The Washington Post reported in November that the Washington Capitals were interested in playing an NHL regular-season game in Russia as soon as next year.

“We’ve talked about different things overseas, and we’ve talked about some in Russia or some in Sweden,” Capitals President Dick Patrick said to The Washington Post then. “We’re not sure; it’s a league decision. They’ve talked about China, too, which would be like an exhibition game. I personally wasn’t too intrigued with that. I think it is just too hard on players during training camp. It could happen next year or the year after. If we are going to do it, it would probably be one of those years.”

Tuesday, Elliotte Friedman reported that the Capitals will not play a game in Russia next season, but the NHL is still exploring the possibility of having the Capitals and Blues play there during the 2021-22 season

Looking into reports the NHL was considering games in Russia in 2020-21. No comment from the league, but word is it won’t happen next season — although they will continue to explore possibility for 2021-22. Potential teams: STL/WASH. Hope it happens: would be great showcase

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 28, 2020

The potential teams for a Russian showcase lines up with earlier reporting by Sport-Express’ Igor Eronko, who named the Capitals. Eronko also mentioned a tight turnaround time, which was likely not met to make a game possible for the 2020-21 season.

Told that #ALLCAPS have around a week to settle a regular season game in Russia for next year. Bill Daly confirmed that the nex season's international games calendar the NHL announced still can have some additions

— Igor Eronko (@IgorEronko) November 25, 2019

Eronko later named the St. Louis Blues as the possible opponent for the Capitals.

The Blues

— Igor Eronko (@IgorEronko) November 25, 2019

The Russian national players across both the Capitals and Blues rosters remain unchanged from November, and should they continue under contract with their respective teams, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, forwards Evgeny Kuznetsov, Ivan Barbashev and Blues alternate captain Vladimir Tarasenko, defenseman Dmitry Orlov, and back-up goaltender Ilya Samsonov would all play the showcase in their home country.

“My own belief is, if we’re going to play games in Russia — and we know there’s great interest in our game there — it would most likely be from our standpoint regular-season games with two NHL teams,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said of the potential for the NHL to play games in Russia, when announcing the locations for the 2020-21 Global Series.

Since 2017, at least two regular-season games have been played overseas as part of the NHL Global Series. For the 2019-20 season, the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks played their opening game in the Czech Republic, while the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres played back-to-back regular-season games in Sweden. RMNB was at all three sellout games and can attest to the desire from overseas NHL fans for more games to be showcased at more accessible locations.