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With the start of training camp, the 2018-1920 season and the Caps' quest to defend the Stanley Cup have officially begun.
Despite the return of almost all their team from last season's championship, there are still many scenarios to follow as a training camp. Here are the six biggest ones:
Todd Reirden takes the lead of the coach
Although the list is largely the same, coaches will be radically different. Head Coach Barry Trotz is gone. Todd Reirden will be in his first NHL coaching job.
Defending a Stanley Cup is a position with its own challenges. Now add this to a coach trying to adjust to taking over as the head coach. Although players may know Reirden who served under the Trotz team, each coach has his own system and his own way of doing things.
What changes will Reirden make? What kind of coach will he be? How will the players react?
The roster competition
The disadvantage of bringing back most players from last season is that it does not leave a lot of opportunities for prospects or free agents.
An NHL list will consist of 13 or 14 forks. Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Tom Wilson, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Jakub Vrana, Andre Burakovsky, Lars Eller, Brett Connolly, Devante Smith-Pelly and Chandler Stephenson all look like locks. This means that players like Travis Boyd, Nic Dowd, Sergei Shumakov, Nathan Walker, Shane Gerisch, Riley Barber, Liam O'Brien and any other player coming out of the camp are competing for two or three open places.
If any of these players will line up in NHL training, he will really have to win it at camp.
Who will be the center of the fourth line?
Speaking of anticipatory competition, one of the few open places is in the center of the fourth line after Jay Beagle's departure for Vancouver as a free agency. The depth of the center is essential to the success of a team and few teams were able to match the last season of the Caps with Kuznetsov, Backstrom, Eller and Beagle. Although they always return the first three, the pressure will be to find a reliable and productive replacement for Beagle.
Boyd and Dowd seem to be the pioneers, and after signing one-way contracts during the off-season, it is clear that the Caps are considering both players to have NHL roles this season. But who will end up having the advantage in the center?
How will Reirden handle the third defensive pair?
You can very well write in the seven defenders of Caps in the pen. Unless there is something unexpected, we know both who will be the seven defensemen and the two best defensive pairs.
Michal Kempny and John Carlson will play together on the duet with Dmitry Orlov and Matt Niskanen in the second. The question is how the rotation will take place during the third pairing with Brooks Orpik, Christian Djoos and Madison Bowey.
Djoos and Bowey are both ready to take on larger roles on the team, but it still seems too early to present them as their own pair. Again, you do not want Djoos or Bowey to be relegated to the seventh defenseman, because staying in the press area for too long will not really help the development of either player. Both must play as much as possible, but both must evolve to the point of being able to trust the third pair.
Ideally, this would mean that Orpik will have plenty of play time from the start, then play more and more games as the season progresses and Djoos and Bowey continue to feel more at home. 39; ease.
Having a reliable third pair while having enough time for these two young defenders will be a delicate balance.
Can Pheonix Copley handle the tasks of the goalkeeper?
Philipp Grubauer played a major role in the Caps' success last season. His solid game in the net allowed Braden Holtby to need rest, which allowed him to dominate the playoffs. If the Caps hope to make a second round of the championship, giving Holtby enough time will be a must, especially with the shortened season.
Prospect Ilya Samsonov is now under contract and will play in North America, but he will need as much play time as possible for Hershey. Copley is the only real choice of the organization to support Holtby.
But make no mistake, it's a bet for Washington.
Copley has only two games in the NHL. As a backup, the Caps will need to play some 20 games. Is he up to it? The team will monitor him very carefully at camp and in pre-season.
Fight the terrible hangover of the Stanley Cup
To this day, we've seen all the jokes in every overview about how the Caps will suffer from both a metaphorical and literal hangover. We understood. It's really smarter since every person has said it.
As for the hangover of the Stanley Cup, this camp will be different for all the players on the list, with the exception of Orpik who has already won the Cup once before. There is a confidence that goes hand in hand, but there can also be complacency to feel like a championship and fatigue in the long term and in the short term. Washington's off season began in mid-June, when everyone finished in April or May.
It will be interesting to see the level of energy and the level of competition at the camp. It's hard to get up for pre-season when you play in the Stanley Cup finals three months ago.
Will the caps have a beginning of fatigue? How will Reirden approach the camp and preseason to help the team avoid any early hangovers?
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