Capitals News & Notes

This morning during practice, reporters noticed coach Ken Hitchcock has mixed up his lines coming off a 5-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. "We felt things were getting a bit stale and were in need of an internal shake-up." said the veteran coach. "We've been winning 2 in a row, then losing two in a row. Just playing all-around inconsistant hockey lately."

Skating with Anze Kopitar on the top line in red practice jerseys were LW Anders Lee and RW Loui Eriksson. James Neal had been a staple by Kopitar's side since coming over from Chicago earlier this year but now finds himself moving down to the 2nd line. "I'm confident wherever the coach sticks me" quipped Neal. "Obviously it was nice playing beside a star like Anze with his amazing ability to find open teammates, but I'm up to the challenge of finding chemistry elsewhere." Elsewhere for the 30year old sniper is on the teams 2nd line in white practice jerseys centered by Sean Couturier.

The Lines were as follows:

Anders Lee - Anze Kopitar - Loui Eriksson

Ondrej Palat - Sean Couturier - James Neal

Benoit Pouliot - Thomas Plekanec - Tobias Rieder

Matt Nieto - Brian Boyle - Torrey Mitchell

Extra Skater: Mike Liambas

No changes have been made to the defensive pairings.

The team is playing tomorrow night against a Tampa Bay Lightning squad that has been bulking up for a run at the playoffs this year. It should be a good test for the new line combos. Puck drops at the Amalie Arena in Tampa at 7:00pm EST.

We also managed to catch up with the GM at today's practice. "Not a lot going on at the moment as far as trades go, though I guess that's a typical thing for me to say." Said GM Mitchell. The only rumours lately have been about the team looking for farm depth and the possibility of a Dman like Cross or Postma moving. The market doesn't seem to be overly active for these types of assets so don't hold your breath waiting for something to happen.