A little over a dozen hours after a 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, the Caps were back at it at their MedStar Capitals Iceplex facility, practicing three days ahead of their next game, this Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres. That Saturday tilt against the Sabres is the only game the Caps play across the next seven days, including today.
Wednesday’s practice was lengthy and rigorous; the schedule currently allows for that, and the Caps will be off on Thursday. Ahead of Wednesday’s session, Justin Sourdif (illness) skated on his own, and the Caps announced they’ve loaned forward Jonny Brodzinski to the AHL Hershey Bears. Brodzinski suited up for each of the Caps’ last two games, Saturday against New Jersey and Tuesday against the Kings.
Brodzinski going back to the Bears is a good indication that Pierre-Luc Dubois, who has missed the last five games because of illness, will be ready to return to the lineup Saturday against Buffalo. Shedding the light blue, non-contact practice sweater, Dubois was a full participant in Wednesday’s practice, and he appeared to be suffering no lingering or ill effects from his absence.
“Once you’re back and – illness wise – able to join the group and come into the facility, it’s not about feeling well,” Caps coach Spencer 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.”
But the injury news wasn’t all positive. Goaltender Logan Thompson didn’t practice on Wednesday because of a lower body injury; he is day-to-day. Thompson made an early second-period stop on Kings winger Artemi Panarin in Tuesday’s loss, and the goaltender was slow in getting up following that stop. He remained in the game and finished with 21 saves on the 25 shots he faced.
Asked if he had concerns regarding Thompson in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s game, Carbery answered, “Not as of now. I’ll talk to [head athletic trainer Jason Serbus], but nothing right now.”
Three practice days between games is gratuitous, so the Caps will take Thursday off, and they are already off on Sunday, the first of three days between Saturday’s game with the Sabres and the homestand finale against Philly on Oct. 28.
The Caps played four preseason games in a span of six nights during a training camp of 13 days in duration. They then opened the season by playing seven games in 13 nights, and they are now navigating a stretch of just three games in 13 nights, all of them at home.
Earlier in the week, Carbery addressed the scheduling oddity of playing just one game in seven days, and how he and his staff will approach that rare situation.
“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 at MedStar should give us a much better indication of what Saturday’s lineup might look like.
