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(courtesy photo)

Look, we fully admit to being pessimistic by nature. Long ago we learned that if you brace for the worst, it hurts less when it actually happens. If you expect people (or even your favorite sports franchises) to let you down, then you’re not blindsided by their failures.

It’s not ideal, but it’s long been our preferred defense mechanism when dealing with things beyond our control.

That being said, we’re simply amazed at how many armchair quarterbacks and internet general managers we’ve seen in the last week or so in regards to the Washington Capitals.

In the last 24 hours alone, we’ve read that in order for the Caps to be a legitimate contender for the Stanley Cup, they need to acquire a center, a stay-at-home physical defenseman and a goalie. It’s a wonder that general manager George McPhee still has a job, if this is the laundry list he’s failed to haul in.

The thinking goes, “Well sure, the team is playing well and I am a diehard fan (it’s important to throw that part in. Makes people know your opinion is not one to ignore), but if the Capitals are going to win it all this year, they need to make a trade for [fill in the blank here].”

Our natural instinct is to contact each of these people individually and tell them to turn in their keyboard.

The Caps, you see, are in the midst of the most successful streak in franchise history. After rallying to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 in dramatic fashion, they’ve now won 14 games in a row. Not only is this the best stretch of hockey in the franchises’ 35-year history, but it’s also the third-longest winning streak in NHL history.

If these skeptics aren’t pleased with the current team’s performance, then there’s no reason for them to waste another second of energy following this franchise. This team is never going to be good enough.

Since Bruce Boudreau took over as coach, the Capitals have gone a mind-numbing 128-53-21. Read that sentence again. If you don’t count a single win from this season, he’s still 34 games over .500.

At 41-12-6, the Capitals have the best record in hockey. They also hold an amazing 14-point lead over everyone else in the Eastern Conference. Regular season success doesn’t guarantee anything in the postseason, but we’d rather take our chances with the Caps as presently constructed than any other team in the NHL.

The Capitals have won 11 in a row at the Verizon Center, which is also a franchise best. Their record at home this season is 23-3-3. We can safely say that this team has a home-ice advantage and when you factor in Boudreau, more games than not they have a coaching advantage too.

What about the players, you ask? No one is suggesting they fire Boudreau. They just want to give him a few more pieces to work with for an extended postseason run, you say.

Fair enough. But we’re still of the mindset that even if the Caps do nothing, they’re in great shape for the playoffs.

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(photo by Mitchell Layton)

It always feels like a special occasion when the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals do battle.

You’ve got last year’s Stanley Cup winner taking on the top team in the NHL this season. You’ve got Sidney Crosby versus Alex Ovechkin. You’ve got two franchises (and two fanbases) with an intense history between them. Simply put – it’s hard to imagine a regular season game more fitting for Super Bowl Sunday than the Penguins and Capitals squaring off.

And yet, this one somehow managed to rise to another level. Because of a nasty snow storm dubbed “Snovechkin,” the D.C. area was crushed with over two feet of snow in the days leading up to this epic encounter.

The Penguins had to bus in from New Jersey and didn’t arrive until 2:30 the night before. And a quarter of the Verizon Center was empty when the game started simply because most of the area was still buried under snow.

Add that all together and this is the kind of game that people will tell their grandkids about. Even if they weren’t actually in attendance, this is the kind of game fans from both sides of the rivalry will remember for some time.

“I think that was a pretty intense game,” Crosby said. “It felt like a playoff atmosphere to me. It’s intense every time we play them.”

For the eighth time in the last 14 games, the Capitals allowed their opponent to strike first. In fact, the Penguins were up 2-0 after the first period thanks to a pair of goals by Crosby. Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau was interviewed during the intermission and basically said the Caps were playing so poorly that they were lucky to only be trailing by two goals.

Nine minutes into the second period, the Capitals showed their first sign of life. Defenseman Jeff Schultz connected with Ovechkin on a perfect breakout pass and Ovi did the rest, beating Marc-Andre Fleury with a wicked wrister glove side to cut the lead to 2-1.

And yet, Washington failed to capitalize on the momentum. Two goals in a 90 second span by Jordan Staal pushed the Penguins lead to 4-1 and the Caps were suddenly in danger of being blown out in this marquee matchup. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

Two key moments occurred in the last couple of minutes in the second period to breathe some life into this game for the Capitals.

First, forward Eric Fehr scored on a beautiful individual effort, making the score 4-2. But more importantly, the Caps penalty killers stepped up when they were needed most and gave the rest of the team the push they sorely needed.

Down two goals with Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Poti in the box, the Capitals would have buried themselves if they allowed the Penguins to score on the extended five-on-three powerplay. This moment, more than any other, was when the game officially shifted and momentum swung in the home team’s favor.

Front and center in this comeback was the captain, Alex Ovechkin. He struck twice in the third period, giving him 42 goals on the year and the team’s first hat trick of the season. After rallying to erase a three-goal deficit, the Caps had now tied the game and overtime would be needed to decide a winner.

Enter Mike Knuble. Ovechkin fired a shot from the point that rang off of the post behind Fleury. Before the Penguins goalie had a chance to corral in the puck though, Knuble poked in the rebound and the Capitals were victorious in a game they were completely overmatched in for long stretches.

“We didn’t even talk about the streak in the dressing room,” Fehr said. “We just talked about going out and having a good third period. The streak never came up and now it’s still alive. So it’s a great feeling.”

As Fehr said, the win enabled the Caps to continue their winning ways:

– This marked the team’s 14th win in a row overall, which is a franchise record and the third longest streak in NHL history.

– This was the team’s 11th win in a row at home, which is also a franchise best.

– Caps goalie Jose Theodore has won 10 games in a row, which is a personal best and ties the franchise record set by Pat Riggin back in 1983-84.

– The Caps are an astounding 17-1 since Alex Ovechkin was named the captain. We defy you to find a better start for a captain.

– Speaking of the captain, Ovechkin has scored a goal in each of his last five contests and has 16 points in his last seven games.

Add all of that up, and you’ve got a win that folks around town will be talking about for quite a while. And as if this rivalry needed any more fuel for the fire, the Caps send the Pens back to Pittsburgh searching for answers on how they blew a three-goal lead.

“Both teams want to beat each other pretty badly,” Boudreau said.

Which is why their matchups are easily the best thing going in the NHL these days.

“I am pretty excited and I am really excited for hockey that that game was put on TV today,” said Boudreau. “That’s what people pay to see; when superstars shine and there’s tension and excitement and there’s physical play, you can see the passion on both sides. That’s what hockey’s all about.”

No one knows how much longer the Capitals can continue this amazing streak or how much further this journey will go, but one thing is for sure – in a town where wins are hard to come by, the Capitals are a feel-good story everyone can get behind.

(photo by Cheryl Nichols)

Most hockey players go out of their way to be vanilla. Their quotes come straight from the big book of sports clichés and you rarely hear about their life away from the ice as they typically aim to keep a low public profile.

And then there’s Eric Fehr.

The Washington Capitals forward is enjoying a breakout year. With 14 goals, 14 assists and 28 points, he’s already surpassed his career highs in each category with half a season left to play.

As he’s become more comfortable on the ice, he’s also started to show glimpses of his personality away from the game.

As first reported by our buddy Dan Steinberg, the 24-year-old does a weekly radio show called “From Capital Hill With Eric Fehr” for the folks back home in Winkler, Manitoba.

Because hockey players in general are so content to keep their personal life private, we were curious to hear his teammates’ thoughts on Fehr’s radio endeavors.

An informal poll of the Caps’ locker room showed that none of the seven guys we talked to had actually heard Fehr’s radio show and a few didn’t even know it existed.

“I’m surprised that they even have radios back in Manitoba,” said Capitals forward Matt Bradley. “They’re usually pretty far behind the times, you know.”

We weren’t off to a good start.

“I think he’d do okay,” Bradley said of Fehr’s on-air potential. “He’s not the brightest guy, but I think he can probably muscle his way through it.”

When informed that the show is just Fehr, with no co-host, Bradley began to have doubts.

“There might be a lot of dead air,” he said. “Hopefully he plays some music or something to get through it.”

Upon hearing Bradley’s suggestion that Fehr should consider playing music to have enough content to fill a show, defenseman Mike Green felt obligated to speak up.

“I wouldn’t play any of his playlists,” he said. “He’s straight country, like old school country. I mean they might like it out there, but not here.”

With that out of the way, Green did think Fehr was the best Capitals candidate for the job.

“Out of everyone in the locker room, he’s probably the guy who could do it,” Green said. “He’s got some character and is more ‘out there’ than some of the other guys. But I think that’s good. It’s good for his city back home and it’s good for fans who want to follow Eric.”

Others agreed that Fehr had some of the traits you’d probably want in a hockey player/weekly radio show host.

“I’d definitely be interested to hear him on the radio,” said defenseman Shaone Morrisonn. “He’s pretty outgoing and is always joking around, so he’s got the right personality. It’d be interesting to hear what he’s talking about on there. If it’s good, then it’s good for us. And if it’s bad, we’ll definitely slap a fine on him and figure out his punishment.”

At this point, Fehr strolled into the locker room. We headed over to hear first hand what this show is about and how it came to be.

“It’s something I started working on back in the summer to let all of the people of Winkler know what’s going on in my career,” he said. “They’re always asking my parents and everybody back home, so this just makes it easier for them to ask their questions. We do it every Thursday afternoon and then I try to get it posted as quickly as possible.”

We’ve been informed that the show is just you, without any assistance from a co-host. How difficult is it to do a solo show?

“Well, it’s not an hour or anything,” Fehr said. “It’s just a couple minutes each week. I talk about what’s going on in the dressing room and different stuff like that. I get lots of questions through Twitter or email with younger fans wanting to know about different things going on with our team and stuff like that. I just put a little script together and read it out.”

We’ve talked to a good portion of the locker room and no one has heard your show, which we find rather surprising. How are you managing to keep this from the other guys?

“I’m trying to keep it from the guys because I’m sure they’ll harass me,” Fehr said. [Editor’s note: Oops.]

“I don’t think any of the guys are following me on Twitter, so that’s probably why they don’t know about it,” he said.

You mentioned you’re also on Twitter. Between that and the radio show, you’re really putting more of yourself out there than most hockey players are willing to do.

“Yeah, I’m not really a shy guy,” Fehr said. “When we go to events, I like to mingle with the fans and talk to everybody. It’s just the way I’ve always been. We don’t have a lot of guys on the team doing stuff like Twitter, so I wanted to step up and give the fans a little more insight.”

With you making yourself more available to the public, we’re curious if you’re getting recognized more or if you feel like you’re getting more attention these days?

“I don’t really think I’m getting more attention,” he said. “I have gotten a couple tweets where people say they just saw me somewhere and I’ll look for them. I’ve definitely had that before, but I don’t think it’s changed too much.”

On the ice you’re easily having your best season as a pro. To what do you attribute your success?

“I think I’ve just got more confidence out there now,” Fehr said. “I’m also feeling healthier. I’ve played the last couple seasons with a lot of different injuries and a few different things going on. Now, I’m feeling healthy and feel like I can contribute every day. I feel strong every game and it’s making a big difference.”

This winning streak has shown the rest of the league that you guys aren’t one dimensional. Some nights the stars carry you to victory, but on other nights when the big names are off, the rest of the roster is more than capable of stepping up.

“I think that’s the big difference from last year is that we’ve got guys contributing from all different lines,” he said. “It used to be if you shut down our top line, we’d be in a lot of trouble. But now, we’ve got more guys stepping up and we’re maturing to the point where we don’t have to rely on just one or two guys.”

Okay, well let us ask Eric Fehr the radio host – what does this Capitals team need to do to win it all this season?

“I think we just need to continue to grow our defensive game,” Fehr said. “We need to continue to focus on that and not get too far ahead of ourselves trying to score as many goals as possible. We just need to let the game come to us. I mean, when we’re playing great defensive hockey, we’re still scoring four or five goals a game. We’re just not allowing as many.”

That sounded an awful lot like Eric Fehr the hockey player, not the radio show host.

“I think it was a little bit of the radio host answer,” he said with a laugh.

If nothing else comes from this, we hope more fans are able to check out the show and that some of his teammates also experience “From Capital Hill With Eric Fehr” as well. If you get a chance to check it out, please feel free to post your thoughts and comments on the show here. We’re definitely interested to hear what people have to say.

(photo by Elise Amendola)

You know, when the Washington Capitals accomplish something for the first time in franchise history, it causes you to re-evaluate things.

More than once this season, we’ve said that our biggest concern with the Caps is that they are supremely talented, but they know it. Most nights, they head into a game knowing they’ve got the more talented lineup and chances are, they’ll come away with the win.

But instead of having a killer’s instinct, this team had the habit of playing to the level of their competition. On nights when the Capitals are playing teams like Pittsburgh, Buffalo or Philadelphia, they typically bring their ‘A game.’ But on nights when they square off against cellar dwellers like Columbus, Toronto or Carolina, they’ve been known to lose in uninspired fashion.

Which brings up to last night’s 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins. While loaded with talent in their own right, things haven’t been going well for the Bruins of late, as evident by their eight-game losing streak. Thing is, these are some of the most dangerous teams – especially with the Caps having a history of overlooking weaker opponents.

Think of them like the Detroit Lions. With the losses piling up, no one wanted to be the team that finally let them win a game. Of course, the embarrassingly pitiful Washington Redskins earned the distinction this season by letting the Lions snap their 19-game skid, so D.C. sports fans should understand where we’re coming from.

Even as recently as a year ago, the Caps would have come out flat against the Bruins and ended up losing 3-2 in a game that would have had coach Bruce Boudreau steaming as his team took dumb penalties, got too cute with the puck and neglected to get back on defense and therefore leaving their goalie out to dry.

And last night’s game got off to a rough start and definitely would have been an up-hill battle if not for the stellar play of Capitals goalie Jose Theodore. He was definitely on his game early and often, while forward Alexander Semin was busy racking up penalties like he was stock-piling his goods for a blizzard.

For much of the first two periods, Boston was the better team. They were controlling the puck in the offensive zone for long stretches of time. They had several powerplay chances, thanks to Semin. They even had a penalty shot against Theodore. And yet, the score was 1-1 with 20 minutes left in regulation.

Bruins players had to be sitting there wondering the hell had to happen for them to take a lead against the Capitals on a night when they were clearly beatable.

Let us put it to you this way – how demoralizing would it be to you if your team thoroughly outskated and outplayed an opponent for 40 minutes, and yet, you look up at the scoreboard early in the third period and are suddenly down by multiple goals?

You’d be crying for your mommy. And that’s what the Caps are doing to the opposition these days.

In seasons past, this team would mail it in for half the game and then come out flying for an exciting finish – exciting because you legitimately didn’t know if they were going to be able to come back or if they’d dug too deep of a hole.

Well, the Caps have evolved this season. They don’t get rattled when things aren’t going their way early on. They don’t panic when an opponent has them on the ropes. It’s scary to say this, but they now have a veteran mindset of, “We’ve been here before and we know what we have to do to get this game back,” and then they go out in the third period and make it happen.

It’s like when Joe Gibbs was still the master of his domain during his first go-round. He was superb at seeing what the opposition was giving him and making halftime adjustments. This Caps team is able to take a team’s best shot early, not lose their focus and still emerge victorious in impressive fashion.

If the “cutesy” passes aren’t working, Mike Knuble has now showed his teammates that it’s okay to score ugly goals from close range. If one line seems off, Boudreau doesn’t need to shuffle his entire lineup because he’s got faith in the rest of the rotation. If Semin can’t keep himself out of the penalty box, then guys like David Steckel and Boyd Gordon are more than capable of killing off the penalty.

Everyone keeps saying the Capitals need to make a move prior to the trading deadline, and they very well might pull the trigger if general manager George McPhee thinks he can improve his team’s chances for an extended postseason run.

But this team, as presently constructed, is proving they know how to win. Not only that, but they can win ugly. They can win the types of games they let slip away as recently as a season ago. You don’t go 38-12-6 by accident. You don’t outscore your opponents 51-22 on accident. You certainly don’t set a 35-year-old franchise’s record for consecutive wins by sheer luck.

This team is the real deal. Wins like this show that even on nights when everything isn’t going as smoothly as Boudreau might hope, his players have enough experience to pull it together when the game is on the line. There’s no need for pep talks or dramatic speeches. Save those for the movies. These guys just go out in Gilbert Arenas fashion, lay a few weapons in front of you and dare you to pick one.

Ovechkin is off his game? No problem. Semin can’t stay out of the sin bin? No sweat. Theodore is having a slow start? Doesn’t matter.

This isn’t a one-dimensional squad. They don’t care how the victory comes, they just find a way to earn the two points.

Who knows how much longer the winning streak can last or how deep of a playoff run this team has in it, but games like this one suggest you’d be foolish to bet against the Caps.

(photo by Brian Murphy)

Let’s be honest, not much was known about Jason Chimera prior to his arrival in town.

Before this season, casual fans had little reason to know of him and really, the only reason his name might sound familiar this year is because of a dust up he had with Alex Ovechkin when the Columbus Blue Jackets came to town back in November.

Who could have guessed that a few short months later Capitals general manager George McPhee would trade for the 30-year-old forward in a deal that sent former captain Chris Clark and defenseman Milan Jurcina to Columbus?

We tracked down the newest member of the Capitals to find out first hand how D.C. has been treating him.

Okay, so how’s the transition going as you adjust to playing in a new city for a new team?

“It’s been good so far,” Chimera said. “It’s one of those things that takes a while to get everyone shipped over and settled in. It’s going to take some time to get used to it, but I think it’s coming along. I’m starting to feel better on the ice, and that helps a bit too when you’re contributing. It’s a hard move, when you’re coming in mid-season and you don’t know any of the guys and you’re learning a new system, but fortunately it’s coming along faster than I thought.”

What’s your early impression of your new locker room?

“Hockey players in general are good guys,” he said. “It’s easy to get along with most of them. Sure, you might get along with some guys more than others, but in general hockey guys are pretty open and honest. They welcomed me right away here, so that’s been good.”

We’d be hard pressed to find two offenses more different than Bruce Boudreau’s philosophy and that of Ken Hitchcock. How tough has it been to transition from one end of the hockey spectrum to the other?

“It’s different, that’s for sure,” Chimera said. “The first couple games I was thinking more than I should have when I should have just been playing. It’s one of those things that once you get used to the new style of play you can just go out there and play now. But those first four or five games I was like a little kid or Bambi out there. I didn’t know where to go or what I should be doing, but it’s coming along and I’m feeling better.

“We’ve also stuck with the same lines for a couple games now and that’s helped too,” he said. “Having the same guys out there so you get used them a little bit helps too.”

Our advice? Don’t get used to it. Boudreau loves to switch lines around whenever the mood strikes him.

“Yeah, I’ve already heard that,” Chimera said. “But it is nice when you keep a line together for a little while and it shows you’re playing well and things are going good. So far he’s keeping us together, so that’s a good thing.”

You’re a tough dude to figure out. You’ve got speed enough to keep up with the finesse players in the league, but you’re also not afraid to be physical and work in the corners. How would you describe your game to those who might not be familiar with you?

“I think I just use my speed to create opportunities,” he said. “I get in there on the forecheck quite a bit and try to finish my checks. I think I can score goals in this league pretty good too. It’s just one of those things – I can use my speed and go wide to get to the net or I can use my size to go up the middle. I’ve always liked the physical part of the game and I think it gets me in the game a lot more when I go out there and start hitting people. It’s fun when you play that style, and those types of games are my favorites.”

You’ve barely settled in here, so we’re not foolish enough to ask you to make long-term plans, but is this a situation you could envision being a part of for a while?

“Yeah, no one wants to move around all the time,” Chimera said. “When this summer comes around I don’t want to be traded again or anything like that. I want to be here for good and hopefully end my career here. I plan to stay here until they try to kick me out. Hopefully this is just the start of a long relationship.

“I’m a proud guy when it comes to who I play for and I always respect the sweater I play for,” said Chimera. “With such a history, this is a sweater you want to play for. You see the home crowds and you just want to be here. This is one of those hockey markets where the team is going to be good for a long time because we’ve got so many good, young players. It’s just exciting to be a part of and I hope to be here for a long, long time.”

Everyone knows about the big names like Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin and Green. We’re interested to hear your take on some of the other guys on this roster who stood out to you when you played against the Capitals?

“You always see those highly-skilled guys on the highlights, but sometimes people forget about the sneaky skilled guys like Brendan Morrison, who I’ve played against for years out west,” he said. “He’s one of the most talented players I’ve played against. And I’ve played against [Mike] Knuble for a long time. He’s been putting pucks in the net for a long time. He’s always standing in front of the net making things happen and he’s a great guy. He’s in his upper 30’s and he’s still playing like he’s 22.

“All these guys can skate and most of these guys have the size too,” Chimera said. “I came in here at 6-2 and I feel like a shrimp. It’s just a big team with a lot of skill that’s a lot of fun to play with.”

In the 16 games since his arrival, Chimera has three goals and six assists for nine points while averaging roughly 12 minutes of ice time a night.

For comparision’s sake, Chimera had eight goals and nine assists for 17 points while averaging just under 15 minutes a game in 39 games for Columbus this year. It should also be noted that Chimera had a plus/minus of -7 with the Blue Jackets, and is currently a plus four for the Caps.

And, oh by the way, the Capitals have gone 13-3 since his arrival, while the Blue Jackets have gone just 7-10 without him. We’re not saying that Chimera is the reason the Caps are riding a 10-game winning streak or why Columbus is under .500, we’re simple presenting the numbers and letting you do with it what you may.

As Chimera said, he’s beginning to develop a comfort skating on the third line with center Brendan Morrison and winger Eric Fehr. None of the three would qualify as flashy, but clearly Boudreau is happy with them. Otherwise he’d have changed his lines half a dozen times by now.

Folks might not have thought it was possible after the lockout and during the rebuilding years when crowds were sparse at best, but Washington is now one of the premiere destinations in the NHL. Chimera knows the hockey gods have smiled upon him allowing him to leave Hitchcock’s snoozefest for Boudreau’s run-and-gun style of play.

And best of all, Chimera is on the books until after the 2011-12 season. So he’s not going anywhere unless management has a change of heart and moves him. It’s clear he feels fortunate to have landed here and is more than happy to do whatever he can to help the Capitals continue their winning ways.

He’s not a marquee player like Dion Phaneuf, but chances are Chimera will be a regular contributor on a legitimate Stanley Cup contender this year. What more could he or Caps fans ask for?

(photo by Mitchell Layton)

Forget tying a franchise record for consecutive wins or avenging the only loss in the last 13 games. That stuff’s great, but we’re focusing on the bigger picture.

Sunday’s 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning was one that the Washington Capitals of old would have easily let slip away.

Earlier incarnations of this Caps squad were so reliant on the “Young Guns,” that if Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green had an off night, the rest of the roster was typically unable to overcome it.

Well, this team is so loaded with talent – most of which is homegrown, we should add – that, thankfully, that’s not the case anymore.

With Green shelved for three games for an errant elbow and the Alex’s looking like their respective alarm clocks didn’t go off until roughly 20 minutes before game time, the Capitals still managed to squeak by a divisional opponent to secure a 10th consecutive victory.

Look, we fully realize how fortunate we are that the best hockey player on the planet laces ‘em up for the home team. And yes, there are many nights when Ovi decides to put the team on his back and almost single-handedly propels the Caps to victory. We’re not taking anything away from the guy.

But it wasn’t halfway through the first period Sunday when we were sending messages to our buddies asking for volunteers for someone to take a trip to the Russia House to politely ask the bartenders to not serve Ovechkin or Semin after midnight on the night before a matinee game. That’s how sluggish the dynamic duo looked for much of the game.

Here’s what stuck out during the early stages of Sunday’s affair:

Normally Ovechkin is the one throwing his body around, but for the first time in a long time he was being “out physicaled” by a motivated Lightning team. Normally when an opponent is foolish enough to take the body on Ovechkin it only fires him up. For whatever reason, that wasn’t the case yesterday.

Even when Tampa Bay wasn’t taking the body, Ovechkin was hitting the ice far more frequently than usual. We’d be hard pressed to remember the last game Ovi was essentially tripping over his own feet with no one else around him.

When he took off a skate and handed it to one of the equipment guys on the bench after a first-period shift, it was almost like he was thinking “It’s got to be my skates. This isn’t like me.”

Quick tangent: His sticks were still snapping at their normal rate, but that’s something we’re accustomed to at this point. We know Ovechkin prefers a lightweight stick with lots of flexibility, but scientists could make millions if they were to develop a stick that accommodates the superstar while not exploding every fourth shot he takes.

(We invented a drinking game a while back that’s fun for all. Every time an Ovechkin stick breaks or defenseman John Erskine loses his stick, you take a drink. Suffice to say, mass quantities are consumed.)

So yeah, he wasn’t flying around with his usual fervor and looked like he was breaking in a new pair of skates for the first time. Oh, and 11 of Ovechkin’s 19 shots were blocked by Lightning defenders. Two shots missed the net completely. All of this sounds like a beer-league hockey player, not Ovechkin the Russian Machine.

And yet, the Capitals won the game. That’s because the rest of the roster is now more than capable of picking up the slack until Ovechkin felt like taking over the game. Once the Lightning tied the game 2-2 early in the third period, Ovi picked up the pace and snuck the eventual game winner past Lightning goalie Mike Smith with 6:26 left in regulation.

After the goal, Ovechkin glided over to the corner and casually bumped into the boards, instead of throwing his body against the glass with his usual reckless abandon.

We’re not hating on the big guy. We fully understand that no one can bring their ‘A game’ for 82 consecutive games – not even a superhuman like Ovechkin. We’re simply illustrating just how off the two-time league MVP was to show that his supporting cast is fully capable of sharing the load these days.

Backstrom and Brooks Laich provided the scoring early on for the Capitals. With Green out of the lineup, guys like Brian Pothier and Tyler Sloan stepped up to provide the necessary support on the blue line. And goalie Jose Theodore played rock solid between the pipes after missing the previous two games due to a lower-body injury.

It wasn’t pretty, but in the end, it doesn’t matter. The Capitals still earned two points for the win and most importantly, they showed they’re more than capable of winning in the rare instances when Ovechkin doesn’t have it.

For that reason alone, this victory might be the most impressive during the winning streak. Everyone knows this team can outscore the Redskins when everything is clicking, but games like this send a message to the rest of the league that the Capitals aren’t one dimensional.

Even if an opponent finds a way to slow down Ovechkin, there’s still more than enough talent in Bruce Boudreau’s lineup to get the job done. That’s great news for Caps fans. Not so much for the opposition.

(photo by Jim McIsaac)

Last night, the Washington Capitals cruised to an impressive 5-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks for their eighth-consecutive win and improved to 11-1 since Alex Ovechkin was named captain.

This is noteworthy because the last time the Washington Capitals won eight games in a row was way back in March of 1989.

Read that again and think about just how long it’s been. Seriously, a kid born that month can legally drink this year.

During that streak, the Caps feasted on teams such as the Winnipeg Jets, Hartford Whalers and Pittsburgh Penguins – all teams that have since drifted away to obscurity.

Although forwards Mike Ridley and Geoff Courtnall each finished the season with 40 goals, the strength of that Capitals squad was a defensive rotation featuring Rod Langway, Scott Stevens, Kevin Hatcher and Larry Murphy (no relation). You’d be hard pressed to find a better blueline.

Rain Man won the Academy Award for best picture. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin earned album of the year at the Grammy Awards. Milli Vanilli had just released “Girl You Know It’s True.” People thought the New Kids On The Block actually had talent.

Seinfeld and the Sega Genesis didn’t exist yet, and Grunge was just taking off. Slap bracelets were still awesome. This was the year that brought The Arsenio Hall Show, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Saved by the Bell into our lives.

Lucille Ball, Mel Blanc and Gilda Radner were still alive. Hayden Panettiere (the chick from Heroes), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Chris Brown (abusive boyfriend) hadn’t been born.

A gallon of gas was $1.12. A dozen eggs were less than a dollar. A first-class stamp was still only a quarter.

The Capitals still played their home games at the Caps Centre, were in the Patrick Division and the Wales Conference.

Mike Knuble was 16 and learning to drive. Alex Ovechkin was only three and most likely enjoying nap time back in Russia. Braden Holtby wasn’t born for another six months.

Bruce Boudreau, the hockey player, was splitting time in the AHL between the Springfield Indians and Newmarket Saints. George McPhee’s playing days were over and he was working on his next career move. Ted Leonsis didn’t become involved with AOL for another four years.

Like we said at the top, it’s been a long, long time since this team was this good. We’ve included two post-game videos below in which Ovechkin and defenseman Shaone Morrisonn talk about the win over the Ducks. Both are much more qualified than we are to talk about how the game against Anaheim was won.

We just thought a little perspective was in order to show just how well this team is playing and to give people an idea of how far back you have to go to find the last Capitals team that performed at this level. So yeah, enjoy it. Moments like this don’t come around very often.