SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps Morning Skate

Late July Hockey - It doesn't count for anything standings wise, and any stats accrued won't find their way to the back of anyone's hockey card. But the Caps will be back on the ice on Wednesday afternoon in Toronto, taking on the Carolina Hurricanes in an exhibition game leading up to a modified and delayed NHL postseason.

Wednesday's game is the only dress rehearsal for both teams; the Stanley Cup playoffs essentially get underway on Saturday when the Canes face the Rangers at high noon in the opener of a best-of-five "play-in" series. As one of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference during the truncated 2019-20 regular season, the Caps don't have to deal with the possibility of a quick elimination; they'll start a round robin set with Tampa Bay, Philadelphia and Boston, respectively, on Monday. The outcomes of those contests will determine seeding once the overall field has been whittled from 24 to 16 teams.

Winding Down And Tuning Up - Once they get past Wednesday's game against Carolina, the Caps have a few more practice days and an off day (on Friday) before Monday's round robin opener against the Lightning. The Caps started this unique training camp on July 13 in Arlington, and its length is similar to typical September training camps. But length aside, this camp is vastly different from those annual September exercises.

There are no jobs available, teams invited roughly half the number of players they'd have at a September camp, and instead of scheduling six or seven exhibition games, teams will play only one. This camp is not about getting ready for the marathon of an 82-game regular season over six months, it's designed to prepare players for a two-month sprint to a championship.

"There has been lots of stuff that's different than a normal training camp," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "The positives to it have been the limited number of players that have been around, and now you're able to get right at things, and have a team that is - for the most part - comfortable with the drill sets we use, and we've added one new one probably every day at least. But they are guys who know what is expected of them; [they're] a little bit more polished professionals.

"So there has definitely been a different feel to it, in terms of managing practice and making sure that you're properly pushing them, but also putting them in a situation where they're not compromised injury-wise. For us, the two keys that we wanted to get through that phase before arriving here in Toronto was we wanted to be safe and have no positive tests, and secondly, we wanted to be here and when we got here we wanted to be healthy, and that's how we arrived here in Toronto. And that's been the biggest goal for us.

"Now, we'll continue to manage our ice time and our practice times to challenge our guys and get them prepared for obviously this afternoon's exhibition game, and then ultimately start ramping up even further for the round robins, and then be able to take our game to the next level when we get into an actual round one of playoff hockey."

Extra, Extra - Each of the 24 teams participating in the play-in round and the round robin is permitted to carry as many as 31 players, eight more bodies than clubs would normally be allowed to have on the roster. Each team also plays one exhibition game, and will be permitted to dress an extra forward and an extra defenseman for that lone tune-up tilt.

Reirden has opted to go with Travis Boyd as his 13th forward and Radko Gudas as his seventh defenseman for Wednesday's game against Carolina.

"I was happy when they decided to allow us to have an extra forward and an extra D to play in this game," says Reirden. "With the situations that can occur and that we know are out there, you need to everybody ready on your team and you have a chance to include another guy that's had a really good camp in this situation."

Boyd is almost certain to see action at some point in August, as center Lars Eller will leave the team briefly at some point for the birth of his second child. Gudas suited up for 63 of Washington's 69 regular season games, but he sat out each of the last three games and four of the last five after the Caps added blueliner Brenden Dillon in a February deal with San Jose.

"Both had strong camps," Reirden says of Boyd and Gudas. "We know there are going to be some injuries or the possibility of having some [COVID] testing - maybe not positive tests, but sometimes test results not coming back - and there are lots of things at play here going on behind the scenes that you have to have a number of people prepared for any possible scenario that can com their way.

"So that's what we're going to do today. I think that will allow us to get some game experience, keeping in mind it's been a long time since we played a real game, and especially in this environment."

In The Nets - Braden Holtby gets the net for Washington today, and he is likely to play the first 40 minutes before yielding to Vitek Vanecek in the third. Caps goaltender Ilya Samsonov is injured and out for the duration of the playoffs, so it's up to Holtby, Vanecek and Pheonix Copley to man the crease for Washington.

Petr Mrazek is the likely starter for Carolina.

All Lined Up - Here is a guess at how we believe the two sides might line up for this afternoon's game:

Washington forwards

8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson

13-Vrana, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie

62-Hagelin, 20-Eller, 17-Kovalchuk

14-Panik, 26-Dowd, 21-Hathaway

72-Boyd

Washington defense

6-Kempny, 74-Carlson

4-Dillon, 9-Orlov

34-Siegenthaler, 3-Jensen

33-Gudas

Washington goaltenders

70-Holtby

41-Vanecek

Carolina forwards

37-Svechnikov, 20-Aho, 86-Teravainen

21-Niederreiter, 21-Trocheck, 13-Foegele

18-Dzingel, 11-Staal, 14-Williams

23-McGinn, 45-Geekie, 48-Martinook

78-Lorentz

Carolina defense

74-Slavin, 45-Vatanen

76-Skjei, 6-Edmundson

51-Gardiner, 57-van Riemsdyk

4-Fleury

Carolina goaltenders

34-Mrazek

47-Reimer