PHILADELPHIA — Brooks Orpik left Game 3 of the Washington Capitals’ first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers just after its midpoint with an unspecified injury and will be evaluated again on Tuesday, coach Barry Trotz said.
Orpik was hit by Flyers right wing Ryan White into the half boards at 11:56 of the second period of the Capitals’ 6-1 win. The defenseman immediately dropped to his knees and had to be helped first to his feet, then off the ice, by teammate John Carlson and athletic trainer Greg Smith.
“He’ll be evaluated,” Trotz said after the game, specifying only that it was an upper-body injury. “We’ll look at him and see where we are tomorrow.”
Carlson took three more shifts that period — two with Nate Schmidt on the penalty kill and one with Dmitry Orlov at full strength. Pairs were significantly more jumbled in the third, when Carlson played 10:56 but only 3:14 of five-on-five.
Orlov also dealt with his own injury scare after being checked head-first into the end boards by Flyers center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare at 12:17 of the third period. He returned just under two minutes later, taking two shifts.
Orpik missed 40 games during the regular season after breaking a bone in one of his legs, and during that stretch, Carlson, when healthy, was primarily paired with Schmidt.
Should Orpik be unable to return, the tenor and pace of the series would point to Mike Weber, acquired from the Buffalo Sabres shortly ahead of the trade deadline, making his first appearance on Wednesday. The Capitals also have Taylor Chorney, who played in a career-high 55 games for the Capitals this season.
“We’ll just have to make it work,” Carlson said. “He’s been out [and] I’ve been out this season for extended periods of time and you know, the guys that stepped up are great hockey players. We’re all confident in them. They were, I think — our backbone of success this year was just people who stepped up when guys go down or get injured or whatever and have played awesome hockey for us, so if that’s the case, we’ll be looking for that.”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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