The Washington Capitals got handed an unexpected bye week. After their loss on Super Bowl Sunday, their third in a row, the Philadelphia Flyers were dealt with issues with the novel coronavirus postponing Tuesday’s rematch.
On Monday, the NHL announced Washington’s weekend series with the Buffalo Sabres is postponed as well, a series that was supposed to begin tonight.
One could be frustrated with the amount of games lost due to this pandemic, but it was a factor that was going to happen this season one way or another.
It’s actually a blessing in disguise that the Caps are getting this break and won’t be in action until Sunday.
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The Caps had four players out due to COVID-19 protocol, and they just got all four back at practice. This will give guys like Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Samsonov, who have been away from the team the longest, a chance to acclimate themselves back to speed.
After the Caps were handed a massive penalty by the NHL for violating COVID rules, T.J. Oshie told the media they’ve been better at following the rules. Via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required):
"“As a competitive person, it sucks. I wish I could use a different word, maybe, but it’s tough. … I know the times are crazy. I hope people are doing the best they can. I know we got in a little bit of trouble [early in the season], but our team has been outstanding at following the rules lately, and I hope the other teams are, too, because the best part of our jobs is playing games, and not being able to do that right now, it sucks pretty bad.”"
Alex Ovechkin, Dmitry Orlov, Kuznetsov and Samsonov weren’t the only players added to the COVID-19 list as Jakub Vrana saw his name on their on Saturday and he didn’t play in Sunday’s game. He has since been taken off the list.
Lars Eller, who also missed time due to injury, has since been back in the lineup. He sees this break as a good opportunity to get things right with their game:
"“I can’t remember us missing so many bodies ever at one time — goalies, defensemen, several forwards, all regular players. It is great for us. Hopefully we can have a healthy lineup once we start playing again. That will do us good.”"
The Caps continue to practice the rest of the week to prepare for a two game series with the Pittsburgh Penguins beginning on Sunday.