BALLSTON, Va. - Washington Capitals goaltender Michal Neuvirth participated in Monday's practice at Kettler Capitals Iceplex, but left after about 20 minutes. After the session ended, head coach Bruce Boudreau said that Neuvirth is still day-to-day.
"He was still sore," Boudreau said in regards to whether or not Neuvirth leaving practice early was planned. "It's still a lower-body injury."
Neuvirth has only played in one game this season and missed several practices last week. Despite practicing for over an hour Saturday, his 20-minute session Monday is still cause for concern. The Caps assigned Dany Sabourin, who backed up Tomas Vokoun during Saturday's 2-1 win over the Ottawa Senators, to AHL Hershey before practice Monday. While that alone may have originally been a good sign in terms of Neuvirth's health, it is doubtful that he will back up Vokoun during Tuesday's game against the Florida Panthers.
"Well, I've got to figure he's got to go through a full practice to be that," Boudreau said.
Meanwhile, the forward lines during Monday's practice were the same as they have been in recent games:
Ovechkin - Backstrom - Brouwer
Semin - Johansson - Knuble
Chimera - Laich - Ward
Hendricks - Perreault - Halpern