Halfway To Crazy – Five years ago tonight, the Caps hosted the Bruins at Capital One Arena in the 2018-19 season opener. Washington raised its 2018 Stanley Cup banner to the rafters that night, just before putting a 7-0 drubbing on the B’s.
Tonight, the scene is shifted to the north; the Caps will be in Boston to take on the Bruins in a mostly meaningless exhibition game. The stats from this one won’t be found on the back of anyone’s hockey card, but there are some jobs and lineup slots up for grabs, jobs that could lead to future hockey card stats.
With three preseason games in the books, the Caps will be into the back half of their exhibition slate as soon as the puck drops in Boston tonight. Washington’s first three preseason games came at a leisurely pace; that trio of games was played over nine days and nights. These last three exhibitions will come quickly; they’ll be played in a span of five nights this week.
Getting into that first exhibition game gives veteran players a chance to shake off some offseason rust while providing young players with an opportunity to showcase their individual games and skills sets. Now that we’ve moved into the second half of the preseason, veterans will be seeking to closely replicate their regular season levels of timing and stamina and the kids will be realizing that their opportunities to shine are quickly growing short.
“I think every year coming in, it’s a little bit different,” says Caps defenseman John Carlson. “It depends on how you’re feeling – how your stick feels, how your hands feel, how you’re seeing the game. I think you can come into camp and be in great shape, but not have any feel for the game, and you probably want to jump into a lot more, or maybe you feel like you’re behind.
“I think everybody’s different, and every situation is different. I personally feel great right now and I’m just trying to build on that. Our practices have been intense, physical and tough. I think it’s been a good start to the year for everyone.”
In The Middle Of It All – For tonight’s game against the Bruins, the Caps are bringing a more veteran lineup than they carted to Detroit for Saturday night’s road preseason opener. Most notably, tonight the Caps will have their ostensible group of opening night centers in the lineup: Nicklas Backstrom, Nic Dowd, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dylan Strome.
A handful of Washington wingers in tonight’s lineup are in some thick competition for those slots on the team’s opening night roster, and they should benefit from having a couple thousand games worth of NHL experience in the middle of the lineup.
“For tonight, it gives us a ton of stability down the middle and veteran guys,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “How that relates to the wingers and some of our guys battling for spots positionally and roster wise, is it gives you a good chance to have success with all four of those guys, no matter where you’re slotted lineup wise.
“They should be champing at the bit, whether you’re playing with Nick Backstrom, Nic Dowd, or any of those guys.”
Connor McMichael is one of those guys seeking to seal a lineup spot, and he will be skating the left side of a line with Backstrom and Tom Wilson, a trio that looked sharp in its unveiling last Thursday against Detroit.
“In the first couple of preseason games, you kind of go out and show your stuff,” says McMichael. “And now, we’re getting into the thick of things. Carbs wants to see the systems being shown out there, and us doing all the right things.
“Playing with Willy and Kuzy has made it easy on me and obviously leaning on those two has been great. We’re ready to go.”
Start Me Up – Down to the back half of the preseason, Carbery is also looking for a better start tonight against Boston. The Caps have waded rather slowly into the waters in each of their first three exhibition outings.
“Tonight, we’re looking for a more complete sort of polish,” says Carbery. “There’s one specific – our start. I’m starting to see a trend that carried over a little bit from last year. When you dive into the numbers, I know we were heavily outscored in the first period overall through 82 games, and now, the first three preseason games.
“I want to see a start. And I know that there’s challenges to that with the travel and all that stuff, and in being on the road. But we need to be ready to play. That’s an important part, and being able to get off on the right foot and not have to dig ourselves out of a hole, whether it’s on the scoreboard or just in general with our game, trying to find our footing and trying to string shifts together.
“That’s something specific. And then, we should – with the lineup and where we’re at now roster wise – be a lot cleaner and more polished in all areas, special teams and 5-on-5. That’s what we’re looking for.”
In The Nets – Hunter Shepard and Clay Stevenson split the netminding duties in Washington’s preseason opener, Charlie Lindgren started and went the distance in the Caps’ second exhibition match, and Shepard played all 60 minutes of Saturday’s road exhibition opener in Detroit.
Now that we’re in the back half of the exhibition season, we can expect to see Darcy Kuemper getting most of the minutes in the crease, and he is the expected starter against the Bruins. Shepard will be in uniform as the backup tonight.
“I have liked what I’ve seen in camp,” says Carbery, referring to the Washington goaltending corps as a group. “And I liked a lot of the film that I watched last year from them. I’m not going to sit here and talk about last year and break things down, but one area where I felt like our goalies were put in tough spots were odd-man rushes against; we were 28th in the League in odd-man rushes against.
“When you’re constantly seeing those 2-on-1s, breakaways, 3-on-2s, they’re put in some tough spots. We’re going to do everything we can as a staff, and make sure our players understand we’ve got to help them out. And we were a good defensive team last year, solid in other metrics and that, but that’s one area that stuck out to me. If you can alleviate a couple of 2-on-1s a game and take those off their shoulders, that’s a huge help.”
Boston is expected to dress last season’s Vezina Trophy winner, Linus Ullmark. Ullmark is the starter tonight against Washington as he seeks to follow up a stellar 40-6-1 season in which he led the circuit in both GAA (1.98) and save pct. (.938).
All Lined Up – Here is how we believe the Capitals and Bruins might line up for Tuesday’s game in Boston:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 19-Backstrom, 39-Mantha
24-McMichael, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 17-Strome, 45-Phillips
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 96-Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
38-Sandin, 74-Carlson
46-Johansen, 2-Iorio
4-Haman Aktell, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
31-Shepard
BOSTON
Forwards
63-Marchand, 51-Poitras, 11-Frederic
21-J. van Riemsdyk, 18-Zacha, 88-Pastrnak
17-Lucic, 19-Beecher, 94-Lauko
52-Kuntar, 20-Megna, 43-Heinen
Defensemen
6- Lohrei, 73-McAvoy
67- Zboril, 48-Grzelcyk
28-Forbort, 12-Shattenkirk
Goaltenders
35-Ullmark
30-Bussi
