The Washington Capitals recalled two Hershey Bears forwards to their taxi squad on Tuesday morning. The additions of Michael Sgarbossa and Garrett Pilon quickly made sense hours later.
#Caps re-assign forwards Michael Sgarbossa and Garrett Pilon from Hershey to Washington's Taxi Squad.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) March 23, 2021
Capitals stars Alex Ovechkin and TJ Oshie both missed practice. According to The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir, Ovechkin is injured and day-to-day with a lower-body injury while Oshie was gone due to personal reasons.
Oshie is not practicing today due to personal reasons, per #Caps. Ovechkin (lower body) is not skating, either. Team says maintenance day/day-to-day for No. 8.
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) March 23, 2021
Ovechkin missed a shift during the second period of their 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday.
I'm hearing that Ovechkin has gone down the tunnel followed by trainer Jason Serbus
— JJ Regan (@JJReganNBCS) March 21, 2021
After Ovechkin returned from the locker room, trainer Jason Serbus threw him a yellow ball and he was sitting/rolling on it on the bench between shifts. Appeared to be trying to loosen up something in his leg or glute.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) March 21, 2021
During the game, Ovechkin was caught by cameras colliding with Evgeny Kuznetsov.
ovi, no! pic.twitter.com/TLU15pzvMA
— HockeyKot (@hockeykot) March 21, 2021
The night before he also took a big hit from Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren.
On top of whatever happened over the weekend, Ovechkin has battled through “some injuries” behind-the-scenes this season per GM Brian MacLellan. When Ovechkin missed a practice in February, he explained that “I’m 55, you know? We have lots of games. My body needs rest.”
Ovechkin on his maintenance day on Friday: "I'm 55, you know? We have lots of games. My body needs rest." #Caps
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) February 28, 2021
With a four-day break before the team’s next game against the Devils Thursday, Ovechkin will have ample time to heal up for the stretch run.
