Caps playing waiting game with Ovechkin, Backstrom’s injuries originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Capitals’ will have a few interesting decisions to make before Wednesday's season opener against the New York Rangers, and a few of them involve players at the forefront of the organization.
Alex Ovechkin, who suffered a lower-body injury in Friday’s preseason game vs. the Philadelphia Flyers, missed the remainder of the night and hasn’t been on the ice with the team since. He was absent from Monday's morning practice.
We're making it easier for you to find stories that matter with our new newsletter — The 4Front. Sign up here and get news that is important for you to your inbox.
“We’re hoping,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “It’s still day-to-day, so we’ll work through that until we get to that point.”
In his place at Monday’s practice, Connor McMichael took line rushes as first line left wing alongside center Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson.
The news looks far more grim for Nicklas Backstrom, who has not skated with the team all training camp due to an injured hip.
“There’s a process that you go through, you start to see guys on the ice,” Laviolette said. “He was week-to-week, we’re pushing towards the end of what we said. I think we’re still evaluating him to see where he’s at.”
The news around Backstrom wasn’t all bad, as Laviolette said he was improving and that he spoke to him Monday morning.
But without Backstrom, the Capitals had Lars Eller as second line center, Hendrix Lapierre at third line center and Nic Dowd on the fourth line.
