Washington Capitals: Breaking down the playoff roster

The playoff roster for the Washington Capitals has dropped.

The Washington Capitals announced their official roster for the 2020 playoffs on Sunday morning ahead of the team’s departure to Toronto. Once they arrive at the bubble they’ll be quarantined at the team hotel for a night before hitting the ice for practice on Monday afternoon.

Garrett Pilon and Shane Gersich each were scratched from the final practice before departure on Saturday. Neither of them made the playoff roster. Ilya Samsonov isn’t on there either after being ruled out with an injury.

The black aces on the team include Connor McMichael, Philippe Mailet, Beck Malenstyn, Brian Pinho, Daniel Sprong, Alex Alexeyev, Martin Fehervary, Tyler Lewington, and Vitek Vanecek.

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Pheonix Copley is the other goaltender besides Braden Holtby and Vanecek who will be in Toronto. Samsonov’s injury is undisclosed and it is unknown the severity of it. All we know is that it isn’t related to the novel coronavirus. As of now there are no other injuries.

The team will hold a practice on Monday afternoon at 2:30 and on Tuesday at 3 p.m. at the Ford Performance Centre. They will also play the Carolina Hurricanes in an exhibition this Wednesday at 4 p.m. You can catch the game on the NBC Sports Network or on NBC Sports Washington.

Here is the roster in alphabetical order by last name:

Forwards

Nicklas Backstrom, Travis Boyd, Nic Dowd, Lars Eller, Carl Hagelin, Garnet Hathaway, Ilya Kovalchuk, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Philippe Maillet, Beck Malenstyn, Connor McMichael, T.J. Oshie, Alex Ovechkin, Richard Panik, Brian Pinho, Daniel Sprong, Jakub Vrana, Tom Wilson

Defense

Alex Alexeyev, John Carlson, Brenden Dillon, Martin Fehervary, Radko Gudas, Nick Jensen, Michal Kempny, Tyler Lewington, Dmitry Orlov, Jonas Siegenthaler

Goalies

Pheonix Copley, Braden Holtby, Vitek Vanecek

Samsonov’s injury was suffered prior to camp and he’s remaining in Washington for treatment. Head coach Todd Reirden spoke more about that situation on Saturday.

“It is disappointing for the player, disappointing for us. He’s a guy that is a really good young prospect so for us not to have him with us is disappointing and I thought he has made some strides and obviously put together a pretty good run this year,” said Reirden.

Reirden added, “To be without him is certainly disappointing. But the right thing to do is leave him here and allow him to get treatment so that he is ready to go next year when we have that opportunity to start playing hockey again.”

The Caps will depart for Toronto today and we at Stars and Sticks wish them the best of luck as they embark on a playoffs like no other.