T.J. Oshie won’t travel on Washington Capitals upcoming road trip due to upper-body injury

Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery announced that winger T.J. Oshie will not be joining the team on their upcoming road trip due to an upper-body injury.

Oshie won’t travel on the upcoming road trip due to the upper-body injury, per Carbery.

— Sammi Silber 🏒 (@sammisilber) November 24, 2023

Oshie, 36, suffered the injury early in the second period of Friday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers, as he received a surprising hit from Mattias Ekholm when he didn’t have the puck, as he happened to skate in front of Connor McMichael. McMichael was skating into the offensive zone with the puck at that time and was Ekholm’s original target.

Ekholm didn’t receive a penalty on the infraction, and Oshie left the game after the hit. Oshie finished the game with one hit in 6:45 of ice time as the Caps went on to lose the game 5-0.

The Caps upcoming trip sees them playing five games out west against San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Vegas and Arizona, so Oshie will miss a decent amount of time with this injury. It’s unknown as to whether or not Oshie will be back for the Capitals next home game on December 7th against the Dallas Stars, or if they will just reevaluate the injury at that point.

Oshie has had a jarringly slow start to the season, with just one goal and one assist for two points in 17 games. That puts him on pace for just nine points in a full 82-game season, which would be the lowest point total in his career regardless of how short it was.

Oshie’s one of the most effective penalty drawers in the league, with his 1.27 minor penalties drawn per 60 minutes tied for 24th among forwards with at least 2500 of ice time.

Oshie was a former first-round pick of the St. Louis Blues, and spent seven seasons in St. Louis before he was dealt to the Capitals in the 2015 offseason. He’s played nine seasons in Washington, winning a Stanley Cup with the Caps in 2018.

Oshie is in the seventh-year of an eight year contract with a $5.75 million contract, one he signed in the 2017 offseason before hitting free agency.

The Capitals were riding a five-game winning streak and a seven-game point streak before Friday’s loss to the Oilers. They currently sit in second place in the Metropolitan Division with a 10-5-2 record.