Desharnais out 4-6 weeks for Capitals after appendectomy
Second-pair defenseman has three assists in nine games this season
By NHL.com
Vincent Desharnais will be out 4-6 weeks for the Washington Capitals after having appendectomy surgery Thursday.
The 30-year-old, who had been skating on the second defense pair with Martin Fehervary, has three assists in nine games this season.
“Yeah, to my knowledge of an appendectomy, it was like totally out of the blue," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. "No symptoms, just all of a sudden, and needs to get his appendix removed, and so that's unfortunate. It (stinks). He was playing really well, but it happens.
“He's back home now. I think he was there (in the hospital) Wednesday night to the early morning, and then they discharged him in the morning Thursday.”
Carbery said replacing Desharnais in the lineup will be a challenge.
“It's a huge hole," Carbery said. "Matt Roy comes back (from a lower-body injury), 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 that was helping us a lot penalty kill-wise, 5-on-5, playing with one of our offensive defensemen in Cole (Hutson). So that's a big, big role. So, it's a big hole to fill.”
Washington forward Alex Tuch said: “Vinny's been an integral part. Leading the team in plus-minus (plus-9), there's a reason for it. He's been so steady back there. I've loved his game so far. He's been really good in the PK, physical, good moving the puck up the ice. He's getting up in the rush a couple times too. He's just been so hard to play against, and it's just going to take a little bit more commitment to detail to try to fill that void.”
Selected by the Edmonton Oilers in the seventh round (No. 183) of the 2016 NHL Draft, Desharnais has 29 points (two goals, 27 assists) in 227 regular-season games with the Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, Pittsburgh Penguins, San Jose Sharks and Capitals and three assists in 28 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
Logan Thompson is day to day; the goalie skated on his own Friday, but missed his second straight practice because of a lower-body injury. He was slow to get up after making back-to-back saves against Los Angeles Kings forward Artemi Panarin during a 5-2 loss on Tuesday, but remained in the game. Later on Friday, the Capitals announced they recalled goalie Mitchell Gibson from Hershey of the American Hockey League.
Forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois (illness, five games missed) and Justin Sourdif (illness, two games missed) each went through a full practice.
The Capitals host the Buffalo Sabres at Capital One Arena on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; MNMT, MSG-B).
NHL senior writer Tom Gulitti contributed to this report
