The Washington Capitals lineup has been a jumbled mess for what feels like months and that will continue tonight against the Los Angeles Kings.
Unless something changes between now and 7 PM, Joe Snively appears very likely to make his NHL debut against the Kings. He took the morning skate on the Capitals’ second line. The rest of the lineup is a lot more complicated as the Caps have multiple injured and COVID-protocol unavailable players.
Here is how they lined up this morning via The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir.
Capitals lines
Ovechkin-Eller-Sprong
Snively-Protas-Sheary
Hagelin-Sgarbossa-Leason
McMichael-Dowd-Malenstyn
Fehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
TvR-Schultz
Both Tom Wilson, who is recovering from an upper-body injury, and Garnet Hathaway, who is technically still in COVID-19 protocol, took the skate but did not participate in line rushes. The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell says that head coach Peter Laviolette would not say for sure whether or not both forwards were officially out tonight. Wilson did extra work after the skate, Hathaway did not.
Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and TJ Oshie were completely absent as they too remain in COVID-19 protocol, joining Anthony Mantha who is on long-term injured reserve with a shoulder injury as the Capitals fully unavailable forwards.
Pell reports that Vitek Vanecek was the first goaltender off the ice. Vanecek will get the chance to follow up his stellar performance in Winnipeg where he made 40 saves on 42 shots.
She also reports that the team tested again this morning and still awaits results from those tests.
Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB
