REPORT: Possible DEVASTATING news for the Washington Capitals

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Ryan
October 17, 2022 (12:59)

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The season has not started off the way fans had hoped for the Washington Capitals, losing to the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs, before eventually winning a game against the Montreal Canadiens.

Superstar forward Alex Ovechkin has been held goalless (one disallowed goal) in his first three games for only the second time in his career, and forward Evgeny Kuznetsov is not the Kuznetsov we saw last season either.

We knew coming into this season that Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson were going to miss significant time after surgeries, but Caps hopeful were hoping that newly acquired Dylan Strome and Connor Brown would be able to fill the roles.

So far through the first 3 games, Connor Brown has 0 points and is a minus 2, and has had the opportunity to play with Ovechkin all 3 games, and Dylan Strome has 2 assists.

The bad news that came out today though is that the teams star center Evgeny Kuznetsov missed practice and is a game-time decision for tonights game against the Vancouver Canucks.

Kuznetsov will not skate this morning and will be a game-time decision vs. VAN, per the #Caps. He did not participate in yesterday's (very) optional practice, which isn't odd.� Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) October 17, 2022

Kuznetsov was phenomenal last season for the Capitals, scoring 78 points in 79 games, and much was expected from him this season with Backstrom being out of the lineup, but through 3 games, Kuznetsov has only 1 assist.

The semi-good news though is if Kuznetsov cannot play tonight, fans will finally get to see the teams top prospect in Connor McMichael make his debut this season, who has been a healthy scratch in favour of Alexei Protas for the first three games.

The Capitals depth is really being tested so far this season and luckily for them they have a lot of NHL calibre forwards who can step into the lineup, but they need to recover from this slow start.