Photo Caption: Photo by Clyde Caplan, clydeorama.com

Take the stats sheet with a grain of salt on this one. Wednesday saw one of the Capitals’ best third period performances, at least effort-wise, so far of the season.

Going into that period against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday, the Capitals were beating the black and gold in just about every statistical category, including the most important—the scoreboard, which had the Capitals leading 1-0 thanks to a Jason Chimera goal (he needs three more goals this season to tie his NHL career-high). There was one big exception to that rule: the shots on goal, which the Penguins were leading 20-12.

But the Capitals in the third played anything but sit back and protect the lead (narrow though it was) hockey. At one point, they had closed the shots on goal gap to only 2. They played like the team down by one, and seemed to find that next-level energy gear which has often eluded them this season—an encouraging sign after their two disappointing performances in second and third periods out on the West Coast.

And it’s an example of how the stats sheet doesn’t always tell the full story. Though by the end of the third period, the Penguins were able to pass the Capitals in hits by one and end up with a final shot total of 30-21, it still wasn’t enough. In fact, there was one shift in the third period where the Capitals stayed so long in Pittsburgh’s offensive zone that the crowd roared with approval as loudly and sustained as if Ovechkin had just scored.

The Capitals players themselves felt it was one of their best third period efforts of the season, too.

Capitals forward Jay Beagle said that between the second and third, head coach Dale Hunter told the team to stick to their game plan: keep Pittsburgh in their zone.

“He came in and he just said, ‘Keep playing our game …  be smart on the wall and get it [the puck] out, and make it come 200 feet,’” Beagle recalled.

Straightforward, and the Caps executed.

Hendricks responded in the affirmative when asked if it was the team’s strongest third period performances.

“I think it was a combination of us executing really well, great goaltending, and them being tired. Back to back games is hard to play, especially with the travel. So we executed our game plan, we tired them out through the course of the game, and by the third period, you could really tell they were struggling,” Hendricks said.

Of course, one good third period does not the rest of a season make, but it’s a new look at what ‘exciting’ Capitals hockey might look like under the new regime.

The excitement wasn’t limited to the third period, though. Hendricks and the Penguins’ Craig Adams dropped gloves before the game was three minutes old. And the crowd responded enthusiastically.

“I figured that them riding a losing streak that their scrappers were going to try to get the energy going in their favor. Adams came right at me right away. I figured we were on a two-game losing streak, we’re at home,” Hendricks said, and then finished with a  line that probably isn’t used much to describe fistfights: “It was a great time.” [He won the fight, of course.]

On a personnel note, there were other observations to keep in mind, particularly as Dale Hunter gets to know his team and personnel better: Jeff Schultz and John Erskine were both scratched, and, even more important, there was an abnormally high amount of team scouts present at Wednesday’s game.

As far as the debut of defenseman Tomas Kundratek, who was called up from AHL Hershey yesterday, Hunter gave what seemed like a positive assessment for the young player: he said Kundratek kept it simple and didn’t make any mistakes.

Beagle, playing on the fourth line with Matt Hendricks and Jeff Halpern, didn’t score a goal. But by the end of regulation, Beagle had a little bit of everything else: he got shots on goal (4), he gave out hits (4), he blocked shots (3), and he got an assist on a Hendricks goal that tied the game at 3 in the third period. Beagle even won the two faceoffs he took.

Going into yesterday’s game, Beagle had played four of five preseason games and had a plus-2 rating. Friday, he was never on the ice for any of the Sabres’ three goals against the Capitals.

Beagle said he particularly focused on hits during that game.

“We didn’t get that many hits the last game we played, so I wanted to bang the body a little bit, and start kind of getting into that groove and that grinder style of hockey,” Beagle said. “It’s always weird transitioning from shinny hockey in the summer to actual games. Tonight felt more like a game that I want to play and a style I want to play.”

It’s also the kind of game a coach is looking for in a player like Beagle. When asked about Beagle’s performance, Caps head coach Bruce Boudreau even threw in a few more items to Beagle’s resume.

“He’s energetic, and he kills penalties, and he brings life to the team, and in every practice, he makes it very difficult for our team, because he practices so hard all the time,” Boudreau said. “And that’s … one of the reasons he’s here.”

Beagle admitted after the Caps’ win Friday that he gets his competitive streak from–of all people–his grandmother.

“Surprisingly, my grandma is very competitive, and she would kill me if she knew I said that,” Beagle said. “She’s actually the hidden competitor in the family.”

Beagle said his grandmother is usually quiet, but the competitive streak comes out when she watches her grandson play hockey.

“She wants me to do well, and she wants the team to do well,” Beagle explained.

Defenseman Karl Alzner at the beginning of training camp gave reporters a peek at how competitive Beagle, his workout partner, is and how hard he trained during the offseason.

“I just wanted to do everything he did, pretty much,” Alzner said about his trips to the gym with Beagle, adding that Beagle was always the guy who would want to fit in that extra set of reps. Beagle didn’t want their trainer to put the two NHLers’ workouts online, in case his competition for an NHL roster spot could then find out what he was doing (Kings of Leonsis also talks about it here).

Whatever plan Beagle adopted over the summer seems to be working. And after his performance against the Sabres Friday, one thing is for sure: his grandmother should be proud.

The Capitals’ Jay Beagle thinks so.

“We play the game to win, so, preseason or not, you want to win,” Beagle said after the Capitals’ 3-1 win against the Blue Jackets Monday. “We kept saying, ‘It’s a long week, we’ve got four games, so let’s start it off on the right note.’”

Perhaps most encouraging was the revival of the Capitals’ power play, which went 2 for 5 Monday.  Veteran defensemen Dennis Wideman (goal) and Roman Hamrlik (assist) complemented the play of some of the young guys trying to make the roster – Chris Bourque, who had two power play assists (and one at even strength), and Matthieu Perreault, who had a power play goal (he also had an assist on Cody Eakin’s even strength tally).

Beagle’s seat to observe the power play is as good as anyone’s.

“I think just those little passes,” Beagle said when asked what he thought clicked for the power play that evening. “Not trying to pass through too many guys … it looked like those guys were keeping it simple.”

Overall, the scoring for the Capitals came mostly from the grassroots up.  Top liners Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom logged no points, although they were on the ice for one Caps power play goal and the one tally by the Blue Jackets, who sat many of their regulars. Ovechkin and Backstrom’s linemate for the night, Troy Brouwer, did get an assist on a power play goal. Wideman logged the most power play time, and Mike Green had none at all. Of the young players trying to make the roster, Bourque had far and away the most power play time with 4 minutes.

Meanwhile, outside and inside the Verizon Center, you could tell it was preseason. Around the arena, there was an army of red sweaters, despite the August-like weather. Inside, a huge contingent of NHL starters roamed the press box, not the ice.

But the Capitals won, and that felt a bit more normal.

More and more it appears that the high-octane, high-scoring Capitals of 2008-November 2010 are morphing into a substance-over-style squad. Henceforth the nightly returns in Chinatown will be more of the 2-1/3-2 variety. Might as well get used to it; that’s what’s required of teams in spring.

“It’s a new way for us to play,” Bruce Boudreau told media last night.

We’re trading in our Ferrari for a Subaru.

Beauty is becoming a beast.

Once we wooed only the pretty girls; now we’re chasing heifers.

We’re going ugly, gang, ’cause it’s the best bet for next spring.

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This is a big deal. This is a cultural transformation — both on the ice but especially for the Red Army. Capitals hockey the past three seasons has been about coveted admission to razzle-dazzle on ice. No more.

Photo by Clyde Caplan, clydeorama.com

Once the Caps secured a 2-0 lead last night, guess how many skaters they consistently had clogging the neutral zone? Five. That’s called a trap. How spectacularly ironic: in these teams’ first meeting since last April’s upset, the Habs last night were frustrated to death by a trapping Capitals club.

Credit the braintrust of the most storied and revered franchise in hockey history for hatching the scheme to defeat Bruce Boudreau’s career-defining attack last spring. The rest of the league caught on this fall. Now Gabby is attempting to redefine his career — and save it in the process — by re-engineering his system. Radically.

Montreal needed a miracle to topple the league’s best team last April. The Habs found two: Jaroslav Halak and 20 skaters willing to buy into Martin’s stifling system. On Tuesday TBD identified the Caps’ first-round upset at the skates of the Habs as Washington’s most disappointing sports news story of 2010. Hard to argue with that.

And so it was fascinating on Tuesday night to watch Bruce Boudreau’s collection of highly skilled forwards purposely shoot wide of Montreal defenders, retrieve the pucks dumped behind them, and get their noses dirty in tight. Pucks went deep, hungry lunch-pailers went hunting after them — worth noting, many of them were on recall from Hershey (more on that in a moment) — life in front of Carey Price was congested and chock full of confusion, and ugly hockey blossomed before our eyes.

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And did you notice . . . how quiet Verizon Center was last night? It was as if a Southeast tenant had arrived for an October friendly. Instead it was the hated Habs. But ugly hockey doesn’t breed painted faces, and it certainly isn’t likely to unleash any fury. This is going to be an adjustment, gang. Big time. To my friends Goat and Horn Guy: 2011 is going to bring your biggest challenge to date.

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When the Capitals acquired Scott Hannan I theorized that ultimately he was destined to be paired with Mike Green and afford Greener a stability and reliability of partner our back-end engine’s never known. The last three games have perhaps afforded Capitals’ fans a preview of precisely this. They’ve been Hannan’s three best games in a Capitals’ sweater. He’s been partnered with Green. They’ve logged a ton of minutes. They are beginning to look quite good together.

But so, too, are John Carlson and Karl Alzner. That duo was over 20 minutes each Tuesday night. The Caps at long last could possibly have a quality top four they’ve yet to compete in the postseason with under Bruce Boudreau. And if the third pairing is a Schultz-Poti-Erskine combo, that’s hardly a huge dropoff in reliability.

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If Jay Beagle’s played a better game than Tuesday’s in his professional hockey career, I’d like to have a DVD of it.

“There’s a guy making a great bid to stay here,” Bruce Boudreau said of his hound dog afterward. “His work ethic is second to none.”

The Hershey reinforcements, the coach noted, “are pushing our practices.”

More and more this thought is marinating in my head nearing the midpoint of this hockey season: if this is a regular season of indeterminate meaning and motivation for the Capitals’ contending core, among which so, so many are slumping for so protracted a period, this team may already be indebted to its recall ranks for saving the season. And breathing much-needed life into it. Who seemed to save the season in Ottawa 10 days ago? MP85. The very next outing, against the bottom-dwelling Devils, who among the hosts shined brightest? The Jay Beagle-Dave Steckel-Andrew Gordon line. Matty struck again to get things started in Carolina on Sunday night before exiting with injury after just two shifts. And Tuesday night Jay Beagle was a beast. The Caps have won four of their last five games, and in all four wins Hershey reinforcements have played star- and hard-hat-earning roles.

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Interesting question, I think: how good a fit—short term and long—is Alexander Semin for this Capitals’ evolution?