Vincent Desharnais Loses an Appendix and the Capitals Lose Their Defensive Anchor

Appendectomies are the ultimate random sports injury. One minute you are a professional athlete in peak physical condition, and the next you are missing a useless organ and a month of the season.

That is the reality for Washington Capitals defenseman Vincent Desharnais, who is officially out four to six weeks following an emergency appendectomy.

"Daily Faceoff reported the 4-6 week timeline following the emergency procedure."

This is a brutal momentum killer for a guy who was playing some of the best hockey of his career. Washington handed the 6-foot-7 blueliner a four-year, $16.8 million contract this summer, and he was immediately earning every penny of it.

When Matt Roy went down with an injury earlier this month, Desharnais stepped into the void and completely stabilized the right side of the defense. He has been logging over 19 minutes of ice time per night and eating nearly four minutes of penalty-kill time per game.

You do not just easily replace a giant who sits at a plus-9 goal differential while starting almost all of his shifts in the defensive zone. Losing a guy who treats shorthanded minutes like free appetizers is going to test the absolute limits of this roster.

For anyone eyeing the Capitals' upcoming totals, starting with their next game against the Buffalo Sabres, this is a massive structural loss. The penalty kill is going to look entirely different without its primary anchor clearing the crease.

Dylan McIlrath is the most obvious candidate to soak up those heavy, bruising shifts in the short term, but Washington will likely need to make a corresponding roster move just to field a complete unit.

Desharnais should be back on the ice by late November. Until then, the Capitals have to figure out how to survive without their biggest defensive revelation of the early season.