In Very Important Capitals News, TJ Oshie morphed into TJ DefendTheNetshie during Wednesday’s Training Camp session.
The Capitals’ forward, who has scored the 13th most goals in franchise history, suited up as a fourth-pairing defenseman and took line rushes with Vincent Iorio at the beginning of practice.
Monumental Network’s Tarik El-Bashir reported the lines on X.
#Caps lines, pairs and goalies in Group A:
Ovechkin-McMichael-Miroshnickenko
Snively-Lapierre-NAK
Mantha-Protas-Phillips
Malenstyn-Sgarbossa-LimogesAlexeyev-Jensen
Fehervary-McIrath
Johansen-Haman Aktell
Oshie-IorioLindgren
Shepard
Stevenson— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) October 4, 2023
Oshie was tabbed for the spot after John Carlson, Rasmus Sandin, and Trevor van Riemsdyk did not take the ice for practice. Several players that played last night in Washington’s 5-4 overtime win over the Bruins got the day off from head coach Spencer Carbery including Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Darcy Kuemper.
TJ Oshie joined the Capitals’ blue line for a day, skating with the defensemen at this morning’s practice. (He’s not switching positions, just a one-time thing.) Never too late to try something new, I suppose! pic.twitter.com/diUwNcVUGR
— Katie Adler (@katieEadler) October 4, 2023
Oshie would flip back to forward and do drills with his fellow wingers at the end of the session.
The decision for Carbery was a serious coaching decision. For the first-year head coach, he had compassion for other players battling for roster spots who didn’t play against the Bruins and wanted to get them as much work as possible during practice.
“We’re just trying to get guys reps because it’s a little bit of a difficult day with some guys that didn’t play last night and we’re integrating some guys that did play last night with sort of an eye on tomorrow night and what that lineup looks like,” Spencer Carbery explained to RMNB’s Katie Adler. “So we were just trying to throw it together. The focus today in practice is trying to get the guys that didn’t play last night more reps in every situation we can. Just workload and the guys that played got home at one in the morning and to try and alleviate some of the workload for them today.”
For Oshie, the 36-year-old right wing has now played every position for the Capitals as a skater, showing off a Fedorovian versatility. Oshie, who is good at faceoffs, played center for spells under Peter Laviolette during the previous two seasons. He also wasn’t bad when forced temporarily into a makeshift goaltender.
Headline photo: Katie Adler/RMNB
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