Pronger, Giroux to miss Tuesday’s game If there is any team in the NHL that cares less about its opponent’s health, it would be the Capitals.
Burned last month in games against both the Toronto Maple Leafs (seven regulars hurt) and the Buffalo Sabres (nine regulars hurt), Washington will avoid looking at the injury list for the Philadelphia Flyers, who visit Verizon Center on Tuesday night.
Star defenseman Chris Pronger remains out of the lineup with both a left knee injury that required surgery last month and concussion symptoms. Then on Saturday, center Claude Giroux, an early candidate for the NHL’s Hart Trophy, took a knee to the head from teammate Wayne Simmonds. Giroux, 23, led the NHL with 39 points entering play Monday. That total includes 16 goals.
| Capitals notes |
| » Washington defenseman Mike Green left town Sunday to see a specialist about his injured right groin, coach Dale Hunter said. |
| » |
| Matt Hendricks (right knee injury), hurt Dec. 5 against Florida, made it through a second consecutive practice. But his status is still uncertain for Tuesday’s game vs. Philadelphia. |
| » |
| Jay Beagle (concussion) still hasn’t been cleared for contact but skated with his teammates for about 30 minutes early during Monday’s practice at Kettler Iceplex. |
Promising rookie center Brayden Schenn (concussion) returned from a long layoff earlier this month, played two games and is back on the shelf. Even goalie Ilya Bryzgalov is nursing a lower-body injury after leaving Saturday’s victory in the second period. But he is expected to play against the Caps.
All that sounds promising for a Washington win. But after getting embarrassed by what amounted to Buffalo’s American Hockey League team on Nov. 26 — and costing then-coach Bruce Boudreau his job — it’s unlikely the Caps will take much comfort in Philadelphia’s health issues.
The Flyers (18-7-3, 39 points) lead the Atlantic Division and have the best record in the Eastern Conference. Washington (15-12-1, 31 points), meanwhile, has looked better under new coach Dale Hunter with three wins in its last four games. But the Caps remain the No. 8 seed in the conference playoff chase — not a spot in which they expected to be one-third of the way through the schedule.
Philadelphia traded two of its top players — forwards Mike Richards (Los Angeles) and Jeff Carter (Columbus) in the offseason — yet hasn’t missed a beat. Adding forward Jaromir Jagr, now 39 and back after a three-year stint in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League — was a gamble that has worked out. Jagr has 10 goals and 14 points.
“They got rid of two superstars [in the Carter and Richards trades], but they got a lot of good players in return,” Washington forward Troy Brouwer said. “Those guys are playing really well for them. And then they knew with Giroux progressing as a player he was going to turn into a pretty good player. … [And] I forgot about [Jagr] actually, which is tough to do. He’s always had that skill set that’s made him unbelievable.”
