Jay Beagle slowly massaged the knuckles at the base of his left fingers with his right thumb as he sat in his locker stall Tuesday morning. He had been answering questions from reporters for nearly eight minutes when, after rubbing the base of his ring finger, he rested his thumb atop a two-inch scar that traced down the top of the hand.
Three months earlier, the flesh on that hand was cut open to correct an undisclosed problem, one that left Beagle out of action for 24 games. It was one of only three major injuries sustained by Washington Capitals players this season, though not the longest: Brooks Orpik missed 40 games after breaking a bone in one of his legs, and fellow defenseman John Carlson needed 25 games over two separate stints to address an unspecified issue with one of his ankles.
In fact, it was Beagle who provided the Capitals with what was their only injury scare entering the postseason. At 13:41 of the first period of a game at the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, a shot from Vladimir Tarasenko hit Beagle on the inside of his left foot, sending the center tumbling to the ice in considerable pain.
He did not play in the regular-season finale against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday, but returned for the Capitals’ practice on Tuesday showing few lingering effects from the injury.
Thus, as teams around the Eastern Conference are weathering their share of late-season ailments, Washington had all 24 players on the ice on Tuesday participating in drills and ramping up for the playoffs.
“I think we had a full crew, so I expect us going into Game 1 as healthy as we’ve been all year,” coach Barry Trotz said.
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All told, Capitals players combined to miss 109 games during the regular season, with five players, in addition to Beagle, Orpik and Carlson, missing at least one game. That total ranked as the third-fewest among any team in the league behind the Chicago Blackhawks, who reported only 56 games lost to injury entering their finale, and the New York Rangers, whose players combined to miss 91 games.
That’s not to say players are completely healthy. Trotz has often said that it’s impossible for a player to feel completely pain-free at this point in the season, though he acknowledged that he doesn’t believe he’s ever had everyone available for the start of the playoffs in his previous 16 seasons coaching in the NHL.
“We’ve got a great medical staff,” said Beagle, who sustained the hand injury on Dec. 30 and returned on Feb. 28. “They’ve been unbelievable all year at just keeping everyone healthy [and putting] lot of focus throughout the year on our health. Every year you evolve, and they’ve taken it to the next level in some certain kind-of-cool things that we’ve gone through throughout the year, and it probably has helped, looking back on the season, in keeping everyone healthy.”
Around the league, 85 players appeared in all 82 games this season, which averages out to just shy of three players per team. The Capitals, though, had seven players dress for each game — the most in the league, ahead of the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars, who had five players appear in every game.
One of those players, unsurprisingly, was defenseman Karl Alzner, who owns a team record by having played in 457 consecutive games. Alzner acknowledged experiencing some type of injury — the nature of which he wouldn’t say — that almost forced that streak to end in early December, and he said that this season was his hardest in terms of staying on the ice.
“I’ve been pretty lucky the entire time I’ve been here,” said Alzner, who recently completed his sixth full season with the Capitals. “Just the way that things were, you didn’t have time to rest, and lucky the team was playing good. With depth, we were able to work around a few things, and now I’m feeling great — which is awesome, because it’s when you want to feel your best and I do, so I’m happy about that.”
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Orpik, injured on Nov. 10, and Carlson, whose games-played streak was actually longer than Alzner’s when he was hurt on Dec. 28, were the Capitals’ top defensive pair at the start of the season. That Washington survived 54 games without either of them — and a dozen without both of them — is, teammates said, a testament to the team’s depth.
“There’s obviously an element of luck in it, too,” said right wing Justin Williams, another member of the 82-game club. “Sometimes you get hit with a puck and you break a hand. Sometimes, you just get a bruise.”
The Capitals went to such lengths to avoid injuries that the mere concern of sustaining one played a role in Sunday’s lineup. Braden Holtby could have set a league record for wins by a goaltender in one season had he played against the Ducks — something general manager Brian MacLellan acknowledged he wanted to see.
Instead, Washington chose to play it safe with Holtby, a Vezina Trophy candidate, after seeing what happened to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday. In their game against the Philadelphia Flyers, backup Matt Murray — playing because of an injury to top goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury — was forced from the game in the first period after being kicked in the head.
“It’s important to be healthy coming into the playoffs,” said left wing Jason Chimera. “It’s important to stay healthy, too, to make a long run. Right now, knock on wood, everyone’s healthy, so that’s great.”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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