The Washington Capitals may soon be getting one of their top offseason additions back from injury.
According to Tarik El-Bashir, Matt Roy is due back at practice for the Capitals in the coming days. El-Bashir revealed the news during a reporting spot on Wednesday’s national TV broadcast of the Capitals and Flyers game.
“I got some good news, guys, on injured Capitals defenseman Matt Roy,” El-Bashir said. “He suffered a lower-body injury in the season opener and has not played since. I’m told he’s resumed skating on his own and could rejoin his teammates for practice at some point in the very near future. It sounds doubtful that he’ll travel to Tampa for Saturday’s game, but the three-game homestand on the other side of that definitely feels like a possibility.
“That’s a big deal for this Capitals team. He’ll give the blueline a big boost in terms of depth. It’ll also help Spencer Carbery manage John Carlson’s usage a bit better.”
Roy left Washington’s season-opening loss to the New Jersey Devils with a lower-body injury after skating just 8:39 of ice time in his Capitals debut. The 29-year-old rearguard missed the team’s next practice, was listed as day-to-day by the team, and then confirmed out for a “decent amount of time” by head coach Spencer Carbery.
The right-handed shooting defender signed a six-year, $34.5 million deal with Washington this summer in free agency. He had been skating with Martin Fehervary on the club’s second pairing throughout the preseason and was playing with the young Slovakian when he got injured.
Since coming out of the lineup, Dylan McIlrath has replaced him to the right of Fehervary. Roy has missed five games with his ailment, four more than he missed over the last two seasons combined with the Los Angeles Kings.
Carbery has been forced to lean heavily on alternate captain John Carlson in Roy’s absence. Carlson is eating a lot of the tough minutes on the right side of the team’s defense, averaging over 26 minutes a night. He was ranked third in the NHL in time on ice per game (26:20) coming into Wednesday night’s game.
Washington’s next game is on the road against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Then, they’ll return home for three straight games against the New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, and Columbus Blue Jackets. According to El-Bashir’s reporting, we could see Roy in one of those latter three games.
