The Washington Capitals play their second game of the preseason Wednesday night against the St. Louis Blues. The team announnced a late change to their starting lineup this morning.
Lars Eller will be held out of the game due to an upper-body injury and will be replaced by first-round pick Connor McMichael on the third line. Beck Malenstyn, who was previously slated to be scratched, will get a jersey and play on the fourth line.
Eller is day-to-day with an upper body injury, so he's out tonight. So Malenstyn draws back in. Here's how they'll lineup
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Leason
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Hagelin-McMichael-Panik
Malenstyn-Protas-Riat https://t.co/32RHQ06VZM— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) September 18, 2019
Capitals head coach Todd Reirden addressed the injury during a meeting with the media after practice concluded.
“Yeah. Just upper body and it’s preseason so we’ll just have him play hopefully the next game, and do the right thing,” Reirden said. “We’re not going to play a player that is not 100 percent in a preseason game.”
Reirden praised Eller’s replacement, McMichael, and spoke about the 18-year-old’s playmaking ability two days after the rookie forward hit Damien Riat with a no-look pass for a goal.
“McMichael is excellent with the puck,” Reirden said. “His offensive reads and feel for the game has been very strong for a young player so far and then to continue to work on his play away from the puck and the challenge of playing defense in this game is so important at this level. St. Louis has got some good players in the lineup, so we’ll see him playing against a good group of players and evaluate after again.”
