The Washington Capitals are looking to get back on the right track Saturday night when they host the Buffalo Sabres at Capital One Arena.
The Capitals have had several days now to digest Tuesday’s disappointing 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, which saw Washington squander a two-goal lead and surrender five unanswered goals to the NHL’s last remaining winless team.
After a day off Thursday, Capitals returned to the ice Friday at MedStar Capitals Iceplex for their second and final full practice before facing Buffalo. While the session was relatively uneventful itself, there were several notable developments, including a long list of injury updates, Logan Thompson missing the skate, and continued work on the team’s power play.
Here’s everything you need to know from Friday’s practice.
News from practice
Capitals lose Vincent Desharnais for the next four to six weeks
Capitals defenseman Vincent Desharnais had emergency appendectomy surgery and will be lost for the next four to six weeks, keeping him out for much — if not the rest — of the calendar year. According to Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery, Desharnais went to the hospital Wednesday night, had surgery shortly after, and returned back home on Thursday morning.
“It’s a huge hole,” Carbery said after the skate. “I just thought he did such a good job in Matt Roy’s absence, and brought us a lot of really solid, hard, defensive-minded minutes that [were] helping us a lot: penalty-kill wise, five-on-five, playing with one of our offensive defensemen in Cole (Hutson), so that’s a big, big role. It’s a big hole to fill.”
The Capitals’ defensive pairs shifted with the news. Martin Fehervary, who skated with Desharnais against the Kings, paired up with Timothy Liljegren. The top pair was Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy, who will get a bulk of the minutes Saturday night and moving forward, while the third pair saw Cole Hutson skate with Dylan McIlrath.
Updated defense pairings
The Capitals will likely need to call up a reinforcement for Hershey, with candidates including Justin Holl (who filled in during Roy’s injury) and Ryan Chesley.
Logan Thompson misses practice
Capitals starting goaltender Logan Thompson did not practice due to the lower-body injury suffered against the Kings. He remains day-to-day, per Spencer Carbery, and the Capitals do not know if he will be able to play on Saturday.
If Thompson is unable to serve as a backup against the Sabres, the team will likely turn to Mitch Gibson, as he’s the only goaltender that is on an NHL deal in the minors.
Pierre-Luc Dubois and Justin Sourdif nearing returns
While they’ve lost Desharnais and could go without Thompson against Buffalo, the Capitals could soon see the returns of centers Pierre-Luc Dubois and Justin Sourdif, who have been out sick. Dubois has missed the last five games, while Sourdif has missed two. Both were full participants in practice on Friday, with Sourdif rejoining teammates for the first time since falling ill.
Justin Sourdif skates
Like Thompson, the Capitals will wait until tomorrow before making the final call on their availability for Saturday’s game.
“We’ll see where they’re at, depending, talking to [head athletic trainer Jason Serbus] and as we plan for tomorrow night against Buffalo,” Carbery said.
New power-play lineups
After criticizing the Capitals’ special teams following Tuesday’s loss to the LA Kings, Carbery debuted new power play units at Friday’s practice.
PP1: Pierre-Luc Dubois, Alex Tuch, Ryan Leonard, Ilya Protas, Cole Hutson
PP2: Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome, Tom Wilson, Jordan Kyrou, Jakob Chychrun
“I think there’s a few specific things of getting a group together, that we think may have some chemistry with Hutty running the top unit,” Carbery said. “And Tuchy playing more of a role in the power play: we feel like he’s playing at a real high level for us right now. So getting him in the mix on that unit with Leno, who’s arguably our most dangerous forward right now offensively. So I feel like we’ve got to get some traction going here and they’re going to get a good crack at hopefully showing something and creating some chemistry.”
Carbery may have referred to Hutson’s group as the top unit, but he later made a point of not declaring either set of players as the first or second unit.
“I’m not going to say first, second, to start a whole thing,” he said. “They’re both — I’ve said this from day one, we’ll have two units on this team. We have 11, 12 really good power play players, so the way it shakes out tomorrow is the way it shakes out. I’m not going to say, ‘Hey, you guys are the first unit, you guys are the second unit.’ If Cole’s unit goes over first, they go over first. And if they go over first again on the second one, and you guys want to call them the first unit. But I’m not going to label numbers in the units.”
Alex Tuch to play his first game against Sabres after sign and trade to Washington
Alex Tuch spoke to the media about his homecoming game against Buffalo, Saturday night, and he was looking forward to it.
“I’ve just got a big dumb smile on my face, thinking about playing against those guys,” Tuch said. “I love them death and miss them, but I’m really happy where I am right now. It’s going to be a really hard-fought battle.”
After leaving the Vegas Golden Knights as part of the blockbuster Jack Eichel trade, Tuch scored 30-or-more goals in three of his five seasons with the Sabres, including a career-high of 36, which he did twice in 2022-23 and 2024-25. His last season in Buffalo saw the winger post 66 points (33g, 33a) in 79 games as they ended their 14-year playoff drought.
Tuch told the media he plans to have dinner with his former teammates.
Capitals welcome first responders to practice
The Capitals also played host to some special guests on Friday, inviting more than 100 first responders from DC, Maryland, and Virginia to MedStar Capitals Iceplex. After practice, first responders joined the team on the ice, meeting players and getting autographs before taking a group photo.
Besides the human first responders and their families, the guests of honor also included one furry professional: Nola, who works as the facility dog for the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Office. She even came dressed for the occasion.
Katie Adler contributed to this report from Arlington, VA.
