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Tom Wilson, Nic Dowd, and Marcus Johansson all participate in Capitals outdoor practice before Stadium Series game

By Chris Cerullo

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February 17, 2023 7:41 pm

The Washington Capitals took the ice at NC State’s Carter-Finley Stadium on Friday night for their outdoor practice before they’re slated to play the Carolina Hurricanes on the same rink on Saturday.

Present at the skate for the Caps were three forwards that may be injury doubts for the actual game. Tom Wilson, Nic Dowd, and Marcus Johansson all donned practice sweaters and got in regular drill work with the rest of their teammates.

Wilson started regularly practicing with the team earlier this week after not getting on the ice for a handful of weeks prior. He had been absent since January 24 due to blocking a shot against the Colorado Avalanche.

NBC Sports Washington’s Ethan Cadeaux posted video of the big winger getting in some hard work during Friday’s skate.

The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir had previously reported last week that Wilson was sporting a pretty “noticeable limp” as he worked his way around MedStar Capitals Iceplex. The big forward has played in just eight games this season after initially returning from offseason knee surgery in January. He has recorded three total points (2g, 1a) in those games.

El-Bashir asked head coach Peter Laviolette on Wednesday if Wilson was closer to returning than Dowd. He went with a ship analogy that seemed to indicate that Dowd is not exactly too far behind Wilson in terms of return progress.

“It’s hard to say, to be honest with you,” Laviolette said. “I think they’re both moving on a similar ship. Maybe one is at the front of the ship and one is in the middle of the ship. They’re moving together. They’re working to get back.”

Wilson did rock an ‘A’ on his jersey in the team photo as one of the team’s alternate captain. That indicates he is likely to play on Saturday.

Dowd has been out even longer than Wilson after going down with an injury early in a game against the New York Islanders on January 16. The team did not wear their regular practice jerseys that usually indicate whether they can take contact or not at the skate. Dowd recently has only skated in a dark blue non-contact sweater.

“It’s good that he’s out there and pushing,” Laviolette said of Dowd on Wednesday. “I’m still not sure of the timetable. Again, the progression of getting players out on the ice in different color jerseys, pushing themselves up and down the ice will lead to at some point practice and repetition.

“The fact that he’s out there is encouraging and signs that he’s moving in the right direction,” he finished.

Also out on the ice was Johansson. Johansson was somewhat of a doubt due to getting tangled up with Radko Gudas late in the Capitals’ 6-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

Johansson left that game in the third period and did not return. Laviolette told NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti postgame that there was no update on Johansson and that the Swede was still being evaluated.

Screenshot via NHL/YouTube

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