Alex Ovechkin looks primed to make his Capitals preseason debut on Thursday night against the Boston Bruins.
Ovechkin was included in a group of 13 forwards preparing for Boston’s visit to Capital One Arena. He’s joined by several of the players on the Capitals’ roster still battling for the very few open roster spots at this year’s training camp.
Ovechkin, 40, has sat out of all four previous exhibition games this fall after missing the beginning of camp due to a lower-body injury. Head coach Spencer Carbery has said he’d prefer his captain get into two games ahead of Opening Night on October 8.
“Is it the end-all, be-all for him to play two exhibition games? No,” Carbery said last week. “But the ideal world is he gets two games before the start of the year.”
Ovechkin played in three preseason games last year, notching two points (1g, 1a). He went on to record 73 points (44g, 29a) in 65 games during his age-39 season, breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record along the way. He’ll come into this season just three goals shy of becoming the first player in NHL history to score 900 career goals.
The home matchup with the Bruins may also be a last chance for players on the fringe of the roster to impress Carbery and the rest of the Capitals’ top brass. Included in that group, among others, are Sonny Milano, Sheldon Rempal, Andrew Cristall, Hendrix Lapierre, Ethen Frank, Ilya Protas, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Eriks Mateiko, and Vincent Iorio.
Milano’s inclusion is particularly encouraging after he missed some practice time this week with an upper-body injury. The 29-year-old winger is tied with Calgary’s Morgan Frost for the NHL lead in preseason scoring with six points (4g, 2a).
The Capitals did not skate on Wednesday, so the line combinations and defense pairings that Carbery deploys will not be known until Thursday, potentially at the team’s morning skate. The Caps are undefeated in this year’s preseason, having gone 4-0 and outscoring their opponents 17-8.
Ahead of Thursday’s contest, the Capitals made five more cuts to their roster. First, they loaned prospect goaltender Garin Bjorklund to the AHL’s Hershey Bears. Later, they waived Bogdan Trineyev, Henrik Rybinski, Graeme Clarke, and Louie Belpedio with the intention of also adding them to Hershey’s roster.
