The Washington Capitals jumped right back on the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex for practice on Saturday after a rough 5-2 home loss to the St. Louis Blues. The team will head to Minnesota later in the day as they have an afternoon date with the Wild on Sunday.

Not on the ice for the skate was captain Alex Ovechkin. According to NBC Sports Washington’s Matt Weyrich, Ovechkin is taking another maintenance day.

Ovi did so last week before missing a game against the New York Rangers.

Ovechkin played 21 minutes of ice time in the loss to the Blues, grabbed an assist on Nicklas Backstrom’s goal, and had an unfortunate minus-4 plus/minus rating.

The Great Eight taking maintenance days hasn’t exactly become uncommon as the 37-year-old looks to remain fresh late in his career, but this season when he has elected to take a break it has twice correlated with him missing games.

First, he missed a morning skate in Vegas and didn’t play against the Golden Knights later that night and then his absence last week in NYC.

Ovi has missed six total games this season and the Caps have lost all six by a combined score of 27 to 12.

Ovi wasn’t the only one on the team to miss practice. Nick Jensen, who is nursing an injury he suffered against the Buffalo Sabres last Wednesday was also absent. Jensen was a game-time decision against the Blues and did not end up dressing.

If needed, the Caps do currently have one open roster spot as they are only carrying 22 skaters and goalies.

Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB