With one month roughly to go until training camp, the season is inching closer. There are lots of quetions surrounding the team with 50 days until the milestone Washington Capitals 50th anniversary season.
One hot question was answered recently in Sammi Silber's mailbag from The Hockey News:
""Given the amount of moves that Washington made, the influx of forwards, the professional tryout signing of Jakub Vrana and the Capitals' lack of cap space, signs point to T.J. Oshie heading to the long term injured reserve and not playing this season.""Sammi Silber/The Hockey News
Silber also noted that "Oshie said in July he would not play if he didn't find a long term solution to his chronic back pain, and he noted that list of solutions is dwindling."
The big decision comes right before training camp and we all know Oshie is the heart and soul of the team. Based on that knowledge we may see him back on the ice kind of like Nicklas Backstrom esque. The question is can this new Caps lineup protect Oshie at all costs because at 37 health does come first.
Oshie was recently on the NHL Network where he elaborated more on what he went through.
Oshie would say the following abou the matter:
""I'm feeling better, for sure, the hand is getting there which isn't really that big of a concern. The back is kind of a different story. I'm still grinding away, going to start really training here soon and it'll be a matter of whether or not I can get my body healthy enough to compete.""T.J. Oshie
Oshie would also add, "I'd obviously love to keep playing. I still enjoy coming to the rink every day. I still feel like I can hang out with the young bucks out there so I hope to be back next season. If not though, super happy and proud of what I've been able to accomplish."
Oshie has reached out to a number of specialists for an idea but he did note that the list is running out of things he's tried which comes with the adage of father time.