Capitals staying focused on themselves as round-robin play begins

Round-robin games will follow regular season overtime rules, which means a five-minute, three-on-three period to be followed by a shootout if necessary. Regular season success is the only tiebreaker after three games. All team and player statistics from the round-robin games will be considered part of the postseason for the league’s record-keeping purposes.

The eight winners from the qualifying round will play the top four seeds in best-of seven series in the first round. The top four teams in the East are the Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning. In the West, it’s the Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, St. Louis Blues and Vegas Golden Knights.

The Capitals, who are the No. 3 seed in the East, open round-robin play against the Lightning at 4 p.m. Monday at Scotiabank Arena. Their second round-robin game is Thursday against the Flyers, with the time still to be determined. The third game will be next Sunday against the Bruins.

Teams could take different approaches to round-robin play after so much time off the ice, but the Capitals have their sights set on themselves. Similar to their approach in Wednesday’s exhibition win over the Carolina Hurricanes, the Capitals want to make sure they shore up their own flaws before focusing on their opponents.

“I think everything matters so much at that point where it can be both,” said defenseman John Carlson, who left Wednesday’s game after falling awkwardly but returned to practice Saturday. “You’re worried about what your game’s going to look like and how you’re going to stack up right off the start, but they mean too much and seeding means a lot. I guess the home ice probably isn’t really a thing anymore, but we want to win every game regardless of how much it does mean standings-wise and that’s how we’ll attack those games.”

“What is important is that our team plays well leading into the playoffs,” center Nic Dowd said. “I think if we were in a regular season you want to play well and finish the season off well and that rolls right into playoffs; the same things for these three games in the round robin.”

Lineup-wise, Coach Todd Reirden has made it clear he wants to see other goaltenders besides No. 1 Braden Holtby during the round-robin games. It is expected that backup Vitek Vanecek will see some game action, as was the original plan for rookie goaltender Ilya Samsonov before he suffered an off-ice injury in Russia before the NHL’s restart and did not travel with the team to Toronto. Pheonix Copley is still No. 3 on the depth chart.

As far as the young prospects on the playoff roster seeing ice time, Reirden said he is going to evaluate that decision day by day.

On Saturday, all 31 players practiced for the Capitals. Carlson is expected to practice again Sunday as well.

“So much can change and, you know, a few more injuries [could happen] at the beginning of the tournament than expected, with a shorter training camp, so I think you got to be prepared for that,” Reirden said. “… We will do what is right for our team and give our players every chance they can to reach their peak as we start to get into round one of the playoffs.”