The Washington Capitals are gearing up from a post COVID pause/holiday break. A lot of news and roster moves happened yesterday. The team recalled defenseman Michal Kempny and goaltender Pheonix Copley from the Hershey Bears. They also re-assigned defensemen Lucas Johansen and Alex Alexeyev as well as forward Brett Leason to the taxi squad.
As part of updated COVID protocols, the taxi squad has returned after the success of last season to make things easier to maneuver and tweak the roster in case anybody else tests positive for COVID. The following Caps players have been placed in COVID protocol: Vitek Vanecek, Nick Jensen, Martin Fehervary, Dennis Cholowski, Daniel Sprong, and Justin Schultz.
#3 Weather the storm
The good news is that Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov could come off the COVID list as soon as they are ready. T.J. Oshie and Zach Fucale should be able to make a return soon. If the Caps want to get past the first round in 2022 they’re going to have to continue to weather the storm and keep equipped for any adversity that comes their way.
In a way, this COVID and injury thing and the youth infusion might have been a good thing. It has helped the team weather the storm thus far which is a skill the 2018 team had.