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Martin Fehervary looks likely to return against Montreal Canadiens after missing 12 games

By Chris Cerullo

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December 30, 2022 1:41 pm

The Washington Capitals took the ice for practice a day after their disappointing overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators. They match up with the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday for a New Year’s Eve matinee.

The biggest news of the skate was Martin Fehervary participated fully and appears ready to return to the lineup. The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell reported the news on Twitter.

The young Slovak defender skated on the team’s third defense pairing at practice with Matt Irwin.

Fehervary has not skated in a game since December 3 when he was taken out by a hit from Calgary Flames forward Milan Lucic.

It has been almost four full weeks since Fehervary, announced by the Capitals to be “day-to-day”, was spotted postgame in Calgary with his arm in a sling.

“Marty had an upper-body injury that they’re evaluating,” Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said then.

On December 5, the Capitals placed Fehervary on injured reserve. On December 15 the blueliner started his path back to the active roster getting in some extra work before a practice with Beck Malenstyn and Darcy Kuemper who was also injured at the time.

Fehervary’s first full practice back with the Caps came two days later in a dark blue non-contact sweater. Only very recently has Fehervary shed that non-contact jersey and been listed as “close” to a return by head coach Peter Laviolette.

“A couple days now,” the veteran bench boss said of Fehervary. “Anytime somebody comes out of that (non-contact) jersey I feel like they’re close. I feel like a lot of guys are close.”

During Fehervary’s absence, the Capitals have deployed eight different defensemen. His injury has given extended opportunities to Matt Irwin and Alex Alexeyev as well as played part in Lucas Johansen’s return from the AHL to serve as the team’s seventh defender when John Carlson got hurt.

If Fehervary is to come off injured reserve for the game against the Habs, Johansen is the most likely player to go back to Hershey as he will not require waivers to do so.

Photo: @That_WriterGirl/Twitter