Capitals end preseason road trip in Columbus

The Washington Capitals are back in action today against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the final road game of the preseason. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. You can watch the game online at WashCaps.com or listen on the radio at Capitals Radio 24/7.

The Capitals are coming off two straight wins including last night 2-0 over the Detroit Red Wings. Darcy Kuemper had nine saves while Charlie Lindgren had 10 and the goals were provided by John Carlson and Lars Eller.

Let’s take a look at the roster for tonight’s game:

Forwards
Henrik Borgstrom
Garnet Hathaway
Connor McMichael
Nic Dowd
Connor Brown
Hendrix Lapierre
Anthony Mantha
Garrett Pilon
Beck Malenstyn
Brett Leason
Aliaksei Protas
Conor Sheary
Marcus Johansson

Defensemen
Dmitry Orlov
Gabriel Carlsson
Dylan McIlrath
Vincent Iorio
Matt Irwin
Erik Gustafsson
Trevor van Riemsdyk

Goaltenders
Zach Fucale
Charlie Lindgren

As you can see most of the varsity starters are not in the lineup which makes total sense considering that they played last night. You don’t want to exhaust veterans like Alex Ovechkin by playing two nights in a row in games that don’t count in the standings.

Tonight we’ll see some prospects like Hendrix Lapierre and Aliaksei Protas as they continue to make their case for the final spots on the opening night roster.

A friendly reminder, teams have to shorten their roster to a maximum of 23 in time for opening night.

We’re halfway through the preseason folks. After tonight’s game the Caps return home for two more games. First up it’ll be the Red Wings once again on Wednesday night. Then the Caps and Blue Jackets will meet each other in the preseason finale one week from today.

Buckle up Caps fans, hockey season when the games count again will be here before we know it. They’ll open the season at home against the Boston Bruins.