Photo courtesy of the Washingtonian

In their “Luxury Homes” column, the Washingtonian detailed Backstrom’s recent home purchase.  Looks like someone got a $200,000 price cut from his buddy:

Capitals star center Niklas Backstrom bought a house in Arlington from his former teammate Jose Theodore for $2 million. The six-bedroom, eight-bath home has a fitness room, Irish pub, wine cellar, and theater. It listed for $2.2 million.

Irish pub, wine cellar, and theater?  Party at Nicky’s! 

Too bad that the Washingtonian got the wrong Backstrom, as seems to frequently be the case with many media outlets, but at least they got the position right.  It’s a start.

There’s little point in fingering blame at the Capitals’ top defensive pair of Mike Green and Jeff Schultz for their part in the deficit. Bottom line: Theodore had to set a tone in a desperation hockey game, and he failed. Again. For the second consecutive postseason Bruce Boudreau had to yank his no. 1 netminder at the dawning of an opening series, for less-than-stellar play.

Compounding the frustration with Theodore is the likelihood that he doesn’t even need to play brilliantly in order for the Capitals to enjoy a lengthy postseason run this spring: he just needs to be solid-to-strong over the course of a long series, and his offensively gifted teammates will take care of the rest. That means not whiffing on the first handful of shots he faces in a game.  Theodore may get the call Monday night, in the thoroughly hostile environs of Bell Centre, but it’s clear that Montreal won’t be intimidated by him.

Then again, after putting a half dozen pucks by Jaroslav Halak Saturday, the Caps won’t much be intimidated by Montreal’s no.1. This is a series unique in its offering the very real potential of having four goaltenders seeing significant playing time. If there is one netminder who seemingly could stake a claim to swagger in the crease, it’d be Semyon Varlamov. Varly made his NHL debut in Montreal on December 12, 2008, stopping 31 of 32 shots, becoming the first goalie to win his debut in Montreal in more than 30 years. Prior to Saturday night Varly had two starts against the Habs and won both, boasting a 1.94 goals-against and a .930 save percentage. Quite simply, the Habs haven’t beaten him. You would have to think that should Jose Theodore start tonight he’d not only have to perform solidly but the Capitals would have to prevail for him to keep his job — Varly’s success versus Montreal, and his savior’s role versus the Rangers in last April’s opening series, would argue well for his getting the reliever’s call.

All season long I’ve been a press box audience to this line of thinking articulated by media local and out-of-town: the Caps appear to play harder for Semyon Varlamov. The Capitals however played very hard in front of Theodore at the start of this series, particularly its opening 20 minutes. They just didn’t get the results. Boudreau’s decision on a starting netminder tonight is easily the most interesting and intriguing of his NHL career. It’s one he most certainly wanted to avoid having to make so early this postseason, but Jose Theodore again has placed his coach in the position of having to make it.

Photoshop artistry by Mike Rucki

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Just how epic was Saturday night’s stirring and heart-stopping comeback in Capitals’ lore? Was it anywhere near as impressive as the Caps’ overcoming a 3-0 deficit at home in game 7 against the Flyers in 1988? The Caps under the leadership of Rod Langway and Dale Hunter had more game time left with which to mount their comeback that night. Then again, the stakes were a lot higher that night. And that Flyers’ club was certainly better than this Habs’ one. Still, clawing back and triumphing from three down with barely more than a period to play merits inclusion among the organization’s all-time postseason performances. Certainly the league’s American broadcast partners took notice yesterday, with both NBC and Versus lavishing love on the Caps for their Saturday night heroics.

* * * * *

Speaking of heroes, I really dig the nickname Captain America for John Carlson. Really dig it.

* * * * *

Dateline, Southern Virginia Marriott Hotel, some 120 miles from Washington, Saturday night: at the hotel sportsbar named T-Miller’s, myriad televisions beamed a spring Saturday evening’s sporting fare, including the opening of the NBA playoffs and a remarkable test of bullpen arms’ endurance between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets, which didn’t see its first run of the game scored until the 19th inning. At puckdrop between the Caps and Habs near 7:00 the bar was sparsely populated, and a lone TV screen behind the bar carried the action.

The game didn’t draw a heck of a lot of notice given its seeming blowout formation in the second period, but there were a few red-clad enthusiasts following, and when Nicklas Backstrom scored deep in the second stanza to close the gap to 4-2, a few rowdy cheers rose over the murmurs of the hoops and diamond partisans.

Then a wedding reception at the hotel let out, near 9:00 — an open bar gathering clearly — and the bar suddenly was swarmed with well-dressed revelers. All of them, it seemed, had one game inspiring their formation in the tavern: hockey. Caps’ hockey. A fiery middle-aged woman not the mother of the bride began working her way from table to table, surveying patrons’ preference for the big-screened television affixed to a central wall. It was at that moment showcasing game 1 of the Celtics and Miami Heat.  Actually, it wasn’t a single TV screen but an amalgam of smaller screens that formed a fun and impressive broadcast glow over the majority of the sprawling wall.

This woman was on a mission. She wasn’t having any NBA on at this hour, but being in possession of southern grace, she made sure first that the house was in majority support of her position. Darned if she didn’t get that wall beaming the game from Verizon Center beginning with period three. And when John Carlson tied it up with little more than a minute left serious beauties from the bride’s party bestowed kisses on stranger men throughout the bar — and leading chants of ‘C-A-P-S CAPS!CAPS!CAPS!”

Times are a-changin.

Netminder Jose Theodore is obviously a critical piece of the Caps’ playoff puzzle, and the subject of much discussion. Theodore’s preparation is more personal—oh, he’ll work with coaches and trade ideas with teammates of course, but it’s more of an internal approach. JT is usually pretty quiet, until Tomas Jagr-I-mean-Plekanec riled him up that is. But generally his playoff prep mirrors that thoughtful demeanor.

With Washington punching their playoff ticket so early in the season, Theodore had plenty of time to prepare. “I’ve been approaching the last 20 games like the playoffs. Every game I am trying to do the details,” Theodore said. “You can’t get away from the details and that is what I am focusing on right now, controlling rebounds and challenging the shooters.”

Judging by his performance in Game 1, I would say that Jose got some of those details down and has his focus in the right place. If it ain’t broke…

Would it really surprise anyone if I said that Walker likes to talk about his preparation? I think he is a younger (although not by much) version of Gabby. Unlike Theo, Walker is in the same type of mood regardless of outcome, although Walker’s is a bit chattier. His playoff preparation involves that chatty lifestyle, even if he doesn’t think it can help all that much.

“I talk to people in general and people who have been around the game and even the old guys like broadcasters, [we] talk about experiences,” Walker said. But then he minimized what talking can do. “Its like somebody said, you have to get experience yourself, you can’t get it from talking.”

Walker summed up the regular season perfectly when he said, “Now it starts back at zero, what you did [in the regular season] doesn’t mean anything anymore.” Sure, you can learn from what you did well over the last 82 games, but it won’t mean much if you put up a big goose egg in playoffs — words that the team’s captain (and others) could take to heart for Game 2.

For most players though, it is all about their coaches and teammates. A sign of a good team is one that can lift each other up and pull their comrades out of slumps. Washington has a solid team in the locker room, so it is no surprise that several players turn with in for their preparation.

“I think we have a great team here,” Nicklas Backstrom said. “We are talking to each other and we have some experienced guys on the team and we will take advantage of that.” Teams that win it all generally have a strong veteran presence. Players like Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison are terrific assets for young players like Backstrom looking to learn from others’ experience.

Players who were acquired in the middle of the season sometimes find fitting in with the team awkward. New players may not have had time to form any significant bonds with their new teammates; this is where the coaching staff comes in. A sign of a good coach is one who can relate to any player, even the ones who spent most of the season on another team. From what some of the newest Caps are saying, it seems like Bruce is that kind of coach.

“I think our coaches give us a pretty good game plan of what we need and who we play,” Jason Chimera said. “You talk to some people, but you don’t want to over think things otherwise you are thinking out there and not playing.”

A coach who knows what a player needs and can focus them on the ice, is one destined for greatness. In Chimera’s eyes, Bruce can do just that.

Players have their own unique ways of preparing themselves for the grueling playoff run. Mike Green, Eric Fehr and the others on the 2006 Hershey Bears team have the coach that got them to the NHL with, something not many players can say.

It’s pretty rare for a player to win a Calder Cup, then to have their AHL coach join them in the bigs a couple years later for the NHL playoffs. For Green, playing for Boudreau again is something special.

“When [Boudreau] speaks I really listen,” Green said. “[It's great] because you get familiar with him and he is familiar with what my game is. We developed a relationship before we came together to the NHL level, and I think that helps.”

For the Caps, players’ preparation methods vary, but it’s the results that count. Tonight we will see just how focused and prepared the Caps really are.

The Capitals in game one of their first-round series against Montreal fired 47 shots on Habs’ netminder Jaroslav Halak. Ovechkin didn’t have a single one of them. Not one, through nearly four periods of hockey.

Ovechkin wasn’t quite invisible — the style of game he plays ensures he can’t be — but he was conspicuously impact-less in this opening postseason game. Brutal, really.What exactly did the Habs do to so thoroughly, so effectively bottle up the world’s greatest hockey player? Bruce Boudreau talked about Montreal’s success with gap control, meaning, Habs’ blueliners and forwards maintained ideal spacing among one another during Ovi’s shifts, thereby limiting his time and space for playmaking and shooting. It doesn’t take much of a wrong turn or angle by a defender for Ovi to exploit it, but Thursday night the Habs were ever in position to thwart the revving of the Gr8′s great engine.

And Gabby in the postgame pulled no punches in assessing his captain’s game: “He didn’t play good. I mean, they gapped up on him really well, but I don’t think Alex played very well. I can’t put my finger on it right now, but when you get 50 shots on goal and Ovechkin doesn’t get any and you have four power plays . . . They took him away pretty good, but I just didn’t think he was very good tonight.”

• Is there a favorite’s curse in the NHL this spring?

• Hal Gill had a lot to do with Ovi’s fantastically frustrating outing. Gill, who won a Cup with Pittsburgh last spring, skated 25 minutes and blocked nine shots — and seemingly all of Ovi’s. Gill made no one forget Paul Coffey with his skating Thursday night, but that’s not why the Habs acquired him. He takes up space and he clears the Habs’ crease and he puts his 12 years of NHL experience to good use in a postseason.

• There was little love for Halak from Capitals’ Head Coach Bruce Boudreau afterward. “We had a lot of shots but we didn’t have a lot of great quality chances after the first period. The chances we did have we shot wide or didn’t shoot at all . . . He played good, but I don’t think he did anything we didn’t think he was capable of doing.” His comments sound eerily reminiscent of last year’s first round matchup against the New York Rangers. The difference with last year’s first round being that Gabby thought the Caps were making the saves too easy for Henrick Lundqvist. Goals in the postseason most often are scored down low and with shear strength and determination, far less often from pretty passing plays or long shots from the point.

• When do you imagine we might next see Nicklas Backstrom finish off a potential game-winning three-on-one break by shooting the puck into a fallen defender’s pants . . . from behind the opponent’s goal cage? Never, methinks. That was a shocking fit of overthinking inaction from one of the planet’s best playmakers.

• A handful of Capitals had outstanding games Thursday, most especially Jose Theodore and John Carlson. Theo demonstrated early on a general comfort in his crease, seeing the puck exceptionally well, playing solidly positionally, controlling rebounds rather well, and taking effective angles on Habs’ shooters.

• Carlson was perhaps the Capitals’ best defender Thursday, and before this series is through, he may well be judged the most effective defenseman in both ends for either team. Thursday was of course his first NHL playoff game. He skated a +1 in nearly 22 minutes of ice time. He never looked out of place, he never lacked poise, he was alternately reliable and dynamic. He is going to be a star rearguard in this league.

• Winning a lot of faceoffs generally is a recipe for success, and the Caps won a lot of them in game one: 63 percent. Eric Belanger was a staggering 18-3 on draws.

• Another Russian AWOLer: Alexander Semin. He largely deployed his floater game of ineffectual shift-taking. With the Caps’ two most lethal offensive attackers missing from the attack the hosts really made the evening relatively stress-free for their guests, most especially after the first period, despite the overall high volume of shots. Bruce Boudreau wasn’t particularly impressed by the volume of shots his team generated because of the meager quality of so many of them.

• The absolute best word I could assign to the collective tension and anxiety that was palpable in the Capitals’ postgame locker room and in the hallways of Verizon Center’s event level from 10:00 on last night is foreboding. Not full-on panic, not depression, but foreboding. That word seems to convey a bit of a pervasive purgatory existence, and it seemed to comport with the strained-but-not-quite pained looks on faces from George McPhee to minority ownership to locker room attendants to bloggers.

• Snapshot of foreboding: Jeff Schultz, merely a franchise-best-ever +50 on the season, offers an uncanny impersonation of Sergei Gonchar circa 2001 — an anti-Gene Kelly fit of unhappy feet — while playoff overtime backpeddaling near his own blueline, falling down without cause, surrendering a prime scoring opportunity to the adversary.

• On the positive side of things, the Capitals have won five of nine playoff series in which they have lost Game 1. However, they now stand at 15-22 all time in postseason overtime efforts.

No fewer than 87 individuals affiliated with media in Montreal made credential requests of the Capitals for last night’s game. We were at times three-deep in a press box gallery last night, with Canadian broadcast outlets — radio and TV — forced into calling the game standing and completely exposed to the heavy traffic of an overloaded media space, and consider that the Caps had fairly filled the media lounge downstairs as well. I heard more French spoken last night that I did in three years of taking the language in high school.

There is a swagger to the Montreal press corp beyond its bloated size. One of the first questions directed at Canadiens’ head coach Jaques Martin during his postgame presser came from an out-of-towner who asked, with haughty derision, about the play of “Tomas Jagr . . . Jagr . . . Tomas Plekanec,” an unmistakable dig at Capitals’ netminder Jose Theodore and his in-artful attempt to dismiss Plekanec’s muted respect for the goaltending duo in D.C.

I’ve been through a few of these unwanted white-knuckler offerings of foreboding with underdogs everyone had writtten off. In the intermission between last night’s third period and the overtime I made an impromptu appearance on the radio with Jonathon Warner of Federal News Radio, who solicited my thoughts in that moment I think precisely because of the volume of grey hair I’ve accumulated at this time in the calendar. A best of seven series most often produces a worthy, superior victor. Most often. But not always. A ludicrously hot netminder can steal a series. Or, a prohibitive favorite can squeeze too tightly the sticks that inflicted heavy damage during a comparatively trivial regular season.

It’s too early to tell if Jaroslav Halak will outplay Jose Theodore and remind Caps’ fans of the Ghosts of Kelly Hrudey and Ken Wreggett past. It is perhaps not too early to forecast our being here a while in this series to sort it all out.

“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?

If that isn’t targeting the head, what is?

“I just came in on the forecheck,” the assailant said afterward. “I thought I had a pretty good angle. I haven’t seen him play, but he’s a skilled good lateral movement player. If anything, I just tried to reach out and get a piece of him.”

Oh, Armstrong reached out and got a piece of him alright.

“I was going to go right through him. I think he kind of bailed on the hit a little bit. I didn’t mean to get my arms up into his neck or anything like that. [I just did] I saw the replay and I just tried to get a piece of him as he came by me. It’s just one of those plays.”

Yea, just one of those plays . . . that keeps on plaguing our game.

“I didn’t mean to do that.”

Armstrong should be suspended — most especially by the criteria which has been applied to suspensions of Capitals’ players this season for hits up high.

• Mathieu Perreault recovered from Armstrong’s attack and, while he didn’t register a point, he played a third consecutive effective and reliable game of his most recent stint last night. More and more he is offering Bruce Boudreau reliable and disciplined shifts, and more and more he’s staking a case to be, perhaps, just perhaps, yet another addition to the postseason roster. Not only did he look more comfortable on the ice last night, he appeared to have some chemistry with Alexander Semin. After the game he said it was hard to get into the flow of the game because of the whistles, but he did say he believed that Semin and he had something brewing.

• Of the blow to the head he suffered from Assailant Armstrong: “I was trying to make a play and I saw him at the last second, he had his elbow pretty high, I think,” the young center said. “[At the] last second, I tried to turn but he kinda got me in the head, I got a bit of a headache.” He told us that he thought it should have been a penalty and that he thought it was an elbow. Not only did he take the cheap shot high from Armstrong, but he said he got cut with a high stick on the very next shift. The fact he came back for the third period with five more shifts and another four minutes of ice time shows he is one tough little bugger and has a lot of heart and grit. Small wonder he’s become a conspicuous fan favorite.

• Gabby had no comment on the officiating, but we’re sure he’ll be waiting to see where the NHL Wheel of Justice will come down on this one.

• Last night’s effort from Semyon Varlamov doesn’t make things any easier for Boudreau. If this is the real Varly, the one we saw last spring, then Boudreau would be foolish not to start him and see what else he has. For Boudreau, Varly laying an egg last night would have forced him to stick with Jose Theodore down the stretch, since he has had the better second half. Instead, he now has to give Varly another shot. If he does well in his next start, then Gabby has a real pickle on his hands, you have to think. Whoever earns the start against the Penguins come Tuesday night, you would think, will offer us a strong clue as to whom the ehad coach is leaning toward with the postseason in mind.

• Teams that win Stanley Cups usually have strong and vocal veterans. Mike Knuble qualifies. He is extremely thoughtful and knowledgeable about hockey and what it takes for a good team to succeed in the postseason. Last night he again offered us interesting observations about leading questions of the day. We asked him about Varly. While many guys would be happy to have one great goalie, Knuble noted, “You can’t have one guy with all of the confidence and the other guy with none.” A good and interesting point.

• Alexander Semin certainly appears locked in and ready for the playoffs. Despite not earning a point last night, he made some fantastic plays, moved fast and effectively all over the ice, and made presence known. His puck control was exceptional again, and last night was the first time in five games he didn’t record a point. Despite not scoring he still ended up +1. While the other Alex is struggling a bit, Semin’s offense and renewed energy, or interest, is certainly a boost for the team.

Theodore, however, held his crease, offered Regin little to shoot at, and preserved his team’s deficit at two tallies. At the break the home crowd murmured disapproval rather than showering it upon the NHL’s top club. The Caps would rally to tie the game in the second period, and another deft Mathieu Perreault bit of marksmanship actually gave the home team a brief 4-3 lead in the final frame, but Ottawa ultimately prevailed in overtime, scoring on a 4-on-3 power play in the extra session’s final 30 seconds.

Theodore, however, fresh off of getting yanked in Sunday’s first period, did little to calm home fan nerves as they relate to the most important position on the ice in the postseason. Again on Tuesday night he seemed to lack composure and puck awareness as the play swirled around him in tight, and again relatively innocent, deflected and slow-moving pucks found their way behind him and into the back of his cage. A week ago — heck, 72 hours ago — the Capitals’ netminding rotation for the postseason seemed settled and solid. This morning, it is anything but.

“There were four pretty iffy goals out there tonight,” Bruce Boudreau observed in his postgame press conference.

Not quite a ringing endorsement of his heretofore no. 1.

And yet: Since January 13 JT is 17-0-3 — merely the best stretch of games without a regulation loss in club history. That stat is I think somewhat misleading, however. Theodore wasn’t the goalie of record in Sunday’s 5-3 loss to Calgary, but his performance in 10 minutes’ time had a lot to do with the result.

There were Capitals culprits skating outside the crease Tuesday night — particularly those assigned to kill penalties. The Senators struck with the man advantage on three out of four opportunities, using just 4:23 of extra man time to do it. The Capitals remain lodged in a troubling region of the penalty killing rankings: 25th in the league, succeeding just 78 percent of the time.

• Alexander Semin, by scoring his 36th and 37th goals, is now just one goal shy of matching his NHL best goals tally, accomplished in 2006-07. He seems more certain of scoring 40 goals this season than does Ovechkin of tallying 50.

• Elisabeth Meinecke of DCist came up with a most clever quip in the Verizon Center press box as Semin celebrated his second period tally, and second of the game. The Semin hat trick: two goals and an offensive zone penalty.

• Ovechkin Tuesday night was active and dynamic, but also highly inaccurate. He skated more than 28 minutes and attempted 20 shots, but only 5 of them found Brian Elliott’s net — 8 were blocked and another 7 went wide or high of the target. Sounds like just another evening of frustration against one of the league’s premiere shotblockers on the blueline, Anton Volchenkov. Except that Volchenkov didn’t dress for the Sens. He’s day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.

• Boudreau reunited Ovi, Backstrom and Semin early on and for most of the night, but they were again culpable for leading a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition with the puck in Ottawa’s end throughout the first period. All that razzle-dazzle did was generate four shots total for the team on Brian Elliott through 20 minutes of play. And the Caps generated just 21 shots on Elliott all game long, including overtime. That’s the lowest shot total for the club since November 22, 2008 — a 7-2 thumping endured against San Jose.

• It was, I thought, one of Mike Green’s most impressive defensive performances of the season. His coach apparently agreed, skating Green over 31 minutes.

• This team misses Brooks Laich, big time. But it’s more than just his career-best 24 goals and 56 points of production. They miss his nose dirty-ing jam in front of the opponent’s net, his net-crashing ethos, his speedy forechecking, and most especially that most intangible quality that he has in great abundance: he’s damned difficult to play against.

Andrew’s Thoughts:

• Mathieu Perreault is certainly making a strong case to make the team next season. Or maybe even stick around for the remainder of this one. He scored another nifty goal last night, but what was more impressive was how he scored it. Perreault muscled out a puck along the corner boards, kicked it out to Eric Fehr, and then drove to the net, a strategy that seemed lost on the rest of the Caps last night. He does what many say Kobe Bryant of the NBA does, “he does work.” Perreault, the smallest member of the Capitals’ organization, showed he was not afraid to drive the net, muck it up in the corners, and take full-on physical abuse to get a scoring chance.

• One of the more impressive performances last night was, I thought, from Jason Chimera. While others often stood around, Chimera was flying down the ice creating several good scoring chances. His best play of the evening was when he tore threw the neutral zone and absolutely rocked a Senator from the puck in the third period. What was more impressive than the hit was that he apparently got his stick on the puck before he took out the feet of his victim. The Caps are a faster team with Jason Chimera and, when he plays as he did last night, a better one as well.

• I have one major question regarding the Caps deadline acquisition of Joe Corvo. If they traded for him because of his shot from the point on the power play, why doesn’t he play on the power play? He certainly isn’t a better d-man than Brian Pothier, so they most certainly didn’t acquire him to shore up the blueline. I thought he was brought in so Ovi could play lower on the power play, or take some time off; I guess I was mistaken, as he was on point for every power play last night.

• Just as a general rule of thumb, for fans and players, throwing the puck on net is never a bad idea. Passing around the perimeter during for an entire power play is a generally a bad thing.

The Capitals exit March with a solid if unspectacular record of 4-2-2 in eight home dates. More troubling are the questions raised by Jose Theodore’s sudden unsteady play. Six games in April that 72 hours ago seemed to hold little meaning suddenly have evolved into a most unwanted audition for a go-to guy between the pipes for the postseason.

Still, it was stunning to see this Capitals club dominated as thoroughly as it was by this reeling Calgary team after 20 minutes Sunday. It was 4-0 for the team on life support, Jose Theodore yanked after yielding three goals on the 10 shots he faced. The Caps were left waiting on the outcome of the New Jersey-Philly game Sunday night to see if they’d secured the conference crown.

On Saturday the Flames were humiliated in Boston, 5-0. In their previous game, on Thursday in Long Island, they yielded a pair of third period goals and lost 3-2 to the bottom feeding Isles. The Detroit Red Wings, meanwhile, had gone a scorching 8-0-1 to surge to a six-point lead over the Flames in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot out West. Calgary writers traveling with the club on this roadtrip were predicting another embarrassment for the visitors on Sunday.

To appreciate how desperate and discombobulated Calgary was upon its arrival in Washington, take a look at the gratuitously grumpy greeting the club received from Sunday’s Calgary Herald:

“WARNING! The program you are about to watch contains adult themes, profanity and graphic violence. Parental discretion is strongly advised.

“Yes, best keep the kiddies away from the 50-inch Plasma Sunday afternoon from 1 o’clock through about 3:30. Stripped of their dignity, of any playoff aspirations, the feckless Calgary Flames stumble into the whirring teeth of Alexander Ovechkin’s abbatoir today.

“There’s apt to be entrails dangling all over the place. It shapes up as a gore-fest. And a goal-fest.”

To be fair, none of JT’s teammates showed much interest in competing in the game’s opening 20 minutes, when a Calgary club, ranked 28th in the league in scoring, lit the lamp four times. The Capitals have trailed by four goals in only two games this season, for a total of nine minutes, 58 seconds. But it was clear after 10 minutes that this was not going to be Theodore’s day.

“I just thought he was fighting the puck – every shot was fighting the puck,” Bruce Boudreau said afterward. “I didn’t think he had it today. He will be back in on Tuesday. He has played an awful lot of good games that have kept us in during the first period. We just weren’t ready to play in the first period. It was indicative of four shots on goal that you are not ready.”

Was Sunday’s opening frame the worst period of hockey played by the Caps this season? There haven’t been many rivals in infamy to it. On November 14 in New Jersey, the Devils scored three unanswered second period goals en route to a comfortable 5-2 triumph. On December 12 in Toronto the Caps entered the third period knotted up at 3-3 with the Leafs and exited the ice 6-3 losers. And it was 3-0 Ca’nes after the first period on December 28, but the Caps had traded their captain, Chris Clark, and Milan Jurcina earlier in the day and seemed emotionally affected by the changes. The Caps came into play Sunday rested and presumably ready, and certainly with something to play for. But it appeared that relative to Calgary’s incentive — staying alive — the conference title could wait for another day.

It was just one of those days: Calgary’s fifth goal was a backhanded flutterball from Rene Bourque from that rolled up off of Varly’s pads, over his head, and somehow eluded the swatting flailings of Tom Poti, coming to a cruel rest in the Capitals’ cage, making it 5-1 Calgary and ending any serious notion of a comeback.

If there was a bright spot for the Capitals Sunday it came from the play of emergency callup Mathieu Perreault. With the Caps missing forwards Brooks Laich, Brendan Morrison, Scott Walker, and Boyd Gordon, Perreault was summoned from Hershey after last night’s Bears’ game. The second-year pro received power play time from Boudreau in the third period and was hovering around Miikka Kiprusoff’s cage right as Alexander Ovechkin lasered a drive from the left half-boards. Perreault gathered the rebound to the side of the Calgary cage and, with his entire body behind the net, slide-tucked in the rebound to cut Calgary’ lead to 5-3.

More Matty Love filled the arena. It was too little, too late, however.

The Flames live for another day. The Caps got to check another meaning-challenged game off their early spring ledger.

Six different players lit the lamp and 11 players had points on the evening. It may be easier to count who didn’t show up on the scoresheet than who did. Brendan Morrison turned in one of his most impressive performances of the year with one goal, two assists, and six shots. Meanwhile, Brooks Laich added an equally impressive night with two goals, one assist, and eight shots. In fact, only one line didn’t have anyone show up on the scoresheet, and that was the fourth line composed of Quintin Laing, Boyd Gordon and Matt Bradley.

It wasn’t just the offense that turned in a stellar night. Jose Theodore, despite giving up three goals, had another outstanding performance between the pipes. He stopped 34 of 37 shots, and a couple of the goals could be attributed to sloppy defense. One thing that seems to have changed with Theodore as the year has gone on is his style in net. While he is still a butterfly goalie, he seems to be playing a little bit looser, and more by instinct. Quite honestly, it just looks as if he is having a blast out there, which is what sports are supposed to be, fun. One of the best parts about watching Jose recently is that he has consistently been throwing down the double pad stack like he is Ed Belfour or Jimmy Craig. Who doesn’t love a tribute to the glory days of pre-lockout hockey?

Meanwhile, at the other end, one of the league’s best goalies, Tomas Vokoun, who boasts a .925 save percentage at home, was chased out of his net in last night’s second period.

It may be unfair that Ovi has to sit out two games, but in reality it may help the team. Head Coach Bruce Boudreau and GMGM have both said they are going to try to get everyone playing time. With Ovi sitting, it provides an opportunity for more players to play and for Bruce to try different lineup combinations. Let’s be frank, Alex could probably use the rest anyway coming down the stretch run.

Last night was the Caps’ sixth straight win over the Panthers, sweeping the season series, but what is more important is that it was Jason Chimera’s second straight rock solid game. The winger has been a solid addition to the team, but he has yet to turn in that string of outstanding performances. With his big frame, rocket shot, and quick feet, Chimera is a valuable asset for the playoffs. If we would all take a trip down Memory Lane to the playoffs last year, Matt Bradley was one of the Caps’ most clutch players, winning a couple of games for them. Chimera could be that this year, if he were to heat up right now and carry the momentum through the playoffs, and the Caps would have a legitimate scoring threat on every line.

In short, this was nothing but a team win. Losing Ovi is bad for his public perception, but at this time of the season it’s not so bad for the Capitals. The team has already clinched the division and has all but locked up a top seed in the playoffs. Sure they haven’t won the President’s Trophy yet (Dallas pounded San Jose last night), but here’s a question: do they really want that since only three teams who have won it have gone on to win the Stanley Cup in the last 10 years? Oh, and two of those teams were the Red Wings.

The Caps are now 6-1-1 since resuming play from the Olympic break. A helpful break indeed, when you think back to how they limped into it.

Juggling lines and playing without your best player and still winning proves one thing: the Caps don’t have to rely on just Ovi. The Washington faithful sort of knew that, but they thought they knew that last playoff season. The Rangers and the Penguins largely shut down Ovi and Semin last spring, and the team struggled to score. Obviously there were injuries and things like that, but in short they shut down two of the team’s best scorers. This year is a much different team and it showed on the ice last night.

Obviously it will help matters when Alex returns after Thursday’s game, but for now let’s bask in the glory of our ability to experiment on the fly — and still succeed. Bruce Boudreau sure seemed like he was having fun behind the bench last night, or at least sort of looked a bit happier than usual. A game like Tuesday night’s called to mind the not so infrequent upsets we see at this time of year, when one non-contending team has a roster full of guys playing for jobs for next season while the other is just trying to keep the good Mojo and remain healthy — except that the Caps didn’t come out flat and afford the ‘Cats any hope of an upset. They got on ‘em early and often, and perhaps better, kept the foot on the gas.

Washington is a legitimate Cup-contending hockey team, they are a more complete team than they were last year, and their play looks as if it is only going to improve. Winning with out Alex is just one way to boost confidence and hone the details.

So I am sorry you had to sit Ovi, and I certainly don’t agree with Colin Campbell (I could write a book about how much I disagree with him), but it may have been for the best, as we now know what the team is made of. And that is nothing but resiliency. And quality depth.