Lars Eller was back on the ice and fully participated in the Washington Capitals’ first post-holiday practice on Friday morning.
The veteran Dane’s return was overshadowed by more developments in Alex Ovechkin’s return to active duty, but the skate was the Tiger’s first in a week and a half since ending up on injured reserve due to illness. Per NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti, Eller jumped right back into his usual spot as the team’s third-line center between Andrew Mangiapane and Jakub Vrana.
Eller remains on injured reserve ahead of the Capitals’ game two-game road trip to Toronto and Detroit to end this week.
Lines from Friday’s practice
Extras: Lapierre, Miroshnichenko, Alexeyev, McIlrath
Head coach Spencer Carbery was noncommittal to Ovechkin making his return against the Maple Leafs and echoed that same sentiment regarding Eller. Eller has not played since December 17 against the Chicago Blackhawks.
“Practiced today full, which is a positive sign,” Carbery said post-practice. “We’ll just see tomorrow again. He’s sort of in the same boat as [Ovechkin].”
Eller, acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in November, has 13 points (6g, 7a) in 33 games this season. He had snapped a six-game point drought right before leaving the lineup.
Washington initially recalled Henrik Rybinski after placing Eller on IR but sent Rybinski back to the AHL’s Hershey Bears on Christmas Eve before ever playing in a game. The demotion frees up a roster spot, but the Capitals will need to make another move if they want to activate both Eller and Ovechkin at some point this weekend.
Ivan Miroshnichenko was recalled when Ovechkin got hurt in November and has stuck in Washington’s lineup recently, while Hendrix Lapierre has been in and out as a frequent healthy scratch. Despite not receiving a line assignment, Miroshnichenko took reps with the second power-play unit on Friday. Lapierre did not skate with a line nor get in any power play work.
Saturday night’s game at Scotiabank Arena will kick off a stretch of 21 games in 44 days for the Capitals before the NHL breaks for the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. Carbery hopes his team can use this stretch of games to cement their place in the standings.
“These 21 [games] in 44 [days] is kind of our middle [of the season], where I feel like we can really help ourselves out as a team and set us up for the final push. We go out to Western Canada in part of this – don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but it’s a good, strong 44 days that will be really important for our team and for our group.”
The Capitals come into Friday second in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference, one point behind the New Jersey Devils in both races but with three games in hand. They will have four games in hand by the time the puck drops against Toronto on Saturday.
