The Washington Capitals have struggled defensively early in the season. With a skinnier roster than usual to choose from, Peter Laviolette is making some changes.
Saturday, the coach tinkered with his defensive pairings, promoting Zdeno Chara and bumping Nick Jensen to the extra pairing.
Boston Bruins star Brad Marchand criticized Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, and Ilya Samsonov after the Russian quadrumvirate broke NHL protocol during a recent road trip. The group congregated together in the same hotel room after Samsonov had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The NHL placed all four players on the COVID-19 Inactive List — they’ll all miss four games at least — and levied the Capitals a $100,000 fine.
Marchand, speaking on Thursday after the Bruins’ practice, had no sympathy for the Capitals, saying the team’s Russians reaped what they sowed.
Ryan Zimmerman, 36, is returning to the Washington Nationals after opting out of the MLB’s coronavirus-shortened 2020 season.
Zimmerman agreed to a one-year, $1 million deal that will include incentives per MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.
The Washington Capitals are already without Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, and Ilya Samsonov due to COVID protocol.
Now, the team may be without Tom Wilson, arguably their best forward this season, due to a lower-body injury.
Saturday, Wilson missed practice and is out day-to-day.
The Blue Jackets and Jets have completed a blockbuster trade that will see two of the NHL’s brightest young stars change cities.
Columbus has traded their sulking first-line center, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and a third-round pick to the Winnipeg Jets for Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic.
Darren Dreger was the first to report the news.
The Washington Capitals came into Friday night’s action without their Russians but still left with their third victory of the season over the Buffalo Sabres. It wasn’t pretty but the Caps clutched up in the shootout and downed Buffalo by a final score of 4-3.
The Caps outshot the Sabres 32 to 27 but were out-attempted at five-on-five 49 to 42.
By Chris Cerullo 12 hours ago
The Washington Capitals opened their 2021 home campaign against the Buffalo Sabres and did so for the first time sans Alex Ovechkin since 2003. I repeat…2003. Could they enter bizarro world and come away with two points?
Eric Staal sent home a layup in front after Victor Olofsson stripped Zdeno Chara behind the net to open the scoring. Nicklas Backstrom converted a rebound off a Tom Wilson tip-in try to tie things up.
Nic Dowd one-timed the Caps into their first lead of the night off of a great Caps cycle and smart feed from Jakub Vrana. Dylan Cozens sniped home his first NHL goal to tie the game once more. Vrana got one of his own shortly before Riley Sheahan locked the game up again.
No goal in overtime so we got the ole boring skill contest.
Caps beat the Sabres 4-3!
By Chris Cerullo 21 hours ago
Jakub Vrana scored his third goal of the season Friday against the Buffalo Sabres. Vrana was able to pot a rebound, with the puck spinning on its side, after a heavy shot from Zdeno Chara bounced hard off Linus Ullmark’s left pad.
With the primary assist, Chara tallied his first point as a Capital.
Bad just met up with worse at the bar and now they’re straight-up tongue-kissing and it’s disgusting.
With four Caps already out due to COVID protocols, the already shorthanded Caps got even shorterhanded when Forward Tom Wilson left Friday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.
By Peter Hassett 21 hours ago
Zdeno Chara’s a gentleman off the ice, but on it, he can sometimes give off Thanos vibes.
Friday, during a second-period scrum, Chara taught the meagerly-sized Curtiz Lazar why you should never try to forecheck against him.
