But what do we think of a shooter who doesn’t merely displace a water bottle but all of the water in it as well? That’s precisely what Alexander Semin did during Wednesday night’s third period against Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Have you seen any other NHLer pull that off, ever? Or any other hockey player for that matter?

If you pay close attention to the NHL’s video of the goal, you’ll notice a brief explosion of water behind Giggy right before the Verizon Center faithful realize that the Caps have scored again. I was seated way up high in the Phone Booth Wednesday night and noticed this extraordinary consequence of Semin’s sniping only from the high-def replays on the television screens overhead in the press box. I don’t remember a moment like it — certainly not from any other Capitals’ shooter, ever. Do you? Semin may have destroyed Giggy’s water bottle altogether. Doesn’t such a feat deserve a special designation? I kind of like The Single Bullet Theory, which can take out a whole lot.

Near the end of his press conference Wednesday night Bruce Boudreau was asked about historic winning streaks, and if he and his team are thinking about — targeting, perhaps — the team’s all-time best mark: 10, accomplished in the 1983-84 season. The coach feigned ignorance, but there seemed to be a slight twinkle in his eye amid the discussion, as if he were telling a white lie while wanting the matter to remain very much in the room. Bruce Boudreau coached the Hershey Bears; you can be certain that he has a sensitivity for historic achievements by hockey clubs.

• I was very much interested in Randy Carlyle’s impressions of the Caps in the postgame, as he sees so little of them; found his team in a position to win Wednesday going into the final frame; only to see a Red Tsunami Wave envelop his road-weary club in the final 20 minutes. “Skilled players that want to play with the puck,” he characterized the Caps, “so don’t let them play with the puck.” He lamented his team’s cycles of circling as the Caps played with the puck, most particularly in the first and final frames. On the performance of his backup goaltender, JS Giguere: “He carried our hockey club.”

• Giggy had the giggy going all right through two periods Wednesday night. After 40 minutes he’d stopped 34 of 35 Capitals’ shots, and the Capitals’ final shift of the second period, which featured the former Conn Smythe winner highway robbing Alexander Semin twice from point-blank range, probably left most of the Red Army believing that this just wasn’t going to be the night for the home team. The Capitals’ second line may not have had, or will have again this season, a shift as dominant in puck control and volume of quality opportunities as was that last one in the second stanza.

• Every Capital skated a plus or even on the night. Ovechkin is now three points back of the scoring lead, and just one behind Patrick Marleau for tops in goals. All six Caps players who took faceoffs Wednesday night were 54 percent or better (Flash was tops at 62 percent). Alex Semin moves from 16th to 13th in points and enters the top 10 in goals with his two markers last night.

• Gabby, on Semin: “He sure is playing hard. Not a lot of negative things about Alex Semin you can say right now . . . He comes to play every night and he’s doing it with a smile on his face.”

• At about the midway point of Wednesday night’s first period Alexander Ovechkin threw a hard check deep in a corner of the Anaheim zone, landed on the ice, and came up seemingly favoring an arm/shoulder. He completed his shift at a stoppage and took some moments skating around a bit in front of the Capitals’ bench, trying, it appeared, to gain some equilibrium or comfort before heading off the ice. The Russian Machine of course seldom breaks down, but the moment got me thinking: so close to the Vancouver Olympic Games, what would the Washington Capitals tell one of their front-line Olympians were one to get dinged up a bit and were it clearly in the best interests of the team to get that player 17 days of R&R for healing?

As luck would have it, I shared the press box men’s room with Capitals General Manager George McPhee during Wednesday’s first intermisson. Guys generally don’t talk much in there — it’s a Code thing. We spend our time in there a little differently than do women in their room. But were you in my position, with an intriguing question weighing heavily on you, and the foremost expert quite near you to answer it, wouldn’t you have spoken up in that moment? No? Rigid adherence to the Code? Well, for some years now George McPhee has been exceedingly gracious with access and time for me, at Verizon Center and Kettler. And always he’s offered me thoughtful and sincere and at times deeply reflective substance in his replies to my queries. So, I dispensed with the men’s bathroom code and asked.

(We were at the faucets, by the way.)

I posed to him the hypothetical of one of his front-line guys, designated for duty in Vancouver, getting rather seriously dinged over the next week or two, presenting a clear-cut case of management wanting to “shut him down for seventeen days.” Would he have that confrontation-conversation with the player, even one as central to the Games’ hockey marketability as Ovi?

“Yep,” he said, without hesitation.

“It’s Caps first, country second, right?”

“Yep.”

In hindsight, the GM’s reply struck me as sensible and predictable — NHL clubs after all are these players’ employers. For the Games, they are according their employees a supportive leave of absence. Still I found appreciation for and clarity in the firmness of George McPhee’s reply: most all of us will enjoy greatly the Olympic hockey contested in a few weeks’ time, but they are a very temporary respite from the ultimate hockey task on the calendar. The Capitals’ general manager I’m sure wants his players to perform magnificently at the Olympics, but he wants more — much more — to win a Stanley Cup this season.

I exited Verizon Center at the press entrance near 11:00 Wednesday night just as Alexander Ovechkin motored up the ramp from the arena’s parking garage. An enthusiastic band of about a half dozen Ovi supporters, most bearing his red sweater, greeted him in unison at the top of the ramp with “We love you, Ovi.” The captain rolled down his window, turned and smiled at his admirers, and replied, “I love you too,” before speeding off into the victorious night. Our captain has the best vanity tags in the history of the Greater Metropolitan region, without question: OV GR8. As I watched his car become small down 6th Street I had the thought, it is very good to be Captain Ovi these days.

It is no surprise that Detroit has taken a dip in the standings, as they lost more than 100 of last year’s goals in the form of departed players. Even though it was expected, no one thought Detroit would be one point out of a playoff spot at the season’s halfway mark. To say they were bitten by the injury bug is an understatement. At one point this year Detroit was without  Johan Franzen, Jonathan Ericsson, Jason Williams, Niklas Kronwall, Tomas Holmstrom, Brad Stuart, and Valtteri Filppula, and they have been without Andreas Lilja all season due to post-concussion symptoms. You know you are in trouble when the call-ups who are replacing the injured players are getting hurt.

Some may say, well, the Caps went through the same kind of thing last year. But the Caps’ maladies of a year ago were nowhere close to as devastating as what the Wings have had to endure this season. At one point the Wings lost their three top scorers, three of their best defensemen, and a solid member of the checking line. Not to mention they have serious salary cap problems and therefore little room to address the injury challenges. Any franchise in sports, no matter how good the front office is, will struggle with that many injuries.

Despite the injuries the Wings have stayed in contention. Detroit has done a nice job staying in contention with a few surprise players stepping up. Todd Bertuzzi, not a widely acclaimed offseason acquisition, has put together a solid 27-point season. Meanwhile, an under-the-radar signing I loved, Patrick Eaves, has seemed to get goals at just the right time. He has only six goals and seven assists, but he has a knack for scoring at just the right times. Of all the players who have stepped up Detroit is most excited about Darren Helm. The speedy center has 14 points on the season and is a player the Detroit media has jokingly dubbed, “the most dangerous man in hockey,” because of his speed. While the title is half joke, he is a guy that needs to be accounted for at all times since he can easily slip by the defense.

Speaking of the Detroit media, and most specifically radio, they are in love with the Washington Capitals. First off the Caps are Pittsburgh’s arch-enemy, and as the old saying goes, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” It is not just simply a matter of sharing the same hate of the Penguins. Jimmy Howard has been talked about for the Calder Trophy because of his steller rookie season, but when he is talked about on the airwaves they are also quick to mention another young netminder by the name of Semyon Varlamov. Detroit is a hockey town, and it is never afraid to give props to another franchise. As far as the Eastern Conference goes, let’s just say the fans in red and white do like the red, white and blue.

With all this in mind, despite their struggles, the emergence out of nowhere of a promising young goalie, and their 10-9-5 road record, Detroit should be a tough challenge for the Capitals tonight. The Wings tend to get fired up for these kinds of games, but Washington is clearly the better hockey club. And think about this for a moment: when was the last time a Washington Capitals’ club went into a game against the Detroit Red Wings as something approaching a prohibitive favorite? The answer: many of our readers weren’t alive then. I think you have to go back decades!

Even with their stingy defense and strong goaltending it will be hard for the Red Wings to contain the high flying Caps offense, especially in the Verizon Center. Fans should expect Jimmy Howard to start in net and they should also anticipate a Capitals’ ‘W.’

All of this said, however, you don’t become a powerhouse franchise overnight, and in addressing the media at Kettler yesterday, Bruce Boudreau made what I thought were a couple of key observations about his Tuesday opponent. He noted that players seem to put on a Wings’ sweater and become better players. That’s what used to happen with hockey players who donned Bruins’ and Habs’ sweaters, he added. He was referencing what’s become nearly a two-decades’-long legacy of winning in Detroit. That has an impact on players. Call it a culture of winning. Washington is establishing it; Detroit’s had in place for years, and the Wings won’t relinquish it without a fight.

Tuesday marks the opening of what the Caps’ coach termed “a great test week.” He called the Wings “this year’s Anaheim” — a club that will likely qualify for the postseason and one no one will want to face there. The thinking here is that he’s right, and that Tuesday night will reveal less a changing of the proverbial guard and more just a heck of a game between two elite franchises.

“For the most part, fighters are there to keep the peace and protect their skill players. For teams to have success, they have to put the puck in the net, and that requires talented players who are usually smaller and faster than the other guys. In order for the skill players to do their jobs effectively, they must be allowed the freedom to skate, pass, and shoot without the fear of being run over by a bigger player who is out to intimidate them. Intimidation plays a major role in hockey, and if players are scared of being smacked around or hurt, then they will play more conservatively. They may think twice about skating to the net or going through the crease to attack a rebound, and that will hurt their chances of winning.

“This is where enforcers come in. Enforcers keep a watchful eye on their star players and make sure that the opposition thinks twice before taking any liberties with them. Take the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, for instance. In 1997-98 they had to play without their two best players, Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne, for much of the year due mostly to rough injuries. In fact, after missing the first past of the season over a contract dispute, Kariya returned only to suffer a major concussion from a vicious cross-check to the face by Gary Suter following a goal. Without them the team suffered greatly and missed the playoffs. So that off-season the team brought in Stu Grimson to protect them. The mere presence of the “Grim Reaper” on the bench that year sent a clear message to the opposition: stay away from Kariya and Selanne, or else. Teams couldn’t employ dirty tactics to slow the stars down, and it gave the players more space on the ice to do what they did best: score goals. And do you know what? It worked. That next season Kariya and Selanne ranked number two and number three in the league scoring race, respectively, and the team made the playoffs. Coincidence? No way.”

It’s just one author’s opinion, but it’s a well informed one — Bernstein spent more than two years interviewing more than 50 of the fiercest tough guys the sport of hockey has ever seen. They were unanimous in this sentiment: protection, intimidation, and retaliation are an enduring part of hockey’s DNA. You may not much like it, but that’s the way it is.

Get well soon, Greener, and may Santa bring us a big bag of knuckles.