After making his Capitals’ training camp debut on Tuesday afternoon, Zdeno Chara took the ice with the Capitals’ first group — essentially a very close version of the Caps opening night roster — Wednesday morning.
Chara’s signing was intriguing last week, not only because no one believed he would leave the Bruins this late in his career, but because it was not clear where he’d fit in Washington’s plans this season. Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette revealed his plans for The Big Z minutes into practice.
Via The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell, Chara will start his 23rd season as a third-pairing defenseman with Nick Jensen. Dmitry Orlov and John Carlson remain on the top pairing while Brenden Dillon and Justin Schultz will man the second.
Wednesday Capitals lines:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Vrana-Backstrom-Oshie
Sheary-Eller-Panik
Hagelin-Dowd-HathawayOrlov-Carlson
Dillon-Schultz
Chara-Jensen
Siegenthaler-TvRSamsonov
Anderson— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) January 6, 2021
To make room for the 43-year-old Chara on the team’s first group, standout rookie defenseman Martin Fehervary was sent to the second. Craig Anderson also replaced Vitek Vanecek as the backup in net.
As Chara first took the ice at 9:30 AM this morning, he had a long conversation with Norris Trophy finalist John Carlson. The two skated together and talked shop before splitting up into pairs.
Chara and Carlson having a long pre-practice chat. #Caps pic.twitter.com/L6FPcU7hBp
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) January 6, 2021
Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB
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