Screen cap: @LarsEllerOfficial

The Washington Capitals wrapped up their brief two-day vacation and returned for practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex Thursday morning. Before practice Capitals’ forward Lars Eller was a guest on 106.7 The Fan where he spoke about his downtime during the Capitals’ most recent break.

In addition to spending time with his family, which included visiting the barn where his daughter does her horseback riding, Eller spent part of his second day off (Wednesday) at MedStar Capitals Iceplex working on his skating with coach Wendy Marco, founder of Cold Rush Hockey.

“Did a little bit of skating with Wendy, yesterday. She had time to work on a little bit of individual things that, you know, when you have a break like this, you can do stuff like that, where as in the coming months here, when we play the rest of the way, we’re playing pretty much every other day, or some days back to back, you just want to be able to rest in between games. There’s barely any practices, it’s pretty much game, rest, game rest,” said Eller. “I really welcome these days when we have four or five days to both get some rest, but work in a little bit a stuff you want to do.”

Eller posted a short video of his skating to his Instagram account Wednesday night.

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A post shared by Lars Eller (@larsellerofficial)

Eller has struggled a bit this season, recording just nine goals and 14 assists in 58 games played and has the second lowest expected goals for percentage at even strength among all Capitals forwards.

Eller, 32, centered the 4th line in the absence of Nic Dowd on Monday night against the Hurricanes while Connor McMichael skated at center on the third line, Eller’s usual spot. There has been recent rumblings that Eller may also play on the wing down the stretch, as players return from injury.

Eller has one more year remaining on his 5-year, $17.3 million deal signed in 2018.

By Jon Sorensen