Illness continues to plague the Washington Capitals‘ center-ice depth.
After seeing Pierre-Luc Dubois miss the last three games and not yet return to practice due to falling ill, the Caps are now also missing Justin Sourdif for the same reason. Washington announced that Sourdif is sick after he didn’t participate in Friday morning’s skate at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
“I’ll talk to Serbs (head athletic trainer Jason Serbus) this afternoon, see how he’s doing,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said. “But right now, day-to-day illness.”
Sourdif, who has one goal this season, played a season-high 16:05 of ice time in the Capitals’ 5-4 win against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night. The 24-year-old forward lined up between Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson, partly because Dubois didn’t dress again.
“(Dubois is doing) a little bit better,” Carbery said. “Yeah, a little bit better, I would say. Next step would be coming back to the facility.”
To start the season, Carbery has primarily had Sourdif centering the team’s fourth line, paired with veteran Boone Jenner and a rotating third forward. Sourdif ranks fifth among Caps forwards in five-on-five defensive-zone shift starts with 15, trailing Tom Wilson (25), Alex Tuch (23), Anthony Beauvillier (18), and Dylan Strome (16).
With Sourdif and Dubois not on the ice Friday, the Capitals had Ethen Frank fill in as an emergency center during line rushes. The team has no extra forward on its roster with the two pivots on the shelf.
Capitals lines at 10/16 practice
While the Capitals still don’t have good news up front, they did see Matt Roy make his full return to practice after previously only skating alone while recovering from a lower-body injury. Roy has not played since leaving the second game of the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning after the second period.
Roy skated with Dylan McIlrath on the club’s extra defense pairing, which kept Timothy Liljegren on the top pair with Jakob Chychrun. Despite the clear progress, Carbery labeled Roy as questionable to return for Saturday afternoon’s game against the New Jersey Devils.
The Capitals host the Devils at Capital One Arena at 1 pm, their first meeting of the season with their Metropolitan Division rivals.
