Daily Roundup: the latest on the Washington Capitals and COVID-19 and more
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The Caps and COVID-19
It was announced by the league Wednesday that a $100,000 fine had been levied against the Captials for COVID-19 protocol violations. Since then, we’ve learned the Capitals will be without four players for at least four games — Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Samsonov, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov.
Head coach Peter Laviolette said there was a positive test found among players, then contract tracing was done by the NHL and the violations were found.
More Laviolette: "We knew the rules. We're not sitting here saying that we were uninformed or we weren't aware. We need to do a better job."
— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) January 21, 2021
According to the Washington Post‘s Samantha Pell, the player that tested positive was goaltender Ilya Samsonov, two sources told her.
The team received news of Samsonov’s positive test Tuesday night, after a loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Samsonov, who did not play Tuesday, immediately went into isolation and is following the league’s coronavirus guidelines, according to one person with knowledge of the situation. He stayed in Pittsburgh while the rest of the team flew back to Washington, but has since returned to the D.C. area.
Samsonov was asymptomatic at the time of his positive test, according to the person with knowledge of the situation.
Pell reported that it was through the contract tracing process that the team, and league, found the four Russians hung out multiple times together in a Pittsburgh hotel room during their recent road trip, a source told her. Them spending time together was a violation of NHL’s protocols.
What’s next for Dubois?
The situation between Pierre-Luc Dubois and the Columbus Blue Jackets gets stranger and stranger as the days go by, and one has to wonder how much longer it can continue for before a trade happens.
Dubois didn’t take a shift in the second period of a 3-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings last week, and head coach John Tortorella denied benching the center.
He’s one scored one point, a goal, through four games this year.
Thornton out
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without Joe Thornton for the foreseeable future after suffering an injury last night against the Oilers.
here's the hit that has sent joe thornton to the locker room pic.twitter.com/xFJyEd2471
— zach laing (@zjlaing) January 21, 2021
He took a weird hit from Josh Archibald on the wall during the third period and right away looked to be in quite a bit of discomfort.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe said Thornton will be unavailable Friday night against the Oilers.
“And as I said last night, it looks like he’s going to miss some time,” Keefe said Thursday. “It’s not a day-to-day thing at this point, but we don’t have a final update or diagnosis at this stage.”
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.