Nicklas Backstrom wasn’t the only injury news for the Caps on Friday morning here at Prudential center. Eric Fehr said he’s definitely not playing with an upper-body injury. It’s pretty apparent watching the replay of his final shift against Montreal on Tuesday night that Fehr gets tangled up skating into the defensive zone and falls hard on his right side. It was that shoulder that kept him out of the lineup for 22 games after a collision with David Steckel in a Jan. 14 game against Vancouver.
Defenseman John Erskine missed the previous two games with the flu and said he’s a game-time decision, too. Semyon Varlamov (knee) took shots in goal during the morning skate, but his return isn’t imminent.
Bruce Boudreau tabbed Michal Neuvirth as his starter tonight – another sign he wants the 22-year-old to grab hold of the No. 1 goalie job before the playoffs start. Tom Poti (groin) also skated. D.J. King came off the ice early – a sign that he will at least take warm-ups in case Backstrom can’t go. King picked up an assist in the game against Detroit on Wednesday.
That injury list doesn’t even include Mike Green (head injury) or Jason Arnott (undisclosed), who remain back home. So will adding so many players back into the lineup at once prove problematic for Boudreau?
“As long as you’re not adding them all Game 1 of the playoffs,” Boudreau. “I think we’ll have everybody hopefully – on the time frame right now – if nobody else gets hurt we should have all of them able to play the last five games of the year.”
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