The Washington Capitals held their first line rushes of training camp on Friday morning which included right-wing Connor Brown appearing on the top line and center Dylan Strome starting on the left wing below captain Alex Ovechkin. Center Connor McMichael slid in at second-line center.
One surprise was seeing left-wing Conor Sheary on the fourth line and Marcus Johansson taking Sheary’s usual spot.
Left-wings Joe Snively and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby served as the extras.
The defense did not shake up much from last year. As expected, newly signed lefty Erik Gustafsson got a look in the top-six and Gabriel Carlsson and Matt Irwin were the extras.
Full lines:
First lines/pairs/goalie tandem of #Caps training camp:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Brown
Strome-McMichael-Mantha (Snively) Johansson-Eller-Oshie
Sheary (AJF)-Dowd-HathawayFehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
Gustafson-TvR
Carlsson-IrwinKuemper
Lindgren— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) September 23, 2022
The Capitals’ first preseason game is on Sunday against the Buffalo Sabres (2 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington locally, NHL Network nationally). However, do not expect a lot of regulars to suit up until later in the preseason.
The Caps took the ice for their first full practice of training camp this morning providing a glimpse into where the new pieces will fit into the lineup. #ALLCAPS | @PedigreeUS pic.twitter.com/fo5ZLgUQkp
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) September 23, 2022
By Harrison Brown
It’s interesting Laviolette gets right to the assessment, where coaches like Trotz worked their way through camp before assessing line combinations.
He could be seeing if Mcmichael is ready for a bigger role and Mac did say he preferred him at Center. The flexibility with Strome also helps and Lavy did say he likes having 5 centers in the lineup at once.
Absolutely. It appears he (Laviolette) isn’t wasting any time.
Long way to go, but somewhat telling.
Let’s go! It was interesting in the Thursday pressers that Strome was specifically tagged as playing Center or Wing. Now we know what that means in that they are going to give CMM lots of Center looks which is a great thing. Win that spot baby! But there is a long ways to go and a lot of combos to evaluate!
MoJo, Mantha, Eller, and Carlson. I want to see them produce, prove that they deserve to be in the lineup. As Bolts’ GM BriseBois said, we want players to win a spot not just get it by default. Lavi kept saying that same thing about the goalie position last year and no one stepped up. If those 4 are going to stick around, I want to see them earn their spots.
I am with you. They are all frustrating for their own reasons. I would maybe say it differently in that I would like to see them earn their Salary.
If we hid salary cap hit, they would still still be in our top 12 (except maybe mojo). But good lord, we are underwater in value we get from JC74 and Mantha. Eller is still decent value at 3.5M although he was below value last year. He needs to be traded for different reasons which I believe we all agree on. Hopefully Strome, CMM, Protas, and Lapierre make Eller expendable so we can get some good value for him with an in-season trade.
Absolutely. I’m not saying that they are terrible players. I was considering roster spot, hindering prospects, potential replacements, and salary (and cap space) not just performance. They all have to be considered when we consider a player. Each might be a good fit for a different team. But we have specific needs and I want to see that they fill them. If not, we move on.
Agreed! Also have to consider how easy it is to move players and what value you can get for them or what you have to pay to move out salary. I think we’ll see some interesting trade patterns for Caps this season as they find value to move players at different times.
Gotta think 3c is Connor McMichaels to lose.