The crowded schedule ahead is complicated by another injury to Washington's forward group.
Center Nic Dowd has been placed on injured reserve with a lower body injury. Just before Wednesday's practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, the Caps announced that center Hendrix Lapierre has been returned to Acadie-Bathurst of the QMJHL, and that center Aliaksei Protas and goaltender Zach Fucale have been recalled from AHL Hershey and will accompany the team on its upcoming two-game trip.
Late in Monday's 5-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres, Caps goalie Vitek Vanecek got tangled up with Sabres winger Jeff Skinner in the crease, and Skinner appeared to land hard on Vanecek's shoulder. Vanecek practiced with the team on Wednesday before its departure for Detroit, but Fucale will also make the trip.
"Vitek had taken a hit at the end of the game there, and we're just making sure everything's okay," says Laviolette. "We're still assessing things and looking at things through the locker room, and three goalies will travel with us. We have room on the roster right now, so we'll take three goalies with us."
Without center Nicklas Backstrom (hip) for the entirety of the season to date, the Caps have played the last five games without T.J. Oshie (lower body) and the last two without Anthony Mantha (shoulder). Dowd's absence leaves Washington without four of its 12 regular forwards as it gets set to play back-to-backs and three games in four nights for the first time this season.
Lapierre, the Caps' first-round choice (22nd overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft, had a terrific training camp, becoming the first underaged CHL player to make Washington's opening night roster in two decades. Lapierre skated in six of the Caps' first 12 games and scored his first NHL goal on opening night. It's clear that he is a talented player with loads of potential, but it's also clear that the 19-year-old center needs to play more than he would have in Washington; he has skated in only 88 junior games over the last three seasons because of a combination of injuries and the pandemic.
"I think his time here was really well spent and he did a really good job," says Laviolette. "He came into training camp and - while it's always an option and it's always possible for anybody to come in and make the team - you really have to do the right things in the practices and in the in the scrimmages and the exhibition games to actually have a chance to make the team.
"Once we knew that Nick Backstrom might not be there for us [at season's outset], we started looking at the centermen and we had our eyes open. He came in and he gave us some really good minutes and he did a really good job. Now that being said, it's a lot for a young player to handle the NHL and the league itself, and so we sent him back to juniors where he can play against his peers."
Protas made his NHL debut with the Caps on Nov. 1 in Tampa, and he was returned to Hershey days later when Dowd - who missed the Lightning game with a lower body injury - was deemed healthy enough to play the following game in Florida. When Mantha was injured in the Florida game, Protas was again "recalled;" he hadn't physically reported to Hershey by that point. He was again reassigned to Hershey on Nov. 5 as the Bears had an immediate need for him with three games in as many days over the weekend.
At Wednesday's practice, Protas centered a line with Carl Hagelin and fellow freshman Brett Leason.
Facing three sets of back-to-backs in 11 nights is challenging enough, but the Caps will open this stretch with four rookie forwards in their lineup: Leason, Protas, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Connor McMichael. It will be challenging for Laviolette and his staff to manage the ice time of the forward group in the upcoming sets of back-to-backs, more challenging than usual.
"It's a little bit more difficult," admits Laviolette. "It's a little bit more challenging when you start knocking your depth, but I've got to give credit to the young guys that have come into the lineup. I think that they've done well. Our team has played good defense; I thought we were good defensively [Monday] night.
"People have to step up and we've got to get we got to work our way through it. But I did say too that it's important that we just go one game at a time. We're playing Detroit, so let's not worry about Columbus at this point. Let's watch the game and see how it goes and try to win that game, period. And then we'll wake up and we'll figure out where everything's at."
