Here’s my thoughts and analysis on this big victory for the Capitals:

Okay, so just how good is Nicklas Backstrom and how much is it going to cost GM George McPhee to sign this incredible player long term??!! My response: As great as I think he is, he is even better and I don’t care what the price will be, you have to pay the man. My gut tells me #19 will get around $6.5 to $7M a season. Ovechkin is the best player in the league but Backstrom, in my book, is easily in the top 10. He is so strong on his skates and he has amazing hands as evidenced by the skill and quick release he showed on his two tallies today. All of us in the MD-DC-VA area who watch Backstrom game in and game out know how good he is and today all of North America witnessed the brilliance that is #19.

More Backstrom: On the shift where he scores the winning goal, the young center actually turned the puck over at his own blue line, and it was a bad giveaway, but instead of pouting, lollygagging, or taking a penalty that another highly skilled forward on the team might have done in that situation, #19 back checked hard and helped to break up any opportunity Chicago had of getting a scoring chance. Then the super Swede took the puck the other way and made Olympian Brent Seabrook look like an orange road cone and Hawks goalie Antti Niemi appear to be nothing more than the shooter tutor to close out a thrilling Capitals comeback victory.

Both Mike Milbury and Pierre McGuire said that the major penalty call on the Great #8 was incorrect and the hit on #51, at most, was a double minor for boarding. Boudreau was clearly incensed at the call and told referees Dan O’Halloran and Frederick L’Ecuyer what he thought of their decision (we can all read lips, right?). The good news is Ovechkin won’t be eligible for an automatic suspension as he has gone 41 games without a major for boarding (h/t Nate Ewell) but the bad news is Campbell is hurt. In addition, Caps fans will likely have to hear the words “reckless” and “out of control” once again from some biased members of the media. The Great #8 was finishing his check on the Hawks D-man after he had released the puck but right as Ovie was hitting him, Campbell turned and with the force at which both were going plus the size of Ovechkin something had to give, and unfortunately #51 went flying awkwardly into the boards. To me it is two for boarding but as Milbury correctly pointed out between periods (did I just really say Milbury and correct in the same sentence?), the officials overreacted, likely due to all of the recent uproar over hits to the head (which this one was not). My take on this one:  if the David Koci hit from behind on Mike Green is not a suspendable offense than how the heck is this Ovechkin check worthy of one? But the Caps and their fans are now at the mercy of the league office.

Speaking of rules and officials, Dave Steckel showed today why no touch icing doesn’t have a place in the NHL as his hustle led to the tying goal. #39 made a super play behind the Hawks net and hit a perfectly positioned Eric Fehr in front, who snapped the puck by Niemi for his 18th goal of the season, just 13 seconds after the Great Backstrom had just made this a one score game (which came as a Washington 5 on 3 power play was expiring).

After Brooks Laich legally finished his check on Patrick Kane and sent him flying into the net late in the first period, Hawks Coach Joel Quennville sent out pesky Adam Burish to try and set a tone for his club. Burish proceeded to attempt to run Green through the boards from behind in a much worse fashion than the Ovechkin hit (due to the intent) and then #37 threw an elbow and two cheap cross checks yet only received two penalty minutes from the two zebras??!!

I can’t fault Jose Theodore for any of the Chicago goals and he did make some good saves in this contest. However, after the first period he didn’t have to do much as it was all Caps - they outshot Chicago 21-11 from that point on (30-23 overall for the game). The second Hawks goal came on a 5 on 3 courtesy of the Ovechkin major and a really bad penalty, but correct call, on Alexander Semin. Semin, who had a shorthanded breakaway, tried about eight too many moves, did not get a good shot off, and then went crashing into Niemi to receive a well deserved goalie interference penalty. #28 has to release the puck sooner and make sure he takes a better angle on his way past the goal. Frankly, he looked almost as foolish as he did in last Monday’s shootout loss against Dallas, except this time he couldn’t blame a rut in the ice for his fall on this play in Chicago.

With all of the lineup shuffling that has been going on lately by Boudreau, I would surmise that the 12 forwards and six defenseman that played today are your post season game one starters, assuming everyone is healthy. The only change could be Scott Walker inserted for one of the 4th line guys, depending on the Capitals first round opponent. Walker, Brendan Morrison, Quintin Laing, John Erskine, and Tyler Sloan were the scratches in Chicago, for those keeping score at home.

The Hawks first goal was scored on a 4 on 4 play off of a face-off on a sequence that found Jonathan Toews all alone in front. My first reaction on the play was where was the other defenseman playing with Tom Poti? On replay Joe Corvo goes with his man off the drop of the puck and Steckel did not cover for him. Eddie Olcyzk of NBC criticized #39 but given the system the Caps play perhaps #77 should have been pointed out as the guy at fault? Given that he is just 10 days into the Washington system, I would give him a break on that one if he was really supposed to “stay home” on the play. Next time I get the chance I will ask Boudreau about that play to get his take on who should have been doing what in that situation.

Notes: Chicago crushed the Caps, 30-19, in face-offs…Green had over 30 minutes of ice time, added two assists, and was +2…the Capitals have three more games on the road this week: at Florida on Tuesday, at Carolina on Thursday, and at Tampa on Saturday.

Coming into Friday evening’s game against the Caps, Tampa Bay goalie Antero Niittymaki was 4-0 in his last four outings vs. Washington and #30 did it once again to DC on this night. The net minder held the fort for the Bolts over the first 30 minutes while the Caps fired shot after shot on him, including 12 straight to start the second period. However, all Washington could garner to that point was a Tomas Fleischmann power play one-timer off of a super Ovechkin feed at 16:54 of the opening period. It was the sixth straight game that the Caps opened the scoring.

After Tampa tied it late in the first period (Brandon Bochenski snapper inside the far post), the Caps put on the heat to start the middle stanza but could not score. Then the tide turned after a lazy play by Alexander Semin that gave the Bolts an offensive zone face-off. #28, instead of taking one more stride to get to the red line, shot the puck into the Lightning zone before hitting the mid stripe forcing a tired Washington crew to take a d-zone draw. Nate Thompson won the face-off to Stephane Veilleux and he sent it back to defenseman Matt Walker. Walker’s point blast then deflected off of the skate of Brooks Laich and up past Semyon Varlamov (24 saves), who was down in the butterfly position. The tally gave Tampa life and they started to dominate play for the rest of the period. Less than 4 minutes later another Walker point shot hit off of the elbow of Vincent Lecavalier, who was working hard to get to the front of the net, and it went by Varlamov to make it 3-1. The officials initially waved the goal off, they thought it hit a high stick, but a video review correctly reversed the call on the ice. Washington would add a power play marker by Laich with 8:51 remaining in the contest but despite having the puck most of the way down the stretch they didn’t battle hard enough in front of the Tampa goalie to get a good chance at an equalizer.

“It was probably the best road game we played all year. Not just because we beat Washington. The overall game. They came pretty hard beginning of the second period, first ten minutes, but other than that we were in total control the whole time. Guys played hard. They got two nice power-play goals, but they’ve got all those guys out there, so it’s going to happen. We didn’t get rattled. We played a really good game,” said the Finnish net minder, who the Caps will likely see in Tampa next Saturday night.

Here are my thoughts, analysis, and some quotes from a game that was not very entertaining to watch:

Ovechkin had 1 shot on goal and only two hits. He did have two power play assists but at even strength his line could not get going prompting Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau to move Semin up to replace Mike Knuble in the latter half of this contest. Lightning coach Rick Tocchet credited defenseman Mike Lundin with shutting down the Great #8 but Ovie just didn’t seem his usual self on Friday either.

“He did a really nice job. [Alex] Ovechkin’s the best player in the world. You’ve got [to] play on your toes against him. You can’t play on your heels. Lunds [Lundin] was gapping up well with him. Give Lunds [Lundin] lots of credit. He did a nice job,” said Tocchet on the play of his 6-2, 197 lbs d-man.

The line-up shuffling continued on Friday in an attempt for Boudreau to get everyone game ready for the post season and this iteration resulted in two of the top six Washington defensemen sitting in the press box in Jeff Schultz and John Carlson. Seventh on the depth chart, in my opinion, is in Hershey (Karl Alzner) so John Erskine and Tyler Sloan got some action and neither was very good. Yes, they could use rust as an excuse but it is clear there is a drop off in ability with #4 and #89 compared to the rest of the blue line crew. In addition, Boyd Gordon and Eric Belanger were scratched up front, along with the other standard forward scratch, Quintin Laing. Boudreau said after the game that he has no idea when the shuffling will stop but given that the playoffs are still a month away it does not make sense to have the same five guys sit every game.

Varlamov took the loss in net but the only goal you could conceivably blame on him was the first, and even I won’t go there. The first tally was on a 2 on 1 break as Mike Green got caught at the red line before Varly was beaten on a nice shot by Bochenski. Some will argue he should have come out and challenged more but #40 had to wait to figure out what his lone defenseman, Shaone Morrisonn, was going to do on the play: cut off the pass or take the shooter. #26 was a little hesitant with his decision forcing Varly to hang back a hair too long. But let’s be real, the culprit on goal number one was Green. As mentioned above the second and third goals were both deflections from guys in front of the Caps goalie so putting the loss on #40 seems rather ridiculous to me and the head coach confirmed it afterwards.

“You want to blame that one on the goalie? Come on?!…We got outworked,” finished Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau.

Outworked is correct and that was the reason Washington lost, plain and simple. Next up for the Capitals are the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday at the United Center at 1230pm on NBC. This should be a good one, except for the commentary from Mike Milbury.

Notes: Forward Eric Fehr had his legs taken out from under him in the second period and he was helped down the tunnel to the dressing room but he later returned, although he didn’t have the same jump he had before that play occurred (and the referees missed a penalty there too). The Caps won the face-off battle, 32-18. Washington was 2 for 4 on the power play while the Bolts failed on their only attempt. Tampa is in 10th place in the East, four points behind 8th place Boston and one point in back of the 9th place Rangers. Tampa forward Steven Stamkos, who has 42 goals and is right on the heels of Crosby and Ovechkin, was held without a point for the first time in 18 contests.

The victory pushes the Capitals to 99 points (45-13-9) with 15 games to go in the regular season. They have a 15 point lead on second place Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference (the Pens have a game in hand) and in the race for the President’s Trophy they lead second place San Jose by six points (the Sharks have two games in hand).

Here are the highlights, analysis, and quotes from the victory that puts the Caps just a game away from potentially going over the century mark in points at the earliest point in a season in franchise history:

You might find this surprising, but one of the best players on the ice tonight did not score a point, was even for the game and was not on for any goals against either. This Capital had seven hits, logged 18:59 of ice time (including 4:55 on the penalty kill - 2nd most on the club), and blocked two shots. His defensive partner, John Carlson, had an assist on the Caps first goal by Alexander Semin but #74 and this player, according to the official scorers, changed before #28 buried the puck, which prevented them from getting a plus. In addition this defenseman did a super job of keeping the shooting lanes open for Theodore and he tied up opposing players sticks or bodies in front to deny the Canes from scoring all evening. He also did not take a single penalty. It was one of the best games I have seen this guy play all year so congrats Shaone Morrisonn for a very good performance! I’m pretty sure the coaches will recognize it and if you continue to play like that on a consistent basis the Caps are going to have a really good chance of winning Lord Stanley. So Kudos #26.

As for the rest of the d-men, Mike Green obviously was the most noticeable scoring two power play goals but he tripped Sutter to give the Cane a penalty shot and he also made a terrible giveaway that allowed Chad Larose to set up Tuomo Ruutu for the goal that knotted this one at two goals apiece in period two. #52, who was on the ice with partner Jeff Schultz for two of the three Carolina goals, led Washington in ice time logging 26:22 but was -1. #55 did not have one of his better games as he was slow to the puck on the play that eventually led to Green’s d-zone blunder and he screened Theodore on the Hurricanes third goal (power play tally). Joe Corvo and Tom Poti were okay as a pair on Wednesday with my biggest problem being that they were the duo that allowed Whitney to break in the clear on #60 a couple of times.

“He had two goals and a beautiful assist, but the assist was to the other team. His idea was right, but he was just being too casual and trying to finesse the puck in there. Everything that is passed has to be a hard pass. It has to be, it’s the only way it works,” said Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau, who was clearly critical of #52’s brutal giveaway.

Up front, Semin (goal, +1, 5 shots on net) continues to own Carolina and he has three goals in three contests played against them this season, and 22 goals in 27 career games. #28 created a lot of opportunities with Brendan Morrison and Fleischmann. Morrison, who struggled against Tampa last Thursday was much better tonight and if he could just finish on some of his opportunities his season could end up being more like what we saw from him in the first 35 games. Belanger (1 assist, +1) and Brooks Laich (1 assist in 18:58) also had solid evenings. Alexander Ovechkin had an assist in 21:23 but his timing with Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Knuble was slightly off and all were minus players on the night (Knuble was -2). However, since the Great #8 donned the “C” the Caps are a staggering 21-2-3.

Special teams played a big role in this one and Washington’s much maligned penalty killing allowed another goal but was better going 4 for 5. The team was much more aggressive on the puck and didn’t allow the Canes to get set up very often. The Caps power play was a difference maker going 2 for 4 with the only blemish being the trip by #52 that resulted in a penalty shot. The Capitals are now 13-2-2 on the season when they score two or more power-play goals.

“[The] power play was very effective tonight and our p-kill [penalty kill] I felt was a lot better. We gave up a goal, but they made a good play and things are going to happen, we just need to make an adjustment. But I felt that our penalty kill was the best penalty kill since I came over here,” said Belanger.

With 15 fowards and 8 defenseman Boudreau continues to rotate players in and out with Eric Fehr and Jason Chimera joining the frequently scratched Quintin Laing up front while John Erskine joined the other usual defensive scratch, Tyler Sloan, in the press box on Wednesday. Clearly it is a tough thing to do to keep moving guys in and out but in the long run this will pay off for the Caps in the playoffs by keeping guys more fresh and thus making them less likely to get injured.

“It is March 10th and the playoffs don’t start until about April 18th so I don’t want to set the lineup and then have someone get hurt and have to put someone in who has been out for 30 days…so I don’t like it, but as long as we can, we’ll keep rotating guys in and out of the line-up,” added Boudreau on his game to game logic on who plays and who sits.

The Capitals have scored first in each of their five games after the Olympic break and are now 30-6-5 on the year when they are the initial ones to light the lamp. Next up for the Caps are the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night at the Verizon Center. The Caps will clinch their third straight Southeast Divsion title, a race that has pretty much been over since November, if the Atlanta Thrashers lose on Thursday or if the Caps pick up a point in their next tilt against the Bolts.

Here are the highlights, quotes and analysis from this one:

Sometimes you run into a goalie who is having one of those unbelievable nights and you lose in a game you totally dominated. This was the case on Monday as Washington rang up 42 shots in two periods to just 16 for the Stars and led 2-0 at that point. Overall the shot board read 52-26 at the end of the evening and because of the effort his team put forth Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau was not very upset at all in his post game presser. In fact, the coach was very amenable to answering any questions thrown his way after the game and was his usual honest self in his assessment of his team.

“It’s not every day that you fire 52 shots at them, it was a lot of long ones but at the same time he made a lot of really good saves, especially on the five on three..we’ve seen what he can do in past years and he was on top of his game tonight. They get two power play goals so I’m more disturbed about that…The third [Stars goal] it looked like it was tipped or either fluttering and the second one we knew [Semyon Varlamov] didn’t see it because we had a pretty good vantage point from the bench..I thought the whole team had a hiccup in the third period,” said Boudreau, who afterwards humorously added that the team is still undefeated in regulation in the last 14 games at the Verizon Center.

Varlamov was very good for two periods when he had to be but in the third the Stars scored two power play goals with heavy traffic in front from Brendan Morrow. The first penalty, on Mike Green, was not a good one by #52 while the next infraction that was whistled on Matt Bradley (holding) was a suspect call. The Caps are struggling on the penalty kill and they must sure up that current weakness, they rank 25th in the NHL at 79.1%, before the post season. After giving up the two tallies Varly appeared to lose some confidence and have problems with rebound control. The third goal that put Dallas up also looked to have deflected off of defenseman Joe Corvo’s stick, but #40 still should have made the stop.

There was lots of good news on Wednesday despite the loss and the biggest was the outstanding play from Alexander Ovechkin. The Great #8 notched two tallies, including an absolutely breathtaking game tying goal with just 3:16 remaining in regulation. Ovechkin took a Nicklas Backstrom pass at the blue line, skated into the offensive zone, faked Dallas defenseman Stephane Robidas out of his jock with an outside in move and then simply ripped one top shelf by Turco. The only way that laser was going to be stopped was if the net was covered completely with a slab of wood. Ovechkin fired 10 shots on goal and could have had four or five if not for the stellar play of Turco. Alexander the Great now has 44 goals and is once again tied with Sidney Crosby in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy with 16 contests remaining.

“You could see it. He looked up at the sky, and he had been frustrated the past few games. I told him this morning, you just have to work harder. I thought he was in a mode where he was waiting for the play to come to him instead of going out and creating the play. But you saw in his first two or three shifts in the game he was going out and hitting guys and he had his energy back. When he has his energy, he is what he is: the best player in the world,” added Boudreau when asked if his team captain was relieved to end his six game NHL goal scoring drought.

Tom Poti scored the first goal for Washington after some fine work by the fourth line of Dave Steckel, Boyd Gordon, and Matt Bradley. That trio was reunited for the first time since the Caps 3-1 victory in Buffalo last Wednesday. Poti was a team best +2 in 24:11 of ice time.

“It was nice to see him shoot the puck. He really doesn’t shoot enough, but he has the capability of being a really good offensive defenseman. For a guy who plays 20-plus minutes a game, I thought he was really solid,” commented Boudreau on the Boston University alum.

Since Corvo came over from Carolina and John Carlson was recalled from Hershey last Wednesday Boudreau has been able to play three right handed defenseman (Green being the third) who are fleet of foot and can rush the puck. The coach is happy to finally have that formula and he says despite Carlson being a rookie he is going to get an extended to look to show he belongs up for the playoffs.

“I think that is something I’ve wanted all year and especially we missed it since we traded [Milan] Jurcina. We are living a little bit with Carlson’s mistakes in his own zone but I mean the more he plays the better he is going to get. I thought he was a little reckless tonight on a few occassions but it is still 16 games to go before the playoffs so I’d rather him learn in those situations and not play him because every time he made a mistake he’ll be holding his stick too tight…if he continues to play well I don’t think he is going too far. He might not play every game because of the numbers but he is probably going to stick around,” finished Boudreau on the right side of his defense and #74.

Recently acquired center Eric Belanger anchored the second line with Alexander Semin and Brooks Laich and played as well as you can without scoring a goal. Boudreau commented afterwards that the ”line is really fast.” I had a chance to catch up with #18 after the contest.

On the overall effort:

“I thought we played a strong game, we didn’t give up much defensively and we had a lot of chances to score goal offensively, we didn’t connect tonight, but it was there..pucks were going over sticks or going in the corner, it was one of those things where if we start clicking we can score alot of goals.”

On the team’s penalty killing (Note: Belanger did not see any PK time on Monday):

“I think you can ask the coaches for that. You know I just got here and I’m trying to get the system. It is one of those things where you are struggling on the PK or on the power play and I know we are in the game and maybe thinking a little bit too much and we just need to get back to the basics and things are going to work out.”

On playing Dallas and trying to move Morrow from in front of the net:

“Yeah, he plays well and this is a team that plays a well structured game and they have some guys that can put the puck in the net and you see tonight Turco made some big saves to keep them in the game.”

What was the attitude on the bench after two periods scoring only twice on 42 shots?:

“You stay positive and you do more of the same things that you did. When you get over 50 shots in a game you are doing a lot of good things and we still got a point out of this game.”

What did you guys say afterwards to each other?:

“Nothing. I don’t think we need to say anything. We are just going to go back at it tomorrow and work on things that we are struggling with.”

How do you like playing with Semin and Laich?:

“I felt that we had a strong game, we didn’t give up much defensively, and we had a lot of chances offensively. It is just one of those things where it was just bouncing over our sticks. If we start clicking I think we can be a productive line and start scoring some big goals for this team.”

Next up for the Caps are the Carolina Hurricanes at the Verizon Center on Wednesday at 7pm.

The win takes the Caps record to an amazing 44-13-8 (96 points) and with 17 contests remaining they should easily eclipse last season’s 108 points, which was the most in franchise history. The victory was also a Capitals club record 13th straight at home.

Let’s get to the highlights, quotes, and analysis:

“I thought he was great. I thought he was by far our best player,” started Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau on Theodore, “If they had scored at anytime that would have been a turning point and it would have given them energy. Any time they were putting pressure on us Jose would get it and he would stop it and he would not let a rebound go tonight and I think that is the key to his game and he is brimming with confidence. We hope he can keep it up and he gives us a lot of opitons in goal,” finished the head coach on his red hot goalie.

This was the first time in 24 games that the Caps did not score at least three goals (h/t @VogsCaps) and the first time since November 11th they didn’t tally in the third period at home (h/t @nateewell). I’m not surprised that this was the one where those runs were halted because Coach John Tortorella’s club is a pain to play against. New York was physical and content to play a dump the puck and chase type of contest which made it difficult for Washington to get their transition game going. Alex Auld (28 saves) was also pretty good in goal. I surmise that Tortorella was tired of seeing Alexander Ovechkin, who failed to score for the sixth straight game, light up his top net minder, King Henrik Lundqvist, so he went with the goalie they claimed off of waivers from Dallas last month and the decision nearly paid off.

The Caps power play was 1 for 4 on the night and the lone goal came at the completion of a rush with just two seconds left in a 1:45 five on three advantage (courtesy of some stupid Rangers penalties) . Defenseman Joe Corvo started the scoring sequence with a nice pass up the ice to Tomas Fleischmann at the Rangers blue line. Flash skated in, then sent a cross ice pass to the slot that Brooks Laich must have just missed because he did not get an assist on the play and the biscuit rolled far post to Eric Fehr, who roofed it for his 17th goal of the season. Washington, with a 2-0 lead, then received two power plays in the last five minutes and it seemed the focus was to get Ovechkin going because the team repeatedly sent the puck to the Great #8 for some point blasts. Auld, however, would deny Ovechkin, who now trails Sidney Crosby by two goals in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy (most goals in NHL). My biggest beef with the man advantage this evening was what happened near the end of Dubinsky’s minor with just over two minutes remaining in the game when the Caps nearly gave up a two on none rush, but luckily the Rangers went offside. With a 2-0 lead that late in the contest the Washington players need to be smarter because what occurred was a MAJOR brain cramp by the five guys on the ice, especially the forwards who should have been covering for Mike Green (who was the one who led the rush just prior to a New York stretch pass that nearly resulted in a golden Rangers scoring opportunity).

“We talked this morning about our power play, just trying to get a goal, specialty teams is what wins you playoff games and I thought we did that tonight,” said Fehr.

The Rangers were 0 for 2 on the man advantage so overall the Caps won the special teams battle on Saturday, as Fehr said the team was focusing on, but the power play has not been clicking this week.

Washington’s second goal was another “pretty Caps goal” thanks to a super Alexander Semin pass. Morrisonn took a Rangers clear at the red line and snapped a pass to Semin at the blue line. In one quick motion #28 fired a super cross ice laser to Laich, who deftly swung it in the slot to Eric Belanger and #18 fired it five hole on Auld for his first goal as a Capital. It is a good thing Semin was involved in that tally because up to that point in the game he was pretty much a no show.

I exchanged texts this week with NHL Network “On the Fly” analyst Craig Button about Washington’s trade deadline acquisitions and Craig thought the four trades by GM George McPhee were good depth moves. However, the man who drafted Jarome Iginla 11th overall for the Dallas Stars back in 1995 felt that “To be successful in the playoffs the team needs to dig in on details or they’ll be on the precipice.” Based on what Boudreau said after the win tonight the Capitals coach is thinking the same way.

“They’ve been focusing on it alot whether it be practice or watching video after the Olympic break on defense and talking about it. When you’ve got a lot of skilled guys it’s difficult to reign them in,” said the 2007-08 Jack Adams award winning coach on the challenge he faces to get his club ready for playoff hockey.

With Ovechkin, Semin, and Nicklas Backstrom not putting up their usual offensive numbers since the Olympic break ended the Caps have been fortunate in the last two contests to get contributions from three of the players McPhee acquired on Wednesday. Belanger tallied tonight while Scott Walker had two goals on Thursday. To me the best acquisition of the bunch has been Corvo (1 assist on Saturday) because he is clearly a top four NHL defenseman and is a significant upgrade over the departed Brian Pothier. #77 logged 20:14 of ice time against the Rangers and most of that was paired with Tom Poti at even strength.

“I think this game I was a little bit more relaxed and just more aware of everything that was going on around me rather than being real nervous and kind of tight,” added Corvo on how he felt in his second game with Washington.

Boudreau now has 15 forwards and eight defenseman and he said he has 10 games to experiment with things before setting the line-up for the playoffs in the final seven contests. The head coach scratched Brendan Morrison, Boyd Gordon, John Erskine, Tyler Sloan, and Quintin Laing on Saturday. It was Morrison’s first missed game of the year but I am not surprised given how he has tailed off production wise and I thought he had a poor outing against the Lightning on Thursday. Gordon, however, has been playing super and I expect him back in on Monday. #15 was 12-2 on face-offs against Tampa and he is a very good penalty killer. I don’t know who Bruce will take out to get Gordo back in but my guess is it is one of Dave Steckel (9-3 on face-offs vs. New York), Matt Bradley (who was not happy about sitting vs. Tampa), or Walker. As for Erskine and Sloan, as long as rookie John Carlson (+1 in 14:15 of ice time) keeps playing the way he is going he is not coming out of the lineup. The 20 year old continues to improve on the back end and it is pretty scary to project how good #74 will eventually be when he physically matures.

Next up for Washington are the Dallas Stars on Monday night at 7pm at the Verizon Center. The game will be televised on Versus. There will be no Capitals practice on Sunday.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: I will be on WNST 1570 Baltimore at 10:25am on Sunday with Section 410 host Eric Aaronson talking Capitals Hockey. You can listen live via WNST.NET

Here are the highlights, quotes, & analysis from this one:

Washington owned Tampa coming into this season having defeated them all six times last year and when they easily beat the Bolts, 3-0, back in November they pushed their win streak against the Lightning to 12 straight games. That run ended in Tampa in January in a 7-4 loss and the last two meetings here at the Verizon Center have resulted in one goal victories for the Caps. The secret for the Lightning in keeping things tight with the Caps has been a potent power play and the Bolts were 2 for 5 in this one. A win is a win but Knuble felt the Caps were sloppy after taking a 4-2 lead with 9:49 left and he also says that Washington will see the opponents best games down the stretch, especially from teams like Tampa on the playoff bubble.

“We were a little bit sloppy and I think we just need to bear down a bit more. We got timely goals, Scott [Walker] got a couple goals and I thought the new guys came in and played well. I’ll call [what we need] bearing down a little more, maybe we need to feel threatened and we didn’t seem to be taking their attack seriously. There was a bounce or two there where they were inches away from tying the game. So we got a couple of breaks, a couple of lucky bounces again and ended it. It’s a little sloppy but it’s a win too,” started the man who has scored 15 goals in his last 18 games and 18 in the last 22, “We need to get the idea that these last 20 games are going to be a lot harder than the first 60…Tampa’s season is on the line, they’ve got to get points and make the playoffs. We’re going to get everyone’s best effort…We can’t just slough off and hope that someone makes a play to score a goal or keep it out, we’ve got to bear down.” finished the man who leads all players 33 or older in goals.

Lightning Coach Rick Tocchet, whose team is now three points out of playoff position, was not happy with his club as a whole.

“It’s always frustrating when you lose. There are certain guys, Martin St. Louis, obviously Steven Stamkos, I thought Vinny [Lecavalier] the last couple games came to play. Some other guys, I don’t know. I really don’t know. You got to block a shot or dive to get the puck out of your own end. Bite the puck to get it out of your own end. We need those types of players. There’s five or six of those guys that are costing us right now. Bottom line. The positives are that there are enough guys here that want to win and are playing hard. I’m really proud of those guys.”

Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau thrust all three new acquisitions, Walker, defenseman Joe Corvo, and center Eric Belanger into the line-up forcing out Matt Bradley, Dave Steckel, and John Erskine from Wednesday’s victorious roster in Buffalo. Clearly Walker was the most noticeable in just 7:33 of ice time. Boudreau wanted to play him more but because of all of the penalties in the second period he “had to sit.” Boudreau felt that Corvo (20:19) had a good game and the coach tried him on the point on the power play with Mike Green in the first period, forcing Alexander Ovechkin down low. The 2007-08 Jack Adams Award winner was critical of that decision saying “the coaching sloppiness resulted in the team becoming sloppy.” Washington was 0 for 3 with the man advantage on Thursday. Belanger logged 14:50, went +1, and won 5 of 12 face-offs.

The Capitals raced to a 3-1 advantage 28:21 into the contest but they then took four minor penalties in the next six minutes, three of which were within 56 seconds. Lecavalier (two goals) scored to make it 3-2 and after Green, Laich, and Poti all took minor infractions the Lightning had nearly three minutes to tie it up and then take the lead. Then Nicklas Backstrom, on a 4 on 3 penalty kill, broke his stick but managed to throw himself in front of successive Kurtis Foster blasts and lead his team in a momentum changing sequence. The work from #19 drew a lengthy ovation from the Verizon Center faithful and Boudreau felt that moment was a major key to the victory.

“I don’t know how many other superstars would be doing that, which is what makes him special, it was definitely a turning point. They had made it 3-2 and if they score when Nick is out there they still have a 5 on 4 again and they could have gotten the lead. It’s a lot different story playing with the lead than playing from behind,” said Boudreau on the importance of Backstrom sacrificing himself for the good of the team.

The difference in this game was the goaltending. Tampa’s Mike Smith gave up five tallies on 34 shots, some of which were of the soft variety, while Semyon Varlamov (25 saves) didn’t allow any questionable goals. Three of Tampa’s goals came in the slot as a result of poor Caps coverage and the other marker was from Lecavalier on a breakaway. Varly spoke with Russian newspaper reporter Slava Malamud afterwards and Slava told me that #40 felt he should not have gone for #4’s fake that got the young goalie out of position. Malamud mentioned that goaltending coach Arturs Irbe said that is something the 21 year old goalie will learn with experience. It is good to see Varly upset about giving up that goal but to be fair to him, Lecavalier has a Stanley Cup ring, was the first overall pick in the 1998 NHL draft, and is still one of the top players in the game when he wants to be. Malamud also added that Varlamov is totally healthy and learned alot about positioning from Vladislav Tretiak during his time with the legendary Russian goalie during the Olympics.

After Wednesday’s victory in Buffalo, Boudreau said he thought that the Olympic guys were tired and on Thursday it looked like Alexander Oveckhin (1 assist) and Alexander Semin (-1 in 19:00 of ice time) were still a little sluggish. The Great #8, who has not scored a goal for the Caps since his hat trick against Pittsburgh on February 7th (five game drought), had a breakaway in the second period but the puck rolled of his stick as he was making a move on Smith. He had some other decent chances but the biscuit is not bouncing Ovechkin’s way right now, but the good news is the Caps continue to win.

Next up for Washington are the New York Rangers on Saturday night at the Verizon Center. That game is the second on a five game home stand that sees the Capitals take the ice every other night.

Notes: Washington won the face-off battle, 33-28. Rookie defenseman John Carlson (20 years old), after two early giveaways, set up Tomas Fleischmann for a breakaway and broke up several passes in the second period. #74 had an overall strong game and was +1 in 14:46 of ice time. For Tampa, St. Louis had three assists in 21:35 of ice time and simply brings it on every shift. I spoke with him after the game and he was very disappointed with the loss while praising the Caps. “They are a good team, they are a division rivalry, we seem to give them good games but not good enough, you have to get a win with the playoff race right now.”

The win pushes the Caps to 42-13-8 overall and restores their 13 point lead over the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference with 19 games remaining. Washington now owns a three point lead on the San Jose Sharks in the race for the President’s Trophy. Let’s start with the highlights, quotes, and analysis of this victory and then I’ll provide some quotes and analysis on the trades the Caps made today.

Washington started slowly in this one taking two minor penalties and getting outshot 7-3 in the opening 10 minutes. After that, the Capitals dominated territorially holding a 37-17 shots advantage over the last 50 minutes. Even though the score was 1-1 in the second period you could see that the Caps were winning almost every battle.

“I think the rustiness was we were shorthanded for four minutes and guys just needed to get their legs going. I told them that was our best game in 10 games..by far our best game defensively where we didn’t leave the goalie out to dry too many times,” said Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau summarizing the victory.

Defensively the Caps were much more sound and another factor in the victory, I thought, was Washington’s superior conditioning and one can’t help but point to Boudreau’s practice regimen that started last Wednesday, February 24. The Caps could have won this one in bigger fashion, though, if not for some overpassing and an inability to convert on odd man rushes.

“Six good practices I thought and [our team] got back to the basics and [Buffalo] turned the puck over so many times in the neutral zone from our pressure that if we could have scored on our 2 on 1’s we would have had an easier game,” added Boudreau attributing the solid play to time spent at Kettler Ice Plex while noting the bad execution by his team in finishing off their potential scoring opportunities.

The best line on the ice for Washington was the Fleischmann, Eric Fehr, and Jason Chimera unit. They were each plus two on the evening and set up the only two markers that beat Miller. Flash, despite not getting an assist, made the play behind the Sabres net to set up Jeff Schultz for a point blast that was first deflected by Fehr and then tipped again by Chimera to open the scoring. On the game winner #14 carried the puck into the offensive zone on a nice rush then hit a streaking Green in the slot and the 2009 Norris Trophy finalist whipped it past Team USA’s superstar goaltender.

The Gordon-Dave Steckel-Matt Bradley line was also very good on Wednesday so it was nice to see #15 rewarded with an empty net marker.

“That whole line was really good tonight, evidentally with 15 forwards they don’t want to sit out, so they were showing that they want to play and they’re highly energetic and very smart defensively,” commented Boudreau on his fourth line and the threat of them losing ice time due to the trades made on Wednesday.

As for Alexander Ovechkin and his linemates, Nicklas Backstrom, and Mike Knuble, they had some chances but mostly did not convert due to overpassing. Ovechkin struggled all night to get shots off (he only had 4 on goal) as did fellow Team Russia comrade Alexander Semin (2 shots on goal). Boudreau had an explanation for the lack of production.

“[Ovechkin] looked a little tired, I don’t think it had anything to do with disappointment. I thought all of our Olympian guys looked tired and all our other guys gave us lots of energy,” added Boudreau, although Fleischmann could be considered the lone “Olympic” exception to that statement.

Finally, this game is not a win without another super effort by Jose Theodore in goal (23 saves). #60 made the big save when he had to and did not allow many rebounds. The only tally that went by him was the result of a defensive zone miscommunication between Brooks Laich and Green that caused the puck to pinball around and right onto Jochen Hecht’s stick in the slot.

The Caps will fly home on Wednesday night and take on the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Verizon Center on Thursday evening at 7pm. Three of the four players acquired on Wednesday (forwards Scott Walker and Eric Belanger plus defenseman Joe Corvo) should get in the line-up while defenseman Milan Jurcina is out with a sports hernia and likely won’t be ready for action until the playoffs.

In my blog on Tuesday night about the trade deadline and the Caps, I mentioned the holes the team seemed to have but also pointed out that Washington had great team chemistry that they did not want to disrupt. To address the weaknesses, it was noted that some of the team’s young players were likely off limits. Well, what GM George McPhee and his staff managed to do today was follow the plan that the GM had been preaching to the media all along:  Improve the club if they can but don’t allow it to subtract from being good next year. Based on the moves McPhee made today combined with what some other contenders did or did not do, Washington’s chances to win their first Stanley Cup have improved.

The Philadlephia Flyers, who were touted as being a top team in the East after acquiring Chris Pronger last summer, did not add a goalie and they will go with Michael Leighton in net, a guy the Capitals have rarely had trouble solving. In addition, the Flyers were in the running for Corvo but Washington beat them to the punch. The Devils already made their big splash before the Olympic break adding Ilya Kovalchuk and the Penguins tried to improve their squad with d-man Jordan Leopold and forward Alexei Ponikarovsky on Tuesday. Getting the players the Caps acquired it appears that they gained ground on their pursuers but the Washington GM said what those teams did was not a factor in how he and his staff operated on Wednesday.

“You look at a Kovalchuk, we have those kind of players, and you look at a Ponikarovsky and we have have four left wingers and who does he replace? Basically, what it comes down to is we look at the positions we want to sure up. It is hard to go over someone so you look to fill the holes you have. We wanted to add a top 4 D and add another center who is good on face-offs and has speed and can play both ends of the rink. We got both of those guys [in Corvo and Belanger] and then to add Walker and Juice was nice,” added McPhee on the transactions Washington made on Wednesday.

Addressing team chemistry and an in game incident that occurred between Chimera and Belanger earlier in the season when #25 was a Blue Jacket and the man who will wear #18 was with Minnesota, the Washington GM was confident the deals he made would not cause any locker room friction.

“It’s not a concern. In our business guys play hard against each other and often when they become teammates they are the first two guys to go to dinner together. It is a contact sport but people end up on the same team and they become teammates so I am not worried about [past Belanger-Chimera incident] and we moved one player off of our team so we kept our team basically intact and we have alot of good guys and a lot of committed people that want to win a Cup,” said the former Hobey Baker Award winner that goes to the nation’s top collegiate player.

As for each individual move, it is hard to not see the logic the GM had for making each deal and here is what he had to say about them, in the order they occurred:

Walker trade:

“Scott Walker is tough, tougher than me, and he is a guy that we can play up and down the line-up. We drafted him as a defenseman in Vancouver,” commented McPhee on the versatile Walker, who some hockey announcers compared to the Caps GM from a hard nosed while on the ice standpoint.

Belanger deal:

“We talked about [how loaded the Penguins are down the middle] a lot and we like his experience and ability to shut people down but he’s on pace for 18 goals this year and that’s fine. He can help us on our penalty killing and we just got another guy who is hard to play against,” added McPhee on a player Boudreau projects to be the team’s third line center.

Jurcina addition:

“He had success here in our system. We know Juice, I know Walker, and Bruce knows Belanger and Corvo so we know the personalities that we are getting.”

Corvo acquisition:

“Brian Pothier was a good guy and I want to thank him for everything he did for us but we thought Corvo would be a little bit better for us.”

One area where the Caps did not make a move was in goal, something many pundits, who don’t watch this team on a day to day basis like many of us locally do, were calling for Washington to upgrade.

“We are happy with our goaltending. We’ve got two young kids in Varly (Semyon Varlamov) and (Michal) Neuvirth and an experienced one in Theodore and (Braden) Holtby is playing alot. People asked alot about (the three young goaltenders) but they are untouchables, we were not moving those goalies,” McPhee said on what looks to be the best young goaltending trio in any NHL system.

The Capitals GM was not surprised that there were “no huge deals” made and he said draft choices were the asking price in many transactions. Washington gave up two second round picks plus sixth and seventh round markers, as well. The key for Washington was not losing any of the three goalies nor their top two defensemen prospects in Karl Alzner and John Carlson.

“These days it is hard to make trades and going in I didn’t sense any big trades happening. 2nd round picks were the currency of the day. We had an untouchable list and we didn’t give away any of those players.  I don’t think [giving up 4 picks] does hurt us, we’ve had a lot of picks recently and we have a lot of young talent in our system and I’m really pleased with the way we’ve been drafting. We’ve done well with the [Stefan] Della Rovere’s, the Cody Eakins, [Dmitri] Orlov, so we have a lot of kids coming,” commented McPhee on the importance of youth in the organization.

Today was definitely the day where moving the contracts for Michael Nylander and Chris Clark really paid off. After the trade deadline a team can carry as many players as they want as long as they stay under the salary cap. Washington now has 15 forwards, 8 defenseman plus Jurcina on IR and Alzner in Hershey, and three goalies (counting Neuvirth in Hershey as well). Prior to the lockout, when there was no salary cap, typically teams with a big budget could stockpile players for the post season. McPhee has now found a way to do this post lockout setting the Caps up to handle any injuries much better than they were able to react in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring.

“We’re real deep now, we have alot of players. Bruce and I talked about if we wanted to move people out, but we have the cap space to keep everybody..so let’s keep everybody and we did all of this with the playoffs in mind,” said McPhee on the logic in adding so much depth to the team, which will give Boudreau some minor headaches in trying to figure out which players to dress each night.

Overall this was a tremendous win for the Capitals on NHL deadline day. Not only did they get a top four defenseman and add depth to their lineup, they did not take on any players that have any more years on their contract. Each guy acquired is a free agent this summer, something McPhee said factored into the decision making process in trades.

“There was one guy [we looked at that was not a free agent this summer] but we just didn’t want to take on any term. We are a good team now and we will be in September so we didn’t want to take on any bad contracts and with respect to the cap we will be in good shape. That is why I am really happy today, we made our team better today and we are going to be really good again next September,” finished McPhee.

That completes the trade deadline moves for the Capitals. I’ll provide analysis on each of the four deals as well as others around the league in a blog later tonight or tomorrow. In addition, the Caps will take on the Sabres in Buffalo at 7pm on Wednesday. Please follow me on twitter (@Emfrank123) during the game.

In addition, the Caps have just acquired Minnesota Wild center Eric Belanger for a second round pick, according to TSN’s Bob McKenzie. Belanger is a center, a position I have said the Caps were thin at depth wise. He also is an unrestricted free agent making $1.75M this season. Accoring to Tim Leone, who covers the Hershey Bears, Belanger played for Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau in Lowell in the AHL.

I caught Walker’s interview with Hockey Night in Canada Radio a few minutes ago and he said it was a no-brainer to wave his no trade clause to go play for the Capitals. He is excited to join the team. Walker also has a history with Caps GM George McPhee having played for him in Vancouver when McPhee was assistant GM there.

The trade deadline is at 3pm today and more deals are expected around the league so later on tonight, when the dust settles, you can look for another blog from me with analysis on the moves that impact the Capitals and their quest for the Stanley Cup.

There is an argument that says that McPhee should not make any moves given that his team is sitting atop the entire NHL right now and they lead the Eastern Conference standings by a staggering 13 points with just 20 games to go. Those in that camp will point to the moves GMGM made last summer and in late December as being the key to putting this year’s club in better position than last spring to knock off the Pittsburgh Penguins and any other Eastern Conference rivals en route to an appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. Those acquisitions were the signings of net crashing forward Mike Knuble and center Brendan Morrison in July and then the addition of speedy and gritty left wing Jason Chimera in exchange for Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina shortly after Christmas. The FA signings replaced the departed (to the KHL) Sergei Fedorov and Viktor Kozlov while Chimera gives the Caps a solid left wing for the third line. Clearly these moves have improved this team as evidenced by the squad’s recent club record 14 game winning streak. The “stand pat” at the deadline crowd will also make the point that the Caps have another year of experience under their belt and overall have great team chemistry, so why mess with that?

On the other side of the coin, you have those who want the Caps to either bolster their goaltending, defense, forwards or all of the above. The “add a goalie” crowd will point to Semyon Varlamov’s injury issues and Jose Theodore’s poor outing in the first game of last April’s post season, after which he was yanked for Varly, as the reason to go after a veteran cage minder, such as Marty Turco or a Dwayne Rolosson. The “bring in a D” lot, which seems to be the loudest one out there, believes that the Caps defense is not physical enough in Washington’s own zone and can’t handle the two month grind necessary to take home Lord Stanley. Up front there are some that want another net crasher or a 2nd/3rd line center. You also have a contingent that believes that because of the physicality of the playoffs and the greater probability for injuries that GMGM needs to add some depth. In addition, some Caps fans are pointing out that other teams are making deals (the Penguins acquired defenseman Jordan Leopold from Florida for a 2nd round draft pick and apparently, according to TSN’s Bob McKenzie and Darren Dreger, have made a deal to get left wing Alexei Ponikarovsky from Toronto in exchange for defenseman Martin Skoula and prospect Luca Caputi) so McPhee needs to keep up with the competition. I won’t go into more names about who might be available, because if you want to see some potential candidates, Caps senior writer Mike Vogel does a super job of chronicling this in his lastest Dump N’ Chase column on the team’s website.

Everyone in the debate can make valid points and there is no set recipe at the trade deadline that leads to a Stanley Cup victory and subsequent parade. In 1991-92, fresh off winning a Stanley Cup the previous June, Penguins GM Craig Patrick made a blockbuster deal in February, just before the deadline, moving forward Mark Recchi, defenseman Brian Benning, and a first round draft pick to Philadelphia for forward Rick Tocchet, defenseman Kjell Samuelsson, and goalie Ken Wregget. Had those moves not been made by Patrick then the Penguins likely fall to the Capitals in round one, instead of rallying from down three games to one and then going on to capture their second straight Cup. On the other hand, in 2007, Ducks GM Brian Burke, who had acquired defenseman Chris Pronger the previous summer, opted to only add fourth line veteran forward Brad May in exchange for minor league goalie Michael Wall on deadline day yet his team went on to win the Stanley Cup in dominating fashion.

So clearly whether McPhee makes a move or not is certainly not an indicator as to whether the Caps win the Stanley Cup or go out in the first round. The Caps GM is among the most secretive managers in the league and will rarely tip his hand. In his recent press conferences the GM has said that “we like our team now” and “we want to be good and have a chance to win the Cup for not just one year but for a long time.” Translation: I am not going to give up any of my top young players, such as Varlamov, Michal Neuvirth, Braden Holtby, Karl Alzner, or John Carlson, for a rental player for this season. It is hard to disagree with McPhee’s logic there. But is he just giving us his “poker face?” Who knows? However, I think that McPhee really believes in those statements and if he does make a trade, it won’t involve any of the aforementioned young Caps players, unless he gets one super deal.

Remember though, it takes two to tango in what appears to be a major sellers market, and despite all of the speculation from the media and fans, the only people who will really know what deals are on the table for discussion are McPhee and his scouts, who are hunkered down in the War Room at Kettler Ice Plex until 3pm on Wednesday.

Stay tuned…Wednesday should be a fun one for Caps and hockey fans!