The Washington Capitals will take on the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday in what is their final game before the NHL’s trade deadline on March 3. They jumped on the ice at Honda Center for practice missing a couple of key forwards.
According to The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir, Evgeny Kuznetsov was not in attendance due to a non-COVID illness and Conor Sheary has returned to DC to be with his wife Jordan, who is expecting the couple’s second child.
After a day off Monday in Anaheim, the #Caps are about to hit the ice for practice. pic.twitter.com/CFIF3BFM1S
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) February 28, 2023
While Kuznetsov playing on Wednesday may be in doubt, El-Bashir adds that Sheary is expected to be back in California soon in time for Wednesday’s puck drop.
Kuznetsov played in both games of the team’s back-to-back against the New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres this past weekend, tallying five points. Despite his great total production, Kuznetsov’s line mightily struggled in Buffalo as the Caps were out-scoring chanced with him on the ice at five-on-five 17 to 5 and out-high danger chanced 10 to 3.
Kuznetsov is the latest Caps player to be stricken with some sort of non-COVID illness after Marcus Johansson missed both weekend games due to his own. Johansson did practice on Tuesday as head coach Peter Laviolette put together a mishmash of a lineup due to the absences.
Here are those lines via The Washington Post’s Roman Stubbs.
Ovechkin-Dowd-Wilson
Milano-Strome-Oshie
Johansson-Backstrom-Smith
Protas-Eller-NAK
Gustafsson-TVR
Fehervary-Jensen
Alexeyev-Irwin
Nic Dowd jumps to the top line to fill in for the ill Kuznetsov, pushing Lars Eller into his natural center position on the fourth line. The two missing forwards also draw Aliaksei Protas into full line rushes. Protas has not played in a game since February 12 and has only seen NHL action four times in 2023.
The only line that has stayed intact from Sunday’s loss in Buffalo is Strome’s trio featuring Sonny Milano and TJ Oshie. Those three have combined for 10 total points over the last two games. Oshie has half of those points, including three goals.
Alex Alexeyev is back on the third pairing which is the only other major change. Alexeyev has not played since January 21 when he was a minus-three in a game against the Vegas Golden Knights. He looks prepped to jump back into the lineup in place of Dylan McIlrath who was a minus-three in Buffalo.
The Caps were beaten by the Ducks at home less than a week ago. At the time of puck drop, Anaheim was the worst team in the NHL. They have since won another two games against the Hurricanes and Blackhawks. Meanwhile, the Caps’ playoff chances have dropped to single digits.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
