Washington Capitals winger T.J. Oshie is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury suffered in Thursday’s Game 4 against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Reirden says Oshie will be out “quite some time.”
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) April 19, 2019
T.J. Oshie Out A While For Capitals
Hurricanes winger, Warren Foegele, delivered a hard check on Oshie late in the third period. Oshie went straight to the locker room, holding his right arm. Alan May, NBC Sports Washingon analyst, argued during replays that Foegele deserved a major penalty for the incident. This didn’t come to fruition, though, with Foegele simply receiving a minor penalty for boarding.
Washington captain, Alex Ovechkin, was in hot pursuit of Foegele after the hit. The star winger wasn’t able to instigate anything, though, being held back by both refs and Hurricanes players.
This season, Oshie has scored 25 goals and 29 assists for 54 points to go along with 36 minutes in penalties. His possession numbers were 50.7 percent Corsi and a relative Corsi of +2.1 percent.
Over his 11-year NHL career, Oshie has played for the St. Louis Blues and Washington Capitals. He has 212 goals and 306 assists for 518 career points in 734 career games. He was originally drafted by the Blues 24th overall in the 2005 NHL Draft.
What This Means for the Future
Oshie’s absence will be very hard to swallow for Washington with the series now at a 2-2 tie after Thursday’s loss. There is no question that both of these teams are dealing with key injuries at the moment. The Hurricanes were without Micheal Ferland and Andrei Svechnikov heading into Thursday’s contest. Coming out of it, they could also be without Jordan Martinook, who left during the first period.
Oshie is a key part of the Capitals offence. He plays alongside Nicklas Backstrom and Ovechkin on the top line; a line that has combined for 10 points through the first four games. Oshie has contributed two of these points.
With Oshie out of the lineup, the Caps will likely promote Tom Wilson to the top line. Wilson scored 40 points in 63 games during the regular season. He’s recorded two points in four playoffs games.
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