39 – Number of days remaining until the 2015-16 season. But it’s also…
…the number of games played by Nate Schmidt for the Caps last season. A trip back to Hershey – immediately followed by a shoulder injury that kept him out for a couple of months – shortened Schmidt’s time in the NHL, but his 39 games were still 11 more than he’d gotten in his rookie season a year before.
Schmidt will likely see that total increase dramatically in 2015-16, when (barring another injury or performance issue) he’ll be penciled in on the Caps’ third defensive pair.