By Tarik El-Bashir
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 6, 2007

The Washington Capitals revealed yesterday that Boyd Gordon could miss several weeks because of a broken right hand.

Gordon missed the past two games after being struck on the glove by a puck in the first period against the Florida Panthers on Nov. 28. The checking-line center finished the game and even scored in the shootout, but an X-ray taken that night discovered a fracture.

"It's already been a week, but we'll see where we are in about 10 days," said Gordon, who is one of the Capitals' best defensive forwards and leads the team in faceoff percentage, winning 54.2 percent of his draws. "I'm hoping it will be fine after that."

Gordon said he wasn't certain exactly how he suffered the injury but recalled being hit on the knuckle side of his hand when he attempted to break up a defenseman-to-defenseman pass early in Capitals' 2-1 loss against Florida. He said he immediately knew something was wrong but continued to play because he did not know the extent of the damage.

"I had a streak of four years with no injuries," he said. "Then I had the knee injury last year and the back problems that came out of left field, and now this. It's frustrating."

Gordon, who missed three games in October because of back spasms, said his hand remains tender but won't require surgery. Yesterday, he sported a hard cast and skated on his own for about 20 minutes after the team's practice at Kettler Capitals Iceplex.

Chris Clark, the Capitals' other injured forward, did not skate because of a groin muscle strain he suffered in the third period of last week's loss to the Panthers.

The captain, who is tied for third on the team with five goals, also has missed the past two games. He said he hopes to practice today, but if he is unable to, then he doesn't expect to play tomorrow against the Devils in New Jersey, the Capitals' first game after a five-day break.

Clark stopped short of blaming the consistently poor ice conditions at Verizon Center for causing him to pull a muscle, but he said it might have been a contributing factor.

"There's a lot of ruts in the ice," Clark said. "It's soft. It's wet half the time. I could see a lot of injuries coming from the ice there. It could cost [players] their jobs.

"I've been trying to tell them" that the ice is a problem, he continued. "But it's been three years since I've been here, and it's the worst in the league. It's tough to play on. Even guys on other teams say the same thing. When we're facing off, they say, 'How do you guys play on this?' "

Clark missed eight games earlier this season after being hit on the side of the head with a slap shot by Alex Ovechkin.