Caps Game Night – vs. Panthers, 4/6/11

When – 7 p.m.

Where – Verizon Center

TV – CSN+ HD

Radio – WFED-1500 AM

Final home game of the regular season at Verizon Center tonight. Still plenty to play for as the Caps gun for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. But No. 2 Philadelphia and No. 3 Boston will own the tiebreakers so any of those scenarios remain in play for Washington.

“You want to win them because you want to be as good as you can be,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “I guarantee they’re going to work their rear end off to win those three and Philadelphia is going to work their butt off to win two. And if we don’t win both of our games and Philly wins both of their games or Boston wins all of their three games they’re going to jump over us. So there’s a lot of things that are still at stake here.”

Defenseman Tyler Sloan is back in after getting hit high on Saturday night against Buffalo. Alex Semin (undisclosed injury), meanwhile, will sit along with Jason Arnott and Scott Hannan. Arnott dealt with a lower-body injury last month and missed six games. Not aware of any injury issues for Hannan – though everyone has something going on at this time of year. Semin was slashed on the wrist during the Buffalo game. He was walking around the locker room fine this morning – no visible limp – and skated during the optional skate. He did that much and was listed as a game-time decision so caution is the word with him. Mike Green will not play – but is expected to return on Saturday at Florida.

Semyon Varlamov gets the start in goal. Forward lines: Ovechkin-Backstrom-Knuble; Sturm-Johansson-Fehr; Chimera-Laich-Beagle; Hendricks-Gordon-Bradley. D-pairings: Carlson-Alzner; Schultz-Collins; Erskine-Sloan.

Boudreau told reporters during his pregame chat with the media that defenseman Dennis Wideman will miss the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. General manager George McPhee said the same during an interview with ESPN-980 AM a few minutes earlier.

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