ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals had their sights on Justin Sourdif for a while before finally managing to trade for him this offseason. And now that he's here, they've gotten a glimpse of what he can bring, and believe there's even more to come.

Sourdif is on the fourth line with Nic Dowd and Brandon Duhaime to start the season, and over four games so far, he's helped that trio generate a high-danger Corsi for percentage of 83.33 at 5-on-5.

"Just playing hard for my teammates," Sourdif said, adding, "Playing with tenacity and pace, wearing out the other teams' top lines and really making it hard on them. If they're going to try and score, it's going to be a grueling shift, shift after shift."

Averaging 11:49 minutes per night, the 23-year-old ranks fourth on the team with eight shots so far and is second in HDCF% at all strengths among all skaters, behind only Connor McMichael.

"He's a guy that's getting into some good spots... he's doing a lot of good things, and we can live with that," coach Spencer Carbery said.

Though Sourdif's getting looks, he's been held off the scoresheet so far, and has a plus/minus rating of minus-1.

"You can tell he's gripping it a little bit... There's some areas of his game that, as a young player in this league, that we're working with him to become more consistent with," Carbery said, adding, "He'll continue to get better and continue to clean up some of the areas of his game that he has to work on, wall play, coverage stuff."

For Sourdif, it can be frustrating and discouraging, as he hoped to make a quick impact and show the Capitals just why they acquired him. However, Carbery is optimistic that the numbers will come with time.

"Hopefully, because you know how it is, guys that come to a new team like, you want to produce. you want to put one in the back of the net, you want to play a role. You want to show your new teammates that, 'Hey, I'm doing something significant for this group,'" Carbery added. "And so he wants to so badly, and sometimes, it takes a little bit for it to go in the net. You can feel like he's just cringing when it doesn't, but it'll break through.

Playing For His Childhood Team In The Capitals, Sourdif Ready To Hold Himself To 'A Really High Standard' ARLINGTON, V.A. — The script couldn't have been written any better for Justin Sourdif.

"He just has to continue to worry about the process and worry about doing a good job of developing and getting better in all areas of the game, and not just putting one in the back of the net."