Y’all, Santa is giving the Caps coal for Christmas. And by coal I mean a spate of almost-injuries before their holiday break.
First, Jakub Vrana went down and was grabbing his left knee.
Jakub Vrana just went down in practice. Holding his left knee. He skated off on his own and is now sitting on the bench and chatting with a trainer. Knowing hockey players, he’s probably fine.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) December 17, 2018
Then, TJ Oshie crashed into the net, and given his five previous concussions, was immediately escorted off the ice.
This has not been a good practice. T.J. Oshie crashed into the net and is now down on the ice. Now he’s skating off and going back to the locker room. Obviously a scary situation with his concussion history.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) December 17, 2018
To replace the maybe injured Oshie, Andre Burakovsky filled in on the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.
That’s two of the Caps top six forwards potentially out due to Santa sticking the Capitals on the naughty list.
But, in what has to be the best kind of Christmas miracle, both Oshie and Vrana returned to practice. Crisis averted! Here’s the TL;DR version from Tom Gulitti.
To sum up:
Vrana crashed into net, went to bench for a bit, but resumed practice.
Oshie crashed into net, went to locker room for a bit and returned to practice.
Return to your regular routine.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) December 17, 2018
And in more good news, Brooks Orpik was seen completing a conditioning skate with Mark Nemish before practice.
Brooks Orpik is out on the ice with strength and conditioning coach Mark Nemish getting a skate in.
— JJ Regan (@JJReganNBCS) December 17, 2018
The greatest Christmas gift of all is a healthy hockey team.
Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong
