Washington Capitals: Preseason Wrap Up

Capitals drop first preseason game to St. Louis Blues

Nobody’s perfect and Washington’s undefeated start to the preseason came to an end on Friday night in St. Louis in both of their final meetings with each other until opening night.

The Capitals got off to a solid start with Travis Boyd pouncing on a turnover in the neutral zone. Boyd dished the puck to Evgeny Kuznetsov and came down the ice to catch a pass on the odd man rush and put a shot past Ville Husso at 3:40 in the opening period.

The Capitals doubled their lead with a goal from Carl Hagelin on an excellent wrist shot off a pass from Lars Eller to go up 2-0 at 10:11.

The Blues got one back late in the first period thanks to Jaden Schwartz. In the second period, the Blues tallied on three unanswered goals to take a 4-2 lead heading into the final period. Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko scored on even strength while Tyler Bozak struck on the power play.

Travis Boyd and Chandler Stephenson both hope to be on the roster for the long term and it’s only fitting that Stephenson would score later in the game for his first of the preseason. Stephenson drove to the net and put the puck through on a deflection shot from Mike Sgarbossa.

That would be as close as the Capitals got as they dropped their first preseason game 4-3. Braden Holtby got the start in goal and played the entire game, stopping 21-of-25 shots for a .840 save percentage.

Capitals defeat Hurricanes in final preseason game

The Washington Capitals bounced back with a big win over the Carolina Hurricanes that had plenty of rivalry flavor between the two foes.

Things got started with Sebastian Aho putting the Hurricanes up early before T.J. Oshie tied it at 7:59 in the first period deflecting in a shot from Chandler Stephenson.

The Capitals got a power play when Andrei Svechknikov was called for interference against Travis Boyd. The Capitals took their first lead of the game with Jakub Vrana at the doorstep burying a nifty pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Oshie notched his second goal of the game on the power play on a two-man, 5-on-3 advantage. Oshie’s one-time rocket from the left side of the net in the face-off zone was just as impressive as the pass Nicklas Backstrom placed cross-ice through traffic right to Oshie’s stick.

Tom Wilson ran into some trouble after he was whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct due to reacting on what was said from the bench. Ironically the chirping didn’t come from a Hurricanes player but rather one of their coaches.

Despite the misconduct by Wilson, it didn’t affect the Capitals one bit in the third period even as the Hurricanes pushed. Vrana added his second goal of the game for good measure with some hustle and a great pass from Stephenson after he couldn’t finish the breakaway.

The Capitals hung on for a 4-3 win to end their preseason with a 5-1 record. Holtby stopped 28-of-31 shots for a .903 save percentage.

On Monday shortly after noon, the team placed Christian Djoos, Liam O’Brien and Mike Sgarbossa on waivers while re-assigning Shane Gersich to the Hershey Bears. The team currently has 25 players on their roster as of this publishing so more moves could be made between now and tomorrow before the 5 p.m. roster submission deadline.