Before each game, when Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery and assistant Mitch Love sketch out Washington’s lineup, they have six slots to fill on the blue line. Only of them is filled out in Sharpie: John Carlson on the right side of the top pair.
The other five names have changed, both in placement on the three pairs and in existence in the lineup, nearly every night in recent weeks. After [the addition of Ethan Bear](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/01/02/ehtan-bear-capitals-nhl-return/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4) in late December, Washington now has eight NHL-caliber defensemen on the active roster. And after Rasmus Sandin returned from an eight-game absence with an upper-body injury on Tuesday, all eight of them are healthy, giving Carbery and Love a full complement of players to choose from.
Forty-six games into the 82-game schedule, having more viable options than lineup slots both allows the Capitals to do things like give a player a maintenance day — Joel Edmundson took a night off Jan. 3, the second night of a back-to-back, before Sandin was injured — and ensures that the players who dress each night have to play well to keep their spot.
“I’m not going to guarantee that it’ll be a rotation every single night, but now it gives us the luxury to be able to play seven guys, eight,” Carbery said Jan. 3. “And [Alex Alexeyev is] in that group, too. I know he hasn’t played in a long time, but seven veteran defenseman that I would call them. And there’s a little bit of an accountability part to it, too. You’ve got to have your game in a good spot to stay in the lineup on the back end.”
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Before each game, when Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery and assistant Mitch Love sketch out Washington’s lineup, they have six slots to fill on the blue line. Only of them is filled out in Sharpie: John Carlson on the right side of the top pair.
The other five names have changed, both in placement on the three pairs and in existence in the lineup, nearly every night in recent weeks. After [the addition of Ethan Bear](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/01/02/ehtan-bear-capitals-nhl-return/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4) in late December, Washington now has eight NHL-caliber defensemen on the active roster. And after Rasmus Sandin returned from an eight-game absence with an upper-body injury on Tuesday, all eight of them are healthy, giving Carbery and Love a full complement of players to choose from.
Forty-six games into the 82-game schedule, having more viable options than lineup slots both allows the Capitals to do things like give a player a maintenance day — Joel Edmundson took a night off Jan. 3, the second night of a back-to-back, before Sandin was injured — and ensures that the players who dress each night have to play well to keep their spot.
“I’m not going to guarantee that it’ll be a rotation every single night, but now it gives us the luxury to be able to play seven guys, eight,” Carbery said Jan. 3. “And [Alex Alexeyev is] in that group, too. I know he hasn’t played in a long time, but seven veteran defenseman that I would call them. And there’s a little bit of an accountability part to it, too. You’ve got to have your game in a good spot to stay in the lineup on the back end.”
**Read more:** [**https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/01/25/capitals-defensemen-changes/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/01/25/capitals-defensemen-changes/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
Jensen always gets a sweater for some reason.
Are any of them willing to actually play defense?