Vitek Vanecek has officially made the Capitals and 2020-21 will be his rookie season in the NHL.
Two of Vaneck’s close friends in the organization, Jakub Vrana and Ilya Samsonov, congratulated their fellow Hershey Bears alum on Instagram Monday night with two huggy photos.
By Eliza Kravitz 2 years ago
Hockey is back — even if things feel a little different. In the before-times, Capitals practices were open to the general public: to watch, cheer, get autographs, and maybe catch a stray puck. But even as the team announced their training camp at the beginning of the year, they included a reminder that camp would be closed to the public this season, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
By Elizabeth Kong 2 years ago
The Washington Capitals placed nine players on waivers and cut six others from their training camp roster on Monday.
Those moves, including the optioning of defenseman Martin Fehervary to Hershey and the disappearance of veteran goaltender Craig Anderson, put the Capitals’ roster at its 23-man limit.
After the Capitals’ second scrimmage on Sunday, head coach Peter Laviolette promised some cuts to the team’s training camp roster. After notifying players last night, those decisions were announced Monday morning.
The Washington Capitals cut six players and either loaned or re-assigned them to their junior or minor league hockey teams. Meanwhile, the Capitals called Axel Jonsson-Fjallby back from Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan and are assigning him to Hershey.
The cuts leave the Capitals with 34 players on their training camp roster which includes five goalies.
By Ian Oland 2 years ago
Evgeny Kuznetsov was shuffled to the second line after the first scrimmage and his opening period of Scrimmage No. 2 did not get rave reviews. On one play, Kuznetsov got fancy on a breakaway and did not get a shot off. During another shift, Kuzy was wide open and faked a slapshot, before muddling a scoring chance away. Ken Sabourin of Capitals Radio criticized Kuzy for not being aggressive enough offensively – a challenge the Chelyabinsk native has struggled with at times during his career.
As the second period unfolded, the Capitals Radio team pointed out that Kuzy did not take the ice for the first nine minutes — perhaps a benching or perhaps some line shuffling to look at some bubble players. When the Russian center returned for the final half of the game, he was a noticeably different player.
For instance, he scored on a breakaway with a slapshot.
The Washington Capitals are playing their second intrasquad scrimmage of 2021 training camp. The game is streaming NBC Sports Washington’s Facebook page.
You can watch it below.
After the day off on Friday, the Capitals have reconvened this morning at Medstar Capitals Iceplex with some changes.
For starters, Hershey stud Daniel Sprong has joined Group A to take shifts on the third line. Also, Ovechkin and Backstrom are reunited.
By Peter Hassett 2 years ago
On Monday morning, Peter Laviolette took the ice for the first time as head coach of the Washington Capitals.
Wearing his blue Capitals sweatsuit, Warrior gloves, and a black athletic mask, Laviolette wasted little time before debuting the first lines of the 2021. These lines could be pretty close to what we will see on opening night.
By Ian Oland and Peter Hassett 2 years ago
The Washington Capitals held their first day of training camp on Sunday. Nearly every player on the team’s roster was present except for the quarantining Zdeno Chara, who the Capitals signed to a one-year contract on Thursday.
The Capitals conducted physicals with players and also fulfilled obligations for media, including taking bio photos and gathering b roll footage for next season.
It gave us a first look at our boys in Capitals uniforms for the first time in the new year.
