The Washington Capitals held a practice on Monday afternoon at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. There was some good news as the team is starting to get healthy. And soon we’ll see Nicklas Backstrom on the ice in game action for the first time this season.
Let’s get the bad news out of the way. Tom Wilson did not skate with the team and he is still day to day with an upper body injury. Nic Dowd and Trevor Van Riemsdyk both remain in COVID protocol, however, they still practiced. Garnet Hathaway did not skate and is still in protocols.
Backstrom took rushes on the ice for the first time this season on the second line alongside Conor Sheary. T.J. Oshie and Brett Leason rotated around. Here are the rest of the forward lines via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Protas
Sheary-Backstrom-Oshie-Leason
McMichael-Eller-Sprong
Hagelin-Dowd-Malenstyn
Capitals Coach Peter Laviolette didn’t rule out Backstrom returning for Wednesday night’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks. It would be his season debut as he missed all of training camp and was placed on long term injured reserve at the beginning of the season.
This is the most time the 34 year old center has missed due to injury. In addition, he got time with the top power play unit. Laviolette approved the progress he has made:
"“He had another really good day today. We purposefully put him in a line and in the power play to start taking reps and preparing him, and we are just still continuing to go day by day today. But the fact you saw him take the workload he did today was a great sign and a great day.”"
“I’m feeling good right now. Another practice tomorrow and we’ll go from there.” — Nicklas Backstrom on potentially returning this week. #Caps pic.twitter.com/J1UexHkXlm
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) December 13, 2021
The Caps will practice today. If all signs are good, we could see him in the lineup as early as tomorrow night. Backstrom himself has been feeling really good:
"“I’m feeling good right now. As you all know, we haven’t been having a lot of practice, either. So it was nice to get to practice and actually take some line rushes, too. But I’m feeling better, progressing.”"
The Caps practice today at 11 a.m. before traveling to Chicago.