Top 3 storylines heading into Capitals preseason action
Washington Capitals training camp is underway. It’s that time of year where everyone is gearing up for the new hockey season. Naturally, there are a ton of storylines heading into the most important Capitals season to date.
The roster will look a lot different one year from now, especially on the defense. Alex Ovechkin is chasing goal scoring history and could slide into the number two spot this year. And finally, the Caps have a competent goaltender.
It’s going to be a fun season filled with lots of ups and downs as the core is now one year older.
#3 Capitals connections
This training camp and preseason you’ll see a ton of connections when it comes to the Caps. Dylan Strome is brand new and looks to fill in the shoes of Nicklas Backstrom as the second line center.
Not only is Dylan participating in this training camp, so is his brother Matthew Strome who signed an AHL deal with the Hershey Bears. Strome is on a one year prove it contract.
Not only that but head coach Peter Laviolette’s son, Peter Laviolette III will also take part in camp after looking good this summer at development camp and the recently completed rookie camp.
#2 New goalies in town
For the first time in years, possibly since the 2018 Cup run, the Caps have some stability in net. At least on paper.
After Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov were unable to prove themselves as the true number one starter, Brian MacLellan looked outside of the organization to fill the hole.
The Caps started free agency with no goalies on their roster. They traded Vitek Vanecek to the New Jersey Devils to move up in the draft. And then they decided to not give Ilya Samsonov a qualifying offer. He’s now on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Good luck to him, those fans are like us but times 10.
The Caps signed Darcy Kuemper to a five year deal and went with Charlie Lindgren to back him up. Lindgren was good whether he played in the NHL or AHL last season. But this year it’ll be his first full NHL season.
As for Kuemper, he helped the Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup last season. Having that on his resume helped him become the highest sought after free agent net minder on the market and MacLellan hit a home run with this signing.
The last two years analyzing two young goalies gave me headaches. But I shouldn’t have much of a headache this year covering Kuemper.
#1 Alex Ovechkin’s historic chase
Alex Ovechkin enters his 18th season in the NHL sitting at 780 goals. Last season he moved into third place all time and including first all time in goal scoring among European players.
Ovechkin, at the time of his contract that he signed last summer, needed to average 33 goals over the next five seasons to catch Wayne Gretzky. In year one of that contract extension, he scored 50.
That now brings the number down to 29 so he needs to average 29 goals over the next four years to break the record of 894 and become the top goal scorer in NHL history.
His 50 goal season was his ninth of his career. And he definitely would’ve had more if there were no lockouts or pandemics. He just turned 37 but he doesn’t want to slow down anytime soon.
Ovechkin is 20 goals away from 800 and 21 away to tie Gordie Howe for second all time. He could easily reach that number this season as long as he stays healthy. Good health up and down the board is paramount to this Capitals team if they want any shot at getting to the playoffs and ending their first round woes.
Must Read. Top 3 burning questions Capitals must answer in preseason. light
Those are our top 3 storylines heading into the preseason. Be sure to come out to MedStar Capitals Iceplex to check out a training camp practice. Today was just skate tests but tomorrow is when the real action begins.