Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson was evaluated Saturday night after taking a high and unsuspecting hit to the head in the final minute of Game 5 from Penguins forward Jake Guentzel. During the team’s day off on Sunday afternoon, Capitals coach Barry Trotz gave an update on Carlson.
Trotz said that Carlson is fine and okay to play in Game 6 on Monday night.
Barry Trotz says Nicklas Backstrom will go to Pittsburgh for Game 6 and he expects him to play. Underwent maintenance today.
Calrson also Ok to play Monday.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) May 6, 2018
During Trotz’s postgame press conference last night, he did not sound pleased with the hit and said that he expected the league to take a look at it.
“I know the standard has been set (with the Tom Wilson suspension) so I’m gonna leave it to the league. It was a headshot in my opinion,” Trotz said at the time.
Despite how the replay looked, the NHL and the NHL Department of Player Safety won’t have a hearing for the Guentzel hit.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Guentzel won’t have a hearing for his hit on Carlson, which Trotz took exception to. It was considered a full-body hit.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) May 6, 2018
Andre Burakovksy is the only injured Capital who is still out. He won’t travel to Pittsburgh with the team, as he’s still recovering from an upper-body injury.
By Michael Marzzacco
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