So what’s the deal with Chris Clark?

His playing time has diminished since the beginning of the season. He’s bounced from line to line. He has one assist on the year and is a -2. He won’t be playing against the Rangers. And when asked by reporters whether he was a healthy scratch tonight or whether he was injured, he told them to “talk to Bruce”.

Let’s start with that answer, because such a response to the press is so Un-Clark-like that it makes me wonder if there’s not something more going on.

No one would blame him for being frustrated, especially if he really is injured. And if he’s been playing injured and Boudreau finally decided to sit him out to heal, that’s got to be a heavy blow to someone who worked so hard just to get healthy again for this year.

It’s been a long road for the captain and a painful one, both for Clark himself and for the fans who love him. I think we all just want to see him back to his old ways, and if an injury is preventing that from happening then he should by all means take a night or two off to get better. He’s no good to us hurt, as we’ve seen.

But if he’s not really hurt, if this is Boudreau’s way of benching the captain without making it look like he’s benching the captain…we might have a problem.

Look, if Boudreau really is simply benching him, I wish he would just say so. The coach is not here to make friends or win a popularity contest. No one who has followed the Caps this year believes that Clark is playing up to his abilities, and most of us understand that it’s because he’s been out of commission for so long. We’re not asking for miracles and we’re not asking for PR smoothing – we want a team that is going to bring it every night, plain and simple.

So in my mind there’s nothing wrong with coming out and saying that Clark has been trying hard but it’s a long road to recovery and we’d like to give some of the guys who haven’t played as much a chance to prove themselves in the meantime. Who among us wouldn’t understand that? Who would question that decision?

Clark is one of the few players on the Caps roster who played more games under Hanlon last year than under Boudreau. He had two goals and an assist in the five games after Hanlon was fired before he re-injured his groin and was out for the year; but we haven’t really seen him play under Boudreau’s system, not really. He and Boudreau are still trying to figure each other out, and they’re also trying to figure out what Clark’s role will be now that the much more vocal Kolzig is no longer a locker room constant.

Whether they are able to find some common ground or not will determine what happens in the next few months. Until then, all we can say is get better, Clark – and we’ll take it day by day.