The Washington Capitals open their 2025-26 regular season against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night. With one final day of preparation, head coach Spencer Carbery ran his team through line rushes at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
While the personnel from the end of last season remain nearly the same, Carbery has made some slight tweaks to his projected lineup.
Capitals lines from 10/7 practice
Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin leads the team’s first line, but it appears as if he’ll do so from the right wing instead of his more typical left wing. Ovechkin, a right-handed shot, has played on the right side at several points throughout his career, including spells last season under Carbery.
“It’s kinda like uncomfortable right now, but we’ll see,” Ovechkin said in October last year. “First couple shift was kind of like, ‘Whoa.’ It’s always like I want to go to the left side.”
The benefits of playing on his natural side primarily come on the defensive side of the puck, making it easier for Ovechkin to play pucks along the boards, chip pucks out of the zone, and see more of the ice in front of him. Ovechkin will take on the right-sided role, playing with two players he is very familiar with: his most common linemates from last season, Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas.
Hendrix Lapierre threw a wrench into Carbery’s original plans for his middle-six forward group by having a fantastic preseason, forcing his way back into the third-line center spot that he lost midway through the 2024-25 campaign. He’ll start with veteran winger Anthony Beauvillier and highly-touted rookie Ryan Leonard on his flanks.
“I think it’s a short-term focus for them of just starting the year, especially for Lappy and Leno,” Carbery said Tuesday. “Reliable is the keyword because when you’re reliable to your teammates and to the coaches, you earn more opportunities, and you can play in a lot of different situations. The key thing for them is their decision-making, their positioning, their ability to be strong on pucks, win pucks, get pucks out on the wall, get pucks in, and be able to create some turnovers on the forecheck.
“That’s reliability. Inside of that, their unique skill sets can come to fruition, and that’s Lappy’s ability to use his feet to attack, potentially open up some opportunities off the rush. Leno, same thing, but maybe a little bit more on the inside.”
Connor McMichael started training camp penciled in where Lapierre now resides, but has been moved back to the wing, where he had a breakout 57-point season last year. He’s paired with two familiar faces in Pierre-Luc Dubois and Tom Wilson, reforming a trio that played just over 398 five-on-five minutes together last season.
During those minutes, the Capitals controlled 51.4 percent of the shot attempts, 54.4 percent of the expected goals, 54.9 percent of the scoring chances, and 54.9 percent of the high-danger chances. Despite defensively-tilted zone starts, the Caps also outscored their opponents 27-23 with the three on the ice.
Justin Sourdif will make his Capitals debut on the fourth line with one of Carbery’s favorite combinations from last season, Nic Dowd and Brandon Duhaime. The high-energy group got their first taste of action together in the team’s preseason finale, hoping to form some quick chemistry after Dowd had to miss a large chunk of camp for personal reasons.
Sourdif’s arrival means Sonny Milano will start the year in the press box as a healthy scratch. The healthy scratch will come despite Milano recording six points (4g, 2a) during an impressive preseason.
On defense, the Capitals look nearly identical to how they did last season. Martin Fehervary, returning from his spring knee surgery, will start the season paired with John Carlson on the top pair, a role he saw for 288 five-on-five minutes during 2024-25. Matt Roy, Fehervary’s more common partner last year, will match up with Rasmus Sandin, while Jakob Chychrun and Trevor van Riemsdyk round out one of the top defense corps in the NHL.
Logan Thompson is set to get the first start of the season in net, as Carbery transitions the 28-year-old backstop into more of a number-one goalie role. Thompson and Charlie Lindgren split starts for the majority of last year.
