Andrew Cristall and more are looking to show Spencer Carbery they can play on that third line full-time for the Capitals.
The Washington Capitals have used training camp and the preseason to experiment with their line combinations, and though the majority of Spencer Carbery's trios have proven to work well together thus far, there are still questions regarding one in particular.
On the top 6, Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome and Andrew Mangiapane have proven to work well on the top line, while Connor McMichael, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Tom Wilson have formed chemistry on the second line.
Then, on the bottom 6, the fourth line — though it is much more than that for D.C. — consisting of Brandon Duhaime, Nic Dowd and Taylor Raddysh has been a major success. However, the third line is not yet set in stone for Carbery.
"The third line is a little bit of a work in progress," Carbery told the media in Columbus, adding, "That's the kind of spot that we've been eyeballing and trying to evaluate."
Carbery has locked in Hendrix Lapierre as his third-line center and has liked what he's seen from Aliaksei Protas on the right wing throughout camp, but the question is who will fit in on that left wing.
Sonny Milano has played there in the preseason and was originally projected to be that full-time forward option, but he's been "just okay" through camp according to Carbery and has to turn it on down this stretch.
Then, there are a number of suitors competing for that spot on the left wing.
Jakub Vrana is on a professional tryout for training camp and has been working hard to try and return to the team that made him a first-round pick in 2014. All the while, Ivan Miroshnichenko has been giving his all as he looks to stay up in the NHL full-time, and Andrew Cristall's also stood out as he looks to make the opening night roster rather than heading back to juniors for another year.
With heavy internal competition and just one preseason game left to go, Carbery is going to ponder all of his options for that last showdown with the Boston Bruins on Saturday and use his remaining training camp practice sessions to see who fits best on that left side.
At the end of the day, though, it's up to the players to prove they've earned that opportunity.
