Washington Capitals: John Carlson practices Saturday

John Carlson of the Washington Capitals returned to the ice Saturday.

John Carlson returned to practice with the Washington Capitals on Saturday afternoon after sitting out Thursday’s session. The reason he missed? Carlson exited the exhibition game on Wednesday against the Carolina Hurricanes after an awkward fall into the boards.

Head coach Todd Reirden, while he did tell the media that Carlson practice with the team, was non committal about whether or not he would play in Monday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Round Robin.

The Caps have one final practice before the first game on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Reirden will likely talk to the media and either give a further update or remain quiet about it.

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Carlson was named a finalist by the NHL for the Norris Trophy going to the league’s top defensemen. He was nominated with Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators. He is hoping to win his first career Norris and had a killer regular season to show for it.

Carlson hopes to become the second player in franchise history since Rod Langway to win it when he took it home in back to back years in 1982-83 and 1983-84.

Carlson’s 75 points in 69 games (15 goals and 60 assists) led all defensemen, 10 points ahead of Josi and 20 points ahead of Hedman. Carlson is the eighth defenseman in NHL history to hold a 10 point lead over the next highest scoring defensemen and a 20 point lead over the third highest scoring defensemen  and the first since Erik Karlsson in 2011-12 when he did it with the Ottawa Senators. Karlsson won the Norris that season.

Carlson was on pace for an 89 point season had the season finished it’s 82 game schedule. Only nine defensemen in NHL history have recorded 89 points in a season. It would’ve been the highest by a defenseman since Ray Bourque and Sergei Zubov in 1993-94.

Carlson averaged 1.09 points per game this season which was the highest total by a defenseman since Bourque, Al MacInnis, and Zubov in the 1993-94 season. Bourque won the Norris Trophy that season as the highest scoring defensemen.

If Carlson doesn’t play look for Radko Gudas to come in and fill in his role. He was on the ice for 12:33 in Wednesday’s exhibition including 2:19 on the penalty kill.

Here’s hoping Carlson continues to practice and gets fully healthy in time for Monday’s first Round Robin game against Tampa.