Eight games to go, Injuries Mount, Flyers Game Heroes

The news from yesterday that Alex Ovechkin will be out nursing an undisclosed injury for 7-10 days made me stop breathing for several seconds and also made me curse the lousy luck the Caps have.  In typical fashion, the Caps demurred when asked specifics about the injury Ovie has been battling through for, apparently, several months.  But, he skated today so it can't be too awful.  The key injuries continue to climb for this team, although at this time of the season that can be said about most teams.  I just hope this team has a healthy Ovie, Jason Arnott and Mike Green when the playoffs start.  With the way Ovie plays, he is always banged up this time of year so I'm glad he's recuperating.

The Caps took their battered lineup to Philadelphia and following the lead of 2nd star performer and 1st goal scorer, Nicklas Backstrom, they scored three goals by 1:22 in the second period.  Mike Knuble (more on him in my next post) and Dennis Wideman joined Backie in scoring.  But, the Caps let up on the gas with the 3-0 lead and the Flyers responded with four unanswered goals.   Ugh.  The Caps came back because of Marcus Johansson's one timer at 16:41 in the third period on a pass from Mike Knuble.

Heroes of the Evening:

• Nicklas Backstrom who was everywhere on the ice.  He started the crucial scoring and netted one of the three in the shootout.
• Mike Knuble with a 3-point, +2 night.
• Marcus Johansson with the clutch 3rd period goal to force overtime.
• Michal Neuvirth for hanging in there when the Caps got lazy. He played rough, at times, but kept them in it.
• Matt Hendricks with his beauty of a goal in the shootout.  

Get healthy Caps.

The Ottawa Senators are up next.

Let's go Caps!