Arrivaderci, Schultzie

- Jeff Schultz, after being told to get a place to live and a car, after surprising all of us by making the roster in the first place, has been sent back to Hershey. How permanent this move is remains to be seen - its certainly not a way of getting him ice time, as the Bears continue to bide their time through a ten day break before finally playing on Saturday in Binghamton.

More likely than not its a sign that Eminger is on the road to recovery, and with the way Erskine is playing right now they're certainly not going to send him down (especially since it would subject him to waivers). Better to put the kid back in Hershey where, eventually, he'll get plenty of ice time, rather than pay him to take up an increasingly rare seat in the press box.

- How can you tell the season is still young? Observe:

Not to say this team isn't capable of it at some point, but I'm not sure this is the year the Caps will have the second best record in the league when all is said and done. It's called cautious optimism - as Caps fans we live and breathe it, and for now we just enjoy the beauty of being somewhere we haven't been in a looooong time.

(Although on the off chance that this is how things end up in April there are a few teams residing below 8th that actually make me giddy. Feel free to guess which ones.)