The Washington Capitals held their second and final intrasquad scrimmage.
Sunday was another day to get a look at the 2021 Washington Capitals. This intrasquad scrimmage had it all. Before we dive into the game highlights let’s take a look at the lineups for both teams.
Team Red:
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway
Snively-Sgarbossa-Leason
Gersich-Sutter-Pilon
Dillon-Schultz
Siegenthaler-van Riemsdyk
Schilling-LaDue
Samsonov
Team White:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Panik-Eller-Sprong
Shary-Maillet-Carr
Pinho-Lapierre-Clark
Orlov-Carlson
Chara-Jensen
Johansen-Fehervary
Anderson
Vanecek
Copley
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The first period was scoreless but Ilya Samsonov shined for Team Red stopping everything in his sight. Craig Anderson, who was signed to a PTO, also came to play on Sunday afternoon.
Team White got things started early in the second period with Zdeno Chara scoring on a shot from way downtown. Team Red would not go down quietly. Evgeny Kuznetsov tied it beating Pheonix Copley.
After Team White retook the lead on a goal from T.J. Oshie, it was the captain Alex Ovechkin who would put the game away. He connected with Nicklas Backstrom and scored to seal the win for Team White 3-1.
Peter Laviolette wasn’t taking in this scrimmage from behind the bench but rather from the bleachers at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. He wanted a different vantage point to evaluate his players. He had to make roster cuts as rosters have to be set and submitted by Tuesday. The team will depart Wednesday for Buffalo where they’ll open their season Thursday night against the Sabres.
And the perfect way to wrap up our scrimmage season...@backstrom19 to @ovi8 to the back of the net.
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 10, 2021
Feels good. Feels real good.#ALLCAPS | @LeidosInc pic.twitter.com/IUK3pkunsX
Laviolette is high on Martin Fehervary as a good candidate for the taxi squad. He values the taxi squad as an integral part of the team.
Laviolette said via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required):
"“There are going to be things that come up, and we will need a deep roster, deep squad, and while not everybody is getting a crack in the first group, there will be guys in the second group playing games for us this year”"
Another player likely to be on the taxi squad is Connor McMichael. He can’t join the team prior to their trip to Buffalo however as he is still in quarantine after playing in the World Juniors for Team Canada. If McMichael doesn’t make the taxi squad he will likely get playing time in Hershey.
One player that had a couple good looks in the scrimmage was Jakub Vrana but he just couldn’t find the back of the net. He hopes to be an impact player this season and like the rest of the team, move on from the last two postseasons.