The Washington Capitals can’t seem to stay healthy early in the 2026-27 campaign, and that seemed to continue at Monday morning’s practice.
The Capitals were without top-pairing defenseman Jakob Chychrun for the entire skate due to an unspecified issue. Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery described his absence as a “maintenance day” to reporters.
Carbery did not think it would impact Chychrun’s availability for the team’s mid-week, back-to-back. The Capitals play the Philadelphia Flyers at home on Wednesday before flying to Nashville to take on the Predators on Thursday night.
“I think he’ll practice tomorrow, but I’ll talk to [head athletic trainer Jason Serbus],” Carbery said.
Meanwhile, Capitals starting goaltender Logan Thompson participated in most of practice but left after about 45 minutes on the ice. He’s been working his way back from a lower-body injury he sustained against the Los Angeles Kings. Thompson missed two practices last week before returning to the ice on Saturday morning.
“It’s a good step,” Carbery said. “I’ll talk to Serbs and find out where he’s at. Continuing to progress. We’ll call him day-to-day still.”
Charlie Lindgren and Mitch Gibson, whom the Capitals called up on Friday from the AHL’s Hershey Bears, joined Thompson on the ice.
“They’ve got a specific target of what they’re trying to accomplish with him,” Carbery said. “We have three (practices) here, so… they scripted out what he was going to do today. So we’ll see how he felt after that. We’ll see for tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, Jack St. Ivany took the ice with his new team for the first time, skating with Cole Hutson on the third pairing while Dylan McIlath took Chychrun’s spot with Matt Roy. The Capitals claimed St. Ivany off waivers from the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.
“I’ve seen him before live,” Carbery said after being asked his first impressions. “Good skill set, big kid, skates well, handles the puck well. So looks like an NHL defenseman.”
The Caps bench boss added that the team’s practices early this week would allow St. Ivany to get up to speed enough to possibly jump into the lineup on Wednesday.
“I’m not going to commit to that, but there’s definitely a chance that he plays against Philly,” Carbery said.
