Sept. 25 vs. Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena<\/p>\n
Time: 7:00 p.m.<\/p>\n
TV: MNMT<\/p>\n
Radio: Team 980, Caps Radio Network<\/p>\n
Boston Bruins (2-0-0)<\/p>\n
Washington Capitals (1-0-1)<\/p>\n
The Caps finish up their first shortened training camp on Monday, but they will first conclude their four-game preseason slate with a pair of weekend exhibition matches. The Boston Bruins are in town on Friday night for the lone Capital One Arena exhibition of this autumn, and the Caps will make a quick trip up to Philadelphia on Saturday where they will finish up the preseason with a late afternoon tilt with the Flyers.<\/p>\n
After missing a few days of training camp practices, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin returned to the ice for Thursday\u2019s session at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. Ovechkin made it through the entire practice with no issues, but Caps coach Spencer Carbery was noncommittal on Ovechkin\u2019s possible participation in either of Washington\u2019s final two exhibition tune-ups.<\/p>\n
Throughout camp, Carbery has indicated that Friday\u2019s home game against the Bruins would be mostly a \u201cdress rehearsal\u201d of the team\u2019s expected roster for opening night. And speaking of that, we are now just a long weekend away from the deadline to set those opening night rosters across the League. A slew of players is expected to hit the waiver wire in the coming days as teams make their final roster parings in anticipation of Monday\u2019s 5 p.m. deadline for the submission of those opening night, 23-player rosters.<\/p>\n
Once the Caps\u2019 Saturday preseason finale is in the books, the Caps will be idle for nearly a week; they don\u2019t open the season until next Friday (Oct. 2) in Carolina. With that in mind, Carbery mentioned the Caps will \u2013 as they\u2019ve done to bridge the gap from training camp to the season opener each of his previous three seasons behind the bench \u2013 take a short team-building excursion. This year\u2019s preseason team building will take place in Annapolis between Saturday\u2019s exhibition coda and the season opener.<\/p>\n
In addition to the team-building activity, the trip to Maryland\u2019s capital city will include a practice session at McMullen Arena. And given Saturday\u2019s preseason finale and Monday\u2019s deadline for setting opening night rosters across the League, players who require waivers must be placed on waivers no later than 2 p.m. on Sunday, for them to clear those waivers ahead of the Monday deadline.<\/p>\n
Essentially, those roster decisions need to be made within hours of the conclusion of Saturday\u2019s game in the City of Brotherly Love.<\/p>\n
With Washington\u2019s lineup all but established, these last two preseason games will be important from a standpoint of ongoing chemistry within newly cobbled forward lines and defensive pairings, and they\u2019ll obviously also be important for establishing which players will settle into those final three roster slots, and what the makeup of those three slots will look like positionally.<\/p>\n
While the ninth-floor hockey operations staff mulls over the roster slot conundrum and the resulting tangle of waivers, Carbery and the players are working toward opening night readiness and maximum chemistry and comfortability.<\/p>\n
Following Wednesday\u2019s practice, the bench boss noted the importance of making sure the line of Alex Tuch, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Tom Wilson is ready to roll as a top-six shutdown unit. They\u2019re seen as a group that will be deployed against other teams\u2019 top lines with the goal of keeping those trios off the scoreboard while delivering a fair amount of offense in the process.<\/p>\n
The Dubois trio played the Caps\u2019 preseason opener in Boston this past Sunday, and Friday\u2019s game against the Bruins is likely to feature the trio together again. But the three forwards will also hit their two-game exhibition max on Friday, so this will be the final look before the season opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one thing that I want to see more,\u201d says Carbery. \u201cI need more viewings of that [line], especially in game action. [Sunday\u2019s] Boston game was just such an ugly game; it was really hard to evaluate on the film and going back through, because that\u2019s a big spot, that line, Dubie\u2019s line, [with] Willie. Is there chemistry there? [Tuch] on the left, does it work?<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think our next exhibition game will be a good indicator of that and get us a better idea of what we see there. And then I\u2019ll talk to all three guys and see what their thoughts are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s tune-up tilt will be important as far as seeing chemistry between the trio, and for Tuch \u2013 a right wing by trade \u2013 to feel comfortable playing on the left side of that line.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, a lot of communication,\u201d says Tuch, asked what the trio can do to accelerate the chemistry creation. \u201cI think we\u2019re three smart hockey players, so we\u2019re going to be able to make plays all over the ice. But it\u2019s just communicating and getting used to different tendencies these guys have.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve all played with a lot of different linemates over the years, and a lot of different styles, so I think we\u2019re going to be able to adapt pretty quickly. It\u2019s just playing to each other\u2019s strengths, continuing to play your game, and just trying to find it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
How the Dubois line looks and whether the staff believes it can measure up to what the team needs from it could impact the outlook of the other units. For example, if the staff determines the line is not ready for prime time, it could always move Aliaksei Protas to the left side of that unit because \u201cBig Pro\u201d has shown the knack for playing with Dubois and Wilson and has had prior success in that role.<\/p>\n
For his part, Tuch has no concerns over sliding over to the left side.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not that different honestly,\u201d says the Washington winger. \u201cWhen you\u2019re coming into the zone, a lot of times it\u2019s whatever side you end up on. Lining up for a face-off is just a little bit different in little battles to help out the centermen. But I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be too big of an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at it like this; that line is so important,\u201d asserts Carbery. \u201cLet\u2019s just say \u2013 and I\u2019m not saying this is the case \u2013 you\u2019ve got three lines that you really like and they have a lot of chemistry, but Dubie, Willie and Tuchie, it just doesn\u2019t work, you\u2019re going to have to move something. That\u2019s an important line for us; we need that to work, and we need Alex Tuch to be the player that he\u2019s capable of being, so you\u2019re going to have to rob Peter to pay Paul [if it doesn\u2019t work]. You\u2019re going to do that and move some things around. So, we would ideally like to find that out sooner than later.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, sometimes it takes a little bit more time. So, we\u2019ll get a better idea of what that looks like on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n
After edging the Caps 3-2 in last Sunday\u2019s preseason opener, the Bruins drubbed the Flyers 5-1 on home ice on Tuesday. The B\u2019s are in Philadelphia tonight for a rematch with the Flyers, and they will conclude their exhibition season with Friday\u2019s game in the District.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sept. 25 vs. Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena Time: 7:00 p.m. TV: MNMT Radio: Team 980, Caps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-904194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}