- Camp practices open Thursday with the new CBA in effect Wednesday
- The preseason is capped at four games, and 100-game veterans get two
- Read below for what Carbery, Sullivan, Laviolette and Crosby said about the crunch
Spencer Carbery did the math on his training camp, and there is almost nothing to it. The Capitals coach was asked how much runway teams have under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which takes effect Wednesday and cuts the preseason to four games.
“So, if you do the math (for teams playing Sept. 29), it’s literally five or six practices, two games, ‘Let’s go!’” Carbery said.
Camp practices begin Thursday. The regular season grows from 82 games to 84, and the 10 clubs playing on opening night Sept. 29 get 12 days from first practice to puck drop.
Washington opens Oct. 2 at Carolina, which sounds roomier than it is. Any player with 100 or more NHL games is held to two exhibitions under the new deal.
Take a look at the league counting down to the opener:
Mike Sullivan landed on a similar number in New York. The Rangers coach walked through his own calendar.
“Four of those days are game days, and we’ve got to build in a couple days off, so if you add four game days and two days off, we’ve got six practices,” Sullivan said.
New coaches feel it more. Peter Laviolette is installing a system in Los Angeles from scratch, with camp access capped at three hours a day between meetings and practices.
Laviolette explained what the shorter window does to his teaching plan.
“Everything will be brand new from Day 1, so the learning part of it, that window has shrunk quite a bit,” Laviolette said. “Sometimes you might not get to a power play until Day 5.”
Sidney Crosby, now in his 22nd season, remembers veterans telling him about month-long camps when he arrived in 2005. Guys show up in shape now, he said, but he still wants his reps.
“I’m not a guy that doesn’t need to play a preseason game. I like to get a couple in and get timing and stuff,” Crosby said.
Prospects and tryout players lose the most. Fewer practices and fewer exhibition nights mean fewer auditions, and Carbery said the job is getting the NHL roster ready for Carolina, not sorting through camp bodies.
The Caps rookies already ran through a compressed version in Annapolis:
Mandatory fitness testing is gone too, one more change in the new agreement. Players are expected to show up ready, because there is no time left to get there.
