The Washington Capitals will be without regular fourth line center Nic Dowd against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night. Per team PR, Dowd will not play as he is dealing with an upper-body injury.
Dowd missed the team’s last practice before they departed on their two-game Canadian road trip. The Capitals originally said it was just a maintenance day.
INJURY UPDATE: #Caps Nic Dowd will not play tonight versus Ottawa (upper body).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) October 18, 2023
Dowd played 15:06 of ice time against the Flames on Monday, a sizable 5:37 portion of those minutes coming with the Capitals down a man. The defensively dependable pivot was part of two very important, late penalty kills that got the team to overtime and eventually the winning shootout.
The 33-year-old Alabama native, underwent surgery on his core during the offseason. Dowd was healthy for the start of the regular season but said during Training Camp that he anticipates still needing to do regular upkeep on the problem.
“Looking every day to build on the last one and not have any setbacks,” Dowd said. “I think a lot of maintenance, a lot of rehab, a lot of warming up skating getting ready before practice. Stuff like that is probably going to follow me now for the rest of my career. Just how it works as you get a little older. It’s a tough game, so it’s kind of to be expected. I’ve been fortunate so far.”
With Dowd out, Aliaksei Protas will slide into his vacated center spot and Anthony Mantha will leave the press box and join Protas and Beck Malenstyn on the fourth line.
Lineys!#CapsSens | @JackDaniels_US pic.twitter.com/d3gT9TzmXu
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 18, 2023
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
