Miroshnichenko and McMichael were on the top-6 as the Capitals made some more changes.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — As the Washington Capitals prep for a return to preseason action on Thursday, Spencer Carbery got out the whiteboard again, experimenting with more combinations and offering a first look at the man advantage.
The lines changed as the groups saw some tweaks on Wednesday, with Evgeny Kuznetsov and more moving up to Group A, which could see a number of players take the ice for Thursday's tilt against the Detroit Red Wings at Capital One Arena.
Most notably, Ivan Miroshnichenko moved up to the top line to operate with Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin, who has taken the Russian under his wing to open camp and has taken on the role of his mentor.
Meanwhile, Connor McMichael got a look up with the top 6, and the defense also saw some changes with Joel Edmundson now out 4-6 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured hand.
Here are the full lines from Wednesday's first group:
Alex Ovechkin-Nicklas Backstrom-Ivan Miroshnichenko
Connor McMichael-Evgeny Kuznetsov-Tom Wilson
Joe Snively-Nic Dowd-T.J. Oshie
Andrew Cristall-Mike Sgarbossa-Pierrick Dube/Alexander Suzdalev
Rasmus Sandin-John Carlson
Hardy Haman Aktell-Alex Alexeyev
Lucas Johansen-Vincent Iorio
Nick Leivermann-Logan Day
After running lines, Carbery used the second half of practice to go over the power play. He ran two units, with the usual suspects starring on PP1 and some rising names skating on PP2.
Here's what those combinations looked like:
PP1: T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson
PP2: Andrew Cristall, Tom Wilson, Connor McMichael, Rasmus Sandin, Ivan Miroshnichenko