Caps’ Niskanen still not quite right after crash into boards
Orpik close to return after missing 26 games with knee injury
KANATA, ONTARIO — Defenseman Matt Niskanen skated onto the Canadian Tire Centre ice on Saturday morning, striding around the rink just two days after a scary headfirst crash into the boards that caused him to miss the rest of the Washington Capitals' game against the Carolina Hurricanes. Though Niskanen was fortunate to avoid serious injury, his twirl in Saturday’s morning skate revealed to him that he’s still not feeling quite right. He’ll miss his first game of the season Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators with an undisclosed upper-body injury the Capitals consider day-to-day.
“He tested it out, and it’s not where it needs to be to be able to play tonight,” Coach Todd Reirden said.
It’s unclear if Niskanen, who averages more than 22 minutes per game playing in all situations, will be ready for Washington’s game against Nashville on Dec. 31, but the Capitals could get another member of their blue line back for that.
Veteran Brooks Orpik has missed the past 26 games with a right knee injury that required an arthroscopic procedure last month, and though he won’t play against the Senators on Saturday, Reirden said he’s “questionable” for Washington’s next game. Orpik had a full-go practice on Friday and he was on the ice for morning skate Saturday, steadily ramping up his on-ice activity.
Having not playing since Oct. 27, there’s expected to be some rust whenever Orpik does play again.
“It’s different when it’s your lower body, too, because you can’t keep your skating shape,” Orpik said. “I remember when I hurt my wrist, I TV: Radio: could still skate all of the time; your timing is a little bit off, but at least your legs are there . ... You’ve just got to be confident that the injury is kind of at a point where you’re not going to reinjure it, and the rest is that you’ve just got to throw yourself in there and do it. I think if it was later in the season, I think I would’ve pushed to come back quicker than I did, and obviously, we had the luxury here of being a little bit more patient with it.”
Orpik had missed 10 games with the injury before he and the Capitals opted for the knee scope, which then required an additional four to six weeks of recovery time. He said he was hopeful he’d be able to avoid surgery, typically a last resort for players.
“In every sport, it’s, ‘Why didn’t he just do it then? Why didn’t he get surgery?’ ” Orpik said. “You look at [Washington Redskins quarterback] Alex Smith, right? He goes and has surgery and then it gets infected. There’s always complications with surgery. I think from a fan standpoint, surgery is always the No. 1 way to go, but for players, it’s always the last option, the last resort. You try to rehab it, and I think sometimes you can get through the season and then address it. That was something that we tried, and it just wasn’t working out. If you can’t walk from the locker room to the bus, then you probably have to get it treated. It got to a point where it just wasn’t playable.”
Along with Orpik and Niskanen sidelined, the Capitals are still without defenseman Christian Djoos, who had surgery on his left thigh earlier this month and is out indefinitely.
Washington will lean on three young defensemen against the Senators. Right-shot Madison Bowey, in his sophomore season, will skate in Niskanen’s spot beside Dmitry Orlov, and the third pairing will be an all-rookie duo of Jonas Siegenthaler and Tyler Lewington. Siegenthaler has played in 11 games, and Lewington has just one NHL game of experience, making his debut in Ottawa just last week.
“They’ve been awesome, and a lot of those guys looked really good in training camp, too,” Orpik said. “It was just kind of a numbers game, and I don’t think it was any indication of how they performed or looked. Like, Lewington, my first few years, it kind of seemed like he was kind of the same kind of player and then this year in training camp, especially in the exhibition games, he looked like he made a huge, huge jump. For a guy like him, that was really cool to see him get that game in last week.”