The Capitals won\u2019t get either of their trade-deadline acquisitions in their lineup against the Calgary Flames on Monday night.<\/p>\n
Head coach Spencer Carbery revealed after the team\u2019s morning skate that neither Timothy Liljegren nor David Kampf will be ready to make their respective debuts. Kampf, in particular, is being held out until the U.S. government resolves his immigration status.<\/p>\n
\u201cKampf will not, he\u2019s still going through immigration process,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cWe\u2019re hopeful that he\u2019ll be able to play on Wednesday, but I can\u2019t\u2026 yeah, it\u2019s not a definitive when it comes to the U.S. government and pushing things through as far as immigration, so we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old Czech center hasn\u2019t played for an American team since he was with the Chicago Blackhawks for the 2020-21 season. Kampf has spent the last five years split between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks.<\/p>\n
Liljegren\u2019s absence will be more hockey-related, as Carbery wants to give the 26-year-old Swede a chance to understand what will be asked of him once he is patrolling the team\u2019s backend.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust want to give him a couple extra days to get acclimated with the group, let him watch a game at Capital One, make sure he\u2019s dialed in systematically,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cWith where we\u2019re at in the year, thought it would be a difficult spot to put him into the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given Liljegren\u2019s age and the new hole on the right side of the Capitals\u2019 defense corps, the club may be using these final weeks of the season as an audition to see if they\u2019d want to sign Liljegren to a new deal when his current one expires in July. Carbery spoke about tracking the former first-round pick\u2019s growth while the two were with the Maple Leafs and how Liljegren has come along since leaving Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis development, I followed it very closely,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cI know it\u2019s kind of weird when you get into your second, third organization, you don\u2019t really have a reference point, but he was a very, very blue-chip prospect in Toronto that they spent a lot of time with, and he was talked about extensively. He did a good job. It took him a little bit longer. Toronto, at that point, had a pretty good team, so he spent a little bit more time in the American League, which, normally, defensemen do, even if you\u2019re a first-rounder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got to a point where he was right there on the cusp of being an everyday NHL player. I think he\u2019s just continued to chip away at that. As far as what he is as a D-man, I think he\u2019s just become a more well-rounded, puck-moving, good defender. He can play in basically every situation. Is he a first over-the-boards penalty-kill guy? Is he a first over-the-boards power-play guy? No, but he can do both. I think the other part is that he now has a really good understanding of his role and what he has to do at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside of the two newest Capitals not playing, the Capitals plan to go back to Logan Thompson in net against his hometown team. Thompson is 5-3 against the Flames in his career with a 2.32 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage.<\/p>\n
The Flames will have Dylan Strome\u2019s older brother, Ryan Strome, playing in his second game after they traded for him at the deadline. \u201cAlways exciting, always fun to play against him,\u201d Dylan said.<\/p>\n
Calgary beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 at home on Saturday, and they are beginning a five-game road trip out east with their game against the Capitals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Capitals won\u2019t get either of their trade-deadline acquisitions in their lineup against the Calgary Flames on Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-513723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}