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TJ Oshie leaves preseason game against Red Wings with upper-body injury

By Ian Oland

 18 Comments

October 5, 2022 8:51 pm

The 2022-23 season appears to be starting how the 2021-22 season left off for TJ Oshie. After struggling through a myriad of injuries last season, Oshie was hurt in the Capitals’ preseason game against the Detroit Red Wings, Wednesday.

Oshie left the game late in the second period after being awkwardly hit into the boards by Red Wings’ forward Joe Veleno.

As Oshie was skating near the dasherboards, Veleno, the Red Wings’ first-round pick in the 2018 Draft, decked Oshie from the side. The Capitals winger, who has a history of shoulder injuries, was slow to get up and appeared in pain as he returned to the bench.

After Nick Jensen scored to tie the game 2-2 with 6:15 left in the period, Oshie walked down to the tunnel and down to the locker room to get checked out by trainers. He was holding his left arm straight against his thigh to minimize movement.

The Capitals say Oshie will not return to the game and will be re-evaluated tomorrow.

Oshie missed 38 games last season due to a lower-body injury, an upper-body injury, COVID, and a non-COVID illness. After the season, Oshie had surgery on a different injury involving his core and was held out of the first day of Training Camp.

“It was a core procedure I needed to have done,” Oshie said. “[The injury] happened in March. Something I played through. Got [the surgery] done two or three weeks after the season ended. We’re almost back to full (strength). Skipped the skate test today. Didn’t want to get too sore for the practices and playing the real hockey. I’ll be on the ice tomorrow on a line ready to rock.”

Oshie’s season last year ironically turned sour when he blocked a shot against the same Detroit Red Wings team on October 27. Oshie broke his foot, putting him in a walking boot and on crutches for weeks.

Oshie further derailed his season when he tried to come back too early from the injury. Oshie wanted to play in the Capitals’ November 21 Seattle Kraken game at Climate Pledge Arena in front of his family and friends.

“I had a broken foot and I was rushing myself back to try to play in that game,” Oshie explained to The Rink Live podcast. “I probably had 50-70 people there from my childhood there that were coming to the game. I was still in a walking boot, but I got the trainers to let me play the night before in San Jose. So I took my foot out of the walking boot, right in my skate, and played the San Jose game. I ended up being so excited on the ice that I had 10 hits in the first 15 minutes of the game. Then my back started going out probably from walking in a boot and not really training and jumping right into an NHL game. We flew to Seattle the next night, we were playing them the next day, and sure enough I couldn’t get out of bed the next day. I had to crawl down to our team meal and see our trainer and say, ‘Hey, guys, I can’t physically walk.'”

The 35-year-old Oshie is entering his eighth season with the Capitals. He has three seasons remaining on an eight-year contract he signed in June 2017, which will take him to age 38.

The Capitals are already set to enter the season with forwards Nicklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson, and Carl Hagelin on long term injured reserve.

Update: Peter Laviolette commented on Oshie’s injury after the game.

On his concern level:

Peter Laviolette: “Obviously, it’s enough where he left the game with an upper-body injury. They’re evaluating it now. They’ll evaluate it again tomorrow and see where he’s at.”

Was taking him out precautionary?

Peter Laviolette: “No, he was not coming back tonight.”

Screenshot: NBCSWSH

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