ARLINGTON, V.A. — After a day off following the season opener, the Washington Capitals got back to work with a busy practice that also saw coach Spencer Carbery make a few tweaks.
Connor McMichael took Aliaksei Protas' place on the first line with Dylan Strome and Alex Ovechkin, while Protas moved to the second line to play with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Tom Wilson. It was a continuation of the change that Carbery made halfway through the team's 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.
"Those lines are gonna move around... who's going is where I'm looking for hot hands," Carbery said, adding that he liked what he saw from Protas on the second line. "There's not a lot of surprises when guys move around... moving Pro and Mikey, those guys are somewhat interchangeable. They played on both those lines, and so we'll start that way and see where it goes."
Otherwise, it was the same lineup and power-play formation going into a busy weekend that features the first road trip and back-to-back of the season against the New York Islanders and New York Rangers.
Washington spent some time on the man advantage at practice, which has a handful of new tricks up its sleeve. Carbery also offered high praise for the second unit, led by Jakob Chychrun, and said that he liked what he saw on the power play in the opener, but wanted more execution-wise.
"The process is good, you just got to shoot the puck into the net," Carbery said, adding, "We need that to happen, because every part of it is getting us to the final stage, and that's where we got to finish on our chances."
Here were the combinations from practice.
Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Connor McMichael
Aliaksei Protas-Pierre-Luc Dubois-Tom Wilson
Anthony Beauvillier-Hendrix Lapierre-Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime-Nic Dowd-Justin Sourdif
Martin Fehervary-John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun-Trevor van Riemsdyk
Rasmus Sandin-Matt Roy
Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren
Power Play 1: Ovechkin, Carlson, Dubois, Strome, Wilson
Power Play 2: Chychrun, Sandin, Protas, McMichael, Leonard
Sonny Milano was the extra forward, and Declan Chisholm, Vincent Iorio and Dylan McIlrath skated as the extra defensemen. McIlrath also upgraded from the baby blue a regular jersey, as he's been cleared for contact while working his way back from a lower-body injury.
The Capitals face the Islanders at 7 p.m. on Saturday.