Friday, May 08, 2009

Beagle In, Alzner Out, And Other Loose Ends

The Capitals recalled Jay Beagle from Hershey to replace an injured Eric Fehr and a healthy Micheal Nylander. Beagle will bring a better effort along the boards. A gritty forward that never quits and should add some energy to the Caps. Fehr did take part in the morning skate.

Instead of keeping Karl Alzner on the sidelines, the Caps have sent him back down to Hershey. That most likely means Tom Poti is feeling just fine. John Erskine is still questionable for game 4. That is why Tyler Sloan is still around. Erskine also took part in the morning skate.

Alex Semin did not take part in the morning skate, but several sources have reported that he is not injured, just resting. Since there was no practice for the Capitals yesterday, Semin will be taking the ice with two days off. His teammate and friend Alex Ovechkin wasn't too worried as he told reporters he expected Semin in the lineup.

As far as the death threat is concerned, the Caps aren't really worried about it. They have not increased any security or made any changes to their schedules. Ovi did know about the threat before game 3, but was not concerned about it. It just seems another distraction along the path that is the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Bruce Boudreau has finished "whining" about the penalties in this morning's press conference.

"I'm usually not a whiner," Boudreau said. "I think I've exhausted my bad officiating comments. Let's just let it go."

Both George McPhee and Boudreau complained after game 3 about the discrepancy in the penalty calls in the series thus far. The Penguins have had 17 power play opportunities to the Capitals' 9.

Finally, the game tonight is back on good ol' Comcast Sportsnet in the DC area. That means that the Versus broadcast will be blacked out in favor of the local broadcast team. Comcast Sportsnet will finish the series off with broadcasts of games four, five, six and seven as needed.

Let's Go Caps!

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