The Caps trimmed more than 20 players from their camp roster late last week, and with a two-game road trip looming in the middle of this week, more squad cuts are on the docket for the next couple of days. Washington currently lists 44 players on its camp roster, and by the time the Caps depart for Kansas City that number is likely to shrink by roughly one-third.
"We're heading in that direction," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "We have a couple young guys in there tonight, and then we'll see where we are [Tuesday]. Guys that we want to take one last look at, we will do that. And if not, we'll probably start getting down the next day or two. I would say before the Kansas City game we want to get down a little bit, or right after that and get our team for the most part back together. A lot of things are on Marcus [Johansson] and Tom [Wilson], and how many guys we handle.
"I think we want to get down to ideally one bigger group. You don't want it to be too big, because then you don't get the reps that you need. But at the same time, I think we can still get some good work. There are some guys that we will probably decide on that I am actually quite happy with; we may just have to go in that direction for right now."
Tonight's Washington lineup is far more representative of what the Caps are likely to put on the ice for the season opener in Pittsburgh just 10 days from now, and we've probably seen the last of some of the team's promising young players for this preseason. One caveat - the Caps have a few lingering injuries that could inflate the roster a bit for a couple more days.
Johansson suffered a lower body injury and defenseman Madison Bowey sustained an upper body injury in the first period of the Caps' Saturday night game against the New York Islanders in Bridgeport, Conn.
"Madison skated today; he's getting closer," says Trotz. "We were cautious with him and he got through practice with no setbacks or anything like that.
"With Marcus, he is still going to be [out] a little bit. He skated a little bit this morning; he'll be on his own. He is not scheduled to be with us [on Tuesday]. We'll see where he is on Wednesday, if he'll join the group or not."
Wilson was on the business end of a Jordan Staal elbow a week ago today in Washington's preseason opener, and he has not seen game action since. His practice time has been limited as well.
"He's got an upper body injury that just needs a little time," says Trotz of Wilson, "and so we want to make sure it's totally healed before we put him in. He's not exactly a guy who's going to shy away from contact, so we've just got to be sure he is 100 percent. So he's limited. It's good for him, because he says he can work on other parts of his game."
In tonight's game against the Blues, Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Matt Niskanen, John Carlson, Dmitry Orlov and Philipp Grubauer will all suit up for the first time for Washington during the 2016 preseason. All seven players played in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey last month.
"All our guys from the World Cup of Hockey have had their time," says Trotz. "Since they've been playing, they want to continue to play. Practice is not as fun as playing. And so they want to get playing; they don't want to lose their sharpness as well."
Here's the expected Washington lineup for tonight's preseason game against the Blues:
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
82-Sanford, 20-Eller, 65-Burakovsky
26-Winnik, 83-Beagle, 10-Connolly
79-Walker, 23-Sill, 28-Carey
Defensemen
27-Alzner, 2-Niskanen
9-Orlov, 74-Carlson
88-Schmidt, 4-Chorney
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
31-Grubauer
