Washington Capitals center Lars Eller fully participated in the team’s practice on Monday in his normal spot centering the third-line and is “getting closer” towards returning to the lineup. He is labeled as day-to-day with an undisclosed lower-body injury that he suffered during the second period of the Capitals’ 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames on Friday. As for his status for tomorrow’s game against the Vancouver Canucks (7 PM on NBC Sports Washington), a decision will be made on Tuesday.
Lars Eller (lower body) said he’s “getting closer” to a return to Capitals lineup.
Team will decide tomorrow if he will play vs. Canucks.— Chris Kuc (@ChrisKuc) February 4, 2019
Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan said today that the team is active in trade discussions and that they will be active before the trade deadline, which is three weeks from Monday.
General manager Brian MacLellan said Capitals are “active” in trade discussions. He believes there are hockey trades to be made.
— Chris Kuc (@ChrisKuc) February 4, 2019
On the Canucks side, forward Sven Baertschi could fly back to Vancouver after waking up not feeling well on Sunday. The Canucks face the Philadelphia Flyers tonight before tomorrow’s tilt with the Capitals. Forward Tim Schaller will take his spot in the lineup against the Flyers tonight.
Capitals Lines
Caps in practice today:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Jaskin-Eller-Connolly
Burakovsky-Boyd-DSPKempny-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Orpik-SiegenthalerWouldn’t surprise me if tomorrow is a Copley start.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) February 4, 2019
By Harrison Brown
Sven Baertschi was once a 13th pick overall. I was reading about him when researching for my story on Caps draft picks and comparing productivity to other players.
Now it develops that Baertschi has had several concussions in his career. They’re denying his current “not feelin right” is concussion related but apparently he received a hit in Vancouver’s recent game vs the Avalanche.
GM McLellan talked to the press at length. I read the whole press conference.
https://www.nhl.com/capitals/news/capitals-gm-gives-his-assessment-on-copley-signing-teams-performance/c-304478956
GMBM’s whole discussion cries out, “My coaching staff has no idea how to fix the team’s problems.” Read it for yourself.
So maybe GMBM will try to fix these things himself, bartering and trading with other teams