After defeating the New Jersey Devils 4-2, the Washington Capitals will complete their weekend back-to-back against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Saturday night.
Spencer Carbery announced before the game that goaltender Hunter Shepard will get his second career start in the NHL. “Nicked up” Darcy Kuemper is injured and will not dress for a second consecutive night. Charlie Lindgren will be the backup after playing sensationally and stopping 24 of 26 shots he faced against the Devils.
On the backend, Rasmus Sandin will be a game-time decision after being sandwiched by two Devils players with a big hit Friday night. Timo Meier hit Sandin in the left side of the face with his forearm as the Swedish defenseman was bent over, causing him to bleed from the nose.
Carbery said Sandin has “a sore face” but otherwise is well. Dylan McIlrath, who was called up from Hershey for the injured Martin Fehervary, will play if Sandin sits.
“We’ll warm him up and see where it goes from there,” Carbery said. “We have seven (defenseman) now active, but we’ll see depending on some other guys.
“[Sandin]’s good. He woke up [feeling] good. Just a little bit of a sore face so we’ll see if he can go.”
One of the biggest challenge for the Capitals against the Islanders will be how they play situationally and manage their ice time with their defensemen after several players, most notably John Carlson, had to play more minutes than normal with them down to five rearguards the night before.
“Well it’s going to be challenging and that’s where it’s on all of us to not only help the guys that played a lot of minutes last night but help the younger guys back there get through the game and have success tonight,” Carbery said. “That’s not just on them stepping up in a big moment on a back-to-back but also on our forwards to do what they can to help out in certain situations. So we all have a responsibility in that.”
Headline photo: Katie Adler/RMNB
