Let’s be honest - the lineup the Washington Capitals iced Tuesday night looked more like a split-squad preseason grouping than a team with serious Stanley Cup aspirations.
Indeed, the “who the heck is that guy?” nature of the lineup (do you think even Brian MacLellan remembered that the Caps signed Daniel Carr back in October?) made the Caps’ 3-2 victory that much sweeter, especially considering who the team was missing at the time Justin Schultz notched the game-winner. The Caps were, of course, without the Quarantine Quartet of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov and Ilya Samsonov, missing their third of (at least) four games for violating the League’s COVID protocols.