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(photo by Greg Fiume)

As if the Washington Capitals didn’t have enough on their plate heading down the stretch with injuries sidelining a slew of their top-end talent, some news came out yesterday afternoon that will no doubt be a topic of conversation moving forward.

Courtesy of Dmitry Chesnokov of Yahoo! Sports, Caps fans learned that oft-injured goalie Semyon Varlamov might not necessarily want to stick around Washington for the long haul. Here’s exactly what Chesnokov posted:

#Caps Varlamov’s Russian agent says “a few elite KHL clubs are interested in Semyon” and that Varlamov “is considering the possibility.”

Now look, I fully understand that this is simply an agent doing what an agent is supposed to do, but forgive me if it rubs me the wrong way.

The way I look at it, and the way the team’s front office has chosen to look at it, is that the Capitals have one of the deepest goaltending rotations in all of hockey with Varlamov, Michal Neuvirth and Braden Holtby.

While some have foolishly suggested that the Caps would be better off trading one of them away, general manager George McPhee has gone on the record in saying he’s not interested in moving any of the talented trio.

His stance appears to be, give each of them all a chance at the starting job here in D.C. and may the best man win. And really, that’s all you can ask for if you’re a player.

Just give me a fair shot. Put the proverbial ball in my court and give me a chance to sink or swim. That way, if I don’t win the job, I only have myself to blame.

Now, everyone seems to understand that except agents. And in this case, it seems that this particular agent is mighty nervous because Neuvirth and Holtby have both excelled while Varlamov is once again sidelined thanks to the most fragile groin since Fred Taylor’s heyday.

Coming into the season, the Capitals had no clear cut choice as their top goalie. Varlamov and Neuvirth were given first crack at it and if both faltered, then the team would either have to give Holtby a try or go outside the organization to bring in a veteran.

Again, both Varlamov and Neuvirth started the season on even footing. If anything, Varlamov had a slight edge because he’d started 28 regular-season and 19 postseason games for the Capitals prior to this season compared to Neuvirth, with 19 regular-season starts and no NHL playoff experience.

But Varlamov simply cannot stay healthy for any length of time. He went a month without action (from Oct. 21 through Nov. 24) due to injury and, most recently, he’s been out of the lineup since Feb. 20 because his groin is apparently made out of gummy bears.

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(photo by Paul Bereswill)

It’s never wise to overreact to the results of one regular game, but fans of the Washington Capitals should definitely think twice before getting overly excited after the team’s 5-4 shootout win against the Philadelphia Flyers.

For starters, the Capitals got outplayed for most of the evening. The Flyers dictated play and were much more physical throughout the contest, but were done in by porous goaltending.

Philadelphia’s rookie goalie Sergei Bobrovsky looked overwhelmed for the get-go – letting in a softie by Caps center Nicklas Backstrom and then failing to get set as Mike Knuble crashed the net.

Bobrovsky gave up a powerplay goal to defender Dennis Wideman in the second minute of the second period and Philly had seen enough. He was given a seat and backup Brian Boucher was inserted into the game.

Had “Bob” played an even remotely average game, only one of those three goals would have found the net and the Flyers likely go on to win in convincing fashion.

Fortunately, the Flyers got below average goaltending while Michal Neuvirth was able to make several key stops for Washington and that was the difference.

But had this been an actual playoff game, there is no shootout. The game simply goes to overtime until one team prevails.

Anyone who watched from the second period on knows the Flyers were the more aggressive team on the ice. Even when they trailing early, Philadelphia had the momentum and there’s little reason to believe that would have suddenly changed had the game not ended in favor of a glorified skills competition.

The Caps, for whatever reason, were content to sit back on their heels as players simply hopes they were able to weather the storm. I kept waiting for Matt Bradley or Matt Hendricks to drop the gloves in hopes of waking up their sluggish teammates, but even those two sparkplugs failed to deliver.

Another reason why Caps fans should be just as worried as Flyers fans about this contest is that too many players were no-shows.

Sure, Alex Ovechkin, Jason Arnott, Mike Green and Tom Poti were all sidelined due to various injuries and ailments, but players like Alexander Semin, Marco Sturm and Brooks Laich were all content to be passengers on this evening.

Revisionist history will suggest that Semin scored the game-clinching goal in the shootout and therefore had a good game. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

With much of the Washington firepower out of the lineup, the Caps needed Semin to show up. But because Philadelphia loves playing an extremely physical brand of hockey, the enigma known as Sasha was a nonfactor.

Let me be clear on this – Semin got hit a few times early and vanished.

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(photo by Brian Murphy)

With nine games remaining in the regular season, the time is now for the Washington Capitals to turn their attention to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Sure, there’s still an outside chance the Caps could overtake tonight’s opponent – the Philadelphia Flyers – and finish the regular season as the top team in the Eastern Conference for a second consecutive year, but that shouldn’t be a priority.

After all, the Capitals have managed to get bounced from the playoffs each of the last three seasons while having “home-ice advantage.”

Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Montreal each came into the Verizon Center and won a Game 7, so maybe switching things up isn’t a terrible idea.

Getting healthy and mentally prepared for a postseason run should be the only concern – which is why I’m completely on board with resting captain Alex Ovechkin now.

He’s won everything there is to win in the regular season. He’s been an elite regular season player since the day he came to Washington.

But careers aren’t defined by regular season accomplishments and accolades. As Ovechkin very well knows, legends are made in the playoffs.

Which would you rather have: a 50-goal scorer who suffers a first-round loss or a 30-goal scorer who is still playing meaningful games in the first week of June?

Yeah, me too.

And the same holds true for the Caps as a whole.

This isn’t the WNBA. The Capitals don’t need to raise a banner into the rafters to celebrate that fans show up for their games.

Bruce Boudreau’s Capitals have had plenty of regular season success (going 183-77-38 the last four years). But, at 13-15, the team’s playoff record is a lot less sparkling.

So there’s no reason whatsoever for players to max themselves out during the last nine games of the season in hopes of winning the conference or keeping ahead of Tampa Bay in the division.

Just last season the Flyers were the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and they got hot at the right time and made it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals.

No one cares what seed they were when they started. No one remembers that Philly had 33 less points than Washington when the regular season came to an end. The only thing that matters is where you finish in the playoffs.

But a few things need to happen for the Capitals to have any real chance during this postseason.

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(photo by Richard Wolowicz)

Imagine, if you will, it’s Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

After years of disappointment, the Washington Capitals finally get their act together to make an extended postseason run and they are one game away from raising hockey’s finest hardware.

As the puck is about to be dropped at a packed Verizon Center, coach Bruce Boudreau sends out a starting lineup of the following individuals: forwards Nicklas Backstrom, Jason Arnott and Eric Fehr, defensemen Mike Green and Tom Poti and Semyon Varlamov in net.

Those six players, with a solid mix of youth and experience, would be a formidable challenge for any opponent. And yet, none of those six players was able to take the ice in the deciding moments of last night’s 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.

Simply winning a game without that kind of firepower in the lineup is tough. For the Capitals to have won nine consecutive games while having to constantly shuffle the lines because of a rash of injuries and ailments is almost unthinkable.

And somehow, that’s where we are with the Caps. Boudreau seemingly has a new lineup to deal with on a nightly basis, but the players that are available continue to find ways to get the job done.

Of the six players I mentioned earlier, Fehr was the only skater to actually play in the game. But an “upper body injury” knocked him out of last night’s game in the second period. This, of course, is bad news for a guy who already missed 22 games due to a shoulder injury earlier this year.

At some point, you’ve got to believe that all of these mounting injuries will catch up with the Capitals. But in Montreal, the injury-riddled Caps found a way to defeat a red-hot goaltender (coming into the game, Carey Price was 5-1 with two shutouts, a 1.17 goals against average and a .965 save percentage in March) in front of a rowdy hometown crowd.

The nine-game winning streak is the third longest in franchise history, and the current six-game road winning streak ties the team’s top mark.

Of course, just one season ago the Capitals won 14 consecutive games, so this isn’t exactly uncharted territory for Washington’s most consistent winner.

Which is why I’d like to pause for a moment to provide a little perspective on the Capitals. Too many fans have spent too much time this season wringing their hands and stressing out over every little bump in the road, when the truth is this Caps team deserves better.

I mean, let’s take a quick look at the other teams in town and see just how often they’re able to rattle off nine wins in a row.

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(photo by Rob Carr)

When the Washington Capitals acquired forward Jason Arnott from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for center Dave Steckel and a second round pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, I admittedly had mixed feelings.

On the one hand, Arnott was a gritty veteran who had logged more than 1,100 regular season games and more than 100 playoff games since coming into the league in 1993. It’d be nearly impossible to last in the league that long without learning a thing or two about what it takes to be successful in the NHL.

But the other side of the coin wasn’t as pretty.

From New Years Day until he was traded to Washington, Arnott played in 25 games for New Jersey. During that span, he scored just four goals and three assists for seven points and was a plus four.

Sure, New Jersey plays a completely defensive-minded game, but after talking with friends who watch the Devils far more often than I do, they admitted it was tough to gauge just how much the old man had left in the tank.

He was essentially an old timer playing on New Jersey’s third line in the final year of his contract. He was good for 15 minutes a night and was picking up a point about once every three games. Nothing about his 62 games played with the Devils this season suggested greatness.

In fact, one could wonder if maybe the Capitals were higher on Arnott than anyone else out there simply because he picked up three goals against Washington in his first two games against them this season.

Maybe general manager George McPhee saw something in those two games. Maybe he simply wanted to keep another contender – like say the Pittsburgh Penguins – from acquiring him. Either way, GMGM pulled the trigger and the Caps have been on a roll since.

Sergei Fedorov (who was the last member of the Capitals to have logged more than 1,000 career games played) set the bar for grizzled vets, when he came to Washington he immediately made his presence known by picking up 13 points in his first 18 games with the Capitals.

Well, Arnott has two goals and three assists for five points and is a plus five in seven games with Washington, so he’s clearly on pace to match the industry standard.

In his first game with the Capitals, Arnott set up the game-tying goal against the New York Islanders March 1. The Capitals went on to win that game 2-1 in overtime.

Two days later, the 36-year-old picked up the game-winning goal against St. Louis. Seriously, it’s tough to make a bigger impact on your first two games in a new town than that.

And then, this past weekend, Arnott accomplished a feat very few of his teammates have been able to this season – he scored on the powerplay.

Playing the point position on the powerplay (a slot that even captain Alex Ovechkin has struggled in this season), Arnott took a feed from forward Alexander Semin and blasted a shot that deflected off of a Chicago defender and into the back of the net.

The Capitals are currently enjoying an eight-game winning streak – their longest of the season. Seven of those wins have come since Arnott was acquired and that’s no coincidence.

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(photo by Jacquelyn Martin)

The Washington Capitals want to be where the Chicago Blackhawks are.

They want to be the Stanley Cup champions. They want to be invited to the White House to mingle with the president of the United States of America. They want to be recognized by their peers as a team worth remembering.

They want it all.

But in order for that to happen, they’ve got to put it together once and for all in the postseason. They’ve got to prove definitely that this team with these players and this coach have what it takes to be the last team standing.

Well, I’d be foolish to claim that one regular season game out of 82 of them deserves to be spotlighted more than any of the others, but there was a lot to like about Washington’s 4-3 overtime victory over the defending champs.

For starters, look at the names of the players who scored for the Capitals — forwards Boyd Gordon, Jason Arnott, Brooks Laich and Mike Knuble.

Each and every one of them is a grinder, by trade. All of them openly embrace the less glamorous aspect of their sport — namely fighting for loose pucks in the corner and making a living in high-traffic areas, even though it comes with plenty of bodily harm.

They’re not the biggest names on the team, but historically they represent the type of blue-collar player who rises to the occasion in the playoffs. The Capitals, led by these four gentlemen, dictated play all game long against a proven winner. It was such an enjoyable matinee matchup, that I openly admitted during the game I didn’t want it to end.

“All four lines were going; that’s why I didn’t shorten the bench,” said coach Bruce Boudreau. “They’re all contributing. It’s a nice thing to see, but that’s why you win — when everyone contributes.”

And while Boudreau is right to a certain extent, the truth is the Young Guns — captain Alex Ovechkin, center Nicklas Backstrom, defenseman Mike Green and enigma Alexander Semin — were nonfactors on this day.

Backstrom and Green are still sidelined by injuries and the Alex & Alex combo finished with a combined one assist and a -1 rating on the day. It used to be that if those four didn’t do the heavy lifting, this team was dead in the water. For one day, at least, that wasn’t the case.

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