The Washington Capitals are set for their home opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday but may line up without one of their top defensemen.
Matt Roy left Saturday night’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning after the second period with a lower-body injury and has not practiced with the Capitals since. Caps head coach Spencer Carbery shared the latest on Roy after the club skated on Tuesday at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
“Roysie didn’t practice today,” Carbery said. “Still going to call him day-to-day. As far as tomorrow, we’ll see in the morning, but going to need some significant improvement by then. But we’re still calling him day-to-day.”
Roy played just 14:22 of ice time against Tampa Bay after leading the Capitals with 22:29 the night before against Carolina. He has been skating on the team’s top defense pairing with Jakob Chychrun this fall and was named one of the club’s alternate captains ahead of the regular season.
At Tuesday’s practice, Timothy Liljegren occupied Roy’s spot next to Chychrun, with Dylan McIlrath also subbing into the open spot in the lineup. McIlrath made the Capitals out of camp as the team’s extra defenseman and will make his season debut if Roy cannot dress on Wednesday night.
Capitals defense pairings, Oct. 6
“This isn’t something that’ll be set in stone,” Carbery said. “I wouldn’t be too worried about who’s going to play the most. Matt Roy’s a huge part of our D-corps, a huge part of that right side. It’s going to require Lily and Vinny Desharnais to take on a little bit bigger piece of the pie. But also, on the left side, it’s going to require Chychy, Cole, and Marty to do a little bit more as well. We’ll ask a little bit more of all those guys in Roysie’s absence if he can’t go.”
Roy missed just three games last season, recording 19 points (2g, 17a) for the Capitals. He finished third on the team in average time on ice per game (20:37), behind Chychrun (23:20) and John Carlson (22:52).
