Nicklas Backstrom misses Tuesday’s Capitals practice for personal reasons

The Washington Capitals were back at it with a Tuesday practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. After practicing with a full lineup for the first time all season yesterday, the team was missing Nicklas Backstrom today but only for personal reasons.

Anthony Mantha was practicing once again in a light blue non contact sweater. Here were the lines from practice via Sammi Silber of Washington Hockey Now:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Sheary
Snively-Sprong-Wilson
McMichael-Eller-Oshie
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway

Fehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
TvR-Schultz

Mantha drew in and out of the rushes with Brett Leason, who was a healthy scratch. T.J. Oshie continued to progress as he skated on the third line with Connor McMichael and Lars Eller.

Justin Schultz and Vitek Vanecek were also on the ice and cleared for contact. Schultz hurt himself in the first period of the Capitals game against the Nashville Predators and missed Thursday’s contest at the Philadelphia Flyers. He was on the third pair with Trevor van Riemsdyk.

Vanecek left the Caps game on Feb. 1 against the Pittsburgh Penguins after Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen crashed into him about six minutes into the contest. Vanecek appeared to hit the post on the collision.

Per Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required), the team did not disclose the nature of Vanecek’s injury but described the recovery process being similar to recovering from a concussion.

Up until that collision it looked like Vanecek was for sure going to be the number one goalie. But now Ilya Samsonov’s play has picked up late. Samsonov made 33 saves last Tuesday in Nashville in a 4-1 win and 30 saves on Thursday in a 5-3 win in Philadelphia.

With Backstrom absent, Daniel Sprong filled in at the second line center. Other extras besides Leason were defensemen Michal Kempny and Matt Irwin. All three Caps goalies were present as Samsonov turned 25. The Caps also worked on their speed with a race around the ice.

The Capitals will hold an optional skate tomorrow at 11 a.m. at MedStar Capitals Iceplex which will always be Kettler to me. Then they’ll depart for New York for Thursday night’s game against the Rangers.