The Washington Capitals held an optional practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Saturday morning after their big win over the Philadelphia Flyers. The Capitals will next host the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday as they seek to keep their positive momentum going.
Head coach Spencer Carbery met with the media after the skate and shared several injury updates. First, he revealed that neither Martin Fehervary nor Nic Dowd will play against the Coyotes.
Fehervary did not take the ice at all on Saturday but Carbery says that was a planned absence and “it wasn’t anything to do with a setback.” Dowd did skate again but still in his light blue, non-contact sweater.
“Progressing, not going to play tomorrow,” Carbery said. “But we do have a nice little break here after the Arizona game, we get three days. So, I’m not going to rule them out for Pittsburgh. We’ll see how next week goes after this Sunday game.”
Fehervary has not played since February 17 after he suffered a lower-body injury against the Montreal Canadiens. Dowd was injured on February 20 against the New Jersey Devils after taking a high hit from Devils forward Timo Meier.
After both Nick Jensen and Sonny Milano came off the injury/sick list against the Flyers, the Capitals will add two names right back to that list. Carbery revealed that fourth-line winger Beck Malenstyn is dealing with an illness and did not skate because of it.
The rookie bench boss also said that defender Rasmus Sandin got “nicked up” in the win over Philadelphia. Neither player’s status for the matchup with Arizona is confirmed yet.
“We’re still working through that,” Carbery said. “We’ll know more this afternoon.”
Malenstyn skated 13:05 of ice time against the Flyers. Sandin recorded an assist and was on the ice for just a shade under 18 minutes.
If Malenstyn cannot go, the Capitals still have rookies Pierrick Dubé and Ivan Miroshnichenko up with the club. Ethan Bear is currently slotted as the seventh defender if Sandin is ruled out.
TJ Oshie was also not present and the same goes for Evgeny Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov was cleared to return to practice by the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program on Saturday morning.
