Brooks Orpik couldn’t help but remember Mike Rupp when his three-game suspension was handed down last week.
Rupp, one of Orpik’s former teammates, was suspended for four games in 2014 after a hit on T.J. Oshie led to a match penalty. He never played in the NHL again, with a career that spanned parts of 11 seasons ending as a healthy scratch once Rupp and the Minnesota Wild were eliminated from the playoffs.
“That’s always a tough way to go out,” Orpik said on Monday. “It definitely crossed my mind.”
Orpik, of course, wouldn’t see his career end that way, not with the security of three more years on his contract with the Washington Capitals. His season, though, appeared in question as the Capitals dropped the first two games of his absence, pushing them to the brink of playoff elimination.
Instead, a 3-1 victory in Game 5 of their second-round playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins meant Washington had forced another game — and that Orpik would ride again.
The 35-year-old defenseman will be back on the ice on Tuesday, when the Capitals attempt to stave off elimination again in Pittsburgh. His return will add a measure of stability to a six-man unit that has seen some players log heavy minutes as other rotate in and out of the lineup.
“It’s huge,” defenseman Karl Alzner said. “He’ll be able to even everything out. We can get that physicality back in and keep him in the game, which will be nice. It’s good to have that mind in the game that’s played against so many of these players and knows the little details of their games and how to pick on that. Really, really big to have him back.”
Orpik was handed a three-game suspension, the longest in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in two years, for a hit to the head of Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta in Game 2. Maatta apparently sustained a concussion as a result of the hit and has not played since, though he is expected to also make his return on Tuesday.
With Orpik out, the Capitals tasked Alzner, Matt Niskanen and John Carlson to shoulder the defensive workload, with the trio, already averaging more than 20 minutes a game, tasked to pick up an additional three in his absence.
They’ve also churned through their remaining defensemen, with coach Barry Trotz choosing to bench each of them for at least one game for their defensive miscues.
“We, obviously, have got a couple games where we moved people around, but getting Brooks, he’s such a stabilizing force for us on the back end,” Trotz said. “I think there’s a little bit more balance for what we want to do. Obviously, I think he feels bad that he’s not a part of this series and he can have some impact. I’m looking forward to getting him back in the lineup.”
Orpik missed 40 games during the regular season after breaking a bone in one of his legs, and the Capitals went 30-6-4 during his absence. He also missed the final three games of the first-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers after a concussion, with the Capitals losing two of them before eliminating their opponents in six games.
After returning to the ice in Game 1, Orpik was on his second shift of Game 2 when he was whistled for interference after striking Maatta. The league’s department of player safety deemed the hit was “forceful, unacceptably high and excessively late,” leading to an unexpected three-game ban.
Orpik said the morning after the suspension was announced that he didn’t argue the severity of the hit with the league, only that there was no intent to harm Maatta in delivering it. He continued to practice with the Capitals, picking up extra work once most players had left, and because he has been sitting out since April 30, he believes he will be “pretty fresh” once he joins a game.
“He’s an important player for us,” Niskanen said. “Capable of playing hard minutes. An experienced guy. He got a little rest, so I’m sure he’s excited to get back in, and I’m sure we’re excited to have him.”
Though the Capitals have prolonged their playoff future, their task still remains significant. The Penguins have not lost consecutive games since mid-January and, historically, teams that take a 3-1 lead in a playoff series have won it 90.3 percent of the time.
Orpik, though, will be able to take part, as opposed to sitting in the press box as he has for the last three games.
“Nothing I can do about it [but] just watch three games that obviously could have gone either way,” Orpik said. “It’s not the position we foresaw, but we’ve got a good opportunity [on Tuesday].”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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