Capitals coach Carbery said that Milano is the odd man out as he looks to overcome some recent struggles in his game.
The Washington Capitals are looking to put a rocky road trip behind them as they take on the Dallas Stars on Thursday, and they will do so with Evgeny Kuznetsov back in the mix. And to make room for No. 92, Sonny Milano will take a seat.
Milano will be a healthy scratch for Thursday's 8 p.m. matchup at Capital One Arena, head coach Spencer Carbery told reporters after the team's optional morning skate in Washington.
The 26-year-old has been struggling to find his game of late, and Carbery hopes that giving him a night off will allow him to hit reset, as was the case with Kuznetsov back on Monday.
Meanwhile, Kuznetsov has a new fire lit under him and feels added pressure to prove himself and show that Monday's scratch was nothing more than a "one-time situation."
"I love Carbs so much. I trust what he’s doing and he’s trying to help me find my game and get better and help the team because I know that I gotta be better in every areas," Kuznetsov said of the scratch, adding, "I feel like we’ve been missing those 15-20 points by me and that’s 20 goals. If we could score those 20 goals, we’d probably be top-10 in the league in regard to scoring. That's what we’re missing.
"I’m not the guy that’s gonna be making a lot of money and walking around happy when hockey’s not good. I kind of wanna play better, I wanna succeed here and I want my team to celebrate every game.”
Up front, the team will remain without T.J. Oshie for the sixth straight game as he continues to recover from an upper-body injury suffered in a collision with Mattias Ekholm on Nov. 24.
The 36-year-old said he's been feeling better for the past week and was skating on his own back home while the team was on the road. He upgraded to contact on Thursday and will see how things go before a decision is made on his status for Saturday's game against the New York Rangers.
Charlie Lindgren will get the start against Dallas, Carbery confirmed via NHL.com's Tom Gulitti. Darcy Kuemepr started the last two games with Lindgren feeling ill on the road trip, but Lindgren relieved Kuemper on Monday against the Coyotes, stopping 19 of 22 shots in a 6-0 loss.