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Capitals' T.J. Oshie and Hurricanes' Andrei Svechnikov to miss Game 5

Stan Temming


Both the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes will be missing key secondary scorers for the pivotal fifth game of their first round series on Saturday night.

After Washington won the first two games of the postseason clash on home ice, Carolina took Game 3 and 4 to even things up at two.

The defending Stanley Cup champions, to no real surprise, will be without T.J. Oshie for the foreseeable future. The 32-year-old winger was injured on a hit from Carolina’s Warren Foegele in the third period of Washington’s 2-1 loss in Game 4 on Thursday.

Foegele received a two minute penalty for boarding while Oshie left the game clutching his right arm. The hit stirred up plenty of controversy, but Foegele escaped any supplemental discipline for his actions from the NHL Department of Player Safety.

“We’ll have a little bit more of a timetable as the day goes on and tomorrow,” Washington coach Todd Reirden said Friday, according to Harvey Valentine of NHL.com. “As of right now, he’s out indefinitely.”

His injury has only been described as “upper-body“.

Oshie tweeted an update on his condition and support of his teammates on Saturday afternoon.

He finished the regular season with 25 goals and 54 points in 69 games. In the first four games of the series, he had a goal and an assist.

The Capitals recalled Devante-Smith Pelly from Hershey of the American Hockey League to fill the void Oshie left in the lineup. He netted seven goals and added an assist during Washington’s journey to Lord Stanley’s mug last year.

Meanwhile, Carolina will be without Andrei Svechnikov for the second straight contest. The 19-year-old is still recovering from the concussion he sustained during his fight against Alex Ovechkin in the first period of Game 3.

He hit the ice for the Hurricanes’ morning skate on Saturday in a yellow non-contact jersey, according to Tom Gulitti of NHL.com.

“I always recover so quickly, and we’ll see,” Svechnikov said about returning to the series, according to Gulitti. “I hope I’m going to play next game.”

The rookie scored 20 goals and collected 37 points in 82 regular season games. He also had two playoff goals and an assist to his name before the injury.

Micheal Ferland (dealing with an upper-body injury), Jordan Martinook (lower-body) and Haydn Fleury will join Svechnikov in the press box for Game 5, according to Michael Smith of CarolinaHurricanes.com.

T.J. Oshie and Andrei Svechnikov have both sustained serious injuries in the Capitals-Hurricanes series. (Getty Images)
T.J. Oshie and Andrei Svechnikov have both sustained serious injuries in the Capitals-Hurricanes series. (Getty Images)

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