The Capitals have four key members of Hershey up on their roster amid injuries up front.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals are dealing with multiple injuries and questions up front, and amid all the chaos, Ivan Miroshnichenko made his way to the District from Hershey on Monday.
Miroshnichenko was recalled from the Bears with Anthony Mantha listed as a game-time decision for Monday's meeting with the Ottawa Senators. At the same time, T.J. Oshie is now week-to-week, and Nic Dowd is day-to-day and remains in a non-contact jersey.
The Russian has 25 points in 47 games with Hershey this season, and though his production of late hasn't been there, his familiarity with the big club led to his call-up.
"You probably point to the lack of production and say, 'Well, he hasn't done much in the last whatever in Hershey,' but he's been up here, has played games," head coach Spencer Carbery said.
While Miroshnichenko is skating with the team and is an option for Washington's back-to-back series with the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings over the next two days, he will likely be a healthy scratch. That was another reason for the recall, as the 19-year-old can fill that role as an extra.
"For us, we like in this situation, with him probably not going into the lineup, we wanted to bring someone up that has been up here before this year," Carbery explained.
Hendrix Lapierre, Pierrick Dubé and Mike Sgarbossa are the other Bears call-ups currently with the team.
Despite losing several key players, Hershey remains far ahead of their opponents in the standings and have a 12-point lead over the next-best team in the league.
"I don't think they get enough credit for what we actually have here," Sgarbossa said of the Bears. "I think there's a lot of players that maybe aren't as recognized as much as first-overall picks and stuff like that. But I think there's a lot of good players that played on Hershey in the last little bit. Draft picks or not, that depth is what's making them win."