Braden Holtby did not start in the Washington Capitals’ regular-season finale against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday, meaning he likely will not have a chance to break Martin Brodeur’s record for wins by a goaltender.
Holtby tied Brodeur’s mark with his 48th win of the season in the Capitals’ 5-1 victory at the St. Louis Blues on Saturday and potentially had one more game to break it.
Coach Barry Trotz said Sunday, before the game, that the Capitals would stick with their plan and turn to backup Philipp Grubauer. Washington has played Holtby in both games of a back-to-back set three times in 13 chances thus far this season.
“Why put our player at risk?” Trotz said. “You see a number of players that have gone down in their last game around the league and for us to go for something — he shares the record, so I think the bigger plan is what we want to do as a team. It’s too important to put at risk for individual glory, so we’re not doing that.”
Trotz said Holtby “was great with it” when informed before the game that Grubauer would play.
Holtby, who has played in 66 games for the Capitals this season, has a 2.20 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage. He said on Friday, with two games remaining, that Washington “just ran out of games.”
Grubauer, set to make his 22nd appearance, has taken the loss in each of his last three starts.
“I mean, we did everything we could in order to try,” Holtby said then. “I mean, we had three overtime/shootout losses in the last little bit here to give [us] a chance.”
Trotz said the Capitals would make several changes to their lineup on Sunday, though he would not share what they would be. They recalled center Zach Sill from the Hershey Bears of the AHL earlier in the day to provide injury insurance for Jay Beagle, who took a puck off his left foot in the first period of the game against St. Louis.
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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