After a couple of “maintenance” days, Vitek Vanecek is ready to retake his crease and will get the start tonight for the Washington Capitals against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Vanecek hasn’t started since beating the Buffalo Sabres on November 8. He is 3-2-3 on the season with a 2.51 goals-against average and a .906-save percentage.
Vitek Vanecek will be in net against the Penguins tonight, per Laviolette.
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) November 14, 2021
“This is kind of the plan we had in place,” Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said at today’s morning skate. “One, two, three. Had three games and Vitek was just, from what had happened in the last game that he played, we just thought it was best. There was a plan in place and we’re just following through with that plan.”
Vitek Vanecek back in net tonight against Pittsburgh, per head coach Peter Laviolette.#CapsPens pic.twitter.com/U1HYCXxNLI
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 14, 2021
Also present at the morning skate was center Nic Dowd who was placed on injured reserve just four days ago. Dowd was in a regular jersey but did not take normal line rushes or skate with the team.
#Caps lines at a.m. skate ahead of PIT:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Sheary-McMichael-Sprong
AJF-Eller-Hathaway
Hagelin-Protas-LeasonFehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
TvR-Schultz— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) November 14, 2021
“I haven’t gotten a report on him yet,” Laviolette said of Dowd. “Obviously, he’s not out with our team so that should pump your brakes a little bit. There’s a progression and usually, they’ll join us and then after that, you may see something. He can’t play tonight but I don’t know about the real, immediate future. I’m not sure if he’s going to travel yet either.”
