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Capitals Shake Up Personnel On Both Power-Play Units Amid Struggles To Open The Season As Vrana, Dubois & More Shuffle

ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals' power play has left a lot to be desired to open the 2024-25 campaign, and now, it's time for a shake-up.

Washington is making some major changes to its personnel on the first and second power-play units as it looks to ignite a spark after going 0-for-17 on the man advantage over the last five games.

Jakub Vrana and Andrew Mangiapane were promoted to the top unit, where they will operate with Dylan Strome, Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson.

Meanwhile, Tom Wilson and Pierre-Luc Dubois moved down to the second unit to work with Connor McMichael while Hendrix Lapierre draws out of the lineup. Jakob Chychrun remains the main quarterback on PP2, and Taylor Raddysh was also working on that second unit for when Alex Ovechkin goes for a change.

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For the coaching staff, changing up the formation not only allows the Capitals to get a different look but lights a fire under the players as well.

"(It can) create some internal competition amongst two power-play units," head coach Spencer Carbery said. "To be frank, (it's to) try to find a different mix of chemistry that'll be productive."

When asked about the areas where the team has struggled the most on the power play, whether it be entries, possession or recoveries, Carbery was blunt, stating "all of the above" were contributors to the team's abysmal 8.7 power-play percentage, the third-lowest in the league.

"If you can't enter the zone and you can't recover the puck, you have no o-zone time, you have no chances, you have no shots. Everything after that is irrelevant, so that's where it starts," Carbery said. "If you can't enter the zone or recover a puck, everything else, —that's where it starts, that's the base level. We haven't been able to do that consistently and we got to do a better job."

Related: Capitals Notebook: Lapierre A Healthy Scratch vs. Rangers, Thompson Starts, Roy Update

Washington's new units will debut on Tuesday against the New York Rangers, who own the fifth-best penalty kill in the league (88 percent).

Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. ET at Capital One Arena.