Washington Capitals goaltender Vitek Vanecek will be out for the remainder of the team’s game tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins with an upper-body injury, the team announced. Taxi squad goalie Hunter Shepard, who was in the building, is on the bench as the emergency backup.
Vanecek collided with Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen in the crease during the first period, in what looked like a helmet-to-helmet collision. Both Kapanen and Vanecek initially stayed in the game, but Vanecek was pulled shortly after, presumably by a concussion spotter, in favor of Ilya Samsonov.
The 26-year-old Czech netminder has split time with Samsonov this season, posting a 10-6-5 record and .916 save percentage to go along with two shutouts. Tonight was his 23rd start of the season. He’s been the better of the two goalies, however, and it will be a huge blow to the Capitals if he misses time.
If Vanecek does miss time, the team will likely call up Zachary Fucale from Hershey. In his first four NHL games this season, he has a .924 save percentage.
Fucale has not been playing well at all in Hershey. He’s winless in his last 3 starts & has given up 3 or more goals in 9 of his last 10 starts. He hasn’t been sharp at all. He’s giving up soft rebounds & dropping easy shots. Pheonix Copley has been outplaying him by a wide margin
but Fucale has also played recently enough in the NHL and done well
Yes, he did play well in the NHL, but he isn’t playing anywhere near that level in the AHL right now. I cover Hershey & Fucale’s drop in play has been a bit head scratching. He looks completely out of sorts
I follow the Bears closely too. I don’t know Zach personally, but I bet it was a mental thing. He got a shutout in his NHL debut, but wasn’t given a chance to compete for the Caps #1 job. Then he was sent back down. I’ve seen it happen before, kid does well in the bigs, but regresses after being demoted. I think he’ll be fine in the NHL