Breaking: Todd Reirden hints at a season ending injury for the Capitals.

The Washington Capitals are looking at what sounds like some truly terrible news.

According to a breaking news report from Washington Capitals insider Tom Gulitti of NHL.com, Washington Capitals head coach Todd Reirden has just informed him of a serious injury to 28 year old defenseman Michal Kempny. Kempny of course was injured on Wednesday night when he fell awkwardly on his own leg while wrestling along the boards with Tampa Bay Lightning veteran Cedric Paquette. After a few days the Capitals had a better idea of the severity of Kempny's injury and the initial prognosis did not sound particularly good with Reirden labeling him as a player who would be out indefinitely.

“I’d say we’re going to have to be without him for an indefinite amount of time right now,” Coach Todd Reirden said Friday as per the Washington Post. “We’re just getting some more tests before we can make an official time statement on that, but I would just say right now that indefinitely he’s out of our lineup.”

Of course the loss of an important piece like Kempny on the blue line would be terrible for the Capitals were his injury to extend into the playoffs, and unfortunately now it sounds like it may be even worse than that. On Monday Reirden once again commented on the prognosis for Kempny and this time his comments sounded significantly more dire than they did on Friday. 

'It's going to be a long term injury,' said Reirden.

That unfortunately was not the worst part of the news from Reirden however. The Capitals head coach indicated that the Capitals are now waiting on tests that could determine whether or not Kempny will need a surgery that would effectively end his season. That obviously means that the Capitals would be without Kempny for the entire 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, a potentially massive blow to the Capitals bid for another Stanley Cup Championship.

Kempny has been a huge part of the Capitals defense during the 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season eating up over 19 minutes of ice time per night through the 71 games he has appeared in. In those 71 games Kempny has picked up 6 goals and 19 assists for a total of 25 points on his way to a plus minus rating of +24 thus far. A very tough break for a player having what was unquestionably his career best season.

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