Nic Dowd Provides Personal Update, Opens Up About ‘Frustrating’ Injury

Washington Capitals forward Nic Dowd is expected to be out "for a bit" after suffering a lower-body injury against the New York Islanders on Monday, and on Wednesday, he said that he's hoping to get back as soon as he can.

Dowd gave a personal update after joining Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier on 106.7 The Fan on Wednesday, and said that he recently went through testing and is now focused on recovery.

"It's been slow," Dowd said on the show, adding, "Just kind of a weird little thing and just working my way back and hopefully, I'll be back soon."

The 32-year-old center was hurt in the early minutes of the game after taking a hard hit from Cal Clutterbuck along the boards near the benches. Dowd appeared to take the burnt of the hit to his left hip/leg area and down in a heap. He crawled to the bench before heading down the tunnel, and though he came back to test things out with a quick twirl, he immediately left again and did not return to play.

Dowd did not play on Tuesday in the loss to the Minnesota Wild, either, as head coach Peter Laviolette also said that he is expected to miss some time. Washington recalled Aliaksei Protas from Hershey ahead of its three-game road swing. Dowd has been placed on the injured reserve.

"I think frustrating," Dowd said of the emotions that come with the injury. "[That's] probably the biggest thing. I've been scratched in my career plenty of time and that's frustrating too, but I think it's a different level when you're injured because you know you should be out there and I think if not for the injury, you'd assume you'd be playing. So it's frustrating."

The focus now for Dowd is working his way back to full strength as the Capitals look to great back to their strong play they had in December and continue their playoff push.

"As a professional athlete, this is part of the job," he said, adding, "As an injured player it's your job to help the best way to help your team now is to be prepared to get back on the ice as soon as possible so that's what I'll do."