What the line combinations could look like.

Bruce Boudreau told the media today that he would no longer be "tinkering" with the line combination's. With 25 guys on the roster, not including Milan Jurcina, the Caps are going to have surplus of five players sitting in the pressbox on a nightly basis. Based on what Bourdreau said this morning it appears there will be some consistency as to which players are scratched.

At this point all I can do is speculate what the finalized lineups will look like.

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Knuble
Flash-Morrison-Semin
Laich-Belanger-Fehr
Chimera-Steckel/Gordon-Bradley/Walker

Green-Shultz
Poti-Carlson
Morissonn-Corvo

Laing and Sloan will most likely not see the ice for the remainder of the season, barring the Caps do not get bit by the injury bug.

It is hard to imagine that John Erskine is the 7th dman considering how strong he has played over the past two post seasons. If Carlson is sent back to Hershey, then obviously Erskine will be part of the top 6. However many people are beginning to guess that Carlson is not leaving DC anytime soon, most likely leaving Erskine as the odd man out.

Steckel and Gordon have similar attributes both are solid on the PK and good in the faceoff dot. I think both of them will be in the lineup at times down the stretch but Steckel is overall the bigger asset to the team. As a result, he will be in the lineup more times than not.

Between Walker and Bradley, I think most Caps fans will tell you they would rather have Bradley in the lineup. Walker was brought here to add depth and grit to the lineup but I do not think he gives the team as much of a boost as Bradley does. Similar to the Gordon/Steckel dynamic they will both at times be in the lineup but I have to think Bradley is more deserving of a jersey on a regular basis. Whether or not Boudreau feels the same way as I do is yet to be determined. I would not be surprised if he decided to scratch a more skilled player, such as Fehr in order to keep both Brads and Walker in the lineup.