Sept. 30 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (3-0-0)
Columbus Blue Jackets (2-3-0)
The Caps make their final preseason road trip on Tuesday when they travel to Columbus for an exhibition meeting with the Blue Jackets. Washington will conclude its preseason schedule with a pair of home games later in the week, hosting Boston on Thursday and Columbus in the exhibition finale for both teams on Saturday night.
Following Sunday’s 3-2 shootout victory over the Devils in New Jersey, the Caps returned home around 9 pm Sunday evening. Many of those same players who made the trip to New Jersey were in the first practice group on Monday morning, a quick turnaround from Sunday’s skirmish with the Devils. Even so, several of those “double duty” players were among the last ones to leave the ice after Monday’s session, namely Andrew Cristall, Ryan Leonard, Aliaksei Protas and Trevor van Riemsdyk.
Tuesday’s game in Columbus is expected to feature the exhibition debuts of veterans Tom Wilson and John Carlson. That would leave captain Alex Ovechkin as the only member of the varsity squad who hasn’t played in a preseason game. Ovechkin was sidelined by a lower body ailment early in camp, but at Monday’s practice, he was a full participant sporting a full-contact sweater.
“Looked good, I thought,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of his captain. “We did a lot of power play stuff today, but also some line rushes and that, and [Ovechkin] was moving around well, and no setbacks. That’s a positive step in the right direction and we’ll see where it goes from playing [preseason] games. I highly doubt he’ll play [Tuesday], but it leaves a couple of home games that he’ll potentially be able to get into.
“He’s missed a significant amount of camp, but I know he’s been training and skating and trying to do everything that he possibly can at 40 years old to make sure that he’s ready for opening night next Wednesday. I would expect [him to be ready] but he’s missed a lot these last nine days. He can get as close to top form as possible.”
“It feels good,” says Ovechkin of being back on the ice. “Obviously, I need more touches, more ice time with the boys, because that week I missed probably hit me a little bit. But overall, I’ll take it.”
Now in his 21st NHL training camp, Ovechkin has never missed this big a chunk of training camp before.
“Sometimes you do some workouts, and you pull your muscle a little bit, and you just have to be smart,” says Ovechkin. “Sometimes you come to training camp, and you feel a little sore in your knee or your wrist or something, so you have to do maybe an injection or maybe take some pills to feel better. But overall, we don’t want to do it right now. So that’s why we tried to take days off and work out at the gym and do some extra stuff to help.”
Winger Sonny Milano – possessor of one of the League’s hottest sticks at the moment – was absent from Monday’s practice because of an upper body ailment. Milano has four goals and six points in two preseason games. He is not expected to miss a significant amount of time.
“It shouldn’t be too long,” says Carbery. “I would bet he is back skating by [Tuesday]. It’s nothing significant.”
Veteran center Nic Dowd is also back with the team after missing a few days for personal reasons. Dowd won’t play Tuesday in Columbus, but Carbery said he is expected to be on the ice with the non-game group on Tuesday.
The Caps played quite well over the first half of the game on Sunday in Jersey, opening up a 2-0 lead and significantly limiting New Jersey’s attack in a contest in which the Devils dressed some of their top offensive talents, including the likes of Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes and Timo Meier.
But in the back half of the game, the Devils found their legs, and they had Washington on the ropes. The Caps got into some late penalty trouble, but the penalty killing outfit and Charlie Lindgren combined to put the game in the win column for Washington, with Cristall’s fifth-round shootout strike sending the Caps home victorious.
“I’ll group our whole group into this,” says Carbery. “I thought it was the first time in the preseason that we struggled with the puck. Now we’re playing against a really good Jersey lineup, and their top six will give you all sorts of trouble. But I just didn’t think we handled their pressure very well, and we were a little bit sloppy with pucks in dangerous situations – ends of shifts, couldn’t get it out, turned the puck over; uh oh, here they come.
“Especially when guys like Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes’ lines are on the ice, if you make mistakes like that, you’re going to spend 40 to 50 seconds in the defensive zone, which I felt like we did a lot in the second half of that game.”
Carbery described Tuesday’s game group as a mix of veterans and younger players. With next Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline for the filing of opening night rosters looming, time is growing short for bubble players to open eyes and make impressions. Three preseason games remain, but at least one of those games – likely Saturday’s finale against Columbus in the District – is likely to feature most of the varsity roster in a final tune-up before the onset of the regular season.
As the Caps get set to play their fourth of six preseason games on Tuesday, the Jackets are preparing for the sixth of their seven preseason games. Columbus and the Capitals close out their respective preseason slates on Saturday night in the District.
The Jackets won their preseason opener against St. Louis the same day the Caps opened against Boston, Sept. 21. But that was the first of four games in as many days at the start of camp for the Jackets, who are now in the process of playing their final three exhibitions over a much more leisurely span of 10 days. Buffalo swept Columbus in a home-and-home set of preseason games, and the Jackets split a pair of exhibitions with the Penguins.
