Sept. 28 vs. New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center
Time: 3:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio 24/7
Washington Capitals (2-0-0)
New Jersey Devils (2-1-0)
After opening the preseason with a pair of convincing victories, the Caps head into the middle third of their six-game exhibition slate on Sunday afternoon in New Jersey against the Devils.
Washington’s 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night in Hershey followed a 5-2 victory in Boston in the Caps’ exhibition opener. The Capitals have played a firm and balanced game, and they’ve been fairly consistent as a group at this early stage of the preseason. But we’ve now reached the midpoint of training camp, and teams have started to thin and trim their rosters. Players are going back to junior, and players are getting loaned to affiliate clubs. Rosters are gradually rounding into opening night shape, and the exhibition lineups will start to resemble opening night lineups more closely, and the competition will get tougher and tighter as a result.
After taking an off day on Friday, the Caps reconvened for a Saturday morning practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. Caps captain Alex Ovechkin (lower body injury) participated in the early practice session, albeit in a baby blue non-contact sweater.
“Another step for him to get back to full practice and potentially play in exhibition games,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery.
In the early going of the preseason, both Sonny Milano (four goals, two assists) and Hendrix Lapierre (one goal, five assists) are making spirited pushes for Washington’s opening night roster. Ethen Frank has collected an assist in each of his two preseason showings, and Andrew Cristall started the scoring with a power-play goal in Thursday’s win over the Flyers in Hershey.
Of that quartet, only Cristall is expected to make the trip to New Jersey for Sunday’s game. Nineteen-year-old Ilya Protas is the only Washington skater slated to appear in each of the Capitals’ first three preseason contests this fall.
“It’s interesting with the way that our preseason has been scheduled,” says Carbery. “We’ve been at it for quite a bit now, but we only have two games under our belts … Andrew [Cristall] has only played one game. So we’re over halfway through [training] camp, so he’s got some runway left here.
“I thought he was pretty solid [on Thursday]. He scores a huge goal for us to get us on the board on the power play, and at 5-on-5 we saw some of the things that we need to see from his 5-on-5 game. So we’re just looking forward to him building off of that, and trying to earn a spot on our team.”
On the blueline, Vincent Iorio and Declan Chisholm have played in each of the first two games, and both have impressed. Both are expected to sit out Sunday’s game in Jersey.
The roster the Caps are bringing to Jersey for Sunday’s game is still dotted with young prospects, but Washington did announce its next series of roster trims on Saturday morning, as AHL Hershey’s camp gets underway this weekend.
With the Saturday morning announcement of cuts, Washington slimmed its roster to 42 players. Forwards Ryan Hofer, Ludwig Persson, Matt Strome and Alexander Suzdalev, defenseman Aaron Ness and goaltender Mitch Gibson have been loaned to Hershey. Forward Zac Funk will continue his injury rehabilitation in Hershey, and forward Spencer Smallman and defenseman Calle Rosen were placed on waivers for the purpose of loaning them to Hershey.
Finally, the Caps also loaned Lynden Lakovic – their first-round pick (27th overall) in the 2025 NHL Draft to his WHL Moose Jaw junior team. Lakovic acquitted himself well in his first pro camp, and with a December 2006 birthday, he will be eligible to turn pro as early as next season.
“I thought it was excellent,” says Carbery of Lakovic’s first camp. “I told him this [Friday], as a young player – especially as a highly touted first-round pick – in all reality, these guys are so focused on, ‘I’m going to try and make the Washington Capitals.’ In all reality, odds are you’re going back to junior. So, what are your goals coming into an NHL camp when you were just picked in the first round?
“To me, he accomplished exactly what you set out to do as a young prospect and a first-round pick, or second round or third round, is he showed his skill set and why we picked him, and he raised some eyebrows and caught the attention of the [hockey operations] people upstairs and coaches, teammates, scouts, media, and that’s what you want to do. You want to be able to come into an NHL rookie and main camp and make people go, ‘Whoa, this guy’s got some game.’ And that’s – I think – exactly what he did.
“And everything else on top of that, getting into a [preseason] game, and us sending him back, whether he could have played in two – another game – and he certainly had an argument to do that. We just felt at this point – partly because of the competition that’s going on, and why we need to look at so many wingers – we just felt like organizationally, it was the best decision to send him back at this point, even though he showed very, very well at camp and he should be proud of what he put on display.”
Those transactions leave the Caps with a training camp roster of 42 players (24 forwards, 14 defensemen and four goaltenders).
The Caps will be halfway through their preseason slate after Sunday’s game, and we still haven’t seen veteran leaders Ovechkin, John Carlson or Tom Wilson in preseason action. Aside from that veteran trio, only defenseman Martin Fehervary has yet to make his preseason debut this fall, and Fehervary is working his way back from offseason knee surgery.
Following Sunday’s game, the Caps travel to Columbus on Tuesday for their final road preseason game, and they’ll finish up with a pair of games at Capital One Arena, Thursday against Boston and Saturday against Columbus.
After dropping their preseason opener to the Rangers a week ago, the Devils have downed the Islanders twice in consecutive meetings since. On Friday night in New York, New Jersey snapped a 1-1 tie with a three-goal outburst in the third period to earn a 4-2 victory.
Last season, the Caps faced the Devils once in the preseason, then opened the season against New Jersey at home. The Caps and Devils played their entire season’s series of four games in October and November, and they haven’t seen one another since last Nov. 30.
