The Washington Capitals had a scheduled day off from practice today. That break will continue for the first-place Capitals as the team has canceled their practice on Wednesday.

The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir reported that the Capitals did so “as a precaution” due to its COVID-19 related issues. He added that no new Capitals players were added to the team’s COVID-19 protocol list today.

Schedule update:#Caps will note skate on Wednesday and will practice on Thursday at 11 am at @MedStarIceplex with media availability to follow

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 7, 2021

NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti reports that the Capitals plan to get back to practice on Thursday after using Wednesday’s additional day off to test everyone again. They play the Pittsburgh Penguins in DC on Friday – the final game of a four-game homestand.

Since playing the Hurricanes on November 28 and Carolina announcing Tony DeAngelo and Brett Pesce had entered protocol, the Capitals have seen three players of their own be sidelined due to the disease: Nic Dowd, Garnet Hathaway, and Trevor van Riemsdyk.

The Hershey Bears have had recent issues themselves with a COVID-19 outbreak as they had five games postponed and just got back to practice on Sunday.

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB