September 27 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets at Capital One Arena
Time: 7 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: Capitals Radio 24/7
Columbus Blue Jackets (1-1-0)
Washington Capitals (1-2-0)
The Columbus Blue Jackets come to the District on Friday night to supply the opposition for the fourth of Washington’s six preseason games this fall. Friday night starts a home-and-home set of exhibition matches between the two Metropolitan Division rivals; the Caps will be in Columbus on Monday – the final day of September – to face the Jackets at Nationwide Arena.
Friday’s game is the fourth in a span of six nights for the Capitals, who notched their first victory of the preseason on Wednesday night in New Jersey, downing the Devils by a 5-3 count. Between Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Bruins in Boston and the win in New Jersey the following night, all Washington veterans except defenseman Rasmus Sandin have now seen preseason game action. Sandin, who was a late arrival to camp because of visa issues in his native Sweden, made it into the DC area late Tuesday evening, and he took part in his first practice with the team on Thursday.
Sandin won’t play in Friday night’s game, but he is a possibility for Monday’s rematch in Columbus. With four off days between their last two preseason games, the Caps are going to stay in Ohio’s capital city for a few days after their Sept. 30 meeting with the Jackets there. The Caps will conduct a couple of practices and some team and staff dinners, and some team-building exercises there.
The extra time will also give the group a few days to bond together, an important part of the process of adding seven new players to their lineup over the summer.
While Friday’s game is expected to feature the home exhibition debut of Caps’ captain Alex Ovechkin, there are still several young players and prospects and opening-night roster hopefuls scattered amidst the 18 skaters Washington is planning on dressing for Friday’s game. Given the paucity of preseason games remaining and the need to get the veteran varsity players ramped up for the Oct. 12 season opener, it’s another big game for the bubble players; their opportunities are rapidly dwindling.
“Yeah, and we head to Columbus, and we’ll spend a few days there,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “So it is a big game. And it will be a mixed group. You would assume it’s the same group from [Tuesday’s game in] Boston, but it will be a more mixed group.”
Ovechkin and linemates Dylan Strome and Andrew Mangiapane had a solid debut together on Wednesday in New Jersey, and Strome aided the attack with a pair of goals.
“There’s a lot of guys that played well tonight,” said Carbery in the aftermath of Wednesday’s win in New Jersey. “The [Jakob] Chychruns of the world, [Brandon] Duhaime’s line, [Nic] Dowd, Stromer’s line. I thought [Ovechkin] was really good tonight as well, he set the tone physically. [Jakub] Vrana I thought was strong as well, and had some good looks as well.”
While Washington has been dealing with the challenges of a front-loaded exhibition schedule, the Jackets have backloaded preseason slate. They opened the preseason with a 6-1 loss to the Sabres in Buffalo on Monday, but Columbus rebounded with a 3-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues on home ice on Wednesday night.
Following Friday’s game in Washington, Columbus will still have five remaining preseason games – the Jackets play eight exhibitions while the Caps play just six – while Washington will have just two. And for Columbus, Friday’s game kicks off a stretch of four exhibitions in a span of five nights. The Jackets play their last six games in a span of just eight nights. Although they started their exhibition slate a day after the Caps and are playing two more games than Washington, they’ll be all finished a day before the local DC squad.
Prior to Wednesday’s home preseason opener, the Jackets paid tribute to Johnny Gaudreau, who – along with his brother, Matthew – was tragically killed by a motorist while riding their bicycles near where they grew up in southern New Jersey. Columbus had a 13-second period of silence, an homage to Gaudreau’s sweater No. 13.
The Jackets will sport a patch honoring Gaudreau’s memory on their sweaters this season, and they are suspending the usual pomp and circumstance attached to their regular season home opener until their second home game. Columbus wants the focus of its home regular season opener – on Oct. 15 against defending Stanley Cup champion Florida – to be firmly focused on paying tribute to the fallen brothers.
