"There will be a recall made from Hershey for a player tonight," Reirden told reporters after Friday's morning skate. "We're going to meet and make that decision here in the next little while."
After the meeting, the Caps recalled defenseman Tyler Lewington from AHL Hershey, doing so less than a week after the blueliner had been loaned to the Bears. For tonight's game, Lewington is the lone recall option available to Washington because of the salary cap, so the Capitals will hit the ice tonight against Montreal with seven defensemen and 11 forwards.
The team's coaching and hockey operations staff will huddle up again and regroup after tonight's tilt, and the indication is that there will be additional roster moves coming ahead of Saturday's game in Boston against the Bruins.
Both Dowd and Hagelin are listed as day-to-day with upper body injuries. Neither has been ruled out for Saturday's game in Boston, but it didn't sound promising for either to play in that game, either.
"We'll have to see tonight," says Reirden when asked about possible availability of either of the two forwards on Saturday, "But I'd say right now it's leaning towards that. But I can't say for certain."
In The Nets -With a set of back-to-back games this weekend against a pair of Atlantic Division teams, the Caps faced an interesting decision as far as how to deploy their two goaltenders. No. 1 netminder Braden Holtby has excellent career numbers against both Montreal and Boston, and typically the No. 1 guy will get the net for the home game, the first game, and/or the game against the most formidable of the two foes.
Additionally, Holtby is on a roll right now, and over the course of his NHL career he has typically performed better when he is in the rhythm of playing every other day, as he would be if he started tonight against Montreal. In this case, however, the Caps are opting to start Ilya Samsonov tonight in the home game against the Canadiens, and they'll save Holtby for the second half of the back-to-back set, on Saturday night against the Bruins in Boston.
"Braden seems to play well in Boston, so that was a thought of ours," says Reirden, "And just looking at different opponents, and a number of other decisions as well that went into it, but we're going to go with Samsonov tonight, and Holtby will play [Saturday]."
Another factor in all of this is that the Bruins are in Toronto tonight to take on the Maple Leafs, so they will also be playing on short rest on Saturday night.
For the Canadiens, Carey Price gets the net tonight in Washington. The Habs are also playing on Saturday; they return home to host the New Jersey Devils tomorrow. Price is 9-4-2 on the season with a 2.65 GAA and a .916 save pct., and he is 7-2-1 in his last 10 starts. Lifetime against the Capitals, Price is 7-14-5 with a shutout, a 3.34 GAA and an .890 save pct. in 26 appearances.
