The Washington Capitals were without Ilya Samsonov, Michal Kempny, and Alex Alexeyev during their first day of Phase 3 Training Camp on Monday. The reasons why are unknown. How long the players are out is unknown.
Due to an NHL and NHLPA agreement for the 2020 playoffs, medical issues of any kind will not be released. Players will either be present and skating or not.
Alexeyev, Samsonov and Kempny will not skate today, per the #Caps.
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) July 13, 2020
Video coach Brett Leonhardt filled in for Ilya Samsonov in goal.
#Caps in Group 1:
Fs: Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Wilson, Gersich, Backstrom, Hathaway, Hagelin, Eller, Pinho and Maillet
Ds: Siegenthaler, Carlson, Dillon and Orlov
Gs: Holtby and Copley pic.twitter.com/ZjhDIDDm9I
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) July 13, 2020
#Caps in Group 2:
Fs: Oshie, Kovalchuk, Vrana, Panik, Dowd, Boyd, McMichael, Malenstyn, Sprong and Pilon
Ds: Gudas, Fehervary, Jensen and Lewington
Gs: Vanecek and Leonhardt (fill-in for Samsonov) pic.twitter.com/hEc6loNyaj
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) July 13, 2020
According to Mike Vogel, Capitals’ head coach Todd Reirden grouped players on Monday by who had been skating the most.
“The two important things for me in these first few days are to make sure that obviously safety is the No. 1 concern that we’re doing everything protocol-wise, getting used to the new rules that we have, making sure that we’re trying to avoid any issues with COVID,” Reirden said. “And then secondary for me is the fact that we don’t want to have any injuries out of these first few days. So I thought it was really important to split my guys into groups of two, where I had guys who had been on the ice a little bit more — that had been skating a little bit longer – whereas other guys in the second group you saw had just come out of quarantine. They haven’t been on the ice as much, but I could tailor the practice a little bit differently from one group to another.
“That was all by design, and the ultimate thing for us is to get to that hub city and try to avoid any possible situations with COVID and get there injury-free. That’s the No. 1 thing here – especially in these first few days – is to lay that groundwork. So today, you saw the length of the skating drills. You saw [there was] not a lot of stopping and starting so we [don’t] have any groin or stomach issues.”
The Capitals will practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex until July 26 before traveling to their bubble in Toronto for the 24-team playoff.
Set your phasers to 3#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/QyvLFLOjkZ
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) July 13, 2020
