The Capitals have placed defenseman Mike Green on long-term injured reserve and recalled forward Cody Eakin from AHL Hershey.
Green re-injured his right groin in a 5-2 loss at San Jose last Saturday. He has missed 31 of the team’s last 34 games, six of those with an ankle injury and 25 thanks to the groin issue. Green returned to play in a full game against Calgary on Jan. 3, but made it only into the second period of the next game at San Jose. He is not eligible to return to action until Feb. 1 when the Caps face the Florida Panthers. He must miss at least eight more games.
If you include last year’s two concussions in February that limited Green to two games over the final 28 games of the regular season, he has now played in just 20 of Washington’s 78 games since Feb. 8, 2011. That total also includes last year’s nine postseason contests. During that stretch, Green has left five different games early with an injury of some sort. In two others he was hurt, finished the game, but was too injured to play in Washington’s next game.
Feb. 6, 2011 – Pittsburgh: Takes a puck to the side of the head at the final horn ending the first period. Does not return.
Feb. 12, 2011 – Los Angles: Final shift comes with 2:29 left in the third period. We’ll give him a complete game for this one.
Feb. 25 – New York Rangers: Lasted just two shifts. Derek Stepan responds to a crosscheck with a shoulder to the jaw. Green departs with 14:04 left in the first period. Another concussion.
May 3 – at Tampa Bay: A painful hip flexor suffered in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Lighting finally forces Green from Game 3 with 18:37 left in the third period.
Oct. 22 – Detroit: Green appeared to recover after an awkward tumble when a Darren Helm dump-in caught him in the jaw. Needed stitches, but also twisted his ankle on the play. Did manage to finish the game and score two goals.
Nov. 11 – at New Jersey: Drilled in his own zone by Devils forward Ryan Carter. Injured his groin trying to get out of the way. Still 16:04 left in the second period when he left the game.
Jan. 7 – at San Jose: Just another frustrating blow. Green had played a full game against Calgary four days earlier after missing 29 of the previous 30 contests. But a hit behind the Washington goal by Andrew Desjardins rattled Green. He took just one more shift before his night ended with 9:54 left in the second period. The team says he again experienced groin tightness.
Green’s salary-cap hit is $5.25 million. But NHL teams can exceed the $64.3 million cap for players placed on long-term injured reserve. That’s already the case with defenseman Tom Poti (groin), who was scheduled to make $2.875 million this season. Check out the most basic explanation here by the invaluable web site CapGeek.com.
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