Hendrix Lapierre will watch Tuesday night’s game between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers from the press box.
The 22-year-old center took the scratches skate with Sonny Milano, Alex Alexeyev, and the injured Matt Roy a day after he was replaced in practice line rushes by the recalled Mike Sgarbossa. Head coach Spencer Carbery then confirmed the change during his pregame press conference.
“Yeah, Lapierre will come out for Sgarbossa,” Carbery said.
When asked about the reasoning, Carbery expressed wanting to give Lapierre a chance to step back from the daily grind after the young forward has recorded no points through seven games and is a minus-5. Hershey Bears head coach Todd Nelson effectively implemented the same strategy with Lapierre during the 2022-23 season.
“With the way his season has started overall and the way it’s trended the last few games, feel like it’s an appropriate time for him to step out of the lineup, take a deep breath, watch a game, and give him a little bit of a mental break to be able to reset,” Carbery said. “For what he needs to do – I think there’s a bunch of different areas.
“I’m not going to get into the details of his game, but just the biggest thing overriding for him to have a positive – I’m not talking about goals, assists, points, anything like that – is just being the more impactful player that we saw last year and having a positive impact. It’s not going to be all the time, but 60-70 percent of the time being a positive, impactful player inside of our lineup.”
Lapierre had 22 points (8g, 14a) in 51 games for the Capitals last season. He then joined the Hershey Bears for another run at the Calder Cup, capturing AHL playoff MVP honors after earning 22 points (7g, 15a) in 20 postseason games for the eventual champions.
This seven-game streak without a point is Lapierre’s first-ever drought of that length during an individual NHL season. The former first-round draft pick has created 1.08 individual expected goals during those seven games but has been unable to convert any of his chances into actual scoring.
Sgarbossa will make his season debut after tallying nine points (1g, 8a) in seven games for Hershey. The veteran forward played 25 NHL games under Carbery last year, recording seven points (4g, 3a). Washington saw 50.7 percent of the expected goals with him on the ice at five-on-five.
Outside of the Sgarbossa-Lapierre swap, the only lineup change from the team’s road loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning will be Logan Thompson starting over Charlie Lindgren. Carbery is continuing his even split in net, with Thompson getting his fourth start of the season.
Thompson has won all three of his prior starts, last taking down the Philadelphia Flyers in a 26-save effort. The 27-year-old netminder has played the Rangers twice previously in his career, going 1-1 with a 3.00 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
Per USA Today’s Vince Mercogliano, New York’s Peter Laviolette will counter with Igor Shesterkin in the Rangers’ cage. Laviolette also confirmed that Matt Rempe, the team’s young enforcer, will be back in the lineup after being recalled from a two-game stint with the Hartford Wolf Pack in the AHL.
Tuesday night’s matchup is the first between the Metropolitan Division foes since the Rangers eliminated the Capitals from the first round of the 2024 playoffs in just four games. New York won their last game, a 2-1 showing against the Anaheim Ducks last Saturday.
