After Shepard allowed seven goals in his lone NHL start, the Caps would recall Clay Stevenson as Shepard got sent back to the Bears. The Caps had to dip into their goaltending pipeline late in the season due to Logan Thompson having an upper body injury late in the regular season. While Shepard got that start in Columbus, Thompson was back home skating so at the time he was close to making his return and low and behold he would get the net during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.