Nicklas Backstrom had a major milestone at Capitals practice on Friday.
The legendary centerman was cleared for contact by Capitals’ trainers for the first time this season. Backstrom is rehabbing a hip injury and remains on long term injured reserve.
The Washington Capitals seem to be nearing another major boost to their lineup.
According to The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell, Nicklas Backstrom, TJ Oshie, and Conor Sheary all skated at Friday’s “non-contact” practice.
NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti observed that Oshie and Sheary both took line rushes and worked with the top power play unit which indicates they could play Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
By Chris Cerullo 1 day ago
The Washington Capitals could not find a way to fully bounce back from their devastating, terrible loss to the Florida Panthers as they fell in a shootout to the Chicago Blackhawks.
I thought the effort was pretty mediocre against a not-so-good team. I’m a tad concerned about recent trends in the Caps’ play. Let’s talk about that and more.
By Chris Cerullo 2 days ago
The Washington Capitals blew a third period lead on Thursday, but this time it was a smaller lead, but thay lead was lost to a worse team, Chicago, so that’s … I dunno. Is that better?
Alex DeBrincat was first on the board, beating Vitek Vanecek on the rush. Nic Dowd finished a beautiful passing sequence to tie it early in the second period, but Domink Kubalik exploited a failed clear from Evgeny Kuznetsov to score a power-play goal. Out of spite, Kuznetsov crashed the net to even the score at 2-2 after two periods.
Coming out of the penalty box at the top of the third period, Garnet Hathaway caught a jailbreak pass from Nic Dowd to give Washington their first lead of the night. Seth Jones neutralized that lead with a goal from the slot with eight minutes left in regulation. That pushed into overtime, which was fun but fruitless.
Shootout bullets.
Caps lose in the shootout.
By Peter Hassett 2 days ago
2019 World Series champion Ryan Zimmerman was at Capital One Arena for Thursday’s Capitals-Blackhawks game.
The Washington Nationals legend, rocking a red sweater, was honored during the second period, receiving a loud applause from the Caps faithful.
The Washington Capitals will try to get back in the win column against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight after a stunning 5-4 loss to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday. The Capitals collapsed in the third period, giving up four goals.
Ilya Samsonov, who stopped 46 of 51 shots that night, will sit for the first time in five games, surrendering the net to Vitek Vanecek.
The Capitals will get Justin Schultz back in the lineup after missing several games due to injury. Daniel Sprong will also return from being a scratch for the last two games.
Will Cohen, a junior at Landon High School, went with a friend to see the Washington Football Team play the Seattle Seahawks on Monday. The former Capitals season ticket holder wore a Ryan Kerrigan jersey to the game that his mother bought for him at Dick’s Sporting Goods sometime around 2010.
Sitting in his friend’s club level seats, Will looked around FedEx Field in anticipation of a big Monday Night Football game. The WFT team had won two games in a row, beating Tom Brady and Cam Newton in consecutive weeks. A victory against Russell Wilson and the Seahawks would propel Washington into a playoff spot despite a losing record.
Then Capitals forward TJ Oshie walked up and sat behind Will in the row directly behind him.
“I looked back four times five times in total disbelief,” Will said in an interview recalling that night.
The Washington Capitals will get a boost in the lineup when they take on the Chicago Blackhawks at Capital One Arena, Thursday.
Per the Washington Post’s Samantha Pell, defenseman Justin Schultz participated in the morning skate and appears set to return to game action. Schultz had been out injured since suffering an upper-body injury against the Montreal Canadiens on November 24.
Schultz skated with Trevor van Riemsdyk on the third pairing during practice. Dennis Cholowski, who had played four games recently, was an extra.
Daniel Sprong will also return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the last two games.
Former Rangers and Capitals goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist, has been a busy boy since retiring from hockey over the summer.
Lundqvist joined MSG Networks to be a TV analyst of the Rangers. It took a little over a month for TNT to hire the future Hall of Famer to its national coverage.
It’s been a natural fit so far, mostly because Lundqvist seems like he was crafted in a lab for television. He’s incredibly good-looking (even I notice it), breathlessly articulate, and impossibly good at everything — even playing guitar.
In fact, Lundqvist’s first appearance on Wednesday went semi-viral and got the attention of one wildly famous Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band.
The third period of Tuesday’s game notwithstanding, the Washington Capitals have become a fearsome defensive team this season. In this last entry (for now) of the Twenty Games In series, I’d like to dive deep into Washington’s biggest improvement of 2021-22: the defense.
By Peter Hassett 3 days ago
