Who Gets the Call?

Both Corey and Tarik have mentioned a possible roster move before tonight's game - no, not the big kind, but a call-up from Hershey.

Here's where we stand right now. Gordon appears to still be injured, which last night had resulted in Steckel moving up to the checking line and Sutherby taking his place with Brashear and Laich (although the lines went through considerable numbers of permutations after the first few shifts). Fleischmann has rotated on and off the top line, often being replaced by Clark. Bradley and Laich have both had time on the second line with the Swedes in Semin's continued absence, but it looks like Pettinger will slide into that spot.

So who's in and who's out?

I have to think that Flash may be on his way back to Hershey. Maybe it's common sense, maybe it's just wishful thinking - or maybe it's just a result of watching him get shoved off the puck time and time again while failing to finish off the beautiful passes to or from his linemates. If he goes back to the AHL, that seems to put Clark back on the top line, at least for now. Then we slide Pettinger in on the second line as has been indicated. That leaves the bottom two lines with some combination of Laich, Steckel, Brashear, Sutherby, Bradley and a player to be named.

I'm thinking either Chris Bourque or Kyle Wilson gets the call, although neither is exactly checking line material. Clymer would be an obvious choice for that role except he's been injured since going down to Hershey and may not be game-ready just yet.

There is, of course, another option, and that would be that Flash is sticking around. We turn to the blue line - and among the six defenseman it's hard to say who would go to Hershey. Pothier, Poti, Morrisonn and Jurcina seem like unlikely candidates. Green has been one of the best players to this point and shouldn't be demoted (although they tend not to ask my opinion on these roster moves). Erskine is a possibility, but he's been strong so far as well...disregarding last night, of course. No one was good last night. Maybe Eminger's coming back, who knows.

In other words...I have no idea. Aren't you glad you stopped by?

So discuss - let's get a little dialogue going, hash this one out, see who's lurking in the Cheap Seats on a Saturday two hours before game time!

Update: Thanks to alert commenters Chris & Sarah (and a quick little check over to the usual suspects), it looks like nothing I suggested happened. Shocking. Tonight we get to see Joe Motzko's first regular season game in a Caps jersey after putting on a pretty impressive training camp. So here are your lines:

Ovechkin-Kozlov-Clark
Backstrom-Nylander-Pettinger
Fleischmann-Laich-Motzko
Brashear-Steckel-Bradley

First and fourth lines look great, nothing surprising there, although you have to feel for Sutherby and wonder just how much longer he's sticking around if they're willing to put Motzko out over him.

Second line, I'll be interested to see how Pettinger does but I think actually that could be a good fit - Petty adds some grit up there and has showcased some dangling ability of his own this year. Third line...hmmm. Hard to say. Laich continues to be consistently good but the other two are question marks. (Oh, and Flash on a checking line? This should be interesting.)

Defense stays the same, Johnson in net, and 17 minutes to puck drop. Everyone take a deep breath...here we go.