The Washington Capitals have placed goaltender Charlie Lindgren and forward Ryan Leonard on injured reserve the team announced Sunday night.
Lindgren was scratched with an upper body ailment Friday night just before the team’s 4-3 shootout loss to Anaheim. The nature of his injury is being kept close to the vest, though it doesn’t seem to be as serious as his Leonard’s
“We’ll see once he gets back on the ice, but put him on the IR so he’ll miss the seven days at the bare minimum, and then we’ll see just how he progresses,” head coach Spencer Carbery said.
Leonard was injured after a 1st period hit from Ducks blue liner Jacob Trouba left him bloodied. Carberry told reporters afterwards that Leonard would miss an extended period of time as a result.
“Yeah, no doubt (it’s frustrating), but it’s just — part of playing in the National Hockey League is dealing with adversity, whether it’s through injuries, or going through slumps, or losing hockey games,” Carbery said. “There’s all sorts of things that you’re going to go through in your career, and injuries are one of them. And so having it happen at this point in his career, early on, when he was having some success, is no doubt unfortunate and probably frustrating. But also it’s part of it, and he’ll come out of it. I have no doubt that he’ll be back and ready to go when he is and get right back after him.”
With 8 points over his last seven contests, the 20 year old forward was enjoying the hottest offensive stretch of his young NHL career to date. His offensive production was underscored by a 4 point (2G, 2A) night against the San Jose Sharks in his last healthy game for the team. On the season, Leonard has 18 points (7G, 11A) across 29 contests.
“He was playing at a high level,” Nic Dowd said Sunday. “He was playing really well, finding his game…I think he was starting to really figure his game out, have some confidence, and it’s tough to get to that level. It takes time: your conditioning, your confidence with the puck, playing time, everything. So it sucks to be injured.”
In a corresponding move, Washington recalled Bogdan Trineyev and Clay Stevenson from their AHL affiliate in Hershey. Up next for Washington is a home date with the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, December 11th.
Photo: The AHL. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.