The Washington Capitals are set to take on the Carolina Hurricanes at home on Friday night and they’ll do so without one of their top defenders. Rasmus Sandin was not present for the team’s morning skate and head coach Spencer Carbery announced he will not dress for the matchup due to an illness.
On the season, Sandin has played in all 36 games to this point and recorded 11 points (11a). The 23-year-old Swede is skating on average the second most amount of minutes per game (22:06) on the team behind only John Carlson (25:42).
“Illness, he won’t play tonight,” Carbery said. “We’ll see how he is tomorrow.”
There were no line rushes at the skate so we don’t know exactly how Sandin’s absence could impact the Capitals’ defense pairings. However, one domino effect that was present was Ethan Bear taking Sandin’s spot on the second power play unit.
The Capitals gave veteran rearguard Joel Edmundson the night off against New Jersey on Wednesday due to maintenance. Trevor van Riemsdyk stepped back into the fray in lieu of him after being sat out healthy the night prior. Both will likely be involved against Carolina with Sandin out of action.
With Sandin on the ice at five-on-five this season, the Capitals have struggled mightily. In his near 700 minutes of ice time, the team is seeing just 45.2 percent of the shot attempts, 45.3 percent of the expected goals, 45.9 percent of the scoring chances, and 43.5 percent of the high-danger chances.
Other lineup news at the skate included the presence of Sonny Milano in a non-contact sweater. Milano has not played since a December 10 win in Chicago against the Blackhawks. He was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury on December 14.
The only other change from the squad that took on the Devils is that rookie forward Hendrix Lapierre will be jumping back into a game in place of fellow rookie Matthew Phillips. Lapierre will skate on the right wing of Dylan Strome’s line that also features Max Pacioretty.
The Capitals will have a regular, full-team practice on Saturday where we’ll likely get the next update on Sandin and other injured members of the roster. The next day, the Los Angeles Kings are in town for a Sunday afternoon meeting with the Caps.
Headline photo: Katie Adler/RMNB
