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Alex Alexeyev, Washington Capitals (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

#2 Defensive pair adjustments

The Caps returned to the ice earlier this week. Although today was just an optional skate at MedStar Capitals Iceplex we can at least get a little bit of a read of what the lineup could look like tonight based on yesterday’s practice. We might get to see the NHL debut of Alex Alexeyev.

Here is what the defensive pairs looked like via JJ Regan of NBC Sports Washington:

Orlov-Carlson
Kempny-TvR
Alexeyev-Irwin

We are missing two big faces on the defense such as Martin Fehervary and Nick Jensen. We are also missing Justin Schultz and Dennis Cholowski. They all are under COVID protocol.

I like Dmitry Orlov and John Carlson on the top pair. I would flip Alex Alexeyev and Michal Kempny’s spots and have Alexeyev next to Trevor Van Riemsdyk and Kempny against Matt Irwin. That is just me.

But either way it’ll be exciting to have Kempny back from the minors even though we all wish the circumstances would be better. He had quite the journey:

"“It’s been crazy. … You don’t know who is going to come positive, who is going to be positive on the other team. It’s a lot.”"

The defense will look to improve and we’ll see if these current pairs work.

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