The Washington Capitals had their first postseason practice Monday ahead of their first-round matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes. But for one player, this morning’s commute was especially difficult.

Capitals center Lars Eller, who scored the team’s Stanley Cup game-winning goal last season, had his car break down on Glebe Road on his way to the team’s practice facility.

He spoke about the incident with the Sports Junkies.

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“I had to leave my car in middle of Glebe Road, right now,” Eller explained. “It broke down.”

Eller’s Mercedes has an engine shutdown feature when fully stopped to save gas. “You know when you’re at a light and you know these new cars, the engine turns off?” Eller said. “So when I went to push the gas nothing happened.”

The third-line center said that no one honked at him while he was stuck in the road. Evgeny Kuznetsov was the first person to pull up behind him and graciously gave him a ride to practice.

“Kuzy to the rescue, he picked me up,” Eller said.

Eller confirmed that his car is still sitting on Glebe Road after hitching a ride with Kuzy. When asked to explain why it’s still there, he joked, “I didn’t want to miss this interview.”

But that wasn’t the end of Eller’s bizarre morning. It was just the start.

The Capitals practiced at 10:30 am. Eller took the ice with the team, but jumped off very early into the skate. Capitals fourth line forward Travis Boyd replaced him on the third line.

Caps lines in practice: Ovechkin-Backstrom-Wilson

Hagelin-Kuznetsov-Oshie

Vrana-Boyd*-Connolly

Burakovsky-Dowd-Stephenson Carlson-Jensen

Orlov-Niskanen

Orpik-Djoos *Eller would obsy normally go in that 3C role. We’ll of course ask why he left practice early. — Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) April 8, 2019

Fans speculated on Twitter that Lars’ absence was because of the car incident. The Capitals’ beat reporters covering practice noted initially it was a possibility because maybe Lars had to pay the tow truck or something.

But then NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti said it had nothing to do with that.

Eller's absence is not related to his car breaking down this morning or whatever role he's suppose to play in the Puppy Playoffs later. (Yes, all of that is true) — Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) April 8, 2019

Later during practice, a Capitals spokesman told Gulitti that Eller was being “evaluated” and Todd Reirden would have an update once practice was completed.

Capitals say Eller is being evaluated. Coach Todd Reirden will provide whatever update there is after practice. — Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) April 8, 2019

After the skate, Reirden explained that Eller was given a maintenance day for an upper-body injury, and that he’d be ready to play Thursday.

Reirden says Eller just took a maintenance day for an “upper-body” injury. He started practice, but they didn’t feel the need to push it more today with game 1 not until Thursday. No concern for his game 1 availability. — Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) April 8, 2019

What a wild morning for the only Stanley Cup-winning Dane in NHL history.

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong