Washington Capitals’ Day 9 Training Camp Roundup: Washington Puts Projected Opening Night Roster On The Ice On Sunday

The Washington Capitals‘ returned to the ice on Sunday morning after having Saturday off and for the first time since their 5-1 blowout loss to Carolina on Friday night in Raleigh. Here are all of the news from Sunday’s training camp sessions:

The Capitals now have two practice groups after lots of roster cuts the past few days. The first of which is the team’s projected lineup when they take the ice next week against the Boston Bruins in the home opener. The second group featured a lot of prospects and rookies, which could turn out to be most of the Hershey Bears lineup.

If you want a pretty good idea of Capitals’ Opening Night roster, check out the Red Group at today’s practice: pic.twitter.com/2p8U9cvp2y

— Chris Kuc (@ChrisKuc) September 23, 2018

The team cut goaltenders Parker Milner and Adam Morrison last night and sent them to Hershey.

Capitals’ center Nic Dowd practiced on the fourth line today but head coach Todd Reirden told reporters that the fourth-line center spot will change from day-to-day and that someone else will be in that spot tomorrow. Other possible candidates for that spot include Jayson Megna and Travis Boyd.

Reirden on Dowd practicing on the fourth line today: “I still think it’s a competition. The lines will be different tomorrow. We just wanted to do a particular practice that involved that group of more veteran roster guys, it’s still definitely a full-on competition.”

— JJ Regan (@JJReganNBCS) September 23, 2018

Reirden also told reporters that he was happy with the play of the veterans but wasn’t impressed with the play of some of the “prospects and fringe guys.”

Reirden said he’s been mostly happy with his veterans this preseason. The disappointment for him is in the prospects/fringe guys who’ve had opportunities and haven’t taken them yet.

— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) September 23, 2018

Capitals’ forward Devante Smith-Pelly, who has missed every Capitals’ preseason game, worked out off of the ice during the team’s off day yesterday to get ready for game action. Reirden said he will decide tomorrow whether he’ll put him in the lineup on Tuesday night when the Capitals visit the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center for their next preseason game.

Forward Sergei Shumakov, who arrived late dealing with visa issues, took his skate test on Sunday morning. Shumakov made his Capitals’ debut in the team’s 5-1 loss to the Hurricanes on Friday.