What is the best thing for a team that has gone through a traumatic week it after having to replace the manager and then suffer through a terrible road trip, culminating in a sweep 3000 miles away?

A win.

That wish was fulfilled in Davey Johnson’s first home game as the manager of the Washington Nationals on Friday night at Nats Park with a 2-1 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Tom Gorzelanny was brilliant for seven innings and an unlikely hero provided some walk-off flair to lifts the spirits of Nats Town.

With the game tied at one in the bottom of the ninth, Johnson called on the oldest player sitting on his bench, 43-year-old Matt Stairs, to pinch hit for shortstop Ian Desmond with runners on first and third. All Stairs need to do was hit it out of the infield, either via pop-fly or a dribbler through the infield. For a guy with a .148 batting average through 54 at bats this season, not only was that a difficult task, but seemingly impossible. First day in front of the home fans, with the critical Washington press corps about to invade his office after the game and Johnson is putting in Matt Freaking Stairs?

“I have a lot of confidence in him, I want to get him going,” Johnson said after the game. “I think he can hit falling out of bed. Runner on third, one out – that is the guy I want out there.”

Perhaps Johnson is remembering a different Stairs, a younger, more virile player who literally could sit on the bench for a month and then hit a pinch-hit home run with his eyes closed. Stairs has made a career of that situation. Johnson could be forgiven for his memory. After all, it has been 11 years since he last managed a big league ball club (the Dodgers in 1999-2000). Hell, Johnson had not even managed a home game in this millennia (note, millenniums starts in the first year – 2001 – as opposed to the turn of the century).

Pirates reliever Tim Wood then served the game to Stairs in a golden chalice. Ninety-five miles-per-hour. Straight down the center of the zone, no movement. All Stairs need to do was get the ball to accidentally hit his bat and the game would be over.

Stairs did more than that. He had his swing of the season. It was a touch late to catch up with Wood’s heat completely, but had enough timing to get the fat part of the bat on the ball and send it screaming to right center, just to the left of the Washington bullpen. The only question was whether or not the it would leave the ballpark. The ball caromed off the top of the outfield fence, about a foot from going over and pinch runner Alex Cora trotted home.

Nats win.

Stairs may have extended his careers three years with that hit. Or, at least as long as Johnson is around.

“I’ve got to put everything I can do to win this game,” Johnson said. “Twenty-five guys have to contribute … a lot of guys have not been swinging the bat like they should.”

Desmond would be one of the guys not swinging. He is hitting .222 on the year with 71 strikeouts, third on the team behind Jayson Werth and Danny Espinosa. Desmond is a streaky hitter, but it must be embarrassing to be called out of the game in a big spot where a hit will return momentum to the club and get you mobbed at home plate.

Gorzelanny was terrific for the second start in a row. The pitcher went seven innings scattering six hits with one walk and eight strikeouts.

Eight.

Gorzelanny’s velocity has picked up in the last several months. In the beginning of the season he was throwing in the 88-90 MPH range, he is now between 89-92 with highs up 93 at times. He has always had great movement to his pitches and the increased velocity makes him much harder to hit. The one run that the Pirates scored was unearned, a result of two errors in third inning, one a bad throw by Gorzelanny himself on a sacrifice bunt that the pitcher field and “threw” to first base, a gimp of a throw that hardly made it to the base.

The Pirates held that 1-0 lead until the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth inning when Pirates’ starter Charlie Morton allowed a rocket off the bat of center fielder Roger Bernadina that skipped the fence in right to make it 1-1. It was Bernadina’s fifth home run of the year and 17th RBI.

“I think he deserves to play every day and I am going to give him that chance,” Johnson said of Bernadina.

The Johnson Era begins in Nats Town and the Washington get back to .500, entering the first game of the second half of the season with a 41-41 record. A traumatic win behind them, punctuated by a dramatic walk-off win on the Friday of the Fourth of July weekend in the nation’s capital. Excitement in mid-season form.

I would not have it any other way for the last game that I will be covering the Nats for WeLoveDC. As of July 15th I will be departing the Washington area and heading back to my homeland – Boston, Massachusetts. I will miss everyone that I have come to know in D.C. and the memories we have shared over the last year between the Capitals, Wizards and Nationals. From the beginning of the journey with the launch of TBD, through a roller coaster of a Caps season to finishing it off with a Matt Stairs walk-off wall banger, I have had a terrific time. Thank you.

Farewell, D.C.

A scrappy game was played between two scrappy teams at Nats Ball Park on Sunday afternoon with the Padres proving to be the scrappiest of the bunch on the weekend, taking the rubber match 5-4 and the weekend series two games to one.

The Nats and the Padres are two teams that cannot hit. That became painfully apparent in the first two games of the series this weekend, with teams trading 2-1 wins on Friday and Saturday. Sunday degenerated in to a “get it done any way humanely possible” type of affair featuring bunts, sacrifices and small ball tactics to make any baseball statistician cringe.

The epitome came in the top of the ninth. Jorge Cantu pinch hit for the Padres’ pitcher slot and scraped a double down the right field line. He was brought home two batters later by an single from Ryan Ludwick that barely made it out of the infield, off the glove of shortstop Ian Desmond who whirled a throw to home that was a second too late.

“He made a great effort,” manager Jim Riggleman said of Desmond. “He was trying to keep it from going to the outfield to give us a chance. It just trickled away. Is that unlucky? We had a chance to have good luck and we didn’t take advantage of it when we couldn’t get some runs in.”

Washington left 18 runners on base on Sunday. That number is significant for two reasons: A) They actually had runners on base, not a common occurrence in Nats Town these days and B) they could not get a runner in from scoring position to save their lives.

This is where all the small ball comes in. Get a runner on, try to bunt him over. Hit a sacrifice to get a runner from second to third. Hit-and-run to move the defenders and try to find some holes. The approach worked in the first inning when the Nats took a 2-0 lead after Roger Bernadina and Ian Desmond reached base and Jayson Werth punched a hit-and-run ball through second to score Bernadina. Yet, it may have backfired in the sixth when the Nats had runners on first and second and Riggleman called for the sac-bunt from catcher Wilson Ramos. The bunt gave up an out and took the bat out of Ramos’s hands. Considering he is one of the Nats better contact hitters, one wonders if Riggleman was playing the game too strictly to an outdated playbook.

“We pretty much play the game the same way every time. If the game calls for running, we run,” Riggleman said. “If it calls for bunting, we bunt. If it says don’t bunt, we don’t bunt. With the game situations, there was no thought process of doing anything different.”

Yunesky Maya got his first start of the season for the Nats and cruised through the first three innings. His four-seam fastball topped out around 90 miles per hour but his fastball and changeup featured great movement, especially away to left-handed hitters. Maya got in trouble in the fourth and fifth innings, slowed the game down and ultimately surrendered four runs on six hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

“He was really good for a few innings and then he got in trouble and he was trying to pitch out of it, made some good pitches and they fouled a bunch of balls off,” Riggleman said.

Drew Storen took the loss for the Nats, surrendering the go-ahead run on Cantu’s double followed by the Ludwick single. After 21 straight scoreless appearances, Storen has given up runs in three straight games.

“It happens to all closers, I think,” Riggleman said. “I thought he made a good pitch on Ludwick and it is a groundball. Once the ball is hit on the ground, there is no directing it. Is it going to be at the second baseman, at the shortstop, is it going to be up the middle? That one went up the middle. If that ball had gone a couple feet the other way towards [Desmond] and he throws him out at first, we are talking about a good clean inning for Storen.”

Alas, that is not what happened and the Nats once again find themselves losers of a game, and a weekend series.

Photo by Dan Rowinski

If you set up a script for how to win a baseball game, it would go something like this:

Get good starting pitching that gives you at least six innings and allows less than three runs. Make good defensive plays that keep the other team off the board and line up three quality relievers to shut the other team out at the end of the game.

Oh, and score enough runs to make it all stand up.

The Nats got three out of the four pieces of the equation on Saturday against the Padres. Jordan Zimmermann was solid through six innings, allowing two runs on five hits with a walk and four strikeouts. He threw 100 pitchers to 24 batters and left the game down 2-0. For fielding, Rick Ankiel made two great plays in centerfield to finish both the first and second innings. Jerry Hairston made a great diving stab-and-throw in the third. Zimmermann picked off would-be base runner Eric Patterson (who had just stole second) to end that inning.

But it was two series of plays that haunted the Nats. The first was a triple by Padres’ rookie Blake Tekotte that tied up rightfielder Jayson Werth on the warning track, bouncing off his glove to the fence. Catcher Kyle Phillips singled to score Tekotte on the next at bat. It was a difficult play for Werth but he was under the ball and could have made the catch.

And the Nats never got anything going at the plate. They finished the game with five hits and four walks, three of which came in the second inning. Ian Desmond, Werth and Layne Nix were walked by San Diego starter Tim Stauffer. Up comes Mr. Walk-Off himself, Mike Morse with one out and a great chance to give the Nats some early breathing room.

Now, the one thing that you do not want a batter to do against a wild pitcher is go up there and swing at the first pitch. Make him work, get into trouble and be forced to toss one in the middle of the plate. Yet, there was Morse, hacking away … straight into a double play that ended the inning.

“You know, we got out of the blocks with a good inning there and we really felt great about that inning with the bases loaded with three really good at bats to set it up. He just made a great pitch,” manager Jim Riggleman said. “He is like a couple of other guys, he has got a good sinker and when he gets it where he wants to, he’s got us.”

One of the general rules of baseball with runners in scoring position and a pitcher with control problems – do not swing at his best pitch. The sinker works for Stauffer, let it go by and wait for another.

This is what wins or loses games, two series of plays that swing it the way of the opponent. If we are talking about Win Probability Added, neither Werth nor Morse did the Nats any favors on Saturday afternoon.

Zimmermann was the hard-luck loser, yet again. He is now 2-6 on the year though he lowered his ERA from 3.98 to 3.88 on the afternoon. He may not have been his most dominating self, but any team in the league would take a pitcher who allows only two runs through six innings. Even against the Padres, who are the worst statistical hitting team in the league.

Laynce Nix scored the only run for the Nats on a homerun into the bullpen in the seventh inning to set up at least a semblance of suspense that Washington could walk-off for the second night in a row.

“He is a tough guy, he knows that he pitched good and he knows that he didn’t pitch as good as he could. I think and go in there and ask him he would say that he felt good today but he felt really good in Baltimore,” Riggleman said of Zimmermann’s mindset after a series of close losses. “So, he is a tough guy, he is a strong mentally guy and I don’t have any concerns over his frame of mind.”

The Nats are in a bit of a funk. They have lost eight of their last 10 and without Ryan Zimmermann (and now first baseman Adam LaRoche) there is no power in the lineup outside of Werth, who is still having a big slump of a season. Yet, if Washington could get those two hitters healthy, add another quality bat in the outfield via trade, there are reasons to be optimistic. The fielding shows signs of being better (though still is almost 10 runs below average, via FanGraphs) and the pitching generally keeps them in games. If only they could hit, the Nats could be a 78 to 81 win team. It is a sad state in baseball when you are wishing for a number in the win column that starts with a seven at the end of the season, but so it goes in Nats Land.

If only they could put the pieces together to make it happen.

I could wile away the hours,
Conferrin’ with the flowers,
Consultin’ with the rain,
And my head I’d be scratchin,’
While my thoughts were busy hatchin’ …

The Bruce Boudreau Era is done.

Make no mistake about it. Heading into the postseason the question was not so much about how far the Caps would go but more about how they performed once they got out of the first round. “Does Boudreau lose his job if the Caps do not make it to the Stanley Cup Finals” was an unfair question. The Stanley Cup is perhaps the hardest trophy to win in all of American sports, outside of the horse racing Triple Crown.

Washington just needed to play respectably, up to its potential and level of talent. No choking, no dramatic series losses after being up big. From the Eastern Conference semifinals on, if the Caps played well but got beat, that would have been an acceptable outcome.

That is not what happened.

Getting swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning was simply appalling. There is no excuse for it. It looked like Washington had found a way to win in the playoffs after the New York series. They were motivated, they played tight defensively, were opportunistic when they needed to be and, most importantly, they looked like they were focused and playing together. Sheer talent and determination should have been enough to get them through the semifinals.

A very good friend of mine, Erin, said that the Caps would be swept. She is an evil genius. Most pundits picked Washington to win anywhere between five and seven games. Myself, I thought Washington could eke it out in seven. I was not going to be one of those writers who dismissed the Lightning as too young or too raw. Tampa has a superbly talented hockey team not to be underestimated.

What I did was overestimate the Washington Capitals.

The woes start at the top. Boudreau is a players’ coach. He will oft times insinuate that a player is not performing up his potential but rarely do we see much done about it. Boudreau grew up as a coach with this group of players coming from coaching them in the AHL in Hershey and then graduating to the NHL. The Caps have had regular season success and he has certainly been good for the development of the franchise, but he lacks discipline and the ability to rein in his stars. The Russian Contingent seemed to operate at a different plane of existence for the Caps, on and off the ice and there was little Boudreau could do about it.

Sure, we saw the benching of Eric Fehr. Yet, it was done in favor of Marco Sturm. That was a mistake. Sturm is a veteran and has a good history but he has not been the same player after two major knee operations in the last two years. It pains me to say it because Marco is one of the Good Guys in the NHL, but he is going to be out of the league in a year, two tops. Fehr is still young and has explosive tendencies. If ever there was a player that Boudreau needed to get a handle on to play with grit and efficiency, it is Fehr.

In the playoffs there is one point that needs to be made crystal clear – It was absolutely criminal that Semyon Varlamov did not start a single game against the Lightning.

Boudreau has a proclivity to be over-reliant on some of his tools and stubborn when it comes to his methods (see: Alex Ovechkin on the point in the power play). In the beginning of the season it looked like he was going to wear Michal Neuvirth to the bone. As well as Neuvirth was playing, it is a mistake to ride a young goaltender during the regular season, especially when there are other options that may be just as good. Varlamov was hurt for stretches this year but when he played he played well.

Heading into the Tampa series, it was clear that Varlamov had better numbers against the Lightning. The idea behind the Caps goaltending playoff scenario was that Washington could get far in the postseason but it would not be one of the young trio who carried the entire load. Boudreau probably should have started Varlamov in Game 2 against the Lightning, Game 3 at the latest. If he faltered, Neuvirth would be there to pick up the slack. Yet, when Neuvirth slacked from either pressure or fatigue, Boudreau did not roll out Varlamov to steady the crease.

There are some behind-the-scenes issues involved here. Varlamov is reportedly disgruntled, Braden Holtby looks to be the heir apparent to Washington’s future and Neuvirth deserved the chance to prove himself in the playoffs. But, Boudreau picked Neuvirth and stayed with him to a fault and it might cost him his job.

Just to register emotion,
jealousy – devotion,
And really feel the part.
I could stay young and chipper,
and I’d lock it with a zipper …

Alex Ovechkin deserves as much of the blame for the way the Caps turned out as Boudreau does.

This is not a discussion of talent or performance. It is a matter of leadership.

Some say that “chemistry” and “leadership” are overrated qualities in professional sports. Sports writers (myself included) bandy them about enough to make people sick. To a certain extent it is true. Teams that hate each other have won championships, teams without strong leaders have succeeded.

In hockey though, the leader is the man who wears the ‘C’ on his chest. Players take their cues from the captain and he defines the identity of the team.

Now, think about it for a second – What is the Washington Capitals identity?

Having trouble figuring a good answer to that question? It is a tough one.

Look at other teams around the league. Vancouver is propelled by the Sedin twins, Daniel and Henrik. San Jose’s pace, for good or bad, is set by Joe Thornton. Boston can be a vicious, brutal physical bear to deal with and that pours out of Zdeno Chara. Philadelphia is smug and talented and mean, certainly characteristics of Mike Richards (and Chris Pronger).

The Caps showed their heart against the Lightning. Or lack thereof. It is a product of Ovechkin. The man has heart as a player. He wants to win and he wants to play well in winning. The problem is that he does not take the rest of the Caps with him. Ovechkin is so talented that it seems that often he thinks he can succeed just by putting skates on his feet and showing up at the appointed time.

It looked like that it what Washington felt when they faced Tampa Bay. By matter of birthright and hierarchy in the current era of NHL hockey, they should be able to trounce these upstarts.

Then … nothing.

The pulse of the whole series was set in Game 1 at Verizon Center. It was an awkward environment. The crowd was not into it as they had been all season, the Caps were present but maybe not wholly accounted for. When success did not come immediately (despite dominating stretches of Games 1 and 2), the Caps let off a bit while Tampa Bay kept grinding. Grinding led to goals, goals led to wins and the cycle perpetuated. Washington hardly showed up for Game 4 at the St. Pete Time Forum in Tampa Bay. Who scored for Washington? Sturm and John Erskine (before garbage time at the end when John Carlson netted one). Sturm and Erskine are character guys. They, unlike some of their higher paid counterparts (well, Sturm does make $3.5 million a year) came to play.

Ovechkin? He was playing pond hockey. Going 1-on-4 and, not surprisingly, getting nothing from it.

It’s sad, believe me, Missy,
When you’re born to be a sissy
Without the vim and verve.
But I could show my prowess, be a lion not a mouse-ess …

General Manager George McPhee has to show a little courage.

Last summer he looked around the league, looked at his roster and said “all is well.” Minimal changes were made and the Caps went into 2010-11 with basically the same roster that choked against Montreal.

That proved to be a mistake.

Yes, Washington did win the Eastern Conference regular season and a No. 1 seed in the playoffs. Boudreau, to his credit, had a big part in that. He taught the team to play defensive hockey and the team was much stouter at the end of the year than it was at the beginning.

It did not have to be that way. McPhee should have realized that Washington, as constituted in September, could not make a run at the Cup. He gave Boudreau free reign to run the team like the high-flying offensive juggernaut that dominated the regular season in 2009-10. When that began to sputter, Boudreau made changes and, to a certain extent, they worked.

McPhee picked up Jason Arnott and Dennis Wideman at the trade deadline. Those were very astute moves and it did not cost the Caps much in the way of draft picks or young talent. McPhee should not lose his job over the Caps postseason failures. He has helped to grow the franchise to the point that the discussion of any type of playoff success is relevant and there is merit to that.

But McPhee cannot do what he did last summer. Boudreau has to be let go, as sad as that reality is. He needs to offload Ovechkin’s cronies – Alexander Semin and Varlamov. The roster needs to be retooled to be deeper at forward with a third line that is capable of scoring a couple goals and being shutdown defensively. Semin needs to be replaced with a strong defensive leader a la Chara or Pronger (who are not available, but the prototype stands).

It will take a little nerve. But McPhee should realize that he may need to take a small step back if he wants to take a big step forward.

Otherwise, we will be living this whole scenario at this time next year.

And for years to come.

A group of reporters huddled around a television in the press room at Verizon Center on Sunday night after the Capitals had lost Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Stanley Cup Playoffs semifinals 3-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime. Deadlines momentarily forgotten, the drama of the night swirled up in wonder and emotion that has nothing to do with hockey.

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead.

Normally this would be the spot where I lay on the analytics. The logic of how the Caps have let two games at Verizon Center slip away after dominating much of the play only to come up short handed and staring the end of their season in the face. But, hockey is a game played by grown men. In the grand scheme of things, it is almost a trivial pursuit.

At the same time, it is anything but.

Sports are ingrained into our society. Like politics and taxes, sex and money. Sports embody our emotions, our aggressions and passions, hopes and fears. A NHL playoff game by itself is a relatively meaningless event.

Yet, tell me, Capitals fans, that when your team was down with a minute left in the game, the goalie pulled, empty net behind your boys, that you did not jump and shout, hug a loved one or just the nearest person to you when Alex Ovechkin screamed towards the goal from the right circle to bury the puck in the net, tying the game and sending it to overtime.

Then, tell me that your heart did not sink ever so slightly when the Caps got caught in an awkward shift change, Lightning defenseman Randy Jones made a long outlet (borderline illegal) pass that hit Teddy Purcell on the rush who sent a centering pass to Vinny Lecavalier that he buried behind Washington goaltender Michal Neuvirth.

Time stopped.

Literally speaking, it did. The game was over. The ever moving game clock, the numbers that move down a tick at a time and while they do that your team has a chance, had stopped.

And the Caps were down two games to none.

If you were at Verizon Center, you were shocked. You may have put your arm around your significant other, shook your head towards the ice and trekked up the concrete stairs. Back to your car. Back to your life. Back to bills and crying children, back to six packs of beer and McDonalds French fries.

Did you not grow with the experience? Did, perhaps, you bond with a fellow compatriot? Did you enjoy the collective mindset of your brethren, emotions swelling and deflating as if Verizon Center were one living organism in and of itself?

“It’s a tough loss, but give them credit. They capitalized on their opportunities and on our mistakes,” Caps forward Brooks Laich said. “Down 2-0, but we’ve been in this position before and we’ve come back … we’re going to regroup and come back on Tuesday.”

Washington dominated the Lightning on Sunday. They outshot them 37-23, came out gates hot and played with emotion that was lacking on Friday. But, they fell behind. Lecavalier scored a goal at the end of the first period after the Caps had kept their foot on the gas all through the opening frame. It was a power play strike and the best efforts of the Caps went unrewarded.

“It’s playoff hockey and [DeWayne] Roloson played real well and the team played pretty well in front of him. We’ve got to hand it to their goaltending tonight,” Jason Arnott said. “He played extremely well…It’s a long series. We’re not out of it yet. We’ve got to stay positive and keep moving forward.”

Roloson beat the Caps on Sunday. Just like he did twice during the regular season when he shut the Caps down in consecutive games, he just stonewalled the Caps attack. Shots poured in, shots got cleared out or covered. Just when it seemed like the Caps could break the spell, the Lightning would come back and score on the other end.

And desperation sets in.

“I thought we had the momentum, quite frankly, for about 45 minutes of that game. I felt very comfortable going into overtime,“ Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said.

So it went. The range of human emotion played out in a game on ice by grown men wearing costumes. The pulse of a city tied to a building of red-clad bodies. Sports bind us, make us who we are. It is a reminder that we are Americans and there are things in the life that do matter.

Even if in the grander scheme of things it does not appear to mean anything.

There was something missing at Verizon Center on Friday night. It just did not feel right, neither with the fans in the stands or the Caps on the ice. All evening felt like one of those awkward dates where you end up holding hands because that is what you are supposed to do, not because that is what you want to do.

And the Caps lost. The Lightning played solid and steady for most of the game, did not panic when Washington scored two goals and dominated for a 25 minute stretch through the second period and used a little luck to beat the Caps 4-2 to take a one game to none lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“You can’t play river hockey and I am looking at this saying this isn’t the way we play. It was reverting back to an older day,” said Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau.

It was like Verizon Center was asleep. The fans were loud when they were supposed to be loud, cheered when prompted, joined the chants when it was appropriate. About 15 minutes before Game 1 puck drop I found myself standing in the press box saying “this is a 7 o’clock start, right?” The stands were only about 40% full. It eventually filled out and the pre-game was very loud but once the lights came back on, the crowd zoned out. They played with their thunder-sticks and cowbells because it was what they are supposed to do.

I mean, who are these people?

Talking to a concessioner between periods, he guessed that the season ticket holders are selling their seats. In the playoffs that is not a bad idea. Sell two games and you make up for what you paid for the entire season. But, it was what we would call in New England an “omelet” crowd. Gritty men, men who fish and get dirty and are sun weathered do not eat omelets. They eat their eggs hard boiled or scrambled, their bacon hard and chewy. They yell when they have something to say.

Omelet crowds yell when the jumbotron tells them that the fury should be unleashed.

And the Caps played to their crowd. Tampa Bay took an early lead on a goal that did not seem like a goal where there was a seemingly harmless scrum in front of Washington netminder Michal Neuvirth, the puck slipped through his legs and Lightning wing Sean Burgenheim came in and slipped it into the net.

The crowd had absolutely no reaction. No collective sigh, no swearing, no loud cursing.

Silence.

Yes, after the goal was announced, they yelled “who cares” because, yup, that is what they are supposed to do.

You know who cares?

You fucking care.

You know why?

Because your team is now losing the freaking game. If they lose, do you still not care?

I wonder sometimes.

After letting in that one goal, the Caps got it back quickly when Alexander Semin took a feed after Marco Sturm created a turnover on the forecheck. Semin took a whack from the right of the high slot and the puck slid through Lightning netminder Dwayne Roloson’s pads. From just about that point until the 10:00 mark in the second period, the Caps were clearly the best team on the ice. Tampa Bay, coming off a hard-wrung Game 7 on Wednesday, was lucky to escape the first period with the score tied at one and lucky to get to a point in the second period where they could turn the momentum back in their favor down 2-1 instead of 4-1.

Eric Fehr scored the second goal off a good feed from Jason Chimera chasing down a faceoff in the Tampa zone, sliding the puck from the trapezoid to the slot where Fehr could bury it over Roloson’s left shoulder.

It was pretty much downhill from there.

“We didn’t really stick to the game plan in the second period, got a little bit sloppy and committed turnovers and they capitalized on them,” Fehr said.

Caps defenseman Jeff Schultz agreed with the assessment that the Caps played out of their normal comfort zone that has been in development since mid-December.

“We ought to get a little bit more aggressive and go down the boards and make it harder for them getting it out and getting rebounds because the shots were there,” Schultz said. “I think we got the lead and figured we would get more and more instead of trying to protect it.”

Everybody who was cogently paying attention to the game knew that the Caps were starting to screw themselves when an old friend, the through-the-legs drop pass made an appearance on the rush. It is a play that is emblematic of a team that thinks it can play the how it wants, like they are on a pond or a river, as Boudreau said. An arrogant team. A team that thinks it can show up and win by virtue of its presence on the ice against an inferior opponent that is dog-tired from coming back three games to win a seven game series against the Penguins.

“Get back to the way we play and just grind it out and grind it out and get pucks to the net and hopefully we will get a goal,” Boudreau said. “When you start playing chance for chance, they are a pretty skilled group over there as well and when you are behind it is something that you can’t afford to do, I think.”

The Lightning scored a couple of goals that could have been prevented by the defense and goaltender Michal Neuvirth. On a broken cycle, Steve Downie threw the puck behind him into the crease as he crossed the slot. The puck went off Caps defender Scott Hannan and into the net, tying the score. The go-ahead and game winner came on the power play when Steve Stamkos was able to wedge the puck through Neuvirth off a good feed from defenseman Eric Brewer in the corner.

“There is always the luck element in there. Sometimes you plan stuff and they do other stuff that works,” Tampa coach Boucher said. “I think all around our players put a lot of work into the details.”

Boucher said a lot of the right things in the post game press conference. He was confident but humble, he praised his team’s effort while giving the kudos to the opponent. He was even a little fatalistic, saying he never expected that the Lightning would win either of the first two games at Verizon Center.

“It was surprising that we came and won one of the two. I will be honest, we weren’t expecting that,” Boucher said.

Boucher’s team is young. Sprinkled with veterans, but still green, especially in the postseason. But, going through a seven game grinder and coming out clean on the other side, Boucher thinks they have learned something and they probably have – stay steady, stay consistent, reload physically and emotionally, play within the game plan.

“As for our team, obviously the first round has given us maybe some tools to be calmer under pressure,” Boucher said. “But, having said that, the team we are playing is quite a hockey machine and at ice level I can tell you, looking out there and staring at them.”

The focus for Saturday’s practice heading into Game 2 for the Caps is to remember who they are, what kind of team was it that beat the Rangers so handily in five games. It was a steady team, it was a hungry team. Where was that team when Tampa Bay took the lead and Boucher unrolled the trap defense? The Caps skated right into it, the same way they skated into it last year against Montreal. It … was boring.

“They make it frustrating,” Boudreau said. “They hang back and you are trying to push. They are very good at it. The get a lead like they got a lead against Pittsburgh, they just hold on to it.”

Yet, Washington has said time and again that they do not really focus on the opponent and what they are doing. They play situations and scenarios against themselves and how to beat them. Boudreau knows how his team can beat a trap defense. It is not easy but when the players buy in to it, traps can be handled and Washington has done it before.

So, the directive is clear – get back to the basics. Because if the Caps do not, it will look an awful lot like the same old story.

In the NHL the rule is that the warmer it gets, the harder the competition becomes.

It is not just a matter of increased skill from the opponent. There is no doubt that the Tampa Bay Lightning have a lot more talent than the New York Rangers, but with increased intensity and stress, teams resort to all sorts of desperate measures.

To beat the Lightning and move on to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in the Bruce Boudreau era, the Caps are going to have to learn to cope.

Take a look at the other playoff series that have just been completed. In the Eastern Conference, every team except the Caps that moved on had to come from behind in the series. The Flyers had to figure out All-World goaltender Ryan Miller and their own shortcomings in net. They played to their strengths, kept the high-energy forecheck on the Sabres and eventually Buffalo wilted because their strength – defensive traps in front of Miller – could not cope. Boston lost the first to game, at home no less, to Montreal because the Canadiens took a lead in each game and went into a 1-4 zone and started using their bodies as rubber scotch guards. The Bruins knew they had the talent to get to Habs’ netminder Carey Price, played physical but in control and took out their arch-nemesis in a dramatic seven games.

For Tampa Bay, it was a growing period. Uber-talent Steven Stamkos is facing his first playoffs and so are a lot of the young players on the Lightning squad. They are also buoyed by veterans like Martin St. Louis, Vinny LeCavalier and Dwayne Roloson. Once they reconciled themselves to playoff hockey, the Penguins could do little to shove them out of the seat of victory.

The Lightning come to face the Caps a little older and a little wiser for the experience. Coach Guy Boucher has a little more seasoning behind a playoff bench and Tampa comes to Washington with a head of steam and some recent success against the Capitals to up their confidence.

Washington took the season series against Tampa 4-1-1 (2-3-1 from the Lightning side). For a better part of the season, the Lightning led the Southeast Division and it was not until the Caps got hot in March (and Stamkos got cold) that they put the upstart behind them for another division title.

The season series between the rivals was a good indicator of how each team evolved. Early in the season, the Lightning were teaching themselves that they were winners. Stamkos was on fire and the defense/goaltending was atrocious. The Caps came in and took two games from Tampa in November, scoring six goals a game against career NHL backup goaltenders in Mike Smith and Dan Ellis.

January rolled around and the Lightning had figured themselves out a bit and were on the rise. They traded for veteran goalie Roloson and the wily netminder shut the Caps out at Verizon Center the first night that he donned a Lightning uniform (it was such a rapid movement that Roloson was actually still wearing his Islanders mask). Eight days later, Roloson shut the Caps out again, this time in Tampa. The Caps were on the downslide, figuring out how to succeed in Boudreau’s new defensive scheme and it was one of the Bad Times that Washington faced all season.

Then, in a similar fashion that the Lightning have pulled together in the postseason, the Caps started to click. They ended Roloson’s ridiculous shutout streak with a 5-2 win in Tampa on Feb. 4 and then won the final match via shootout on March 7. It was the last game of the season series and, fittingly, the closest run of the bunch. It will be a precursor for what is to come in this seven game Eastern Conference semifinals tilt.

A friend of mine (who is distinctly NOT a Caps fan), when asked for a prediction to the series said “the Lightning are not as good as the Rangers and Ovie cannot be held down again, Caps in five.” It is a sentiment shared by a lot of Caps fans. I am sorry, friend, that thought shows a distinct lack of understanding of what it takes to win in the playoffs as well as for the talent that the Lightning possess.

The top two lines for Tampa are about as good as it gets. Stamkos, LeCavalier, St. Louis, Simon Gagne and Ryan Malone are about as deep and talented a group of forwards left in the NHL playoffs. The Lightning are a little light on the blue line but their top four defensemen in Eric Brewer, Victor Hedman, Brett Clark and Pavel Kubina are adequate and can play well in coach Guy Boucher’s system that emphasizes keep the attack coming from the outside.

It will be a tougher series than Caps fans expect. The Caps themselves will not underestimate the Lightning though. There is a feeling with this group of Washington players that they have figured out what it takes to win in the playoffs. Whether or not they can actually pull it off comes down to health and execution.

Let’s take a look at the key matchups heading into Game 1 tonight at Verizon Center.

Caps Defense v. Lightning Top Lines

All reports point to Mike Green being healthy after the scary puck to the helmet he took last Saturday in Game 5 against the Rangers. That is good because the Caps are going to need all the depth they can get to be able to roll out matchups against Stamkos and St. Louis. The key will be to keep Stamkos from spotting up on the left dot while stopping the wily St. Louis from keeping his nose around the net. Look for Karl Alzner and John Carlson to shadow Stamkos throughout the series.

Dwayne Roloson v. Caps Top Scorers

Roloson is not a top-tier goaltender, but he does have the ability to get into opposing forwards heads’. If he can get hot and frustrate Alexander Semin, the streaky Russian winger could be taken out as a factor in the series. Alex Ovechkin will get his goals and he may blow up against the Lightning defense in one game. It will be up to Brooks Laich and Mike Knuble (if he can come back from a hand injury) to get in the slot and bang on Roloson’s doorstep.

Caps Goaltender Michal Neuvirth v. Lightning Explosive Offense

Neuvirth did not fair well against Tampa in the regular season. He played two games and was pulled after the first period in one of them. He had a 3.00 goals against in 80 minutes with a .917 save percentage. On the other hand, Semyon Varlamov shutout the Lightning once this year, played four games with 242 minutes, a 1.49 goals against and spectacular .949 save percentage. Look for Boudreau to go to Varly in a game or so if Neuvirth’s struggle against Tampa continue.

Prediction: The Caps will be pushed but have found the maturity to win in crunch time. Caps in seven.

There is only so much that Wilson Ramos can do for the Nats. He catches pitches, he does not pitch. He has one bat, not eight. His glove is made for catching fastballs, not tracking down dying quails in the outfield.

Yet, he did what he could on Tuesday night for the Nats in a 6-4 losing effort to the Mets in the first of a three-game set at Nationals Park. He hit two home runs, had an RBI single and fielded his position well when New York went small ball bunting. His 3-4 night raised his average to .378 and the dingers were his first two of the year along with the first multi-home run game of his young career.

“You hate to have a guy hit a couple homers in a losing cause but it was a good night for him. He is a good player,” Nats manager Jim Riggleman said. “You know, he has really taken to instruction real well from Pudge. He works real hard, they communicate a lot. It is real nice to see the relationship develop between those two guys. He is a special player in his own right and he is going to show you what he did tonight, you are going to see more of that.”

Coming into the night Ramos had an on-base percentage of .413, about .90 points higher than the OBP of an MLB player over the course of the season. The problem with Ramos has been that most of his hits have been singles. His slugging before the game sat at .415, which is almost exactly league average yet very low for a player batting .341 entering Tuesday.

There will be regression for Ramos. He is 23 years old in his first full MLB season. His batting average on balls in play (BABIP) — a stat that measures the certain degree of luck that a player has of getting a hit when he makes contact – is a high at .467 through 41 at-bats. League average BABIP through the years is almost exactly at .300. Players will normally come within a couple standard deviations of that number and even if Ramos is one of those odd players that defies the law of BABIP though his career (some players just do), his average will come down. The hope is that his slugging percentage will go up at the same time. Wrap that up with his solid OBP and you have the makings of an All-Star catcher.

Yet, Ramos is not the Nat listed on the All-Star ballot, which was released today. Ivan Rodriguez, he of 2,824 career hits, is listed. The two catchers are splitting time for the foreseeable future but it will be hard to keep Ramos out of the lineup, especially if his power starts to blossom. That may be hard for him at this stage of his career. He is only 23 years old and his best slugging percentage as a professional ballplayer came in 2009 for the Twins Double-A club when he slugged .454.

On the pitching side of the battery for the Nats on Tuesday,Jordan Zimmermann was not on top of his game. He allowed five runs on 9 hits with one strikeout in 5.1 innings. The last two runs were inherited to Doug Slaten in the sixth with one out who allowed them on a can of corn double by Josh Thole.

“He pitched a winnable game tonight. He wasn’t at the top of his game but, you know, if something happened here or there we could have won that ball game and he comes away with a win even though he wasn’t at the top of his game,” Riggleman said.

Zimmermann is in his first full year back from Tommy John surgery and it has been mostly downs and not quite as many ups for the talented pitcher. He has electric stuff and consistently hit the radar guns at 94 to 95 miles-per-hour on Tuesday, but the Mets lit him up anyway as he dropped his season record to 1-4.

“Certainly with his place in the game and his time in the game to this point is not that much,” Riggleman said. “There is going to be some ups and downs coming off the surgery. But, he faced a hot ball club there. They came in here hot and they are still hot. They have an ice lineup when they are all healthy, they have a nice lineup.”

Jayson Werth also had a homerun to account for the Nats scoring. It was his fourth of the year.

Karl Alzner got a tweet this morning from a Rangers fan forecasting a repeat of history and certain Caps demise.

So, Josh Bennett (@JoshBenn80), how are you feeling right about now?

For the first time in the Bruce Boudreau era, the Caps have close out a playoff series in less than seven games. Did anyone think that was possible?

It happened

Washington took care of business against the Rangers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Stanley Cup Playoffs quarterfinals 3-1 to take the series four games to one. The Caps now await the winners of the Buffalo/Philadelphia, Boston/Montreal series’ or the Tampa Bay/Pittsburgh series to see who they play next.

If Buffalo (the No. 7 seed) upsets the Flyers, then the Caps get the Sabres in the semifinals. If Philly comes back and wins, the Caps could play any team from the No. 6 Canadiens (currently tied at two games apiece heading into Game 5 in Boston Saturday night), No.5 Lightning or No. 4 Pittsburgh. Really, whatever is the lowest seed heading into the next round and the Sabres, with a three games to two advantage, look like they could be it.

“There is going to be a little bit of relief. I mean, we are completely different team this year and the whole circumstance is different,” Alzner said. “It is nice to get a round out of the way because I got a tweet, I think this morning, saying something about ‘are you guys ready to choke again and lose.’ I was like, ‘hopefully we will show you’ and now that that is done I am pretty happy about that.”

Do not expect any retort from Alzner, Mr. Bennett

“I probably won’t get into too many Twitter battles. I am sure that person knows that I kind of won that one right there,” Alzner said.

Sorry buddy. Not this year.

Revisiting the keys heading into the series, a couple major themes emerged from the Capitals on Saturday and they were the reason Washington was able to finally put skate to throat and blow a team out of a series.

Foremost – puck possession.

Washington came out of the gates in Game 5 with energy and, yes, fury and held the puck for almost all of the first period.

“I thought that we came out like a ball of fire,” defenseman John Carlson said.

Ted Starkey, a writer for the Washington Times, tweeted near the end of the first period that the zamboni would probably not be necessary for the Rangers’ side of the ice.

“They had the puck,” Rangers’ coach John Tortorella said. “We had problems getting the puck away from them. You got to give them some credit.”

If you look at the entirety of the NHL playoff landscape, only two teams have been able to advance to the semifinals from either conference thus far. Outside of home teams not being able to win games, the two teams with the best puck possession over the course of a series are the ones that have moved on. Detroit, which pretty much founded the NHL version of puck possession hockey, swept the Coyotes out in four games. Now the Capitals have used the puck possession style to win Game 5. It was not like that the entire series, but it goes to show that it is a winning formula when your defensemen can get through the neutral zone and your wings play chip-and-chase and cycle well in the corners.

Mike Green got the Caps on the board first with a scrum goal that went off of New York center Brandon Dubinsky and erupted into a melee after the fog horn, sending five players to the box (two from each team for roughing and a bench minor on the Rangers) at 5:49 in the first period. Washington set the tone and kept at it all game.

Outside for a few beauties, there were not many pretty goals in the series. It was a grind-it-out, crash the net, get in a scrum, repeat kind of series. Of the five games, two went to overtime with one in double overtime. The playoffs ain’t easy, nobody said they was going to be.

“That was a really tough series,” Caps’ coach Bruce Boudreau said. “It was done in five but, I mean I think John (Tortorella) would say the same thing … either team could’ve won all five games.”

So, how were the Caps so significantly better that they were able to close it out in five?

The answer is a bit of a mixed bag, but there is one definitive place where the Caps can look that made the difference in the series.

The net.

“He did not give them a chance, he was great,” Boudreau said of the Caps young goaltender Michal Neuvirth. “He covered pucks up, he wouldn’t allow rebounds and we would get chances to change and slow it down when we wanted to do that. I am telling you, a lot of people do not know his name too much I mean outside of our circles but he is a heck of a goalie.”

Neuvirth leads all playoff goaltenders with a 1.38 goals against average as well as with a .946 save percentage. This against a Rangers team that had put up seven and six goal totals against the Caps this year and seemingly knew how to score on against Washington (though, overall New York was not an especially dynamic offensive threat). Yet, the Rangers scored a grand total of eight goals in five games, were shutout once and almost shutout in Game 5 before gaining a goal with 31.5 seconds remaining in their season.

Perhaps more impressive, Neuvirth out-dueled Henrik Lundqvist on a save-by-save basis. It is a little odd to say, but the Caps defense, even without Dennis Wideman and Tom Poti, was deeper and more efficient in executing the game plan than the Rangers.

“I think they really bought in,” Boudreau said of the mid-season defensive change. “After that 7-0 game (against the Rangers in December) on, I haven’t checked the numbers, but I bet you from that game on we had the best goals against in the league because these guys want to win and when they heard that this is the way we think we have to play to win, they also said let’s do it because we want to win. I think it has come a long way.”

Alex Ovechkin added a goal in the second period with a great burst of speed that beat top New York defender Marc Staal down the right wing. Ovie turned to the slot, went to the backhand and beat Lundqvist.

Verizon Center erupted.

“I  think I have some pretty good speed down there,” Ovechkin said. “Hanner [Scott Hannan] gave me a pretty good pass and I just do what I have to do to score goals. It’s my job.”

Alexander Semin added a goal late in the third period to account for the scoring.

Now, the Caps wait. They got dinged up a couple times through the series and Mike Green took a puck to the face in the second period in a very similar play to when he got a concussion almost eight weeks ago when he blocked a shot with his head. The semifinals are not going to start until next weekend so the Caps have six or seven days to make sure that Green is healthy and not again concussed, that Jason Arnott is not too hurt, that Mike Knuble can get a week to recuperate and so on. Carlson and Alzner can use some rest after logging big minutes all series as well.

“We are moving on, we get to play hockey some more,” forward Brooks Laich said.

There was no heat at Nationals Park on Friday night.

Game time temperature was 56 degrees, decreasing with the breeze and as the sun went down. It was colder than the press box at Verizon Center where the Caps were taking on the Rangers in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinals playoff series.

There was no heat in the stands, as maybe 15,000 loyal fans were at the park, dutifully cheering on the Nats against the Brewers and rewarded, with a 4-3, 10-inning win. By the end of the game, there were maybe several hundred customers looking for a Nats victory.

Perhaps the rest were busy watching hockey.

And, there was no heat on the mound as neither starting pitcher – Tom Gorzelanny for the Nats, Chris Narveson for the Brewers – came close to hitting 90 miles-per-hour on the radar gun on a consistent basis.

Finally, there was no heat from the batter’s box as for the third night in a row, Nats hitters were cold, despite producing three runs in the bottom of the second to spur the Washington offense without an RBI hit.

Fittingly, the winning-run would not come on a hit.

Jayson Werth came to the plate with one out in the bottom of the 10th looking to break out of his early-season slump and prove that he is the straw that stirs the Nationals’ drink with his big contract and great expectations.

Werth did not come through with a big hit, but he made all the difference.

The right fielder grounded into what looked to be a routine play to Brewers’ Yuniesky Betancourt but the oft-maligned shortstop threw the ball wide the first baseman Prince Fielder and it dribbled up the first base line. Werth took second with aggressive running and was in scoring position for Adam LaRoche.

Werth then stole third as Brewers’ pitcher Zach Braddock let him be to set up a situation where almost any contact would score the winning run.

Which was good for the Nats. It is not like they have been getting many hits recently.

With the infield crowding the grass (even with centerfielder Carlos Gomez playing on the dirt), LaRoche hit a ground ball to Fielder. The throw home was high and wide, Werth;s slide was low and the Nats put a curly-W on the board on a night they had no business doing so.

“One of the things that we talk about is his athleticism and the athleticism that has been added to the club and I think that is a great example right there,” manager Jim Riggleman said. “Real aggressive to take second base to begin with because the ball gets away. I have seen a lot of players hesitate to go and then not go. He’s at second. Then he aggressively steals third and then get’s a great jump on a ground ball with the infield in and scored the run.”

That is the quality that Werth brings to the Nationals. Time and again in this early season he has proven that one of his better qualities is as a base runner. It is refreshing as the Nats last year, outside of Nyjer Morgan and Ian Desmond, were not much of a running team and would often not take the second base if it could be available.

“We have probably done it this year practically as much as we did last year as far as trying to steal third,” Riggleman said. “I think from Spring Training on we have been trying to do that a little bit more.”

The Nats got on board in the second with three runs when Brewers starter Chris Narveson (5.2IP, 5H, 4BB, 3R, 3ER, 5K) walked two runs in with the bases loaded and got a sacrifice fly from Danny Espinosa to make it 3-0 and stake pitcher Tom Gorzelanny to a lead that it seemed would be all the Nationals would need.

“You know, we got a couple base-on-balls with the bases loaded, got the run late there without a hit,” Riggleman said. “When a club is throwing pretty good against you, you have to battle and scratch out a win some way and I am very proud of our guys. We know that we are not hitting on all cylinders yet but you got to scratch out some wins when you are not hitting on all cylinders.”

In the ninth, with the Nats up 3-2, Rickie Weeks hit a double to right-center that one-hopped the wall and a single by Carlos Gomez brought Weeks home. Burnett earned a blown save for the effort, his first of the season.

Gorzelanny was good. He threw 85 pitches through six innings, registering his first quality start of the year (6IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 4K). Riggleman said that despite the pitch count, that was as far as Gorzelanny would go on Friday night. With a rested bullpen, Washington could go to its three-headed bullpen monster of Tyler Clippard, Drew Storen and Sean Burnett to close it out. Clippard and Storen did their parts and Burnett was a strike from getting it done but the Nats could not pull it out.

“That goes into the blown save category but Rickie Weeks, he is a bear to deal with,” Riggleman said. “He is a tough, hard-nosed ballplayer. He is a tough guy to finish off a game with.”

Quit holding your breath.

That is what playoff hockey does to NHL fans. Without realizing it, they are sitting on the edge of their seats, swearing at the refs, yelling at the ice, screaming at their TVs.

Then, overtime comes and it is so intense that it seems like they have completely lost their senses.

The Caps did not lose their senses on Wednesday night, Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Rangers. They could have, it would have been very easy to say ‘Henrik Lundqvist is a freaking monster, we are completely snake bitten, it is all happening over again.’

Washington held strong and were rewarded, taking the game 2-1 for a one game to none series lead as Alexander Semin scored for the first time in 15 playoff contests, racing a rocket from the slot to the back of the net in overtime.

“I think we were a little flappable,” coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We weren’t getting anywhere and it wasn’t until that last 10 minutes where we said on the bench ‘OK, let’s start sending the defensemen, taking more chances and going after it.’”

The Caps have been training all year for this moment. They have learned to play defense, taught themselves patience, taught themselves to do some of the little things that are advantageous when a playoff game becomes tight.

It was scoreless affair through the first two periods. Lundqvist and Washington goaltender Michal Neuvirth battled, with Lundqvist keeping the Caps off the board by hook and by crook, using the crossbar and posts as his friends as Washington rang the metal three times in the first two periods and knocked on the doorstep time and again. Semin hit the metal above Lundqvist’s shoulder, so did Marco Sturm. When Mike Knuble rang the post in the second period, even the most ardent of red-wearing faithful had to think that the Caps just may not be destined to pull this game, this series, this season out.

But there was patience.

And the Caps kept to their work.

“That is the thing, we have been through this before and I think mentally we know how to take it and you can’t get frustrated,” defenseman Mike Green said. “Through the first couple of periods there I don’t know how many posts we hit, cross bar, and Lundqvist stood on his head and there should have been a goal. It is just one of those things where you have to be patient and fortunately enough we have worked on our game.”

Lundqvist is the kind of goaltender that can pilfer a game if he gets any type of help, steal a series if he gets into a zone. The metal that encases his cage was his friend on Wednesday, his top pair of defensemen – Dan Girardi and Marc Staal – were his gatekeepers. Try as the Caps might, the Rangers just did not want to let the puck light that red lamp.

“I wasn’t sure at one point if there was ever going to be a way to beat that guy,” Boudreau said.

New York took the lead early in the third when Matt Gilroy, former Hobey Baker award winner for the top player in college hockey, sped a one-timer from the right circle past Neuvirth at 1:56 in the period. The play was set up by Brandon Prust wrestling the puck from Caps’ defenseman John Erskine behind the net and ringing it around to Wojtek Wolski, who found Gilroy pinching from the blue line for the snap shot and it was 1-0 Rangers. After all the chances the Caps had, letting New York steal a goal and the lead could have been deflating.

“This is what you have been preparing for,” Green said. “You have done it a lot through the course of the year and I think some of our experience paid off tonight. We expect to be in these games the rest of the series as we move on. You don’t want to be in this position but at least we are prepared for it.”

Washington kept the Rangers off the board and kept plying away at their chances. Sometimes it looked like the bad version of Capitals’ hockey: shots from the outside with no rebounds, up and down without structure, bad puck movement between zones. But then, on a play that had no right ending in a goal, the Caps tied it up with 6:16 to play.

Green held the puck in the trapezoid behind Neuvirth. In front of him was a 1-1-2 forecheck and he looked at how to break it down. Green has not played a game in six weeks and perhaps, for this one play, that was a benefit to him. Green normally would not hesitate to bring that puck out of the zone with his own skates. But he paused, showing a little rust and lack of quick, decisive action.

So, he skipped the puck almost three lines to center ice where Alex Ovechkin was streaking. Ovie barely controlled it, followed the puck down the left wing, tried to put a move on a Ranger defender and whiffed the puck near the elbow of the crease. We have seen a lot of that from Ovie this year. The dip-and-hook or swim move that defenders have keyed on and know the best thing is to just let the Russian run right into them and squirt the puck loose. Going back through the year, Ovechkin has hours worth of highlights where he has completely missed the puck when trying to put a move on a defender on the rush.

Semin was there for the loose rubber. Yet, instead of trying to pitch one straight over Lundqvist shoulder, he sticked-handled. Twice. Enough time to poke the puck out of his control. It looked like a wasted opportunity and a play that basically started broken with Green’s pass ended broken.

Not so fast.

With the puck loose, Ovechkin whacked at it.

And the red light came on.

It was reviewed, but the replay officials in Toronto found that the puck did trickle through Lundqvist’s pad and the goal line.

“Sometimes you need a greasy goal like that and it sparks your team,” Boudreau said.

Back in business.

The wheels on the bus just kept spinning. Each team held off the approach of the other, through the end of regulation and then much of overtime. As the game wore on, it became sloppier as players tired. More chances, as many misses.

Then, at 18:24 in to overtime, Jason Arnott won a puck battle on the half wall, muscling the puck to a streaking Semin down the slot. The Russian sniper laid wood to puck and it had eyes to the back of the net. The shot was so hard and the play so quick, it hardly seemed like Semin had scored at all.

Ovie was there, giving Semin a bear hug. The oft-desultory Semin was smiling as the rafters shook. He even came to talk to the media after the game, something is does not often do.

“I just saw the puck get intercepted,” Semin said through translator Slava Malamud. “I tried to get open and shoot as soon [as] possible because the defensemen was right there.”

There was Semin, integral to both of the Caps goals. Semin, who shot the puck so many times against the Habs last year that his misfortune was the calling card of the entire Washington hockey club. Semin, who had not scored a goal in a playoff game since the last time the Caps played the Rangers, two years ago. Semin, who has a variety of hashtags on Twitter for his erratic play — #GoodSasha, #BadSasha.

Semin has to be a key to the series for the Caps to win. If they lose, he will probably be a key factor the other way, with his propensity for stick penalties that put the Caps in a hole. For Washington to win, they need their goal scorers to do the trick. If you name is Alex and you hail from Russia … put the puck in the net. All else is trivial.

“For our team, we are not getting anywhere without Alex Semin scoring,” Boudreau said. “You look at the regular season and Ovie had 32 and he had [28] and Mike [Knuble] had 24 and after that it drops off. So, I mean, we need him to go and create that other offensive threat and I thought that shot … I could hardly see it. Arnott made a great play to keep it in and he didn’t hesitate, he just shot it. It was a great shot.”

So, it is OK to stop holding your breath now. Washington showed in Game 1 that they are not going to let themselves be the same team that fizzled away against the Canadiens last year. Unlike playoffs past, the Caps are not going to beat themselves. A team is going to have to out-perform the Caps to beat them.

And that, as we just learned, may not be an easy thing to do.

If there are two days during the regular season when Caps were at their lowest, they were probably December 12th and February 25th. Those two days the Capitals, having dealt with recent struggles, were not just shut out by the New York Rangers …

They were buried.

New York beat Washington 7-0 in December and 6-0 in February while taking the season series from the Caps 3-1-0 (or 1-2-1 from the Washington perspective). The Rangers outscored Washington 17-6 and basically pestered the eventual top team in the Eastern Conference through four games.

Perhaps this is not the playoff matchup the Caps were hoping for.

‘Mojo!’
courtesy of ‘Make Lemons’

If there is any solace the Caps can take from this recent history is that the Washington teams of December and February were playing some of its worst hockey of the year and the Rangers, who tend to be very streaky, took advantage while the Caps were vulnerable.

Are the Caps still vulnerable?

History shows that teams that play well in March and into April fair better in the playoffs. That is one of the reasons the NHL continually sees upsets of lower seeds over the regular season powerhouses year after year – the lower seeds need to get hot just to make it to the dance while teams that basically have positions wrapped up let off the gas. This is not always true, of course, but there is enough of a correlation that it is a distinct trend.

Since March 1, the Caps are 15-3-1. That would qualify for being hot at the right time. They went from being tied or trailing the Lightning for most of 2011 to the top of the conference and the No. 1 seed heading into the chase for Lord Stanley’s Cup.

The Rangers were 12-5-1 in March and April and victimized playoff contenders like the Penguins, Flyers and Bruins with five, six and seven goal outputs (along laying six goals on teams like the Islanders and the Habs). Yet, with all that scoring, the Rangers were only 16th in the NHL in goals per game at 2.73 because when they are not streaking the are colder than a Manhattan wind in January. New York was better than the Caps though who barely finished in the top two-thirds of the league in goals at 19th with 2.67 a game.

On defense, the match is also about even in terms of pure numbers. Washington was fourth in the league in goals against at 2.33, the Rangers fifth at 2.38. Solid goaltending was the key for the Rangers as Henrik Lundqvist, always a top netminder, was buoyed by a young and talented defense. Washington, through its ups and downs, also had solid goaltending in front of coach Bruce Boudreau’s revamped defensive style.

So, let’s break down the keys to the series to see what the Caps need to do to escape the Rangers and avoid a repeat of the disappointments from playoffs past.

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Goaltending –

Henrik Lundvist vs. Michal Neuvirth/Semyon Varlamov

Advantage – Rangers

With all due respect to the Caps young goaltenders, Lundqvist, when on his game, is one of the top goaltenders in the world. If he can get hot, it doesn’t matter how Washington plays, the Caps will not beat the Rangers. At least not easily. Lundvist this year was eighth in the NHL in save-percentage at .923 and seventh with a 2.28 goals against. Those are very solid numbers, not among the elite in the league, but still in the second tier of netminders in the NHL with the ability to play on his head if needed. He is a classic butterfly goalie and keeps his body very calm in the crease with good rebound control to the corners.

Varlamov actually beat Lundqvist in the save-percentage race this year, coming in sixth with a .924 rate, granted with about 1100 less shots against (27 games against 68 games). If the Caps make a run deep in the postseason it will be Neuvirth who will do most of the heavy lifting and the young man is not new to pressure, having led the Hershey Bears to the Calder Cup in two seasons in the AHL. Boudreau will go with the hot hand, though Neuvirth will probably get the first opportunities.

Forwards –

Marian Gaborik and company vs. Alex Ovechkin and the Young Guns

Advantage – Capitals

Washington is deep at forward, especially after the addition of Jason Arnott and Marco Sturm at the trade deadline. Ovechkin and his boys have not played quite as well this year as they have in the past but, regardless of what has happened this year, the Caps are built around their top line talent.

On the Rangers side, Gaborik will be the key. He is talented and playing well down the stretch. He is also no Ovechkin. Gaborikl is a star, but a lesser star. Brian Boyle, Derek Stepan, Brandon Dubinsky and Brandon Prust are double-digit goal scorers and feisty individuals in their own right. The unit can be contained, especially if the Caps can keep them to the outside and out of the slot, but have the potential to break free if opponents are not diligent in their assignments.

Overall, the Caps have too much fire power not to have a clear advantage here. We will see if the Caps can gain momentum and if Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Semin, Arnott, Mike Knuble and Brooks Laich can prime the Caps pump.

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Defense –

Marc Staal and Dan Girardi vs. Karl Alzner and John Carlson

Advantage – Rangers

This is a tricky question. Without Dennis Wideman or Tom Poti, the Rangers clearly have a better defensive unit, if slightly young. With Wideman and Poti, or maybe just Wideman and a healthy and effective Mike Green, the Caps have the best defense. Health is always the kicker and becomes a magnified issue over a short series. Wideman will probably not play against the Rangers and Poti has given no reason for the Caps to trust his health all year.

The top units for each team are similar. Staal and Girardi are young, yet they are actually older than Alzner and Carlson. When healthy the Caps have the better puck movers but the Rangers have better size to clear guys like Knuble and Laich out of the slot in front of Lundqvist. If many things heading into this series are even, the play of each teams’ individual defensive pairing on a shift-by-shift basis will be what separates them and sends one a step closer to the Cup.

Special Teams

Henrik Lundqvist v. Alex Ovechkin

Advantage – Capitals

Both teams struggled on the power play. Both were good on the penalty kill. Washington’s man-advantage has not been great this year but at 17.5 (15th in the league) percent it is still better the New York’s 16.9 percent (18th in the league). Boudreau will get creative if things get tough and/or the Caps make a run, from rolling out five forwards on the power play or insisting that Ovechkin play the point from the left side and try to hit a one-timer from the crease.

The Caps were second in the league in penalty killing at 85.6 percent and there is no reason (especially with Alzner and Carlson around) to think that this trend won’t continue. The Rangers are 10th in the league in the PK at 83.6 percent and will rely a lot on Lundqvist to keep the Caps out of the net when they get into counterattack mode.

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Intangibles

John Tortorella vs. Bruce Boudreau

Advantage – Draw

The Rangers can be mean. Not like “he won’t share his sandwich” mean, but like “I might slit your throat if you look at me wrong” mean. That attitude comes straight from their coach and it works for them.

The Rangers have a habit of getting under opponents’ skin. Sean Avery is kind of like the Dennis Rodman of this era of the NHL. He pisses people off for the sake of it. I remember once when he hit Boston goaltender Tim Thomas up the back of his head with the blade of his stick “by accident” while skating by a stretching Thomas during a TV timeout. He is a punk and fits well with this New York team. Avery does not get a lot of ice time these days and in the playoffs teams try to avoid stupid penalties (Avery’s specialty) but the get-under-their-skin mindset is something that the Rangers share.

For the Caps, look out for Mike Green. If he can get back to his smooth-skating, puck-moving self, it will go a long way to helping Washington establish offensive presence and wearing down Lundqvist and the Rangers’ defense.

Prediction:

Capitals in six.

Are you ready to rock?

The 2010-11 Washington Capitals regular season was just a long exercise in patience. It was never supposed to be a definitive statement of what the Caps are or where the franchise stands in the pantheon of almost-great NHL hockey teams.

If anything, it was an exercise in patience, humility, endurance, creative problem solving and transformation. The Caps were like a caterpillar that turned into a butterfly.

Washington started off the season a high-octane offense-first juggernaut – flying, big scoring, finesse and fragile. This was the version of the Caps that the fans had come to know and love and be continually frustrated by in the playoffs. Up until the last weekend of November, the MVP of the Caps was probably Alexander Semin. If you even thought of Semin as the MVP of this team now, they would laugh you out of the Green Turtle. Then there were the larval stages, December through most of March, where the Caps suffered through the changes of playing a different style of hockey, relying less on scoring (and scoring a lot less), integrating new players from outside the organization and folding in the prospects to the already young base of Alexander Ovechkin, Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green.

The Caps learned to play good defense. Not just the defensemen, but the entire team has gotten better on the back check, they are still aggressive on the forecheck if a bit tempered, and have the ability to trap and keep shots coming from the wings as opposed to the slot. It has not been a perfect transition – the inner offensive juggernaut wants to be free – but it has been effective enough where Washington was able to rally out of its doldrums, find some of it old offense and emerge the butterfly as the Eastern Conference top seed heading into the playoffs. The spinning wheels of waiting for the second season, the real season, are finished.

Now it is time to fly.

What do the Caps need to do to succeed in the chase for Lord Stanley’s Cup? Here are five items that will be important for Washington to get over its frustration and make a run deep into spring.

Goaltending –

Who to watch – Michal Neuvirth

Goaltending is the first pillar of extended playoff runs. It does not always have to be spectacular, like the Sabres or Devils with Dominik Hasek or Martin Brodeur of years past, but it does need to be solid and consistent. The Caps trio of young goaltenders will be the key to getting through the gauntlet that April and May hockey represent.

Coming into the season, goaltending was one the Caps most nebulous questions. Washington knew it had talent with Michal Neuvirth and Semyon Varlamov with the unknown-quantity of Braden Holtby waiting in the wings. But, young goaltenders can be fickle creatures. Look at Carey Price in Montreal. He can be terrific at times and an absolute head case at others.

The results from the trio this year have been a string of consistent starts with periods of growing pains. Neuvirth has been the key, yet Varlamov has the best numbers when he is healthy. Holtby looks like a cross between Tim Thomas and Cam Ward and is probably the Caps goaltender of the future. Of the three it will probably be Neuvirth who coach Bruce Boudreau will go with first. Holtby, on the other end, will see what he can do in bringing another Calder Cup to Hershey.

Can Neuvirth go end-to-end and bring the Caps a Cup? The realistic answer is – not bloody likely. Yet, can a mixture of Varlamov and Neuvirth get Washington at least an Eastern Conference finals birth? Probably, yes. Anything else would be a huge disappointment. There have been young goalies that have emerged as playoff heroes. Ward was only 22 when he led the Hurricanes to the Cup in 2006. It can happen. Let’s see if the young netminders are up to the task.

Defensive endurance and health –

Who to watch – The entire defensive corps

Playoff hockey is a different beast than the regular season. There are not a lot of 5-4 games in the playoffs. It becomes more like World Cup soccer where 2-1 and 3-2 games litter the landscape.

Washington’s biggest problem with the Canadiens last year was that they were trying to blow the Habs out of the water with five goal outputs. Montreal, despite being thoroughly outgunned, was smarter than that. They kept the Caps shots coming from the outside and cleaned the slot very well. The Habs play in a division with the Sabres, Bruins, Leafs and Senators where grind-it-out hockey is the norm and the style translates well to the playoffs.

As mentioned before, the inner juggernaut of the Caps does want to rear its head. You can see them slip out of Boudreau’s new defensive style from time to time. The key for the Caps will be the ability to stay within the defense and keep the structure of their zones. It is disciplined hockey and it leads to positive results in the playoffs.

Can the Caps do that though? The defense has been much better this year with Karl Alzner and John Carlson leading the way as shutdown defenders that Boudreau has come to lean on heavily. The backend with John Erskine has been solid as Erskine has turned into a reliable NHL defender who has the ability to be very physical and clear larger opposing centers (like the Flyers Mike Richards, for instance) out of the slot in front of the crease.

The playoffs are a battle of attrition. Mike Green is just coming back to the line up, Dennis Wideman is out until at the very least the second round, Tom Poti has not been available or reliable all year. If Green and Wideman can get healthy and effective, that gives the Caps a much better chance than without.

Which leads to the next point …

Puck moving and possession –

Who to watch – Green, Wideman

When Washington struggles, one of the things to watch has been how well they move through the neutral zone and break opponents’ forechecks. When the Caps are losing, it has been a painful lesson in the need to have a dynamic puck-moving defensemen that can break through the neutral zone himself or make the good outlet pass.

The fact of the matter is that you cannot score if you are not in the offensive zone. The longer the better. Always being on the rush and throwing pucks from the wings is not going to help, especially in the slower and more physical NHL playoffs and that is exactly what happened to the Caps last April against the Habs.

In this, Green and Wideman will be essential. Carlson and Alzner as a unit (moreso than individually) are decent puck-movers, as is Hannan, but when it comes to getting from one trapezoid to the other, Green and Wideman are near tops in the NHL. If the Caps can get both of them healthy, one or the other can be on the ice at almost all times. Get Wideman to actually play defense and puck-moving (which leads to possession) becomes one of the Caps strengths as opposed to its greatest weakness.

As the first round unfolds, watch the Caps entering the blue line. If they are consistently being turned away or losing the puck, it might be a quick hook.

Slot hockey –

Who to watch – Mike Knuble, Brooks Laich

This is not something the Capitals are good at, even if they know they are supposed to be good at it. Slot hockey is what leads to “dirty goals” – bang-down-the-door from the top of crease. A shot comes from the point, heads through traffic in front of the goaltender, is saved but there is someone there to collect a rebound and try to stuff it through the pads.

Pardon my language, but fuck finesse. Finesse only takes a team so far in the playoffs. Knuble has been much better in the second half of the season than in the first and will be the prime candidate to give the Caps a few dirty goals in the post season, goals that can be the difference between moving on getting blasted in D.C. as a always inevitable also-ran.

The stars need to be stars –

Who to watch – Alex Ovechkin

This is a cliché. My thought on clichés has always been that the reason they are clichés is because is a fair amount of truth to them, even if they are overused.

There are players that make the playoffs theirs. Sidney Crosby in the Penguins recent runs, Dustin Byfuglien last year, Cam Ward, Martin Brodeur … Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Roy.

If Ovechkin wants to move up in the pantheon of elite players to ever skate in the NHL, he needs to lead his team to a Cup. Otherwise, he becomes the Washington version of Joe Thornton (who the book has not closed on yet but the example is pertinent).

Semin, Green, Backstrom are all good players but lesser stars. They need to play well, but it will not be them to have to face the harshest criticism if the team falters or chokes. Ovechkin wears the “C” and is the face of the franchise. He has the ability to carry the team to the Cup, all above factors be damned.

Tomorrow we will look at the playoffs and the Caps opponent – the New York Rangers – more in depth before gearing up for Game 1 on Wednesday.

It is a Wednesday night in April. Washington, D.C. was about 65 degrees in the afternoon with a bit of a chill breeze coming from the water. The townsfolk are buzzing about cherry blossoms and how utterly bad the Nationals are going to be.

For years in D.C., this was not a time to be talking about hockey.

But, there is this red machine is like a fire in the middle of the city. People flock to it for the experience, for the cheers and the hits and the hope to see Alex Ovechkin light a lamp, hear a foghorn sound. For 101 straight regular season games, Verizon Center has been packed to the rafters with manic fans, unleashing fury and clamoring for chicken wings.

It was no different this Wednesday.

And their team didn’t disappoint.

The Caps were sloppy against the Panthers, but they certainly were the better team, claiming a 5-2 victory to finish off their home schedule (25-8-8) of the regular season. Washington is now a win away from claiming its second straight Eastern Conference regular season title and having home ice through a theoretical playoff run.

The Caps were outshot in the first period 18-6. Yet, Semyon Varlamov was up to the task, pushing away all comers and keeping Washington in the game, enough to watch his Panther counterpart, Scott Clemmensen, wilt under power play pressure. Mike Knuble scored the first goal 1:20 into the game on the man-advantage and Jason Chimera added another late in the first and the Caps never really looked back. Even if they were not playing all that well.

“I don’t think we really set a tone. I think that game was a little bit sloppy, actually,” said forward Brooks Laich who had an assist on both the first two goals. “Maybe it is something that we can learn from, a cheap game that we can learn from our mistakes where we are not playing a Philadelphia that puts pucks in the back of our net when we make a mistake, so, I think there are some areas that we could clean up and we will look at the video and go to Saturday and go into the playoffs.”

Coach Bruce Boudreau said the Caps may have been tired after playing in Toronto on Tuesday and getting back in to D.C. late. He rested center Jason Arnott and defensemen Scott Hannan because, more or less, they are old and could use the rest. A couple Hershey Bears and possible Black Aces (minor leaguers on the roster during the playoffs that help during practices) in Jay Beagle and Sean Collins filled in. Collins even scored a goal, the second of his career, more than two years after his first in January, 2009, when he get the third tally after following Alex Ovechkin down the slot on a rush.

In that way, it seemed a lot more like the first game of the year than the last. Training camp seems like yesterday. Back when we were debating if Mathieu Perreault should make the team and if Marcus Johansson was going to get sent back to Finland. Sloppy play, lots of shots against, score a couple goals and win anyway.

“Colly comes in an buries one,” Laich said in true Canadian fashion. “He has done a great job. A lot of our guys have commented, just talk around the room, on how well he has played since he has come up. A few years ago he came up and did a great job.”

Collins himself had a grin on his face and dutifully answered questions at his stall in the dressing room after the game, questions that invariably started “so, nice to get called up and score a goal, huh?”

“He [Ovechkin] is very fun and exciting to play with and creates a lot of offense and I kind of benefitted from that tonight,” Collins said. “After the first one [career goal in 2009] I think I pinched myself a couple times on the bench to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming. This time I knew it wasn’t a dream, but it is an unbelievable feeling.”

So, the Caps tune up continues. A good sign is that the power play, which has been defunct a good portion of the season [tied for 16th at 17.1 percent heading into the game]. Between the dredges of the Eastern Conference the last several games Washington has scored five power play goals. It is better than nothing, which is what the Caps were getting against those same teams in December and January.

“We could have had more than two, I thought,” Boudreau said. “That is what we are accustomed two if we took a year off and go back. The great thing about our team last year was teams didn’t want to play their physical game because our power play was good. If we can get that to work on a consistent basis like it was in Toronto last night, like it was here tonight, I think that gives you another element.”

So, the Caps play the final game of the regular season in Sunrise, Fla. against these same Panthers on Saturday. Then, some scoreboard watching on Sunday to see how the rest of the conference shakes up and who will be the first round opponent (Knuble, for his part, said he will be watching the Masters as opposed to hockey).

“We started a job that we would like to finish on Saturday on a positive note,” Boudreau said. “You know, sometimes the most exciting part of your life is two months long and sometimes it is only two weeks long. We hope it is longer than it was last year.”

One swing of Rick Ankiel’s bat made John Lannan and the Nationals winners for the first time in 2011 on Saturday as Washington beat the Braves 6-3 in a soggy affair at Nationals Park.

Ankiel took a 91 mile-per-hour four-seam fastball from Braves starter Tommy Hanson to right field above the out-of-town scoreboard in the third inning to give the Nats a 4-1 lead, all they would need to sink Atlanta on another chilly day at the ballpark.

Ankiel also layed down a perfect squeeze bunt in bottom of the seventh inning with the bases loaded to score third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and make the score 5-2 Nats. Catcher Wilson Ramos (three singles) and right fielder Jayson Werth (two doubles and an infield single) both had three hits to pace the Nats 10-hit performance.

Lannan was good, if unspectacular. That is pretty much what can be expected from the 26-year-old sinker-ball pitcher at this point in his career. His four-seam fastball hovered between 89 and 91 miles per hour, with his two-seamer between 86 and 89. He worked to his strengths and kept the ball on the ground for the most part, recording seven groundouts verse four fly balls and three strikeouts.

“Lannan certainly lobbied to stay in,” Riggleman said of the starter after the second rain delay (55 minutes) in the fourth inning. “We wanted him to continue on. We are not going to get overboard about who gets the win but we would have liked for him to get through it and get three more outs and pick that up. The overriding factor was how loose he could get and how he felt and he felt fine. We thought there was a little difference in his stuff that inning as opposed to earlier, so, we didn’t let him go any more.”

After Lannan, the Nationals used five relievers to nail down the victory. In order – Chad Gaudin, Doug Slaten, Tyler Clippard, Drew Storen, Sean Burnett. They combined for four innings, five hits, two earned runs (both home runs) and two strikeouts.

Baseball is a game of increments. To a certain extent it can be looked up as a law of singularly-intermingled events. Any hitter with a 2-0 count looks like an All-Star on the next pitch. Hitters in 0-2 counts do not sniff the Mendoza line.

The purpose of baseball is to succeed through 27 outs with the highest possible total of runs. That means that every play has a positive and negative effect on the probability of a certain outcome as the game meanders to conclusion. This is where a stat called Win Probability Added (WPA) comes into play.

There are two halves to win probability. The wining half and the losing half. Each team will have a cumulative WPA of -.500 or .500 for the losing and winning half. By breaking down who contributed most to WPA, the real heroes of a game emerge.

In order of importance on Saturday, the heroes for the Nats were: Clippard (.255), Ankiel (.180) and Lannan (.120).

“Clip has done that twice now,” managet Jim Riggleman said. “He has come in with runners on base and left those men out there and he is facing some tough hitters. They got a good lineup, we know that. They got a good pitching staff. It is a great ball club they put out over there and we are feeling really good the way we have played with them here.”

One of the strengths of the Nats will be in the bullpen and Riggleman showed that on Saturday, effectively deploying his three main tools – Clippard, Storen and Burnett – in situations that optimized their effect. Clippard pitched 1.2 innings and got the Nats out of the biggest jams of the game, hence, in terms of WPA, he was the star. Ankiel provided the odd combination of muscle and finesse with his three RBI. Now Washington looks to take the rubber game on Sunday in another matinee.

“We played a good ball game,” Riggleman said. “We swung the bat good. I was really encouraged by the way we played defense, a lot of good things happened defensively. [Danny] Espinosa, [Ian] Desmond made some great plays … we ran the bases, got signs. Good fundamental stuff. We played good baseball today.”

The Caps want to start tuning up for the playoffs. After grinding out an 4-3 overtime victory against the Blue Jackets on Thursday at Verizon Center, they have 101 points, eight points more than the Lightning in the division with four to play (six for Tampa).

Washington trails the Flyers by a point for the top overall seed in the Eastern Conference and home ice through to the Stanley Cup Finals. The Presidents’ Cup is out of reach as the Canucks have it all but mathematically wrapped up. So, the Caps are more or less looking at a No. 2 seed heading into the playoffs with a possible No. 1 and it is time to fine tune the program so as to vanquish the ghosts of playoffs past.

Or so you would think.

Bob McKenzie, one of the elite reporters in all of hockey, tweeted during the Caps game on Thursday that defenseman Dennis Wideman was in the hospital with a hematoma on his leg that developed after an awkward hit from Carolina’s Tuomo Ruutu on Tuesday.

Definition of a hematoma:

“An abnormal localized collection of blood in which the blood is usually clotted or partially clotted and is usually situated within an organ or a soft tissuespace, such as within a muscle.

A hematoma is caused by a break in the wall of a blood vessel. The break may be spontaneous, as in the case of an aneurysm, or caused by trauma.”

The Washington Post’s Katie Carrera reported that Caps’s forward Mike Knuble said that Wideman has been sending teammates “gruesome” photos of his leg. Reports are that it has had to be cut open to drain blood out of the area.

The Caps are calling Wideman “week-to-week.” It is hard to tell how long he will be gone. The contusion on his leg after the hit by itself would have been a couple of weeks, at least. Open sores in hockey are particular tricky because of the risk of infection. Players pads and equipment are incubi of bacteria and NHL dressing rooms are not exactly the most sanitary of places, regardless of how well they are taken care of by trainers and staff. It is the nature of the environment. If the cut is large enough to require multiple stitches, Wideman will be out for a while, well into the playoffs.

Which is not what the Caps want to hear.

Fellow blue liner John Erskine played a grand total of seven shifts for 5:53 of ice time on Thursday, with only one shift coming after the first period. Coach Bruce Boudreau called Erskine “day-to-day” and that holding him out was more of a precautionary measure, but it is the second game in a row that the Caps have been forced to roll five defensemen for a majority of the contest. That wears on a team and against the Blue Jackets it started to show.

The second period featured four goals in rapid succession. The first was by Antoine Vermette, who was able to clean up the puck in the crease when the defense could not get it out of Michal Neuvirth’s house. Knuble came right back for the Caps, sweeping in the puck after it got through Blue Jackets’ goaltender Steve Mason’s pad on a shot from Nicklas Backstrom. Fedor Tyutin claimed a goal to make it 2-2 at 13:14 in the second, but Jason Arnott brought a slapper from the slot (off a great feed from Backstrom behind the net) to make it 3-2.

For a night that had some sleepy moments, it was certainly a dizzying stretch. Four goals in 2:17. This reporter could hardly tweet one without the next one coming.

The Caps held on to the lead until Scottie Upshall victimized Washington, a trait he has had throughout his career against them as a member of various teams. Upshall tied the game at 14:23 in the third and Washington was forced into an extra frame, where it knocked out Columbus once and for all when Jason Chimera knocked the puck home with assists from Brooks Laich and John Carlson.

“It went to th net soft, it kind of went off their defenseman and it kind of ended up right on my tape,” Chimera said. “So, it’s hard to miss those ones but those are nice. Especially against your old team. It was a good night.”

Good night for Chimera, but heroics should have been unnecessary.

Columbus is well out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Caps are on a rolling, with the particular quirks and neuroticism that lasted from December through early-March out of the way. All things being equal, Washington should have just stepped on the Blue Jacket’s throat and won the game 4-2 or 5-2.

But, it is not happening that way. The list of injured defensemen grows by the hour – Mike Green, Tom Poti, Erskine and Wideman. Boudreau could be telling the truth and that Erskine will be fine, but the cracks in the façade are starting to show.

“It has happened to everybody and everybody has got injuries, so, we don’t want to hurt but, hey, it is what it is,” Boudreau said. “The law of averages is going to catch up with you. We almost ‘didn’t make it to the end’ [without injuries], we have over 230 man-games lost. That puts us in the upper third of the league in man-games. It is just the job that we got good depth.”

Green and Wideman are puck-moving defensemen. One of the Caps’ biggest problems this year has been moving through the neutral zone or breaking good forechecks. There was a sequence in the second period where the Caps kept having problems gaining the offensive end because their passes and dishes kept on getting intercepted at the blue line. Guys like Green and Wideman dish when necessary but otherwise use their skating ability to gain the line and get deep into the zone before cycling back up to the point and rotating back into the play. Without them, Washington has trouble controlling possession of the puck. That can lead to longer defensive shifts. Longer defensive shifts lead to more potential for errors that eventually lead to goals against.

“Well, yeah, and add to the fact that is a really good forechecking team,” Boudreau said of the difficulty moving the puck against Columbus. “They really came at us and for two periods we only had five ‘D.’ Tyler [Sloan] hasn’t played a lot so by the third he was probably getting a little tired.”

Spring hockey is about endurance. It is about survival. The little things make the difference between winning playoff games and losing playoff series. The ability for a teams’ defensive corps to make it day after day, playing effectively, over the course over a couple of weeks or a month (or months for a deep playoff run) is important on deciding what team moves on. Take the Caps’ situation where their best puck-movers are out of commission and another important aspect – possession – is significantly weakened.

Tune up for the playoffs?

At this point, the Caps just hope to make it there in one piece.

Cherry blossoms have come to D.C. and with them the idea that it should be Spring here in the nation’s capital. Yet, the weather does not seem to agree with a patina of chill and frost still clinging to the ground every morning as we wait for the bright sun and temperatures of April to finally melt away the doldrums of winter.

Nevertheless, it is time to play baseball.

The Nationals start their regular season tomorrow with the general hope that today will be better than yesterday. That is not a hard hope for a team that has averaged 62.33 wins a year over the last three years. Nats fans have had a dismal time of it and late-season empty stadiums have been the proof that baseball in Washington is not yet a full-fledged member of the city’s pastime.

Well, here at WeLoveDC, WeLoveBaseball.

Tom Bridge, Rachel Levitin and I are all credentialed for Nats home games this year and will bring you the blow-by-blow of how the Nats fare, through the hope of spring into the eventual doldrums of another losing summer. Belief me this: it will be another dismal year.

But there is hope.

Success in baseball is often a fairly easy thing to predict. Yes, there are teams like the 2010 Reds or the 2008 Rays that make surprising runs, but each team has signs present that a revival was in the works – young prospects coming into their own, deep pitching talent, a buzz about the league and dark horse predictions. The harbinger for the Reds last year was rookie pitcher Mike Leake, who had never spent a game in the minor leagues, starting off the year as one of the winning-est pitchers in baseball. It is one of those things where a fan base wakes up and says “maybe there is something about us this year.”

Like the Reds, when the Nats finally do get up off the mat, it will be surprising young pitchers who lead the way.

This is not that year.

The phenom, of course, is not coming back anytime soon. Stephen Strasburg is in the midst of recovering from Tommy John surgery, a process that takes at least 12 months and maybe as much as 18. He may pitch a few games in September but I wouldn’t count on it. Make no assumptions: Strasburg will not be a factor in 2011.

Who then is in manager Jim Riggleman’s cupboard and how far can we expect this pitching staff to bring us?

The Starters
Depth chart according to MLB.com
No. 1 – Livan Hernandez
No. 2 — John Lannan
No. 3 — Jordan Zimmermann
No. 4 — Jason Marquis
No. 5 – Tom Gorzelanny

That … is a painful list.

In context, that list does not truly have a No. 1 or a No. 2. The Nats have been trying to land a top-two starter the past couple of off seasons but, until Washington shows it can be a baseball town and competitive, not many marquee free agents wants to sign. Compound that with the fact that the farm system is still a bit of a barren wasteland and making trades for a top-tier starter (the way the Brewers did for Zack Greinke) has also fallen short.

Let’s re-rank the starters in a more realistic fashion:

No. 3 – Zimmermann
No. 4a – Gorzelanny
No. 4b – Hernandez
No. 4c – Lannan
No. 5 – Marquis

What the Nats do have is some truly remarkable mediocre depth. If you wanted to extend that list past five pitchers, the Nats have several others who could easily slot into being No. 4s and No. 5s such as Ross Detwiler, Yunesky Maya (who has big potential, as does Zimmerman), a healthy (as-if) Chien-Ming Wang, Craig Stammen and Colin Ballester. Any one of those pitchers could take any slot in the rotation, expect for Zimmerman’s.

How about expectations?

There is an item in advance baseball statistics (sabermetrics) called Wins Above Replacement (WAR). It factors in runs saved above replacement, with replacement being basically what scouts and general managers call a “Quadruple A” player – a player good enough to bounce between the big leagues and AAA all years. A theoretical replacement player would be expected to contribute at a level equal to zero – he does not help the team nor does he really hurt the team. Pitchers are evaluated on runs saved above replacement (RAR) with every 10 runs or so equaling a victory for his team. For example, if a pitcher has a RAR of 15, his WAR would be 1.5. In the general scale of WAR, a player between zero and two is a major league platoon to average regular. WAR of three to four is a solid, above-average major leaguer and possible All-Star. WAR of 5 is a definite All-Star and fringe MVP candidate. WAR between six and nine is a bona fide MVP candidate.

According to FanGraphs, a leading sabermetrics site, the top member of the Nats supposed rotation – Hernandez – is slated for a WAR of 2.1 on the strength of 21.1 RAR on 195 innings pitched (IP). For an ancient horse like Hernandez, that is still a great prediction and shows that he still has what it takes to be a regular in the big leagues, if only a real contributor in a mediocre rotation such as the Nats. Hernandez this year, like every year, will be good to eat some innings and pick up several wins if he gets decent run support.

The harbinger for the Nats rise will be when Hernandez is no longer part of this discussion.

Zimmermann, the best of the Nats not named Strasburg (and coming off his own Tommy John surgery last year) provides the greatest hope. FanGraphs has him with very respectable numbers in the value department with a 3.1 WAR on a modest prediction of 155 IP. In most big league rotations that would slot him as a solid No. 2 or No. 3. For the Nats he is the de facto No. 1 and, when Strasburg is healthy, will make a decent compatriot.

Then there are the rest of the boys.

Lannan is one of the good guys in the Nats clubhouse. He is respectful and well liked. He is also just a fringe major league pitcher at this point in his career. He has the potentials to be a Hernandez type with his solid sinking fastball, but make no mistake, this is no Brandon Webb (when healthy) wannabe. The Nats this year will ask him to eat innings and at this point in his career, Lannan should be able to rise to that call. If he cannot, then he probably will find the rest of his career very short because mediocre pitchers who cannot be innings-eaters and do not have fastballs good enough for the bullpen tend to find themselves out of a job. FanGraphs has Lannan predicted for 143.1 IP as a starter and a WAR OF 1.2.

Gorzelanny is still is solid, if unspectacular, which is kind of the theme running around the Nats’ staff (at least the starters). His best year was 2007 when he had a WAR of 2.9 in his first full year as a starter. He was decent last year with the Cubs, putting up a WAR of 2.3. FanGraphs this year has him repeating that number, again going for 2.3 WAR on a 22.8 RAR. Given his track record and age (still relatively young at 28, turning 29 in July), that is a reasonable expectation and it is not out of the realm that he will be between a two and three win pitcher for the next couple of years.

Marquis is a misnomer. He can be very decent or he can be atrocious. When the Nats signed him, it was always as a stop-gap while developing their other mediocre talent. In ten years in the league, he has a 10.6 cumulative WAR with a disproportionate amount of that coming in his very surprising 3.8 WAR season for the Rockies in 2009.

But, Marquis was injured and ineffective for the Nats most of last season and FanGraphs, which puts a lot of weight on recent past performance, is not bullish on Marquis being worth the money the Nats are paying him. For 2011 he is listed as below replacement, coming in with a -.3 WAR. In monetary terms, he is actually costing Washington $1.1 million in performance. He can bounce back and be a one to two win pitcher, perhaps higher. Or he could flop his way around the mound for six months. Get back to me in June for a better prognostication of what kind of pitcher we are seeing Marquis in 2011.

Add up the predictions and the Nats starting five heading into the year has a cumulative WAR of 8.4. Essentially, as a unit, they only slightly more valuable than Cliff Lee was by himself last year (7.1 WAR).

To put that in a team perspective, the Boston Red Sox are considered to have one of the deepest staffs in baseball. The cumulative WAR of their starters heading into 2011 is 18.7 with only Daisuke Matsuzaka below the 3.0 WAR line at 1.9.

*A note on WAR and FanGraps – Sabermetrics are good guidance tools and a favorite utility of mine in explaining baseball. WAR is by no means the definitive answer on a player’s performance but rather an indication of value in regards to other players based on a sum total of varying stats. Through the year we will go into further detail on pitchers’ and players’ performance from a sabermetric slant.

Yes, it will be a long year in Nats Town. The lineup will be exciting (barring injury) but the next step in evolution is not yet there for Washington. Next time we will take a closer look at one of the strengths of the team – the bullpen – and how it can factor in to putting curly W’s in the win column for the Nats this year.

Nine straight games.

Pretty good for a team that folk said was in complete disarray and out of the Stanley Cup picture three months ago. The Caps current streak now exceeds its lowest point of the season, the eight-game losing streak in December that led up to the Winter Classic. The highest high is now greater than the lowest low.

And Washington is looking to get higher.

The questions have been about the offense. Why haven’t they been scoring? What is wrong with Ovie? Traditionally though, with this group and this coach, scoring has not been a problem and the Caps are showing signs of getting out of the doldrums that plagued them throughout the middle of the season in the scoring department. The defense this year has been surprisingly competent in front of young, solid goaltending. Through the nine-game win streak, Washington has given up 13 goals for an impressive 1.44 goals against per game.

The question becomes – can these new defensive dynamics lead the Caps to the Promised Land?

It is an interesting question. The defensive pairings at the beginning of the year, with Tom Poti and Tyler Sloan looking to take up big swaths of minutes behind the de facto No. 1 pair of Mike Green and Jeff Schultz, have been more or less obliterated by trades and injury and a little bit of ineffectiveness. Scott Hannan and Dennis Wideman have been thrown into the mix and Green has missed more games than is probably comfortable for coach Bruce Boudreau and his staff. Dennis Wideman has come on in the last month and steadied the puck moving. But what happens when Green comes back to reclaim the big minutes he is used to and Wideman is taking up now.

There are many ways that NHL coaches like to deploy their pairings. The standard, relatively effective, approach is to have one offensive minded defenseman and one stay-at-home defensive minded one. Boudreau adheres to this as much as he can depending on injuries and game situations. Hence, the Green/Schultz top pair to start the year. Green is a one of the best offensive defensemen in the league and, up until Wideman and Arnott came to town, was the best of the limited options of puck movers on the team. Green’s scoring is down this year but his defense has been better … when he has been on the ice. He has been a hustler, showing more grit than his pretty-boy looks would lead you to believe he possessed.

Schultz, on the other hand, is like a statue. One of the best things that can be said about a stay-at-home defenseman is that you hardly ever end up noticing them. Yet, this year, Schultz has been completely unremarkable and that is not a backhanded compliment. His plus/minus through 61 games stands at a +3, acceptable but not top pair worthy. Green is a +6 but would probably be higher if he A) played more and B) was not sacrificing offense for defense to keep the team in the game when he was healthy during the Caps doldrums periods.

So, the envisioned top pair has been anything but.

The best pair this year has been the younglings, John Carlson and Karl Alzner. They fit Boudreau’s scheme well in pairing an offensive blue liner with one who is defense-first. The good thing about the Carlzner duo though is that each individual brings more balance to the pair than any other combinations the Caps have used this year.

Alzner is, of course, the defensive portion of this pair. He is a fair skater, has a good hockey IQ and the size to win battles in the corners and push net-minded opposing centers out of the slot in front of the crease. Yet, Alzner is a little bit underrated worth the luck on his stick. He of a good, and evolving, puck mover which is a skill that matures as a player does. He keeps his head up on the ice and is not sheepish of taking a shot from the point when the opportunity is obvious. Alzner does not have the mean streak that somebody like John Erskine or other young defensemen in the league, like Boston’s Adam McQuaid, but he is not opposed to giving a face wash to a pernicious opposing forward harrying his goaltender after the whistle. Alzner is a +14 on the year, second on among the defensemen.

Carlson is first at +16. He looks at times like a young Green (which is odd, considering that Green is only 25 years old). He is confident in moving the puck, he is fast, has a great shot and works extremely well with Alzner against the rush. Watch the two of them skating backwards and see how one will take a wing and the other will cover the slot, then switch when the puck goes to the other end of the ice. They have great awareness of each other and Boudreau refuses to separate them, with good reason.

They have become the de facto top pair and the most consistent Capitals this season.

Yet, it does not seem like they are the top pair, even if in reality they are. Whenever a team has a bona fide No. 1 defensemen, Green in this case, it is natural to call the top pair the one with the top defensemen. Yet, who really deserves the official No. 2 slot? Schultz is definitely a top four in the NHL, but a top two? Doubtful. Scott Hannan, a great communicator and decent puck mover in his own right, probably slots in best at a No. 3 or No. 4 himself. That leaves Wideman and Erskine.

Wideman has been used as a No. 1 and 2 this year. Most of that has to do with the fact that he was playing on the very shallow roster of the Florida Panthers but he has also slotted into the No. 1 spot in Green’s absence. What happens when Green comes back? Wideman and Green as a pair do not mix, for multiple reasons. Foremost, you want to break up your puck movers for maximum return on invested ice time. Yet, when you do that it means that one of them is going to go to the bottom pair and miss out on significant portions of ice time. You have to believe that will not be Green (unless Boudreau is trying to save him from physical destruction, which is a possibility).

There is a reason why qualifying players in NHL-speak always comes down to “he is a top-six forward” or “he is a top-four defensemen.” It is about rotations, amounts of shifts, rhythm on the ice, players knowing their roles and expected outcomes.

The only blue liner that the Caps have that is not a legitimate or fringe top four is Erskine. It will be sad to see the big fella get benched but it will probably happen when Green is healthy again. The options in front of Boudreau are then – pair Schultz or Hannan with Green and give them near top pair minutes and the other with Wideman and give them slightly better than bottom pair minutes.

It is a peculiar problem to have, especially in D.C. – too many quality defensemen. Defense in the NHL is like pitching in baseball; you can never have too much. That is evident with Green and Poti missing time this year and the need to bring in Hannan when they did (because of Poti) and Wideman (because of Green).

There are other questions in this defensive equation. For instance, if Erskine gets benched, where does the physicality in punishing opposing forwards in the corner come from? Who steps up for a big fight outside of Matt Bradley or Mike Hendricks? What will the power play look like between Green and Wideman (Green first unit, Wideman second, but how will Boudreau set it up?).

Also, when it comes down to defense, the Caps do not have the one absolute shutdown guy. There is no Zdeno Chara in this group, a player who is the no-brainer to get the call when the opposing top line is on the ice. Boudreau has been deploying Carlson and Alzner in this situation and it has been good but not necessarily airtight. There is an argument that good teams cannot win Stanley Cups without at least one top-tier scorer.

The question for the Caps – even with the defense has deep and solid as it has ever been, can they win the Cup without one top-tier defender? Yes, they have a top defensemen in Green but he does not qualify as an elite defender.

Any holes that Washington has on the blue line will be poked, measured, weighed and, if found wanting, torn down by the opposition. Can the Caps current composition make it through the marathon?

Everybody around the Capitals are starting to get a little bit antsy. Washington is a point back for the top seed in the Eastern Conference, it has won eight straight games and doing so in gritty style. The trade acquisitions are paying off and it does not seem to matter who is in goal, Washington is pulling out victories.

The Caps themselves do not seem to be antsy. If anything, a good adjective to describe them would be focused. Focused describes the surrounding media and fan base also, all looking towards the ice and seeing a team that is playing well and asking ‘what is it going to mean in the playoffs?’

Sunday’s 4-3 overtime matinee win against the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks was a showcase game. It was the NBC Game Of The Week and had a little bit of a “what-if” surrounding it. What if the Caps had not gotten run by the Canadiens in the first round? What if they were able to grind through and make it through the Eastern Conference to play in the Finals? What if the faced this same Chicago team last June for it all?

One thing is for certain … it would have been fun to watch.

Sunday was one of those hockey games that sparks the interest of even casual fans. It was up and down, there were hits and mistakes, good plays and questionable calls. There was enough scoring to make it interesting but not too much for it to be a joke. The Blackhawks took an early lead only to have the Caps come tie it minutes later with a short-handed goal by center Boyd Gordon. Washington scored again in the first (been a while since it had two goals in the opening frame) when Jason Arnott tallied on the power play, but Chicago tied it again in the second. Washington looked to put it away early in the third when Brooks Laich knocked down the door after a great feed from Eric Fehr behind the net but Hawks’ rising star Jonathan Toews tied it with 38.5 seconds left on the power play with an empty net behind him.

If you were to script the prototype for what constitutes a compelling regular season hockey game, Sunday would have been a perfect fit.

Chicago has been hot. Over the last couple of weeks they have risen from behing out of playoff position to the middle of the Western Conference. They are young and quick and know how to win (hence, the Stanley Cup they currently are the proprietors of).

The Caps straight beat them on Sunday. As the game wore along at Verizon Center, Washington kept on taking longer shifts in the offensive zone and the Blackhawks had a harder time getting back into their own rhythm. All four lines clicked for the Caps, evidences by the players who did the scoring — Gordon, Arnott, Laich, Knuble. Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin did not have a single point.

“I am not sure how much we wore them down but thought that overall we were carrying the play,” coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We played better then them. It might not be that way the next time we play them and they might have been tired from being on the road for eight or nine days but I thought today we were the better team.”

There are little signs that this team is starting to get a hang of itself a lot better than it has for a good portion of the season. Dennis Wideman, Marco Sturm and Arnott have solidified the Caps ability to move the puck through the neutral zone, with Wideman being a good cog in the underrated task of just getting the puck out of their own zone. Sturm, skating with Arnott and Semin, has a good head for puck possession and has been good for Semin, even if the Russian sniper seems to have lost his bearings a little bit recently. Sturm should be able to teach Semin a lot on how to be patient and to keep your head up in making plays as opposed to how frantic Semin sometimes plays, like the puck is a hot potato he must do something with immediately for fear of getting burnt.

Everybody wearing red on the ice just looks a lot calmer, more confident and the results are showing up in the standings.

But, what does it all mean?

Hockey is not some metaphysical microcosm of life, the universe and everything. It is a game. A game played in phases and stages according to the time of year and dynamic of all the moving parts.

“The playoffs are a different animal,” Boudreau said. “This is still the regular season. You want to play as hard as you can, all teams are trying to position themselves. Unless you have been in the playoffs, once you are in there play amps up an awful lot no matter who you play.”

Everybody wants to know who the goaltender will be in the playoffs. It is a fair question. Braden Holtby was good, but not great, against the Hawks and there are some worrying signs with him. Michal Neuvirth is healthy and should probably be the first option for Boudreau come April. Semyon Varlamov can be extremely hot from time to time.

“They really are not making it easy on me. I am not trying to be aloof here but Varly was going great, then he gets hurt. Neuvy was going great then he gets hurt. Holtby is going great and it is decision time,” Boudreau said. “I will obviously talk to a few other people before but Braden has come in and been 6-0-1 in the last seven and I will go out on a limb and say that he is the Player Of The Week, this week. Neuvy is ready to play and he wants the net back and Varly is getting better. We have to make a decision pretty soon and hopefully we will but they are all playing so well it is making it difficult for us.”

Holtby is only 21 years old and has just a handful of NHL games under his belt. Yet, he could be what Carolina goaltender Cam Ward was to the Hurricanes when they won the Cup in 2006. Ward played 28 games before the playoffs then led his team all the way to glory at age 22. But, there is a little bit of a sneaking feeling that Holtby could get picked apart over an extended playoff series. He is very active around the net and tries to play the puck a lot with his stick. Teams are starting to try and play behind him in the trapezoid and feed it back into the front for snap shots and even though he has been good at keeping those out of the net this last week, that is not always going to be the case. The second goal he allowed on Sunday was a his fault and his alone when Tomas Kopecky threw a little bullet from the corner, behind the goal line, towards the crease. It hit Holtby in the shoulder and pads and then bounced into the net. Holtby should have been playing the post but his eyes were up ice as he figured that the puck was basically about to be cleared.

“I didn’t feel that great out there. Today was kind of a battle the whole game,” Holtby said. “It was a little tough just trying to get myself into it and give myself opportunities to make saves and thankfully the guys played a great game especially defensively, didn’t give up too much. A little bit of a mistake by me there in the second but we were still able to come out on top.”

Fatigue in the playoffs is a big concern for teams with young goaltenders. Look at the Bruins last year, who thought they would ride Tuuka Rask to the Cup after being hot for the final months of the season and the first nine games of the playoffs. Rask ran out of steam and started to allow softies and the Flyers came back from a three-to-nothing series deficit and then on to the Stanley Cup against the Blackhawks. Holtby would love to be the playoff goaltender but even he does not know what to expect from himself should that be the case.

“That is a hard question to answer based on the fact that I really have no idea what it  takes to play in the playoffs,” Holtby said. “That is going to be a coach’s decision. I am going to be ready if called upon, willing to put my heart on the line for this team but I am sure that whatever choice they make with the three goalies here, the team will feel comfortable.”

As Boudreau said, the playoffs are a different animal. Even with 12 games left, it is hard to gauge what team is really going to be able to step it up to make an extended run in for some spring hockey. Washington looks good right now, with eight straight wins and a shot at the top seed, but the upcoming six-game road trip could prove otherwise.

Yet, after the game on Sunday, all the talk was about what is coming for the playoffs. How are the lines coming together? Who is going to be the goaltender? Who is going to be the goaltender? And, yeah, by the way, who is going to be the goaltender?

It is good to be the Caps right now and they are playing well enough to enjoy this run of success. It is an evolving process and we await the fruits of the labor that has been 7o games and counting. We will see what happens once the middle of April rolls around. Is Washington looking for the top seed? Boudreau would not mind it, of course, but the process this year has been more informative on where this team is headed than it has in previous years. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together.

For the moment though, the work is in progress. The paint on the canvas is still drying.

“I don’t want to think about it,” Boudreau said of the top seed in the playoffs. “Yeah, it is a nice feather in your cap and we got a little boost from winning the Presidents’ Cup last year but in the end I don’t care if we are eighth or first. I have got to believe that the eight can beat the one, it’s happened, I think. As long as we get in and get a chance to go to that party, I think we will give somebody a tough go.”

Things are really starting to go the Capitals way.

Seven wins in a row. A fresh young goaltender riding a hot streak. A string of victories in one goal games. And now they have retaken second place in the Eastern Conference within striking distance of the Flyers for the top spot heading into the playoffs.

Where has this team been most of the year?

Washington was good in the fall. They were mediocre in November, January and a good portion of February. They were terrible in December. Yet, with a scrappy, opportunistic 2-1 win over the Hurricanes on Friday, Washington controls its destiny in the Southeast Division and is within a game of where everybody thought they would be when the season got rolling in October.

On the top.

“I think we are all happy that is not November or December. We have really started playing well towards the last bit here,” forward Mike Knuble said.

Braden Holtby made 40 saves on the night and overall the Caps were not all that sharp against Carolina, a team fighting just to make it to the tournament for Lord Stanley’s Cup come April. Washington was shut out through the first two periods and a quick wrist shot from Canes forward Tuomo Ruutu in the last minute of the second period looked like it would bury Washington.

But it was not to be.

Alexander Ovechkin tied the game in the first minute of the third period when he took a drop pass from rookie center Marcus Johansson and hooked it through Carolina netminder Cam Ward. The energy at Verizon Center spurred the team in red and they kept the pressure on the Canes while withstanding a flurry of chances from Carolina as Holtby made himself big in net. Washington took the lead for good at 7:24 in the third when Matt Hendricks blocked a shot at the Caps blue line straight to Jason Arnott, who had just jumped out of the penalty box from a hooking penalty. Arnott had the break and deked Ward off his skates, but Ward got a pad up and knocked Arnott’s attempt down.

But Hendricks was there for the follow.

It is the type of play that you try to teach kids as they grow up through the hockey ranks. “Follow your shot.” “Always know where the puck is.” “Crash the net, always crash the freaking net.”

“I have all the confidence in the world in Arnott but I knew that if there would be a rebound, I wanted to be the first one to get it,” Arnott said.

It was the quintessential Hendricks play. Block a shot, follow the play. Hope it goes in. Hendricks is the classic third/fourth line grinder — good for a couple goals here and there, play good defense, get in a scrap or two.

“That is what he does. He is going to get those dirty goals in the crease,” coach Bruce Boudreau said.

Holtby has been the story of the week. The goaltender blanked the Oilers earlier in the week and withstood 40 of 41 shots from the Hurricanes. He has saved 74 of the last 78 shots he has faced and had a streak of 156:15 without a goal before Ruutu sniped him one in the second. The Caps have three young goaltenders who have played well in streaks this season between Holtby, Michal Neuvirth and Semyon Varlamov. Boudreau’s choices on a night-to-night basis are becoming difficult. At least when at all three are healthy, which has been a rarity of late.

“Making it tough,” Boudreau said. “Three really good goalies and he obviously doesn’t want to leave the net, he is doing a good job.”

Washington is looking a bit like a different team than the one that had been spinning wheel for months. It is hard to put a nail on it, but they just have a more solid feeling about them. The additions of Dennis Wideman, Marco Sturm and Jason Arnott have provided stability to a team that had grown at times too flashy for its own good. Or complacent. Effort on a game-to-game basis wasn’t consistent and the big guns weren’t producing.

It may be no coincidence that Ovechkin as a seven-game point streak (four goals, seven assists) and the Caps have won seven straight games. Alexander Semin continues to be maddeningly inconsistent and Nicklas Backstrom was out for a rare game. Mike Green is on the injured reserve, able to come back later this month.

And the Capitals have gone streaking in spite of it. Even when they do not play top-level hockey, they are taking two points away from contests.

“I thought we were a little lucky tonight and they are overdue to beat us. Sometimes it is a great matchup but sometimes you are hoping that you don’t play them in the playoffs,” Boudreau said. “I didn’t think we were very sharp. They had 40 shots on goal, I think they carried the play to us, they were beating us to the puck. We made the plays in the third period that we had to make to win and that was it.”