Nicklas Backstrom: Will play Thursday

Backstrom (upper body) will play in Thursday's game against the Hurricanes, Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post reports.

Analysis:

Backstrom suffered the upper-body injury after logging 14:35 in Wednesday's game against the Sabres, but was still given a chance to play Thursday. He will indeed dress for the contest, and will presumably center the top line alongside Alex Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie once again.