one thing we are criticized for. So, I think, everyone wants to do the one thing we haven’t done yet. And whatever that takes or entails, they wants to accomplish it and we are all on the same page to try to just do it.”
Photos after the jump.
So we are all set here on Long Island! Be sure to check out my Twitter feed for the latest updates from tonight’s tilt between the Capitals and the Islanders!
