Caps staying afloat in East despite early injury losses originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Capitals activated one player off Injured Reserve on Friday and replaced him with another, inserting defenseman John Carlson back into the lineup but adding fellow blue liner Dmitry Orlov to the long list of players to hit the shelf for Washington this season.
One month into the year, the Capitals (7-7-2) have placed five players on IR to join the four that were already on there when the season began. They’ve had to pull players up from their AHL affiliate Hershey and go outside the organization for depth, signing winger Sonny Milano out of free agency and claiming winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The team’s play has reflected the loss in talent at times, most notably last week when it went on a four-game winless streak. But with Carlson’s return came a spark that injected the Capitals with enough energy to score all over the Tampa Bay Lightning in a decisive 5-1 victory Friday.
“You kinda underestimate a guy like [Carlson] coming back into our lineup,” assistant coach Kevin McCarthy, standing in for Peter Laviolette while he’s in COVID protocol. “Here’s a guy that played 26 minutes tonight. We were trying to manage his minutes but guys like that, they produce offense and they just give everybody else confidence. That was probably one of the reasons that, I thought, as a group there on the back end, we did a lot of good things.”
Despite all the injuries they’ve endured, the Capitals remain right in the thick of the Eastern Conference. Just five points separate 12 of the 16 teams in the East, putting the Capitals firmly in the mix with their season about 20% of the way through. Even their four-game winless streak saw the Capitals pick up two points in games with the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights — two teams off to strong starts to the campaign.
There have been bad losses, like the 3-2 defeat to the lowly Arizona Coyotes on Saturday in which Washington blew a 2-0 lead with seven minutes to play. But while it’s easy to hit the panic button when their depleted roster isn’t generating enough offense, all the Capitals really have to do is stay within shouting distance of a playoff spot until some of their injured stars work their way back.
As they showed Friday, they can still compete with some of the best teams in the NHL even in this state.
“Honestly, I think we could beat anybody any night,” Carlson said. “That’s all that matters. We’re just here to win games and move on. I think it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, if we play the game like how we want to and how we’re capable of, we’ll win a lot of games. Doesn’t matter how many guys are out, how many guys are in, who it is and who we’re playing and I think that’s what you see.”
But while the Capitals have hung on for the first four weeks, their schedule doesn’t get easier from here and it will still be at least another month before any of their injured skaters, aside from Orlov, will be ready to return.
They will wrap up their home-and-home series with the Lightning on Sunday before ripping off a stretch of six games in 12 days with games against the Florida Panthers, St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames and New Jersey Devils. That Devils game will then kick off a six-game road trip that takes them into early December.
Washington still has playoff aspirations, and teams can do a lot worse with their midseason additions than Tom Wilson, T.J. Oshie and, potentially, Nicklas Backstrom. There is plenty of work to do before the Capitals will start to look like a legitimate playoff contender, but they’re not digging a hole too deep to climb out of right now.
