Tom Knott: Knowing is the whole battle

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By Tom Knott

The upper-body strain afflicting Alex Ovechkin apparently is contagious. The Capitals have been straining with his medical evaluation the last two days.

Their franchise player has fallen and no one can get up the nerve to speak plainly.

Ovechkin is either day-to-day, week-to-week or month-to-month with whatever strained upper-body part it is.

The latter remains unclear, the upper body covering a broad range of potential problem areas, including shoulder, arm, chest, neck and abdomen.

Or Ovechkin merely could have a bad boo-boo on his elbow.

What we've got here with the Caps is a failure to communicate, to paraphrase the Captain in "Cool Hand Luke."

Bruce Boudreau has been at a loss since Ovechkin skated off the ice in pain in Tony Cheng's neighborhood Sunday night.

"I haven't seen him, and no one is here right now, so I can't give you an update," Boudreau said Monday, no doubt unaware of the advantages of communication by phone.

There also is this powerfully addictive thing called text messaging, if Boudreau is interested in learning when the two-time NHL MVP will return to the ice.

He could try smoke signals, too.