You remember picture day, right? Look back at all those school photos now and all you get is bad hair, horrendously out-dated clothes and the chance to be mocked by your family and friends. Good times! Yeah – hockey players don’t have that problem. But they do gather near the end of every year for a team photo, which the Capitals did today at Verizon Center.
No major news: Injured center Nicklas Backstrom is still on track to miss just “a game or two” as Bruce Boudreau put it. He skated wearing a non-contact jersey this morning. I’d still be surprised if we saw him against Carolina on Friday night, though. At this point there’s no reason for it. But don’t take that as a sign the Caps will milk Backstrom’s injury for all it’s worth, either. They’re in good shape in the standings, but the minute he’s ready to play he’ll be back on the ice.
“[Because] then you’re running into a problem,” Boudreau said. “Nicky wants [his fractured left thumb] 100-percent better, but if it’s better then Nicky wants to play. He’s one of the best in the world. So we could use him whenever he’s ready.”
Other news and notes: Forward Jay Beagle (upper-body injury) is healthy and ready to go when needed – though it’ll be tough cracking a suddenly crowded group of forwards. Semyon Varlamov (knee) skated gingerly at the morning skate on Wednesday. But Boudreau says the 22-year-old wants to take shots from his teammates tomorrow at Kettler Iceplex. We’ll see how that goes for him. The original timeline there was 7-to-10 days dating from last Thursday. Still to be determined if Varlamov will be ready for next week’s road trip to Montreal and Detroit. At the very least Boudreau called it “an encouraging sign.”
Defenseman Tom Poti (groin) also made it through a full practice for the first time in a while. But the test – as always – with Poti is how he responds later today and tomorrow. He’ll chat with the trainers about that.
Not too much new to report on defenseman Mike Green, who is still recovering from two separate blows to the head last month. He skated for about 25 minutes this morning, but then left the ice. But the assembled media put a quarter in the No. 52 juke box to see if he had an update for us. He’s on long-term injured reserve now so Green couldn’t play before March 22 even if he wanted to.
“With these things it’s kind of a day-to-day thing,” Green said. “The good thing is the team is playing well and it gives some [time] to make sure everything’s good when I come back. The good part is that I am feeling better and it’s about getting completely healthy and making sure we do this right.”
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