I should hate the Bolts; they just beat our ass badly, after all. But they’ve dusted off the Caps twice in a decade, and when you think about it, who hasn’t? None of their fans came to Verizon Center for games 1 and 2 of round two, and small wonder — they’re like a thousand miles away.

Ah, the absence of Tampa fans; it’s a prime theme in a brilliantly conceived and devilishly cunning Boston Bruins ad campaign — or it was, rather, until a Tampa tirade of telephone calls closed it down. Meaning, I’m resurrecting it here.

The Bs of course have carried off this fabulous mascot-driven humor campaign in print and video spots the past few seasons. We’ve sung its praises here. It’s simply magnificent. And it bloomed beautifully in Beantown for this year’s Eastern Conference finals, but as Greg Wyshynski noted in his treatment of this matter, the Bs have run it for each and every postseason opponent the past two springs. It’s Tampa’s hockey fans who singularly took offense to it. The aforementioned DJ, for whom I haven’t enough respect to ID, led a campaign of on-air ire against it, and urged his listeners to swamp Bruins’ telephone lines with complaints. Enough of them did, the Bs probably figured it was easier just to take the ads down and be done with the diaper set from the South, and that’s that. Some fun was had, but it should have continued.

Still, let’s enjoy more of this spirited smack — and you can find a helpful gallery of the art at massholesports.com.

To state the obvious, no way you’d hear any outcry about this sort of campaign from fanbases in Philly, New York, or Pittsburgh. Those are real hockey communities with appropriately toughened sensibilities. Tampa surely bettered D.C. where it counts, on the ice, but at least we have our dignity. Finally, though, I’ve found rationale to take interest in a Southeast foe’s fate in spring. Go B’s.

In those earliest hours of the offseason I had already excoriated the Capitals, fairly, for a spectacularly failed season, again, but I wanted days and even weeks to pass before weighing in again with heavy ammo against the status quo.

Mr. Leonsis in his blog that painful morning called for patience and for a cooling off period. “The best course of action for us . . . is to let a few days pass; be very analytic about what needs to be improved; articulate that plan; and then execute upon it.”

And so yesterday, having allowed more than a few days to pass — fully two weeks, in fact — before commenting again on the Caps, Mr. Leonsis appeared on his hockey team’s web site to address Capitals Nation, offering remarks and taking questions from one of his communicators, with what was tantamount to a State of the Hockey Nation update. It did little to comfort the grieving.

For starters, Mr. Leonsis is not availing himself to media this offseason. Not yet, anyway. Capitals’ fans were welcomed to submit questions for yesterday’s streaming summit, but in no way does that approach the accountability that’s part and parcel with stepping up to the scrutiny of media cameras, microphones, and perhaps even a call-it-as-they-see-it corps of bloggers. If the President of the United States stands before the White House press corps, you can be assured of a good grilling, no matter the time of year. And when times are tough, we expect that of our President.

On the positive side of the self assessment ledger, acknowledging the widespread criticism his hockey team has cultivated in spades this spring, the owner yesterday said, “We want to change.” He pointed an accusatory finger at the power play, ranked no. 1 in the league until last spring, and said, “We might have to do something major to the power play because it has let us down last year against [Montreal] and this year against [Tampa Bay].” Big-picturing better, he said, “We’re struggling . . . in translating productivity in the regular season into longer success in the playoffs.”

To put it mildly.

But the format of yesterday’s forum undermined a good deal of discipline of message, and the owner early on in the proceedings, speaking contemporaneously and without interruption, allowed platitudes, a reservoir of accumulated good will, and I think wishful thinking to cloud and clutter what in another setting might have produced some heavy reckoning.

“I can say unequivocally that the regular season does matter,” he alleged.

Well, I can say unequivocally that at this moment in Washington it does not. I certainly said it in my season preview back in the autumn, and I was one of many voices then saying it. By the end of summer there will be four Southeast division title banners hanging from the rafters of Verizon Center commemorating the regular season feats of the past four seasons. Listening to Mr. Leonsis yesterday, I wondered: would the Capitals again try and draw attention to that on opening night in October? If they do, they might be surprised at the Red Army’s reaction to it.

To some extent, hockey’s regular season is diminished by the unrivaled-anywhere-else-in-sports glory of its ultimate prize. For every conspicuously winning-in-regular-season team in the NHL there is by late March something of an exasperation with playing out the string, an unnerving anxiety for the arrival of the true test, and given the turnaround of fortune in this past regular season’s second half for the Caps, and especially given the seeming success of the trade deadline acquisitions, there was an especially pronounced fatigue-anxiety among the Red Army. Long-standing demons of spring oh so badly needed to be exorcised. The regular season certainly seemed to matter here in 2007-08 and its following campaign. The President’s trophy seemed to give meaning to 2009-10. But that spring’s sourness cast a suspicious cloud over 2010-11 — and in point of fact, this past regular season delivered a great deal of stress and woe, infuriating season ticket holders bewildered by blowouts by the Blueshirts. And next season? Many of us in HockeyWashington regarded this spring as a referendum on the existing regime, seeking evidence that 2010′s first-round dismal was an aberration. We don’t have it — not by a longshot.

Surely everyone affiliated with the Caps will have to regard 2011-12 as more a referendum on how this organization is managed than with any previous season in Capitals’ history. But yesterday the owner was anything but aware of such a sensibility. And that is deeply troubling.

To some extent there is a tone deafness to management when it comes to acknowledging this organization’s sordid state in spring. They seem to want to be judged only on the springtimes in the Era of Ovechkin. They fail even in that limited litmus test, but the larger reality — one that reigns league-wide, and for a sizable contingent of the fanbase — is that we are the Chicago Cubs of our sport, and it’s mildly amusing to joke about in fall but something far more sinister in spring. Alexander Ovechkin’s arrival here was meant to address it. Management said as much.

Most egregiously yesterday, Mr. Leonsis said this of his club’s present standing: “There are 29 teams in the league that would trade positions with us.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. To trade places with the Washington Capitals today would be to assume their burden of spring. Sadomasochists wouldn’t take that on. To trade places with the Caps would be to reside in a media market in which John Beck — no relation to Glenn, Google informed me yesterday — is the celebrated athlete of the moment. A condition for which our market is rightly mocked.

To make no mention of the Pittsburgh Penguins, or the Detroit Red Wings, or the Chicago Blackhawks, not even the Toronto Maple Leafs would uproot themselves and trade places with us here. It’s $300-plus for a premium seat in the lower bowl of Air Canada Centre for a hockey game in October. There’s a 24-hour television station devoted to the team for goodness sake. There’s been a lot of losing by the Leafs over the years, but also, though distant now, Glory achieved. And goodness knows Brian Burke is held accountable by Leaf media and fans.

Perhaps most troubling of all yesterday Mr. Leonsis expressed an intellectual incompatibility with the notion that the window may be closing on his team’s status as contender. In point of fact, that window may never have opened. His team isn’t a contender; the Lightning proved that. And as exclamation point, the Lightning, we in Washington are suddenly learning, aren’t in fact the ’76 Canadiens after all. They’re just a good hockey team, nothing more — and better than the Caps by leaps and bounds.

Alexander Ovechkin, the franchise savior, will turn 26 early next hockey season. Today, he seems far removed from his days as a 65-goal scorer. The league seems to have figured him out. Additionally, his leadership quotient seems notably deficient. Presumed key pieces surrounding him suddenly don’t seem daunting, or untouchable. And they are all under the guidance of a man who’s failed to advance past round two of the NHL postseason, when a host of his younger, less experienced colleagues have. But fannies still are filling the seats in Chinatown, so all is good. This is the State of Capitals Nation.

*Correction:* Comment above attributed to Mr. Leonsis — “There are 29 teams in the league that would trade positions with us right now” — was erroneously reported. His full comment in context should have read: “There are 29 teams in the league that would trade positions with us right now to have three young, very, very talented players, all affordable, all with their best days ahead of them and so I’m really happy with how well-stocked we are at the toughest position in the game.”

Indeed.

Maybe the Bruins ultimately make a series of it, maybe they don’t. But down 2-1 after 20 minutes last night, against the hottest team in the NHL postseason, and confronting the harrowing reality of dropping the series’ first two games on home ice against the Bolts, just as the Caps did two weeks ago, the Bs went Commando on Tampa in the second frame, scoring five times. Gut check. Series on.

The deeper we get into the 2011 postseason in Washington, which of course affords us additional context with which to compare the Capitals’ shortcomings, as more accomplished organizations play on, all the more that troubling questions related to team leadership arise. “Team leadership” here encompassing the captaincy, the coaching, and the management. I’m ok with the equipment guys.

Now it seems almost preposterous to ponder the preoccupation some in media articulated back last autumn: that by virtue of youth and inexperience in net, the Capitals could have their spring short-circuited. The Capitals didn’t lose prematurely early this spring, or last, or the spring previous to that, because of their goaltending. They did lose because they’d been out-worked, out-coached, and out-led every spring. They consistently confronted teams in possession of superior leadership. In an era of parity, that’s certainly a differentiating quality.

Conventional wisdom, as recent as perhaps just a few years ago, was that a team needed a star stopper between the pipes to get it done in spring. To be sure — and you need just ask Flyers’ fans — you can’t go Johnny Pedestrian in net. But there are probably 20-plus netminders around the league today more than adequate to the task of guiding a team through three or four postseason rounds, and one or more of them is likely already under contract in Washington.

But what does it matter if you’ve talent and poise in net if your hockey club has a deficit of leadership everywhere else?

• In the spring of 2009 virtually everyone in hockey recognized that warrior right wing Bill Guerin was a coveted commodity likely to be moved by the Islanders to a playoff-bound team serious about contending. The Capitals then had serious production deficiencies on the right side of their lineup, and they were a young playoff team. There was rampant media speculation, especially in Washington, that Guerin should have been a primary acquisition target for George McPhee. Instead, Guerin ended up in Pittsburgh. The Penguins of course beat the Capitals in seven games that spring. The Penguins of course went on to win the Cup that spring. Bill Guerin played a significant role for the Pens.

• Does it mean anything that Dan Bylsma came in from the American League and immediately enjoyed notable success in Pittsburgh, and does it mean anything that Guy Boucher came in from the American League and immediately enjoyed notable success in Tampa, while our American Leaguer behind the bench has spent the past four springs underwhelming us?

• Does it mean anything that literally 40 minutes into his Washington Capitals career Jason Arnott was so troubled by the culture he surveyed in his new room that he felt compelled to stand up and . . . lead?

• Those HBO ’24/7′ cameras were rightly lauded for taking us on the innermost inside of hockey last December, and when they captured the Capitals’ inner sanctum at the season’s most vexing moment, what was, for you, the leadership portrait offered? Were you, like me, more than mildly surprised that it was Mike Knuble standing up and blowing a gasket in the Boston visitor’s locker room? Perhaps more revealing moments of player reaction were left on the cable outlet’s cutting room floor, but I doubt it.

• Another curious ’24/7′ snapshot: The head coach and GM meet one morning at Kettler to post mortem the extraordinary losing streak, and the GM states that the team’s prolonged losing could actually be beneficial in the long run. I remember reacting in that moment: ‘WTF???’ Interesting that other managers don’t typically pursue that as strategy for long-term success.

• The GM also responded to critics, particularly in local media, who were appropriately questioning the team’s leadership in late December with the snide and derisive rejoinder that were such voices qualified to weigh in on hockey personnel they’d be employed in the game. The hirer of Bruce Cassidy probably ought to have brought greater humility to that moment.

My new media colleague and friend Ed Frankovic of Baltimore WNST, in his latest blog entry, ‘Caps Off-season Focus Should Be on Leadership,’ tackles terrifically the Capitals’ deficit of leadership: “There is no doubt some on the ice upgrades are necessary to improve [the Caps'] chances for success. But to me, what this organization seems to need more than anything, is an infusion of leadership. Simply put, they need to add personnel with Stanley Cup winning experience at the management level [emphasis OFB's] and on the ice. The role of those additions would be to help Ovechkin and many of the talented younger players on the team to understand the process of what it takes to capture a Stanley Cup, the hardest trophy to win in all of sports.”

I really admire what Frankovic next does in his narrative: he traces the leadership bona fides of previous Cup winners, noting that even the lavishly talented Edmonton Oilers clubs of the 1980s were laden with Cup-winning resumes from the ’70s. He then goes ’24/7′-inside the 1999 Cup-winning Dallas Stars team with former Stars executive Craig Button, now of the NHL Network. Lots of talent on that Stars team, but it was carefully acquired veteran leadership that ultimately allowed Dallas to break through a formidable Western conference and win the big prize.

“Washington has seen firsthand . . the impact of what a proven winner like Steve Yzerman can do to help turn around a struggling club,” Frankovic concludes. “With the Wings former #19 at the helm in Tampa Bay, the Bolts added some key people with leadership experience (i.e, defensemen Pavel Kubina and scout Pat Verbeek) and Yzerman was also able to get one of his existing star players, team captain Vincent Lecavalier, to elevate his game to a level he hadn’t really been at since the Lightning’s 2004 Stanley Cup victory. As a result, a team that relies on key young players Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman is still very much in the running for this year’s Stanley Cup just one year after finishing 41 points behind the Capitals in 2009-10.”

I was struck at the ferocity and domination with which Detroit skated in periods two and three last night in San Jose. Especially in the third, Detroit simply imposed its will against a terrific Sharks club, and did everything but tie up the game. San Jose triumphed principally because Joe Thornton, heretofore a postseason no-show in big games, skated the game of his life when his team needed it most.

Like every club in the NHL’s postseason, the Wings are battered brutally, and last night they lost Todd Bertuzzi and Dan Cleary to the medical ward as well. But it just didn’t seem to matter. To the Wings, injuries are an obstacle but never an excuse.

Detroit is an “old” hockey team, too, but did you see how energized and fleet of foot they looked when their season was on the line last night? And when you compare that with how our Capitals looked in every third period of the second round, what conclusion do you draw?

This week the Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg reminded us that the offseasons of sports are what we in sporting Washington do best. And so the headline-grabbing news relates to hockey coaches and GMs staying put, and the hoops team getting a nifty new look but not a badly needed name change. Again: it’s middle spring, and nothing of consequence is transpiring for D.C. sports. We are a horrible, horrible sports town, still, not because our residents lack passion or commitment as with those in great sports towns, but because of the rank incompetencies of the men who are the stewards of our teams.

The early hours of every hockey offseason in Washington are grotesque because they are always arrived at prematurely. But I am finding this offseason uniquely vexing, for it is forcing upon me a confrontation with a new and unpleasant consideration of our owner and his management team. Our owner, the executives surrounding him, his coach, they are all fine men, and quite competent at their jobs. They are better than average, I think. And because they are merely better than average they loom as exemplars among their local peers. But what concerns me this spring is that we’ve no evidence that Capitals management possesses what might be termed a Special Forces mindset for securing a coveted target.

And in the world we live in, I think, truly coveted targets require Special Ops.

The Detroit Red Wings strike me as a Special Forces operation within our sport. Notable obstacles are ever placed in their way — amid all the heightened talk of franchise relocation this season, we’re reminded that the Wings would very much like to move to the Eastern conference, to address their longstanding travel ardor. They are, annually, a road weary hockey club. It just never seems to matter. And given their now decades-long reign of success, they ever draft late in each round of each entry draft, after all the bluechip talent seemingly has been selected. It just never seems to matter. They lose a Scotty Bowman and replace him, after a brief dalliance with Dave Lewis, with a Mike Babcock. They just go Special Ops on the opposition as the occasion mandates. The San Jose Sharks defeated a special adversary last night.

What about our Washington Capitals would you identify as Special Ops rival to the Wings? Its Marketing? Its web ops? Anything?

A few years back, there was frenzy over allegations that the New England Patriots, another outfit deadly serious about winning, was engaging in illicit, outside-the-sanctioned mode of football operations: that they were cheating. I haven’t much interest in the NFL, but for some reason this week I thought back to that moment and that team. I don’t know that much came about those allegations against the Patriots, but today I find it interesting that it was the Patriots — and not say the Redskins — who were forced to defend themselves against such attack. I guess today still a lot of football fans outside of New England believe that something sinister and covert was executed by Bill Belichick.

The warfare-sports mix of metaphor needs to be executed, if at all, with limit and care. But this spring in Washington, with the stunning news of the remarkable mission of SEAL Team Six, I can’t help but wrestle a bit with the notion that when it comes to hockey in my hometown, we are badly in need of the equivalent of a SEAL Team Six running things, when at present, relative to a club like the Wings, we have McHale’s Navy.

I’m hardly alone in such thinking. Again I reference the recent post mortem of the Post’s Tom Boswell:

“[George] McPhee respects his players’ pain. His face darkens as he describes Mike Knuble playing with a shattered thumb that required four pins and pain-killing shots just so he could take the ice. He knows which man can’t open his own car door after a game, which may never play again and which could hardly get off the ice unaided after one game.

“Attuned to such sacrifice and 100-hour coaching weeks, McPhee transmits that appreciation to Leonsis, a man defined by loyalties. If you bleed for them, they find it mighty hard to slit your throat [emphasis OFB's]. And that’s wrong?

“In a sense, the Caps are trapped by their own culture of decency, self-regard and optimism. They want to give everybody a second, and sometimes a fourth chance, even the coach. They don’t want to act in haste and repent at leisure, even if it means soft players aren’t traded and get to repeat their spring failures. They don’t want to blow up what they’ve built because they believe in sound foundations. But the Caps also flatter themselves that what they have created is a notch better than it actually is.”

As it relates to the real serious news of this spring, of covert warfare and military unilateralism, I am intrigued by what’s followed the initial awe and celebration of our nation’s feat over its greatest foe. Just in the past few days, a segment of our culture, clearly flanked left on the political spectrum, is articulating something akin to buyer’s remorse: Did we really have to go hitman? For these thinkers, there seems something elementally and intrinsically indecent about such a world.

And they’re right. And it’s this harrowing indecency which requires Special Ops.

On a far less important scale triumph in pursuit of sports’ greatest prize — securing the coveted target — surely requires something akin to a Special Ops mindset. Tampa Bay under the guidance of Steve Yzerman, a good many in hockey today believe, is closer to executing that mindset than we in Washington with our team. Yzerman of course was bred in Detroit.

On an individual game basis, the scoreboard will suggest that this Caps-Bolts series was close and competitive. In reality, the Capitals were never in this series beyond the knotted up nature of late in game 1. Once Tampa Bay secured victory in overtime then, while spectacularly fatigued, and while the Capitals were not, the lasting psychological damage was inflicted.

Again.

Once again, Bruce Boudreau was no match for his NHL bench counterpart in spring. Many adjustments needed, none made. Guy Boucher was uniformly impressive in this series in every respect save one — his aptitude with metaphors. He called this a David versus Goliath matchup, but he had no notion who the actual David was. But he’s a young man and a rookie coach perhaps without access to the grainy footage of Capitals’ playoff history, and its uniformly grim outcomes.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this fantastic flameout in yet another spring was that the very premiere players who in all piety expressed resolve for righting the wrongs of previous springs again, with the exception of the captain, came up conspicuously small. The story of the Tampa Bay upset — upset sweep — was the character and determination and drive of the Lightning’s Top Three, fairly embarrassing their Washington star counterparts. As such, there must be not only a regime change in D.C. but a cultural reconstruction.

About a half dozen roster spots ought to be safe for 2011-12 — those of Ovechkin, Neuvirth, Carlson, Johansson, Alzner, Wideman.

The rest need to be rigorously re-evaluated. The rest are wholly marketable (to the extent that there are parties interested in discussing them).

But re-evaluated by whom?

Earlier this season I wrote about a country club culture enveloping this franchise — an aura of pampering and entitlement, of rampant, conspicuous Playboy-ism, and of premature, illusory achievement settling in. The owner didn’t much care for that characterization. When the winning once again became habitual in March, he reminded me of the file. I don’t expect to hear further challenge from him about this assessment this offseason.

Some seven years ago Capitals management embarked upon a rigorous roster rebuild. Beginning immediately, team management — which may be reconstructed itself — needs to reconstruct the entire culture of this franchise.

For it is a franchise of abject failure. Quick — when was the most recent instance you gathered your buddies to toast to the last four Southeast division championships?

Today this franchise is unworthy of its fanbase, which is one of the best in the league. The reconstruction must address this.

For going on 40 years, the Capitals have yet to achieve a durable, intimidating postseason identity. That identity, I submit, must cease being elusive, and achieving it must specifically guide the reconstruction I believe imperative in this moment. The surest way to forge such an identity is to select a coach the likes of which we’ve never before seen in D.C. A coach who will not accept 30- and 40-minute nightly efforts. A coach who will not turn a blind eye to his twentysomething charges making the last-call rounds in Georgetown in-season. A coach who knows no notion of “optional skates” in autumn, but rather, perhaps, in July. A coach with the gravitas and guts to stare straight into Ovi’s eyes in a month’s time and say, ‘Young man, return home if you must this summer, but for every photo of you I see on line in a Moscow discotheque this summer, we’ll skate in miles come September as a group.”

Call it a new creed if you will: Less clubbing, more running.

Or perhaps you thought the Capitals looked rather spry in the third periods this postseason — particularly against Tampa. These were the least impressively conditioned Capitals for third periods of a postseason I’d seen in my lifetime. They looked better conditioned in the compressed schedule of last season, with its Olympics participation. Imagine. A storyline suddenly emerged that Tampa Bay was exploiting the Capitals’ lack of speed. When did the Caps suddenly become a slow hockey team? The answer is, they didn’t.

They just looked that way.

By all accounts Bruce Boudreau was the proverbial “players’ coach.”

How has that worked out with this bunch?

The Toronto Globe & Mail’s Eric Duhatschek has long been one of my favorite writers in all of hockey. For decades his prose has delivered erudition, nuance, and general elite thoughtfulness. But yesterday Duhatschek penned what I regard as his least impressive column, ever: ‘Boudreau shouldn’t take the fall in Washington.’ He labeled talk in support of Gabby’s firing “absurd” and “patently unfair.”

“Boudreau’s record as the Capitals coach is extraordinary,” Duhatschek wrote. And he’s right, Gabby was great at winning here — October through March. During regular season play, Gabby’s gone 189-79-39. But there’s a dramatic counterpart to that regular season success, in the postseason. There Gabby’s won two of the six series he’s coached in, 17-20 overall, and you’d be hard-pressed to identify a single series in which the Caps were regarded as underdog. That’s not an inconsiderable body of underachieving work.

Duhatschek continues:

“What we have is a coach who develops kids, game plans well, and has his team alive in the second round of the playoffs when 22 other clubs have already gone home. People talk about the Capitals needing to take the next step – and they do and they will eventually. But it is not as if their window of opportunity is closing any time soon either, not with three young goalies in the system, four young defencemen in the lineup now and a superstar just approaching his prime years who is still one of the most fun players to watch in the game.”

“Game plans well”??? As with his contention of Gabby’s winning excellence, Duhatschek offers no contextual support for this claim. Indeed, in game 2 against Tampa, Gabby lamented how a “river hockey” approach overtook his club. In the absence of coherent and sustained game plans we saw the Capitals often pursue a highly individualized style of play, with the captain especially susceptible to it. By the bitter end, we saw a band of misled brothers wholly uncertain of what to do against Tampa Bay, how to counteract “character” game-breakers who rose to the occasion. By the bitter end, you didn’t sense that when all the chips were on the table, there was great resolve and great buy-in by these Caps for what their coach was preaching. They bore all the emotion and passion of exhibition play in September. Especially in this series’ third periods.

Duhatschek here bears an outsider’s sneering elitism in his column. I doubt he’s paid much for hockey tickets the past 25 years, but in Washington they are very expensive. And going up in cost for next season, apparently. Let Duhatschek try and lecture the federal government bureaucrat here straining to pay for his family’s admission at Verizon Center the past four springs, and see if that fella agrees that we’re still just going through requisite “growing pains” with our allegedly contending core of hockey stars.

Chicago and Pittsburgh in recent years seemed to perform at appreciably higher levels with their talented youngsters in spring.

The next coach of the Washington Capitals likely won’t attempt to make ploughhorses out of his roster’s thoroughbreds. “Free Ovi” ought to be the summer battlecry. But most especially, the men who wear the Washington crest beginning next season need to be led by a figure of unassailable street cred — preferably a warrior from the past who wore the crest himself.

My kingdom for a competent line change! A horrific line change ended game 2; game 3′s first power play, which produced an ever elusive goal for the Caps with the extra man, ended prematurely because of . . . a poor line change. Which of course washed out Mike Knuble’s goal.

Naturally, Bruce Boudreau, in his postgame reflections, focused on how Alexander Semin’s unsanctioned presence on the ice then didn’t really impact the play. Here’s a relevant area of inquiry, coach:  How is it that for a third consecutive game in this series your team didn’t show up for the third period?

How many poor line changes have you seen from Tampa in this series? This is a symptom, somewhat small but oh so telling, of why regime change must follow this series. The good ones get the little things right, the fundamentals of the game — always.

More than a few observers, including some inside the Capitals’ organization, weren’t comforted by what HBO cameras revealed of the Capitals’ head coach, especially relative to the portrait of the Penguins’ bench boss. That, too, is worth meditating on this rainy Washington Wednesday morning.

At OFB we change lines just fine. Our Young Guns reflect on another sour night in spring for the team in red:

Alex:

• I am as clueless as Mike Knuble, the rest of the Caps, and probably all of you as to how this ended the way it did. Weren’t the Caps supposed to be a composed and formidable defensive team? I thought, just as Joe B pointed out at the end of the second period, that this was probably the best 2011 playoff game the Capitals skated this season.

• It’s amazing what a gifted goal can do to a team’s spirits, as not only was Eric Fehr’s third period clearing attempt picked right off the boards but Scott Hannan lazily attempted a poke check instead of separating Steven Stamkos from the puck or getting his body in the way of the shot. Michal Neuvirth, despite brilliant play throughout the game, should have had that one; it just wasn’t a playoff goal. Three mistakes by three players in the span of about three seconds is not playoff hockey, and that play is why the Caps lost this game.

• Bounces? Yes, Tampa has had their fair share. But those bounces are created by hard work down low and strong board play, which in this blogger’s opinion has decisively been Tampa’s strongest asset, not the 1-3-1. The 1-3-1 is a preventative strategy in hockey — one variation of the trap — but it’s not a play to rely on all the time. When the Caps are in the offensive zone after hurdling the passive Tampa trap, they have to go to the corners, the boards, and behind the net, where they are simply ineffective. Tampa, meanwhile, has worked immaculately in the corners and quickly moves the puck towards the net.

• The Caps could lessen their perimeter play a lot more and send pucks on goal as soon as they get the puck below the circles. When a team is settling into their defensive formation on a given play, they are at their most vulnerable. The Caps seem to want to establish dominance in their zone and throw Tampa’s defense off balance. Their composure, however, has been the Caps’ undoing.

• Examine the Caps’ goals from last night, not counting the Ovechkin 5-on-3 PP goal. Carlson’s goal was scored by a rushing Jason Chimera, who beat the trap and rushed the puck down low and around the net. He saw a screen develop in front and fortunately flipped it out high to Carlson for the screened shot. Knuble’s goal was almost identical except Ovechkin, after beating Hedman wide, threw the puck on goal and a fortunate bounce leveled the score. All of Tampa’s goals except Stamkos’ were scored right around the blue paint from plays developing below the circles (St. Louis’ assist on Lecavalier’s goal, Thompson’s assist on Malone’s goal) and because of some very sloppy exits (Fehr on Stamkos’ goal, Erskine/Laich on Bergenheim’s goal).

• All that said, why aren’t the Capitals getting more pucks on net? They are simply getting outhustled and outworked in this series, particularly Semin and Backstrom, and particularly along the boards. These guys have yet to show up in the series and Semin is especially due for some positive streakiness against the club he torched in the regular season.

• On the topic of the regular season, Tampa was a minus goal differential the whole year until the last week or so of the season. I am baffled, as bewildered as Mike Knuble, by Tampa’s system working so effectively against Ovie & Co. Teams adapt and Boudreau should have only needed that Game 1 loss to solve Guy Boucher’s men. If DC doesn’t push this a la 2011 Chicago or 2010 Philly, there will be no hot saucy shirts to joke about come October. Maybe come the weekend.

Andrew

Excuses. They are what separate the championship caliber teams from the championship pretenders. Unfortunately for the Caps, they are in the second category.

The time has come for answers in Washington, not more questions. After their catastrophic Game 3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Head Coach Bruce Boudreau brought up that he thought a Tampa goal should have been disallowed. That is a hollow, vacuous excuse, and saying “we lost because they had a goal that shouldn’t have counted” is nothing more than saying we have no explanation for what happened. There are any number of answers that could have been given as to why the Caps are down 0-3. None of them have to do with one Lightning goal.

• When looking at the game as a whole, really the series as a whole, how does a team with the skill level of the Caps allow a line change to cost them Game 2 in overtime? Beyond that though, how do they then let a line change cost them a huge goal in the early going of the very next game?

• Expanding on these coaching points though: how does a team like the Caps, a team that has played the Lightning more than any other team in these playoffs, not look prepared coming into one of the most important playoff series in their history? Tampa Bay is certainly a good team, but they should be nowhere close to the Caps in terms of overall team strength. Tampa of course has an Elite Three if you will, just as Washington does. Is there any doubt who among St. Louis, Stamkos and Lecavalier versus Ovechkin, Backstrom and Semin is bringing more to their respective team in this series?

• Guy Boucher never seems satisfied, never seems content with the status-quo and always seems like he knows his team can do more. And you know what? I think his team likes that and respects that.

• In the first half of this series — of which there appears there will be no second half — Boucher has spoken in glowing terms of forward pairings he’s relied upon all season: Lecavalier and Purcell, St. Louis and Stamkos. What a novel concept — maintaining cohesion and chemistry among your line pairings.

• He has also spoken of the “great character” his core guys possess. Me = envious.

• The never-ending story of the last three springs has been that the Caps have underachieved. Well, from looking at what was said after Tuesday’s loss we can all see why. Instead of saying the team can play better and needs to perform up to their pay grade, Bruce Boudreau is talking about a goal that should have been waived off.

• Amazingly, with nearly a week off to prepare, the Capitals in this series have looked unprepared, from the get-go, not rested, not ready and just plain bad. Washington looks like a barely .500 team. Meanwhile the Lightning look like world beaters and have taken the mighty Capitals and made them the just a stepping stone to the Eastern Conference Finals.

• How did Tampa Bay get where they are this morning, you may ask? I’m not sure it’s the stuff of Special Ops secrets. Likely reasons: lots of hard work, dedication, cohesion, faith and trust in their systems, and certainly astute if precocious coaching.

• How did the Caps get to where they are down three in a series many picked them to win in five? Through deficient work ethic, a sense of entitlement rivaling that we saw against Montreal last spring, the core (excepting Ovechkin) coming up small, and a ridiculous lack of desperation, all things Bruce Boudreau has never seemed to work to fix. Now they are on the verge of the end of their season if they don’t win tonight, and the end of an era if they don’t win the series.

One last thought: today brings yet another optional practice for the Caps. It would be interesting to go back over say the past three seasons and inventory the number of days taken off by this team’s stars — especially with respect to optional skates — and compare the tally against stars from clubs who prosper is spring.

Ghosts? How else would you explain consecutive playoff games against a weary foe in which pucks deflect off of Capitals’ rearguards and behind their netminder and into the cage, playing pivotal roles in consecutive upsets? And as our friend JP notes, those are only the two most recent such self-inflicted wounds this postseason. That sh*t just doesn’t seem to happen to the Wings, does it?

We love our hockey players, they are wonderful talents, they are to man exemplary civic figures in our community, and in just about every respect they make us proud to be fans. But they’ve an ultimate obligation in their profession — to get it done when it counts. To date, they’ve failed in that obligation. Given their accumulated postseason experience wearing our sweater, it is fair, beginning this spring, to hold them to a heightened accountability.

Ted Leonsis is right in suggesting that postseason prosperity involves, to a degree, having Lady Luck smiling on your side. And the Tampa Bay Lightning are a worthy adversary. But in year six of the Era of Ovechkin, with so many key roster ingredients in place, and with the sting of last spring still fresh, with Sidney and Geno and the Pens already golfing, this hockey club simply can’t author again yet another underwhelming showing in the NHL postseason.

The ramifications are enormous. Washington aches for a sports winner, yes, but Washington hockey specifically has a competitive mandate. Alexander Ovechkin was a lottery winning, and he knows what his role here is: to change our hockey culture. He’s done that just fine October through March. He’s had help along the way the last six years, and the reddening-out of our town — the conspicuous affection thousands of Washingtonians shower upon Ovi and his sport today is extraordinary — but it’s not enough. Nowhere near enough.

The durability of Mr. Leonsis’ business model requires a postseason breakthrough as well. Just take a look at all the upper deck empties at FedEx Field the past couple of seasons. There’s a social contract between a sports organization and its fans. Great dates ultimately have to lead to a kiss. Or we go find another girl.

This hockey club has the requisite skill and experience to rise to the challenge. What we don’t yet know is if it has adequate leadership. It’s a point that’s been debated with some robustness for more than a year now: Did the Caps get it right in stitching the ‘C’ to Ovi’s sweater? Failure this week in Tampa will bring fresh and heated scrutiny to that question. 2010-11 has not been a year to remember for our captain; its premature conclusion would intensify the evidence against his leadership. And the late-season arrival of Jason Arnott only adds fuel to that fire.

This is a postseason tailor-made for Ovi to ascend, but to date, we don’t have that breakthrough performance suggestive that he’s ready to seize that moment and lead his club. Tonight is one such opportunity.

Behind the bench, there is the obvious subplot related to Bruce Boudreau. All seemed reasonably well for Gabby a week ago, but when his club was gifted a lengthy break with which to rest and repair, they came out of it unable to meet the underdog’s challenge. That story is growing old here. Boudreau’s beaten an under-manned John Tortorella set of Ranger clubs twice in the postseason over the course of four springs . . . and no one else. Losing to the rookie, Guy Boucher? At some point (potentially soon) Capitals’ fans are going to ask: where is our Bylsma, our Tortorella, our Babcock, our . . . Boucher?

The team’s power play futility is a flashpoint in this discussion of tactical leadership. Its cumulative results last postseason and this are beyond nightmarish and nauseating: four for sixty. That’s four goals . . . in 60 opportunities. Tampa would bank in 9 or 10 off our dmen with 60 extra man opportunities. The power play personnel is a mish-mash of a mess, their attack ethos uncertain. Confusion and hesitancy reign supreme. The team had all of last week to work on it and get it fixed. Instead, it’s regressed. The head coach has to get it fixed, pronto. The Capitals will either achieve a competent power play this series or they will lose it. Tampa took out the Pens by achieving a glaring special teams discrepancy.

We also don’t know if in Nicklas Backstrom the Capitals have an elite talent centering the no. 1 line who can get it done when it counts. Great in games one through four versus Montreal last April then AWOL thereafter. Through seven games this postseason Backstrom has tallied merely two assists and is skating a -1. He looks anything but elite and dynamic. His scoring drought adversely impacts the team in both 5-on-5 play and power play production. His linemate Ovechkin seemingly senses the slump his center is experiencing, because he’s carrying the puck an awful lot in transition and attempting to make plays by himself. The result is a highly individualized attack by the first unit, which plays perfectly into Tampa’s trap. It’s gotten so bad with Nick that Boudreau bumped up the rookie Johansson to no.1 pivot duties. That’s no recipe for durable contention this spring. No contending team can have its no. 1 pivot merely along for the ride.

Along with my blogger buddies Ed Frankovic and Ted Starkey I was seated in Giant Center late last spring when the Hershey Bears dropped the first two games of the Calder Cup finals to the Texas Stars. The next three games were in Austin, and all looked bleak for the Bears against the Texas trap. Even in game 3 the Bears fell behind 3-1 after 20 minutes. But that Bears team had a warrior leader in Bryan Helmer, among others, and they banded together behind their coach who preached patience with the puck. Michal Neuvirth was in net for the entirety of that series, incidentally, and a fair number of those Calder winning Bears of course are wearing red this spring.

Late Sunday night, addressing the media, Alexander Ovechkin said that his team was traveling to Florida on Monday on a mission to win two hockey games. They really need to. The Capitals this spring need to find their Bryan Helmer. Here’s hoping he’s Russian.

“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.

Andrew: Let’s get right to the point: only the Washington Capitals have the ability to make this a short series. The Tampa Bay Lightning were just in a long seven-game series with the Pittsburgh Penguins and are going to be fatigued, you have to believe, while the Caps have been able to rest. Not only that, but the Caps have more overall talent than the Lightning.

Lis: The regular season games between these two teams were thoroughly unpredictable– blowouts, shutouts, shootouts, overtime wins. And loads of Good Sasha! I completely agree with Andrew that this is the Caps’ series to lose, but I hope they stay aware of the fact that Tampa’s last opponent blew a 3-1 advantage. Ahem.

Andrew: Dwayne Roloson, the ageless wonder, is going to be the key component of this series, I think. Despite being over 40, he has shown he can compete with the NHL’s best and actually help his team win. If Tampa Bay were to upset the Caps, Steve Yzerman’s acquisition of him could be the best trade of the entire year. In one game he stopped over 60 shots agains the Pens, and that is definitely tiring on a goalie. It’d be tiring on a kid like me. The Caps will have to generate a heavy shot total this series in order to beat Roloson — the ‘Bolts are going to block a good many to begin with. They may not beat him right out all that often, but if they can tire him out, Washington’s chances increase dramatically. And generating a heavy volume of shots and being patient could prove the difference, because it’s Washington that possesses offensive depth in this series.

Lis: It’s ironic — despite all the glamor of an Ovechkin/Stamkos matchup, it’s goalies Dwayne Roloson and Michael Neuvirth that lead the NHL playoff statistics in goals against average and save percentage (you won’t find Ovi or Stamkos among the NHL leaders in offensive categories). The Capitals have a cushion as far as backup goalies go, unlike the Lightning. Both netminders bring stellar stats into this series, but the first-round opponents for both clubs, I think, left a lot to be desired in their respective attacks.

Andrew: Tactically, the Caps are going to have to keep several things in mind. First off, they cannot leave Steven Stamkos alone, unaccounted for. The last few years Washington’s defense has had a bad habit of letting Stamkos walk in the slot and have some great chances. But of course this is a much different-looking Capitals’ blueline relative to say just a year ago. While he may not have had a stellar series against the Penguins, Stamkos has the ability to score every time the puck touches his stick. Last series, the Caps never really got their big role players going in terms of offensive production. Getting them going will be key. It is more than just a few good shifts here and there, too; the team will have to get something approaching consistent production from its top forward units, cause you know that Tampa’s going to get production from theirs. Being able to roll four lines gives the Caps the ability to rest their top two threesomes throughout the game to get better production from them in crunch time. Not only that, but two or three scoring lines will make for very long nights for Dwayne Roloson.

Lis: Speaking of Matt Bradley, he has the second-most fights in his career against Tampa. And Matt Hendricks has dropped the gloves against Steve Downie. It’ll also be interesting to see how Alexander Semin does in this series. He seems to score goals against Tampa as easily as Angelina Jolie attracts men (though his two hat tricks against Tampa this season were not with Roloson in net).

It’s simultaneously exciting and a potential curse: everybody’s picking the Caps to win this series versus Tampa.

But there’s a reality this spring that can’t be ignored: Two teams among 16 this postseason distinguished themselves for the efficiency with which they plowed through the first round — Detroit and Washington. It’s interesting that the Caps are being heralded as prime Cup finalist contender while the Coyote-mauling Wings are, comparatively speaking, an afterthought. That may have something to do with this: Detroit must navigate San Jose and likely Vancouver to emerge from out West. Have fun with that.

And Vancouver, our reigning President’s trophy winner . . . has had its sails clipped a bit by virtue of surviving a serious first-round scare with the Hawks, coughing up a 3-0 lead in the process. Someone between Philly and Boston is required to take stand as obstacle in the Eastern conference finals. Neither will cause Bruce Boudreau to lose sleep. More than a few observers believed that the Rangers potentially offered the Caps their most difficult challenge in the Eastern conference.

Two weeks ago, Michal Neuvirth was something of a question mark, if only by virtue of his age and NHL postseason inexperience. Today, do you think the Flyers might like to have him in place of their three-headed monster of ineptitude between the pipes? (Or might not the Canucks for that matter?) He’s competed in 15 professional hockey postseason series and won all 15. Nifty, no? And if for some reason Neuvirth suddenly becomes average, look what’s positioned immediately behind him as stand-by, quality depth. To scan the forecasts of the second round in the East is to see consensus that the Caps prevail over Tampa in either 5 or 6 games. All such forecasters presumably are steeped in the grotesque Capitals’ postseason shortcomings of the past, but among them there seems a recognition that this spring is different. And that’s telling.

No one seriously posits that any GM had a better late February than George McPhee. Marco Sturm has been a good fit; Jason Arnott an all-time good fit. In this second round versus Tampa, the Capitals are likely to see the returned services of Dennis Wideman. What if he looks 75 percent as good as he did at the time of his injury? Then this happens: some defenseman who’s played well for the Caps this spring will be required to sit. A player the caliber of Scott Hannan could be in the Capitals’ third defensive pairing. Exactly when did that last happen with a Capitals’ blueline in the warm weather months?

On the face of things, the Capitals and Lightning were separated by just four points in the Southeast this season and therefore ought to engage in a lengthy and highly outcome-uncertain Eastern semifinal series. I’m not so sure. Leave in place all of the notable and prolonged injuries the Capitals endured during the regular season, but grant them this back in autumn: the roster additions they made at the trade deadline. And give the ‘Bolts Dwayne Roloson all season as well. This is a fair point to raise because after all theses are the rosters the Capitals and Lightning are competing with beginning tonight. Add Wideman to the blueline and eliminate the five months of second line center by committee carousel the Caps perpetrated — Jason Arnott centering Alex Semin all season long. The verdict I come up with is a solid double-digit division triumph for the Caps. Again.

This opponent, however, is not one to be taken lightly. Steven Stamkos is a game-breaking talent — if playoff unproven. Martin St. Louis is aging like fine wine. Roloson is proving to be the reliable backstop Steve Yzerman dreamed of.

The ‘Bolts’ blueline is big but lumbering — the Capitals can exploit that unit if they gain puck possession with numbers beyond the trapping Tampa forwards in the neutral zone. But these burly blueliners also block a lot of shots (Eric Brewer had 27 in round one; Mattias Ohlund and Victor Hedman will well clog life in front of Roloson as well). The Capitals made a commitment to blocking a lot of shots against a shot-blocking Rangers club in their opening round. That needs to continue.

Tampa can’t match the Caps in offensive depth, but they’ve a bevy of wonderful role players up front. No forward impressed me as much as Nate Thompson against Pittsburgh. Gifted skater, courage coming out of his ears — he reminds me of Brooks Laich a bit. Ryan Malone, too, is a gamer, and Sean Bergenheim is highly versatile and effective in all areas of the ice. And somewhat quietly, Simon Gagne picked up 7 points versus the Pens. Neither Gagne nor Vincent Lecavalier possess their game-breaking great status of five years ago, but they’re both grizzled playoff veterans who’ll help in key situations.

It’s likely we’ll see a lot of New Time ugly hockey in this series. The Caps are a defensive minded club these days; Tampa will try to score a game’s first goal and make a mess of the neutral zone thereafter. Bruce Boudreau seemed amused by Tampa’s 1-3-1 setup at times during the regular season. It will be interesting to see how he attacks it this spring (having Dennis Wideman back soon would help).

Series keys:

• There’s a bit of a Mendoza line for the Capitals when it comes to penalties in this series, I think, and I peg it at the number 4. Four or fewer power plays for Tampa each game and the Caps’ magnificent PK group ought to be ok. But beyond that, the Caps flirt with serious danger. The brilliance of the Tampa power play — it’s operating at 29 percent effectiveness this postseason — is a potential series-changer. The Caps need to be a disciplined club in this series especially.

• Get shots through to Roloson, and get on the board early against him. A heavy workload is an excellent strategy against a forty-something goaltender who saw a heavy workload down the stretch of the regular season and seven games in the opening round.

• Be patient against Tampa’s 1-3-1. Seams for stretch passes in it can be found — and the Caps often found them well in regular season matchups with Tampa.

• Get the puck on Alex Semin’s stick in this series as often as possible, in time and space, preferably. In four regular season games against the ‘Bolts Sasha was very good: 7 goals and 2 assists.

Caps in 6.