Washington Capitals: T.J. Oshie Out Indefinitely; Devante Smith-Pelly Recalled from Hershey

Washington Capitals’ right-winger, T.J. Oshie, is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury.

T.J. Oshie suffered the injury in the Washington Capitals’ 2-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4 of their first-round match-up. A loss which ties the series 2-2.

Oshie was crosschecked from behind by Hurricanes’ forward, Warren Foegele, in the third period of the contest. Foegele received a two-minute minor for boarding on the play. Immediately after the collision, Alex Ovechkin tried to get a piece of Foegele but was held back by a member of the Hurricanes and had to settle for yelling at Foegele from outside the penalty box he was placed in.

After the game, Oveckin was just as unhappy with the play as he was on the ice claiming, “It’s a dirty play” and followed that up by saying, “It has to be not two minutes. It has to be a different call.”

Frustration was felt beyond the locker room, however, as Capitals’ head coach, Todd Reirden stated, “It’s an extremely dangerous play.” Reirden also stated that Oshie will be miss “quite some time” with his upper-body injury.

Defense has been a problem for the Capitals all series, and with the injuries of Michal Kempny and now T.J. Oshie, the Caps are missing two top-defensive players from their roster. They are also down a top-six winger so the lines will have to be shuffled yet again in order to ice a complete lineup.

This has led to the recalling of forward, Devante Smith-Pelly. Smith-Pelly aka “DSP” has spent 20 games in the AHL with the Capitals’ minor-league affiliate, the Hershey Bears. In the AHL, DSP has accumulated a respectable 14 points in his 20 games.

Fans are hoping that, with the addition of Smith-Pelly, he can recapture the magic and become “Captain Clutch” for the Caps yet again. He scored seven goals in the 2018 postseason, which was 4th on the Capitals in goal-scoring. 3 of those came in the Stanley Cup Finals, including the game-tying goal in Game 5.

Oshie and Kempny were key-pieces to the Capitals’ Stanley-Cup run last postseason, and missing them makes it much more difficult for the Caps to go back-to-back.

While it is difficult, it isn’t impossible. In order for the Capitals to succeed in Saturday’s Game 5, they have to use the “next man up” formula that helped them win the Stanley Cup last spring. As for DSP, the Capitals hope his improved play in Hershey will translate to an even more clutch spring.