'We need to exorcise our demons'

The Caps just got done with their morning skate here in Buffalo. On the injury front, Bruce Boudreau said Donald Brashear and and Karl Alzner remain questionable for tonight's game against the Sabres, but Alzner said he doesn't expect to play. Brashear did not skate, but  Boudreau said there isn't anything to be read into that.

Alzner did skate, as did Tyler Sloan, who has been recalled from Hershey and will play if Alzner cannot. Sloan wasn't gone very long, and he didn't join the Bears in time to play in their most recent game.

Jose Theodore will be in net for the Caps and he will face Ryan Miller, who Boudreau deemed one of the top 5 goaltenders in the league. Nathan Gerbe and Paul Gaustad will be back in the lineup for the Sabres. This will be my first chance to see Gerbe in person, who looked like a (tiny) man amongst boys in the Frozen Four last season.

The Caps are 1-7 in their last eight trips to this building, a fact not lost on Boudreau.

"We have to exorcise our demons in this building," Boudreau said. "We have lost some big games in this building. We have to see if we can't overcome them. It is an important thing. Sometimes the mentality going into a building is, 'We can't possibly win here.' To become a champion, you have to overcome those things."