The Washington Capitals continued to prepare for the return to play.
The Washington Capitals held a practice on Thursday with Group Blue taking the ice in the morning while Group Red practiced in the afternoon. The team is gearing up for an intrasquad scrimmage that will take place on Friday which will be streamed on NBC Sports Washington’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Martin Fehervary missed practice yesterday but was back on the ice today. Ilya Samsonov remains out and he’s missed ice time since the start of training camp. Teams aren’t allowed to disclose reasons why a player is absent so who knows what’s up with him.
The Caps also worked on their power play and per Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic, here’s how they’ll line up.
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First unit: Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov, John Carlson
Second unit: Lars Eller, Tom Wilson, Ilya Kovalchuk, Jakub Vrana, Dmitry Orlov
First penalty kill unit: Nic Dowd, Carl Hagelin, Jonas Siegenthaler, Nick Jensen
After practice Wilson, Oshie and Gudas spoke to the media on a Zoom conference call. Sports are on it’s way of coming back and tonight the Washington Nationals will host the New York Yankees for Opening Day. I’m sure many players on the team will be watching and cheering on the Nats after we’ve seen their bromance evolve over the last few years.
“That goes a long way with some people, just to have something to feel normal and watch sports… I want to play. I want to provide people with games to watch,” said Wilson.
As far as the hockey side of things, Wilson talked about the importance of hitting the ground running once they enter the Toronto bubble.
“We just want to get back to the meaningful hockey… that’s what every player wants, to get back into the games that mean a lot,” said Wilson.
Gudas, who was very vocal about the league returning to play, chose to come back to join his teammates for one simple reason.
“We have a chance to win the Cup,” said Gudas.
Gudas felt confident in the protocols that were set in place by the NHL and that he’ll handle whatever role is expected of him on the defense.
Oshie is thrilled that the NHL is returning.
“We grew up playing hockey… I think we found a safe way to do that,” said Oshie.
The Caps will be back on the ice tomorrow for a scrimmage at 4 p.m. As mentioned earlier, you can catch it online and of course keep it locked on Stars and Sticks for more coverage.