Washington Capitals forward Brooks Laich and goaltender Michal Neuvirth both missed practice on Monday with lower-body injuries. Neither player will play on Tuesday when the Capitals host the Carolina Hurricanes at Verizon Center.
Neuvirth missed his scheduled start on Friday against the Montreal Canadiens and had to be helped to the locker room when he stepped on a puck as he took the ice for pregame warm ups, suffering an apparent right leg injury. The team placed him on injured reserve retroactive to Friday, making him eligible to return this Saturday against the Nashville Predators.
Braden Holtby will start against the Hurricanes.
Meanwhile, Laich will miss his third straight game with a lower-body injury related to the well-documented groin injury that kept him out of all but nine games last season and required surgery. He has not skated since playing against the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 27.
“I hope not. I’ve been told no," coach Adam Oates said when asked if the severity of Laich's injury is similar to last year's. "Hopefully it’s not. Hopefully it’s just, who knows, I don’t know how to say it correctly, scar tissue or something. Hopefully it’s minor, it’s not ongoing and we’re going to do our best to make sure it doesn’t get aggravated and it’s not continuous.”
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