ARLINGTON, Va. -- T.J. Oshie is unsure if he’ll be able play next season because of recurring issues with his back.
“I'd love to play next year, but I will need to come back with somewhat of a guarantee that my back won't be -- it's hard putting everyone through the situation,” the Washington Capitals forward said Tuesday. “From my family at home to the team trying to figure out a lineup to young guys getting called up and going down, I'd like to find just an answer and a fix to the problem before I make another run at it.”
Oshie was limited to 52 regular-season games in 2023-24 and had 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists). The 37-year-old had one assist in the Eastern Conference First Round, when the Capitals were swept in four straight by the New York Rangers.
He dealt with other injuries this season too, including a concussion that sidelined him for six games from Nov. 27-Dec. 7, and played the 4-2 season-ending loss in Game 4 on Sunday with a broken left hand caused by a hit from Rangers forward Matt Rempe in Game 3.
Oshie has been in and out of the lineup the past two seasons because of his back, which can cause debilitating pain. He had to crawl off the ice after throwing his back out in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 22.
"If I'm in a state where I can't play, I'm usually literally on the floor [urinating] in water bottles,” he said. “It [stinks] when that happens and I can't pick up kids or do any of that.”
Oshie had a minor procedure on this back after last season, but that only provided temporary relief.
“It was kind of a short-term fix thing and something that we had tried a couple times throughout the season, and it helped with a couple other things,” he said. “But my issue is there's not just one problem back there; there's multiple things that we've got to find an answer for.”
Oshie, who played his 1,000th NHL game at the Vancouver Canucks on March 16, made multiple trips to visit chiropractor Dr. Kerry Johnson in Apple Valley, Minnesota, including taking an “emergency flight” to see him after taking a hard hit from Rangers forward Artemi Panarin in Game 2. Oshie said Dr. Johnson also made five trips to Washington to treat him over the final three months of the season.
“There’s been a lot of just extra things that I have to do to make sure that my back is ready to play an NHL game,” he said. “I miss the days where I’d come in and have a coffee and sit on the training room table, maybe the hot tub and throw the stuff on and go play, but I did enjoy it while it lasted. It just takes a little bit more.”
Oshie said it’s more difficult for those around him, though.
“To me, injuries are just a part of the game,” he said. “It’s not something that brings me down or gets me frustrated or anything. It's more so the team, my teammates, my family at home. It's different than just being sore. A broken hand is like a hangnail compared to what I go through with my back.”
Oshie has one more season remaining on an eight-year, $46 million contract ($5.75 million average annual value) he signed with Washington on June 23, 2017. He acknowledged that he tried to take in everything at the end of this season in case this turns out to be the end of his 16-season NHL career.
Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said he will give Oshie whatever time he needs to determine if he will continue playing.
“I told him we’ll support him in whatever he wants,” MacLellan said. “Seek solutions ... if he determines at some point he feels good and he wants to come back to play, let’s go that way. And if he doesn’t, we’ll work it out that way too.”
Oshie’s wife, Lauren, and their children traveled to New York to watch the first two games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and he lingered on the ice after his teammates, taking an extra lap to wave to them and the crowd, following the Game 4 loss Sunday.
“I'm 37 years old, so you just never know,” Oshie said. “Especially the age that my kids are at, you want them to be around kind of a just-in-case thing. My wife, she obviously wants to be there, too, to kind of celebrate and savor those moments.
“It's just like anything -- when you're young, you think you're going to play forever and it's going to be amazing, and when you get older you just never know.”
Oshie’s teammates hope he can find a way to playing for at least one more season. He has 695 points (302 goals, 393 assists) in 1,010 regular-season games with the Capitals and St. Louis Blues, and 69 points (34 goals, 35 assists) in 106 playoff games.
Oshie helped Washington win its only Stanley Cup championship in 2018.
“I'm close enough with him to know that it's not going to be a predictable future for him,” forward Tom Wilson said. “It hasn't been. He's been battling and clawing and fighting for every inch, basically fighting for every game at times to get in and just leave it all out there. That last game, it was pretty emotional when you think there's a slight possibility that you may not be able to battle with your brother and really close friend and teammate.”
“I hope he’s going to be OK,” Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin said. “I know through all those years how difficult it was sometimes for him to play, but I don’t have an answer for that.”
