The Washington Capitals not only gave the series to the Florida Panthers in six games but they were banged up along the way. This comes as no surprise considering they had to deal with injuries all year.
On Sunday’s breakdown day at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, more injury issues came to light. We learned that Tom Wilson would’ve probably been out the entire postseason with a lower body injury. We learned that Nicklas Backstrom had to deal with hip injuries all year which means a big decision could be looming. We also learned that Alex Ovechkin was still banged up in the playoffs.
On Backstrom’s hip and if it could impact his career, General Manager Brian MacLellan put it bluntly:
"“He’s going to explore all options. He wants it to be better.”"
If that sounded bad this sounded worse from Backstrom himself:
"“The hip’s not going to be 100 percent. That’s something we all know. Some days are good. Some days are less good. That’s just life.”"
This is alarming. Backstrom missed much of the beginning of the season and had a career worse year statistically but that comes from him not being 100 percent healthy. He had six goals and 25 assists in 47 games, a career low 0.66 points per game average.
Meanwhile Wilson said that he suffered a knee injury during Game 1. It came on his third shift. He noted that surgery and a long rehab process could be possible with a goal of getting ready for October.
Wilson did skate on his own before practice and morning skates and tried to get back but GMBM said it wouldn’t have been possible and a long road is ahead. Wilson said:
"“I was trying to get back and trying everything I could. Every person you walk by, every fan was like, ‘When are you back? We need you back.’ That was tough. I wanted to be out there. So, you feel like you let people down and that sucks.”"
Ovechkin confirmed that he had a shoulder injury and in order to play in the playoffs he needed some “injections” and “magic pills”. He noted that he won’t need surgery and will fly back to Russia today to reunite with his wife Nastya and his sons Sergei and Ilya.
Carl Hagelin also spoke with reporters about his eye injury that came from a teammate’s stick accidentally hitting him in practice. He began to skate on his own after two surgeries on his eye. He has been drawing on his former New York Rangers teammate Marc Staal who suffered a similar injury in 2013 for advice.
Stills from the final media availability sessions of the 2021-22 season at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.#ALLCAPS
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) May 15, 2022
Even T.J. Oshie, who tore it up in the playoffs with six goals in six games had a tough year and was still dealing with a broken foot and back injury. The injured foot even caused him to switch skates during the playoffs. He doesn’t think he will require surgery, however.
This series loss isn’t on the players or even the coaches. This starts at the top with GMBM. He had every opportunity to fix his roster at the trade deadline and now he faces a summer of tough decisions. As for the players, they will now use this summer to heal.