Caps, Sabres Tangle in Exhibition Opener
Caps open six-game preseason slate with Sunday matinee match vs. Buffalo
Some 48 hours after they took the ice for their first practice session of training camp, a group of 20 Capitals will suit up to take on the Buffalo Sabres in the first of Washington's six exhibition tune-ups this fall.
As is typically the case early in the preseason, expect a scant representation of regulars in the lineup for both sides.
Training camp is traditionally seen as a time for veteran players to get their legs beneath them for a long and grinding season ahead, and a time for young players to open eyes and perhaps force their way onto the varsity roster. But camps and preseason slates are shorter now than they were at the beginning of this century, which makes it more difficult for prospects and dark horse candidates to crack NHL lineups, and that will be particularly true in these parts this autumn.
Washington opened camp with 68 players on its camp roster, but a quartet of those skaters - veteran forwards Nicklas Backstrom, Carl Hagelin and Tom Wilson and rookie defenseman Alex Alexeyev - are recovering from offseason surgeries and are not full participants.
"You don't like to see the guys out of the lineup, but we knew this," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "This isn't catching us off guard today. This is something that for months now we knew where we were going to be."
Because the Caps have known since May that the aforementioned quartet of players would be missing at the outset of camp, they were able to address those absences in the trade and free agent market over the summer, making a deal with Ottawa for winger Connor Brown, adding forward Dylan Strome in free agency, and resigning veteran deadline day acquisition Marcus Johansson. Even with three regular forwards missing, the Caps are well stocked up front.
Washington's camp roster features 42 forwards, and 24 of them saw NHL duty last season. The Caps have 20 defensemen on their camp roster, including 10 who played in the League last season and two more (Dylan McIlrath and Aaron Ness) who have prior NHL experience. No one knows for sure, but it's unlikely the Caps have ever had more forwards who played in the League the previous season on a training camp roster.
When Backstrom missed the first two months of last season - a period that overlapped with lengthy absences of T.J. Oshie and Anthony Mantha from the lineup as well - young players such as Hendrix Lapierre, Brett Leason and Aliaksei Protas stepped up and helped mitigate those lineup losses. But as well as that trio - and other young players up from AHL Hershey - played last season, it will be a tall task for them to crack the roster this fall.
Lapierre, Leason and Protas are all expected to be in the lineup for Sunday's preseason opener against the Sabres.
"They're coming in here to try and earn something; that was the message to everybody," says Laviolette. "Try and earn an exhibition game. If you earn an exhibition game, then you have a chance to show what you can do. Try and earn more ice time than you had last year. Try and earn a job, in Washington, in Hershey, in South Carolina. Try and earn yourself a spot somewhere.
"Nothing really changes with regard to that; that's training camp year after year. If you get an opportunity to do something, try and make the most of that opportunity so that you can show what you can do. Come in here and try to make some noise, and force a situation where you play so well that you have to be kept, or you have to move up the lineup, or you have to get more minutes, whatever it might be."
One of those players seeking more minutes is sophomore forward Connor McMichael. After playing left wing for most of last season, McMichael had a successful run at center late in the season, and when camp opened this week, he found himself in the middle of a line, flanked by Strome and Mantha. But this is training camp, and lineups are forged with pencil and paper rather than chisel and granite.
"I think you'll see him at both [positions] in training camp," says Laviolette. "We've talked about this. There are a couple of other players who are in the same situation where they can play wing or center. So we're going to put players into games and we're going to evaluate from there.
"Training camp is here," says Laviolette. "Make some noise. Earn something. That goes for Lapierre, that goes for Connor McMichael, that goes for Strome. Push yourself up the lineup. Earn more, want more."
McMichael will also be in Sunday's lineup against Buffalo, skating the middle of Washington's second line.
The Sabres missed the playoffs for the 11th consecutive season in 2021-22; prior to its current run of postseason futility, Buffalo had never experienced a playoff drought of more than three seasons. The Sabres did offer their fans some hope late last season when they put together a good finishing kick. After winning just 16 of its first 50 games (16-26-8) in '21-22, Buffalo won half of its last 32 games (16-13-3).
Buffalo made minimal offseason moves over the summer, adding goaltender Eric Comrie and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin via free agency. With a top 10 pick in each of the last nine NHL drafts, the Sabres have been accumulating top end talent for years. But either before or during last season, Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams moved out center Jack Eichel (second overall in 2015 NHL Draft), center Sam Reinhart (second overall in 2014) and defenseman Risto Ristolainen (eighth overall in 2013).
Each of the Sabres' first-rounders since 2017 are still with the organization, including a pair of defenseman chosen first overall. Twenty-two-year-old Rasmus Dahlin - the top pick in 2018 - is set to enter his fifth NHL season while 19-year-old Owen Power will be a rookie this season. Power left the University of Michigan after two seasons, and he got his feet wet in the NHL with an impressive eight-game trial at the tail end of last season.
