Notes from DC

The Capitals have not gotten off to a terrible start in the standings, going 5-3-0 in their first eight games, but they really haven't been dominating like the Capitals we've all come to know and admire. Call it line-up issues, call it smarter opponents, call it anything else, but it is tough to say for sure.

On Saturday, there were a few subtractions to the line-up and a return to the line-up that are all noteworthy. Now, I've touched on Marcus Johansson's hip flexor earlier today, while Semyon Varlamov was held out of the game on Saturday completely with an unknown ailment (suspected to be his groin), Tom Poti looks like he was a healthy scratch to make room for the return of Mike Green to the line-up.

Varlamov has had a very suspicious start to the 2011 season, dealing with injuries from the drop of the puck this year. The Capitals were expecting him to be either 1a or 1b to start the season, but with these injury problems, it has given Michal Neuvirth the number one job off the hop. There are fears that this undisclosed injury does have a connection with the groin problems he has been dealing with already this year, which could mean he's dealing with something more serious.

So far, Varlamov has appeared in only two games for the Capitals, picking up a 0-1-0 record to start, so he hasn't been very useful to start.

Now, I've got Poti down as a healthy scratch at the moment, but his absence from the Capitals line-up may stem from a lower-body injury that he was suffering from earlier on in the year as well.  The Capitals are another one of those teams that guard their injury news quite well, not allowing anyone to really know the full extent.  His absence did make the insertion of Green into the line-up easier, but Green's injury problems had kept him to playing in only offensive situations and giving him 5 minutes of ice-time.

Things are hurting in Washington at the moment.

Both Stacey and Neil are the two draft teams that were hurting from this news on Saturday night, as Stacey missed out on a possible Varlamov start, while Neil didn't get a game from Poti.

Stacey is currently down in 12th place without any points from Varlamov this season, while Neil is surviving quite well with the healthy bodies he does have, sitting up in 3rd spot after Saturday's action.

Green's limited ice-time certainly didn't hurt Larry, but if the Capitals are somewhat rushing Green back into their line-up, they could very well be playing with fire and Larry may not benefit from that at all.

Link to the Injury/News Page