Capitals defenseman John Erskine undergoes neck surgery
Capitals defenseman John Erskine underwent a successful surgery
Wednesday to repair a disk in his neck http://www.washingtoncapitalsstore.com/Jason_Chimera_Capitals_Jersey,
the team announced.
Initially listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury, Erskine did not
travel with Washington on its western Canada trip. The Capitals revealed earlier
Wednesday that Erskine had been placed onto regular injured reserve, before
later posting news of the surgery on their website.
According to the Capitals, Dr. John Starr at the Bethesda Surgical Center
performed the operation and Erskine is scheduled to begin an intensive rehab
program within the next few weeks http://www.washingtoncapitalsstore.com.
Erskine had been a healthy scratch for Washington s first five games this
regular season before suffering the injury, the team said, in a recent practice.
His agent, Pat Morris, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking
further comment.
Per the NHL s latest collective bargaining agreement, players placed onto
regular injured reserve must remain there for at least seven days, as opposed to
the 24 days/10 games lower limit for long-term injured reserve.
Coach Barry Trotz had said after practice Tuesday that Erskine s injury was a
pre-existing condition that sort of got irritated http://www.washingtoncapitalsstore.com/Eric_Fehr_Capitals_Jersey.
He came in [to training camp] in really good shape, Trotz said. He s been
battling. He s one of those old-school, hard-nosed defensemen. We ve had no
injuries basically on the back end, and we re going to add a guy. He s trying to
get back in the lineup. This probably sets him back a bit, but he s been really
quality in terms of attitude and understanding where he is right now, based on
how we re going and what our needs are and who we re playing.
Could get aggravated more as he keeps going, if he doesn t take care of it
now.
Even when healthy, blue line minutes were at a premium given Washington s
offseason signings of Brooks Opirk and Matt Niskanen, which pushed Erskine
further down the depth chart. The pending return of Dmitry Orlov (wrist) next
month will only cloud the situation more.
Erskine is currently on the second year of a two-year deal worth $1.9625
million per season. He will become an unrestricted free agent at season s
end.
<strongNOTE:</strong Contrary to what was reported earlier based off
comments from Trotz Capitals
Store, forward Brooks Laich was not placed onto injured reserve and remains
on the active roster http://www.washingtoncapitalsstore.com/Brooks_Orpik_Capitals_Jersey.
This is virtually negligible, given that Laich won t return until after an
injured reserve stint would ve passed anyway.
Comments
Someone have a little too much to drink this morning?