A day after a 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, the Capitals were back on the ice Wednesday at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, and the timing of the schedule gave them room for a long, demanding practice. With their next game not until Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres, the Caps are in the middle of a rare stretch in which that Sabres matchup is their only game over the next seven days.
There was some encouraging news on the health front. Pierre-Luc Dubois, who has missed the last five games because of illness, was no longer wearing a light blue, non-contact jersey and took part in practice as a full participant.
His return Saturday against Buffalo now looks likely, especially after forward Jonny Brodzinski was loaned to the AHL Hershey Bears. Brodzinski had played in each of Washington’s last two games, Saturday against New Jersey and Tuesday against the Kings.
That move lines up with what coach Spencer Carbery said earlier in the week about Dubois and the process of getting back into game shape after an illness.
“Once you’re back and - illness wise - able to join the group and come into the facility, it’s not about feeling well,” Carbery said earlier in the week, regarding Dubois. “It’s more about getting up to speed. And when you’ve been off for that many days, [it’s about] just trying to get your legs back under you and be able to feel comfortable and be able to perform in an NHL game.”
Not everything was clean on the injury front, though. Goaltender Logan Thompson missed Wednesday’s practice with a lower body injury and is listed as day-to-day.
Thompson was hurt in Tuesday’s loss after an early second-period stop on Kings winger Artemi Panarin, when he appeared slow to rise after the save. He stayed in the game and finished with 21 saves on 25 shots.
When asked right after Tuesday’s game whether there was concern about Thompson, Carbery didn’t sound alarmed.
“Not as of now. I’ll talk to [head athletic trainer Jason Serbus], but nothing right now.”
The calendar is working in Washington’s favor for now. The Caps are off Thursday, and they’re already off Sunday, which gives them three days between Saturday’s game against Buffalo and the homestand finale against Philly on Oct.
- That kind of spacing is unusual, especially after a start that has already included plenty of extremes: four preseason games in six nights during a 13-day camp, then seven games in 13 nights to open the season, and now three games in 13 nights, all at home.
Carbery said earlier this week that the staff would use the slower stretch to its advantage once the Kings game was in the books.
“I think we’ll tackle that approach after [the Kings game],” he said Monday. “We sort of feel like we’re in it, because you play the game against New Jersey [on Saturday], we’re off [Sunday], we’re back to a good, solid practice [Monday], play [Tuesday]. So we’re still in game mode, and then it really slows down with the three days [between home games].
“So, that’s where we’ll welcome those for people getting healthy, and then also use a couple of those days to really dial in some of the things that we want to get accomplished from a practice standpoint. And [we’ll] use rest, recovery, I think a little team building mixed in there.
It’s never ideal when you slow the season down; you’d rather just be playing. You don’t want it too condensed, but you don’t want it too spread out.
And we get both ways of that early in the season, which we’ll try to use as best we can.”
Friday morning’s practice should provide the clearest read yet on what Washington’s lineup will look like Saturday.
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