ARLINGTON, VA \u2014 The Capitals will go without rookie Ryan Leonard for the foreseeable future after he sustained an upper-body injury against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.<\/p>\n
Head coach Spencer Carbery offered an update on Leonard\u2019s status on Sunday morning, though he noted the team doesn\u2019t have a full sense of his timeline just yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cRyan will see the doctors today,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cHe\u2019s going to miss an extended period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard took a blindside hit up high<\/a> from Ducks forward Jacob Trouba late in the first period of Friday\u2019s game and immediately went down the tunnel. Despite protests from the Capitals<\/a> both during and after the game<\/a>, Trouba did not receive a penalty on the play, and the NHL Department of Player Safety declined to level supplemental discipline.<\/p>\n After a series of happier rookie-year milestones, Leonard now faces the first injury of his NHL career, and Carbery compared it to the many other challenge young players face.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, no doubt (it\u2019s frustrating), but it\u2019s just \u2014 part of playing in the National Hockey League is dealing with adversity, whether it\u2019s through injuries, or going through slumps, or losing hockey games,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cThere\u2019s all sorts of things that you\u2019re going to go through in your career, and injuries are one of them. And so having it happen at this point in his career, early on, when he was having some success, is no doubt unfortunate and probably frustrating. But also it\u2019s part of it, and he\u2019ll come out of it. I have no doubt that he\u2019ll be back and ready to go when he is and get right back after him.\u201d<\/p>\n Before getting hurt, Leonard had been on the hottest stretch of his career so far. He recorded a four-point (2g, 2a) night<\/a> in his final healthy game against the San Jose Sharks \u2014 becoming the first rookie to do so this season \u2014 and had eight points (2g, 6a) in his last seven games.<\/p>\n