The Washington Capitals were on ice at MedStar on Monday ahead of their 6:00 p.m. matchup tomorrow night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. With a full practice session on a non-game day, the Caps got to take advantage of about 90 minutes of ice time, with some players sticking around before and after for individual work.

A good number of skaters out early at MedStar for practice. Protas was the first skater out, joined by the goalies.@NoVa_Caps #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/FhAbujA3G7

— KMack Sports (@KMackSports) October 23, 2023

In injury news, Charlie Lindgren was on ice early for some individual skills work, but did not take part in the full practice. Darcy Kuemper and Clay Stevenson appear to be the active pair for tomorrow night. Nic Dowd did not practice.

The line combinations appeared to be mostly the same, with the only changes coming to the defensive pairings. It looked like the coaches were cycling through some guys on the special teamsdrills, perhaps to mix up the looks in front of the goaltenders.

#Caps lines, pairs and goalies on Monday:

Ovechkin-Strome-Phillips
McMichael-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Milano-Backstrom-Wilson
Malenstyn-Protas-Mantha

Fehervary-Carlson
Sandin-TvR
Alexeyev-Jensen
Haman Aktell-Johansen

Kuemper
Stevenson

*No Dowd or Lindgren
*D-pairs are different

— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) October 23, 2023

The point of emphasis for today’s practice seemed to boil down to one thing: speed. The first team drill during the full practice involved stretch passes from the defensive to offensive blue lines. This was followed by a drill that began with a quick backcheck and pushing the pace up the wings to break out.

By pushing quickly into the offensive zone, the Caps wingers stretched the defense laterally, camping their defensemen at the line to keep passing lanes open. Each line appeared to have at least one speedster to establish quick pressure as the puck-carrier on breakouts.

Really interesting drill here: looks to be focusing on generating offense from below the goal line. Matthew Phillips scored on a pretty deke.@NoVa_Caps #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/mnoCExv6bI

— KMack Sports (@KMackSports) October 23, 2023

Eventually, the Caps transitioned to power play drills, once again making clean zone entries a point of emphasis. Generating traffic in front and focusing on their communication created lots of chances in tight toward the net.

Now comes the biggest news of the day: the Sonny Milano Chia Pet made an appearance. The media team was doing photo shoots for different promotional items to be given out throughout the year, and Sonny Milano did a sit-down interview with Alexa Landestoy. I tried to see if I could sneak a picture of the Chia Pet, but no dice. For those that have seen the full-size Chia Pets in the past, it’s probably about half that size, but sure to still be a crowd-pleaser.

Some shots from today’s @Capitals practice at MedStar.@NoVa_Caps #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/2SZXiNrqJ6

— KMack Sports (@KMackSports) October 23, 2023

The @MapleLeafs got their ice time in at MedStar this afternoon. They face off against the @Capitals tomorrow night at 6:00pm in DC.@NoVa_Caps #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/CLOijXAkCr

— KMack Sports (@KMackSports) October 23, 2023

By Kevin McNelis