I’m not armed with data that allow for a comparison of Washington sports teams though the decades who’ve performed miraculous rises from last-place ashes to first-place perches, as this hockey club has in the past 11 weeks. I’m not sure I need it, though. What the Caps have accomplished just since November 23 is nothing short of miraculous and may qualify as ranking with the most impressive — and most unlikely — resurrections in Washington pro sports history.
At Thanksgiving, the Caps were 30th in the league. This morning, they’re third in the East. That isn’t quite leap-frogging over 25 teams. It just feels like it.
It feels like it because of the manner in which this team’s surge has shaken the league’s standings. They’re the Comeback Kids. Ten times they’ve trailed in games and come back to win. Ten times, with nine of them in just Bruce Boudreau’s first 33 games as head coach. They’re also Giant Killers: the swept Senators want no part of the Caps in the postseason — nor might anyone else in the East, of any playoff seed, for that matter. They’re dedicated puck-pressurers and goals-in-bunches lamp lighters. They have star power and heart-and-soul short-shifters who think nothing of throwing their bodies in harm’s way, every shift.
Heck, they even win shootouts now!
What’s perhaps most exciting and rewarding about this run is that it’s been accomplished without any significant personnel manuevering from management. Brian Sutherby was traded in late November, right before Glen Hanlon’s dismissal. Bruce Boudreau was promoted. That’s it as far as notable changes go. No blockbuster deal sweeping out sectors of the early season’s sourness. Just a new maestro and a new MoJo. What we’ve witnessed since Thanksgiving has been a highly organic maturation of, and determination within, a roster that management has carefully assembled over some years. And it’s highly likely that the overall product is going to improve further.
This hockey team is remarkably resilient, too. They’ll will lose one game and get right back to winning the next. Then they’ll bundle a couple of Ws together. That’s how they’ve passed four teams in the Southeast with stunning swiftness. Imagine what they might do this spring with a healthy Chris Clark and Brian Pothier in the lineup.
Maybe this is more impressive: think about the number of instances in which the Caps have been genuinely outplayed by an opponent since Boudreau took over. There was Montreal on the road immediately after the All Star break. And when else? Thirty three games and one thorough stinker among them.
This ain’t bad, either: the Caps are now finished for the season against perhaps the East’s three best teams, Philly, Ottawa, and Montreal. Their record in those 12 games? 8-4.
There was a brief moment Tuesday night in Columbus — now known as McCreary’s Mischief — when the battle-scarred Caps’ chronicler in me reverted to a pessimistic fatalism of previous seasons. It was that sort of bizarre event that seemed so . . . Capitals-esque. But my composure returned, I kept watching, and rather rationally I think I adopted a muted expectation that all was not lost, that this Capitals’ team was different. And so why wouldn’t Tom Poti pick that moment to score his first goal of the season, and of course you know who not long afterward send the home crowd out into the Ohio night dejected from sudden death defeat.
It’s interesting to note that in 1983-84, a 101-pt. Capitals’ club — the very first 100-pt. Caps’ club — had three of its members earn heavy hardware. Bryan Murray won the Jack Adams, Rod Langway garnered his first Norris Trophy, and Doug Jarvis won the Selke. That’s the only time the Caps have won three of the league’s prestigious awards from the same season. That was a summer of awards that portended a period of distinct prosperity — the club’s first. This Capitals’ club won’t earn 100 points this season, although it might arrive at 95. Who might you think are frontrunners for the Hart, Adams, and Calder trophies at this moment?
Washington Capitals coach Glen Hanlon was a guest on The Power Play with Jim Tatti and Gary Green (on XM 204). In the five-minute interview Hanlon discusses key injuries, the effect those injuries have had on line combinations and goal scoring, Alex Ovechkin’s defensive improvements, and other tidbits. Check out the audio 
NHL Home Ice - XM 204 proudly presents Hockey Confidential with Washington Capitals goaltender Olaf Kolzig. Join Hockey This Morning host Scott Laughlin as he goes post to post with Olie the Goalie, in front of our live Hockey Confidential studio audience. This is an hour of honest insight from one of the NHL’s greatest ambassadors, a true star of the game, and a tireless worker for Athletes For Autism.
In its postgame studio coverage last night, the hockey talking heads on Versus posed the question, ‘Which coach is on the hottest of hot seats?’ Ron Wilson (his team with a winning record) and John Tortorella were ID’d. So was Glen Hanlon.
As a brand-new DirecTV subscriber, I was thrilled to see the NHL Network in the lineup (well, that and 
It’s a day of rest not only for Washington Capitals’ players and coaches — well, the players at least — but for the team’s frenzied communications staff as well. Being out at Kettler as much as I have been the past 10 days, I gained a deep appreciation for the commitment of Nate Ewell, Julie Petri, Paul Rovnak, and Mike Vogel, among others. Their days during camp begin early and end late, and at this time of year they’re not only facilitating one of the heavier media flows following camp in years but also putting together the in-season communications products, such as the Media Guide. It’s forecast to be a stunning late September Sunday today, and I hope they’re all out having fun in the fun and recharging their batteries.
Not so long ago, the Capitals were in the heat of a playoff run. As February brought a deep freeze to the Washington area, so it also seems to have deep-sixed the Capitals’ playoff hopes. Doom and gloom has set in among a number of the Caps’ faithful . . . but all is not lost.
