The question will hang over the NHL season: How will a compressed schedule, thanks to the Winter Olympics, affect players’ health.
The Capitals’ season started Oct. 1, 10 days earlier than in 2008-09. They are currently down seven men. Forward Alex Ovechkin (six games) also has missed multiple games.
Recommended Stories
“I’ve been through two different Olympic years before where guys just get hurt left and right,” said defenseman Tom Poti last week — one day before getting injured himself in a game against Montreal. “It’s a tough schedule and so many games in a short period of time. We knew people were going to be getting hurt.”
Poti has an upper-body injury and didn’t make the brief trip to Toronto and Ottawa that concluded last night. It certainly seems curious that so many players would go down in an Olympic year. But is the schedule really to blame?
The Caps have played 24 games so far to 20 on this date last season. But because of this year’s earlier start that higher number is through 54 days. In the first 54 days of 2008-09 — Dec. 2 — Washington had played 25 games. Does it really make that much difference?
“It’s a little early to throw the schedule into anything,” countered Caps captain Chris Clark. “We’ve only been going [seven weeks] now. People go down constantly around the league. You just don’t notice it as much unless it’s a superstar. I think we’re at the normal point.”
