Center expects to play, and Green may return
Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom is expected to play Friday night against the New York Rangers after getting slashed on the left thumb during a game against Pittsburgh earlier this week.
Backstrom initially told a Swedish tabloid, Aftonbladet, that he had a fracture during a postgame interview. The team didn’t confirm that diagnosis. After practice Thursday, Backstrom was not wearing any kind of wrap on his hand.
“He’s a tough kid,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said, later describing the injury as just “a sore ouchie.”
Backstrom wore his familiar red jersey and skated on the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Mike Knuble during Thursday’s practice. About the only concession to his injured thumb was rookie center Marcus Johansson also skating on the top line.
| UP NEXT |
| Rangers at Capitals |
| When » Friday, 7 p.m. |
| Where » Verizon Center |
| TV/Radio » CSN+/1500 AM |
| Caps note |
| » Russian prospect Dmitri Orlov skated at practice Thursday. The 19-year-old defenseman just signed a professional tryout contract with Hershey of the American Hockey League this week. Orlov, the Caps’ second-round pick in 2009, was a standout for the gold-medal winning Russians at last month’s world juniors tournament. He played 45 games in the KHL this season. But Orlov is not eligible to play in Washington until signing a three-year entry-level contract. Because of visa issues, he couldn’t travel with Hershey to its game in Toronto on Wednesday night, hence the invite to Kettler Iceplex by Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. |
“I couldn’t feel any difference today, so we’ll see,” Backstrom said. “As long as it feels good and I can play, I’m going to play.”
Meanwhile, defenseman Mike Green skipped practice with an illness. Green has missed five games in a row and six of the last seven after taking that puck to the head Feb. 6 vs. Pittsburgh on a shot by Brooks Orpik. He missed one game, played against the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 12 and then sat out the entire road trip with what the team called “inner-ear trauma.” But Boudreau said unless that illness takes a turn for the worse, he expects Green back in the lineup on Friday night.
Washington (32-19-10, 74 points) — currently the No. 5 seed — is six points ahead of the seventh-seeded Rangers (32-26-4, 68 points) in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Washington is 1-1-1 in three games against New York this season, including a 2-1 shootout loss at Verizon Center on Jan. 24 and a 7-0 shellacking on Dec. 12 at Madison Square Garden.
The Caps went 3-2 on their recent five-game, 11-day road trip that included games against four teams who entered play Thursday in a playoff position. But they haven’t been so successful at Verizon Center lately with a 5-6-6 record at home since Dec. 4. Washington was 30-5-6 in the District over the entire 82-game season in 2009-10.
“You want to keep going. You don’t want any setbacks,” Caps forward Jason Chimera said. “But especially at home now. We have to establish ourselves back at home again. It’s an important game for us, and [the Rangers] are pushing, too.”
