The Capitals open their season on Saturday.
WASHINGTON — The last two days have seen the Washington Capitals go off the beaten path, as the team held its practices at Capital One Arena.
For head coach Spencer Carbery, it was a different way to pass the time and team build with a long week to go before the season opener, but it also gives the group the opportunity to get back into the rhythm of playing on home ice.
'I felt like it took us a few games last year to get comfortable on home ice out of the gate," Carbery explained. "I think the quicker that we can get comfortable with our home ice and the differences from where we practice every day... it'll only help."
It was an intense couple of days for Washington's 23-man opening night roster, as it worked on just about everything: 5-on-5, power play, 3-on-3, overtime and even the shootout, in addition to some high-energy drills and quite a bit of skating.
Carbery kept his lines mainly intact, with Jakub Vrana and Sonny Milano interchanging on the third line left wing as both vy to be in the lineup on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils.
Logan Thompson has missed the last two practices for personal and family reasons, though the team expects to know more regarding when he'll return at some point on Thursday.
Here are the combinations:
Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Andrew Mangiapane
Connor McMichael-Pierre-Luc Dubois-Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana/Sonny Milano-Hendrix Lapierre-Aliaksei Protas
Brandon Duhaime-Nic Dowd-Taylor Raddysh
Jakob Chychrun-John Carlson
Martin Fehervary-Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin-Trevor van Riemsdyk
Alex Alexeyev-Dylan McIlrath
Charlie Lindgren
Logan Thompson
Power Play 1: Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson, Dylan Strome, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Tom Wilson
Power Play 2: Jakob Chychrun, Rasmus Sandin, Connor McMichael, Andrew Mangiapane, Hendrix Lapierre
READ MORE ON THE HOCKEY NEWS
- Why the Capitals sent Andrew Cristall back to juniors
- Jakub Vrana signs one-year contract, full opening night roster
- Capitals & Carbery happy to have Vrana back in the mix, excited to work with forward again
- Alex Ovechkin discusses why scoring has become so much more difficult in today's game, not stressing over Wayne Gretzky's record