The Washington Capitals finally have their first-round playoff opponent after the Montreal Canadiens secured the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference on Wednesday night.
The Caps have one more regular-season game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the team’s pending playoff appearance already has head coach Spencer Carbery’s cagey. During pregame media availability, Carbery shared injury updates on Logan Thompson and Aliaksei Protas before Game 1 against the Habs on Monday and indicated they may be the last injury updates he gives.
“Thompson skated again today, so another step in the right direction,” Carbery said. “Pro, progressing, he’s not on the ice yet, but still progressing.”
Carbery was then asked when he believed he’d know the team could ramp things up with Thompson, and he answered with the typical caginess of an NHL bench boss headed into the playoffs.
“I’ll be honest with you, after today, you will not get much from me on the injury front,” he said. “And, I can’t really give you anything other than he’ll just continue to progress and you’ll see him practicing and one day, all of a sudden, he will be in the lineup, in warmup, and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Thompson suffered his upper-body injury in an April 2 game against the Carolina Hurricanes. The 28-year-old goaltender began skating again last Saturday and joined the Capitals on their current two-game road trip to finish the regular season.
Clay Stevenson, will make his NHL debut against the Penguins, while Charlie Lindgren serves as backup. Thompson will not dress for his seventh straight game.
Carbery’s brief update on Thompson comes after former Caps head coach Bruce Boudreau said he expected Lindgren to start Game 1 against the Habs.
“[Lindgren] needed that (3-1 win over the Islanders) because he’s going to be the guy that’s going to start in the playoffs, I would venture to guess,” Boudreau said during Monumental Sports Network’s Capitals’ post-game show on Tuesday night. “I’m just guessing that it’s pretty hard to go with Logan if he hasn’t played in a while.”
Protas has yet to skate since sustaining a skate cut to his left foot on April 4 against the Chicago Blackhawks. After going 76 games without missing any time, Protas will miss the last six games of the season once the puck drops on Thursday night.
The 24-year-old forward has had a career-best season, more than doubling his previous career high with 66 points (30g, 36a) and becoming the third member of the 2024-25 Capitals to score 30 goals.
