Thanksgiving update

The Caps had an optional skate this morning at K-Plex. Most of the guys were on the ice, but Tom Poti was not. He said he is unsure about playing Friday night against Montreal, but Bruce Boudreau said he expects him to. If Poti cannot play, then the Caps are short another defenseman. The options are call up another defenseman, play with five d-men, or move a forward to the back end. Without Sergei Fedorov to make that decision easy, one possibility is Brooks Laich. He took a couple of shifts back there against Minnesota because the Caps were down to four defensemen. Laich was in his normal green practice jersey today, but he did take some slap shots with the defenseman at the end of practice. He said after practice that he just wanted to take some shots at Brent Johnson. Laich said he hasn't played on defense since he was 11 years old. As for the other injured guys, Sergei Fedorov skated briefly. Boudreau said Fedorov, Alexander Semin and Mike Green are not likely to play until next week, which would rule out Montreal and Columbus. John Erskine could be back as soon as Saturday against Columbus. He said Boyd Gordon is the closest to returning, and didn't rule him out for Friday. After rattling off all of those injury updates, Boudreau deadpanned, "Other than that, we're fine." I also forgot to mention this yesterday, but Bruce's son Ben has signed to play with South Carolina. He had been released by his IHL team and was skating in Hershey after Bears' practices when the Caps injury bug struck. By recalling four guys from Hershey, it also meant the Bears had to recall guys from South Carolina, which has created an opening for Boudreau. His first game is tonight in Mississippi against his dad's former team. Finally, tomorrow is going to be a big night for Jose Theodore. Boudreau said he will start against his old team. This is only the second time Theodore has played the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge since he was traded from the ogranization. It is a fair bet he wants to play better this time around -- Theodore yielded eight goals in an 8-5 loss in his first contest against his old team.