Capitals center Nic Dowd last played on January 16 against the New York Islanders. After just 57 seconds of ice time in that game, he took a hit from Isles forward Cal Clutterbuck that took him out of action with a lower-body injury. Afterward, Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said Dowd would be out for a bit.

Dowd has missed four games in a row since then as he works to get himself back healthy and into the lineup.

He spoke about that process with 106.7 The Fan’s Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier on Wednesday.

“[Rehab] is good, man,” Dowd said. “It’s always a bit of a grind. It’s always a toss-up. We have great people that we work with internally with our staff. Every injury is different and our staff, Jason Serbus, Steve Ruhmel, and Murphy Luatua – great dudes. It’s gotta be a tough job for them managing 25 different guys with different ailments. They do a good job. We’re moving in the right direction slowly. A little bit slower than I’d like, but slowly but surely.”

The Capitals are 1-3 in those four games without Dowd in the lineup. His absence has thrown the team’s mostly consistent fourth line into a bit of disarray as head coach Peter Laviolette has gone to usual top-six center Evgeny Kuznetsov in place of Dowd.

That will change against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday as more prototypical bottom-six center Lars Eller will now center Dowd’s good buddy Garnet Hathaway and Nicolas Aube-Kubel on the fourth line.

It’s an absence that Dowd says is very frustrating to deal with.

“We all play this great game and trained as kids because we want to play,” Dowd said. “You don’t ever think of it as like, ‘I signed up to play in the NHL to rehab every day.’ It’s part of the job.

“I think the beginning of the process is always challenging,” he continued. Because, you’re sitting there and looking at this like, ‘How did I get injured? How did this stupid thing happen?’ Immediately, the player is like, ‘Okay, I’ve done this once in my career and it took me twelve days.’ You’re crunching all the numbers in your head. Your first question sitting on the table is, ‘Hey doctor, how long am I going to be out for?’ Well, everything is different right and guys progress differently. That’s kinda where your brain goes first and then you get into the mountain of work that you have to do to get back. At times it can be a little overwhelming. You just gotta find solitude in that you work hard every day and you’re surrounded by good people.”

Rehabbing any injury is a grueling process and it’s even more so for a professional athlete. Dowd was asked what he thinks the common fan might not realize is the worst part about the process.

“I try and relate this with my wife because she loves to give me this like, “Oh, you were at the rink today and you got a massage’ or ‘You went into the chiropractor and you got worked on’,” Dowd said. “I’m like, ‘Honey, I totally understand how it sounds when I tell you I got a massage today.’ And, I get it. She might be at home grinding with the two kids and it’s like, ‘Oh, I had a massage today.’ These are not massages that you want to take part in. I highly doubt that you want to be on the table getting worked on by one of our guys trying to get through an injury. It’s not fun.”

And, Dowd says those massages are not even what he would personally pick as the worst component. He says it’s “dry needling”, which is a treatment performed by physical therapists where thin monofilament needles penetrate the skin and treat underlying muscular trigger points for pain management and muscular mobility.

“If you find a guy that can do it well and he hits a couple spots your muscles jump out of your skin,” Dowd said. “Then they take a while to relax and you’re sore as s—. You do feel so much better the next day. There’s just some things that people can’t get out with their hands and these needles can. Initially, you’re like ‘holy moly, this is tough’.”

Dowd has been excellent for the Caps this season. His next goal will tie his career high in a single season (11). His goal-scoring rate per 60 five-on-five minutes (1.32) is higher than Alex Ovechkin’s (1.2), and when he’s on the ice opponents score at a rate lower than all but four full-time forwards.

He also is the team’s first option when it comes to taking crucial defensive zone faceoffs and is a big part of the penalty kill unit.

It’s safe to say that he’s missed and the team will be better off when he returns.

Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB