Michael Nylander and Eric Fehr will be the healthy scratches tonight. Tyler Sloan is in the lineup for Jeff Schultz, who has "re-aggrivated his upper body injury" according to Bruce Boudreau. So it is his finger that is bothering him.

Tom Poti has officially been put on LTIR, so Karl Alzner is safe until at least Wednesday when Poti is eligible to come back.

Here is the lineup for tonight:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin

Fleischmann-Fedorov-Kozlov

Laich-Steckel-Clark

Brashear-Gordon-Bradley

Alzner-Jurcina

Sloan-Green

Morrisonn-Collins

Theodore

Johnson

Boudreau said Nylander was a natural pick to be pulled from the lineup for Fedorov because David Steckel and Boyd Gordon have been playing so well. He said Nylander has been playing well defensively and "not hurting us" but Nylander's glaring lack of offensive production had to come into play a little.

As for Fehr, it is tough luck for a guy who has played some of his best hockey the past couple weeks -- but he also has little to show for it on the scoresheet. As Boudreau put it, when the team has won 12 of 13 games, everybody is playing well so someone is going to have to sit that doesn't deserve it.

UPDATE: Jeff Schultz said his finger, previously broken, is not healing properly. It is still swollen, and it hurts when he does certain things on the ice. He said the Caps staff wants him to take some time off to avoid another surgery.

• 
• Comment