All-Star D to miss Carolina’s playoff opener
All-Star defenseman Dougie Hamilton won’t play for Carolina Saturday in the Hurricanes’ Eastern Conference qualifying-round opener against the New York Rangers in Toronto.
Hamilton has missed multiple practices, though the league has prohibited teams from disclosing whether a player is injured or ill amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
A team reporter, however, tweeted a photo of Hamilton taking the ice to skate Friday after practice Friday.
Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said Hamilton is “getting better for sure,” and the team hopes he will play in the best-offive series.
“We’re certainly not going to rush him back, but if he’s close to being able to play, he’s going to get in there,” Brind’Amour said.
Hamilton broke his left leg in January and was out until the NHL suspended the season because of the pandemic, but he had returned for the beginning of training camp. He had 14 goals and 26 assists in 47 regular-season games.
Center Martin Necas returned to practice Friday after missing recent workouts. Brind’Amour said the team would wait to see how he feels before deciding his status Saturday.
Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour says Hamilton is “getting better for sure,” and the team hopes he will play in the best-of-5 series.
Brind’Amour declined to publicly announce his Game 1 starter between goaltenders Petr Mrazek and James Reimer.
Mrazek was the Hurricanes No.1 goalie most of the season before it paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Capitals
Rookie goaltender Ilya Samsonov did not travel to Toronto for the NHL’s restart because he suffered an off-ice injury in Russia during the league’s shutdown and didn’t pass his physical upon returning, general manger Brian MacLellan said.
The final day of the team’s training camp July 25, Washington disclosed that Samsonov, who had not skated the entirety of camp, was injured before training camp and would not be traveling to Toronto. The team did not disclose the nature of the injury or how it occurred. Samsonov arrived in the Washington area in early July and was seen interacting with teammates off the ice.
MacLellan, who not did go into specific injury details, reiterated Friday that the 23-year-old Russian goaltender should be ready for the start of the 202021 season.
With Samsonov not in the bubble, the Capitals have three goaltenders at their disposal: No. 1 Braden Holtby, Vitek Vanecek and Pheonix Copley. Vanecek, who played the third period of the team’s 3-2 exhibition victory against Carolina, has been told he is the team’s backup goaltender for the postseason.
“Vitek, he’s earned a chance to play some games . . . the exhibition game, that was the first chance we’ve had to really see him in game action,” MacLellan said. “Got put in a difficult situation at 5-on-3 right away, made some good saves, looked confident, looked aggressive so he made a really good showing and I think everybody’s pretty optimistic about him right now.”
Holtby, a pending unrestricted free agent, is the team’s unwavering starting goaltender and the team will rely on him for their postseason run. Despite Samsonov’s injury, keeping Holtby on the team next year still proves to be difficult, and the flat salary cap does the Capitals, a team very close to the cap each season, no favors.
Holtby already has expressed that he will be focusing on another championship with Capitals despite his looming free agency.
Regarding a possible extension with captain Alex Ovechkin, who will be on the final year of his 13-year, $124 million contract next season, MacLellan said the team will wait until after the playoffs to make any business decisions.