Washington Capitals goaltender Ilya Samsonov will neither play nor be on the bench for the team’s game against the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night.

Samsonov missed the team’s morning skate and is out day-today with an upper-body injury.

Samsonov is not on the ice. He's day-to-day with an upper body injury, per the #Caps.

— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) April 15, 2021

Samsonov’s last game was against the Philadelphia Flyers. Sammy stopped 29 of 30 shots, posting a .967 save percentage in the Capitals 6-1 over the Flyers.

During the game, Samsonov blocked a shot off the top of his chest/throat area, but it’s unclear if that’s what injured him.

Samsonov has only started in 14 games (10-3-1 record) this season after being pegged the starter coming into the year. The second-year netminder missed nearly two months of the season due to coronavirus.

Vitek Vanecek will start against the Sabres and Craig Anderson will back him up. The Czech rookie has assumed a bulk of starts (28) this season and has done well, going 17-7-3 and posting a 2.60 goals against average and a .913 SV%.

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB