Washington Capitals hockey is sort of back.
With every NHL team having to navigate a challenge of a shortened training camp and no preseason games, every team is evaluating their players through intrasquad scrimmages. For the Washington Capitals, they held their first one yesterday one week before they open the season in Buffalo.
The Caps are off on Friday and will hold a practice on Saturday before their second and final intrasquad scrimmage on Sunday afternoon. They played for two periods 20 minute periods and did a good job splitting the teams up.
Before we go over the highlights from the scrimmage, let’s see how Team Red and Team White were assembled.
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Team Red:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Sheary-Eller-Panik
Carr-Pinho-Sprong
Maillet-Lapierre-Leason
Orlov-Carlson
Chara-Jensen
Johansen-Fehervary
Samsonov
Anderson
Fucale
Team White:
Vrana-Backstrom-Oshie
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway
Snively-Sgarbossa-Pilon
Gersich-Sutter-Clark
Dillon-Schultz
Siegenthaler-van Riemsdyk
Schilling-LaDue
Vanecek
Copley
The first period was scoreless until Cameron Schilling broke through for Team White. Schilling’s shot went right up the middle. Team White led 1-0 at the first intermission.
Team White doubled their lead early in the second period. After Garnet Hathaway‘s shot was blocked, Trevor van Riemsdyk got the rebound and put it in past Craig Anderson.
Team White made it 3-0 when the pride of Herndon, VA Joe Snively finished off a breakaway. Snively was signed by the Caps back in March of 2019 and being a local guy that lives near Herndon, I was very excited about the signing.
Team White wasn’t done yet. A scatter in front of the net allowed T.J. Oshie to poke the puck through the net. We all love Oshie goals it just wasn’t the same with no “Country Roads” playing on the speakers. 4-0 Team White would be the final.
The Osh-Babe finishes off our the #ALLCAPS Scrimmage in style. 🍩
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 7, 2021
4-0 win for Team White, Vanecek and Copley with the shared shutout.#ALLCAPS | @LeidosInc pic.twitter.com/pNeEaZwtYF
Ilya Samsonov let one goal in from Schilling while Anderson surrendered three goals in the second period. Vitek Vanecek played well in the scrimmage and he hopes to get his first crack at NHL action soon. There might be a good opportunity for him with the backup job still open.
Peter Laviolette said on the young goaltender via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required):
"“I thought he was good. We were talking about it. He was actually tested a few times, I thought, and he did well. . . . The training camp’s so short, and not having the exhibition season that we usually have, it makes it a little bit more challenging, but we’re giving everybody a good look.”"
The coaches and staff will continue to get a good look at the guys when practice resumes tomorrow and during the second intrasquad scrimmage on Sunday.