Capitals’ common supervisor Brian MacLellan gave an damage replace on John Carlson throughout his annual post-trade deadline press convention.
MacLellan mentioned that the first-pairing defenseman may formally return to the lineup, maybe, as quickly as the tip of March. But it’s additionally attainable Carlson’s season could also be over as effectively.
“He’s got a little bit (of time) left,” MacLellan mentioned. “He has a set timeframe here. Near the end of March, around that timeframe, is when we can get serious about if he can come back.”
Carlson has been out since December 23 after absorbing a slap shot from Brenden Dillon to the facet of the top. The Capitals have posted an 11-14-2 file throughout his absence and have been outscored 87 to 79. The staff basically fell out of competition for a last playoff spot throughout that point. MacLellan pointed to Carlson’s absence as one of many most important explanation why the staff has scuffled so badly.
“He’s your number one D that plays 22 or 23 minutes a night out of our lineup since the end of December,” MacLellan mentioned. “I believed we had a extremely good December the place we outplayed groups and performed rather well. Had a extremely good file. Then John went down and that’s after I suppose our inconsistency began.
“It’s hard to replace a guy like him,” he continued. “We bumped guys up in the lineup and increased their minutes, which most of them handled well, but it’s still not the same as having John in there playing both the power play and penalty killing. I do think it had a big effect on the results from the end of December on. It contributed to what I would call our inconsistencies. There’s games where we played really well against real good teams and then there was games where we didn’t play well against lower-tier teams that we probably should have. Having Carly in there would have had a big impact on our lineup.”
Carlson has been skating the ice since January twenty seventh and dealing with Capitals’ skating coach Wendy Marco on returning to his recreation. He is presently accompanying the staff on their four-game street journey.
Even with the consequences on the lineup, MacLellan isn’t prepared to hurry Carlson’s return and mentioned it might be as much as him if he finally performs once more this season.
“I think it’s going to be on [John] on how he’s progressing and how he’s feeling,” he mentioned. “We’ll kind of make a decision with him and our staff – the medical staff and trainers.”
MacLellan additionally supplied an replace on Nick Jensen and Martin Fehervary, who suffered accidents towards the Anaheim Ducks on March 1. Jensen had an upper-body damage whereas Fehervary’s was lower-body. MacLellan mentioned that issues appear to be trying up for the 2.
“I think it’s a little more positive than we originally thought,” he famous. “It wasn’t as bad as we initially thought for Jensen and then Marty was always just a shorter-term injury.”
