The Washington Capitals practiced for the final time on Saturday before taking off for the bubble in Toronto.
Capitals head coach Todd Reirden held two forwards off the ice, Hershey Bears players’ Shane Gersich and Garrett Pilon, per The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir. They appear to be the team’s final cuts.
It would seem that Gersich and Pilon have been cut as the team gets down to the maximum of 31 players for the bubble. #Caps https://t.co/gTe0QOhFlS
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) July 25, 2020
At the end of practice, Reirden gathered the players together on the ice to make an announcement.
There are 31 players on the ice for the #Caps' final practice this morning. Reirden just pulled together the group and made an announcement to stick taps from the players.
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) July 25, 2020
The Capitals’ final roster will be announced on Sunday, but here’s how it will likely look.
“The way I understand the rules at this point is that we have 52 people that have been submitted and the NHL will release that tomorrow night,” Reirden said after practice.
The lines will also have a very familiar feel from the regular season.
Based on this morning's scrimmage, the #Caps' lines are exactly what we thought they were going to be. (Today, Boyd is skating for Oshie, who is not practicing.) pic.twitter.com/NEiwwLiY17
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) July 18, 2020
Reirden admitted that if Ilya Samsonov would not have gotten injured, the team would have brought four goaltenders to Toronto.
“I would probably say we would have taken four goalies,” Reirden said. “I feel really good about Pheonix Copley and I feel really good about Vitek Vanecek. I want to have them around. That’s the position that you gotta protect yourself in that situation. Unfortunately, we have a player that’s injured. He’s a player that had a big impact on our team this first year and is going to have a big impact on our team for many years to come.”
Headline photo: Cara Bahniuk/RMNB
