"Once we get to play again, I just want them to build off of today," said Hershey Bears coach Spencer Carbery, after Saturday's loss. "I'd like to see us take a little bit more, we'll clean up some areas, we'll talk about some different things, but we haven't done a lot of structure stuff. We've said, 'Okay, listen. We want you guys to showcase what you do well, and we want you to play to your strengths and be confident.' And now we'll start to correct some things that we saw out there today."
The young Caps arrived here in southwest Florida on Thursday, and they practiced for an hour on Friday and Sunday in an effort to develop some chemistry and cohesion amongst themselves. Many of them have not played together previously. As Carbery mentioned, the emphasis has not been on structure to this point.
"Yeah, it's tough, said defenseman Lucas Johansen after Saturday's game. "It's definitely a quick turnaround, and most of the guys here are playing their first game in a while, so it's definitely something to get used to.
"In the practice [on Friday] we tried to get in as much stuff as we could to get on the same page. But it's not about structure here. You want to be in certain spots to get the puck and then it's mostly showing your creativity. So that's the message here, and I think the guys did a pretty good job of that today.
Among the current members of the Capitals varsity squad who have participated in the Prospects Showcase in past summers are Madison Bowey, Travis Boyd, Christian Djoos, Chandler Stephenson, Jakub Vrana and Nathan Walker. Each of those six players played for Washington in 2017-18 and all had the honor of lifting the Cup in Vegas on June 7.
The Capitals' 2018 Showcase roster features 23 players, including 13 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders. Two of Washington's recent first-round picks in the NHL draft are making their Showcase debut; goaltender Ilya Samsonov (1st round, 22nd overall in the 2015 NHL Draft) and defenseman Alexander Alexeyev (31st overall in 2018 NHL Draft).
Alexeyev had a primary assist and a fighting major in his debut in a Caps' sweater on Saturday, and he will be in the lineup again for Monday's game against Tampa Bay.
"It was amazing," said Alexeyev after the game. "I was proud to wear this jersey and I think I had a pretty good game. But I've still got to work on some things."
Two Caps defensemen - Connor Hobbs and Jonas Siegenthaler - will be skating in the Showcase tourney for the third time; both blueliners were on the Washington roster for both the 2015 and 2016 editions of the Prospects Showcase. Siegenthaler sat out Saturday's opener and Hobbs will sit out Monday's game against the Lightning. The Caps know what they have in both of those players already, so they will take a look at some other blueliners instead.
Hobbs is captaining the group here this weekend while Shane Gersich and Johansen are sporting the alternate captain's "A" on their sweaters.
Including Alexeyev, six of the seven players Washington chose at the 2018 NHL Draft will be participating in the 2018 Showcase, the first time they will have pulled on the Caps sweater to face an opponent with a different NHL team's sweater. Washington has the youngest roster here at the 2018 Showcase; six of the Caps' 23 players are 2018 draftees while Tampa Bay has two players from the 2018 NHL Draft and Nashville has just one.
This is how we expect the Capitals to line up for Monday morning's 10 a.m. face-off with the Lightning:
FORWARDS
63-Shane Gersich, 40-Garrett Pilon, 71-Kody Clark
45-Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, 64-Brian Pinho, 73-Juuso Ikonen
47-Beck Malenstyn, 67-Riley Sutter, 49-Maximilian Kammerer
93-Mark Simpson, 58-Eric Florchuk, 54-Mason Mitchell
DEFENSEMEN
27-Alexander Alexeyev, 34-Jonas Siegenthaler
42-Martin Fehervary, 84-Kristofers Bindulis
46-Tobias Geisser, 53-Alex Kannok-Leipert
GOALTENDERS
30-Ilya Samsonov
35-Logan Thompson
Scratches: 21-Lucas Johansen, 36-Hobbs, 51-Roykas-Marthinsen
