Caps Take on Canes in Carolina

Coming off the heels of their best all-around game of the 2016 preseason, the Capitals head into the homestretch of this fall's exhibition slate with a pair of games this weekend. Washington finishes off the road portion of its preseason schedule on Friday night in Raleigh against the Carolina Hurricanes.

On Wednesday night in Kansas City, the Caps skated to a convincing 4-2 win over the St. Louis Blues at Sprint Center. The Capitals took the lead before the game was three minutes old, and they never trailed. T.J. Oshie and Christian Thomas each scored twice, and Jay Beagle and Daniel Winnik each had three assists to pace the attack. Philipp Grubauer made 17 saves in goal to earn the victory.

Wednesday's win was Washington's third in a row, and the Caps have permitted a total of four goals in those three contests.

"We haven't given up a lot of chances," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "In the last St. Louis game, we were a little bit loose with the puck in the first period - just too many giveaways and really, just blatant one-on-one giveaways where we need to get that out of our game.

"And I thought the next two periods against St. Louis in Kansas City there, I thought we were by far the best team. We had the puck all the time, we had offensive chances, and they really didn't get a whole lot. From that standpoint, that's what we'd like to build on."

With two games remaining in the preseason, the Caps' goaltending and blueline roster spots are settled and set in stone. Up front though, the Caps still have 18 forwards remaining on the roster. Two of them - Marcus Johansson and Tom Wilson - are nursing minor ailments. Wilson hasn't played since Sept. 26 and Johansson hasn't been in the lineup since Oct. 1.

Rookie forward Zach Sanford appears to have sewn up a spot for himself on the team with a strong camp, and if that's the case, that leaves five other forwards essentially battling for one remaining roster spot.

Four of those five forwards - Paul Carey, Brad Malone, Zach Sill and Stanislav Galiev - will be in the Washington lineup tonight. The other is Thomas, who scored twice in his most recent preseason outing.

"I've got probably five guys for one spot," says Trotz. "That's how I look at it. In my mind, I think I'm pretty well there with everybody else. It's going to be determined by what makes us the best team. I can't wait for guys to show me.

"Some guys on our previous cut in the last couple of days - guys like [Travis] Boyd and [Chandler] Stephenson - they might be better than the guys we have here. But we had to make some decisions based on position, and we did that.

"We have some depth. Whatever decision we have to make tomorrow and the next day, those are the decisions we are going to start the season with. It doesn't mean they're going to be the permanent decisions, but they will be the decisions that we make.

"I like our depth. I think in terms of our team, we have depth in Hershey. I think Hershey is going to have a terrific hockey team. We've got some depth there, and I think the first year [I was here] that was a little lean. We started building that up with some of our kids. Our kids have developed, and now we've got some depth there. I think where we are right now, we feel pretty comfortable that no matter what decision we make, we have some options."

Tonight's game against Carolina marks the second preseason meeting between the two teams. Washington dropped its preseason opener to the Canes on home ice back on Sept. 26 at Verizon Center. The Hurricanes forged a 2-1 overtime win in that game, getting the game-winning goal from Justin Faulk on a power play in the extra session with just a few ticks remaining on the clock.

"We're going to get a real good test tonight," says Trotz of the Hurricanes. "Carolina has their whole team in, basically the whole team that they're going to start [the season] with. It's their last audition if you will, before the season starts, because they're going to start [the season] on the road. So you know they're going to come real hard.

"We're going to have a lineup that's going to be missing quite a few guys, probably eight guys who are going to start the season with us. For the most part, this is going to be a real good test. We're going to have to compete and we're going to have to be real good in terms of our structure and also our competitive level and our details. And if we're not, Carolina is one of those up-and-coming, exciting teams. I bet on them last year that they were going to take a big step forward and I thought they did. They've drafted very well, they're very quick and they made a couple moves in getting guys like [Teuvo] Teravainen and adding a guy like [Bryan] Bickel, even on the fourth line. They're almost clones. They're very quick, they're very skilled and they come at you with a lot of puck pressure."

Washington concludes its 2016 preseason with a Sunday afternoon game against the New York Islanders at Verizon Center. The Capitals will take Monday off, and the Caps and the other 29 NHL clubs must submit their final opening night roster to the league office by 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

Here's how we expect the Capitals to lineup against the Canes in Raleigh on Friday:

Forwards

65-Burakovsky, 92-Kuznetsov, 14-Williams

82-Sanford, 20-Eller, 10-Connolly

26-Winnik, 83-Beagle, 28-Carey

42-Malone, 23-Sill, 16-Galiev

Defensemen

9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen

88-Schmidt, 74-Carlson

55-Ness, 4-Chorney

Goaltenders

70-Holtby

31-Grubauer