The Washington Capitals have been outright dominant this season, but there’s one opponent they haven’t faced very often: injuries.
They’ve been healthier than everyone else to an almost spooky extent in 2016-17, yet it seems like they’re dealing with a rash of ailments for the first time in a while.
The injury list for tonight’s game against the Edmonton Oilers appears to be: Matt Niskanen, Andre Burakovsky, Brooks Orpik and T.J. Oshie.
We already knew that Burakovsky will miss some time and that Niskanen was injured after colliding knee-to-knee with Radko Gudas. Oshie and Orpik are bigger surprises as far as their lineup goes. It seemed like Oshie took some significant hits against the Flyers in that same game that injured Niskanen, so maybe that’s the issue there?
Most patchwork lineup of season for Capitals, NHL's least-injured team (so far). Burakovsky, Oshie, Orpik, Niskanen all out vs. Oilers.
— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) February 24, 2017
Here’s what the Capitals lineup will look like, via the team itself:
Your lineup for tonight's game against the Oilers. Welcome to the NHL, @rileybarber94! #CapsOilers #RockTheRed pic.twitter.com/Zi4io0CkKt
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) February 24, 2017
The team labels Oshie’s injury as upper-body related while Orpik and Niskanen have lower-body issues. On the bright side, those three are all considered day-to-day.
Riley Barber makes his debut with all of these injury absences.
Update: The Capitals ended up winning 2-1 on Friday. Barry Trotz said that Orpik, Niskanen and Oshie will be out against the Predators on Saturday.