Capitals Relished Intensity in Game 2’s Closing Moments

Nail-biting, heart-pounding hockey.

And the Capitals relished it.

The Capitals and Rangers fought long and hard, literally, Saturday afternoon, culminating in an overtime that saw Mike Green make the only successful shot past either team’s goalie all game.

For those watching, the pressure hovered like a 7^th man above the arena as the third period progressed and the scoreboard remanined 0-0.  Exciting, intense, cliffhanger would be the vocabulary that comes to mind—fun, not so much.

But that’s what separates the players from the spectators.

“It’s fun. It’s playoff hockey. That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Marcus Johansson said of the game.

“It’s exciting,” Troy Brouwer said afterwards of the high-pressure situation the two teams found themselves in during the third. with the caveat that guys have to make sure they don’t let the situation overwhelm them.

In fact, Brouwer said the “older guys”—he didn’t specify who that might be—did a great job Saturday of making sure everyone was even-keeled and got a healthy dose of positive reinforcement.

“Just talking, making sure everyone’s communicating, making sure guys are getting pats on the back, not getting on each other if there’s a mistake, because the last thing we need is guys getting frustrated with each other,” Brouwer elaborated on how the “older guys” accomplished this.

He and Johansson weren’t the only ones eating the pressure for breakfast.

“It feels great,” Eric Fehr said when asked about that element in the third period. “Those are the games you want to be a part of. That’s the playoff hockey you expect. We were prepared for it, and we played our system to a “T”, and we played it well.”

And oh, boy, was it playoff hockey. The only object the puck had trouble finding during the 60+minutes was the net. Both teams always seemed to be right near the puck—the Rangers usually blocking it, the Caps usually passing it.

Fehr, for one, was impressed with that part of the Rangers’ game.

“They block so well, it’s like they got six goalies out there,” said Fehr, who himself had a blocked shot that garnered him a postgame shoutout from Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby.

It’s going to take not only figuring out Henrik Lundqvist, but figuring out how to beat the Rangers’ shot-blocking acumen consistently, for the Capitals to keep getting on the board in this series.

Neither Lundqvist nor Holtby were short of spectacular, though it’s doubtful either would characterize their performance that way. For fans of goaltending, it was a treat to watch both goalies manage the puck with ease.

“No,” Holtby said when asked if this was the most comfortable he’s ever felt in net. “Tonight, it wasn’t a very straining game on a goalie. … I felt comfortable out there, but there’s still room for improvement.”

Special teams came through again for Washington in overtime, with Green’s goal coming on the power play.  The Capitals’ marked improvement in the penalty killing unit was something we’ve been talking about at OFB for the past two weeks, and helped the team fend off the first penalty of overtime.

Just one request: may we never see another puck over the glass penalty from either team again.

Advertisement

Caps Learned Their Lesson About the 2-Goal Lead

The atmosphere is one of importance. The crowd noise reverberates through your body like the music at a rock concert. You can tell the players feel it—they’ll strain a little bit harder, focus a little more intently.

It’s playoff hockey.

The second period of Thursday’s game at the Verizon Center was one that dreams are made of–or nightmares. Going into the period, the New York Rangers were up 1-0 on the Capitals thanks to a Carl Hagelin shot that redirected off John Erskine and past Braden Holtby.

But that was about to change.

The period was littered with penalties—the two teams combined for seven total on those 20 minutes alone. And on the Rangers’ fourth penalty of the game, the Capitals’ power play finally broke through and evened the score on an Alex Ovechkin rebound shot.

The Capitals would score two more goals—Marcus Johansson beating Lundqvist again, and Jason Chimera with a crazy redirect—but the period was far from a leisurely skate. At one point, the Capitals’s power play looked so awful that one would be forgiven thinking it was the Mites on Ice. At another point, the Capitals’ John Carlson, Karl Alzner and Nicklas Backstrom had to fend off a 5-on-3 disadvantage when Eric Fehr ended up in the box for a short period of time alongside Martin Erat.

But the Capitals penalty kill remained perfect all night, and the team managed to stay out of the box in the third.

The vital stat, however, is that the Capitals held onto their two-goal lead—something the guys indicate they’ve learned the hard way.

“Luckily, throughout the season, we’ve had two-goal leads like that, and that’s what you’ve got to do—you’ve got to learn from them,” Steve Oleksy said postgame. “I think everybody’s played long enough where unfortunately you blow a 2-goal lead, sometimes, but you learn a lot throughout the season, and that’s when you really know what to expect in the playoffs.”

“You get excited, but you look at the clock, and there’s still 25, 30 minutes left in the game, and you can’t give up. We did that a few times this season …  and lost 2 or 3-goal leads,” Troy Brouwer said. “We learned our lesson enough, and we’ve got to take that experience and use it in the playoffs.”

The Capitals had a solid game up and down the roster. The first and third lines scored, as well as the power play unit. Individuals had moments of brilliance, such as when John Erskine had an excellent one-on-one battle against Derek Stepan to break up a play in the Capitals’ zone. Braden Holtby picked up right where he left off last postseason.

And it’s only just the beginning.

The Creation of a Culture for Winning

It’s a queer feeling, moving about Washington in this the season of the calendar of our perpetual discontent, and actually feeling good about the Capitals’ chances. This morning, well post cherry blossoms, I have a startling message to convey: We ought to be optimistic. Not cautiously optimistic, but full-blown optimistic.

There are a handful of key attributes to the very winning Washington Capitals these days, but for me the overarching storyline seems to be that of the Russian Renaissance. Alexander Ovechkin’s metamorphosis, in rather short order, from skunk to savior, trumps all other explanations for a surge that has to have impressed even the brass at the Pentagon. About a month into this abbreviated season Ovechkin was outside the top 50 in league scorers. By the end of April he’d re-earned designation as . . . best hockey player in the world.

I was forced to wonder: Where was this the past three years? Why was it hidden so? If you want you can attach special emphasis to Adam Oates’ position switch, his new scheme, or speculate that long-awaited and much-needed maturation for our captain had at last arrived. I’m inclined more to an explanation that’s part cosmic and spiritual, part primal . . . and hormonal:  Nothing motivates Mars quite like coveted Venus. And that’s not just my opinion.

So the name of our no. 1 shutdown Dman this spring is . . . Cupid.

A week or so ago I was set to write here that the Dynamic Duo of Ovechkin and Mike Green were so game-changing dialed in that it almost didn’t matter who the Capitals faced in round one. I haven’t changed my mind on that; the Dynamic Duo’s numbers the past month or so are ludicrous, outlandish. It’s as if at long last the admonitions related to fleeting opportunity for glory have been taken to heart by both. But in recent days local media to its credit has dialed in on the backdrop for the great turnaround, and honed in on precisely that which has been my bane in following this team for years: The Capitals’ organization badly needed a culture change. The culture actually was of greater importance than George McPhee’s roster tinkering. And in the spring of 2013 it’s arrived.

D.C Hockey’s Holy Trinity of Adam Oates, Olie Kolzig, and Calle Johansson has, in this room, serious street cred, serious crest cred, and most importantly the Midas touch. I remain of the opinion that it was imperative for Dale Hunter to come in last year and quash Animal House and its related unhealthy cliques, but more needed to be done, on and off the ice, and it’s abundantly clear that Oates and his staff have done it. Oates probably won’t win many Jack Adams votes this summer, but he should. Oates has seemingly engineered a system of perfectly blended deft puck distribution, motion and flow, and the proper placement of his elite skill in the spacing needed to exact the most damage. But he’s also managed to save a general manager from himself.

I don’t think we ought to ignore the role that Providence/Divine Puck Fortune has played in the turnaround. When Green and Orlov were out for a wide swath of the season the Capitals received thoroughly unexpected, significant impact minutes from no-names Kundratek, Oleksy, and later on Jack Hillen. None of the three were on anybody’s radar in January. The Capitals still are without a reliable shutdown presence on their blueline, and that ultimately could be their undoing again in spring, but notably they have managed to change the culture on the blueline as well. It’s a blueline that’s notably more mobile. It’s also one that, with John Erskine earning top 4 minutes, has a wee bit more brawn in it. Notably, Jeff Schultz is permanently banished.

No pro sport’s postseason changes in style and substance as much as pro hockey’s does. It’s positively true that the Capitals surged in part due to the division company they kept — no doubt you noticed the bottom three finishers in the East this season were all from the Southeast (and lodged there by a healthy margin). But the Caps won big games on the road in Montreal (one a blowout), and most especially, when their proverbial backs were genuinely against the wall, staring at a back-to-back slate in Winnipeg March 21 and 22, they demonstrated a breathtaking exertion of will imposition, one I haven’t seen in years. It was a big-series mismatch, and the Caps haven’t looked back since. That for me was the turnaround moment, and when you think about it there hasn’t been much in the way of a clunker since.

It’s possible that in the more confined space and whistle-diminished environs of the postseason Ovechkin and Green will revert to more mortal skaters. If that happens, all bets are off, cause this is a hockey club being carried by its big guns, and it’s a hockey club with clear deficiencies. Virtuosity and excellence can’t be sustained forever. But we’ve no reason this morning to think that a largely healthy Capitals club can’t best a still scoring-challenged Rangers club. In the close games of the coming weeks our big stars seem sure to shine. That’ll make the difference. From every angle of consideration it appears that at long last our Big Guns have realized the legacy-urgency of the moment, and they’re embracing it.

Caps in five.

Chimera Says Capitals “Really Earned” Postseason Berth

They didn’t end up with the goals, but the Capitals’ third line of Jason Chimera, Mathieu Perreault and Eric Fehr was on the ice when Boston took three penalties against Washington in the third period.

Those penalties were crucial, as they proved to be the kickstart the Capitals needed to finally break past Boston goalie Tuukka Rask. The final score was 3-2 in Washington’s favor in overtime, and Eric Fehr had the game winner.

Mike Green, meanwhile, drew one penalty and scored on consecutive power plays back in the third. Green’s initial goal was the first time the Capitals made it on the board all night, having trailed Boston by 2 going into the final period.

But what goes up must come down, and Green found himself in the box at the end of the third period for hooking, which meant he joined Alex Ovechkin and the Bruins’ Brad Marchand, who had already been called for roughing. That put the Capitals at a 4-on-3 disadvantage, then a 4-on-5 disadvantage when Marchand and Ovechkin got out, and then, when Green’s penalty carried into overtime, back to a 4-on-3 disadvantage.

It was, needless to say, a busy time for the penalty kill, which didn’t give up a goal to Boston all night. John Carlson and Karl Alzner, with Troy Brouwer and Nick Backstrom alternating, handled the crucial penalty kill in the final seconds of the third and into overtime, with Braden Holtby anchoring the team in net.

“It’s coming together. We still have some work to do,” Holtby said when asked how much more confidence there was in the penalty killing unit compared to the beginning of the season.

For the Capitals to play like they did Saturday, with the result they had, shows just how far they’ve come this season. A win like this would have seemed near impossible from the January, and even February, Capitals.

“We couldn’t ask for a better—the way we ended the season, I think, we fought our way in again, and really earned our spot,” Chimera said when asked if this is the most comfortable he’s been going into the playoffs. “Every line seems to be contributing.”

This morning at practice, Karl Alzner tried to sum up what he’d tell a team struggling mightily at the beginning of the season was the most important thing they should focus on to turn things around, as Washington managed.

“It depends on the team. For us, …  I guess the main thing is we were thinking while we were playing, whereas we weren’t just playing to have fun, to play the game, to worry about winning that next game. We were always thinking about, ‘Don’t make this mistake, don’t make that mistake.’”

Alzner said once you get rid of “all that extra” and worry about simply playing the game, it comes to you.

“We were so messed up in the head at the beginning of the season,” he continued. “We weren’t even thinking let’s go out and have fun. We were kind of nervous, I think, and playing the game a little bit gun shy, ‘cause we didn’t want to wreck the system, we didn’t want to get scored against. And as soon as we forgot about that and start seeing a couple of wins pile together, it was more about just having fun and being with the guys and being a team.”

Home Stretch: Caps Get a Taste of Playoff-Style Hockey in Thursday’s Loss

It seems odd to lead off talking about a game the Capitals lost on a penalty kill in overtime by praising said penalty kill units.

But if it hadn’t been for some quality shorthanded time by Washington Thursday, a tight contest could have devolved into a serious letdown.

In their 2-1 loss to Ottawa, the Capitals ended up with their biggest total of minor penalties since March 22, and their largest total of penalty minutes overall since February 21, although Thursday’s numbers included a 10-minute misconduct for Jason Chimera.

Still, that’s a tall order for a team ranked 28^th in the league in penalty killing, even considering one of the penalties was a matching minor with Ottawa.

But between the bookends of an excellent penalty kill the Capitals sustained in the third period Tuesday—a penalty kill that safeguarded a playoff berth—and the 4-on-3 mishap in overtime Thursday, the Capitals’ unit has looked sharp. The Senators got only 8 shots the entire night on the power play, and the only one that went in was during 4-on-3 in overtime.

Karl Alzner has noticed a shift in shorthanded play as well.

“We put a little more pressure on them,” Alzner said. “We’ve been a little bit better, stronger in the corners, better at making plays to get out of the zone.”

It’s often said that your best penalty killer is your goaltender, and Michal Neuvirth gave new meaning to the old saying Thursday. The stellar play continued not only when the team was shorthanded, but during the entire 60-plus minutes, as he stopped shots with ease and never seemed out of position.

The emotional cards were, so to speak, stacked against the Capitals at the outset. They had ostensibly 120 minutes of hockey left to play in the regular season. Guaranteed a playoff spot, the team was caught, for almost the first time since January, playing a game that didn’t mean anything when it came to admittance into the postseason. It was a recipe for a letdown.

The result was far from as bad as it could have been, but still not good enough for a win.

Though it was minus the atmosphere the building carried Tuesday when the Capitals clinched their spot in the postseason, the game looked, in fact, like classic playoff-style hockey–low scoring, strong goaltending, rising tempers, and defenses that, even when they allowed a veritable volley of shots (cough, Washington), still did a decent job making sure they weren’t quality chances.

“It was much closer, definitely” Alzner said of whether it felt like playoff hockey. “It seems like all their games are kind of like playoff hockey. It’s just their style. They’re battling for their lives there, and we’re battling to try and eliminate somebody, so there’s a lot on the line.”

Alex Ovechkin was the only Capital to score, on a goal that saw him cut from right wing to left across the front of Ottawa’s net and wait just long enough to shoot the puck past Craig Anderson, who made the mistake of committing too far to blocking Ovechkin on the right side.

 

Closing My Jaw: Capitals Win Southeast

Three gritty goals. One pretty goal. One empty-netter.

It’s a ratio the Capitals will have to remember from here on out, because it’s almost “that” time of year, when making highlight-reel shots usually means you’re on the golf course.

The Capitals aren’t ready for that. Goaltender Braden Holtby was not particularly sharp through 60 minutes Tuesday, but neither was the entire Winnipeg Jets’ roster. Final score? Rookie head coach 1, sophomore head coach 0.

But that win, frankly, has been a long time in the making.

To score in the playoffs, you go to the net. And that’s what Matt Hendricks, Jason Chimera, Mathieu Perreault and company did for three of the Capitals’ goals.

Another Capitals goal came because Winnipeg broke a cardinal rule: do not underestimate Nicklas Backstrom. The Jets played Ovechkin coming down the right wing too strongly, and it left Backstrom right where he needed to be—open by the goal crease.

It was a game where redemption came quickly for Washington. The Backstrom goal came less than a minute after Winnipeg tied it at two. The penalty kill—which was 28^th in the league going into the game—wound up with the biggest win of the season so far as they fought off a high-sticking minor taken by Mathieu Perreault late in the third in what was, before Ovechkin’s eventual empty-netter, a one-goal game.

John Erskine, meanwhile, brought out his best Superman impression. At one point in the first, a Mike Ribeiro stumble gave Winnipeg an excellent look at the net and delivered shot on goal that Holtby regurgitated for a juicy rebound, then went out so far that the space in front of the Capitals’ net yawned. That set Winnipeg up with an almost sure-fire goal until Erskine dove across the opening to block the puck.

Meanwhile, every Capital had a shot on goal except for Marcus Johansson, who nevertheless got an assist.

It all boiled down to a 5-3 win, a division title, and a very happy Verizon Center crowd.

For those of you who were waiting for me to eat the verbal equivalent of a five-course meal since the Capitals made the playoffs, I’ve eaten it.  I’m not ashamed of what I wrote then, either. Frankly, I don’t think any guy in the locker room would say I was unfair or inaccurate or didn’t give as complete a picture as they allowed us to see. It was sound analysis based on how the Capitals were playing and what I gleaned from reporting—and I will remind you that, through March, things looked extremely bleak. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone mention a “must-win” game that month, I could have bought out Ovechkin’s contract.

And because I am conscientious about my reporting, I’ve done my hardest to figure out what I missed this time around. I do think the nucleus was what I wrote about last time on Oates’ “be professional” philosophy, because that helped change the culture and tenure of games. I think the Capitals got a lot of help from some Southeast peers.  I think Oates’ system covers a multitude of sins. I think next time I’ll listen more carefully to Oates when he says his guys are playing well—even if the results don’t show up for longer than it takes Justin Bieber to grow a beard. And it remains to be seen if the roster as currently assembled can take the Capitals any deeper than in recent history.

But I think, in the end, each person on the Capitals’ bench decided to start holding himself accountable, if he hadn’t already. And those different personal epiphanies is something you’ll almost never be able to predict fully on a roster-sized basis.

Best Hockey Night in Canada Open. Ever.

Fine work on the open by Tim Thompson (@b0undless).

Adam Oates’ Winning Coaching Philosophy: Be Professional

There are many ways we categorize coaches in the NHL: players’ coach, offensive-minded coach, defensive-minded coach—there’s a label for every situation. When a new guy steps into the head coaching position, he’s peppered with questions about his system, players’ positioning on the ice is put under a microscope, and media and fans become accustomed to his quirks and sayings.

But in the blizzard of new information, it can take awhile to find most vital ingredient.

Adam Oates’ team this year has been confusing.  The growing pains were the type only a mother could love.  The team had effort issues, system issues, personnel issues—things that can’t always be fixed in a season.  It wasn’t just one problem.  It was a veteran roster that had fewer answers than a freshman in calculus. And there was no silver bullet.

So when the Capitals began to turn things around, when the superstars began playing like fans hadn’t seen in a couple years, and when the team jumped to Nicklas Backstrom’s defense Tuesday in a way that would have made the toughest roster in the NHL proud, it was more inexplicable than if Arron Asham joined the Peace Corps. The roster remained roughly the same, but suddenly the system and the attitude were working in harmony.

It finally clicked for me after listening to Oates’ press conference Tuesday, his team fresh off its eighth straight win: a commanding 5-1 triumph over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“One of the things we talk about is that I expect those guys to be pros,” Oates said. “You can enjoy it tonight for sure, it was a good game. Tomorrow we focus on Ottawa. Just like when it doesn’t go our way, I don’t want it to linger, we treat that as [professionals].”

This isn’t the first time Oates has mentioned professionalism.  Like Dale Hunter’s “it’s a hockey play,” the phrase is a staple of Oates’ coaching. But it was the first time I realized how much of an impact it’s having on the Capitals’ success, as they finally start to absorb and live the attitude like their muscle memory absorbs the system and positioning on the ice.

It seems like such a simple thing. Guys should be professional in the NHL without having to be told, right? They’re adults with full-time jobs getting paid a lot of money to show up and play.

Perhaps they shouldn’t have to be told, but if you think about the person at your workpalce who breaks every rule, or who shows up in a dress code fit for anything but an office, all without repercussions, then you begin to realize it’s not such a radical concept for a hockey club, either, that professionalism is sometimes lacking.

The advantage of this professionalism for on-ice play is the kind that Dean Evason once observed about Nicklas Backstrom as an NHL center—you don’t get too thrown off your game by the highs and lows of the 60-minute drama. When you’re the calm in the storm, you’re usually the most focused part in the storm, too.  So when your team blows a 4-goal lead like the Capitals did in their home game Saturday, you don’t sink so low that you can’t concentrate on a comeback.

We talk a lot about culture in a hockey locker room. The Capitals have needed a change for some time.  And, frankly, I think the professionalism mantra of Oates has worked wonders for this organization. Almost exactly one month ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins were in the middle of a 15-game winning streak. At that time in Washington, winning streaks of more than three or four games seemed the things that fairy tales were made of.

The Capitals couldn’t string a streak like that together anymore in the regular season, since there aren’t enough games left, but their win Tuesday was decisive, even if it wasn’t a perfect performance.  While the initial 10 minutes were a good reminder that they weren’t playing a Southeast Division rival, the game was also an interesting measuring stick of the Caps’ quality of play when facing one of the East’s better teams. And by the middle of the second period, it really didn’t matter, because the score was 4-0 in the Capitals’ favor, and they never looked back, finishing the game with 5 goals to the Leafs’ 1.

This isn’t to say the team will never again look sloppy or like they don’t care sometimes. Old habits are hard to break. But it seems that Oates’ demand for professionalism is winning more often than it’s losing in the locker room.

On Moneyball Moves, and a One of a Kind Motivation

I am just returned from Pittsburgh, where Dad and I took in a most memorable Frozen Four. You know how a 16 seed has never knocked off a no. 1 seed in NCAA hoops? Well, it just happened in college hockey. The Yale Bulldogs, having fielded teams in men’s college hockey since the late 19th century without ever winning much of anything, won their first-ever national championship — of any kind — over the weekend in Pittsburgh. The Bulldogs were not only the very last team to qualify for college hockey’s single elimination postseason this spring, they most assuredly weren’t one of the best sixteen Division I teams based on regular season achievement. Incidentally, Yale is coached by Keith Allain, who served as an assistant with the Capitals from 1993-97.

As an Ivy League institution Yale competes in D-I competition — most particularly in hockey — on a very uneven slate of playing fields: the Ivies don’t award athletic scholarships. Some of the Bulldogs’ competitors this hockey season had 18 skaters on scholarship.

Something very special happened to Yale hockey this spring, right in the nick of time. Barry Melrose has suggested it was simply a case of a team inexplicably gelling and getting hot right when it had to. Yale defeated cross-state rival Quinnipiac in the title game this past Saturday night, in the fourth meeting between the clubs this college hockey season. Quinnipiac, which won 21 consecutive games at one point this college hockey season and spent a fair portion of it ranked no. 1,  won the first three meetings of the season between the teams, and rather decisively: 6-2, 4-1, and 3-0. Yale actually scored the first two goals between the teams and then watched the Bobcats score 15 of the next 16 goals. Saturday night’s championship tally? 4-0 Yale, naturally.

I was engrossed watching Allain’s guys skate in Pittsburgh. They’re without elite, difference-making talent. In Jeff Malcolm they had a senior netminder likely headed only for beer league action after this spring’s fun run. But the Bulldogs had terrific quickness, guts, and guile, and they executed Allain’s blueprint for success with lethal determination and efficiency. They possessed and passed the puck brilliantly, and their puck support — especially laterally entering the offensive zone — was a thing of beauty to behold. Dad and I felt lucky to witness them in action in person.

Dad has a Capitals app on his new smartphone, and he was keeping abreast of the action on the ice back in D.C. while we were seated in Consol Energy Center. As he relayed updates to me I couldn’t help but draw a comparison between the Bulldogs and the Caps. Neither was much of a postseason candidate a month ago, and like Yale, if the Caps do qualify this week or next, they won’t much be on anyone’s contender’s list. And like Yale that may just not matter. Though we don’t much know about it in these parts — particularly in spring — winning can become infectious.

It doesn’t happen all that often in sports, but occasionally teams simply gel beyond their means, arrive at a sum-better-than-its-parts cohesion and confidence, and simply beat everyone in their path, night after night. That’s precisely what Yale did. In ECAC conference postseason play Yale actually didn’t score even a single goal, losing to Union 5-0 and to Quinnipiac 3-0 in the third week of March. Then came single elimination postseason play and everything changed: Down went Minnesota, down went North Dakota, down went another no. 1, UMass-Lowell. And what manner of confidence could the Bulldogs have had going into Saturday night’s championship tilt, having been smoked by Quinnipiac in all three meetings this season? But the Bulldogs of January or February weren’t the Bulldogs of April. In my hotel room Saturday morning I caught Melrose on TV for an ESPN puck preview segment, and he well warned: It’s tough to take down a hot hockey club four straight times in a season.

There’s a bit of a ‘Moneyball’ quality, too, to these Caps, I think. If you watched the Brad Pitt movie chronicle of the 2002 Oakland Athletics you’ll recall how that rag-tag club inexplicably won a record 20 consecutive games between August and September of that year. These Capitals have a couple of rich superstar talents that those A’s didn’t, but like the A’s they’re rife with roster flaws, and now like Oakland and Yale all they’re doing is winning every night. Steve Oleksy is a Moneyball kind of impact player for me. So, too, is Mike Ribeiro — a veteran hired hand of achievement who’s doing his job precisely as his hiring manager envisioned. In Moneyball your best players have to be your best players, unheralded hires have to overachieve, your clubhouse has to gel, and you have to get a little lucky here and there. Sounds a lot like the Caps of spring 2013.

But Moneyball lacked a compelling love storyline, perhaps explaining why guys seemed to like it a heck of a lot more than girls.

I’ve an office colleague with a notable background in competitive tennis,  and he was working out at his racket club in McLean last Friday when a young woman of inordinate beauty and fitness lodged herself on the stationary bike next to him. My co-worker got excited because he’s a big Maria Kirilenko fan. He’d noticed her pointed out in the stands, seated among the Ovechkin clan, on a number of Capitals’ television broadcasts of late. With the tennis calendar being what it is Kirilenko’s hanging around town a lot, and it’d be easy to surmise having a somewhat inspiring effect on the hockey player who adores her. When I played merely late-night beer league hockey and had my girl in the stands I always wanted to score two goals, assist on at least one other, and perpetrate a notable act of unsanctioned ferocity for her. Knowing my thoughts related to hockey’s being perpetually cursed here, you can well imagine how I might welcome love’s inspiration — along with Moneyball luck and a roster’s unlikely confluence of confidence and congealing — this spring.

A Praiseworthy Triumvirate

What looked like a cool-headed decision by Matt Hendricks in the first period might well have been the reason the Capitals eked out their seventh straight win Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Late in the first period, Tampa’s B.J. Crombeen appeared to take issue with a hit Hendricks laid on a Tampa player, but Hendricks seemingly refused to engage. Seconds later, the puck had already made it to the other end of the ice, where Jack Hillen gave Washington a two-goal lead.

It’s likely that, had Hendricks dropped the gloves, the Capitals would have lost the momentum and positioning that led to Hillen’s goal. And Washington would need every one of those goals by the end of the game, after Tampa erased a four-goal deficit to send the game into overtime.

During the scoreboard roller coaster, no one was more in tune with his linemates last night than Mathieu Perreault, who had perfectly placed assists on goals by Eric Fehr and Jason Chimera. On the Chimera goal, Perreault could have passed for James Bond on ice, the puck traveling from Chimera to Perreault and back seamlessly as the two bore down on Tampa goalie Mathieu Garon(starting goalie Ben Bishop was pulled at the beginning of the second). Keeping up with Chimera’s speed enough to be in the play requires hustle, and Perreault proved up to the challenge. He showed an uncanny sense of where his teammates were going to be, and the Capitals were two goals the better for it.

Other bright sides for the Capitals weren’t perhaps as pretty.  Steve Oleksy took a high stick to the face, but, in typical hockey fashion, came back into the game after getting stitched up. He finished the game with two assists and was on the ice for only one of Tampa’s goals against, no mean feat when the end score is 6-5.

Oleksy estimates he’s probably gotten stitches about 20 times in his hockey career, with 13 or 14 of those coming in the past two years.

“A lot of people don’t even recognize me without stitches somewhere, or a black eye,” he said after the game.

With something like a hard high stick to the face, Oleksy says, the challenge to playing on isn’t as much about pain as it is being shaken up and feeling slightly out of it.  So he said he tried to keep it simple for the rest of the game.

Despite a productive offense, which saw a goal by Ovechkin and the game winner by Green, the game was not one the Capitals are likely to consider their finest of the season, thanks to blowing that four-goal lead.  But it was an excellent reminder of how much fun this team is to watch when the offense hits its stride. It was also a great reminder of how often this team lets its opponents back into the game.

But for now, the Capitals have once again made the turnaround from one of the worst teams in the NHL to sitting atop their division.