The Washington Capitals had nine players participate in the World Cup of Hockey, including both of their goaltenders, Braden Holtby and Philipp Grubauer, whose touranment teams will be battling it out in the WCH finals. Monday, the Washington Capitals will play their first preseason game of the 2016-17 season against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Their line-up will be sparse on veteran talent.
Only six Caps regulars from last season will be playing: Tom Wilson, Stan Galiev, Daniel Winnik, Jay Beagle, Taylor Chorney, and Brooks Orpik. Lars Eller will also make his Caps debut. Vitek Vanecek will start in goal and be backed up by Drew MacIntyre (no, not this Drew McIntrye).
Caps 2016 first-round pick Lucas Johansen will also be making his pro debut on defense.
A few of the lines that we know will be skating together include Vrana-Eller-Galiev and Wilson-Beagle-Walker.
Also, believe we'll see Vrana-Eller-Galiev line get a lot of time tomorrow against the Hurricanes, who are bringing a pretty good roster.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) September 25, 2016
Walker was skating with Beagle and Wilson today. Looked tiny next to those two giants.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) September 25, 2016
It sounds like by the end of this week, nearly all of the Caps’ big names will be back at training camp.
Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Orlov get a travel day today, then are off Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday figures to be their first day at Caps camp.
— Tarik El-Bashir⌨️🎙🏒 (@TarikNBCS) September 25, 2016
With Backstrom/Sweden out now, too, the #Capitals will have seven of their #WCH2016 participants back by Thursday. #CapitalsTalk
— Tarik El-Bashir⌨️🎙🏒 (@TarikNBCS) September 25, 2016
Headline image: Rob Carr
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