Barry Trotz breathed a sigh of relief when he watched Brooks Orpik board the airplane taking the Washington Capitals home from Long Island on Monday night. Orpik had left the Capitals’ eventual 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders after taking a hard fall in the third period, yet there he was, strutting down the aisle without much of a noticeable limp.
“A lot better than I thought it would be when I first saw it,” Trotz said Tuesday.
The normality in Orpik’s stride, however, doesn’t necessarily mean all is clear. The defenseman will be considered a game-time decision for the Winter Classic against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday, and Trotz said that despite the spectacle of the event, he’s open to holding Orpik out of the game in order to make sure he’s fully healthy when he returns to the ice.
Orpik was trying to hit Islanders winger Cal Clutterbuck against the end boards 12:40 into the third period when his right skate slipped. Instead of hitting Clutterbuck directly, he delivered a glancing blow, then crumpled against the wall and fell down primarily on his right knee.
Assessed a minor for roughing for the play, Orpik immediately shook off his gloves and grabbed at his knee. He needed the assistance of teammates John Carlson and Jason Chimera to help him off the ice.
“I’ve hurt that knee before, but this one felt a little bit different,” Orpik said Tuesday morning. “A lot more painful than previous injuries, but the other injuries were a lot worse, so hopefully, that’s a good sign.”
Helping Orpik’s cause on Monday, Trotz said, is that he had been wearing a brace on the knee because of injuries sustained earlier in his career. Trotz said he was “pretty confident” Orpik had not sustained any structural damage to the knee, while Orpik replied, with hesitation, that he didn’t think so, either.
Having served as the Capitals’ top left-handed defenseman for the first 36 games, Orpik seemed resigned to the idea that he may miss the Winter Classic — which, for him, would be his fourth outdoor game since breaking into the league with Pittsburgh during the 2002-03 season.
His absence would also mark the first shake-up to the Capitals’ top two defensive pairings this season. While Mike Green, Nate Schmidt and Jack Hillen have rotated in and out of the bottom line, the Capitals’ top four groups — Orpik and Carlson, and Karl Alzner and Matt Niskanen — have been remarkably stable.
That consistency, Trotz said Tuesday, has given the Capitals “peace of mind” when it comes to controlling opponents.
“I think you feel, no matter who you go against, that you can come up with a way to counter some of their strengths, if you will,” Trotz said. “Just having people that are consistent in terms of their game helps the team play more consistent. It might not have showed [Monday], because I don’t think that was one of our better games, but I thought we were really resilient in finding a way to win a game — or, not win a game, but to get points on the road when we didn’t, maybe, have our best performance.”
Orpik, 34, signed a five-year, $27.5 million contract with Washington in the offseason as the Capitals attempted to bolster their blue line. Nearly halfway through the season, he ranks third in the league with 136 hits, six behind Clutterbuck, and is also among the league leaders with 19:07 of even-strength ice time.
It’s likely Schmidt, a rookie who has been scratched for four of the last five games, would return to the rotation in Orpik’s absence, and Trotz said the team would likely recall defenseman Steven Oleksy from Hershey to serve as a seventh defenseman.
Only seven defensemen have taken the ice for the Capitals at some point this season — the fewest in the league, and a surprising turnaround from last year, when a league-high 14 defensemen took to the ice.
Green said Orpik “is sort of our rock on the back end,” and his potential absence, for however long it may be, could pose problems for the Capitals.
“I’ll make sure to be rubbing his knee if I have to in order to get him back,” Green said.
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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