After all is said and done, as goes Alex Ovechkin, so go the Caps. (Mitchell Layton/NHLI via Getty Images)

Yesterday, we looked at a Western team, the San Jose Sharks, who remain a perennial postseason disappointment although their recent record may be encouraging but also a bit deceiving. Today we’ll look at a similar team in the East: the Washington Capitals.

Before being shut out by the struggling  New York Islanders, 3-0, on Tuesday night, the Caps had won seven of their last nine games and the hype machine had begun buzzing that Washington was back, or at least on the way back, to being an NHL powerhouse. But if you saw how lethargic and sloppy the Caps played on home ice — taking only 17 shots against a more energetic team that was playing the second game of a back-to-back and is, after all, the 14th-place Islanders — you’ve got to have some reservations.

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Perhaps a spirited battle against the rival Penguins will spark Caps captain Alexander Ovechkin, who was chided by coach Bruce Boudreau for a lackluster start, and his linemates. (Geoff Burke-US PRESSWIRE)

Last season’s Winter Classic and HBO 24/7 foes, the Penguins and Capitals, squared off for their first meeting of the season on Thursday night in a game full of storylines and import for two of the NHL’s marquee squads, not the least of which is Alex Ovechkin’s start to the season which, to that point, had thrilled only his opponents.

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With expectations for the Caps high as usual, all eyes are on Alex Ovechkin. (Warren Wimmer/Icon SMI)

The NHL preseason ended Sunday for teams in North America (the four clubs opening in Europe — Kings, Ducks, Rangers and Sabres — each have a game left to play over there) and things will get going for real on Thursday. The Blackhawks-Capitals tilt on Sunday, a 4-1 Caps victory that was closer than the score indicated, gave us a chance to see two clubs who some believe could meet in the Stanley Cup Final, and it wasn’t bad entertainment for a preseason game at all.

But Caps coach Bruce Boudreau wasn’t happy with the way his team played or the results of their warm-up games, in which Washington went 3-3-1. “We didn’t play like Stanley Cup champions all preseason,” he said (video) — a rather strange statement about a team that has won only two playoff series during his four-year tenure — and he called the Caps’ performance on Sunday “sloppy.”

With that, Boudreau seems to have abandoned his jolly round fellow persona of seasons’ past. “If there is one thing we have come to know about Bruce Boudreau, it’s that he doesn’t sugar-coat anything,” wrote Chuck Gormley on CSNWashington.com, who just moved south to DC after a number of years covering the Flyers. He’ll get to watch Boudreau more closely during a season in which the coach’s job could be jeopardized if the expectations of fans and those above him aren’t met.
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Just one of many questions for the Capitals to ponder: With a 10-year, $67 million deal, just what kind of player does 23-year-old Nicklas Backstrom want to become? (Photo by Kim Klement/US Presswire)

With just over three minutes remaining in Game 4 and his team, the Washington Capitals, near elimination in Tampa Bay on Wednesday night, Alexander Semin was shown on a TSN replay barking at the referee for what he thought was a missed call behind the play. Semin then floated poutily toward his bench while the Lightning’s Teddy Purcell was passing to Marty St. Louis for the home team’s fifth goal. It was a snapshot of what still ails the Caps, an NHL glamor team that remains a chronic Stanley Cup playoff underachiever.

This is not to pick on just Semin. As we noted yesterday, there are some serious flaws in this club that go beyond the lethargy of one or two players.

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As the Lightning frustrate the Capitals and make them resort to their old style of play, Alexander Ovechkin has been trying to do everything himself, without much success. (Kim Klement/US Presswire)

Three games are on the playoff schedule tonight, and that won’t happen again this season, so fans have to figure out what they’re going to watch. If you don’t have a favorite among the six teams, its possible you’ll be attracted to Capitals-Lightning Game 4 because of all the attention that Alex Ovechkin and company have gotten in recent years and the possibility that — once again — this marquee NHL club could crash and burn long before many expected their elimination from the postseason.

Now trailing Tampa Bay 3-0 in this best of seven, having lost 4-3 on the road on Tuesday night, Washington doesn’t seem anything like the defensively oriented club it supposedly was transformed into during the season by coach Bruce Boudreau. The Caps couldn’t hold a 2-1 lead in the second period or a 3-2 lead in the third. And when they fell behind, they didn’t seem like the offensive juggernaut they had been or a team with much fight, will or character.
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The Lightning will have to tighten up defensively and give veteran goaltender Dwayne Roloson more help if they're to upset the offensively potent and more rested Capitals. (Photo: Douglas Jones/US Presswire)

Now that the second round is underway (notes on Thursday night’s Predators-Canucks opener are below), let’s venture some thoughts — but no predictions– about the other matchups. (If you want my SI.com colleagues’ picks, here you go.) The higher-seeded team won six of the eight first round series, but there has been fear of the underdog.

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Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is the biggest name in a long list of players whose teams are eagerly anticipating their returns to health and the ice. (Photo by Rich Kane/Icon SMI)

The Capitals’ surprise announcement on Monday that Alex Ovechkin would be sidelined for the next week-to-10 days while he heals from an undisclosed ailment (perhaps the dreaded “upper body injury” to his lower body) was followed on Tuesday with word that the Kings have lost winger Justin Williams for 3-4 weeks with a separated shoulder. The word on Ovie came a day after the Blackhawks said that top center Patrick Sharp would be out with a knee problem.

The injury parade in the NHL, especially to so many important players, has never seemed as long. At this stage of the season, some of these absences have already had or will have an impact on the stretch drive and into the playoffs.

As with Ovechkin, some clubs seem intent on resting key players who have a few knocks and dings so that they’re in better shape for the postseason. Those teams feel they’re already safe in their playoff position and are looking ahead to the spring tournament. Other teams don’t have that luxury and may not have some key players at 100 percent when the postseason starts.

Here’s a look at the teams that are still in the Eastern Conference playoff picture and how their current injury situation affects their chances. (Click here for the Western Conference contenders.)
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The opening shot of the highly anticipated new HBO Sports 24/7 series “Road to the NHL Winter Classic” shows the Washington Capitals’ red sweaters tumbling around in a dryer. It’s a perfect metaphor for a team in turmoil and the start of a wonderfully filmed and intimate look at two teams, the Caps and the Pittsburgh Penguins, on a collision course that culminates outdoors at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field on New Year’s Day.

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Bruce Boudreau is a player's coach with a team that looks like it needs a swift kick in the tail to jar it out of its ugly slide. (Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon SMI)

They’re one of the NHL glamor teams, half of the rivalry that the NHL is pumping in the Winter Classic. But life hasn’t been glamorous lately for the Washington Capitals and if things don’t turn around, you can bet there will be changes.

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