3 bold predictions heading into Capitals preseason

#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.