TJ Oshie left the Capitals late last week to receive treatment for an unspecified injury in Minnesota.
Some RMNB readers, who have already lived through Nicklas Backstrom’s stepping away from the game announcement earlier this season, interpreted that as a potential swan song for Oshie before being placed on long term injured reserve.
Nope. In fact, the opposite has turned out to be true.
On Tuesday, Oshie returned to practice. Not only did he skate with the regulars, but he shed his non-contact jersey, too.
Even further, when Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery was asked about Oshie’s recovery status, he did not rule him out on playing in a game and soon.
“Potential for this week,” Carbery said. “We’ll see how he does post practice today. Tomorrow one more practice and then we’ll go from there.”
Now, perhaps the best source on when TJ will play next, has weighed in: Lauren Oshie.
Oshie’s wife conducted an Instagram Story Q/A on Tuesday afternoon. While doing so, she dropped this nugget when asked how TJ was doing health-wise.
“He’s doing well! He’ll be back in the lineup this Thursday!” she said.
And if you didn’t believe her the first time, she said the same thing later in her chat.
Lauren added that the family joined TJ on his trip. “We all went back for a couple of days,” she said.
Playing against the Seattle Kraken holds a special significance to Oshie since he first entered the NHL in 2021. He grew up in Everett, Washington, as a kid and played 10 seasons in the Seattle Junior Hockey Association. He remains a fan of the professional sports teams from his original hometown including the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.
“I had the full (Sonics) jersey and shorts for Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp,” Oshie has said in the past. “I was a huge Ken Griffey Jr. fan. I actually wanted to name Campbell, my son, Griffey but my wife had other plans.”
Oshie derailed much of his 2021-22 season when he rushed back from a broken foot so that he could play against the Kraken in Seattle for the first time time in his career.
“You guys know me well enough that once I can put my foot in a skate and I can move, I want to play,” Oshie said then. “I got out in the game in San Jose where the foot was still in pain, but I thought I could play and make an impact. Then the back went out in that game for no reason really and everything snowballed from there.”
Oshie has missed 17 of 38 games this season due to a variety of issues, including an incidental headshot he absorbed from Mattias Ekholm in November. The last game Oshie suited up in was on December 16 against the Nashville Predators.
Lauren was also asked during the chat where the Oshie family will settle once TJ retires, either in DC or moving back to Minnesota where they spend their summers.
“Honestly we go back and forth almost daily!” she said. “One day we think we know exactly where life after hockey is for us and the next it’s the complete opposite. The plan was always to end up in MN. But we’ve been in the DMV for 10 years now. We were traded here when Lyla was only 1! We’ve made so many friends here in VA that it’s going to be very difficult to leave if we do.”
