Caps call up defenseman Hardy Haman Aktell

MONTREAL — As the Capitals struggled through their first three games, the forwards’ lack of production was the main focus for Spencer Carbery and the rest of Washington’s coaching staff. But after Wednesday’s blowout loss to the Ottawa Senators, which featured plenty of defensive miscues, Carbery decided it was time to make a change to the defense corps.

Enter Hardy Haman Aktell, who narrowly missed making the team out of training camp — largely because of his salary cap hit and waiver-exempt status, which made it a straightforward call to send him to Washington’s American Hockey League affiliate in Hershey, Pa., as the Capitals navigated cap constraints. The Swedish blue-liner played two games in Hershey — and scored a goal — before getting the call late Wednesday night that he was headed to Montreal for Saturday’s game against the Canadiens.

“[Hershey] was good,” Haman Aktell said. “I played a lot. Played a lot of [penalty kill.] Had two good games. It’s a quick league there too, so it’s good for me to get a little bit more adjusted to the smaller rink. … When I signed the contract, I didn’t know where I would play, if it was AHL or here. Tried to have a good mind-set wherever I play. It’s fun to be up here and play.”

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The Capitals were off Thursday after arriving in Montreal, but when they took the ice at the Canadiens’ practice facility Friday, the defensive pairs had been shifted around, suggesting that Haman Aktell was in line to make his NHL debut Saturday night. Rasmus Sandin and John Carlson remain the top pairing, but Nick Jensen is now skating with Martin Fehervary as the second pairing, and Haman Aktell slotted in alongside Trevor van Riemsdyk on the third. Lucas Johansen and Alex Alexeyev, who split the sixth defenseman spot in the first three games, appear to be extras for Saturday’s game.

“We just felt like, diving into the numbers, our bottom pair has had a real tough time in the first three games,” Carbery said. “We need some consistency there. We need something in that bottom pair that can give us reliable minutes. That’s what we’re looking for. Hardy had a great camp. We liked his exhibition games, so we thought it would be a good opportunity for him to potentially get in the lineup.”

The statistics on Natural Stat Trick back up what the Capitals’ internal analytics told Carbery. In their two games as the third defensive pair, Jensen and Johansen were on the ice for four scoring chances for Washington and eight for the opposing team. The scoring chances were more even for Jensen and Alexeyev when they played together against the Calgary Flames on Monday, with three for the Capitals and four against, but the shot attempt volume tilted heavily in Calgary’s favor — four attempts for Washington and 14 for the Flames.

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Fehervary and van Riemsdyk also struggled as a duo, so bringing up Haman Aktell to play alongside van Riemsdyk allows Jensen and Fehervary to form a pair with a focus strictly on defending. After Wednesday’s game, Carbery emphasized that the Capitals needed to play tighter defensively as the offense takes time to get going, and he views Fehervary and Jensen as a defense-first pair.

“You’ve got two elite, elite skating defensemen in Jens and Marty,” Carbery said during training camp. “My idea or where I see that going is you also have two elite defenders. [We] can deploy them in more of your traditional shutdown role.”

Haman Aktell is tasked with helping stabilize the third pair. Van Riemsdyk has been a reliable presence for the Capitals, and combining him with Haman Aktell is intended to help Washington find solid ground on the back end.

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“He’s a good hockey player, and you can’t have enough of those,” van Riemsdyk said. “He’s earned his way to get this chance. Had a good camp and I’m excited to play with him. He’s a great skater, makes good plays, simple. He doesn’t try to do too much, which is exactly what we need.”

Carbery’s hope is that a stable defensive performance will help the Capitals stay afloat during what has been a difficult early stretch. He also shook up the forward lines again Friday, swapping Matthew Phillips and Tom Wilson from their spots in Wednesday’s game. Phillips was on the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome, while Wilson skated with Sonny Milano and Nicklas Backstrom.

The new-look lines had flashes of chemistry against the Senators, but they didn’t show enough in the ugly loss for Carbery to move forward without making another tweak.

“We’ve liked some of the things that we’ve done, but one of the things, obviously, is we need to score more,” Carbery said. “We have to find different ways to create more offense and find some chemistry within some lines. We like our top nine. We’d like those three lines to be able to all produce on any given night, and that’s what we’re just trying to create.”

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