Sept. 20 vs. Boston Bruins at TD Garden
Time: 5:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT2
Radio: NHL app, Caps Radio Network
Washington Capitals (43-30-9)
Boston Bruins (45-27-10)
For the second straight autumn, the Caps will head up to Boston to break the seal on their preseason slate. This Sunday afternoon, the Caps and Bruins battle at TD Garden in the first of a trimmed-down set of four preseason matches for both sides. The two Eastern Conference rivals will have an exhibition rematch this Friday at Capital One Arena.
The Caps have successful navigated the first three days of training camp, which puts them nearly a quarter of the way through their newly truncated 13-day camp. Now they’ll wade into the preseason waters on Sunday with a representative roster that includes six of the team’s likely top dozen forwards and four of its top six defensemen.
Washington has typically played half a dozen preseason games in recent Septembers, but it logged seven tuneup tilts as recently as 2018-19 and routinely played eight in the early seasons of this century. This training camp, with a severely shortened slate of games and a seemingly certain idea of what their opening night lineup will look like, the Caps will use the exhibitions and training camp to determine which players occupy the three roster spots beyond their opening night lineup.
Washington’s training camp roster of 29 forwards includes 17 who played in the NHL last season. It also includes second-year pro winger Andrew Cristall, who piled up 60 points (20 goals, 40 assists) as a 20-year-old rookie at AHL Hershey last season and who has impressed in each of the last two Caps training camps. The Caps won’t be able to roster more than 14 of those forwards when NHL their opening night roster is submitted to the League offices by the 5 p.m. ET deadline on Sept. 28.
On the blueline, the Caps have eight players who played in the NHL last season. They also have three goaltenders who played and won games in the NHL last season. Several of those players would require waivers to be loaned to Hershey – further complicating roster decisions – and many of the players jockeying for those spots are slated to play in Sunday’s preseason opener.
Forwards Jonny Brodzinski, Josh Dunne, Ivan Miroshnichenko and Bogdan Trineyev are among those headed to Boston on Sunday, and all four among those competing for roster berths. Veteran defensemen Dylan McIlrath and Justin Holl comprise one of Washington’s Sunday blueline pairings, and both are also in the mix for those three roster spots.
Through the first three days of camp, the 33-year-old Brodzinski and the 22-year-old Miroshnichenko – the Caps’ first-round pick (20th overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft – have played together on a line with Ethen Frank, and the trio has skated well together and has looked sharp.
Caps coach Spencer Carbery was pleased with Miroshnichenko’s early work in camp, and he spoke about the young winger after Friday’s session.
“He caught my eye multiple times today,” the coach began. “I thought he had a real good day today in the practice. He is knocking on the door and he’s right there, and this is an important camp, it’s important exhibition games for him to play in to earn a spot. And not only to earn a spot, but I think he wants more than that, which, good on him.
“He wants a role; he wants an opportunity to be in the lineup every night. And I will say that’s challenging with some of the [offseason] additions that we’ve made. He is going to have to jump over a few established NHL players to be in the lineup on opening night or needs a few dominoes to fall his way injury-wise.
“But I’ve liked his attitude. He’s come in, he’s working his butt off in both practices. Hopefully, he can continue to build off that, have some good exhibition games, and continue to show well.”
The Caps haven’t settled on the positional makeup of their three extra roster spots to start the season, and whether they might go with 14 forwards and seven defensemen or 13 up front and eight in the back, as they’ve most done recently. There is even a world in which Washington might roster three goaltenders when its list is submitted a week from Monday.
“I think it would have to depend a little bit on health and injuries in camp,” says Caps senior vice president and general manager Chris Patrick. “But I wouldn’t rule that out as a possibility.
Lynden Lakovic, the Caps’ first-round choice (27th overall) in the 2025 NHL Draft, is also expected to play on Sunday. Lakovic, who turns 20 in December, is turning pro this season. He was limited to just 22 games with WHL Moose Jaw last season because of an upper body injury sustained last November, but he amassed 18 goals and 29 points before undergoing season-ending surgery.
“Lakovic, in development camp and rookie camp and even [Thursday’s opening day of camp] has looked really good,” says Patrick. “It’s going to be fun to see how this camp progresses for him when he gets into some competition here in some exhibition games.
“These are going to be better [exhibition] games than what we’re used to, so it will be good to see him at that level.”
Sunday’s game in Boston is also the front end of a set of back-to-back games to kick off the preseason for the Caps. On Monday, a much different game group will make its way north to Giant Center in Hershey for tilt against the Philadelphia Flyers that evening.
Sunday’s opener is the first of four in six nights for the Bruins, who will host the Flyers on Tuesday night before finishing up the exhibition schedule on the road, at Philly on Thursday and in the District against the Caps on Friday.
The Bruins open their regular season slate three nights before Washington does so; Boston hosts the Rangers on Sept. 29 while the Caps open on the road in Carolina on Oct. 2.
