3 bold predictions heading into Capitals preseason

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After a day full of skate tests on the opening day of training camp, the Washington Capitals took part in a for real practice today and some even participated in a scrimmage.

We’re getting closer and closer to the start of the regular season but first the Caps will have six preseason games. That exhibition slate starts this Sunday afternoon against the Buffalo Sabres from Capital One Arena.

We’ve looked at storylines, we’ve looked at burning questions and now it’s time to make some bold predictions.

Slapshot, Washington Capitals (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust) /

#3 Caps will go 3-2-1 in the preseason

We’ll start off our bold predictions by predicting game by game results for the Capitals. This part of the bold predictions is just for fun as we don’t know what the rosters will look like for each game and who’s playing in what particular game.

That’s the fun about the preseason as the roster changes each game as more cuts are made to determine the final opening night roster.

Alrighty let’s do this. The first game against Buffalo will be a win. The Caps will fall to the Philadelphia Flyers in regulation and the Detroit Red Wings in overtime. They’ll rebound with a win over the Columbus Blue Jackets and Red Wings before falling to the Blue Jackets in the preseason finale.

Connor McMichael, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports /

#2 Connor McMichael will get a center role

Connor McMichael will finally get a center role this season but not where we initially thought he would be. If you’ve been following Stars and Sticks throughout the offseason you know that I initially predicted Lars Eller would be the odd man out while McMichael is ready to slot in there.

When the Caps rolled out their lines in practice, they went with this on the forward front today:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Brown
Strome-McMichael-Mantha/Snively
Johansson-Eller-Oshie
Sheary/AJF-Dowd-Hathaway

I didn’t read too much into this since it was just the first practice and head coach Peter Laviolette even called these lines a “starting point”.

That means Strome and McMichael will switch places. Strome will move to center while McMichael will play left wing. But I think this preseason McMichael will seize the opportunity in front of him.

Like I said, let’s not read too much into this. Conor Sheary was on the fourth line but there will be some different lines at practice tomorrow.

McMichael should be ready for the center role. And over the case of these next six games it’ll be up to him to prove that he is ready to Laviolette. This is a chance for him to be an X factor on the Caps.

#1 Hendrix Lapierre will make the opening night roster once again

For the second year in a row, Hendrix Lapierre will make the opening night roster. The big question will be how healthy the Caps will be as a whole.

If a majority of the team is healthy and it’s only the obvious trio that’s hurt, Lapierre could be a healthy scratch at best. But if someone else goes down, Lapierre gets inserted into the lineup.

I think we’ll actually see Lapierre in a Caps jersey more this season but there will be stretches were he gets sent down to the Hershey Bears to continue to further his development.

How will Lapierre do during the times he’s up? I think he’ll have four goals and nine assists for 13 points. That’s an improvement from last season and he should get a even bigger role on the team one year from now.

Lapierre is an explosive player and a good kid. He has vision on the ice that’s beyond his years and he could play center or wing kind of like McMichael. But centers will be mostly occupied so we’ll probably see Lapierre on the wing.

Must Read. Top 3 storylines heading into Capitals preseason action. light

Those are our bold predictions for the preseason. We’ll have more bold predictions when it gets closer to the regular season.

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