The Capitals held another high-spirited skate on Saturday.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — As the Washington Capitals itch to get back to playing in games, they continue to ramp things up in practices leading up to their return from the Olympic break.
Washington returned from a scheduled day off the ice for another lengthy practice, where the team took the time to run through lines and other drills while getting back into a regular schedule.
Though it can be tedious to have multiple back-to-back practices, coach Spencer Carbery stressed how important it is to take advantage of the extra time to prepare before the final playoff push.
"Guys want to play games and they practice, they're professionals, and they put work in," Carbery said. "To go through this, you've got to do it and we've got to make sure — we've just had a significant amount of time off — so just a reminder that these days will pay off."
Carbery ran with the same lines he started coming out of the break, with Hendrix Lapierre serving as a placeholder on the second line for Tom Wilson and Sonny Milano skating as an extra on defense.
John Carlson took his second consecutive maintenance day, though Carbery is not concerned that it is anything that will hold him out with the team having until Wednesday to fully recover and get ready for game action.
Here were the combinations:
Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Aliaksei Protas
Connor McMichael-Pierre-Luc Dubois-Hendrix Lapierre (placeholder for Tom Wilson)
Anthony Beauvillier-Justin Sourdif-Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime-Nic Dowd-Ethen Frank
Declan Chisholm (placeholder for Martin Fehervary)-John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun-Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin-Trevor van Riemsdyk
Dylan McIlrath-Sonny Milano (extra)
Charlie Lindgren
Garin Bjorklund (placeholder for Logan Thompson)
After practice, Justin Sourdif, Ryan Leonard, Brandon Duhaime and Trevor van Riemsdyk returned to the ice to help coach the Capitals' annual Rising Stars clinic.