Eric Fehr celebrates his dandy of a game-winner. (Rob Carr)

The Washington Capitals pulled out their best win of the 2013 season on Tuesday night, completing a rousing comeback and defeating the Boston Bruins 4-3 in overtime at Verizon Center.  Trailing 3-0 after one period and looking down and out at the hands of a much better Boston team, the Caps dug in their heels and scored three goals in the final two frames before getting a highlight reel goal from Eric Fehr to close it down and send the locals home happy.  Fehr added two assists while Nicklas Backstrom added three apples and Braden Holtby made 30 saves in the Washington net.

A great comeback for this team tonight.  Down 3-0 after the first period and looking down and out once again, they found a way to fight back, establish their system, get some puck possession and grind down a big, physical Bruins team that is much better than them.  To finish off an elite squad in overtime the way they did is incredibly impressive, and is a big step in the right direction for a team near the bottom of the standings.  Unfortunately for their playoff chances, they got no help from the teams on top of them.  But it’s still a nice win.

The Washington Capitals have made several moves in preparation for tonight's game against the Boston Bruins, and some changes to the lineup might be in order tonight.

-The Washington Capitals have signed D Steve Oleksy (not Olesky) of the AHL Hershey Bears to a 3-year deal worth $1.6 million and recalled him to Washington.  According to Adam Oates, the right-handed defenseman, who leads the Bears in fights and penalty minutes, is definitely not going to fight tonight in his NHL debut against the Big Bad Bruins Oates says "he helps us with the balance" on defense. He will skate on the third pairing with Tom Poti, meaning left-handed Jeff Schultz, he of just one NHL fight, will be sitting out. 

-Goalie Braden Holtby refuses to name the dirty players on the Bruins, instead calls the entire team dirty.  He will be in net tonight behind defenseman Steve Oleksy, who he says will keep those cheap-shotting Bruins honest. 

-In other news, the Bruins insist they are over last year's playoff series loss, the one where they were the defending Stanley Cup Champions with home ice advantage and lost in overtime in game 7 of the first round.  They're definitely over it. 

-Troy Brouwer was sent home from the morning skate with an illness.  Brouwer is a tough, physical player who wasn't afraid to mix it up with the Bruins in last year's playoffs, so the chances missing a big game like this are practically nil unless he's in the hospital.  If for some reason Brouwer can't go, it's possible Wojtek Wolski will get back into the lineup. Wolski, a former 20-goal scorer, hasn't scored in a while and his confidence has looked shot at times this season. It's also possible Caps General Manager George McPhee will call up another Hershey Bear with a lot of penalty minutes (who also definitely won't fight) to leapfrog Wolski before the game, too, as long as he's a right-handed shot. 

-Aaron Volpatti, who fought in his first game in a Capitals sweater on Saturday, is definitely playing tonight.

-The Capitals waived defenseman Roman Hamrlik today. The 38-year old defenseman had only played in 4 games this season while making $3.5 million, about as much as defensemen like Dan Girardi, Rob Scuderi, and Niklas Hjalmarsson, you know, defensemen who play.

-Capitals Defenseman Mike Green was placed on injured reserve with that lingering groin injury and will be eligible to be activated on March 7.  Smart money has him returning closer to April 7.  Meanwhile, Brooks Laich, Jack Hillen, Marcus Johansson, and Dmity Orlov are still not playing. 

-On an historical note, the last time the Capitals and Bruins faced off for the first regular season game after a playoff series was November 21, 1998, and the Capitals had just beaten the Bruins in 6 games, winning the final game in overtime in Boston, and Adam Oates had set up the winning tally.  That November 1998 game featured 12 players getting ejected after all 12 players on the ice got into fights and a total of 270 penalty minutes. 

Follow Andy Green on Twitter.

Late in last Wednesday's game against the Philadelphia Flyers, Mathieu Perreault had his head down as he tried to weave through several Flyers in the neutral zone at Wells Fargo Center.  Flyer's forward Harry Zolnierczyk lined up Perreault for a big open-ice hit hit and laid him out, which many would see as an old school hockey play and served Perreault right for having his head down.  Problem #1: Zolnierczyk led with his knee and put his knee on Perreault's thigh. Problem #2: there were 30 seconds left in a game the Flyers were leading 4-1. The referee made the right call by giving Zolnierczyk a 5 minute major for kneeing and a game misconduct, ejecting a reckless player in the final minute of a game that was lost long ago by the visitors.  The hit on Perreault, and the short powerplay that resulted from it, had no bearing on the outcome of that game. 

After the game, when most coaches take the chance to defend their players, Adam Oates said of the Zolnierczyk hit, “I don’t think it was dirty at all. I think it’s a product of our whole game, quite honestly.  Thirty seconds left, the game is over and Matty thought he could stick-handle through the team. It’s not what we do — all of us tonight, you know, guys are sitting there waiting for you, and you get hit.” 

While Oates had a point that Perreault was being careless, he made the mistake of saying this to the media instead of to Perreault in private.  The fact remained that Zolnierczyk had Perreault lined up for a hit well in advance, Perreault swerved to avoid it, and Zolnierczyk did not adjust to hit Perreault's chest, instead lifting his right skate from the ice and letting his right knee hit Perreault's leg as the primary point of contact.  It was a hit dirty enough the referee deemed it worthy of a major penalty and ejection.  After the game, Zolnierczyk said "I thought I had him lined up," despite not adjusting after Perreault's swerve. 

The National Hockey League, enabled by Oates's blessing, made the decision to rescind the ejection from Zolnierczyk's record, meaning he had a clean slate in the eyes of the league.  This gave a player known for his dirty play a free pass to be that careless or reckless again, and he did exactly that in his next game.  In the first period of Zolnierczyk's next game against the Ottawa Senators, Zolnierczyk left his skates for a hit to the head of defenseman Mike Lundin on a carbon-copy play, knocking him out of the game with a concussion and earning a 4-game suspension and a loss of almost $13,000. 

Read on.

Photo: Michael Perez, AP

At a crossroads, George McPhee must do what is best for this franchise, even at his own potential peril. (Clydeorama)

2013 has been a season unlike any in recent memory for the Washington Capitals.  For the first time in nearly a decade, the team has gotten off to a poor start with little hope for the future.  This isn’t like 2007, where despite their significant early struggles, there was a core of dynamic young players that had the potential to carry the franchise to unprecedented heights.

With that potential realized now, at least in the regular season, that core’s prime has largely passed the Capitals by.  Mike Green, who has been solid when healthy, is still a shadow of his former self and is once again hurt.  Alexander Semin is gone.  Alex Ovechkin, whether you think it his fault or not, is grossly overpaid despite his occasional moments of true brilliance and is under fire.  Nicklas Backstrom is the only one even close to what he was between 2008-2010, and even that might be a stretch.

The result of that aging core along with a poorer than usual supporting cast this season has been, to put it mildly, disastrous for a team and an owner who expected to be competitive for at least a decade as of 2010.  The Capitals are 8-11-1 so far on this shortened campaign, which is good enough for 4^th in the Southeast Division, 14^th in the Eastern Conference, and 28^th overall in the NHL.  In short, they are bad, and despite their recent hot-ish swing that has seen them win six of their last ten games, have shown little to prove to me, and others, that they are good enough to win the Stanley Cup this year.  That’s because they’re not good enough to win the Stanley Cup this year.

The summer for the Washington Capitals seemed filled with uncertainty.  The Caps had just finished a disappointing regular season that saw them struggle for long stretches because of  their inability to score, even though their hot-shot winger still finished in the top 10 in goals.  This meant they had to chase down a playoff spot until the final day of the regular season, a contrast to previous years when it had been a certainty well in advance.  The team's struggles cost their coach his job, a coach who had made the playoffs every season since coming in as a mid-season replacement a few years before.  A new coach was hired over the summer, someone the general manager was familiar with, someone who was cerebral and would install a new two-way system, but who had never won a Stanley Cup.  To that end, Tim Hunter was brought on as an assistant to lend the experience of having won a Stanley Cup to the coaching staff. 

The team's #1 center for the past several seasons who had shown so much chemistry with the All-Star scoring winger was coming off a disappointing season marred by injuries.  That scoring winger, a player who led the league in goals just a few seasons before, saw his per-game goal average drop by about 0.2 goals per game from his league-leading season while trying different linemates.  His good friend and, some said, more talented fellow scoring winger had left the team recently, though his enigmatic nature and declining production left many to wonder if the team wasn't better off without him, even as he posted good scoring totals with his new team.  Fortunately, things were looking up, as the team was bringing in a new center with a history of production. 

At first glance, this center wasn't much to look at.  Small and slight in nature, he wasn't the most gifted of skaters, either.  A career 14% shooter, he didn't shoot enough and never seemed to get much beyond 20 goals in a season and one third of his production came from the powerplay.  But he could pass with the best of them.  Over the past 8 seasons, he was in the first breath of playmaking centers in the NHL.  With a cloudy contract situation, this new Capital center was certainly going to be due a hefty raise and was no safe bet to stick around.  Already a few years into his 30s, he had been acquired for a young center many Capitals pundits were predicting to be a big scorer in years to come if given a real chance at ice time and a scoring line role.  Early in the new season, that young center was right at the top of his new team's scoring picture, too.

Can the Caps get back in the win column? (Clydeorama)

The Washington Capitals are in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Saturday to play an afternoon matinee against the Jets.  The Capitals, coming off a 4-1 humbling by the Flyers on Wednesday night, are 7-11-1 on the campaign for a total of 15 standings points.  That places them last in both the Southeast Division and the Eastern Conference and 29^th overall in the entire NHL.  The Jets, who have won three in a row including beating the Devils on Thursday, are 10-9-1 on the campaign for 21 standings points.  That puts them second in the Southeast Division and eighth in the Conference, hanging on to the final playoff spot in the East.  This is Washington’s first trip to the MTS Centre this season.

Workhorse goaltender Ondrej Pavelec is expected to start in goal for Claude Noel, his tenth in a row and 19^th this season.  Pavelec has posted a 2.86 GAA and .901 save percentage on the campaign and despite mediocre career numbers against Washington, always seems to up his game against DC.  The Jets have two injuries to report: winger Antti Miettinen has a lower-body ailment and is doubtful, while slick defenseman Tobias Enstrom is out with a shoulder injury long-term.

Braden Holtby has been confirmed as Washington’s starter for head coach Adam Oates, his ninth consecutive game in goal.  Despite giving up four goals in one-plus periods earlier this week, has a .899 save percentage and 3.26 GAA on the campaign and has really come on over the last three weeks.  Washington will be missing four players for this afternoon’s game: center Brooks Laich (groin), center Marcus Johansson (upper body), defenseman Mike Green (groin) and defenseman Jack Hillen (shoulder).  Winger Aaron Volpatti, claimed off waivers on Thursday, will make his team debut, likely at the expense of Joey Crabb.  Roman Hamrlik will remain a healthy scratch.

Puck drops 3:10-ish.

Bear Recap-The Hershey Bears faced the East Division rivals in the Binghamton Senators last Friday night. Hershey started out slow and ended up down 3-1 and 4-2. They clawed back to tie the game at 4 with two third period PP goals.  The PK held their own going 9/10 on the evening and keeping the tie within reach. Sabourin made some point blank saves late in OT to get the game to the shootout. Binghamton would take the shootout win 5-4 scoring twice as all 4 Bear shooters were stopped. Saturday Hershey put a solid team effort up against Adirondack and helped Philipp Grubauer earn his first AHL shootout with 40 saves. Special teams was the answer as Hershey scored a SH goal and 2 PP goals. The PK also went 5/5. The game winning SH goal was a 185 ft shot along the boards by Patrick McNeill that hit the glass and coasted into the net vacated by Scott Monroe to play the puck. This full moon night had one more crazy event in store for the Bears as a clearing shot from Adirondack deflected of the glass and hit backup goalie on the night Dany Sabourin in the forehead. The cut required 7 stitches to close. The Bears then headed to the beach to take on the Albany Devils in Atlantic City. A slow start melted the Bears hopes of a win along with some key turnovers deep in their zone. Hershey tried to keep pace but it was too little too late. Albany escaped 6-4 on the 2 first period goals they tallied before the Bears seemed to hit their stride. The Bears are now headed to Wilkes Barre/Scranton and then home to face Norfolk and Syracuse this weekend.

Philipp Grubauer #31 in warm-ups before the Flyers game on 2/27/13.

Photo Courtesy of Ryan McNally.

Philipp Grubauer-The story just begs to be put on the big screen. Philipp Grubauer goes from the ECHL Reading Royals to the AHL Hershey Bears to the NHL Washington Capitals in mere weeks. His AHL debut had been delayed numerous times over the past 2 years for a myriad of reasons but his patience and play paid off. I am not sure if Grubauer thought he was going to see actual game time last night but with Neuvirth out ill he got the call to head to Philadelphia to backup Holtby for the evening. After a slow Capitals start and a 4-0 Flyers lead, Holtby got the yank to give Grubauer his first NHL action. 14 shots later the horn sounded with a 4-1 Capitals loss but Grubauer had stopped all 14 shots he faced and some pretty decent Flyers scoring chances. I know many in Reading and Hershey were kicking social media into high gear as Grubauer took to the ice in the second period. Grubauer has been reassigned back to Hershey before the Capitals leave for Winnipeg this weekend. I have a feeling #31 won’t be a stranger in Washington in the future.

Go Bears. 

Scoring on the power play has been a regular occurence lately. (CTPost)

The Washington Capitals won their second consecutive game on Tuesday night, knocking off a depleted Carolina Hurricanes squad by a 3-0 score inside Verizon Center.  Nicklas Backstrom, John Erskine, and John Carlson scored for the Capitals and Braden Holtby made 33 saves for his second shutout of the season in the win, which raises Washington’s record to a modest 7-10-1, still near the very bottom of the Eastern Conference but only four points out of first place in the Division, which may be the easiest playoff spot in sports.  The Caps have now outscored their opponents 8-1 over their last 120 minutes of play and are starting to change the minds of many who thought this team was washed up.  Well, changing some minds.  But I digress.  Quick hits:

It’s so funny to me that three weeks ago, several people were saying the Capitals should trade Braden Holtby and he could not get the job done despite calling for him to play when Michal Neuvirth was in his run of excellent form.  Now, Holtby has a firm grip on the Caps’ top goaltending job after seven consecutive starts in which he has stopped 207 of 221 (.937) and is 5-2, as calculated by the admirable Jack Anderson.  This is just another example of how lucky the Capitals are to have two young, good goalies that make responsible numbers on the salary cap instead of grossly overpaid older goalies and veteran backups.  Holtby has been great and when he slows down, Neuvirth will step in and be good.  This after Holtby was signed to a very cap-friendly deal until the summer of 2015 on Monday, and it has been a great two weeks for the goaltending position in this organization.

Enjoyyy, everyone. (Clydeorama)

The Washington Capitals hammered the New Jersey Devils in the third period on Saturday, riding four final frame goals past their visitors to chalk up a 5-1 win.  Powered by an Alex Ovechkin hat trick, Washington also got a shorthanded goal from Eric Fehr and a power play marker from Troy Brouwer in the five-goal onslaught, only their third game with that many goals on the season.  Braden Holtby, making his fifth consecutive start, was solid in victory, and the loss picked the Capitals put of the Eastern Conference basement on points percentage.  Still, however, Washington faces a long uphill climb to make the playoffs.  Some more observations:

Vintage Ovechkin.  There is no other way to describe a dominant performance from a player who has taken his deserved share of criticism, but silenced his critics temporarily with a game that had been coming.  All three of his goals sent memories of 2009 dancing through our heads – a wide open one-timer, a snapshot through the defenseman’s legs, and another fling into the goal from the slot.  He was dominant, and this could be the beginning of another hot streak.  The key, as always, is continuing it.  That is what matters, and that is what Washington needs to be successful.

Oh, dear. (NJnow.com)

The Washington Capitals lost their second consecutive game on Thursday night, falling to the New Jersey Devils 3-2 in Washington in the first half of a home-set doubleheader with the Eastern Conference Champions.  After scoring two power play goals, on each from Mathieu Perreault and Mike Ribeiro, to take a 2-1 lead into the third period, the Capitals fell apart in the third period.  Taking bad penalties and paying the prices of said penalties, Washington allowed two goals in the first ten minutes of the frame and were unable to climb back into the game when gassed after killing so many power plays.  With the loss, the Capitals fall to 5-10-1 and remain in last place across the Southeast Division, the Eastern Conference, and the entire National Hockey League.

These penalties are just getting ridiculous.  The Capitals were playing well at even strength Thursday, not necessarily dominating but holding their own and controlling the end of the second period en route to an intermission lead.  Then, the Capitals took six penalties in the opening 11 minutes of the third period and conceded twice.  Adam Oates has said it countless times: though the penalty kill is playing well (and it played really well Thursday), continually killing penalties drains the bottom six and gets the top six cold.  It’s a recipe for failure and until Washington figures it out, they will continue to lose games.

Braden Holtby was a stud tonight as he continues to rebound from his crash at the beginning of the season.  He didn’t have a realistic chance on any of the goals and made some huge saves to keep the lead for the Capitals and then keep them within striking distance.  I think he will be rested on Saturday, however, in favor of Michal Neuvirth, who deserves a shot after sitting on the pine for two weeks.

Alex Ovechkin looked energized on Thursday night.  The Capitals’ captain moved well on his skates in all three zones, something we certainly have not seen enough of, and pulled off some highlight-reel moves that almost led to goals for his team.  You felt like he was going to score during the first two periods, and he almost did on a breakaway late in the second.  He missed on the breakaway and then took a dumb penalty in the third period to put his team shorthanded (again) after a good kill.  He’s now at ten points in 16 games.

Tomas Kundratek continues to impress in the ice time he is given at all strengths.  The Czech, who was acquired almost on a whim last year, was called up as a result of injuries and suspensions this year and has been solid for Washington, even piled up some points.  He’s been a bright spot in the Washington D corps of late and with Mike Green still out, he will be needed to continue to eat more ice.

At this point, the Capitals will need a big miracle in order to make the playoffs.  With their three consecutive wins last week, it looked like the team had turned a corner and was beginning to build momentum, but two games against elite Eastern Conference sides have produced losses.  One-goal losses, but losses nonetheless.  As I wrote at the beginning of the season, this is not a championship caliber team, and I really hope the team’s management and especially ownership realizes it and makes the appropriate adjustments.  This is not Adam Oates’ fault, it is their fault – and though better times are definitely ahead as this partial rebuild comes to fruition over the next calendar year, it’s ugly now.  It is time to start looking towards June, and adding another great, young player like Seth Jones or Nathan MacKinnon.  It is that bad, and there is that little hope for a playoff spot because of the way Washington is playing and the simple math of this shortened season.

Washington will practice Friday before hosting the Devils at noon on Saturday in the second half off this off doubleheader.x

Harry Hawkings is a college student credentialed to cover the Capitals for RtR.  Follow him on Twitter here for all your news needs this season.