Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau has a rough couple of days in store as he and the rest of the coaching staff works with the front office to finalize the 23-man roster. Decisions didn’t get much clearer tonight after a chippy 5-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Verizon Center on Friday night. It was Washington’s second-to-last preseason game.
The bubble players again all came to play tonight: Andrew Gordon, Marcus Johansson, Mathieu Perreault and Jay Beagle each had their moments. Matt Hendricks not so much – but only because he got leveled on his first shift and was held out the rest of the game as a precaution.
The 29-year-old veteran has put on a show this preseason with a hat trick in one game. Also drew plaudits from teammates for standing up for Alex Ovechkin in another contest when he felt the Boston Bruins were taking liberties with Washington’s star forward. Boudreau said Hendricks was fine, though, after the open-ice hit by Blue Jackets defenseman Nathan Guenin.
“If it was the regular season he could have come back,” Boudreau said. “I told [Hendricks] it was a waste putting him in for 16 seconds.”
Makes you wonder if Hendricks has the inside track for one of the final forward spots if the Caps felt comfortable enough ditching him for the rest of a preseason game. Maybe they’ve seen enough. Whatever the case, he should be back on the ice Sunday ready to make one last impression.
It wasn’t the best day for the Caps blueline, which dressed every expected roster finalist save John Carlson. There were far too many 2-on-1 chances for Columbus as the game got away from Washington in the second period. A 2-0 lead disappeared and then former Caps captain Chris Clark tied the game again in the third period on a nice deflection. Memories of last season when teams routinely erased Caps’ leads.
“The analogy I used was that I felt like an alcoholic tonight,” Boudreau said. “For two weeks we’re doing so great defending, not giving up 2-on-1s and then we fell off the wagon in the first period and started playing that river hockey again. We’ll have to get back to our regular game tomorrow in practice.
Perreault saw 13:43 of ice time and assisted on Eric Fehr’s second goal of the night. In the second period Perreault had a great shift where he buzzed around the offensive zone, creating a few nice chances, and then when the puck escaped the zone he trapped it against the boards, fought off a Columbus player and took it right back towards the net. The Caps wanted to see Perreault get stronger on the puck in the offseason. Seems like he’s done that.
Meanwhile, an odd night for Johansson, the team’s 2009 first-round pick and Perreault’s top competition for the third-line center spot. He did create a few opportunities of his own. But Johansson was also an unsightly 0-for-10 on faceoffs. Not that his performance in the circle is the ultimate measure. You can’t be at your best every night and in the flow of the game Johansson had some nice moments. Still not ideal.
Gordon, meanwhile, played on a line with D.J. King and Jay Beagle much of the night – though the Hendricks’ injury wrecked some havoc with the line combinations. Gordon was tripped in the first period yet whistled for a diving penalty that appeared dubious. Hey, its preseason for the officials, too. But he also drew a holding-the-stick penalty later in the first period that’s more troublesome. Then again, that line cycled the puck well all night and Gordon put four shots on goal and missed the net with another two. Only Ovechkin, Fehr and Brooks Laich took more.
So one more preseason game at home against Nashville on Sunday and then it’s time for final cuts. Even if some folks aren’t particularly looking forward to it.
“That’s [general manager George McPhee’s] call,” Boudreau said of the final roster decisions. “I don’t want to make any of them. It’s going to be tough. All of these guys have played well. I firmly believe that we have 20 forwards that could play regularly in the NHL.”
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