The Washington Capitals took to the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Friday afternoon after returning from a two-game road trip.
The team picked up a huge victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday but fell in regulation to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night. The regulation loss knocked the Capitals’ out of the Eastern Conference’s final wild card spot with three games remaining.
After the two hard-fought contests, three of the team’s key veterans were not present on the ice for Friday’s practice. Number one goaltender Charlie Lindgren, top defenseman John Carlson, and the oft-injured TJ Oshie all sat out for what the team called “maintenance.”
Lindgren has started 25 of the last 32 games for the Capitals after the All-Star break. The 30-year-old backstop has received the heaviest workload he has ever experienced in the NHL this season, making 47 of his 107 career appearances during this campaign.
Head coach Spencer Carbery previously expressed fatigue concerns for Lindgren when he gave Darcy Kuemper a spot start in net against the Carolina Hurricanes on March 22. Lindgren took a maintenance day at a morning skate just over a week before that game.
“Just based on the fact that Chuckie has played a lot of hockey over the last stretch,” Carbery said then. “Didn’t have his best the other night. Give him a breather and give Darcy an opportunity in a huge hockey game to help the group out.”
With Rasmus Sandin out due to injury, John Carlson’s massive, minutes-eating role has only increased over the past two games. Against the Red Wings, the 34-year-old blueliner skated 29:40 of ice time in the win. He has only played more in one other non-overtime game this season, 29:52 against the Tampa Bay Lightning on February 22.
Carlson assisted on both of the team’s goals against the Sabres on Thursday, reaching the 50-point mark in a season for the sixth time in his career. He skated 24:54 of ice time in the loss and is averaging 26:16 through six games in April.
The two road outings were Oshie’s first since returning from an upper-body injury that kept him out of the first four games in April. The 37-year-old forward skated over 17 minutes against Buffalo and got involved in the game-ending line brawl at the final buzzer after being hit by Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.
The Capitals have just three games remaining on their schedule and they’ll play all of them over four days. The first test comes on Saturday night when the Lightning and the NHL’s leading scorer Nikita Kucherov come to town.
