The Capitals returned to practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex Tuesday morning, following a much deserved day-off on Monday. The Capitals will hold one more practice on Wednesday before departing for Florida Wednesday afternoon. The Capitals return to action Thursday against the Panthers in Florida.

INJURY UPDATES
Nic Dowd was a full participant at Tuesday’s practice. (no light blue non-contact Jersey). Richard Panik also returned to practice, but is required to miss games until the Arizona game on November 11th, as specified by the rules associated with “Long Term Injured Reserve”.

Richard Panik is also on the ice in a normal jersey, out of the non-contact. He is on LTI, eligible to return for the Caps’ game vs Arizona on Nov. 11. https://t.co/HpMJzyW8HL

— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) November 5, 2019

Obviously the leading indicator hear with regards to Dowd is Liam O’Brien. If/when he gets re-assigned to Hershey, we will likely see the return of Nic Dowd.

The real question that remains is what happens when Richard Panik returns to the active roster. Either Travis Boyd or Chandler Stephenson are the likely odd man out, but don’t be shocked if another move is made, considering the level of play of both Boyd and Stephenson.

PRACTICE NOTES

Red is pretty pumped about beating white. #Caps pic.twitter.com/x0Froe4uyC

— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) November 5, 2019

SHAVINGS

• With a 25-save performance against Calgary, Ilya Samsonov improved to 5-1-0 on the season with a 2.38 goals against average and a .915 save percentage.
• Samsonov became the first rookie goaltender in franchise history to win his first five career starts, the 18th goaltender in NHL history to accomplish this feat and the first since Charlie Lindgren of the Montreal Canadiens from April 7, 2016 to Nov. 7, 2017.
• Samsonov’s five wins lead all rookie goaltenders this season.

By Jon Sorensen

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New cop show, “Brains and Balls”, looks promising. #ALLCAPS #Capitals @62hagsofficial #Backstrom

A post shared by NoVa Caps (@nova_caps) on Oct 30, 2019 at 10:50am PDT