Capitals forward Anthony Mantha undergoes surgery, out indefinitely

When Anthony Mantha left Thursday night’s game with an upper-body injury it wasn’t clear exactly what the issue was. On Friday, the Washington Capitals have announced that Mantha underwent shoulder surgery and is out indefinitely. The team has moved him to injured reserve and recalled Aliaksei Protas from the AHL.

It’s a huge blow for a team that is already operating without Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie, each dealing with their own serious injuries. Mantha played just over seven minutes before departing in his final game, but before that he had been averaging close to 15 minutes a night for the Capitals. The big winger has six points in ten games.

While the Capitals have been able to rely on Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov to lead the way offensively so far, the club now has four overtime losses through 10 games and have a busy period of the schedule coming up. The team plays five games in seven days between Nov. 11-17 with only one of them coming at home. If the two Russian forces slip even a bit, the team will be hard-pressed to find much offense with the rest of the healthy group.

With that in mind, head coach Peter Laviolette told reporters including JJ Regan of NBC Sports Washington that rookie Hendrix Lapierre will be back in for Saturday’s game. Lapierre has played in five games so far this season and will burn the first year of his entry-level deal if he plays in five more. Lapierre has just one goal in five games but possesses offensive upside that some of the other depth options do not.