In addition, despite actually outshooting the Bruins, the Capitals couldn’t solve the enigma of Tim Thomas in net.

“Tim Thomas won a Stanley Cup playing like that last year,” said OFB TV guest Ed Frankovic.

Watch Frankovic, Ted Starkey, and yours truly discuss what adjustments the Capitals will have to consider if Laich is out of the lineup for an extended period of time and also Dmitry Orlov’s bad puck luck.

Without Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Mike Green, this Capitals team is surprisingly similar to the Capitals of almost a decade ago… a hard-charging team that both delighted and frustrated its fans.

How so, you ask? Read on… and while these comparisons are far from perfect, consider them food for thought:

It’s not a perfect match; the old-school Caps had no Karl Alzner, nor a spark-plug like Matt Hendricks, nor a promising young defenseman like Dmitry Orlov. Of course, that team of yore had a disenchanted but still-dangerous Jaromir Jagr—but the current Caps have Ovechkin… and however you feel about Ovie wearing the “C” he’s undoubtedly more deserving than Jagr was, and a wrecking-ball to boot.

Oh, and comparing the coaches falls down just a little bit… while Dale Hunter is another minor-league coach given his first NHL shot with the Caps, he kicks Butch Cassidy’s ass in pretty much every way.

When the 2011-12 team’s Robert Lang (Nicklas Backstrom) and Sergei Gonchar (Mike Green) return from injury, this roster can compete with any in team in the league. The team going through trying times with a depleted roster will build their chemistry and resolve come playoff time.

This limping Capitals team has earned three points in two games, including a tilt against the defending champs… and that’s without three of their big stars. Adding back a healthy Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Green down the stretch improves the team dramatically — but in the meantime, a team forced to play without its superstars is also forced to play a balanced, team-focused game.

If Coach Hunter and the locker-room leaders enforce that team-first mentality when their superstars return… watch out, ’cause these Capitals will be dangerous.

If it feels a bit odd to a reporter, I can only imagine what the players are going through right now.

And no wonder. Finding out Monday morning your coach is gone, coming to the rink for a practice you’re not sure will be run differently from your normal routine (and, even if drills stay the same, it’s going to feel different), facing a gauntlet of media interviews asking you about a sensitive subject, then knowing you have to somehow get it all together enough to play a solid game the following night—less than 48 hours after you initially heard the news about your coach.

Post-game Tuesday, after the Capitals’ 2-1 defeat, it was definitely not an upbeat locker room. But the players patiently dissected 60 minutes of game time for reporters.

Mike Knuble acknowledged it would have been nice to get a win for Dale Hunter’s first game.

“For us, the rest of the year is going to be such a fine line between winning and losing,” Knuble said. “And it just comes down to one little play here and there. That’s going to be the difference. I expect we’re going to see a lot of games like this, where we’re holding the lead later or trying to push for a goal late.”

The one goal that the Capitals had, however, was  an excellent move by Alex Ovechkin tearing down the right side of the ice. He drew two defensemen, per usual, but he landed a perfect pass between them to Nicklas Backstrom coming down the center with Troy Brouwer. Backstrom then buried the puck past Jaroslav Halak.

However, when asked whether Hunter had tried to adjust anything to help convert the now-standard double coverage on Ovechkin breakways into points, linemate Brouwer said the focus still has been more on the defensive and neutral zones.

“He’s [Hunter’s] more worried about our defensive zone and our neutral zone play,” Brouwer said. “In the offensive zone, he just wants us to be creative, do what makes us successful.”

The Capitals ended up losing the shots on goal contest 30-19, but they also managed to kill off a huge 5 on 3 penalty in the second period after Brooks Laich got sent to the box for tripping and Brouwer followed soon afterwards for a high-sticking double minor that drew blood from former Capitals player and now the Blues’ man Jason Arnott.

The initial penalty killing unit of Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Knuble and Karl Azner did such a good job, however, that the puck ended up in St. Louis’ zone and Backstrom drew a penalty.

“I thought that was a big point in the hockey game, really kept us in it, “Laich said of the 5 on 3. At the time, the score was tied at 1, until Matt D’Agostini scored the game winner in the second on a wrap around and a wide open net that Tomas Vokoun couldn’t get back to defend in time.

The reassuring presence of the night was Dale Hunter behind the coach’s podium. It didn’t seem like the hype or the loss got to him. He appeared ready to assess and improve.

“The guys worked hard tonight,” Hunter said. “They competed real hard. … And that’s what you need to win.”

Hunter said he saw improvement in that there were no odd-man rushes Tuesday against his team, but he said the forechecks have to be better, as well as the d-zone coverage.

“[There are] some habits to break around here and to get Dale’s way going,” Knuble said.

On the opposing bench was a team that knew something of what the Capitals were going through. The St. Louis Blues brought Ken Hitchcock on board in November and rolled to a 8-1-2 record in his 11 games. And it began with a 3-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blues’ T.J. Oshie, who had a goal against the Capitals Tuesday, said it didn’t take long for the Blues to buy into Hitchcock’s system. And while he said winning that first game helped, there was an effort to make a good impression in front of a new coach for the first several games, and the Blues haven’t let up since.

“A couple more smiles, obviously, with the wins coming,” Oshie said when asked what difference he’s noticed in locker room emotions on the run.

The Capitals’ transition may be a bit more complicated than the Blues –Davis Payne was only coach a little over a season and a half compared to Bruce Boudreau’s four years—but if there’s a game that can get the Capitals going emotionally, it will no doubt be Thursday’s battle against Pittsburgh.

Here’s hoping the smiles come back then.

There are obvious reasons these three guys have enjoyed success together–they win individual battles, they rely on heart to help talent, they’re strong without being cumbersome–but there may be another explanation hidden in the stats sheet.

Laich, Chimera and Ward average the most shifts per game of any Capitals forwards except Nicklas Backstrom. But when it comes to the length of their shifts, the three have the lowest average on the team, except for Matt Hendricks (who still averages more time on ice per shift than Chimera and Ward) and Jeff Halpern.

For all three, there’s been a shortening of the shift lengths since last year. Chimera’s has dropped by 5 seconds; Ward’s by 3; Laich’s by 4. Of course, Laich is a little more difficult to quantify and compare, since he spends so much time on special teams units in addition to even strength.

But the shorter shifts seem to be working for the trio. Ward and Chimera have the second and third shortest shifts among forwards yet carry the best plus/minuses on the team overall. Laich’s is less stellar, at -2. But if you go back and look at each of the 8 games game where he finished a minus, only in 50% of those were Chimera and Ward his companion forwards on the ice at the time of the goal against.

Basically, it’s yet another affirmation of a hockey truth that the legendary Herb Brooks forced his 1980 gold-medal winning team to follow: keep your shifts short, and your legs will be fresh when needed.

Of course, Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin have both seen their shift lengths decrease, and neither are enjoying personal bests. And obviously, Ovechkin can handle shift lengths of over a minute and win the Hart trophy. In fact, if there’s an exception to the rule, it seems to be the Great 8 — Ovechkin seems to produce less offense as his shifts shorten to less-superhuman levels. But while the shorter shift/better production theory isn’t perfect,  it’s an interesting conversation to have when figuring out how to jumpstart certain players or lines.

And for right now, the trio of Laich, Chimera, and Ward is keeping it short—and sweet.

Some notes on the final game and where it takes the Capitals going into the regular season:

–Boudreau said overall he felt the game was ‘pretty sloppy.’ The power play, after a solid performance Monday, certainly seemed to regress, with the Capitals going 1-6 on Sunday and the one tally coming on a 2-man advantage. We’ll see what adjustments the team makes (if any) before Saturday. “We didn’t play like Stanley Cup champions all preseason,” Boudreau said after Sunday’s game, but added, “We got through it.  I think they’re in shape, they’re game- ready, and we don’t have any major injuries or suspensions.”

–Brooks Laich tried his hand at center between Jason Chimera and Joel Ward on Sunday. Laich got a goal early in the game with Ward and Chimera assisting, though Laich followed it up with a penalty that gave Chicago exchanged for a goal on its power play opportunity. Laich finished+2; his linemates finished +1. Laich also had a 69% faceoff percentage and took 16 total, five more than Nicklas Backstrom. Overall, Laich seemed comfortable, although Boudreau had a longer answer as to whether this is the strongest Laich has looked in the preseason: “I would say this game…I thought he played pretty good in the last game against Buffalo, but you could see he was starting to ramp it up. Definitely better than the first two that he played.”

–Out of all the buzz surrounding weight, conditioning, and who really cares about playing well, it’s beyond a doubt clear that Michal Neuvirth, the guy who innocently suffered the biggest loss over the summer – a starting job—came ready to play. Monday and Sunday, he was a brick wall, and let in only one goal per game. Boudreau was so pleased that he called Neuvirth a “number 1A” goalie on the roster and said he’d be playing a lot of hockey this season. Tomas Vokoun is still the undisputed #1, though, according to the coach.

–Saving the best for last: watching guys crack the NHL roster thanks to stellar training camp and preseason performances is always exciting, and this year’s two most likely candidates didn’t disappoint. Jay Beagle topped off  a hardworking preseason with this tally Sunday in which, despite it being an empty netter, he had to fight for ice every stride he took.

But the real hero of the preseason was Mathieu Perreault, who finished with 5 points, tied for highest on the team with Troy Brouwer. It’s not secret that Perreault has been on OFB’s radar for awhile, and to  hear the hardworking centerman get called by Boudreau the “best player” in camp is definitely a welcome  quote to add to OFB pixels.  Perreault missed out on a regular roster spot last season in part due to the emergence of rookie Marcus Johansson, who spent much of this preseason playing on the top line between Alex Ovechkin and Troy Brouwer. Ironically, Boudreau ended up moving Perreault to that position at one point in Sunday’s game, explaining afterwards, “He was creating things … so we wanted to see if Matty could handle playing with those guys, ’cause sometimes it’s intimidating.” Boudreau said the key for Perreault is still finding consistency. It’s looking more and more like he will find it as a full-fledged member of the Capitals this season.

If the Caps are going to make it to the Stanley Cup finals this year, it’s likely part of the impetus will come from greater acceptance of the playing philosophy set or adopted by head coach Bruce Boudreau. Last year, there was buzz about a serious shift to defense on the team. And the team, despite winning a lot of low-scoring, ‘ugly’ outcomes in the season’s second half, never seemed wholly comfortable with so radical a change. This year, Boudreau discussed with the Washington Post a hybrid system, combining the quick-break elements with the sense of defensive responsibility.

The Capitals’ Brooks Laich has played under Boudreau for almost five full seasons. He says the element or underlying characteristic that defines a Boudreau system or team’s style of play is pressure -– all over the ice.

“He always emphasizes moving your feet and moving the puck, but even when you don’t have the puck, taking time and space away,” Laich described it. “I think if you want to put a term on it, maybe try and ’tilt the ice,’ so that it always seems like we’re going downhill, ’cause we always want to put pressure on and make it very difficult for other teams to play against us.”

Laich said Boudreau isn’t the only coach he’s played under who followed that mantra, but other bench bosses haven’t emphasized it as much as Boudreau.

“His emphasis is always about taking time and space away when you don’t have the puck, and then when you do have the puck, move your feet, move the puck, and attack the net,” Laich said.

“It’s pressure defense,” Boudreau said, who also discussed the theory in his 2009 autobiography, Gabby. “We want to be the dictators of the way the game is played, I think. In the perfect world, we’d like to have the puck in their zone. So I believe that you don’t get that by having them bring the puck to you. So we’ve proven we can play that game if we have to, but it’s more fun playing it the other way.”

And, judging from Laich’s response, the players have a similar opinion of Boudreau’s pressure cooker system.

“Players love it. We love it. When you don’t have the puck, be aggressive, and get it right back. And when you do have the puck, attack and try and score,” Laich said when another reporter asked how the players under Boudreau respond to the style. “I’ve been on the other side of it –I’ve played against Bruce, and it always seems like his teams are bigger, stronger, faster, in better position, and it always seems like somebody’s in your face.”

Capitals forward Brooks Laich. (Photo by Cheryl Nichols/Caps News Network)

It’s 6:45 am, and the few people in the gym where Brooks Laich trains back in Saskatchewan have been known to throw odd glances at the NHL player being put through the paces by his trainer.  Laich has been up since 5:30 am, and he’ll be at the gym from 6:45 till 10:45, working through a conditioning program that takes the “off” out of offseason.

“You kind of get some weird eyes from other people at the gym,” Laich chuckles. “But you do it all with a smile on your face, ‘cause it’s fun. … I can’t fall asleep at night if I feel like I haven’t worked harder than every other hockey player has, because then I feel like they deserve to win more than I do.”

It’s Monday when OFB talks via phone to Laich, and he’s just finished an intense lower body workout and cardio circuit on an exercise bike. Later in the day, he’ll do an hour and 15 minutes of yoga.  He’ll keep a similar pace over the next five days – on Tuesday, it will be upper body and then field work at the track, Wednesdays will be swimming and mountain biking in addition to yoga, and Thursday and Friday will repeat the Monday-Tuesday circuit. Saturday will be all-terrain biking.

And that’s just phase one of his summer conditioning agenda.

“The summers , I think, are definitely way harder than the winters. The winters are the reward – being able to play hockey and practice,” Laich says. “Hockey’s a 12-month occupation.”

Laich wasn’t always this way about his offseason training. In fact, he can pinpoint his obsession with conditioning—he phrases it as “messed up mentally that way”—back to the end of his second year in the NHL. He’d scored 7 and 8 goals in his first and second seasons, respectively. After that second year, he was walking into an ice arena back home when, Laich said, he realized, “I have to do something to separate myself from being a bubble player and try and realize the potential that I believe I have.”

From then on, instead of going into the gym at 9 am, he’d start at 7 am and stay till about 11 am. He’d make sure to be in bed by 9 pm, to the chagrin of friends. The season following that summer, however, Laich scored over 20 goals, and a conditioning junkie was born.

And, in quintessential Brooks Laich fashion, he enjoys it.

“I can’t wait to get to bed at night ‘cause I’m excited to get up …  I’m out of bed at 5:30 in the morning, ready to get to the gym, because I want to push it – I’m 28 years old, I should be entering the prime of my career.  I want to push it and see how good I can get,” Laich says. “Roddie and I sort of developed  a saying over the years, ‘It hurts you so long, you’ll be addicted to pain.’”

“Roddie,” or Rod Flahr, Laich’s trainer, has been working with the NHL player since he turned 17. They met through a guy Laich played summer hockey with.  There’s also Liane Davis, a power-skating coach and, new this year, Daysha Shuye, who teaches yoga. It’s a group of instructors Laich said he feels fortunate to work with.

Rod, says Laich, “knows my body basically as well as I do.”

“He’s the same way – he’s excited. He’s adding more, he wants to challenge me,” Laich says of how Rod handles his student’s intensity towards conditioning.

Phase 2

Liane enters Laich’s training regimen around the beginning of August, when phase 2 of his offseason conditioning starts. In this phase, he’ll do on-ice training from 8 to 9:30 am. The first half hour is Laich skating by himself,  focusing on his edge-work. He then trains with Liane until 9:30—the two have been working together for about 5 years, ever since Laich called her up and said he wanted to be a better skater—and will be in the gym by 10 to start his regular Monday-Friday routine, minus the cardio portion.

This year, Brooks decided to add yoga to his offseason conditioning program and contacted yoga instructor Daysha about training this summer. Daysha works with the local college football team doing yoga, and Rod recommended her to Brooks.

“Every year when the season ends, and I’m driving back to Saskatchewan, I’m immediately thinking about my offseason workout and how I can improve it from last year,” Laich says.

Laich’s other innovation to his routine this year besides yoga was all-terrain biking, which he says helps stabilize his core muscles and works leg muscles more than riding a stationary bike at the gym. The yoga has helped his flexibility, which he feels will help him gain more power when skating by lengthening his stride.

Changing up the workout routine helps keeps Laich from hitting a workout plateau. He and Rod also use a training structure that requires beginning the summer with a higher number of reps and low weights and eventually transitioning down to a small amount of reps with maximum weights, which helps the athlete hit maximum power and explosiveness in his movements by the end. Laich says he’ll try to keep up with the yoga during the regular season, which, he explains, is more about maintaining what progress has been made in the offseason.

During the regular season, Laich will also depend on Capitals conditioning coach Mark Nemish, who he said is fantastic at working with individual player’s needs.

The Golden Rule

If there’s a golden rule of Laich’s summer, it’s that there are no exceptions to missing a workout.  Media calls to discuss his contract extension? Anytime after 10:45 am.  Scheduling conflicts with issues out of his control? He’ll wake up at 4:30 instead of 5:30 so that he doesn’t miss the workout.

“I think I have … the strictest boss in the world,” Laich said, referring to himself.

Taking it easy during these workouts is not an option, either.

“I’d be so terrified if I left the gym and I knew I left more in the gym,” Laich said of not giving 100%.

Just to put Laich’s hours of training in perspective, consider this: Capitals conditioning coach Mark Nemish has an offseason program which at its peak will have athletes doing upwards of nine workouts a week, each 45 minutes to an hour in length.  That averages out to roughly 9 hours a week. Laich’s routine has him at 24 hours per week, and that doesn’t include the yoga.

Laich says he trains to be in better shape than anyone else. He’s not really sure, however, how his training regimen stacks up against athletes in other sports.

“I think boxers probably train the hardest of any sport,” he finally said, adding hockey may fall in line after ironman training. He also gives swimming a nod.

But, in the end, Laich’s offseason workouts come down to one thing: deserving to win.

The Washington Capitals have re-signed center Brooks Laich to a six-year contract, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today. In keeping with club policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are very pleased to have Brooks Laich continue his career as a Washington Capital,” said McPhee. “Brooks has excelled as one of the League’s finer two-way players and is just entering his prime. His combination of size, speed, versatility and leadership makes him a valuable part of our club.”

Laich, 28, finished fourth on the Capitals in points (48), fifth in goals (16) and third in assists (32) while posting a plus-14 plus/minus rating and collecting 46 penalty minutes. For the third time in his career, he played in all 82 of Washington’s regular-season games and finished second on the Caps with 207 shots on goal. In addition, Laich closed out the 2010-11 campaign fifth on the team in hits (113) and won 51.3 percent of his faceoffs. He scored his 100th career NHL goal on Mar. 15 at Montreal and finished second on the team in points during the playoffs (7) while leading the Caps with six postseason assists in nine games. Laich also finished first amongst Capitals forwards in average shorthanded ice time per game (2:18) and was instrumental in leading the Caps penalty kill unit that ranked second in the NHL during the regular season.

“I’m thrilled to make the commitment to remain a Capital,” said Laich. “It is a wonderful organization with terrific fans and I’m very happy to continue to call Washington home for many years to come.”

Brooks Laich, courtesy of Cheryl Nichols of Caps News Network

Brooks Laich perhaps  found that out the hard way this year, and he’s considering fixing the problem this summer by doing something that most people don’t think twice about: taking a vacation.

“I think this summer, I might step away from hockey a little bit, for three, four weeks,” Laich said at Capitals’ break-up day, admitting, however, that it would be hard for him. “Maybe take a vacation and try and let some of this go—not  forget about it, but let some of it go so I can have a fresh start next year.”

A decision that once may have seemed unthinkable to him — that he could love hockey as much as anyone else, yet not think about it 24/7 — is now one that shows  just how much Laich has matured this year. Reliably amiable, he came in to last season with an attitude that earned him the nickname “Grumpy.” He talked about at one point in this year’s playoffs having difficulty sleeping because of frustration with his performance.

But, Laich realizes now, he was carrying baggage over from last year: a bitter first round exit to Montreal that he never let go of. His physical conditioning didn’t suffer, Laich said, but he never gave himself a mental break.

“When the season ended last year, I went and played in the World Championships, and right from that, I came home, went right to the gym, because I was frustrated, and I wanted to start preparing for the next season,” the Capitals’ versatile forward said. “But I think that in the long run that hurt me. I think I might have pushed it a little too hard . . . I never gave myself a break. I never separated one season from the other, which I think you have to do. I think you have to let one season go before you can prepare for the other.”

So for those who heard the unrestricted free agent’s rather ambiguous and admittedly eyebrow-raising comments at the end of the season about talking with his agent and still being a Washington Capital as of now, take them how you may, but remember this is a guy who loves hockey and simply recognizes he needs to recharge mentally before he  can make any clear decisions.  He’s drained mentally. But he’s fixing that.

“It’s been a long two years,” he said. “I think I’ll take some time off, and let my body relax and recharge. I’m still young, I’m still gonna play a lot of hockey, so I don’t need to be worried about that.”

And for Caps fans, it may be the best solution, too — make your peace with this season, and come back ready to rock the red next year.

It’s simultaneously exciting and a potential curse: everybody’s picking the Caps to win this series versus Tampa.

But there’s a reality this spring that can’t be ignored: Two teams among 16 this postseason distinguished themselves for the efficiency with which they plowed through the first round — Detroit and Washington. It’s interesting that the Caps are being heralded as prime Cup finalist contender while the Coyote-mauling Wings are, comparatively speaking, an afterthought. That may have something to do with this: Detroit must navigate San Jose and likely Vancouver to emerge from out West. Have fun with that.

And Vancouver, our reigning President’s trophy winner . . . has had its sails clipped a bit by virtue of surviving a serious first-round scare with the Hawks, coughing up a 3-0 lead in the process. Someone between Philly and Boston is required to take stand as obstacle in the Eastern conference finals. Neither will cause Bruce Boudreau to lose sleep. More than a few observers believed that the Rangers potentially offered the Caps their most difficult challenge in the Eastern conference.

Two weeks ago, Michal Neuvirth was something of a question mark, if only by virtue of his age and NHL postseason inexperience. Today, do you think the Flyers might like to have him in place of their three-headed monster of ineptitude between the pipes? (Or might not the Canucks for that matter?) He’s competed in 15 professional hockey postseason series and won all 15. Nifty, no? And if for some reason Neuvirth suddenly becomes average, look what’s positioned immediately behind him as stand-by, quality depth. To scan the forecasts of the second round in the East is to see consensus that the Caps prevail over Tampa in either 5 or 6 games. All such forecasters presumably are steeped in the grotesque Capitals’ postseason shortcomings of the past, but among them there seems a recognition that this spring is different. And that’s telling.

No one seriously posits that any GM had a better late February than George McPhee. Marco Sturm has been a good fit; Jason Arnott an all-time good fit. In this second round versus Tampa, the Capitals are likely to see the returned services of Dennis Wideman. What if he looks 75 percent as good as he did at the time of his injury? Then this happens: some defenseman who’s played well for the Caps this spring will be required to sit. A player the caliber of Scott Hannan could be in the Capitals’ third defensive pairing. Exactly when did that last happen with a Capitals’ blueline in the warm weather months?

On the face of things, the Capitals and Lightning were separated by just four points in the Southeast this season and therefore ought to engage in a lengthy and highly outcome-uncertain Eastern semifinal series. I’m not so sure. Leave in place all of the notable and prolonged injuries the Capitals endured during the regular season, but grant them this back in autumn: the roster additions they made at the trade deadline. And give the ‘Bolts Dwayne Roloson all season as well. This is a fair point to raise because after all theses are the rosters the Capitals and Lightning are competing with beginning tonight. Add Wideman to the blueline and eliminate the five months of second line center by committee carousel the Caps perpetrated — Jason Arnott centering Alex Semin all season long. The verdict I come up with is a solid double-digit division triumph for the Caps. Again.

This opponent, however, is not one to be taken lightly. Steven Stamkos is a game-breaking talent — if playoff unproven. Martin St. Louis is aging like fine wine. Roloson is proving to be the reliable backstop Steve Yzerman dreamed of.

The ‘Bolts’ blueline is big but lumbering — the Capitals can exploit that unit if they gain puck possession with numbers beyond the trapping Tampa forwards in the neutral zone. But these burly blueliners also block a lot of shots (Eric Brewer had 27 in round one; Mattias Ohlund and Victor Hedman will well clog life in front of Roloson as well). The Capitals made a commitment to blocking a lot of shots against a shot-blocking Rangers club in their opening round. That needs to continue.

Tampa can’t match the Caps in offensive depth, but they’ve a bevy of wonderful role players up front. No forward impressed me as much as Nate Thompson against Pittsburgh. Gifted skater, courage coming out of his ears — he reminds me of Brooks Laich a bit. Ryan Malone, too, is a gamer, and Sean Bergenheim is highly versatile and effective in all areas of the ice. And somewhat quietly, Simon Gagne picked up 7 points versus the Pens. Neither Gagne nor Vincent Lecavalier possess their game-breaking great status of five years ago, but they’re both grizzled playoff veterans who’ll help in key situations.

It’s likely we’ll see a lot of New Time ugly hockey in this series. The Caps are a defensive minded club these days; Tampa will try to score a game’s first goal and make a mess of the neutral zone thereafter. Bruce Boudreau seemed amused by Tampa’s 1-3-1 setup at times during the regular season. It will be interesting to see how he attacks it this spring (having Dennis Wideman back soon would help).

Series keys:

• There’s a bit of a Mendoza line for the Capitals when it comes to penalties in this series, I think, and I peg it at the number 4. Four or fewer power plays for Tampa each game and the Caps’ magnificent PK group ought to be ok. But beyond that, the Caps flirt with serious danger. The brilliance of the Tampa power play — it’s operating at 29 percent effectiveness this postseason — is a potential series-changer. The Caps need to be a disciplined club in this series especially.

• Get shots through to Roloson, and get on the board early against him. A heavy workload is an excellent strategy against a forty-something goaltender who saw a heavy workload down the stretch of the regular season and seven games in the opening round.

• Be patient against Tampa’s 1-3-1. Seams for stretch passes in it can be found — and the Caps often found them well in regular season matchups with Tampa.

• Get the puck on Alex Semin’s stick in this series as often as possible, in time and space, preferably. In four regular season games against the ‘Bolts Sasha was very good: 7 goals and 2 assists.

Caps in 6.