The Washington Capitals experienced almost-freaky-good injury luck for basically Barry Trotz’s entire run as head coach. Will they see that luck run out under new coach Todd Reirden?
It’s too early to tell, but Wednesday presents a series of worries.
First, Braden Holtby’s availability was canceled out pretty late in the phase of getting ready for a game against the Winnipeg Jets, prompting the team to bring in an emergency backup for Pheonix Copley. Now the Capitals need to worry about rising star center Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Kuznetsov won’t return to Wednesday’s game thanks to an upper-body injury, likely suffered thanks to this Brandon Tanev hit:
Stay away from Kuznetsov! 😤
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) November 15, 2018
Stream #CapsJets live here: https://t.co/Wn6LWyeTGx pic.twitter.com/XwtUGfcasU
Kuznetsov, 26, came into his 18th game of 2018-19 with an impressive 21 points. Ideally this will just be a minor hiccup as the Russian center aims to meet or exceed last season’s career-high of 83 points.
Holtby’s injury isn’t expected to be a big deal, so perhaps this will be closer to a minor speed bump than a troubling pothole in the road to defending that first-ever Stanley Cup.
MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.