Ovechkin missed the last three games of the regular season due to an upper body injury and was considered a team day.
Alex Ovechkin trained with his teammates on Sunday as the Capitals prepared for the first round series against the Florida Panthers.
Ovechkin missed the last three games of the regular season due to an upper body injury and was considered a team day. Match 1 will be held in Florida on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
“He had a good day today,” said head coach Peter Laviolette after Sunday’s practice. “He didn’t shy away from anything, so hopefully he’ll keep going.”
Ovechkin, who was injured on April 24 while playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs, did regular practice on Sunday, on the top line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Conor Sheary.
He finished training, as he usually does, pulling once from the left circle of confrontation.
#ALLCAPS Alex Ovechkin returned to work from his office Ovi returned to training today and rehearsed with Kuznetsov and Sheary on line no. 1 8 says he felt good and “we’ll see” when it comes to his availability for GM1 vs Florida. He came out of an upper body injury @WTOP pic.twitter.com/vYztyrSMit – Ben Raby (@ BenRaby31) May 1, 2022
Ovechkin later said he felt “well” and could have played last week if it had been a playoff game.
“I knew we were in the playoffs and we decided to rest,” he said.
Ovechkin and the team have not confirmed that he will play on Tuesday, but Ovechkin’s record would suggest that if he can solve any persistent problems, he will.
Ovechkin missed a total of 27 games due to injuries during his 17-year NHL career, but never missed a game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. As Capitals’ all-time leading scorer in the postseason, Ovechkin has scored 71 goals and 135 points in 141 playoff games.
With or without Ovechkin, Capitals is facing a daunting task in Florida. The Panthers finished at the top of the NHL rankings and were the highest-scoring NHL team in 26 years.
“It should be a good challenge for us,” said the Nicklas Backstrom Center. “I think at this time of year, we really need to focus on playing well defensively. There you will win matches, especially against this team. ”
Although the Capitals have ended the regular season with three consecutive defeats in regulation, they are less than two weeks away from the strong defensive efforts in Colorado, Las Vegas and Arizona for the penultimate road trip.
Backstrom described Capitals’ 3-2 win over Colorado on April 18 as the team’s best and most complete game of the season.
“I had no recovery in that game,” he said. “All four lines played well. That’s what you need in the playoffs. You need help for everyone. ”
Striker Tom Wilson suggested the plan was set out on that trip for the kind of defensive discipline that could slow down the Panthers.
“It’s a great foundation,” Wilson said.
“It simply came to our notice then. We’re going to have to play like that. This group is an experienced group and when we play well, we know what is needed, we know what we are doing right. And we need to focus on that in Game 1 … we’re excited about that. We played some of the best teams in the league all year. ”
Capitals also feel they can withdraw from their 2018 Stanley Cup race when they play a physical, heavy hockey mark that has worn down their opponents as their series went deeper.
“I think physics will probably be our greatest strength,” said Winger T.J. Oshie, one of the nine remaining Capitals of the Cup-winning team. “If we play a physical game, many times, we will spend a lot of time in the end. Anyway, I think that’s just one of the characteristics of our team, but especially in the playoffs and looking back at 2018, I think that’s going to go a long way. ”
Below are the combinations of the Capital lines and the defensive pairs from Sunday’s training sessions:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Sheary
Johansson-Backstrom-Wilson
Mantha-Eller-Oshie
Larsson-Dowd-Hathaway
Fehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
van Riemsdyk-Schultz
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