The Washington Capitals continued to practice on Thursday morning and joining the group included Alex Alexeyev, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Aliaksei Prots, Garrett Roe, Brendan Trineyev and Jakub Vrana. Anthony Mantha was there as well and expect the crowd to pick up more after the holiday weekend per Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network.
The #Caps informal skate is getting bigger. Newcomers Chychrun and Raddysh were on the ice this morning, joining a group that also included Alexeyev, Dubois, Iorio, Limoges, Protas, Roe, Roy, Strome, Trinevey, Thompson and Vrana. Mantha was here, too. Expect the crowd to grow *a… pic.twitter.com/U37K2iUNii
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) August 29, 2024
In other news the Hershey Bears Calder Cup celebrations are getting bigger.
A picture worth a thousand words 🤩 pic.twitter.com/UB7Lp4K8Ze
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) August 29, 2024
In sad news, Martin Fehervary withdrew from competition yesterday from Slovakia's roster for the Olympic qualifyer due to injury, per Tom Gulitti of NHL.com.
Now back to happier news as the Caps recently announced a CityCenterTakeover. Here's more on what that means per Cory Frank, the Director of Sales at Design Foundry:
"We're absolutely thrilled to be part of the Capitals' 50th anniversary celebration right here in DC. Bringing fresh, energetic designs to Palmer Alley is something we love to do, and partnering with the Caps to spread the season's excitement across the city is a dream come true."Cory Frank
The launch of the takeover is timed in conjunction with the Capitals 2024-25 season. The Capitals regular season begins at home on Saturday Oct. 12 against the New Jersey Devils and right before the game fans are encouraged to vist Palmer Alley as part of their game day routine ahead of the Caps preseason schedule which begins in September.
In addition, the Caps also have several home games in November ahead of the intallation's completion date on Nov. 11. We are just Brooks Orpik days away from the season beginning.
4️⃣4️⃣ days from puck drop#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/lFIQSSHk8i
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) August 29, 2024
Orpik who his teammates call Batya appeared in 64 playoff games as a member fo the Caps helping the club to their first ever Stanley Cup in 2018 including the game winning goal in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
In other fun Caps facts, drafted at 249th overall in the 1994 NHL Draft, Richard Zednik played in 289 games across seven seasons with the Caps. And of course we know Alex Ovechkin is inching closer to returning to training camp which is in a couple of weeks. It's exciting times ahead.
Now back to informal skates, per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News
"Raddysh was in high spirits as he showed off his shot and tenacity while also making good plays during the session."Sammi Silber/The Hockey News
Players would kick off the informal skate with routine skating and shootiing before a longer scrimmage.