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(courtesy of Reuters Pictures)

It’s official, the Washington Capitals are trendy.

The bar has been set so low for the Redskins, Wizards and Nationals these days that local fans are happy if they finish a season with a .500 record. So naturally, with the Capitals playing some of their best hockey in franchise history, people have gravitated towards them. After all, everyone loves a winner.

While longtime Caps fans are glad to slide over and make room on the bandwagon, we thought it would be helpful for the newbies to get a quick refresher course on how the Capitals got here. You see, this didn’t happen by accident.

The dynamic duo of owner Ted Leonsis and general manager George McPhee got together a couple years ago and consciously made a decision to take a veteran Caps team that was good enough to make the playoffs, but not do anything once they got there, and blow it up. Simply achieving mediocrity wasn’t acceptable. (You hear that Redskins?) They didn’t drop confetti and throw a party just for making the playoffs and getting bounced in round one. (Wizards anyone?)

They had a plan and while everyone knew there would be growing pains, they rightly believed the payoff was worth it. This team, loaded with young talent like Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green and Tomas Fleischmann never happens if Leonsis and McPhee don’t make the hard decision to get rid of older players like Jaromir Jagr, Robert Lang, Michael Nylander and Peter Bondra. Sure, Nylander is back, but old habits die hard. And more importantly, this team is built to compete for championships now.

We caught up with George McPhee after the Red Wings game this weekend to hear straight from the source what went into rebuilding the Capitals of yesterday so D.C. could “Rock the Red” today.

For starters, what goes into building a team? Are you someone who values the draft more than free agency or vice versa? How would you go about building a team from scratch?

“Well, you have to use every resource available,” said McPhee. “Ideally, you get your best players through the draft, so you always put the emphasis on that part of rebuilding. If you look at any successful team, they’ve drafted well.

“In addition to that you’ve got to make good trades and you have to sign the right free agents,” McPhee continued. “Whether it’s a top-end free agent or a guy that’s going to play a lesser role, they have to be the right people. When you’re doing it, the theme is ‘Let’s find talent, but they have to be good people, quality people as well.’ I think that’s what we’ve done well so far.”

You took a team that was good enough to make the playoffs, but wasn’t much of a threat to do anything once they got there and made the difficult decision to blow it up, take your lumps and rebuild this team in what you felt was the right way. How hard was it to come to that decision, whether it’s convincing ownership, the fanbase or whatever?

“There’s a lot of risk in that kind of move because if you don’t rebuild it you’re going to lose your fanbase forever,” McPhee said. “Nobody is going to come to the games. You have to be mindful that if this doesn’t work, it could really hurt the franchise and it’s self inflicted. So you worry about that, but we assumed that the lockout was coming and it’d be the right time to do this sort of thing and get rid of expensive veteran contracts and get down to where we’re in a new [collective bargaining agreement] that would require us to be more frugal. With that in mind we did it and fortunately it’s been working.”

Human nature says that selfish thoughts are going to sneak into your head and you might be inclined to worry about yourself and your job security because ownership might not stay committed to this long-term plan. Did you ever have any of those thoughts or were you and Ted Leonsis on the same page pretty much from day one?

“No, we all agreed to do it – Ted, [team president] Dick [Patrick] and I,” McPhee said. “It’s not my team. They own the team, it’s what they wanted to do and it’s my job to tell them how I think it would work – what are the benefits and what are the risks? – and sort of educate them on what I think the process would be so that when we are taking our lumps nobody panics. That was the process and there were going to be some tough nights. It’s not much fun walking into a building knowing you’re probably going to get thrashed. But you get through that and you make sure your team is gritty and competitive and the wins will come at some point.”

We’ve had complete faith in you guys because we see you’re able to turn Robert Lang into Tomas Fleschmann and a first-round draft pick that became Mike Green. Parting with Peter Bondra was tough for a lot of fans, but you get someone like Brooks Laich who is a big contributor on this team. It’s one thing to decide to rebuild, but it’s a whole other thing to know that the decision makers are going to get it right. You guys were able to trade seldom used Brian Sutherby for a second rounder and then turn that into Christobal Huet, who was huge down the stretch last year. So what’s your secret?

“I think you get better with experience,” he said. “Our amateur scouting staff was young when we first hired them and they were making their mistakes early on, but they’ve gotten to be really good. The same could be said about our pro scouting and management. Moves like we made this summer, when we traded [defenseman Steve] Eminger for a first-round pick and turned it into [defenseman John] Carlson, I think that’s going to be really big for this club. They’re not all going to work out, as I’ve explained to ownership, not all the trades or draft picks are going to work out, but if you keep doing the right things often enough, it’ll go the right way.”

We’re in the salary cap era now and experts say dynasties are gone and it’s nearly impossible to keep a good young team together. The Capitals aren’t even to that level yet and people are already saying you guys won’t have the cap space to be able to retain guys like Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin once their deals are up. Are you going to be able to find a way to keep these young, core players?

“We’ll have the cap space,” McPhee said. “We’re not worried about that. In fact, we’re one of the clubs that, two years from now if this cap goes down, we’ll still be in pretty good shape. We have flexibility and optionality, and you’ve got to have options. That’s the way we’re going to operate. There will be a few players who we’ll lock up long term and everyone else will be on short-term deals.”

We know you’re not going to come out and give away any secrets, but between now and the trade deadline is it safe to say you’re going to be checking your options and seeing what deals you might be able to pull?

“Well, you have to do that,” he said. “Whether you make no moves or five moves, you have to do all the research and homework and decide what’s best for your club. We do that every day anyway.”

But is there a specific area where you’d like to add depth?

“We could add six players if it made us better,” McPhee said. “But we like what we have and we like the way this team is playing. The one area that we’re not happy with is the penalty kill and selfish penalties, and that’s a mental thing. If we don’t make any changes, I’m content that this team can do real well.”

And with that, we let the man known as GMGM off the hook and headed for the exits. We want to thank George McPhee for his time and candor and here’s hoping the decision makers running the Redskins, Wizards and Nationals stumble across this interview and something hits home with them.

While those teams have come to accept mediocrity, the Capitals have raised the bar by showing how a professional sports franchise should be built. It wasn’t always pretty, but now the team is built to be a legitimate contender for the foreseeable future. It sure would be nice to see some of the other local teams follow their lead.

(courtesy of Reuters Pictures)

Some folks might try to tell you differently, but know this – the undisputed MVP of Super Bowl Sunday was clearly Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin.

(Quick sidenote: Can someone please explain to us why people are all excited about the Pittsburgh Steelers? They beat the Arizona Cardinals. Big deal. Who hasn’t?)

A day after scoring two goals to defeat the Detroit Red Wings (you know, the defending Stanley Cup champions) 4-2, Ovechkin followed it up with a hat trick in a 7-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators. Five goals in one weekend is pretty outstanding, even for Ovechkin. For those scoring at home, he’s now got 36 goals and 29 assists for 65 points on the year.

Ovechkin now has 199 career goals in just four seasons (do the math, that’s pretty good) and continues to entertain the world each and every day he takes the ice. Don’t take our word for it.

“The most amazing thing about Ovie is, I’ve played with Alex now for four years, and he makes such a great effort to get it up to there,” said Capitals forward Brooks Laich. “Then, the next game he can come out and take it higher. And after that he can take it higher. He never gets satisfied. Last year he scored 65 goals and won all the trophies, but he wants to do more. He wants our team to do more. He wants to win more. That’s the amazing thing about Alex, he’s never satisfied. He keeps trying to get better.”

The only people who aren’t thrilled to see Ovechkin lighting the lamp (besides the opposition) would be the cleanup crew who has to pick up the hats from the ice on days like Sunday. He scores so often, they quit. And since the Capitals are the only team in the NHL with ice girls who don’t actually skate, that left Ovechkin, as pictured above, to clean up after his seventh career hat trick. Somehow we don’t think he minds.

(photo by Brian Murphy)

The Washington Capitals were able to defeat the defending champion Detroit Red Wings 4-2 at the Verizon Center thanks to the return of “old reliable.”

While his game doesn’t typically show up on the stat sheet, Caps defenseman Tom Poti stepped back into the lineup after missing 15 games and immediately helped to solidify the Caps’ defensive corps, and more importantly, the team’s pitiful penalty-killing unit (as evident by his team-leading 5:26 of penalty-killing time during the game). We caught up with Poti in the Caps’ locker room after the game to see how he felt after helping his team to one of their biggest wins of the season.

You guys were able to snap a two-game losing streak against one of the league’s elite teams and you personally stepped back onto the ice and looked like you didn’t miss a beat. How did it feel to get back into action?

“It felt pretty good,” Poti said. “Glad I made it through the game and it’s just fun to be back playing. It sucks sitting around watching, not being able to help your teammates. So it’s just good to be back. I definitely felt a little rusty out there, but I got my game back slowly.”

And for what it’s worth, the replay showed that you got a raw deal on your penalty at the end of the game. The puck definitely deflected off of a Detroit stick out of the rink.

“Yeah, that’s the same ref who doesn’t like me,” he said. “He’s made some pretty bad calls against me in the past, so I didn’t expect anything different from him.”

You guys haven’t done great against the Western Conference this year and your record isn’t nearly as impressive when you give up the first goal. And yet, you guys were able to rally back and beat Detroit for only the second time in your last 12 games against them. How were you able to get it done today?

“I think the biggest thing is when we saw this game on the calendar at the beginning of the season we were all pretty excited and jacked up about it,” Poti said. “It’s a great measuring stick to see where you’re at against the defending Stanley Cup champions. We were hyped up to play the game and were able to get the result that we wanted.”

Detroit has won something like four championships in 11 years or something and most impressively, they don’t ever seem to have a down year. What can you guys learn from a franchise like that and what do you have to do where we’re talking about the Capitals being a consistent contender like them year in and year out?

“Their consistency is pretty amazing,” he said. “It just goes to show that their guys buy into their system. If you play within that system, you’re going to get more wins than losses. I think we can kind of feed off of that. The games that we lose, we stray from our system. Those situations are pretty obvious to us sitting on the bench when we’re not playing the right way we’re going to be in for a tough night.”

With about seven minutes left in a tied game you kind of got the sense that whoever struck next would win the game. Along comes Ovechkin once again to bring home the victory …

“Surprise, surprise,” Poti said with a laugh.

Does it ever get old watching him play?

“Not at all,” he said. “We love to see that happen. You know, when he gets the puck on his stick, no matter where he is, the whole crowd rises up and all the guys on the bench rise up at the same time because we know he’s probably going to do something special with it. He was the reason we got the win tonight. Both teams battled hard, but we had Ovie and they didn’t.”

It looked like he kind of lost the puck in between his legs for a second and then was able to get it back and put a shot on net. He didn’t get much on the shot, but it was enough. How many players can make that play with the game on the line?

“Not too many,” Poti said. “He’s the best player in the world and can make something out of nothing. We’re just glad he’s on our side.”

(photo by Elise Amendola)

If you missed the Washington Capitals 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins last night, fear not. Chances are if you’ve been following the team this season, you can guess how the loss played out.

At times, the Caps easily outplayed their opponent, in this case the Bruins who have the NHL’s best record. Unfortunately, there were other times when the opponent didn’t matter as the Capitals did their best to shoot themselves in the foot.

For the ninth-straight time, the Caps allowed a powerplay goal. That, more than anything, is the reason the Caps left Boston without the win. Center Michael Nylander might have scored a goal (no small feat for the man nicknamed “healthy scratch” this season), but he also took a bad penalty which the Bruins scored the game tying goal on.

And while his penalty wasn’t the one that ultimately doomed the Capitals, forward Alexander Semin once again took an ill-advised penalty in the third period of a tightly-contested game. For those who missed it, Semin was whistled for cross checking with just over six minutes remaining in regulation. If not for stellar goaltending by Caps goalie Jose Theodore during Semin’s penalty, the game wouldn’t have even made it to overtime.

Don’t forget that the last time we saw the Caps in action before the All-Star break, Semin was called for tripping Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson with just over three minutes remaining in the game. The Senators won that game 3-2 after capitalizing on Semin’s blunder.

At this point, you wonder how tough it is for coach Bruce Boudreau to trust Semin on the ice when the game is on the line. While he’s got as much skill as any player in the league, his immaturity and poor decision making is something that will only become more of an issue until something is done.

Behind closed doors Boudreau needs to pull Semin aside and inform him that his foolish third-period penalties will no longer be tolerated. Boudreau spoke during his acceptance speech after his induction into the AHL’s Hall of Fame this past weekend about the NHL’s front office threatening to fine him $10,000 if he bad-mouthed an official in public again. Well, by Boudreau’s own admission, the message was clearly sent and he no longer speaks about officiating in his post-game press conferences.

So Bruce, why not use your own life experiences to teach others? Pull Semin aside and inform him that every penalty minute he gets in the third period is going to cost him a thousand bucks. Hit him in the wallet until the message is received once and for all.

Obviously the Capitals are a better team with Semin than without, but they could be even more dangerous if someone could get through to the talented winger that his penalties are hurting the team and could ultimately end up keeping this team from achieving greatness.

The Capitals’ 24th ranked penalty-killing unit isn’t going to get better overnight, but the best way to minimize the unit’s effect on games is to limit the amount of times they’re called upon. The first step in making that a reality is to hold your players accountable for their actions. That should start with Alexander Semin.

(courtesy of Getty Images)

Sure, he might not have been named the most valueable player of the NHL’s All Star game, but it was still a pretty sweet weekend for Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin.

The fun started with Ovechkin and friend-turned-enemy-turned friend again Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins kissing and making up, with a large assist from Ilya Kovalchuk. Then, Ovechkin successfully defended his Breakaway Challenge during the NHL’s skills competition Saturday night. As you can see from the above photo, Ovechkin was in rare form.

Unlike voting for the All Star game starting lineup, Ovechkin caught the attention of hockey fans  with his shenanigans and captured more than 42 percent of votes. And so what if he didn’t start the All Star game. He was definitely the biggest attraction during the game itself. Ovechkin scored the East’s first goal of the night and scored the game clincher during the shootout. In between he picked up two assists and became the Capitals’ franchise leader for All Star game points (surpassing Peter Bondra).

Oh, and Ovechkin also involved in the best off-ice moment of the weekend too. From Tarik El-Bashir:

Late in the second period, the JumboTron over center ice showed two young women holding beers and dancing to the beat during a break in the action. The camera then cut to Ovechkin, who was watching the girls on the screen and was saying, “Oooooooh.”

Sooo busted.

Of course, all 21,273 fans in the building cracked up with laughter. Ovechkin, too, let out a hearty chuckle.

“They were dancing pretty well, and I said, ‘Wow!'” Ovechkin told me moments ago. “I don’t think the camera was going to look straight at me.”

It’s no wonder some are calling Ovechkin the NHL’s rock star.

The only lowlight from the weekend was Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara breaking the 16-year-old record of the immortal Al “Wild Thing” Iafrate during the hardest shot competition. The former Capital’s record of 105.2 miles per hour was eclipsed by Chara’s 105.4 mph offering (and yes, we know he wasn’t on the Caps when he set the record, but we don’t care).

So please excuse the tear streaming down our cheek. We’re not crying. We’re just making a lasagna … for one.

(photo by Adrian Wyld)

Last week, we focused on the good, the bad and the uncertain for the Washington Capitals so far this season.

One area we didn’t really cover in any of the three midseason reviews was goaltending, mainly because depending on which game you’re watching, the Caps netminders can fall in any of the three categories. Or at least that’s how it was for the first month or so of the season.

Looking at the statistics, goalie Jose Theodore has staked his claim as the team’s number-one goalie, posting a 17-9-1 record at the All-Star break. But keeping with the theme of good, bad and uncertain, he’s been far from the league’s elite.

While his 17 wins rank 11th best in the NHL, Theodore’s 2.81 goals against average is 27th best and his .898 save percentage ranks a disappointing 38th overall.

What’s encouraging for Caps fans is Theodore’s improved play of late. Since Dec. 23, Theodore has a 9-3-0 record with a 2.16 GAA and a .919 save percentage.

As a point for comparison, Theodore was just 8-6-1 with a 3.00 goals against average and a .883 save percentage in his first 18 games for Washington.

Our take on the goaltending situation, specifically with Theodore, is that the more he’s played, the better he’s done. Early in the year when coach Bruce Boudreau was inclined to “play the hot hand,” Theodore struggled. But with backup Brent Johnson dealing with some minor injuries, Theodore has seen the bulk of the action and he’s become much more dependable of late.

If he has an off night, Theodore has shown that it’s best to get him back in the net the next night to move past the rough outing. Otherwise, if he’s stuck on the bench for two or three games, he’s shown a propensity to struggle while attempting to get into any kind of rhythm. While it’s hardly Earth shattering to learn a goalie does better when he’s getting consistent action, Theodore seems to be one of the streakier goalies in the NHL. Guessing which Theo we’ll see on any given night is half the fun.

There are a couple positives we should point out about Theodore. Thanks to the Caps’ 5-4 win over the New York Islanders Jan. 19, Theodore became the 11th active goaltender with 200 career wins. Any goalie who can win 200 games in the NHL is obviously pretty good.

And what’s more than pretty good is Theodore’s career record of 11-3 in shootouts. He may only have a 19-26 record in the playoffs, but Theodore is downright clutch in shootouts. With any luck, the Capitals can continue their hot play down the stretch and then start focusing on getting Theodore a few more postseason victories.

(photo by Brian Murphy)

For those who missed it, we’ve dedicated much of this week to reviewing the first half of a memorable season for the Washington Capitals. First we covered the good. Yesterday, we tackled the bad. Today we’ll focus on a few lingering questions and things to watch from here on out.

This weekend, while left wing Alex Ovechkin is in Montreal for All Star weekend and the rest of the Caps are enjoying some time off, rookie defenseman Karl Alzner is keeping his skills sharp in Pennsylvania with the Caps’ minor league affiliate, the Hershey Bears.

While the intent is to help continue his growth during his inaugural campaign, there’s a very real chance that Alzner might be kept down in the minors even after the Capitals resume play. Not because of anything he’s done on the ice, after all, he’s easily a top-four caliber defenseman at the NHL level right now. But he could remain temporarily demoted simply because Washington doesn’t have the salary cap space to keep him around.

Capitals defensemen Tom Poti and Shaone Morrisonn are set to return from injuries after the break, which means that Alzner and his $1.675 million salary cap number will likely be forced out of the lineup unless general manager George McPhee makes a move to clear room under the cap.

We despise fans who attempt to play fantasy football (or in this case, fantasy hockey) by jumping online and posting their ridiculously made-up trade scenarios, so you won’t find any of that here. But there are two players who would make sense for McPhee to attempt to move if he could find a suitable trade partner.

The first, center Michael Nylander, has been mentioned in trade rumors for much of the season. He’s 35 years old and has just four goals and 18 assists for 22 points in 45 games. His salary cap number this season is $4.875 million, ranking behind only Ovechkin ($9.5 million) as the biggest salary cap hit among Capitals forwards.

Three times this season Nylander has been a healthy scratch, meaning coach Bruce Boudreau benched him even though Nylander’s salary cap number is higher than center Nicklas Backstrom ($2.4 million), forward Tomas Fleischmann ($725,000) and Alzner ($1.675 million) combined.

Many of the folks who cover the NHL expected Nylander to be playing elsewhere by now, but there’s one major problem – his no-movement clause. While his on-ice situation may be less than ideal, Nylander’s family is apparently very happy to be in the D.C. area again and he’s not in a hurry to waive the clause to uproot them any time soon. So unless a compromise is reached, Boudreau and McPhee are stuck with Nylander until after the 2010-11 season.

The second player who the Caps should consider making a move on is forward Chris Clark. The 32-year-old right wing may still be listed as the Caps’ captain, but it’s obvious that the team is moving in a different direction. Clark has been a healthy scratch twice this season (when’s the last time you heard of a team benching its captain just because?) and has just one goal and four assists for five points in 31 games played. The entire world knows this is Ovechkin’s team, so why not give Clark a fresh start elsewhere and formally recognize your franchise player?

Depending on what the team would have to take back in a trade, making either one of these moves could conceivably free up enough space to keep Alzner around. His play alone warrants keeping him in town, but Alzner has also impacted those around him. Before Alzner’s arrival, defenseman Milan Jurcina was a big body with loads of potential, but not much else. Hopefully you know by now that potential is just another way of saying “ain’t done shit yet.”

Well, pairing Jurcina with Alzner calmed the big guy down and somehow transformed the 25-year-old into a legitimate NHL blueliner. Now he’s someone Boudreau trusts with increased responsibility. In fact, in recent weeks, Boudreau moved “Juice” away from Alzner and paired him with Jeff Schultz, who has taken Jurcina’s previously held title of “least dependable defenseman.”

In addition to Jurcina, the other most improved player on the Capitals is Fleischmann. People might not realize this, but the Caps acquired Fleischmann along with the 29th pick in 2004 (who turned out to be defenseman Mike Green) and a fourth-round pick in 2006 from Detroit in exchange for forward Robert Lang. It’s safe to say that trade worked out well for McPhee and friends.

In his first 118 games (spanning three seasons) in Washington, “Flash” recorded just 14 goals. In 39 games this year, Fleischmann has taken his game to another level, netting 15 goals, which is good enough for third on the Caps behind Ovechkin and Semin. Lately he’s been on the team’s second line with Semin and center Sergei Fedorov and is playing with renewed confidence as he’s seen his ice time increase. If Fleischmann and Jurcina continue to evolve as they become more comfortable being full-time NHL players it will only strengthen an already potent lineup.

The final area of concern for the Capitals, free agency, most likely won’t be addressed until after the season. Fedorov (39), forward Viktor Kozlov (33) and tough guy Donald Brashear (37) are all unrestricted free agents after the season. Each plays a key role on this team, but will the front office bring the aging trio back again next season?

Along the same lines, forwards Boyd Gordon (25) and Eric Fehr (23), as well as defensemen Morrisonn (26), Jurcina (25) and Schultz (22) are scheduled for restricted free agency. While it wouldn’t be surprising to see all five back in Washington next season, nothing is ever certain in professional sports.