The Washington Capitals took the ice in Buffalo on Monday night without their two original top pairing defensemen in Brooks Orpik and John Carlson. Carlson, who had a consecutive games played streak of 412 after playing Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens, is listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury. Though Carlson’s injury doesn’t appear to be serious, it goes to show what a couple of injuries could do to the Washington Capitals blue line.
Aside from Karl Alzner and Matt Niskanen, that is an extremely inexperienced defensive corps for the most part.