The Capitals made some moves to accommodate for Oshie's return, while they also await word on two key forwards for Thursday.
WASHINGTON — The Washington Capitals are getting T.J. Oshie back for Thursday's tilt with the Seattle Kraken, but they continue to deal with more injuries and setbacks across the board.
Washington officially activated Oshie, who has not played since Dec. 16, on Thursday, and to make space for him on the roster, the Capitals placed Rasmus Sandin on the injured reserve.
Sandin is day-to-day with an upper-body injury after missing two games due to an illness. He has not skated, and it is unclear what his timeline looks like.
By placing Sandin on IR, the team also gets to hold on to Hendrix Lapierre and Matthew Phillips longer.
This is necessary for now, with Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson both being "true game-time decisions" on Thursday. Ovechkin will take warmups and see how he feels, while it remains to be seen whether No. 43 will skate pregame.
Ovechkin has been "nicked up" and dealing with a lower-body injury that he appeared to suffer on Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes after colliding with Jordan Staal and taking the brunt of it to the back of his leg. He was a game-time decision for Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Kings, but ultimately played and got an assist in the win. Since then, he has skated only briefly.
Wilson, meanwhile, broke his nose at the end of Sunday's 4-3 win over the Kings when he took the butt-end of Alex Laferriere's stick to the face. He has been feeling soreness but is expected to be okay.
Meanwhile, Sonny Milano remains on the injured reserve with an upper-body injury and will miss his 15th straight game. He has not played since Dec. 9 against the New York Rangers, when he appeared to get banged up after being spun around on a hit by Jacob Trouba.