The Washington Capitals held their first practice after the NHL’s holiday break on Friday at MedStar Capitals Iceplex before flying up to Ottawa, where they will face the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre for the second time in a week on Saturday night. They beat the Senators 4-0 in their last game before the break. Action can be seen on NBC Sports Washington beginning at 7 PM. Here are all of the news from Friday’s practice: 

Defenseman Matt Niskanen, who landed face first into the boards after a hit by Carolina Hurricanes center Clark Bishop in the Capitals’ 3-1 win over the Hurricanes last night, did not practice with the team, meaning it is unlikely that he will play against the Senators tomorrow night. He is listed as day-to-day but will travel with the team to Ottawa. Defenseman Madison Bowey took his place on the second pairing with defenseman Dmitry Orlov.

Have not seen Matt Niskanen come on the ice for practice. @NoVa_Caps

— Michael Fleetwood (@MichaeFleetwood) December 28, 2018

Defenseman Brooks Orpik, who has missed 26 games with a knee injury, practiced with the team. Head coach Todd Reirden stated that he is listed as “questionable” for the Capitals’ game on Monday afternoon against the Nashville Predators.

Brooks Orpik is on the ice for #ALLCAPS practice pic.twitter.com/bUNSjS64Ji

— Michael Fleetwood (@MichaeFleetwood) December 28, 2018

Capitals Lines

Caps practice lines:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Burakovsky-Eller-Connolly
Stephenson-Boyd-DSP

Kempny-Carlson
Orlov-Bowey

And the third pair is more of a mystery. One of these two:

Orpik-Lewington
Siegenthaler-Lewington

🤷🏻‍♀️

— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) December 28, 2018

Shavings

Through the first 36 games this year, Washington already has 68 man-games lost to injury.

There were 81 man-games lost through 82 games last season.@BenRaby31 somewhat helped look up this info.

— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) December 28, 2018

The top 3 in the Metro — Capitals (3 wins in a row, 15-3-0 in last 18), Blue Jackets (5 wins in a row) and Penguins (4 wins in a row) — have settled in pretty well.

Isles played well before the break too and have games in hand, but need to keep pedal down to keep up.

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) December 28, 2018

With Carlson’s goal, he’s now four goals shy of passing Larry Murphy (86) for sixth place all-time among Capitals defensemen in the respective category.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 28, 2018

Over the last two seasons, John Carlson has recorded 28 multi-point games (1g, 1a tonight). No defenseman in the NHL has more multi-point games over the last two seasons.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 28, 2018

Over the last three games, both Braden Holtby and Pheonix Copley have combined to stop 99 of their last 101 shots they’ve faced (.980 save percentage).

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 28, 2018

The Capitals killed off all four penalties they’ve faced. That marks the fifth time this season the Capitals have recorded a 100 percent kill rate after facing at least four penalty kills. All have resulted in wins.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 28, 2018

Capitals Today

CAPS TODAY: The Capitals have only trailed 114:39 cumulative minutes in December, the second fewest minutes during that span. More info on the Capitals and their schedule on https://t.co/HecIC0ECg1 pic.twitter.com/qH50gLHF6a

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 28, 2018

NoVa Caps Pictures From Practice

Scott Arniel giving orders to Jakub Vrana pic.twitter.com/yAVerMx2CO

— Michael Fleetwood (@MichaeFleetwood) December 28, 2018

“Ping” @NoVa_Caps pic.twitter.com/LJGIFPokdd

— Michael Fleetwood (@MichaeFleetwood) December 28, 2018

Celebrating “victory” @NoVa_Caps pic.twitter.com/d2JARcEb26

— Michael Fleetwood (@MichaeFleetwood) December 28, 2018

The boys taking note pic.twitter.com/OggbpS69Jv

— Michael Fleetwood (@MichaeFleetwood) December 28, 2018

By Harrison Brown