The Capitals open the season on Saturday against the Devils.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — After a long week of practice, gearing up and seeing the rest of the league get action underway, the Washington Capitals are finally ready to start their season on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils.
New Jersey has already played in four games, while Washington is eager to play its first.
"It's like the first day of school," Tom Wilson said.
"They've gotten the kinks out through four games, and we're going to need to make sure that we are able to get those jitters out very, very quickly and get on with it and make sure we're being responsible with all the things that we need to do," head coach Spencer Carbery added.
The Capitals will start the year with the same lines they've been running throughout training camp and practice so far, with Alex Ovechkin skating alongside Dylan Strome and Andrew Mangiapane on the top line and Pierre-Luc Dubois centering Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson.
Expect Sonny Milano, who has earned credibility with the coaching staff and is longer tenured than Jakub Vrana, to get a jersey for opening night, though nothing's been officially announced.
On defense, Jakob Chychrun will start the year on the top pairing with John Carlson.
Charlie Lindgren will get the nod for Washington in the opener, with Logan Thompson, who missed three practices for personal and family matters, backing up.
Here are the projected lines for Saturday:
Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Andrew Mangiapane
Connor McMichael-Pierre-Luc Dubois-Tom Wilson
Sonny Milano-Hendrix Lapierre-Aliaksei Protas
Brandon Duhaime-Nic Dowd-Taylor Raddysh
Jakob Chychrun-John Carlson
Martin Fehervary-Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin-Trevor van Riemsdyk
Charlie Lindgren
Logan Thompson
Power Play 1: Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson, Dylan Strome, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Tom Wilson
Power Play 2: Jakob Chychrun, Rasmus Sandin, Connor McMichael, Andrew Mangiapane, Hendrix Lapierre
