The Washington Capitals have had a bit of misfortune come their way on Saturday although initially it does not appear as if things are too bad here.
The Capitals welcome the Columbus Blue Jackets to Capital One Arena in Washington on Saturday night and it was a relatively quiet game on the scoreboard early on. The Blue Jackets got on the board 1st during the contest's opening period and they were still cruising with that lead roughly midway through the game. It was then that things took a turn for the worst for the Washington Capitals as star goaltender Braden Holtby appeared to suffer an injury of some type.
The Blue Jackets were in full control at this point and were generating a number of shots in the Washington zone with the Capitals clearly reeling on their heels. It wasn't any of the shots that beat Holtby however but rather the stick of veteran Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson was what laid the Capitals goalie low. Initially it was hard to tell what had happened but it looked like Holtby had thrown off his helmet and was clutching at his face away from the play, signaling that he had been hurt in some way.
It was not until we saw the slow motion replay of the incident that we quickly realized that Holtby had actually been poked in the eye with the blade of Atkinson's stick. On the replay you can clearly see Atkinson perfectly slide the blade of his stick in the very small chinks in Holtby's armor, a move that was in no way malicious. Not only do I not believe Atkinson did this deliberately but given the angle at which his eyes were positioned on the play, as well as the fluid nature of both his body and that of Braden Holtby, it seems like an impossible feat to accomplish, at least not with any degree of consistency.
The good news for the Capitals is that although Holtby would leave the game there did not appear to be any outwardly visible damage to his eye, if perhaps a little redness around the area. That being said we won't know the extent of his injury until the Capitals make that available.
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