Yesterday a loud chorus of concern arose all about digital D.C. and on talk radio, related to the standing of the Caps as we approach the All Star Game break. It’s well-placed, well-pitched concern, I say.

No longer can spectacularly underwhelming showings like those in Florida this week be written off as exhibitions of a meaningless autumn; post January 1, NHL games take on increased importance, as the league’s trade deadline (February 28) looms and managers must determine whether they are buyers or sellers, and what pieces must be added or subtracted for postseason contention. The Capitals these days are making a compelling case for George McPhee to be a buyer this trade deadline season. And perhaps in bulk.

I stunned my new media colleagues up in the press box early on in the season when I confided in them: ‘I don’t like this team.’ Without even an audition a player (Tomas Fleischmann) whose performance last spring was ghastly was awarded second-line center duty. Today Flash is a member of the Colorado Avalanche, and thriving — on the wing, his natural position. Similarly, there was work to be done on the blueline this past offseason, but there, too, George McPhee deferred. Meanwhile, his GM colleagues all about the East (especially in Pittsburgh and the Southeast) loaded up for bear.

If we were to draft Articles of Impeachment against the Caps near the midway mark of this season, the evidence would be compelling.

DNS is my shorthand for “Did Not Show.” I haven’t had much occasion to use it for a Capitals team since Jaromir Jagr left town. But I am using it this season, and the frequency with which it’s fairly applied is what is perhaps most troubling to me about this team. My list:

• 11/19 ATL (0-5)

• 11/22 NJ (0-5)

• 12/9 FLA (0-3)

• 12/12 NYR (0-7)

• 1/12 TAMPA (0-3)

There isn’t a juggernaut among that list, either. Six shutouts already for a team bearing (ostensibly) four or five high-scoring stars? And that’s not merely five super lousy efforts listed above; (there have been those as well); that’s five outings halfway through the season for which the team arrived at puckdrop lifeless, indifferent to the game’s developments as it progressed, and remained that way for the full 60 minutes. These were betrayals of the crest. Impeachment-inaugurating instances of infamy.

In the case of the Caps and the Southeast division this season, shockingly, the three-time defending champions may well be underdogs to win it. Last season the Caps won the Southeast by nearly 40 points, and largely through attrition and promotion, were believed to have strengthened their roster in the offseason. Wednesday night in Tampa first place in the Southeast was at stake. The hosts had shut out the Caps in D.C. the previous week. As “big games” in winter go, this was a big one. Not only didn’t the Caps score again against Tampa, they didn’t show up for the showdown.

Again.

This fanbase is showing up alright — in hordes, over great travel. You notice the Red-out behind the team bench every night on the road. The least this club can do is show up.

I’d be the first in town to suggest that the NHL’s regular season is meaning-deficient, and I fairly led a chorus that noted back in fall that this regular season especially was going to be meaning-challenged for this club. But there’s a difference between skating inconsistently, picking your spots for inspired play, out of a deficit of motivation, and not showing up for games at all.

A team hopeful of contending in the NHL postseason generally needs at least two solidly productive forward lines. These Caps don’t have one. Across the board of the skilled forward corps there is conspicuous under-achievement.

The young goaltending was thought by some to be a potential Achilles heel heading into the season. Not so; the dynamic duo of Neuvirth and Varlamov is blameless for this mess.

The defense is improved, as Scott Hannan has helped forge an effective first pairing on the blueline. John Carlson and Karl Alzner have exhibited conspicuously few growing pains, and on more than a few nights in the season’s first half have been the best blueliners in red. Jeff Schultz, no longer overmatched in matchups up top, has struggled still at times (hello -3 Wednesday); that +50 of a season ago was certainly a mirage. Tom Poti swiftly has become brittle. (He’s back on the shelf again.) Both members of that third pairing have new, multi-year contracts. Not cheap ones, either. It’s more than $5 million in third-pairing partners the next couple of seasons. Question for the GM: What exactly was the urgency to get Poti re-upped so early in autumn?

Increasingly we are encountering inventive excuses for the Capitals’ disturbingly deficient play this season. Carolina Hurricanes’ General Manager Jim Rutherford recently suggested with a straight face that Alexander Ovechkin is playing possum. Our owner this week suggested that his players are “subconsciously pacing themselves.”

Maybe there’s another excuse: Maybe there was work to be done this past offseason, it didn’t get done, and now the team is trying to alter on the fly. High crime, that.

Also: Where is the leadership?

On the front of aesthetics, there is yet more damning evidence. The Capitals achieved Golden Team status — and Winter Classic invitation — on the basis of brandishing a beautiful, fanbase growing brand of razzle-dazzle, one which showcased a new generation of hip Young Gun talent. It was a style the league understandably wanted to grow the sport upon. Well, that’s been abandoned. Today in its place is the trap. Caps’ games these days are close to unwatchable, even in barely-eeked-out victory.

Stylistically, the Caps are the Nats in skates. Or maybe that’s giving them too much credit; the Nats at least have an identity (dull). The Caps are experiencing an identity crisis.

And what of the Red Army’s rightful expectation of patronizing a regular season of achievement and distinction? This hockey club wasn’t marketed on a season-long experiment of blight and confusion and identity crisis. Things didn’t work out in 2009-10, but there was the franchise-best 14-game winning streak of January and February, and sweeping the Pens. What is there about this season to date to hang a touque on? January 1 — won with the aid of a monsoon — and little else. Isn’t part of following a full-fledged contender enjoying the journey from autumn through spring? The Capitals this season are affording their fanbase precious little to relish and savor.

Once upon a time not long ago we watched a Red Force unleash its fury. Theirs was the hot ticket in town. A city fell in love with the spectacle. Faces for game nights were painted red.

Today faces are reddening with anger.

• It became evident to me through the middle of the second period that the Caps are a little tired of playing on the road. While they have had time in between matchups, the team has played seven of their last nine games on the road and only two at home all month. Road weary, perhaps, as opposed to physically weary.

• Fatigue is something all teams must deal with, but it is how a team deals with the fatigue that determines whether or not they are championship caliber. Washington was able to power through the game and have a real shot at earning at least a point at the end, but their play on defense was where you saw them struggle. You saw several odd man rushes for Vancouver and one of the Canucks’ goals got an assist from Jeff Shultz’ foot. Maybe just really bad luck, maybe a bit of mental fatigue. The team certainly looked dog tired at the end of the game and one can only imagine what they will look like Saturday playing their second game in two nights.

• The power play was the real culprit Friday night. Going 0-4 with the extra man is almost unheard of with this high-powered offense. The team’s tired feet manifested itself most conspicuously on the final PP, when a helpless Nicklas Backstrom had no teammate skating to open space in the Canucks’ end. They began to have problems holding on to the puck in the offensive zone and moving it out of the defensive zone.

• There were some flashes of productivity last night, but that often came from a hard nosed style of hockey. Over the last two years you have heard Head Coach Bruce Boudreau stress how cutesy plays will not translate into goals and wins. I can imagine he will stress that again after the Caps turned the puck over on the power play and allowed Vancouver to have nine takeaways.

• All was not bad for Washington, though, as Alexander Semin*, Chris Clark and David Steckel all had quality games, I thought. Clark was a real gamer — again! Semin’s praise may have to have an asterisks on it since he often found himself trying to make a fancy play, but it was his screaming wrister that put the Caps on the board in the first. He wasn’t so effective thereafter, but he clearly gave Washington its best scoring opportunities.

• Steckel has looked re-energized since he scored his first goal a few games back. He had quality shots and took advantages of the chances he had, something several players failed to do. What is most important is that he played with confidence and looked like the Stecks we saw in the playoffs last year.

• Jose Theodore? You can’t hang this setback on him, I don’t think. He wasn’t tested all that much — a credit to the Caps’ team D, I thought — and there were instances when I thought he showed strong rebound control.

• Tom Poti? Well . . . it was an indisputable cross-check deep in the final frame, and he compounded his mental lapse with some mouthing off that added to the Caps’ PK challenge. Really it should have been a night that produced a point for the Caps, but you can’t have a reliable vet making those kind of mental mistakes in crunch time.

• Finally, we have the fearless leader Clark. He showed that he had some wheels tonight, beating out defenders for the puck and even had a goal off of two blocked shots. I have discussed him before, but his play denotes mentioning again as it was superb. A healthy Chris Clark is a serious asset for the Caps.

• This loss is a cautionary tale of what happens when a team doesn’t grind it out. Sure, they hung strong for about two periods, but Vancouver clearly pulled away in the third. It wasn’t Ovi’s most complete or inspired effort. He can’t be a game-breaker every night, but he was a disappointing -1 with three missed shots. Roberto Luongo stops most of the rubber that finds its way on net, so helping him out by blasting pucks high and wide is a prescription for defeat.

• With only one more West Coast game to go before they return home — will they be able to return home ??? –  Washington needs to focus on just doing the little things. Their legs may feel like rubber by the second period Saturday night, but if they keep those feet moving and just play fundamental hockey they should be able to escape with at least one point.

• Now is a sort of defining moment for the Capitals. Adversity is what defines a team and how they get through can shape a season. While it is only December, this is no time to fall into a mini-slide. A win tonight could be enough to power this tired band of hockey brothers through the holidays and high up in the overall standings through the Olympic break.

Here are some trends, stats, and pros and cons for each position:

Goalies

Washington has alternated goalies very regularly throughout the season, but I would argue that if Theodore did not sustain a back injury, he would have played in more than just nine games. He has been the better goalie, but the Capitals seem to play better – and more importantly – get wins in front of 21-year old Semyon Varlamov. Theodore’s play was outstanding during a four-game losing streak, except for two shaky goals to the Rangers’ Marian Gaborik. During that streak, Theodore took the loss for Varlamov against the Flyers, after the Russian had been shelled four times.

The young Russian goalie has a 5-1-0 record, yet has been mediocre in the seven games he has started. He owns a 3.18 GAA and sub-.900 save percentage. The trend here is the Capitals don’t play more defensively when playing in front of Varlamov; they just score more goals and allow more goals. Varlamov has played in three games – two against Atlanta and one against Toronto – in which the Caps had jumped out to huge first-period leads only to allow the opponent to make a quick comeback. Come playoff time, a 3.00 GAA is not going to cut it against the likes of the Penguins and Flyers. While Theo’s stats are not much more spectacular than Varly’s, he’s been the better of the pair.

Defense

The league-leader in defensive scoring isn’t Mike Green, but instead comes from the second-worst team in the league. Thomas Kaberle leads the league’s D-men with 18-points in 14 games. Number 52 does have a respectable 13 points in his 16 games played, but his two-goal season thus far is modest. Now he’s banged up a bit. ESPN projects him to total 11 goals and 71 points this season — which is all well and good — but his $5.25 million paycheck invites expectations approaching 25 goals a season. In his own end, Green remains a work in progress. He’s been noticeably absent physically as well.

Other defensemen have picked up the slack to support the team. In the first part of the season, the defense is better than it was last year. It is virtually the same corps as last year, plus Tyler Sloan, who had a two-game goal scoring streak.  One more year of experience and playing together has helped the Caps tremendously. Tom Poti has been solid. Offensively, it’s nice to see Brian Pothier contributing for the regular D-men — he might be playing the best hockey of his life these days. I suspect he’ll be the go-to-guy on defense while Green’s lost to injury.

However, there’s tons of space for improvement on that end. Jeff Schultz and Milan Jurcina are the biggest guys on the team, but it amazes me how often they get beat to the puck, even when they’re in an advantageous position. Schultz seems scared to use his body and Jurcina often gets beat because his stick isn’t on the ice when he goes to the corners to clear the puck.  It’s nice to see a healthy John Erskine in the line-up again.

Offense

What is up with Semin?

As of last night, approximately $15 million worth of offensive cap space has vacated the roster through injury, but the slick Russian hasn’t made an impact on a game yet. Check that, a positive impact. He had two secondary assists on Sunday against Columbus in Ovi’s absence, but his last worthwhile contribution was October 27 at home versus Philly in which he scored the game-winning goal with a sick wrister to the roof. This is Semin’s contract year, and his opportunity to make his next contract as valuable as possible. Read Andrew Tomlinson’s piece titled Stand-in Savior for more on Semin.

Alexander Ovechkin had six two-goal games and one one-goal game through the first 12 games of the season, meaning he scored in seven of those 12 — perfectly respectable for the league’s best player. He’s been an impact player in just about every game, and the Caps are hopeful of having him back in the lineup as early as this week.

Enter Mathieu Perreault. I’ve been a big fan of this guy since he was a Junior player when the Caps drafted him in 2006. The Quebecer put up monster numbers for Acadie-Bathurst in the Q and despite playing fourth line minutes in Hershey, he still put up 50 points in 2008-09. In the three games he’s played, he’s been an impact player despite his diminutive size, shaking off hits and physical play to keep possession of the puck. He assisted twice in his first game against the Devils and scored the first goal of his NHL career against Florida last night. He might not be returning to Hershey as soon as either the Caps or Bears imagined a week ago.

Speaking of AHLers, I was watching the New Jersey broadcast of Wednesday’s game when Mike “Doc” Emrick noted that Alexandre Giroux is a 28-year old 60-plus goal scorer in the AHL. The commentator said, “You’d think some team would have picked up on his skill and put him in the NHL.” I completely agree. I don’t think Eric Fehr or even Tomas Fleischmann have got the offensive upside of Giroux, though they may have more NHL career potential. If Boudreau wanted three scoring lines he’d perhaps consider rolling out Fleischmann, Perreault, and Giroux on the third line.

Wrap-Up

The Caps are tied for fewest regulation losses in the NHL with three. Buffalo, Colorado and Dallas are the others. They have collected points in 14 of their 17 games.

Some key questions ahead: Will Tomas Fleischmann show he is a reliable, top-six talent? Will  Mathieu Perreault show he can stay in the big league this season? How will Eric Fehr contribute? What do we think of Alexander Semin’s play — most particularly in the past week — in this the most important year of his NHL career to date?

We may well have the answers to these questions by the midway point of the season.

• “There was too much pressure for Varlamov to start in New York, so I wanted to see him in game 2, and see how he does.  We had a lot of faith in him at that point.”
• Is there a lot of pressure on Varlamov?  “He’s so quiet, I don’t know if it’s affecting him; he has a good poker face, seems very calm.  Quite frankly, I haven’t talked to him. But our goalie coach talked to him and says he’s OK.”
• What has Chris Clark’s impact been on the team?  “He was completely positive despite being out of the lineup for most of two years.  He really stayed involved with the team.  I didn’t know what he was going to bring to the last game, but I thought he played a really good game.  Nobody works as hard as Chris to stay in game shape.  The guys as a whole were really pleased to see him back.  He was the perfect influx of energy for game 7.”
• “Our goal isn’t to win the first round; our goal is to win all the rounds.  We have to play a lot better if we’re going to win.”
• “We didn’t play the New York Islanders, we played the New York Rangers, one of the top defensive teams in the league.  You don’t expect guys to average a lot of points per game.  That was the best 7-game stretch we had since I’ve been here; we did everything right except score points.”
• Regarding Mike Green’s efforts in the first round:  “I don’t expect him to score every game.  He was great.  If Chris Pronger had done that, they would have lauded him as the MVP of the series.”
• How were you able to coach, with Game 5 being so loud?  “Instruction is pretty difficult, other than screaming at them.  For line changes, you gotta tap them and make sure they’re looking at you, and the other coaches repeat what I’m saying because it’s so hard to hear.”
• What about Tom Poti?  “He’s the one defenseman who has a lot of experience.  He’s played in a lot of tough buildings.  He’s stepped up his game tremendously in the playoffs as we knew he could; he’s playing up to the potential I thought he’d be playing at the whole year.”