GM George McPhee said Chris Clark suffered the wrist injury in training camp and that he met with the Caps captain a few days ago and explained to him that the team would prefer for him to have surgery instead of continuing to play hurt.

"It has everything to with [his lack of production]," McPhee said, referring to Clark's one goal and five assists in 32 games. "It's not the Chris Clark we know. He's having a tough time handling a pass, making a pass and shooting the puck."

"It just got to the point where he wasn't the player we know he is," he added. "He was hurting himself and hurting his team. So we're probably going to go [the surgery] route instead of playing through it without getting any results."

The injury is to Clark's right wrist and McPhee described it as torn tendon sheath. There is a small possibility that Clark will not require surgery, but it sounds like he's going to miss a significant amount of time either way.

If Clark does go on long term injured reserve, that would free up enough cap space to promote Karl Alzner (or someone else) from Hershey. But McPhee wouldn't commit to a move.

"We've talked about some options in there," McPhee said. "It may be Karl, it may be some other defenseman we bring up. [Sean] Collins has been good [in Hershey], [Tyler] Sloan has been good."

Coach Bruce Boudreau, meantime, said he has no plans to make a switch at captain.

"Clark is our captain," he said. "There's no controversy there. When he gets healthy, he'll come back and be our captain."