September 30 vs. Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena
Time: 7 p.m.
TV: Monumental Network
Radio: TEAM 980, Capitals Radio 24/7
Detroit Red Wings (1-1-0)
Washington Capitals (1-0-1)
Two nights after they met for an exhibition game in the District, the Caps and Red Wings will tangle again on Saturday night, but this time the scene shifts to the Motor City. The Caps took a 4-3 victory on Thursday in the opening game of the home-and-home set.
By Saturday night’s end, the Caps will be halfway through their six-game preseason slate.
Thursday’s game between Detroit and Washington was an entertaining affair. The Caps dressed a lineup that was heavy with proven vets, but liberally sprinkled with young prospects as well. Detroit’s roster for Thursday’s game was much more youthful and inexperienced, and those roster scenarios are likely to be reversed on Saturday.
Ex-Caps winger Daniel Sprong started the scoring on Thursday, biting the hand that once fed him to give Detroit the game’s first lead early in the second period. Washington scored the next four goals to take a commanding 4-1 lead into the final minutes of regulation, but Detroit’s Robby Fabbri made the game much more interesting than the Caps would have liked, scoring twice in the last 184 seconds of regulation and getting a golden opportunity for a third goal with just under 10 seconds remaining. A Charlie Lindgren glove save on Fabbri’s shot from the slot with 5.8 seconds remaining sealed the victory for the Caps.
“We fought to the end,” says Fabbri. “That’s always huge, to build on moving forward. Thought we played a hard game, we played good. We fell asleep there for about five minutes in the second and they took advantage, but we stuck with it. There were some good positives to take away from this.”
“I appreciated the guys’ push in the end,” says Detroit coach Derek Lalonde. “It’s the preseason, it’s an exhibition. We know this isn’t the same stakes as a regular season game, and our guys pushing back I thought was a good sign.”
Washington’s staff was also pleased with what it saw in Thursday’s game. The veteran Capitals played hard, brought the kids into the fight, and helped nurture them through the game. For three young Caps hopefuls – recent draftees Andrew Cristall and Ivan Miroshnichenko and Swedish import Hardy Haman Aktell – Thursday’s game marked the first time they had ever pulled on a sweater for an NHL exhibition game.
All three acquitted themselves well, with Miroshnichenko picking up a pair of assists and Cristall also collecting a helper. Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery had words of praise for both his veterans and the young players after Thursday’s game.
“They bring a ton of energy,” says Carbery. “And you know what else they do – which is kind of a hidden thing – and you feel it on the bench, is they get the veteran players excited, too, because they’re pulling for them. They go back and I’m sure remember in their heads when they were that age and just coming up, and they were nervous, and everything was coming at them all at once.
“And so it takes them back to those moments when they came up, and they’re all rooting for them and going, ‘Come on, big shift!’ for Miro and Andrew. I love that. I love seeing our guys rally around them, and in their first experience of going through this, of enjoying it.”
Washington’s lineup for Saturday’s game will be markedly different, and it’s likely to feature several of the players who suited up for the Caps’ preseason opener against Buffalo this past Sunday, a 4-3 shootout loss.
Competition for a temporary opening on the Washington blueline also heated up in Thursday’s game, given that the four frontrunners for the spot created by Joel Edmundson’s upper body injury were all in the lineup. You can probably expect to see a couple of those four defensemen – Alex Alexeyev, Hardy Haman Aktell, Vincent Iorio and Lucas Johansen – on Saturday night in Detroit, as well. Carbery discussed the quartet’s Thursday performance following Friday’s on-ice training camp sessions.
“I thought it was mixed,” says Carbery. “I thought there were good moments for all of them. I actually have been impressed – if I was to sort of highlight [one guy] – with [John Carlson]. Carly was really strong [Thursday] night.
“But in terms of those [four] guys [competing for a job],” begins Carbery, “I thought Lucas – and now having watched him and having coached him for three years – he’s made some strides, and he’s been impressive thus far. He has grown significantly as a player, and the first couple of games have shown that. I saw a bunch of different instances of that [Thursday] night.
“And I thought Iorio, him and Haman Aktell, there were moments where I liked what they did – whether it was with the puck or coverage-wise – and then some other instances whether it was a puck decision here or there or defending a certain situation, it could have been a little bit better.
“Al [Alexeyev], as well through camp, I thought he has been solid. If I were to point out one area of his game where I’ve specifically seen growth – and I sort of touched on it [Thursday] – is he has eliminated some of those big mistakes. And that, for a young defenseman, usually you’ll see that once or twice a game, whether it’s a puck decision or they get beat off the rush wide or a big miss coverage-wise. There’s not many of those – or I haven’t seen them at least from him – at all. So he’s been reliable, he’s been solid.”
After Saturday’s contest in the Motor City, the Caps will play in Boston on Tuesday and in Columbus on Thursday. Washington plays its preseason finale on home ice a week from Saturday when it hosts the Blue Jackets at Capital One Arena.
