The Ice Sheet: Stopping the Bleeding on F Street

It's safe to say that life has gotten just a tad uncomfortable in the nation's capital for the local hockey team. For most of the season, the storyline for the Washington Capitals has been pretty simple: building off their first playoff appearance in five seasons, a young team led by reigning MVP Alex Ovechkin had finally come into its own, dominating its division and taking its rightful place near the top of the standings of the Eastern Conference. The playoff success that had been eluding the franchise since its founding in 1974 was just around the corner.

But more recently, the worm has turned, so to speak. And as I walked to Verizon Center on F Street yesterday on an unseasonably warm day to take in a matinee with the hated Pittsburgh Penguins, the Capitals were mired in a three-game losing streak, the longest in the short but happy tenure of Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau. Even more distressing, all of those losses had come at home against clearly inferior opponents (Carolina, Florida and Toronto), with the team dropping those games by a combined score of 13-5.

As others around town were quick to point out, this was no time to panic. Unlike last season where the team was forced to scramble down the stretch to catch Carolina and take the Southeast Division title in a mad dash to the finish, this team was sitting on a very comfortable nine-point division lead over Florida headed into Sunday's game with the Penguins. Barring an absolutely epic collapse, the division title and nothing worse than the third seed in the Stanley Cup Playoffs was in the offing.


Still, I couldn't help but feel a little trepidation as I took my seat at Verizon Center yesterday. The fact was, the three most recent loses, along with a 4-2 loss, also at home, to the Philadelphia Flyers back on February 24, seemed to have exposed the team's most glaring weakness. The fact is, outside of Ovechkin, the Caps are decidedly lacking when it comes to physicality.

Certainly, when this team is clicking on all cylinders offensively, and Ovechkin and his pals Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin are cycling deep in the enemy zone, the Washington Capitals can beat any team in the NHL -- something that teams like Boston, Detroit and New Jersey have all discovered to their chagrin. Then again, as Philadelphia demonstrated late last month, if you simplify your game, you've got more than an even chance to get a lead and sap the team of its youthful energy.

How do you do it? Hit the Caps hard in their own defensive zone on the forecheck. Make sure your forwards work hard in the corners and along the boards. Taken together, you can keep Washington bottled up in their own end, something that's sure to lead to them taking careless stick and obstruction penalties.

Better yet, don't be afraid to take up position in front of the net and crowd the goalie, as the Caps still lack the kind of defenseman that can force the opposition to pay a physical price for taking that real estate -- something that was never more in evidence yesterday than when Evgeni Malkin came across the Washington crease like a freight train and nearly flattened goalie Jose Theodore.

Then again, for the most part, yesterday's game against a Penguins team desperate to stay in the playoff race seemed to show some indications that the team was pulling out of its funk. Unlike the last three games when it seemed as if the team were simply sleepwalking to the end of the season, the Caps played tough throughout, delivering the hits that they needed to, something that was never more in evidence than when defenseman Milan Jurcina sent Penguins winger Tyler Kennedy through the plexiglass:



Still, this is a very dangerous Penguins team we're talking about, and one that made some smart and affordable moves at the deadline to supplement their offense. Going into the third period, the Pens had a 3-1 lead courtesy of goals by Sidney Crosby (who the Washington fans were more than ready for), new acquisition Bill Guerin and defenseman Sergei Gonchar.

But Washington roared back early in the third period with goals by Ovechkin and Brooks Laich, the latter of which was scored after center Dave Steckel found Laich behind the Pittsburgh defense with a Hail Mary pass from deep in his own defensive zone that caught the Penguins napping.

After a scoreless overtime, the league got the showdown it wanted. On Pittsburgh's second attempt, Crosby put the puck past Theodore to score the first goal of the shootout. Up next stepped Ovechkin. The stakes were simple. If he scored, the shooutout would continue. If he missed, Pittsburgh would get the extra point and a 4-3 win.

Ovechkin failed to convert -- not exactly a shock, as he's scored less than 30 percent of the time in the shootout for his career -- and the couple of thousand Penguins fans in attendance went home happy as Washington's losing streak hit four games. Still, the Caps came away with a point and the division lead was back to a comfortable 10 points. Granted, it was little consolation, especially with tough road games coming up against another desperate team, Nashville, as well as the hated Flyers.

Still, the bleeding had stopped. And that, for now, would have to be enough.

Every Monday morning The Ice Sheet will take a close look at everything that's happened in the NHL since Friday night at 5:00 PM -- or if need be, anything else the author wants to bleat about. To read them all, click here.