September 30 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena
Time: 7 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Caps Radio 24/7
Columbus Blue Jackets (3-1-0)
Washington Capitals (1-3-0)
Three nights after they met in D.C. for a preseason contest, the Caps and the Blue Jackets are back at it again. This time, the scene shifts to Ohio’s capital city where the two teams will tangle in a Monday night rematch.
Columbus doubled up the Caps by an 8-4 count on Friday night at Capital One Arena in a contest that was delayed for the better part of two hours because of travel and weather issues the Blue Jackets encountered on their journey to D.C. that afternoon. Adam Fantilli – the third overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft – scored once in each period to notch a hat trick, and Mathieu Olivier struck twice to fuel the Jackets’ victory.
For the Caps, Monday’s exhibition game comes days after their training camp roster has been pared down to a single group of 29 healthy players. Monday’s game against the Jackets the also the Capitals’ penultimate preseason tune-up; they will pop the last top on their exhibition six-pack on Saturday when they host the Boston Bruins.
The weekend roster trimmings leave the Capitals with 17 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders still remaining in camp. Among the players reassigned over the weekend, five had to clear waivers before they could officially report to AHL Hershey: forwards Ethen Frank, Alex Limoges and Riley Sutter, and defensemen Hardy Häman-Aktell and Chase Priskie.
All five officially cleared waivers at 2 p.m. on Sunday and will be loaned to Hershey.
Washington opened its camp on Sept. 19 with more than five dozen healthy players. After trimming 20 players – 16 of them healthy – this weekend, the Caps have more than halved their original camp roster with two exhibition games remaining.
“[Saturday] was a real difficult day, because you feel that there are so many players in this organization that are knocking on the door to be NHL players,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “And those are tough messages to deliver as a coach. But it’s not over.
“Yeah, this is a training camp, and you’re not going to be on the opening night roster as of now. But going down to the American League when your goals and everything you’ve worked for all offseason were to make the Caps, there’s no question it’s a disappointing moment, but it doesn’t define your season. We will need multiple players – I guarantee it – from the Hershey Bears this year. ‘There is light at the end of the tunnel,’ is the message, and there are good players down there: Ethen Frank, Hardy [Häman-Aktell] has played games for us, Alex Limoges had a great camp for us. All those guys and even some of the young guys, like [Henrik] Rybinski and Vinnie Iorio, they’re right there. They’re right there, knocking on the door, and hopefully they do well down there and start their seasons off well, and an opportunity comes up.”
In between those final two preseason contests on Monday and Saturday this week, the Caps will be setting up temporary camp in Columbus. They’ll stay over after Monday’s game, and the team will conduct some team building exercises and a couple of practices in Ohio before returning home on Thursday afternoon.
“We did something similar last season that I thought and our leadership [group] thought was beneficial,” points out Carbery, referring to a trip to eastern Maryland last October, a journey that included a golf tournament and a team practice in Easton on the return trip to Virginia. “And the timing of it was maybe not the most ideal, leading up to opening night, so it was a little bit crammed right before we started.
“This year, with the break in our preseason schedule – we’ve already played four and we’re going to play the fifth [Monday] and then we have that break – I felt like it provided a little block for us to do some team building and get away as a group, whether we were going to do that locally somewhere, or it just matched up with being able to get out to Columbus, play that game, and then stay out there as a team for a few days, and practice. And then we’ll also be able to play one more preseason game and not lead right into the regular season.
“It’s a good couple of days for us to get away as a group and build some team chemistry, and also get a chance to practice and do some team-building activities.”
Columbus’ Friday night victory in the District kicked off a busy stretch of preseason action for the Jackets; it was the first of six games in a span of eight nights as they get set for their season opener at Minnesota on Oct. 10.
After defeating the Caps on Friday, the Jackets returned home and claimed their third straight exhibition victory on Saturday night at Nationwide Arena, a 6-3 doubling of the Buffalo Sabres. After spotting the Sabres a 2-0 lead, Columbus scored the game’s next five goals to win going away. Down 2-1 entering the third, the Jackets reeled off four goals in a span of 4 minutes and 24 seconds. Sean Monahan scored twice for Columbus and Fantilli added his fourth goal in two nights.
The Jackets travel to St. Louis for a Tuesday night tilt with the Blues, and they’ll conclude their eight-game preseason run with a home-and-home set with the Pittsburgh Penguins, playing Thursday night in Columbus and Friday in the Steel City.
