The Washington Capitals held practice on Tuesday, a day after taking a 7-3 beating by the Boston Bruins.
Captain Alex Ovechkin was absent and took his third maintenance day in the month of January. Other than Carl Hagelin and Dmitry Orlov, who remain out due to COVID protocol, Ovi was the only skater missing, according to The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir.
“We just want to make sure he’s in a good spot coming into practice on Thursday and the weekend,” Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said.
The Capitals have a scheduled day off tomorrow before two days of practice and then a game against the New York Islanders on January 15. El-Bashir also points out that Ovi taking a maintenance day before that scheduled day off is something to keep an eye on.
With Ovi missing, Brett Leason took line rushes as the first-line left wing fill-in. The rest of the lines were similar to what we saw Monday night against the Bruins. There are the line as follows via Washington Hockey Now’s Sammi Silber.
Capitals lines
Leason-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Sheary-Backstrom-Wilson
McMichael-Eller-Sprong
Protas-Dowd-Hathaway
Fehervary-Carlson
TVR-Jensen
Irwin-Schultz
Hagelin and Orlov are only just at the beginning of their quarantine process. The earliest they can return, if all things go perfectly, is likely January 16, a day after the Caps’ matchup with the Isles but on the same day as a home matchup with the Vancouver Canucks.
The only two goaltenders on the ice for practice were Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek as Zach Fucale was re-assigned back to Hershey before practice began.
Screenshot: @Capitals
