Laviolette uncertain Capitals can dress 18 skaters on Sunday.

The Washington Capitals are in a bit of a pickle. 

On Saturday night 24 year old Washington Capitals forward Jakub Vrana became the latest member of the Capitals roster to join the National Hockey League's covid-19 list, leaving the Capitals roster in shambles in the process. Although we knew the situation was getting pretty dicey for the Capitals, it wasn't until head coach Peter Laviolette spoke to the media this morning that the severity of the situation became apparent. 

The Capitals head coach admitted on Sunday morning that he was still trying to figure out his lineup for today's game against the Philadelphia Flyers, but it sounds like it's going to be a patchwork lineup at best. Laviolette couldn't even commit to having 18 skaters available in the lineup this evening, although he did say that 11 forwards and 7 defensemen was a possibility. 

You can't blame Laviolette here, a combination of the NHL's covid-19 list and injuries on the roster have left the Capitals decimated. We already mentioned that Jakub Vrana has been sidelined but the Capitals are also without T.J. Oshie, Conor Sheary, Justin Schultz, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Samsonov. It might be even worse than that with the possibility of Lars Eller also being on the sidelines, but Laviolette indicated that he believes Eller will be back today which has to be viewed as a significant silver lining in light of all this bad news.

Remains to be seen how the Capitals will navigate this, we will likely know more as puck drop approaches. Today's game between the Capitals and Flyers is set to go a noon eastern.