Photo credit: khl.ru

On Tuesday morning, far-flung Caps players reunited at Kettler Capitals Iceplex for an informal practice session. Present but not skating was the team’s star center, Nick Backstrom. Backstrom has not played since late December, when he took a hit from behind in a Dynamo Moscow game. According to SportsBox.ru, a doctor in Moscow said the injury was just a bruise, but Backstrom’s agent has since said his player’s status may be week-to-week.

On Tuesday night, we learned that Backstrom is visiting a specialist in Michigan.

On Wednesday, the Capitals confirmed the news:

Nick and his agent informed us that they are being proactive with his injury and decided to visit a specialist prior to training camp. Obviously, as you know until camp officially starts teams cannot perform physicals on any player.

We don’t have information on what kind of specialist Backstrom is visiting or the precise nature of his injury. It does behoove us to remark that Sidney Crosby traveled to Michigan to visit a concussion specialist during his own recovery.

Visiting a specialist may indicate that Backstrom’s injury is more significant than previously reported. Losing Backstrom for any portion of the upcoming shortened season would hurt the Capitals’ chances to win, and that’s just a secondary concern after the health issues of the player himself.

Additional reporting by Ian Oland.