Capitals Camp: Laviolette Stops Group A Drills To Makes Players Skate

ARLINGTON, V.A. — As the Washington Capitals Group A wrapped up its first part of practice on Friday, it appeared that head coach Peter Laviolette saw something he didn’t like. He blew the whistle and gathered his players at center ice to share his take. Then, he had all of his skaters, including Alex Ovechkin and more, line up on the goal line to skate up and down the ice.

Washington’s Group A consists of the main roster and NHL-ready players. This was the first day of practice following on-ice testing on Thursday. The Capitals ran lines and saw potential combinations for the upcoming season as well. Here were the lines:

Alex Ovechkin-Evgeny Kuznetsov-Connor Brown

Dylan Strome-Connor McMichael-Anthony Mantha

T.J. Oshie-Lars Eller-Marcus Johansson

Conor Sheary-Nic Dowd-Garnet Hathaway

Joe Snively/Axel Jonsson-Fjallby

Martin Fehervary-John Carlson

Dmitry Orlov-Nick Jensen

Erik Gustafsson-Trevor van Riemsdyk

Gabriel Carlsson-Matt Irwin

Darcy Kuemper

Charlie Lindgren

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Laviolette didn’t hold back at Friday’s skate, pushing his players to their limits and having them compete in breakout drills, as well as backchecking and forechecking drills. When he gathered his group at center ice, he explained what he didn’t like and then had them go back and forth. Kuemper took part in the first skate, but he and Lindgren were then excused to move to the second rink for the second half of practice.