Capitals Notebook: Team Right Back At It After Loss, Ovechkin Takes Maintenance Day

ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals hit the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex for 70 minutes on Tuesday as they looked to erase a 7-3 loss from the night before.

There was a lot that the team worked through on the to-do list, including sprints, 3-on-3 practice, the power play and more.

Not everyone was present, though, with captain Alex Ovechkin taking a maintenance day and Carl Hagelin and Dmitry Orlov on COVID-19 protocol. Washington has off on Wednesday, which gives No. 8 a two-day break before the team skates again on Thursday.

With Ovechkin out, Brett Leason took reps on the top line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie. Conor Sheary also returned to the top-6, skating with Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson, and Aliaksei Protas replaced No. 73 on the fourth line with Nic Dowd and Garnet Hathaway.

Here were the Capitals lines:

Brett Leason-Evgeny Kuznetsov-T.J. Oshie

Conor Sheary-Nicklas Backstrom-Tom Wilson

Connor McMichael-Lars Eller-Daniel Sprong

Aliaksei Protas-Nic Dowd-Garnet Hathaway

Martin Fehervary-John Carlson

Trevor van Riemsdyk-Nick Jensen

Matt Irwin-Justin Schultz

Ilya Samsonov/Vitek Vanecek

Mike Sgarbossa, Michal Kempny and Dennis Cholowski were the extras skating for Washington.

Samsonov and Vanecek are the only two Capitals goalies remaining up in D.C. Zach Fucale was re-assigned to Hershey after a strong start to his career and a tough showing against Boston on Monday.

READ MORE ON WHN: Things Fall Apart For Capitals In Ugly 7-3 Loss To Bruins

The team has another long layoff before returning to game action in New York on Saturday afternoon. These next couple days will hopefully get Washington rested and almost back to full strength as they look to return and snap a four-game losing skid. Still, Nic Dowd said the team is eager to get back at it.

“I think we’ve had too many breaks. I’ve had too many breaks, guys have had too many breaks. Guys want to play hockey. We’re sick of these breaks. I mean, I am,” Dowd said on Monday regarding more time off.