Dmitry Orlov celebrates

Washington Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov, left, is scheduled to make his 2014-15 season debut Friday night with the Hershey Bears.

(AP Photo / Evan Vucci)

After a 10-month ordeal in the wake of a broken left wrist suffered last May while playing for Russia at the IIHF World Championships, Washington Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov is scheduled to return to game action.

The 23-year-old was formally reassigned to the Hershey Bears Friday for conditioning purposes and will make his 2014-15 season debut Friday night when the Manchester Monarchs visit Giant Center.

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Today is a big day for me," Orlov said.

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It's hard to explain what I feel right now. Just positive things. I'm ready to go."

Orlov, who has practiced with Hershey since Tuesday, underwent surgery and lengthy rehabilitation for the injury.

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It was tough mentally," Orlov said. "It's good to have my parents and my girlfriend to help me a lot, to help my mind be OK and try to, you know, not kill myself. It was tough to come to practice everyday and do bag skating and all this stuff."

Orlov, a left shot who prefers to play right D, will pair with Mike Moore and also play on the second power play unit. Bears head coach Troy Mann said the plan is to get him 15 minutes of ice time.

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We're all familiar with him, especially myself," Mann said. "There's a little bit of concern of rust, but I'm sure he's probably pretty excited to play his first game. Emotion, hopefully, will take over in terms of having a pretty solid game for us."

Mann was Hershey's assistant coach and ran the defense during Orlov playing stints in Hershey starting late in the 2010-11 season and running through 2012-13. Orlov also played 11 games for Hershey last season.

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He's a nice guy," Orlov said of Mann. "He always makes jokes. It's nice to be with this team. Everybody is together and coaches and whole staff and the team.

"

Right now, positive things happen and I'm pretty excited to be back. It's always fun to play. It was a tough time for me, but I try to forget and focus on this time when I can play. I need to try to get my confidence back, game feeling in all situations. I just hope I will be good."

Orlov said he feels comfortable with his entire shot repertoire.

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It feels pretty good," Orlov said. "Finally, I can shoot and can do one-timers. It's a long time and a long road for me."

Mann said if things go well for Orlov Friday night, the plan is for him to sit Saturday and then play Sunday at Bridgeport and Wednesday against Worcester.

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Then they'll sit down as an organization next week and make the decision on whether he can finish the year up there as one of their seven or shut him down for the season," Mann said.

If Orlov can successfully return to Washington's active roster, it will increase organizational depth on the blue line and reduce the potential of recalls from Hershey.

NOTEBOOK

Former Bears winger Louis Robitaille, 33, now an assistant coach with Drummondville (QMJHL), was named an assistant coach for Canada's National Men's Under-18 team for the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship. Former Caps assistant coach Tim Hunter was named head coach.

Morning skate lines:

Conner-Kennedy-Galiev

Burakovsky-J. O'Brien-Wellman

Gazley-Newbury-Brown

L. O'Brien-Stephenson-Mitchell

Extras: Cornet, Broda

D-pairs:

Schilling-Oleksy

Schmidt-Carrick

Moore-Orlov

Landry-Burgdoerfer

Extras: Djoos, Kundratek