One surprising statement at the end of last season was Brooks Laich telling the media he needed to mature as a leader. His reputation as such is already well-established in Washington Capitals circles (for example, when Caps prospect Braden Holtby was asked this summer who he looks up to in the locker room, Laich was the player he mentioned by name).

Five months after Laich alluded to developing his locker room presence, he explained further this week what that role would look like.

“I’m not a super vocal guy, but as far as wearing different hats, I think as a veteran guy, you want to hold players accountable, and you also want to set an example,” Laich said. “So those are two things that I think I’ll be doing this year.”

Laich said his approach to leadership in the locker room has been shaped by a number of Capitals over his six years with the franchise — Chris Clark, Olaf Kolzig, Jeff Halpern, and current teammate Mike Knuble.

Interviewing Brooks Laich at Kettler. Thank heavens my hair isn't like Dolly Parton's, or there would have been no room for Laich in the shot. Photo by OFB's Alexander Perlmutter.

“I think as a leader, you can never be never too high, never too low,” Laich said. “I think you have to be stable and always confident and kind of be a balancing act for some of your other players that maybe go on a bit of a roller coaster.”

Laich foresees another young  Capitals roster this year (even nineteen year old Cody Eakin is playing in rookie camp like an NHL spot is his to lose) as an opportunity to grow into a veteran presence currently shared by players like Jason Chimera, Matt Bradley, and Mike Knuble.

“To have the respect of the players is fantastic, but it’s something you’ve got to continually earn – otherwise, your opinion doesn’t carry much weight,” Laich said.

Another area where Laich has a history of directing his focus is conditioning. He said the most well-conditioned team he played last year was the Chicago Blackhawks, even though the teams only faced each other once and the Capitals pulled out the win in overtime.

“When you think of conditioning, you think of players that in the third period seem to be faster than they are in the first,” Laich said. “We only played against them [Chicago] once, but they started the first period fast and ended the game fast…everybody on their team is always moving.”

But Laich thinks the Caps are a match for anyone in the league on the conditioning front and pointed out the Caps led the league in third period goals last year.

“I think our team can skate with anybody,” Laich said. “I think Bruce puts us through the paces in practice. Our practices during the year are an hour and a half long.”

Young core players continue to mature into global-elite talents. Additional promising talent, joined by a smattering of savvy free agent and trade acquisitions, fills out a formidable skating roster. There is additionally a surplus of prime talent in net. My friends in the Red Army, I am here this morning to report to you that the state of the Capitals’ Union is Stanley Cup contender-favorite strong!

A lead storyline in this Capitals’ season is the change in the team’s leadership. In December, Chris Clark was dealt to Columbus, his captaincy awarded to Alexander Ovechkin. Since his drafting in 2004, Ovechkin has been the face of hockey in Washington, and it’s a profile that has catapulted hockey’s standing to the fore of Washington’s sports scene. As such, his captaincy was an inevitability, but it also represents an earned leadership, hardly hastily bestowed, and one certain to endure the next decade-plus — a leadership stability the Caps haven’t known since Dale Hunter departed.

A year ago, fellow soldiers, the Capitals enjoyed their finest regular season in team history, earning a team-record 108 points en route to a 50-24-8 record. And yet there was an uneven quality to the team’s performance. They started out white hot on home ice over the first 20 or so home dates then tailed off dramatically. Additionally, the Caps were fairly labeled a team which rose impressively to meet the challenges of the NHL’s elite but ‘played down’ to the levels of inferior competition. This season, the Capitals have been more consistently excellent against all comers.

Some nights they overpower their opponents with their firepower; other nights they triumph in a tactical attack in close-checking affairs; still other nights they win with great goaltending. The constant in the equation is Bruce Boudreau. He is unlikely to win again soon a Jack Adams trophy as the league’s best bench boss, given the volume of skill he coaches, but his team’s stylistic adaptability from night to night speaks volumes for his benchwork.

When 2008-09 ended abruptly, and torturously, in game 7 against Pittsburgh, conventional wisdom posited that the Capitals needed to explore summer free agency relatively aggressively to shore up weak areas exposed by the Penguins. Instead, management ventured modestly but in very well targeted fashion in the shopping season, securing the services of Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison to replace Sergei Fedorov and Viktor Kozlov. Management left the team’s blueline intact, unaltered — and glutted with NHL-caliber talent.

Sometimes the best moves a GM makes are those he doesn’t.

By resisting the impulse to mortgage the Capitals’ future in a play for Chris Pronger last spring George McPhee today presides over a Cup-contending roster that appears of a contending-caliber far into the future.

Our warriors of winning this season are likely to lead the league in goals scored for the first time in franchise history. Their prolific offense is balanced superbly among three and at times even four lines, but Nicklas Backstrom deserves specific mention for the sniper’s shot he’s added to his world-class playmaking arsenal. The only downside to Backstrom’s season thus far is that he needs a new deal, and it’s going to cost the Caps a ton to get him inked.

Another lead storyline in 2009-10 has been the emergence of an Unheralded Trio: Tomas Fleischmann, Jeff Schultz, and Eric Fehr. If you want to pinpoint a reason why this year’s Capitals’ team looks formidable in the East as the season’s second half marches toward the postseason, the performances of these three players are a consistent catalyst.

When in last season’s preseason Bruce Boudreau spoke of Flash being a 30-goal scorer in the big league, few in media paid him much attention. Today, his are the hands of a 30-goal guy, and he’s now using them to great effect in the middle of the ice, helping forge a lethal follow-on line to Ovechkin-Backstrom-Knuble. Flash is nearly a point-per-game performer (17 goals, 19 assists in 41 games), and he will deservedly represent the Czech Republic in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. His starring performance is all the more remarkable when you consider that he missed the entirety of training camp, and the season’s opening weeks, with a frightening blood clot.

Jeff Schultz’ preseason was unremarkable. Frankly, he struggled. Frankly, he emerged from the preseason a bit of an afterthought on the Capitals’ blueline, and an early healthy scratch from the lineup. Today, however, he’s rapidly matured into one of Bruce Boudreau’s most reliable rearguards. He will not dazzle you with breakout passes or points, nor manhandle opposing forwards down low. Instead, he smartly assesses an opponent’s attack, reliably takes effective defending angles, and covers vast stretches of his own zone with the breadth of his reach.

But no player overcame more from the end of 2008-09 than Eric Fehr. Early in the postseason he found himself under the knife for surgery on both shoulders. In the early portion of summer he was unable even to feed and dress himself. Early in 2010 he ranks among the most dangerous of third-line wings in the league, and he’s posted career-best numbers (28 points in 41 games) little more than halfway through the season. His production is particularly impressive in light of the modest minutes he nightly skates — rarely more than 11-12 minutes a night, with minimal time on the power play.

As if the Capitals weren’t stacked enough on the NHL roster, their American League affiliate in Hershey is actually outperforming them. Like the Caps, the Bears have flirted with a 20-point cushion over their second-place rival in the division. But the Bears never lose. Here’s their record in their last 21 games: 19-2. With 70 points earned through just 45 games, it’s quite conceivable that Hershey could easily better their best-ever point total of 114 from the 2006-07 season. For good measure the South Carolina Stingrays boast a 16-point lead in the South division of the ECHL. My friends in the Red Army, it is an embarrassment of puck riches we follow with this organization.

It is genuinely difficult to distinguish between the Capitals’ present and future when so much of the talent on the farm seems primed to contribute reliably and productively in the present. Witness the contributions this season of Karl Alzner, Michal Neuvirth, Mathieu Perreault, and John Carlson.

John Carlson, Conqueror of Canada! Gold medal for his bling! Red Army, acknowledge our Hero’s nation-slaying anew!

Carlson was among five players the Bears dispatched to the AHL All Star game earlier this month. A sixth, Braden Holtby, should have participated, but his season has been split between the East Coast and American leagues, and he represented the Stingrays as an All Star. With Hershey this season Holtby is on pace to obliterate team goaltending records. Of his team’s American League affiliation Capitals’ owner Ted Leonsis this month claimed, “The excellence with which that [Hershey] organization is run washes up on us.”

There can be no assurances that the gaudy success across the Washington hockey organization thus far this season will translate into long-lasting postseason success, but should Capitals’ General Manager George McPhee decide he needs to strengthen his roster heading into the postseason, he can. By jettisoning the pricey contracts of Michael Nylander and Chris Clark in the seaon’s first half, he’s created cap space for impact player additions, should he want them. The Capitals have cap space and assets aplenty to be prime players in the wheeling-dealing market of February and early March.

With so much good news enveloping hockey in Washington you’d think there’d be not a thing in the rink to complain about, but there is, and as ever, it’s who’s missing most nights in the rink: much of Washington’s elite media. The usual suspects are conspicuous in their absence. Additionally, a great loss in the middle of this season arrived with the demise of the Washington Times and rising star reporter Corey Masisak.

But there’s some good news on the media front: new and upstart sports talk radio 106.7 the Fan, which from program to program, day after day, recognizes our very winning hockey team wonderfully, and rebukes that other Caps-hating sports talk radio outlet in town (the one owned by you know who). The Fan, as an outlet of its ilk should, delights in the Caps’ MoJo and lavishes generous air team upon the only hot team in town.

Recently the Caps’ press box was filled for a visit from the Detroit Red Wings, for the 23rd home game on the season, and it marked the first visit by most local sports media outlets en masse since the home opener. There are miles to go still with local press to convince them that every home game with this hockey team is a special occasion.

You, however, our city’s fans who’ve sold out Verizon Center all season long, you, the frenzied Red Army, certainly don’t need to be told.

We should I think assume that the Capitals in this instance got it very, very right in awarding the captaincy of the team to Alexander Ovechkin. For starters, this player has been, since the very day he was drafted, the face of this franchise — indeed, the face of hockey in Washington. But more important I think was his initial reaction when management approached him this week with the idea of his candidacy.

“I said to Bruce [Boudreau] right away, if you want me to be captain, ask the guys if they want me to be the captain,” the Gr8 told media this week.

One way or another, Alexander Ovechkin was going to have a leadership role with the Capitals, precisely because he’s had one for the past five years. But before having one formalized, and specifically in the quasi-sacred designation of wearing the ‘C’ above his heart, he made plain his need to have the support of 20 of his teammates.

“I know they [the players] were really happy when I told them [about Ovi being captain] this morning,” Boudreau said on Tuesday night. “This doesn’t happen often, but the group got up and cheered. I had talked to a lot of them in the last couple of days and they said that Alex was the only choice; he’s our leader, he’s our guy. I think the thing that really shows how he was ready was, when I talked to him a few days ago, he said, ‘I would accept the responsibility, but only if my teammates want me to.’

“So he was already thinking about the team rather than thinking about himself, which is what good captains do.”

Ovechkin, the thinking here is, will bring a most novel set of attributes to this captaincy, ones never quite seen before among his 13 predecessor captains in town.

Foremost among them is a startling humility for a best-in-his-profession talent. And it was that humility that reacted with a ‘only if the guys are ok with it’ qualification to his captain’s nomination.

Where Ovi will offer his greatest leadership traits is obvious: on the ice. Capitals’ management has said as much. It is there that nightly his drive and passion, shift after shift, define his game. And on the ice means the practice sheet just as much as the game ice of the regular season and postseason. One of the most endearing qualities about this extraordinary young performer is his elemental love for his craft. When no-name free agents and nondescript draft picks have assembled at Kettler Capitals for pre-training camp skates over the past five summers it wasn’t uncommon to see Ovechkin there as well, envious of their early start on a season. Occasionally he would even skate with them. This reminded me of former Boston Celtics great Larry Bird, who too couldn’t be kept off a competition’s stage if competing was taking place, and insisted on participating in free agent and rookie camps and such.

Ovechkin’s passion for hockey is seen, and heard, even in practice drills, and in his playful goofiness during those moments before practices starts. He simply loves being on the ice, every day. The hockey season is brutally long, and this unwavering and insatiable love of craft is a wonderful attribute to bring to this captaincy.

But I’m of the opinion that Ovi will wear his ‘C’ not only for the Caps but for hockey more broadly here and to some extent for Washington the beleaguered sports town, whether he realizes it or not. No need to belabor the present plight of the Wizards and Nats and Redskins. But that something unprecedented, something of a sporting uprising, is taking place here caught even the notice of the brief visiting Al Michaels of NBC’s national football telecast team here just a few weekends back. Michaels told his national television audience that night of his daytime walks through Washington, and his encountering not so much Redskins’ paraphernalia adorning the locals but rather the Red of Hockey here. And he pointed out this new-found allegiance as a uniform conspicuously apparent within FedEx Field on football gamedays as well. Alexander Ovechkin deserves no small credit for this phenomenon.

And it will blossom even more broadly under his leadership here over the next decade-plus.

Ovechkin was selected by Head Coach Bruce Boudreau and GMGM as the 14th captain in team history. He is the second youngest Cap to ever have the honor, with the only one younger being Ryan Walter who was 21. Along with being the second youngest in franchise history he is also only the sixth Russian born player to have the honor and one of only two active Russian captains.

“He sets the tone, on the ice as well as off,” McPhee said. “He’s respectful to everyone and a great ambassador for our team and our sport. We look forward to him leading the Washington Capitals for a long time.”

Several other former Captains and other Caps greats have endorsed his selection. Former captains Dale Hunter, Jeff Halpern and Yvon Labre all said nothing but positive things about Ovie and his leadership. A common theme was his energy on and off the ice and his desire to put the team before himself.

The captaincy was left vacant when former captain Chris Clark and defenseman Milan Jurcina were traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets for winger Jason Chimera. After the trade both GMGM and Boudreau both said they were going to take their time to name a captain and make sure they did it correctly. Both stated that they wanted to honor captains of the past and name someone that was truly worthy.

Returning from a holiday out of town, I was stuck within Beltway brutality before 7:00 yesterday morning, and out of morbid curiosity, (and being without satellite radio), I tuned in to local sports radio the morning after a 4-12 Deadskins’ season. I should have known better. (I did, actually, but my iPod charge was low.) Apparently the head coach was canned in the middle of the night; apparently he was security-escorted out of the team office soon thereafter; no he wasn’t; yes he was; maybe he was; better go bloated remote there the rest of the day. Some sycophant scribes even took to photographing their bloated presence at the Ashburn park and publishing the pics on social media. It was pornography against professionalism.

We in HockeyWashington are to respond by taking up arms. Sticks, rather. Sticks for shinny. It is as if Mother Nature even cannot suffer our local media fools, and is taking up the cause of converting Washington into a Tier I hockey town with this early January deep freeze: the ice on the Canal is thickening fast. Get the little feet of your little kiddies snuggled into skates, get them outfitted in their new red hockey sweaters left by Santa, and get them out on the Canal this weekend. The hyperventilating over Jim Zorn will still be there when you’re through.

We are also to tune in to the NHL Network, which is broadcasting big, authentic news: no small portion of the future of American hockey will earn either a gold or silver medal tonight in Saskatchewan.

There is manufactured buzz, created by the press, in self-fulfilling prophecy, and then there is a real and authentic one emanating from ice: Washington’s hockey team and its virtually guaranteed participation in the very next Winter Classic; the 2010 Winter Classic was TV-ratings injured by the slight against the Caps; an altogether unexpected American uprising is taking place at the World Junior Championships up in Canada, which features a bedrock of the Capitals’ blueline in the new decade ahead, John Carlson; Mike Green was snubbed by Team Canada; the Hershey Bears are auditioning for promotion to the National League.

Should each major local sports outlet, the moment the United States shocked all of Canada with its New Years’ Eve performance against the five-time champion hosts, have dispatched at least a single reporter to frontier Canada — or at least sought out a stringer there? But of course. Many local media pegged their lead training camp storylines on John Carlson nearly four months ago. Now he’s enjoying the greatest success of his young hockey career, and they’re missing it. But at least we have Larry Michael’s pearls of dispassionate wisdom.

Here is another timely storyline worthy of pursuit by professional media, were they here: is it possible that the Capitals actually miss Mathieu Perreault?

The entire local sports page for the past week-plus ought to have looked like one published in Minneapolis or Toronto. Instead, it’s looked like Groundhog Day, circa ’92.

The dichotomy couldn’t be starker: it is one of celebrity and controversy versus actual accomplishment. Dan Snyder is a celebrity, an agent of controversy (it is his commerce). Ted Leonsis has actually served as architect over a revolutionary accomplishment in this town. If only his athletes would carry firearms into their lockers.

He, too, has noticed the malfeasance.

” . . . we made a trade - a smart one for our team - that added a big left winger and cut some salary for us to have “optionality” at the trade deadline and for future use to keep our young core of players together. But we did trade a great man; a great player; and our captain . . . I think our team was over confident playing Carolina at home and we were still a buzz around the trade. I will miss Chris Clark and thank him and his family for everything they did for our franchise. Then while the league was gearing up for the wonderful Winter Classic, we went out on a crazy two game West Coast swing over New Year’s break. We were as far away from Boston as possible, weren’t we? And Mike Green was left off the Canadian Olympic team which I think was the wrong decision by their team management. I believe Mike Green is a unique and spectacular talent and one of the top D men in the NHL. We have Mike’s back. We believe in him. I know this snub will motivate Mike for the rest of the season. We as a franchise sometimes don’t get the respect we have earned [emphasis OFB's] yet but the only way to right that wrong I believe is to win a Stanley Cup. We get the joke. We have collective chip on our shoulder.”

I have friends flying in from Maine today to attend tonight’s Caps’-Habs’ game. How often do seriously out-of-towners fly in to D.C. in mid-week to attend Buzzards’ games? I asked them if they were anxious about air travel in light of recent, freshly frightening circumstances.

“We are more concerned about accidentally entering the Wizards’ locker room,” one chum replied. Each morning they read hockey blogs to get the news and analysis that matters to them.

It was an odd night on so many fronts. Some Capitals’ players, Mike Knuble pointed out in the postgame, learned of the trade of two of their teammate friends Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina only as they walked into Verizon Center early Monday evening. Bruce Boudreau was asked about the extent to which so unsettling a development could have played a role in how his team began play Monday night.

“To me, if I say it was, then I am just looking at an excuse. I don’t know if it did or if it didn’t . . . I think Carolina played really well in the first period today . . . I don’t want to use it as an excuse, even though I have been in that situation. I know it can bother some people, but I don’t know if it bothered our guys.”

For me at least it’s difficult to buy into the notion of “league-wide parity” and “on any given night anyone can win” when Carolina wielded a beyond-incompetent 1-13-4 road record entering play Monday. Yet they fairly comfortably defeated the league’s best team boasting one of the league’s best home records. And they did it largely on the strength of an overwhelming first period — upsetting another Caps’ strength. It just wasn’t meant to be the Caps’ night, partly I believe because of Monday’s afternoon drama, which played some role in forming a disoriented-looking, heavily favored host team.

And then there’s Jose Theodore.

“I thought his rebound control could have been better,” his head coach said in the postgame. Bruce Boudreau conceded that Theodore had his confidence shaken after Monday’s opening 20 minutes. Does anybody else find it stunning that confidence is not an issue that enters into any discussion of either of the Caps’ barely-of-legal-drinking-age kiddie netminders here but remains an ongoing one with the thirty-something vet of more than 500 NHL games? Even with the extraordinary circumstances of earlier in the day as backdrop, this should have been a statement performance of a winning outing for JT. Instead, a strange season for him got even stranger.

Semyon Varlamov is headed to Hershey for a rehab assignment, meaning the Caps will board a plane Tuesday for the West Coast and two toughie Pacific division games this week with Theodore and Michal Neuvirth in the netminding rotation. Go back to the fragile-psyched Theo against the high-powered Sharks, in one of the league’s toughest buildings on Wednesday? And what if he starts and puts up another stinker — what then? Is it really possible that near 2009′s end we are witnessing the wholesale transitioning of not one but two young Capitals’ goaltenders past the $5 million, former Vezina and Hart winning vet? Monday night at Verizon Center did nothing to clarify Jose Theodore’s standing with this promising and powerful Capitals’ club; instead, it further clouded the picture. “I just work here,” he belly-ached to the press in exasperation last weekend. Maybe not for much longer.

By no means was Monday’s deal between the Caps and Columbus a blockbuster, but it sure had a big deal feel to it. For one thing, any time a captain is moved in a trade, that’s big news. There was also the novelty of the first-overall-in-the-NHL Caps moving two relatively reliable parts, thereby injecting an unknown element of potentially disrupted chemistry into the roster equation. But most particularly, Monday’s trade seemed to portend a signal of bigger tinkerings to come. It moved more than $4 million in salary cap commitment, bringing back just $1.875 million with Jason Chimera, and arrived hard on the heels of the Caps shedding a cool $5.5 million in salary with Michael Nylander’s assignment to Grand Rapids of the American League.

photo by Allen Clark, Off Wing Opinion

Suddenly, the Capitals are fabulously positioned to pounce on an impact player in the leadup to the league’s trade deadline should they so choose. Do we really believe that the Cup-hungry Caps will contest the 2010 NHL postseason with upwards of $8 million-worth of cap space?

Monday’s maneuvering was very much about money: without altering his team’s competitive core, George McPhee in the past month has managed to bring enviable cushion and flexibility to his balance sheet, and position himself to be a primetime player in player movement chatter in January and February. He also secured another year of service from Alexander Semin and now has much-needed room to address a new deal for Nicklas Backstrom. If any club executive deserves a Christmas bonus at year’s end, it’s George McPhee.

How do you evaluate a deal like Monday’s? I’d urge caution about forming hard and fast opinions on what Chimera is bringing to D.C., principally for this reason: he’s a dynamic skater who’s been shackled in Hitch’s shackling system with the Jackets, and now he’s being welcomed into a system tailor-made for his physical gifts. Little was thought about Sergei Fedorov’s likely impact here when he arrived in the twilight of his career from Columbus in 2007. That’s not to suggest that Chimera is of an order of an all-time great like Feds. Rather, it’s to remind of the enormous discrepancies in the systems employed by Hitch and Gabby, and how productivity (or lack thereof) in one does not forecast it in another. Brendan Morrison was a waiver wire candidate at about this time last year and now is enjoying a renaissance in his career in Gabby’s great-skater-friendly system.

This morning, however, HockeyWashington is once again without an able captain. Some are calling it a Captain’s Curse in D.C. Chris Clark left a Stanley Cup finalist in Calgary to join a rebuilding Capitals’ club a few years back. Just as this Capitals’ team surges to the very top of the NHL’s elite, he’s cast off to another building project — at the age of 33. I’ll remember most Chris Clark taking a blasted puck to the face, nauseatingly disfiguring the overwhelming majority of his mouth, and our captain remaining on the ice, oblivious to his agony, and finishing his shift because his team needed him to.

Hockey in the heartland of central Ohio just got a big boost to its heart.

The trade of Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina to Columbus caught the players — even those involved in the trade — by surprise, and the team was out of sync when the puck dropped against the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Caps clearly have excellent chemistry in the locker room; there’s a palpable sense of camaraderie, and many socialize on their off days as well. On the ice the connection is even more apparent, as players often seem to sense passing and shooting lanes before said lanes even open.

Of course, things went awry during the Caps’ 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes. Some will point to the Caps’ past few games of dominating good teams (New Jersey, Buffalo) and think the team underestimated Carolina . . . perhaps understandable given Carolina’s road record, but still a patently dangerous move. Others may blame Jose Theodore for giving up far too many juicy rebounds, or the team taking ill-advised penalties and digging a hole early.

And while all the above factors contributed to the loss, it is the departure of Jurcina and Clark just hours before the game that likely had the biggest impact. Losing a popular young d-man and the team’s captain are just as likely to disrupt that delicate alchemical balance as team-building is to strengthen it.

Now in short order the Capitals will coalesce again. They’re professionals, with jobs they love; a majority of the team remains intact, and they will welcome Jason Chimera to the fold. But when a team so clearly reaps the benefits of good chemistry on most days, one should not be surprised when disrupting the mix has a negative impact mere hours after the change.

• It became evident to me through the middle of the second period that the Caps are a little tired of playing on the road. While they have had time in between matchups, the team has played seven of their last nine games on the road and only two at home all month. Road weary, perhaps, as opposed to physically weary.

• Fatigue is something all teams must deal with, but it is how a team deals with the fatigue that determines whether or not they are championship caliber. Washington was able to power through the game and have a real shot at earning at least a point at the end, but their play on defense was where you saw them struggle. You saw several odd man rushes for Vancouver and one of the Canucks’ goals got an assist from Jeff Shultz’ foot. Maybe just really bad luck, maybe a bit of mental fatigue. The team certainly looked dog tired at the end of the game and one can only imagine what they will look like Saturday playing their second game in two nights.

• The power play was the real culprit Friday night. Going 0-4 with the extra man is almost unheard of with this high-powered offense. The team’s tired feet manifested itself most conspicuously on the final PP, when a helpless Nicklas Backstrom had no teammate skating to open space in the Canucks’ end. They began to have problems holding on to the puck in the offensive zone and moving it out of the defensive zone.

• There were some flashes of productivity last night, but that often came from a hard nosed style of hockey. Over the last two years you have heard Head Coach Bruce Boudreau stress how cutesy plays will not translate into goals and wins. I can imagine he will stress that again after the Caps turned the puck over on the power play and allowed Vancouver to have nine takeaways.

• All was not bad for Washington, though, as Alexander Semin*, Chris Clark and David Steckel all had quality games, I thought. Clark was a real gamer — again! Semin’s praise may have to have an asterisks on it since he often found himself trying to make a fancy play, but it was his screaming wrister that put the Caps on the board in the first. He wasn’t so effective thereafter, but he clearly gave Washington its best scoring opportunities.

• Steckel has looked re-energized since he scored his first goal a few games back. He had quality shots and took advantages of the chances he had, something several players failed to do. What is most important is that he played with confidence and looked like the Stecks we saw in the playoffs last year.

• Jose Theodore? You can’t hang this setback on him, I don’t think. He wasn’t tested all that much — a credit to the Caps’ team D, I thought — and there were instances when I thought he showed strong rebound control.

• Tom Poti? Well . . . it was an indisputable cross-check deep in the final frame, and he compounded his mental lapse with some mouthing off that added to the Caps’ PK challenge. Really it should have been a night that produced a point for the Caps, but you can’t have a reliable vet making those kind of mental mistakes in crunch time.

• Finally, we have the fearless leader Clark. He showed that he had some wheels tonight, beating out defenders for the puck and even had a goal off of two blocked shots. I have discussed him before, but his play denotes mentioning again as it was superb. A healthy Chris Clark is a serious asset for the Caps.

• This loss is a cautionary tale of what happens when a team doesn’t grind it out. Sure, they hung strong for about two periods, but Vancouver clearly pulled away in the third. It wasn’t Ovi’s most complete or inspired effort. He can’t be a game-breaker every night, but he was a disappointing -1 with three missed shots. Roberto Luongo stops most of the rubber that finds its way on net, so helping him out by blasting pucks high and wide is a prescription for defeat.

• With only one more West Coast game to go before they return home — will they be able to return home ??? –  Washington needs to focus on just doing the little things. Their legs may feel like rubber by the second period Saturday night, but if they keep those feet moving and just play fundamental hockey they should be able to escape with at least one point.

• Now is a sort of defining moment for the Capitals. Adversity is what defines a team and how they get through can shape a season. While it is only December, this is no time to fall into a mini-slide. A win tonight could be enough to power this tired band of hockey brothers through the holidays and high up in the overall standings through the Olympic break.

• “There was too much pressure for Varlamov to start in New York, so I wanted to see him in game 2, and see how he does.  We had a lot of faith in him at that point.”
• Is there a lot of pressure on Varlamov?  “He’s so quiet, I don’t know if it’s affecting him; he has a good poker face, seems very calm.  Quite frankly, I haven’t talked to him. But our goalie coach talked to him and says he’s OK.”
• What has Chris Clark’s impact been on the team?  “He was completely positive despite being out of the lineup for most of two years.  He really stayed involved with the team.  I didn’t know what he was going to bring to the last game, but I thought he played a really good game.  Nobody works as hard as Chris to stay in game shape.  The guys as a whole were really pleased to see him back.  He was the perfect influx of energy for game 7.”
• “Our goal isn’t to win the first round; our goal is to win all the rounds.  We have to play a lot better if we’re going to win.”
• “We didn’t play the New York Islanders, we played the New York Rangers, one of the top defensive teams in the league.  You don’t expect guys to average a lot of points per game.  That was the best 7-game stretch we had since I’ve been here; we did everything right except score points.”
• Regarding Mike Green’s efforts in the first round:  “I don’t expect him to score every game.  He was great.  If Chris Pronger had done that, they would have lauded him as the MVP of the series.”
• How were you able to coach, with Game 5 being so loud?  “Instruction is pretty difficult, other than screaming at them.  For line changes, you gotta tap them and make sure they’re looking at you, and the other coaches repeat what I’m saying because it’s so hard to hear.”
• What about Tom Poti?  “He’s the one defenseman who has a lot of experience.  He’s played in a lot of tough buildings.  He’s stepped up his game tremendously in the playoffs as we knew he could; he’s playing up to the potential I thought he’d be playing at the whole year.”

I’m writing as a loyal reader and Capitals fan who thought you might be
interested in an outreach program the Caps are doing this Friday night.
After the game against Ottawa, the Marriott’s Ridge Ice Hockey and
Atholton Ice Hockey clubs (both from Howard County, MD high schools)
will play a Maryland Scholastic Hockey League game on the Verizon
Center ice.

Chris Clark and George
McPhee will be on hand for the ceremonial puck drop. This is a great
experience for the players, coaches, and family and friends at each
club, and we’re all very thankful to the Capitals for providing this
great opportunity.

As far as I know, the only requirement for staying to watch the game
is a ticket to the NHL game at 7:00. After the Caps game ends, fans
will be allowed to move down to Section 100 to watch the action,
complete with the music, announcers, etc. I thought this might be a
reason to stick around after the final whistle.

As a coach for Marriott’s Ridge, of course I have a suggestion of who
to root for, though I coach an area travel team with players from both
high schools on it, so I’m proud of and happy for all the players on
both teams.

Who knows?  The next NHL star could be on the ice.  If nothing else, wouldn’t it be great to see Chris Clark again?