This is a year with a lot of questions for the Capitals. Is the Monumental Sports scorebug good or bad? Where did the old NBCSN theme go? Will we finally see a rightful heir to the Sam Pell reporting throne? How long until Caps twitter starts whining about a new player? Am I going insane? Who am I? Where am I? What have you done with my family?

Oh, also there's a hockey season to be played.

Edmundson out 4-6 weeks. TVR seems to be okay, thankfully.

AA and LuJo have to step up

I think Haman-Aktell could also sneak into the conversation depending on how well he plays with Alexeyev tonight and obviously the rest of camp. All 4 defensemen competing for a spot will play today which should be interesting, also excited to see Ovi-Backstrom-Miro especially, but all 4 of the forward lines who all look solid.

PP2 being Wilson, McMichael, Cristall, Sandin, and Miroshnichenko is beautiful as well

That power play we had the other night looked fast and it opened up goof opportunities. That’s going to be fun af to watch

El-Bashir is leaving the Athletic I’m in shambles

Hope he still is doing Caps stuff, he is really good. Sammi Silber is my new go-to for Caps media though. Can't trust anything put out by a certain four letter publication anymore

they got the job done

the youth in this game right now doesn't look out of place at all

wish dowd was 25. dude is amazing

got to go to cap one for the first time in ~8 months which was awesome. My report:

Cristall and Miro especially didn't look like the game was too fast for them which is a great sign
I would have Alexeyev 6, Aktell 7, Iorio 8, Johansen 9
McMichael was ... fine
New powerplay wrinkles were very nice
Lindgren was solid
Dube and Sgarbossa well below phillips and snively on the "ahl guy" tier list
Sandin is still good but he ain't orlov
Oshie and Backy look faster and smoother although it was a very low bar

Yeah pretty spot on analysis here. I'd agree with pretty much everything.

I think your defensive assessment was very spot on. Although AA looked the best, I was very, very impressed with Aktell. He was all over the place, smooth skating and making pretty smart plays. Iorio is going to be very solid in the future. And Johansen looked fine as well. Very pleased with our defensive depth.

I've been hard on McM as I think Caps fans think he should play only because he was a first round draft pick. Imo, he has done nothing to earn is spot (in the past). Last night, he looked fast - hope he keeps it up. Also, Phillips looked extremely fast - liked his game.

Phillips practicing today with Ovi and Backstrom, as well as Haman-Aktell with TvR. I wonder if Carbery is leaning towards Haman-Aktell as the 3LD. Phillips getting quality time also guessing he outduels Snively for the 13th forward spot. NAK and Malenstyn also look to be on the fringes, my guess is that only one of the two makes the team.

Full lines from TEB:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Phillips
McMichael-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Milano/Mantha-Strome-Oshie
NAK/Malenstyn-Dowd-Protas

Sandin-Carlson
Haman Aktell-TvR
Fehervary-Alexeyev
Johansen-Jensen

Kuemper
Lindgren

my opening night guess:

ovi-backstrom-miro
mcmike-kuzy-wilson
mantha-strome-oshie
milano-dowd-malenstyn
phillips

sandin-carlson
fehervary-jensen
aktell-tvr
aa

kuemper
lindgren

I'd be shocked to see Malenstyn over Protas in this situation, I don't think he's in danger of being claimed on waivers. Also don't think Miro will end up on the team opening day, likely in favor of someone like Phillips, but I'd like to see him at some point this year at the least. I think Carbery may lean towards Mantha on the 1st line to proverbially sink or swim. If he doesn't return to form before Pacioretty returns, I bet they waive him or otherwise dump him somewhere but if he does impress then he'll get more consistent top 6 time (maybe moving Wilson to line 1 and Mantha onto the Kuzy-McMichael line since Mantha is a decent defensive forward)

Martha’s ass

Wilson 30 goal season incoming

Alrighty I've seen enough Phillips is making the team over NAK

I know it's early, but last night was an impressive night for the Caps. Offense looked fast and smooth. I really, really liked McM and Phillips.

Phillips might be the new Sheary...? Keep playing the kid

TEB articles are back and without a paywall this time!

https://www.monumentalsportsnetwork.com/article/capitals-face-tough-roster-decisions-as-preseason-ends

Nothing super notable outside of what we’ve already seen with HHA, Phillips, and Miro, but I will note the mention of NAK instead of Protas on the 4th line is interesting. I’d be a little surprised if that ends up being the case personally.

protas has been pretty disappointing this preseason imo. hasn't looked like he's really added anything to his game

Watched back through the last preseason game, Mantha hysteria is wayyyyyy overblown. Very unlucky hitting the post about 3 times, but good skating and was making smart passes to set up quality scoring chances. Way too many people still clutching their pearls over last year.

Also, no hate towards Phillips, his shot to end overtime was perfect, but... Pasta did not even try to make an effort. Still, good skating from him in addition to the shooting.

A few notes from last night:

McM winning (i think) 11 out of 14 faceoffs - pretty good.
AA looked solid and played a bunch
Most impressive -> Aktell. I thought he was outstanding last night. Really impressed with his play.

Hard to justify sending either player down when Edmundson returns. Perhaps the Caps hold 8 D like a couple years ago with Irwin and Cholo or last year with Irwin and Alexeyev?

Thinking that as well.

I was an advocate for signing Edmundson, but after this preseason, I really wish we didn't. AA and Aktell have been far better than I expected. Always knew AA was solid, but Aktell has really thrived.