But neither really remember much about it.

“Honestly, I can’t even remember,” Green said of the game, then joked, “I’ve been hit in the head so many times.”

“I think we were in Atlanta, right?” Carlson had to ask of the Capitals’ season opener last year, which was a loss to the Thrashers. But as he continued to talk, the day started coming back: “We kinda sat back too much, and they outplayed us, and we lost a game there.” He did add that he thought a lot of guys signed new contracts, so he recalled a lot of excitement in the room which he said didn’t carry over, however, until the second game.

Forward Jason Chimera remembers his first opening night on an NHL team (it was in 2002), but it wasn’t quite the enthusiastic experience one would assume: he was a healthy scratch that evening.

“They’re like, “Congratulations, you made the team, but bad news: you’re not playing tonight,” Chimera recalled. “Kind of bittersweet.”

He did get to play three games later into the season, however, against the San Jose Sharks.

While most memories of opening nights on an NHL roster seem to disappear into a black hole, the memory that seems to remain vivid is the memory of the actual NHL debut, which, for Carlson and Green, happened the season prior to being a regular on the roster.

Green recalled that, for his first NHL game, there were plane troubles and they got in late.

“I didn’t even have time to be nervous,” Green said. “That first NHL game is … with you for the rest of your life. You can say that you played in the NHL, whether or not you play another game.”

The only feeling Green thinks will top that?

Winning the Stanley Cup.

Still, this fall we don’t know what we most need to about this hockey club — and necessarily we can’t: How much heart, courage, confidence, and history-defying swagger will it possess next spring, when the ghosts of Washington Capitals playoffs past will want to haunt again?

So what’s to preview? What we all want to know in October 2011 is what the collective state of our hockey hearts will be next spring. We all want to know that roster adjustments and hard offseason training and finally, at long last, an exasperation with failure has settled in, and in the aggregate these factors are driving the Capitals toward a more glorious fate — one befitting their other-worldly skill, one quashing four consecutive sour endings to spring. But we can’t know that right now. So instead, we saddle up for another long season (but likely a final season of Southeast division hockey!), hoping for better things on the power play, more goals, a returned-to-form Ovi, elite goaltending, good health.

And also this: night-in, night-out character and commitment, regular occurring 60-minute efforts, pride for the crest, an identity of hard work and an earned reputation for being tough to play against. Achieving that, we in the Red Nation could pretty well allow the chips to fall where they may.

When I wonder about the fate of this year’s Washington Capitals I find myself asking questions, identifying about 10 big-picture, perhaps defining queries, the answers to which I believe will determine just how far this team will go next spring.

(1) To what extent will the Capitals successfully implement a “hybrid” system relative to the preceding two seasons, one that better utilizes the prodigious skill sets of the team’s elite talents while also bringing more lunch pail ethos and thump and snarl for the season of ugly hockey (spring)? To what extent will there be “player buy-in” for this new system, and to what extent will the team adhere to it within the cauldron of high-pressure playoff puck?

(2) Will readily identifiable leadership develop under Alexander Ovechkin — on the ice and off? There are many superstar talents in many professional sports ill-suited to roles of extraordinary leadership. In his seventh NHL season Ovechkin not only has to recapture the game-breaking production he lost last season but he must embrace the responsibilities that come with wearing the ‘C’ in his sport, and inspire his teammates in the process. They already respect him; they already acknowledge his stature in the sport. Beginning this season, Alexander Ovechkin must look the part of mature warrior, and the Capitals must look like Alexander Ovechkin’s hockey team.

(3) How big a statistical rebound will we see from Ovi? His 65 goals in 2007-08 seem an outlier, highly unlikely to be replicated ever again, but last season’s 32, relative to his talent, seem even more aberrational. In better shape, and healthier, and a lead part on an improved power play, it’s hard to imagine he doesn’t significantly improve over last season’s numbers. But by how much?

(4) Will power be restored to the power play? It was inexplicably pedestrian (16th, 17.5 percent) last season. When it slumps this team’s extra-man unit still shouldn’t fall outside of the top 10. Roman Hamrlik, a healthy Dennis Wideman and a healthy Mike Green, and a more experienced John Carlson ought to deliver a big jolt from the point. And will that bolstered blueline allow for Ovechkin to be moved back to the half-wall, where he’s clearly done more damage on the PP in his career?

(5) Will Tomas Vokoun’s longstanding regular season excellence (career .917 save pct; 2.56 goals-against) translate to the postseason, for which he has but two series’ experience (11 games total) back some years with Nashville? It’s perhaps the lone area of uncertainty with this enormous and hungry talent, who apparently turned down better offers in July to try and win a Cup in D.C. this season. His postseason numbers (.922 and 2.47) are actually stronger than his regular season ones, but he went 3-8 in those 11 games.

(6) Who will reliably win faceoffs here this year? The Capitals late last season and in the offseason bid goodbye to two of the better draw men in the entire league in Dave Steckel (62 percent in ’10-11) and Boyd Gordon (58 percent). Both Marcus Johansson and Mathieu Perreault are notably inexperienced in the art. Jeff Halpern (56 percent) should help. Two quality draw-takers need to emerge, and it would be helpful if one skated in the top 6.

(7) Is there a realm of more mature and more reliable excellence that Alexander Semin will display in what is clearly the most important year of his NHL career? He is the longest-tenured Capital today; if he fails to make improvements with respect to discipline (offensive zone and generally ill-timed penalties) and emerging as a productive scorer when the team needs it most, this is likely his last season in D.C.

(8) Much as the Capitals’ core roster has experienced growing pains in its path toward legitimate contention, so too has Head Coach Bruce Boudreau. Put bluntly: he’s underwhelmed a lot of observers with his handling of the Capitals’ recent postseasons, and in fact in the judgment of many been out-coached by less experienced bench bosses of lower-seeded clubs. This season Bruce Boudreau, too, needs to earn new regard when it matters most. Will he mature and improve as he expects his core skaters to?

(9) This hockey club’s conditioning was a hot topic during the offseason. Will this Capitals club look physically strong generally, and most especially in third periods?

(10) Don’t overlook the impact of an NBA lockout/lost season on Verizon Center especially, long a home, due to its heavy use, to one of the league’s poorer ice sheets. If there’s no NBA hoops, just how good can this ice sheet become — for a hockey team boasting many exceptional skaters and assembled to contest a fast-paced game?

Scoring First

How massive the pressure of scoring first tonight is for this organization. I told some friends right after Game 2 that if the Capitals could not pot the puck first in Game 3, the series would be over. It turns out they did score first, even if they didn’t, and it’s the only reason I am not sticking to my prediction — that and hope. These playoffs, the Caps have taken the first lead of the game twice, both times against the Rangers, and both times they won. Tampa Bay has relinquished the lead to the Caps twice (Game 1 and Game 3) in this series. But that volatility in scoring presents the Caps with the challenge of playing two different styles of games, one of catch up and one of disciplined defensive responsibility. I believe it is that very volatility that Tampa dealt with in the regular season and their series against the Penguins that made them comfortable playing in any situation.

There is no denying the Caps have dealt with the same pressures throughout this season and even prior, but I believe they are one-dimensional in the sense that they play either catch up — as they did in Game 4 against the Rangers and Game 2 this series — or team defense. They are the best team in the league when trailing. The inherent problem is that the Caps are a better team, as most are, when they score first and establish their strategy from the first puck-drop. Scoring a tying goal at the beginning of the second period as Knuble did last night, while huge for a team’s momentum, only gives the club 40 minutes to work its system. If the Caps can score first tonight, we should see their resiliency, but if Tampa can shake Washington out of the lead, we will know which club really deserves it.

Coaching

Pucksandbooks sent me a link this morning regarding Keith Jones and Mike Keenan’s reaction to Boudreau’s coaching ability. I watched CSN and didn’t catch their analysis. Last night, Boudreau asked his captain to serve the penalty for the Too Many Men call, which put the clubs four-on-four for well over a minute. The thrust of the Jones and Keenan critique was: How in the world could Gabby have the world’s best player confined to the sin bin for a minute-plus of 4-on-4 play? Additionally, what if Tampa had taken an additional penalty — think the Caps would have liked having Ovi out on the ice in that situation? Boudreau was badly outcoached last year against Montreal, despite going up 3-1 in the series, and he seems to be replicating his naivety of NHL playoff hockey. In fact, he’s making a rookie coach look like Scotty Bowman.

Last night, with Mike Green out, Boudreau elected to have John Carlson sit on the bench while Ovechkin attempted to skate through center ice on the breakout. If there’s been one composed player in the lineup skating the puck at center ice and dumping it deep, it has been Carlson. To leave him on the bench and go with five forwards (Brooks Laich at the other point) and Semin at wing, was in my opinion a grave error. Semin should have been on the bench. There is a reason why Boudreau has above a 70 percent win record in the regular season. There is also a reason why he is 17-19 in the NHL postseason.

Hendrinjection

This has plenty to do with Bruce Boudreau’s questionable coaching decisions, but I believe a dose of Matt Hendricks and possibly the first Caps fight of these playoffs can go a long way in Game 4. Katie Carrera of the Washington Post noted that Hendricks came off the ice early and was seen taping his sticks up, which is a positive sign, but just a sign. In our last post, I dissected the Caps errors and made particular note of the Caps’ inability to win pucks below the circles and behind the net. Hendricks does that for this team and is defensively reliable. Marco Sturm needs to be scratched for this game and Hendricks inserted.

Sturm has been a major on-ice disappointment  for the Caps since arriving, but he is a veteran and his past performances has earned him status. He’s been good for this team as a veteran member with leadership skills, but I don’t believe that he has contributed in any positive or lasting fashion on the playing surface. In fact, putting him on the fourth line is on par with Glen Hanlon’s decision to start Nicklas Backstrom on the Caps third and fourth lines back in 2007. Sturm should be playing at least third line minutes, but as Boudreau has seen his play dip, the coach assigned him fourth line duty for much of last night. Mistake. Hendricks will play the role of a fourth liner and Sturm will not – case closed.

If the Capitals can manage to score first, be composed on the ice and bench, and use Matt Hendricks in the corners and for some rough stuff, there is some hope for success tonight. Just ask Philadelphia or Chicago. Series turnarounds do happen no matter what the odds. Tampa’s hallmark may be the trap but they are also awfully inconsistent. Unless Boudreau & Co. can do to this series what they did in Game 4 against the Rangers, a new regime is in order by week’s end.

“I thought they should have buried us,” Steve Downie said in the postgame, alluding to the effectiveness the Caps enjoyed over the game’s first 30 minutes.

What looked to be a Brooks Laich score in tight was overturned on review as a kicked in goal. Looked like the right call. Twice in the second stanza loose pucks danced around Dwayne Roloson’s crease with primary Capitals’ attackers perfectly positioned but swatting futilely at them. Neither a snakebit Nicklas Backstrom nor Jason Arnott could extend the Capitals’ lead, and that’s when the trouble started. That’s when game one’s momentum switched.

Capitals’ penalties suddenly piled up in the period, too, and that’s a disaster scenario against this Tampa team.

The Capitals got away from the disciplined and patient approach that had tired Tampa on its heels. They reverted to their old individualistic skill ways, and defeat followed.

“You can’t play river hockey,” a frustrated Bruce Boudreau observed afterward. “This was reverting back to an older day.”

River hockey it was over the evening’s final 30 minutes for the Caps, with Green to Semin drop passes creating turnovers instead of scoring chances, Alexander Ovechkin attempting to stickhandle through all five Tampa defenders, cohesion and puck support vanishing.

“I think we play too cute,” the captain acknowledged.

In a remarkable irony the team that looked the most fatigued, the most ineffective arriving at and successfully battling for loose pucks, was the team that enjoyed fully five days off this week. It was the Tampa Bay Lightning, arriving in Washington a little before sunrise Thursday morning from Pittsburgh, who on Friday night won races to pucks and emerged from scrums along the boards in possession of the biscuit. Shocking.

The Capitals really let one get away in game one. Against the Rangers the Capitals had rough patches but they never reverted to the failed stratagems of postseasons past. Maybe the extended layoff fostered less rust and more distrust — in the revamped system. Suddenly Sunday night has the look of must-win. And they may undertake it without the services of John Carlson, who appeared to suffer a lower back injury. The evening took a physical toll on the Lightning as well: Simon Gagne went off groggy from a hard but clean Scott Hannan check in the corner, and later shutdown defenseman Pavel Kubina left a lot worse for wear.

After a rough opening 5 minutes for the Caps during which Tampa swarmed Washingtons’ defenders and earned a deserved 1-0 lead little more than 2 minutes in on a Sean Bergenheim tally, Tampa very nearly made it 2-0 before Lightning tormentor Alex Semin snuck a 5-hole softie by Roloson to even the score. The Caps then took control, patiently cycle-circling  in breakout formations designed to build speed and angle advantage against the Tampa trap. It worked, wonderfully — forwards from the first three lines attacked the Tampa zone with speed and support. Both the sum and quality of shots the Caps directed at Roloson were impressive over the game’s first 30 minutes.Fourteen shots piled up on Roloson in the game’s first 20 minutes, and the observer began imagining a lot of fatigue quickly massing in this series for the 41-year-old netminder.

Then, perhaps frustrated at not extending their lead, the Caps went back to their old playoff defeated ways of the past, premised on misguided individualism, a conspicuous absence of cohesion, sloppy passing, bad line changes, and unnecessary and damaging penalties. They tallied 9 shots in the second period and just 5 in the third. Once Tampa secured a lead, they stifled, outworked and out-hustled, and the impatient and individualistic Caps played right into their strongsuit.

The individualism and lack of cohesion extended to all five Capitals’ power plays on the evening, which were a mess. Personally, I’ve seen enough of Ovechkin on the power play point. He will never possess the ingrained or innate instincts of an authentic offensive defenseman back there, and all too often there is, understandably, indecision in his orchestration of the extra man attack up high. He belongs on the half wall, where his one-timers from well-timed cross-ice passes are lethal, or where he can launch a wicked wrister with a quick burst into a narrow opening. In fact, when Ovi’s countryman Semin is flanked on the opposite half wall, Mike Green is deft at distributing the puck among them while drawing checking forwards up high on him to open shooting lanes.

That would be a welcomed reversion.

This Rangers club doesn’t possess the skill level up front to threaten the Caps. They badly miss Ryan Callahan, but Chris Drury is skating limited minutes, invisibly, Marian Gaborik hasn’t been a consistent scoring threat all season, and early on Friday night Artem Anisimov blocked a shot up high and seemed hampered by a bum arm thereafter (he skated under 11 minutes on the evening). Through nearly 140 minutes of hockey in this series the New York Rangers have merely a single goal against Michal Neuvirth. And just 47 shots. Friday night they mustered just 3 shots on Neuvirth in the second period, and staring at a 2-0 hole on the scoreboard and in the series, managed just 6 in the evening’s final 20 minutes.  The Rangers through two games seldom enjoyed sustained offensive pressure around Michal Neuvirth’s cage, and when they did earn good looks at Neuvy, he thwarted.

Rangers coach John Tortorella had no complaints of his players after Friday night’s 2-0 loss — “We got hurt by a [second period] surge tonight,” he suggested — but what may ultimately prove insurmountable for Tortorella’s offensive-starved squad is an inability to match up defensively with three strong Capitals’ forward lines. The Capitals in the series now have goals from their first three forward lines, and after Dan Girardi and Marc Staal, there’s a big dropoff in Blueshirt defensive reliability. On Friday night, it was the Capitals’ line of Jason Chimera, Marcus Johansson, and Brooks Laich that was the best on the evening. The unit had been coming on strong toward the end of the regular season. Friday night they announced themselves a force to be reckoned with this postseason. They are blinding fast, fiercely competitive for the puck, slick and slippery and sturdy down low. They are going to draw second and third pairing defensive units the remainder of the postseason. They could do real damage.

“We said before that we thought we had a good line and we could make a difference,” Chimera said in the victors’ locker room Friday night. “You look at all playoff series in the past and you always see third and fourth lines stepping up . . . We felt we played well in game one.”

It’s no great secret that one-line scoring is a recipe for a short stay in the postseason, and that the Capitals’ establishing two quality scoring lines — diversifying their attack — is the best recipe for preventing opponents from ganging up on Ovi and the top line. But what if this hockey club is witnessing the emergence of three quality, productive lines? Isn’t that a game-changer in the overall prospects for this postseason?

And on the back end, Scott Hannan is being Scott Hannan, John Carlson is being John Carlson, Mike Green is sharper than anyone reasonably could have forecast, and Karl Alzner is . . . emerging as a force. In the regular season he was Mr. Steady; early on this postseason he is a difference-maker in the Capitals’ end. He suddenly looks like an impact lottery pick blueliner.

Early on Friday word arrived of Dennis Wideman taking the ice at Kettler for a brief skate, after being hospitalized for fully two weeks. His head coach intimated that the much-missed rearguard could potentially play again in this series. Three dynamic lines . . . the likes of Mike Green, Scott Hannan, Wideman, and the dynamic duo guarding the back end and deftly distributing the puck out of harm’s way . . . and in Neuvirth, an early front-runner for Conn Smythe . . . dare I say it? . . .

No way.

Let’s worry about Sunday first.

But oh so suddenly, there is a mischievous vibe settling in about postseason possibilities. Philly and Pittsburgh have already lost home ice. Carey Price took battle one against Tim Thomas. Just sayin.

Washington through two games is skating with urgency and cohesion and selflessness — very winning traits in the postseason. The Caps are also taking care of the puck, especially in the neutral zone, limiting turnovers, and getting pucks deep and grinding the Rangers down with a commitment to taking the body. It’s impressive. And more and more, it seems as if this winning moment in money season is a grand culmination — of playing lots of tight hockey games in 2011, of adding astutely at the trade deadline, and most especially of getting every guy wearing a red sweater to buy into what Gabby’s preaching.

“They’ve been buying in since the middle of December,” Boudreau said of his team’s embrace of a defense-first system. “They just want to win. The important thing is that they get success. We’ve got a lot of guys who’ve won a lot of awards and that doesn’t mean anything to them now.”

Nailbiters fairly defined the Capitals’ body of regular season work in the season’s second half. The upside to all that 9:00 hour mania is how lethally composed the Caps look in tight games in April.

“It goes back to the games we played in the regular season,” Mike Green noted in Friday’s postgame, alluding to the success the Caps are having protecting leads in tight affairs. “We’ve been in this position a lot this year. It hasn’t been blowout games . . . So it’s been comforting to know that we’ve played in enough games to know what to do now.”

Green has also taken note of the change in the Capitals’ room.

“I think there’s just a different atmosphere in the dressing room compared to last year, and it goes to show on the ice.”

The Rangers need the Capitals’ help to get back into this series — Neuvy needs to let in a softie, the Caps have to start turning pucks over. Even that likely won’t be enough. It’s not an enviable position. Meanwhile, Boudreau’s disciplined believers keep reminding themselves of the futility of feeling good prior to lining up for a handshake line, smiling.

That’s the outlook of Capitals’ strength and conditioning coach Mark Nemish, who is preparing his team for another run at the hardest trophy to win in all of sports. Part of the difficulty is the physical endurance required; by the time a team reaches the first round of the playoffs, it’s already spent almost 5,000 minutes at game-level intensity on the ice, and that doesn’t include overtime or shootouts.  Scoring becomes more physical as well; playoff goals are often scored by the net — hockey’s trenches — where the body faces a barrage of unfriendly fire: shoving for position, flying pucks, hockey sticks used as weapons.

For the athletes, it boils down to one thing: making life simpler.

“You dumb down your life,” said Capitals veteran forward Mike Knuble of how a player approaches the postseason. “You just keep it very simple: go to the rink, you come home, you eat, and you sleep, and that’s pretty much it.”

Knuble calls the physical aspect of the playoffs a “sprinting-marathon”  — “It’s a sprint at times, but the whole thing’s a marathon,” he explained.

But good conditioning can make miracles happen (just ask the 1980 U.S. hockey team, which Herb Brooks built on the backbone of conditioning).  There’s no question the Capitals have the talent to claim the Stanley Cup. But do they have the legs?

The Nuts and Bolts of Conditioning

There’s little room for vacation in an NHL player’s conditioning schedule. At the peak of offseason, for example, players who follow Nemish’s program may have upwards of nine workouts a week that are between 45 minutes to an hour each. These workouts are often done with a personal trainer, although a player may do a conditioning program other than Nemish’s.

“You should be in such great shape where the games aren’t that hard,” Nemish said. “The skating that we would do in August and the workouts that we would do on the track, it’s so difficult that they’ve got mentally and physically strong and so conditioned that the game is a piece of cake.”

Nemish himself will occasionally visit some players in the summer to see how they’re doing; Tyler Sloan, a defenseman for the Capitals, received such a visit this past summer, and Eric Fehr, Mike Green, and Jay Beagle received visits as well.

“A lot of Calgary guys in this organization, so he can hit one spot,” Sloan explained.

But for these grueling offseason workouts to really impact a player’s game come playoffs, Nemish says, maintenance during the regular season is essential. It’s hard to estimate overall how much time off-ice an NHL player spends on conditioning after a game, because the process is ultimately tailored to each athlete’s needs and preferences.

‘I have some players who are high-minute guys that like to do things after a game — in other words, if we have a team workout after the game, I’ll have a couple of those high-minute guys in there in the weight room doing a maintenance workout,” Nemish said. “For some of the other players that don’t like to work out after a game, we’ll do a workout the next day. And it’s individual. And that’s how you’ve got to kind of read your players and what works best for them.”

After a game for high-minute players, there could also be time in the cold tub, post-game shakes, and stretches.

By the time playoffs come around, the players’ off-ice routine becomes more about recovery rather than conditioning, though again that depends on the amount of minutes played.  For low-minute guys, it’s essential that they keep their level of conditioning up, whether that be through weight room workouts or staying out longer on the ice outside of games.

“They’ll be called upon at some point if the series goes long, or if you get into multiple series, that their minutes possibly could be going up,” Nemish said.

Either way, working it out on the exercise bike after the game can play a role: some guys use it to cool down, while low-minute guys use it to get in more cardio.

When Nemish was asked about the Flyers’ special slushie machine concoction used to help players refuel during games, he said he can’t even mention how many times he’s been contacted by nutritional companies touting their products. He asks that these companies send, before talking with them again, scientific, peer-reviewed studies that have been done on the product that shows it does make a difference.

“Ninety nine point nine times out of a hundred, I never hear from them again,” Nemish said. “We do things after games and take whatever shakes that we have that are based upon science. And it’s not brain surgery.”

Conditioning as a Way of Life, and Those that Slip

Nemish puts less weight in the “pills and potions” than in how guys manage themselves away from the rink. NHL conditioning isn’t just for the rink or locker room; it’s a lifestyle choice.

“If someone is taking a product that is supposed to be the best thing in the world and they feel great afterwards but then they’re going to go out to the bar and not get home till  4 in the morning after having six beers, well, does it really matter what they’re taking right after [the game]?” Nemish said. “I’m not saying that that’s what we do or what we have a problem with, I’m just saying that all of those things can be counterbalanced — I mean, it’s all a whole picture of what’s the best way  to manage your career and manage your life.”

He said overall, the guys on the Caps’ roster are pretty dedicated to conditioning, and complimented by name guys like Matt Bradley, Matt Hendricks, Karl Alzner.

When it comes to the opposite end of the spectrum — players who let their conditioning slide — Nemish said he’ll speak with the player (“It starts with me getting in their face”), hear their side of the story, and try to handle it between the two of them. If it becomes a serious issue, he said, head coach Bruce Boudreau is getting in on it.

But one of the most effective interventions, Nemish said, is the veteran leadership.

“If you’ve got some real, good, strong leadership core, that pull guys in — and, it’s something to hear it from me, but it’s another thing to hear it from a veteran player say look, “You’ve got to pick it up. We need you. Get your butt in there and start working,’” Nemish said. “That goes a long way.”

Conditioning the Rookies

Boudreau isn’t scared to give the rookies on his roster large minute counts. Thanks to defensive injuries throughout the season, including often top-minuteman Mike Green, as well as a healthy dose of confidence from their coach, rookie defensemen John Carlson and Karl Alzner are currently first and third on the team in ice time. In fact, Carlson is 24^th overall among rookies and veterans in the NHL in time on ice. He will have played over 100 minutes more than any other rookie in the NHL.

What’s even more impressive is that Carlson rarely takes advantage of the “option” in certain team practices, often a respite for high-minute players.  In fact, Carlson can’t remember missing a single practice over the entire season, although a Washington Post report from December mentions one practice missed with the flu.

Carlson, as usual, was anything less than flustered when asked how he was holding up in the last few weeks of the season.

“Good,” he said. “I think it’s been progressing over the days and month . . . but it’s all good for me to get the experience I need at the same time.”

What does phase him, however, is hearing Duncan Keith’s minute totals, which top off at over 2,000 and lead the NHL.

“That’s crazy . . . that’s unbelievable,” Carlson said. “That’s probably almost 30 minutes a night. He’s an unbelievable player, and  if he can pull off something like that, but I don’t think I could be able to.”

Despite it being the first time the Capitals’ rookies  enter the playoffs with a full NHL season behind them, there aren’t any particular conditioning rituals because of their first-year status. Nemish says that for the rookies, the tools and education on how to be properly conditioned should begin long before their time on an NHL roster– during camps with the team in the summer, when they learn the eating habits and weight room habits to be a successful NHL player.

Carlson said what’s helped him most this year conditioning-wise is just being aware  — picking his battles and making sure he find what allows him to exploit his maximum potential on the ice each day.

A Longer Career

Conditioning may showcase its best work on the other side of the age pool. Nemish said he’s noticed several aging NHL players who have extended their playing career well beyond where they should because they understand conditioning is their friend, albeit a painful relationship to maintain.

“There are a number of players that have played well beyond their prime, so to speak, when they should not have been playing, but because they were in such phenomenal shape, they extended their careers,” Nemish said.

One example Nemish remembered was from his days in Nashville working with former Predators captain Tom Fitzgerald, of whom Nemish said, “Always, you know, in the weight room, always training, always keeping in shape, always doing the things he needed to do, because he knew that that just kept prolonging his career.”

Another example Nemish cites is Rod Brind Amour, who retired just before his 40^th birthday and won a Stanley Cup as the Carolina Hurricanes’ captain just before turning 36.

“Maybe the best conditioned athlete in the entire NHL when he retired,” Nemish said. “Even though his skills may have been diminishing, his ability to keep in that type of shape prolonged his career.”

The Results

“When you think of conditioning, you think of players that, in the third period, seem to be faster than they are in the first,” Capitals forward Brooks Laich once observed.

And the teams Laich labels as being the most well-conditioned that the Caps play against have reaped the rewards. Laich gave the honor to Chicago last year — and it was a feature he noticed well before the Blackhawks claimed the Stanley Cup. This year, he says it’s the Vancouver Canucks, who also happened to lead the NHL in points this season and are a top Stanley Cup contender.

But Laich, at least when talking about conditioning last September, felt the Caps were equal to their opponents. Laich pointed out that, during the 2009-2010 season, the Capitals led the league in third period goals. This year, the Capitals still do most of their scoring in the third period — they’re ninth in the league in third period goals while third to last in the league in first period tallies.

“As far as teams, I think our team can skate with anybody,” he said then. “I think Bruce puts us through the paces at practice.”

Couple of minutes of Nats chatter at the start of this audio link, then we get to hockey systems, potential trades, the precocious play of John Carlson and Karl Alzner, and the return of Alex Semin.

OFB on 106.7 the Fan with Danny Rouhier and Grant Paulson, 2/8/11

It’s also a chance for reporters to ask serious questions about fashion, eating, and motherly advice.  As always, the guys were good sports.

There were two main areas to the event – a foyer, where silent auction items were displayed (including a Crosby jersey–one bid was for 2 cents), and the ballroom itself, where the food (including a nitrogen ice cream bar), band, and most of the gambling was.  Browsing the silent auction table made defenseman Tyler Sloan  our first unsuspecting victim.

The first question: which Capital has the biggest fashion budget?

“Ovie probably spends the most money, or [Alexander] Semin,” Sloan said. “That doesn’t mean that he looks good.”

“There’s a big difference,” Matt Bradley explained later.

He gave an example: “Ovie and Semin and Greenie probably spend the most, but Nicky [Backstrom] looks the best.”

American John Carlson sent the compliment back across the border…briefly.

“Matt Bradley’s a very well-dressed guy,” Carlson said, then jokingly added, “I like to think of myself as pretty well-dressed.”

Sloan also made a case for himself then turned diplomatic, first complimenting the Swedes, then praising “the European look” before finally giving Canadian Brooks Laich’s suits a shoutout.

Asking Sloan who had the biggest appetite on the team produced a very different answer.

“Jay Beagle,” Sloan said almost immediately. “He actually can eat non-stop…He eats really slowly, so it seems like he’s always eating.” OFB was unable to independently confirm that report (no OFB eyewitnesss of Beagle spotted at the nitrogen ice cream bar), but, considering the source, we’re convinced it’s a reliable account. Bradley could only tell us that Beagle drank a lot of shakes.

Meanwhile, over at the Wii bowling station, Ovechkin was busy doing something that’s more rare than normal in his career – losing.  Capitals fan Craig Seaman had put in $60 towards charity for a chance to play with the team captain and ended up beating him soundly.

“He was actually playing like Sidney Crosby,” Seaman joked. “It was kind of funny because he was really into the game, you know. You could tell he was really into the challenge.”

Seaman said he actually met his wife Deanna, also in attendance, at a Capitals game –she had a game she couldn’t go to, so she stopped him walking by and asked if he wanted the tickets. Seaman said one day he’d like to buy the actual seats off of Ted Leonsis.

Deanna said her favorite players are Semin, Chimera, and Knuble, while her husband chose Jason Chimera, Matt Hendricks, and Bradley.

Bradley told OFB he gets recognized only very rarely when he steps out of the house; Sloan  said he may get recognized once in awhile but separated himself from the “rockstars” of the team.

“Ovie and Backstrom and Green, and they’re on commercials, they’re on TV,” Sloan said, after which, of course, I made the obligatory reference to Ovechkin’s Eastern Motors commercial.

“Would you do a commercial, if someone asked?” I asked Sloan.

“I drive a Jeep Cherokee, maybe I’ll do a commercial for [that],” Sloan said.

I also learned something else at the casino night – Boudreau should be doing way more commercials than he already is.  In addition to the silent auction, there was a live auction, where if you just happened to have $10,000 lying around, you could get a one-hour private skating lesson for twenty people with Assistant Coach Bob Woods, Mike Green, Semyon Varlamov, Brooks Laich, and Matt Hendricks. You could have a wine night with the Steckels, Knubles, and Boudreaus for $11,250. There was even a Segway tour with Matt Bradley and other Capitals players.

But the funniest bidding round came for the infamous coaches’ party at Boudreau’s house.  The auctioneer began the bid, but Boudreau stepped in to help him out and soon had the crowd roaring.

“The date is whatever you want it to be,” Boudreau told the crowd, discarding the announced date for the party as his wife shook her head no. He promised an epic event, complete with game-watching and a colorful vocabulary (that we’re sure could only be aired on HBO…oh, wait). He offered to throw in a few players to the invite list. He volunteered to let people to stay over if their alcohol intake made a drive home impossible.

As two bidders got stuck right around the $12,000 mark, he showed how masterful he was. He said that if each side threw in $12500 (I believe that was the final amount), they could both come with the specified number of guests. Sold.

In the midst of all this lightheartedness, we did actually ask one serious question of John Carlson. Before the Winter Classic, his mother shared with us the advice she said her father gave her and that she had tried to pass on to John: always remember who you are, aka, stay humble.

Carlson recognized the piece of advice immediately. In fact, he said he remembered hearing it from his grandfather as well.

This, of course, led to our last frivolous question of the night. What’s the piece of advice from his mom that he ignores the most?

“Probably clean your room,” Carlson said.