Washington Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette met with the media following the team’s morning skate on Thursday. He confirmed that Tom Wilson will not play in Game 2 tonight.
Tom Wilson (lower body) is out tonight, Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) May 5, 2022
Wilson sustained a lower body injury in the first period of Game 1 and did not return. He is currently listed as “day-to-day”.
Laviolette didn’t want to speculate about Wilson’s availability for Game 3, just said right now, he’s day to day.
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) May 5, 2022
“Right now Tom is day-to-day. We always hope for the best with players. He’s listed as day-to-day, and hope to see him down the road,” said Laviolette. For what it’s worth, the Capitals have played postseason games without Wilson before and done a decent job.
In 2018, #ALLCAPS went 2-1 w/out Tom Wilson in RD2 vs Pens, including series-clincher when they were also minus Backstrom & Burakovsky
Not an apples-to-apples situation, but #Caps have shown knack to overcome injury/adversity in recent yrs, perhaps more so than early in Ovi Era
— Ben Raby (@BenRaby31) May 5, 2022
Brett Leason, who was officially recalled by the Capitals Thursday morning, was inserted on the right side of the fourth line, with Garnet Hathaway and T.J. Oshie moving up a line on the right side for morning line rushes.
Capitals at their morning skate:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Sheary
Johansson-Backstrom-Oshie
Mantha-Eller-Hathaway
Larsson-Dowd-LeasonFehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
TvR-SchultzHathaway moving up to third line. Leason on fourth line.
Would be his NHL playoff debut
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) May 5, 2022
Vitek Vanecek was in the starter’s net again and is likely to get the Game 2 start in goal for the Capitals.
#AllCaps get in a stretch during morning skate. They will look to double their series lead tonight against #TimeToHunt. Puck drops at 7:30 p.m. pic.twitter.com/dgKlmMltwy
— Erin Brown (@rinkside) May 5, 2022
John Carlson, who left late in Game 1 after a hit from Panthers Sam Bennett, skated in his usual position and is ready to go for Game 2.
So the Season of injuries continues. One good thing is there are plenty of guys in Hershey who played this year that can fill in; maybe not the same quality but still good players.
No doubt. Yet they have found a way, at least in the regular season. Hopefully that continues tonight.
Well 💩
Why isn’t McMichael playing?
He’s a center, not a right wing. Leason is a right wing. Mcm played on left wing and not so good at that. He’s is much better as a center. He also is not long and big and good along the boards like Leason can be. If the Caps lose a center to injury (Backy, Eller) you will see McM play.
Call that 3rd line the Meh line. Anything but…Big Mantha, Eller The Tiger, Hathaway The Pest.
Sucks it affects three lines. I thought Lavi was trying to avoid that, but it looks like he’s trying to get defense on all three lines.