The injury bug has taken a bite out of the Washington Capitals since the summer and news continues to get worse. John Carlson is day to day and T.J. Oshie is out indefinitely. It looks like that will also be the case with Connor Brown, who was brought on to fill in for an injured Tom Wilson.
Nick Kypreos reported in a tweet that “Connor Brown had successful ACL surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. Hearing a return this season is highly unlikely but hasn’t been ruled out.”
Ironically, Tom Wilson had ACL surgery as well and he’s still sidelined until at least the holiday season. Maybe he comes back around Thanksgiving. Maybe he returns closer to Christmas or maybe even in early 2023.
Shortly after this report from Kypreos, Capitals Public Relations confirmed it. They said, “Caps forward Connor Brown, who was injured on October 17 versus Vancouver (Canucks), underwent a surgical procedure on his right knee to reconstruct his torn ACL. Based on the nature of this procedure, Brown is expected to miss 6-8 months.”
Brown appeared in just four games with the Capitals. To recap the Caps are now without Nicklas Backstrom, Carl Hagelin, Tom Wilson, John Carlson, T.J. Oshie, and Brown.
This is very bad news. In fact it’s the worst type of news you don’t want to hear. The Capitals as a core have gotten one year older and now with injuries piling up it puts more pressure on the old veterans and the young kids who barely got to play.
Prior to Brown’s injury he was skating on the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov and even played with Dylan Strome when he got bumped up to the top line. He’s 28 years old and the Caps acquired him in July from the Ottawa Senators for a 2024 second round draft pick.