The Capitals plan to continue seeing what Justin Sourdif can do at center.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — With his Washington Capitals losing 4-0 to the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday, coach Spencer Carbery put his lines in a blender looking for any kind of spark. And out of it, he found one move that he's looking to stick with: Justin Sourdif at center.
Sourdif, who's played primarily with Nic Dowd and Brandon Duhaime to open the season, moved up to the third-line center to work with Aliaskei Protas and Ryan Leonard. He won three of four face-offs, and that combination that generated three scoring chances for and boasted an expected goals-for percentage of 65.88 in Sunday's loss.
"I liked him a lot," Carbery said. "He's a natural centerman. That's what he grew up playing, that's what he's played his whole life... we think there's potentially a centerman there at the NHL level."
With Pierre-Luc Dubois still on the injured reserve, Carbery said he'll look for "any opportunity" to continue evaluating Sourdif as a reliable center option. In turn, Hendrix Lapierre, who got an assist and broke through after switching to the wing Sunday, remained on the wing at Monday's practice.
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"He plays with a ton of pace, straight line and you see he gets into a couple really good situations... that's something that I'm looking at," Carbery said, adding, "Each day, he's more comfortable in and around the rink."
The 23-year-old, who the team traded for in the offseason after targeting him the last few years, is six games into what marks his first full season at the NHL level. And so far, the team likes what it sees, while also keeping in mind that he still has ways to go.
"I have to remind myself, 'This is a rookie,' you have to put him in the same breath as (Ryan Leonard)," Carbery said, adding, "He's still a young player getting used to the league, and so for him to come in and play as well (as he has)... it's pretty impressive."