The Washington Capitals practiced at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Wednesday morning prior to flying up to Montreal for their game against the Canadiens on Thursday night. The game will be televised on NBC Sports Washington on 7:30. Here are all of the news from Wednesday’s practice: 

Capitals center Travis Boyd skated in a green no-contact jersey. Capitals’ head coach Todd Reirden said that they would have a better idea whether he’ll play against the Canadiens tomorrow night later. Since he was placed on long-term injured reserve and was required to miss 10 games, tomorrow night is the first game that Boyd, 24, is eligible to play in. He suffered a lower-body injury and was listed as week-to-week after blocking a shot late in the Capitals’ 4-0 win over the St. Louis Blues in the preseason on September 25. He will get sent to Hershey and play in their games on Friday and Saturday. Boyd will join the Capitals after that. Boyd doesn’t have to be activated off of LTIR to play in Hershey.

Travis Boyd has been cleared. He will go to Hershey. The plan, says Reirden is for him to play Friday, Saturday and rejoin the #Caps after that

— JJ Regan (@JJReganNBCS) October 31, 2018

Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik was not skating on Wednesday after missing Tuesday’s and Sunday’s practice with a lower-body injury. Reirden said Orpik won’t fly to Montreal with the team and is listed as day-to-day.

Brooks Orpik (lower body) won’t travel to Montreal with Capitals. He’s out tomorrow. Out day to day.

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) October 31, 2018

After the defenseman got on the ice with conditioning coach Dwayne Blais, he did the same with the forwards on Wednesday.

Looks like the forwards are getting the extra work before practice today with Dwayne Blais. Yesterday, it was the defensemen.

— JJ Regan (@JJReganNBCS) October 31, 2018

Capitals Lines

Capitals today:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Vrana
Burakovsky-Backstrom-Oshie
Stephenson-Eller-Connolly
Jaskin-Dowd-DSP

Orlov-Niskanen
Kempny-Carlson
DJ Oos-Bowey

Holtby
Copley

Walker and Boyd are playing D
Wilson is at his appeal hearing
Orpik (lower body)

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) October 31, 2018

Caps Today

CAPS TODAY: The Capitals are one of three teams that have four players (Evgeny Kuznetsov, John Carlson, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom) with at least four multi-point games. More info on https://t.co/HecIC0ECg1 pic.twitter.com/TRo9Mdf93g

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) October 31, 2018

Shavings

-The Capitals are 8-0-1 in their previous nine games at Bell Centre

-Captain Alex Ovechkin has recorded 27 goals and 49 points in 45 career games against the Canadiens

-Goalie Braden Holtby is 11-1-2 with a save percentage of .944, a goals-against average of 1.57, and two shutouts in his career against Montreal

-The Capitals play the last game of a four-game Canadian road trip in Montreal on Thursday; the team is 2-1-0 and has scored nine goals during that stretch

-Defenseman John Carlson‘s 26:00 of average ice time per game ranks third in the NHL; his 14 points (goals) in the month of October set a franchise record for most points in the month of October by a defenseman (Larry Murphy: 12 points, 1986-87); he recorded his five multi-point games within the first eight games of the season, and he became the 10th different defenseman in NHL history to do so, and the first since Jeff Brown in the 1993-1994 season, per NHL Stats.

By Harrison Brown