A real, honest to goodness practice at Kettler Iceplex today. All Caps present and accounted for save forward Alex Semin. According to Washington coach Bruce Boudreau, Semin was taking a “maintenance day” to rest some injuries from his recent past. And defenseman Dennis Wideman (hematoma), of course, is out indefinitely.
Otherwise, the lines were: Ovechkin-Johansson-Knuble (red jersey); Sturm-Backstrom-Arnott (gray); Beagle-Laich-Chimera-Fehr (green); Hendricks-Gordon-Bradley-King (white). Nine of the 10 defensemen were on the ice, including Tyler Sloan, who got his “bell rung”, according to Boudreau, during the Buffalo game on Saturday during a collision with Tyler McCormick. But Sloan came out on the ice late at practice, got some work in and will accompany the team to Toronto for tomorrow night’s game. Sloan said he wanted to come back into Saturday’s game, but team medical personnel nixed that idea.
Defensemen Mike Green (concussion) and Tom Poti (groin) both skated again at practice, but will not travel. Boudreau still hopes one of them will get a game in before the Stanley Cup playoffs begin – but, curiously, never says which one he thinks has a better chance. Only two games left in the regular season after the Toronto game – Wednesday and Saturday against Florida – so time is running out.
One more bonus: Defenseman John Erskine is also ready to go on Tuesday – at the very least he’s making the trip – after suffering an undisclosed injury last week. Sean Collins held his own on Saturday night as a fill-in from AHL Hershey. But the Caps are dipping pretty deep into the organizational depth chart. Having Sloan and Erskine in vs. the Maple Leafs would ease the pressure on Green and Poti to return before they’re ready.
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