Barry Trotz: Caps will ‘recognize’ Penguins’ Stanley Cup banner ceremony ahead of opener

After initially suggesting that the Washington Capitals would watch the Pittsburgh Penguins raise their Stanley Cup banner in Thursday’s season opener at PPG Paints Arena, Coach Barry Trotz is now being coy about what, exactly, the team will be doing during the pregame festivities.

“There’s no way I’m going to have the guys sit out there for a half hour or anything like that,” Trotz said. “We want to recognize what they’re doing. We will. I talked to the captains a little. We’ll do it in our own way, and then we’ll be ready to go. We don’t want to be disrespectful in any way as well. So, we will what we do.

“We’ll keep that internally what we’re going to do. Trust me, we’ll be keeping an eye on what they’re up to.”

The game is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. in Pittsburgh, but puck drop isn’t expected until around 8:20 p.m. The Penguins ousted the Capitals in Game 6 of a second-round playoff series in May.

“Hopefully they’ll be thinking about last year instead of this year and we can jump on them,” forward Justin Williams said back on the first day of Washington’s training camp.