The Washington Capitals will remain without two of their top players in their next game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Neither forward Pierre-Luc Dubois (illness) nor defenseman Matt Roy (lower-body injury) skated with the team at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Monday, and head coach Spencer Carbery ruled both out of traveling to Raleigh for Tuesday night’s contest.
Roy has already missed three games due to injury, and Dubois did not play in Sunday evening’s 5-3 loss to the Seattle Kraken. The Caps placed Roy on injured reserve, placed Rasmus Sandin on long-term injured reserve, and recalled veteran defender Justin Holl from the Hershey Bears ahead of the trip.
“I think with [Holl], he’s a big right-shot, puck-moving, defensive-minded defenseman,” Carbery said. “I think it just gives us an option going into a back-to-back to potentially use him in Carolina or (against) Montreal. He has a lot of experience. He could be a stabilizer back there to help with some of our left shots and give us some solid, reliable minutes.”
The Capitals were also without marquee offseason addition Alex Tuch at Monday’s skate, with the team announcing he was taking a maintenance day. Carbery revealed that while Tuch will be on the flight down south, unlike Dubois and Roy, he still wasn’t completely sure the high-scoring winger would dress in the Metropolitan Division rivalry matchup.
“I would assume he’s going to play,” Carbery said. “But I’ll wait until talking to [head athletic trainer Jason Serbus] to 100 percent confirm that.”
Early in the season, Dubois and Tuch, alongside Tom Wilson, had formed a dominant top line for Carbery and the Capitals. The trio has been matched up directly against the opposition’s top lines, and Washington has yet to allow a five-on-five goal against with them on the ice, while scoring three of their own.
Wilson leads the Capitals in scoring with five points (2g, 3a) in five games; Tuch leads the team in goal-scoring with three markers; and Dubois is producing at a point-per-game rate with four points (1g, 3a) in four games. The three players also lead all Capitals forwards in average time on ice per game, with Wilson (19:21) at the top, followed by Tuch (18:53) and Dubois (17:06).
Without Dubois against Seattle, Wilson and Tuch remained paired together but spent shifts playing the wings with three different centers: Dylan Strome, Justin Sourdif, and Boone Jenner. Wilson and Strome skated with Ivan Miroshnichenko as Tuch’s placeholder at Monday’s practice.
The Capitals also don’t yet know who will be in net against the Hurricanes as they face another early-season back-to-back, with the Montreal Canadiens coming to DC on Wednesday night. Logan Thompson already has a win over Carolina this season, but Carbery would not commit to naming him the starter for the club’s return trip to Lenovo Center.
Tuesday night’s game will also be Alex Ovechkin‘s last visit against Carolina, as the Capitals’ final two games against Carolina this season will be at Capital One Arena. The Hurricanes will host Ovechkin’s first stop on his arena farewell tour after he announced last week that he would be retiring from the NHL after this year.
