• “It’s like putting a plow on Secretariat” this commenter said of the Caps’ use of their anti-attack trap, and general stylistic jettisoning of what is intrinsic to the roster: speed and skill.

Wish I had thought of that. But I’m not old enough to personally remember Secretariat’s brilliance!

But what a terrific metaphor. It got me thinking: Why in the world would you invest heavily in a stable of able scouts, deploying them 5,000 or 10,000 miles across the globe, to uncover skilled skating gems like Evgeny Kuznetsev, Marcus Johansson, Mathieu Perreault, Cody Eakin, etc., if all you’re gonna do with all that talent is have it sag back in the neutral zone awaiting a counter-attack from a basically stationary position?

What a waste.

George McPhee et al in management want to “copy-cat” the success formulas of preceding Cup winners, few of whom have drafted as well as McPhee and his scouts in recent years. Fine, but don’t bother investing heavily in securing thoroughbreds in the Entry Draft when what’s required of your “copy-cat” system is merely Clydesdales.

Also, be prepared to lower your ticket prices beginning next season — appreciably. Mercifully, only 3 of the Caps’ remaining 31 games are at home against Southeast foes. Imagine marketing this team with this style of play on Tuesday and Thursday nights marching toward spring against a heavy assembly of ‘Talladega Nights’ outposts. The games are already sold out, I know; I would have been curious, however, to see how many ticket holders would have showed up for those affairs the longer this blight of a hockey season remains in place.

The bet here is that the Tampa Bay Lightning are your 2011 Southeast Division winners. Their next road game is February 27. Ten straight at home, while the Caps navigate a February that’s road-intensive and chock full of toughies. Not that this Caps’ club ever has an “easy” evening. By the end of February Tampa ought to have at least a 10-point bulge over the trapping Caps.

The Caps of course won the Southeast last season . . . by 40 points. What do we think of their second-class standing in the Southeast in 2011 when no division rival in the offseason imported Bobby Orr or Wayne Gretzky in their prime?

* * * * *

No matter what system the Capitals deploy, they’re going nowhere without a reliably productive second-line center. And the market for those over the next 30 days is going to be tight. Quite simply: there aren’t enough out-of-the-running clubs with coveted high-end assets. Seeds one through eleven are tightly packed in the East, and out West it’s even more egalitarian: Edmonton alone is truly out of it, at 38 points. I’m confident the Columbus Bluejackets — 14th in the West right now — aren’t going to qualify for the playoffs, but it’s understandable why Jackets’ management is not. They’re therefore unlikely over the next couple of weeks to part with key personnel. I’d kill to have R.J. Umberger centering the Caps’ second line. He’s a big body — and the Caps desperately need to be bigger down the middle — who can skate and score, and he has a notable Eastern conference pedigree of achievement. He wouldn’t be a rental, and his salary ($3.75 million) isn’t out of line for his position and numbers. Umberger would be my dream acquisition. Fairly notable dropoff in production with say Ottawa’s Mike Fisher, but his entourage would bring some buzz to Kettler morning skates.

But then you confront the problem on the right side of the Capitals’ lineup. Mike Knuble hasn’t looked effective all season long; in fact, he’s beginning to look like most 38-year-old hockey players look in this league. Eric Fehr is on the shelf probably another month, but even when he was healthy he underwhelmed this season. Jason Chimera is, by default, skating on the Capitals’ top line. I think the Capitals need to skate the remainder of the season putting all their chips on the top line (8-19-28), try and make Scott Howson an offer he can’t refuse for Umberger — assuming the Jackets tread water the next three weeks — stash Knuble on the second line, and reassemble the best line of training camp: Chimera-Perreault-Fehr on the third unit. Rookie Marcus Johansson’s minutes and duties are going to have to be managed expertly as the season takes on greater significance; I’ve little confidence in the club doing that, given how they’ve handled MJ90 to date. A Hendricks-Johansson-Bradley fourth line could be fun to watch. I’d dress Dave Steckel as an extra forward and let him take defensive zone faceoffs. (I’ve little use for him in five-on-five play anyway.)

Problem is, as constructed, this hypothetical lineup I’ve posited is one that’d actually be interested in attacking with the puck, in skating, in scoring goals. The current Capitals are not.

“They came charging the net and I was able just to pretty much react,” he said. “I didn’t really know what happened, but when you’re in your game you make those desperation saves and I got lucky to be able to react on both saves.”

My intern last night noted that JT seemed to be seeing the puck exceptionally well through the maze of legs in his slot, and to be comfortable with loose pucks and general mayhem in tight, in marked contrast to his conspicuous unsteadiness all about the puck down low a week ago.

• Another encouraging sign: The Capitals are perfect in their last three games on the penalty kill (9-for-9) and improved to 29-2-3 on the season when their opponent fails to score on the power play.

• Monday night was the Caps’ 29th home victory of the season, one shy of the club record of 30 triumphs at home, and they get two more cracks at matching or beating that record this week.

• No Greener, no Carlson, no problem. You know when the Caps recalled Carlson at the beginning of March I was one who believed it was durable and with playoff duty in mind, and that the team would use him in all situations over the final 20 games to get him comfortable with a partner and the quick decisionmaking required in the National League. But it became clear quite early that he wouldn’t need half of those games to establish himself as a prime contributor on the back end. The Caps are now being extra cautious with Carlson’s nicks and dings — and make no mistake, he’d be playing if it were the playoffs — because he is so polished, so ready for prime time.

• Boudreau is using this week to manage a conspicuous moderation of minutes for his big guns. Ovi skated just a hair over 18 minutes last night. That’s like scratching the Gr8. Wouldn’t surprise me to see Nicky seated for Friday night.

• Forty five minutes into the first period Backstrom goal review, what were replay officials looking at? ‘The Pacific’ on Demand? Duke-Butler hadn’t tipped off yet. There was no replay angle that was going to definitively determine the yea or nay of that scoring sequence. Tiger Woods’ presser Monday didn’t last as long.

• The Capitals didn’t make Tuuka Rask’s evening particularly trying, but credit the Bs for well cramming the interior of the ice and not allowing much in the way of second and third scoring opportunities. That’s the game they play. Did anyone else sense that the Bs were perhaps playing for the point in the final frame? They were tied up with the best team in hockey on the road while missing key guys throughout the lineup, and in the postgame Bs players and coaches alike were quick to point out the value of the point earned.

• Dennis Wideman’s high sticking in overtime was so unnecessary, so undisciplined. It could end up costing the Bs a playoff berth.

• It probably helped that this is a serious Duke-hating region, but it was a seriously full house for a meaning-challenged hockey game last night while the NCAA contested its hoops championship. There is far more to Washington’s hockey culture than red fashion clogging Metro cars and platforms on game nights. The Final Four of course tipped off on Saturday, and at the Olney Ale House in Olney, Maryland, then the lone flatscreen TV behind the bar was broadcasting the first period of the Caps-Bluejackets right as Butler and Michigan State were coming down the stretch in the second half. Four or five red-clad Caps’ fans were seated at the small bar and following the game intently, as was the bartender, occasioning no small consternation from hoops junkies who arrived to catch the waning moments of the big game. A real spirited dispute ensued. Feelings got hurt. A few of the hoops junkies abandoned the bar in a huff. Eventually the barkeep switched over for the final three minutes of action on the hardwood, but such a scene would have been unimaginable here just three years ago. The Caps were playing what was tantamount to an exhibition game Saturday night, in the something short of hockey mecca Columbus, but for no small swath of suburban bar patronage, the Final Four had no claim on their puck passion. And I didn’t much notice folks in Verizon Center last night in a tight game between the Caps and Bs preoccupied with handhelds trying to keep up with hoops. Wow.

• Tonight of course offers hockey on a grand stage: Caps and mullets, in a potential season sweep of the champs, and an Ovi-Sid scoring showdown. Greatest TV ratings for hockey in Washington’s hockey history?

• Carolina Hurricanes vs. Minnesota Wild in Helsinki
• Columbus Blue Jackets vs. San Jose Sharks in Stockholm
• Boston Bruins vs. Phoenix Coyotes in Prague

Obviously, some day, the Capitals will play a game in Russia . . . likely in Moscow. But for now, I’m glad the Caps will start their next season in the U.S.A., ideally in the friendly confines of the Verizon Center.

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.