- Capitals defenseman Vincent Desharnais had an emergency appendectomy Thursday
- He is expected to miss four to six weeks, and Spencer Carbery calls it a “huge hole”
- Read below for what Washington loses on the second pair and the penalty kill
The Capitals lost a key defenseman out of nowhere.
Vincent Desharnais had an appendectomy Thursday and is expected to miss four to six weeks, the team announced Friday.
Head coach Spencer Carbery explained that nobody saw it coming. Desharnais practiced fully on Wednesday, spent that night in the hospital, and went home Thursday morning.
“Yeah, to my knowledge of an appendectomy, it was like totally out of the blue, no symptoms, just all of a sudden, and needs to get his appendix removed, and so that’s unfortunate,” Carbery said. “He was playing really well, but it happens.”
Carbery was then asked how much the Capitals will miss him, and he didn’t sugarcoat it.
“It’s a huge hole,” Carbery said. “Matt Roy comes back, and now Vinny is out. I just thought he did such a good job in Matt Roy’s absence, and brought us a lot of really solid, hard, defensive-minded minutes.”
The numbers explain the worry. Desharnais has been on the second pair next to Martin Fehervary, averaging a career-high 19:24 a night, with more than three minutes of that on the penalty kill. He has three assists, 22 hits, 18 blocked shots and a team-best plus-9 through nine games.
Alex Tuch said the same thing from the forward side. He pointed to how steady Desharnais has been, how physical he is, and how hard he is to play against. Carbery also said Desharnais had been getting big minutes alongside Cole Hutson.
Desharnais is in his first season in Washington after signing a four-year, $16.8 million deal in free agency. The Capitals had chased him in a trade before they signed him, so the loss stings.
Washington is 5-4-0 and hosts the Sabres on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET. Logan Thompson is day to day with a lower-body injury after missing his second straight practice, which adds to the list.
