Ovechkin was selected by Head Coach Bruce Boudreau and GMGM as the 14th captain in team history. He is the second youngest Cap to ever have the honor, with the only one younger being Ryan Walter who was 21. Along with being the second youngest in franchise history he is also only the sixth Russian born player to have the honor and one of only two active Russian captains.

“He sets the tone, on the ice as well as off,” McPhee said. “He’s respectful to everyone and a great ambassador for our team and our sport. We look forward to him leading the Washington Capitals for a long time.”

Several other former Captains and other Caps greats have endorsed his selection. Former captains Dale Hunter, Jeff Halpern and Yvon Labre all said nothing but positive things about Ovie and his leadership. A common theme was his energy on and off the ice and his desire to put the team before himself.

The captaincy was left vacant when former captain Chris Clark and defenseman Milan Jurcina were traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets for winger Jason Chimera. After the trade both GMGM and Boudreau both said they were going to take their time to name a captain and make sure they did it correctly. Both stated that they wanted to honor captains of the past and name someone that was truly worthy.

The trade of Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina to Columbus caught the players — even those involved in the trade — by surprise, and the team was out of sync when the puck dropped against the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Caps clearly have excellent chemistry in the locker room; there’s a palpable sense of camaraderie, and many socialize on their off days as well. On the ice the connection is even more apparent, as players often seem to sense passing and shooting lanes before said lanes even open.

Of course, things went awry during the Caps’ 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes. Some will point to the Caps’ past few games of dominating good teams (New Jersey, Buffalo) and think the team underestimated Carolina . . . perhaps understandable given Carolina’s road record, but still a patently dangerous move. Others may blame Jose Theodore for giving up far too many juicy rebounds, or the team taking ill-advised penalties and digging a hole early.

And while all the above factors contributed to the loss, it is the departure of Jurcina and Clark just hours before the game that likely had the biggest impact. Losing a popular young d-man and the team’s captain are just as likely to disrupt that delicate alchemical balance as team-building is to strengthen it.

Now in short order the Capitals will coalesce again. They’re professionals, with jobs they love; a majority of the team remains intact, and they will welcome Jason Chimera to the fold. But when a team so clearly reaps the benefits of good chemistry on most days, one should not be surprised when disrupting the mix has a negative impact mere hours after the change.

• “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.”