After a much-needed day off (for me anyway) the Caps are back at practice. Alex Ovechkin is not on the ice, and Chris Clark was out there before the drills started but has since exited. John Erskine, who hasn't played since the game against Calgary at Verizon Center, is going through the workout. Here are the lines:

Laing-Backstrom-Kozlov
Semin-Fedorov-Fehr (before the first line went nuts in Atlanta, Fehr was one of the team's best forwards against the Thrashers)
Flesichmann-Laich-Cooke
Brashear-Gordon-Bradley

-- Corey Masisak

UPDATE (12:26 p.m.): Cristobal Huet will start in net tomorrow night against the Hurricanes. Alex Ovechkin was just resting. Donald Brashear will be back in the lineup. The Caps got a glimpse of what playing without Brashear and John Erskine was like against the Thrashers. That team was a lot more physical in the first two periods than it had been in any of the previous seven meetings. Erskine will not play tomorrow but will go on the trip. Bruce Boudreau said Sami Lepisto won't be sent back to Hershey today, but wasn't sure if he would be with the team for the whole road trip.

It is safe to say that the consensus in the room is they must beat Carolina tomorrow night, or the Hurricanes will pretty much wrap up the division title. The Caps are winless at RBC Center this season, and two of the games have not been close.