The Washington Capitals jumped on the ice for an optional practice on Wednesday and veteran center Nic Dowd was not among the players who participated. Dowd left Tuesday night’s win over the New Jersey Devils after suffering an upper-body injury in the first period.
Head coach Spencer Carbery was asked to give an update on Dowd during his post-practice media availability. The Capitals are traveling to Florida to play the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers over the next three days.
“Dowd is day-to-day,” Carbery said. “Upper body, will not travel.”
The Capitals recalled winger Pierrick Dube to go on the trip in his place. The team is currently carrying a full complement of 23 players so it’s likely that Dowd will end up on injured reserve to get Dube on the active roster.
If Dowd does end up on IR, he would also miss next week’s back-to-back against the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings.
Dowd ended up playing just 6:20 of total ice time in the blowout win over the Devils. Early in the first period, he took a high hit from Devils forward Timo Meier which went unpenalized.
Although he stayed in the game, he cut his final shift of the period short with 2:00 remaining before the first intermission.
Dowd has already missed nine games earlier this season across October and November with an upper-body injury. In the 44 games he has played, he has recorded 16 points (8g, 8a). He is skating on average 15:27 of ice time per game which is a career-high by over a full minute.
The defensively dependable pivot has seen his name pop up in a slew of trade rumors over the past several weeks. If the Capitals are sellers at this year’s March 8 trade deadline, Dowd is likely to be one of the players they get a ton of calls on.
