The Washington Capitals will begin the 2024-25 season far later than most teams in the NHL. They will host their Opening Night on October 12 against the New Jersey Devils, eight days after the regular season officially begins.
For comparison’s sake, the Devils will already be playing their fourth game of the season when they visit Capital One Arena. While that presents a unique challenge for head coach Spencer Carbery and his team, the second-year bench boss is preparing to use the extra time off to help make key, final roster decisions before the games that count get underway.
“We still have some time here – we’ll go back home and practice and then the Boston game and then a full week before we open up,” Carbery said Thursday. “So we have a fairly good idea of what things will look like from Strome’s line to Dubois, Dowd, and our D pairs, but there’s also a little bit of runway here [to determine] what our opening night roster looks like and the jockeying for those 23 spots. We’ll get some clarity in the next three, four days.”
The final preseason game is typically a dress rehearsal for the season opener, but Carbery says he may use that game against the Boston Bruins to sit some of his veterans in favor of bubble players still fighting for a roster spot. That group includes forwards like Jakub Vrana, Andrew Cristall, Ivan Miroshnichenko, and Mike Sgarbossa and defensemen Dylan McIlrath, Alex Alexeyev, and Ethan Bear.
After the game against the Bruins, the Capitals will have a week before puck drop against the Devils. The time in between makes the Capitals’ final exhibition game potentially less important for chemistry between players and more important for roster evaluation.
“Maybe if you were playing (a regular-season game) on the Tuesday or the Wednesday, you would really want to go dress rehearsal and get everybody together,” Carbery said.
Teams must submit their opening-day rosters by 5 pm ET on October 7. Washington is down to 28 healthy skaters after returning 2024 first-round draft selection Terik Parascak to the WHL’s Prince George Cougars on Tuesday.
NHL teams can carry a maximum of 23 active players during the regular season, so the Capitals must make at least five more cuts by Monday. Carbery says the
Three of Washington’s forward lines and all of their defense pairings seem set for the start of the season, leaving just the third line undetermined. Giving one of those forwards still on the bubble of the roster another game with that line could help Carbery and his staff opt for one player over another.
“We’ve gone back and forth,” Carbery said. “I mean, there’s two schools of thought, right? Which I don’t think there’s a right and a wrong. It just is what makes the most sense for your individual or your team scenario.
“One side of the coin is you just dress your opening night roster or your opening night lineup, and you try to get as many minutes as you can, 60 minutes of them playing together, getting comfortable with one another, and then the other side of the coin is you need to see some players to make some decisions.”
The Capitals have been practicing in Columbus, Ohio, for the past few days while also doing some team-building activities in the area. Washington will return home for practice on Friday, their last at MedStar Capitals Iceplex until next week. Carbery has decided to have his team get some rare practice time on their game rink at Capital One Arena.
Washington hosts their home practices and morning skates almost exclusively at MedStar, but the late start to the season has allowed them to get more creative.
“It was just something that I thought with the long week break before we open up to get us down there practicing, working on special teams,” Carbery said. “The only reps we get at Capital One are game reps. I think the quicker and the more familiar [the better], especially with the new guys, they can get with the sights, the sounds, the ice, the glass, the sight lines, everything that encompasses Capital One.
“I think it’s not the be-all-end-all, but I think there could be some added benefits there of getting guys down there for two days. So I thought the week lead-up provided an opportunity to do this, and we’ll go down there and play and practice for a couple of days.”
