Both Tarik El-Bashir at the Washington Post and Cory Masisak at the Washington Times have reported that Viktor Kozlov was injured in Monday night’s game and did not practice on Tuesday. Though the team is declining to say exactly what Kozlov’s injury is they are saying he could miss up to two weeks. While it is of course undesirable to have the top line right wing out of the lineup for several games, it does yield an interesting discussion: who should replace him on the top line with Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom? The candidates and how I would order them are:

Chris Clark – Clark has shown very good chemistry with Ovechkin in the past, notching thirty goals and twenty-four assists in seventy-four game playing primarily with Ovechkin and Dainus Zubrus in 2006-07. The only question is whether or not the 32 year old Clark has slowed down at all due to his age and the serious groin injury he suffered last season.

Eric Fehr - Fehr’s the only player with the big club who hasn’t seen the ice yet this season, though there’s a very good chance he’ll get a sweater in some of the games Kozlov misses. Fehr does bring an intriguing mix of size and scoring potential, but hasn’t put up the numbers to matchup talent level.

Tomas Fleischmann – he might be the first player to come to mind since he’s the only forward whose game is based in skill who doesn’t have a place on the top two lines (at least when Sergei Fedorov player defense). But Fleischmann, for all the praise he gets from Bruce Boudreau, simply hasn’t produced very much or on a regular basis, nor did he impress when paired with Ovechkin at the start of last season.

Brooks Laich – Laich’s breakout performance in the 2007-08 campaign was second only to Mike Green’s and Laich looks ready to build on the success of last season with three points and a +3 rating through the Capitals first three games. The only concern is breaking up the pairing of Laich and Alexander Semin which has paid dividends for both players in the early going.