First of all Caps fans you all need to stop freaking out! Take a step back, take a deep breath, and drink a beer or two or three…..responsibly!
The Caps have played 4 games have two wins and two overtime losses ending with a total of six points and have yet to lose in regulation! SO RELAX and if you are one of those “fans” that are freaking out, then you clearly don’t know sports at all and probably were picked last in gym class and living that N.A.R.P life. Especially the people freaking out about our goalies. The Caps will be fine they had no pre-season and there will be growing pains, and they are getting them out of the way early especially with these Covid concerns which I’m going to get to.
Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, and Ilya Samsonov will miss the next four games at least.
The Capitals will be without our Russians for the next four games due to breaking the NHL’s Covid protocol. Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Orlov, and Samsonov were caught hanging out in the same hotel room together on the teams most recent road trip.
Now listen I get the guys broke the “rules” but come on these guys are practicing together and literally sitting two inches from each other on the bench and the locker-room how is hanging out in a hotel room any different?! Now I know its the NHL’s rule that players can’t do this but lets think logically going forward and change that rule the players only have each other to hangout with during this crazy season its not like they are inviting randos into their rooms (that we know of), but rules are rules so the Caps are going to have to make due in the meantime with the next man up mentality.
Laviolette stated: “Right now the players are in quarantine, At this point, I believe it’s four games and then under review so we’ll go from there.”
With it coming out that Samsonov tested positive for Covid, I would be shocked if one of the other guys in that room didn’t get a positive as well. Fingers crossed it was just Sammy.
Ovechkin came out and said “I regret my choice to spend time together with my teammates in our hotel room and away from the locker room areas. I will learn from this experience.” At least Ovi is taking the Captain role and taking responsibility for his mistake and will change going forward throughout the season and walk the thin line that is the NHL Covid rules.
The Caps didn’t put up a big fight with this ruling in that Laviolette stated: “We knew the rules. We’re not sitting here saying we were uninformed or unaware, the players being on their first road trip and being inside a hotel for that long of a time wanting to be near each other, I get it. At the end of the day, it’s about staying safe.”
Now I don’t know what others teams are doing but I would put money on it that some other players in the league have been hanging out with each other after games whether it be getting dinner or hanging in the hotel. So if anything the Caps helped put the rest of the NHL on notice to be safer with how they hangout before or after games.
Laviolette even stated that “It’s a difficult thing,” he added. “We totally understand why the rules are in place. There’s no arguing with that. We want to be compliant. We made a mistake. We need to do a better job.”
Trust me we all know how annoying wearing a mask is but we have to do our part regardless of what you think.
Our Queen, Ovi’s wife with her thoughts on the whole Caps Covid situation.
Now we all know this situation sucks, but I always like to be optimistic. So with that being said it looks like we are going to get to see Cap’s top prospect Connor McMichael make his debut sooner rather than later, and if you watched the World Juniors at all this kid could be something special!
Also we get to see Vitek Vanecek take on the starter role between the pipes while Sammy quarantines for the time being, and Vitek has shown glimpses of excellence.
It will be very interesting to see how these next four games play out with a much younger and inexperienced Caps taking on a bigger responsibility, but that is why we have guys like Oshie and Backy for these types of obstacles. Should you be worried ….NO! If you are reread the beginning of this blog and if you are close to touching that panic button…. go to the top of this blog and read it again!
The Morning Skate 