In the wake of the news surrounding the Washington Capitals violating COVID-19 protocols, all four Russian players on the Caps are ineligible to play for the next four games and perhaps more. Those players are Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, and Ilya Samsonov.
In a report from Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required), Ilya Samsonov tested positive for the novel coronavirus according to two people with knowledge of the situation. The news of the positive test came after Tuesday night’s loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Samsonov went into quarantine immediately after the test, stayed in Pittsburgh while the team flew back to D.C. but has since returned to Washington. He was asymptomatic at the time of his positive test.
Samsonov along with the other three Russians were listed in the COVID-19 protocol absences list on Wednesday night. The others were there as a result of contact tracing.
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One person with knowledge of the matter said that the four hung out multiple times together in a hotel room in Pittsburgh. Ovechkin’s wife Nastya wrote on Instagram that Ovechkin and Orlov have the COVID-19 antibodies.
With news of the four players out for the foreseeable future, let’s look at how the Caps lined up at practice Thursday. The team recalled Craig Anderson to backup Vitek Vanecek and added Connor McMichael to the taxi squad.
Forwards
Vrana-Backstrom-Wilson
Panik-Eller-Oshie
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway
Sprong-Pinho-Sheary
Defense
Dillon-Carlson
Siegenthaler-Schultz
Chara-Jensen
Peter Laviolette told the media via Pell after practice:
"“I know that there was a positive case and through their tracing and their tracking, the players were honest with what they did.”"
Laviolette added via JJ Regan of NBC Sports Washington:
"“Right now the players are in quarantine and, at this point, I believe it’s four games and then under review and so we’ll go from there. There’ll probably be an announcement at some point, but I believe we’re looking at that and we’ll look at everything.”"
The Caps will be without these four key players for the next four games at the very least. That includes two games against the Buffalo Sabres and two games against the New York Islanders. The earliest they can play is against the Boston Bruins.
The Caps will have to play with a next man up mentality to stop their two game slide and get the homestand off on the right foot. As for the four players ruled out, we wish them a speedy recovery.