The Capitals have played three preseason games, and in all of them, Washington experienced the NHL’s new three-on-three overtime format. Carolina scored on the Capitals 57 seconds into overtime in the preseason opener. The next night at Boston, Washington went down in 12 seconds.
So when the game was tied after regulation in Montreal on Thursday night, Coach Barry Trotz didn’t send out the expected two forwards and one defenseman. Instead he put two defensemen (John Carlson and Taylor Chorney) and one forward (Evgeny Kuznetsov) on the ice as a way to both make a statement and test a theory.