- Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette is hoping to have center Lars Eller back for tomorrow’s contest against Sunday, relays Samantha Pell of the Washington Post. The veteran has missed six straight games while in COVID protocol but was able to participate in a full practice today. With Nicklas Backstrom missing the entire season so far, Eller has been called upon to play a bigger role as he is averaging a career-high 17:18 per game in 15 contests while recording a goal and seven assists.
Capitals Rumors
T.J. Oshie Moved To Injured Reserve
It certainly hasn’t been an easy season thus far for Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie. According to Tom Gulitti of NHL.com, the veteran finds himself back on injured reserve today after returning for only one game.
Oshie was activated on November 20 in time for the Capitals’ game against the San Jose Sharks, but managed just 14 minutes of ice time. He didn’t play in the team’s loss the next night and now finds himself off the roster for the second time this season. Oshie will be eligible to play on Sunday, thanks to a retroactive IR placement, but it’s unclear when he’ll actually be inserted back into the lineup.
In eight games so far this season, he actually has seven points including four goals. The 34-year-old forward just hasn’t been able to stay healthy so far, a concern as he heads into his mid-thirties. Oshie is under contract for three more seasons, meaning the Capitals will have to hope these early injuries are just disappointing coincidences, not a trend.
Still, there was some good news at practice today. Nicklas Backstrom re-joined the group for the first time, skating with a non-contact sweater. He didn’t participate in line drills, but just to have him back with the group is a good sign that he is on his way to a return.
Washington Capitals Activate T.J. Oshie, Nic Dowd
The Washington Capitals activated forwards T.J. Oshie and Nic Dowd from injured reserve today, per a team release. In a corresponding move, the release states the team also reassigned forward Brett Leason to the AHL’s Hershey Bears.
Oshie’s been absent from the Capitals lineup since October 28, when he was designated as week-to-week with a lower-body injury. At the time, he was in the middle of a good start to the 2021-22 campaign with four goals and six points in seven games.
Dowd, however, has missed just a week and a half with this undisclosed injury. He’s been in and out of the lineup due to injury this year, but after the placement on injured reserve, the Capitals hope he’s good to go at 100%. The 31-year-old has a goal in nine games.
As Washington deals with a variety of absences that include Nicklas Backstrom, Anthony Mantha, and Lars Eller, Oshie’s and Dowd’s returns couldn’t come at a better time. Oshie likely returns as a veteran presence on a line with Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Garrett Pilon, while Dowd reprises his role as the fourth-line center between Carl Hagelin and Garnet Hathaway.
Despite all the injuries, Washington’s soldiered on to a 10-2-5 record this year and sit at second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Lars Eller Placed In COVID Protocol
The Washington Capitals will not have Lars Eller available to them tonight, as the veteran center has been placed in the COVID protocol. Eller was absent from practice earlier today and listed as questionable, but it’s clear now that he will not play.
The team has not confirmed whether or not Eller has actually tested positive for coronavirus, meaning his length of absence is unclear at this point. After the team takes on the Anaheim Ducks tonight, they are set to travel to Los Angeles, San Jose, and Seattle before returning to Washington. A positive test with symptoms would cause Eller to be held out for a minimum of ten days, ruling him out for the next several games.
Still perhaps unheralded, despite winning a Stanley Cup with the Capitals in 2018, Eller is one of the most consistent two-way players on the entire roster. In 15 games this season, all of them without Nicklas Backstrom who has been on injured reserve, Eller has eight points and is averaging more than 17 minutes of ice time. His 119 faceoff wins ties him with Evgeny Kuznetsov for the team lead, with those two carrying the load in the middle of the ice.
Though just one of his points is a goal, it’s easy to bet on Eller’s eventual scoring production. Since his rookie year, when he posted just seven goals in 77 games, Eller has registered at least 12 in every season he has played in at least 47 games. He produced a career-best offensive season with 16 goals and 39 points in just 69 games during the 2019-20 season, and actually was on pace for even better numbers had 2020-21 been a full 82-game schedule.
Without Eller, Backstrom, or Nic Dowd, the team had rookie Connor McMichael in the second-line center position at practice today, with Garrett Pilon and Aliaksei Protas in the third and fourth spots respectively. That’s an extremely young, inexperienced group, meaning the team will have to lean even more heavily on Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Washington Capitals Give Nic Dowd Three-Year Extension
The Washington Capitals announced Sunday afternoon that the team signed center Nic Dowd to a three-year extension worth $3.9MM. The deal, which spans from 2022-23 to 2024-25, will carry an average annual value of $1.3MM. Per PuckPedia, the structure of the contract is as follows:
2022-23: $1.6MM salary
2023-24: $1.3MM salary
2024-25: $1.0MM salary
Dowd will enter his fifth season with Washington in 2022-23. He’s been a reliable fourth-line center for the team since joining in free agency prior to the 2018-19 campaign.
The native of Huntsville, Alabama, is in the final year of a three-year, $2.25MM extension he signed with the team on April 11, 2019. In his Capitals tenure, Dowd has 27 goals, 26 assists and 53 points in 185 games played along with a 53.3% winning rate in the faceoff dot. He had a career-best 11 goals in 56 games last season while averaging 14:22 per game, also a career-high.
Dowd’s been limited to just nine games in 2021-22 due to a recurring lower-body injury, scoring just a goal in those nine contests. It’s his ability in the faceoff circle and reliable game that draw Washington’s coaching staff and front office to him, though.
As a variety of young prospects like Connor McMichael, Hendrix Lapierre, and Brett Leason are close to becoming full-time players at the NHL level, Dowd will likely be a valuable pivot and mentor to help solidify the team’s bottom six.
Dowd will be 34 years old at the expiry of this contract extension.
Alex Ovechkin Moves Into Fourth On NHL Goals Scored List
- Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin’s goal last night against Columbus moved him into fourth all-time in NHL scoring with 742 tallies. Next up for him to catch is Jaromir Jagr who sits 24 ahead of Washington’s captain. Ovechkin is off to a hot start to his season with 12 goals and 12 assists in just 14 games.
Capitals Assign Zach Fucale To AHL Hershey
- Just days after posting his first career NHL shutout, Capitals goaltender Zach Fucale is heading back to AHL Hershey, per a team announcement. The 26-year-old – who was the first goalie in franchise history to record a shutout in his debut – has a 1.73 GAA with a .933 SV% with the Bears this season. Fucale’s demotion suggests that Vitek Vanecek is ready to return from the upper-body injury that caused him to miss the last two games.
Hendrix Lapierre Returned To Junior
After six games with the NHL club, Hendrix Lapierre is headed back to junior. The Washington Capitals have assigned the young prospect to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the QMJHL where he will play the rest of the season. Lapierre was not eligible for the AHL. Because he played less than ten games with the Capitals, he will not burn the first year of his entry-level contract.
Still just 19, Lapierre scored the first goal of his NHL career during his time in Washington and will likely be back with the Capitals next season. For now, he will be able to return to a league that he actually hasn’t played a ton in, due to injury or shortened seasons. Over three years, Lapierre has suited up just 101 times in the Q, all of them coming for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. Earlier this summer, Chicoutimi traded him to Acadie-Bathurst, where he’ll now report.
An extremely talented forward, there had been health concerns with Lapierre stemming back to a series of concussions suffered in junior. At least some of those concussions were later diagnosed as a neck issue, and it was the Capitals who ended up taking a risk by selecting him 22nd overall in 2020. That seems to have immediately paid off, with Lapierre making the club out of camp and impressing along the way, though the team will obviously have to closely monitor his health moving forward.
Back in junior, not only should Lapierre dominate the QMJHL, but he’ll also be a top candidate for the Canadian World Junior team. As a 19-year-old who turns 20 in February, this is his last chance to play in the event.
T.J. Oshie Expected To Resume Skating This Week
- Capitals GM Brian MacLellan told Samantha Pell of the Washington Post that although winger T.J. Oshie is currently in a walking boot, he is expected to return to the ice in some capacity this week. That would certainly be welcome news for Washington which has been hit hard on the injury front with center Nicklas Backstrom and Anthony Mantha also out of the lineup at the moment.
Department Of Player Safety Fines Derick Brassard For Unsportsmanlike Conduct
The NHL Department of Player Safety today fined Philadelphia Flyers forward Derick Brassard $2,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct toward the Washington Capitals’ Garnet Hathaway during a game Saturday night, as announced today.
The play in question involved Brassard delivering a punch to Hathaway’s face while standing on the Flyers bench. Hathaway was on the ice. Brassard was given an interference penalty on the play.
Brassard has stepped up in a big way for the Flyers this season, scoring two goals and five assists for seven points in 10 games during his first season as a Flyer. Brassard has seen an elevated role in the absence of the injured Kevin Hayes, centering the team’s second line between Joel Farabee and Cam Atkinson.
The 34-year-old joined the team by signing a one-year, $825,000 contract on August 25. The Flyers are his sixth different team during the past four seasons. Brassard spent last season with the Arizona Coyotes, scoring just eight goals and 20 points, his lowest totals since his rookie season in 2007-08.