We can look at this points total, the highest in franchise history, and gripe about how it’s inflated based on loser points and shootout wins and yada yada yada. We can look at the 50 wins, sigh and point out how many times the Caps have won in the skills competition. We can do the mental adjustments necessary to convince ourselves that this team is not as great as we want to believe because of the era it plays in – we can do all those things.

But why?

This team is a great team. Points, wins, records, none of those things matter if you just look at the product we’ve had on the ice for most of the year. Numbers don’t tell the whole tale; whether or not they’re the best in franchise history is something we won’t know until the Cup is handed out in June. If it’s passed to Chris Clark, all the questions about the team’s greatness relative to history go straight out the window.

Ah, but right now. Right now is good. Right now we have the second seed in our pockets with one game to go, 108 points and counting, 50 wins and counting, and oh yeah, a game against Tampa to discuss:

- Probably a little more entertaining than it should have been, but give the Caps credit – that was one of their better, more consistent efforts over the last few weeks and it was against an opponent they’d beaten 10 straight times before. It had all the makings of a disaster and yet they found a way to put some (not a ton, but some) passion into it.

- It took a few minutes for that passion to kick in, however. What was up with Flash’s backchecking, or complete lack thereof, on the early Stamkos goal? We get it, the kid is good and he knows how to make a play but Flash needs to do something. Something other than watch the pretty puck go into the net, that is…shiny!

- After weeks of being silent and mime-like, the secondary scoring has emerged at last! Laich (twice), Steckel, Pettinger…oh, wait, he’s not ours anymore.

- With his game-winning goal last night, Steckel now has six goals in two seasons against the Tampa Bay Lightning, including his first NHL goal last year. That’s almost half of his goal total for his entire career (13). In 12 games he’s 6-5-11 versus the Bolts – hey, we’ve got Jon Sim, the Lightning apparently have Dave Steckel.

- Speaking of Steckel, he was the only Cap to go better than 50% on what turned out to be a rough night in the faceoff circle. And he did so with a fluorish, winning nine of his twelve draws. Stecks finished with a goal on one shot, a hit, a blocked shot, 75% success rate in faceoffs and an all around beast of a performance while shorthanded. He’s been great lately, definitely in playoff mode.

- Two goals, both from practically sitting in Ramo’s lap, that set a new career high. Four shots. A hit. A takeaway. Almost 16 minutes of ice time, plenty of power play time and a boatload of highly efficient penalty killing work. I’d say Brooks Laich is in playoff mode, too, but…this is how he always plays.

- It’s not often that I say this, but Sergei Fedorov has looked every minute of his 39 years over the last few games. Sure, he’s gotten a few goals, but he’s also had costly turnovers and too many untimely penalties to count. With the 2nd seed clinched, it would be nice to see Feds get a night off tomorrow – sadly it doesn’t look like injuries or cap issues will let that happen.

- Jose had a bit of a rocking chair night last night, as for long stretches it looked like the Lightning were simply going through the motions while mentally staking out their spot at the beach. Still, he looked solid – that early Stamkos goal was a combination of a great play by the youngster and a failtastic play by Fleischmann, while the second goal came through about seven billion bodies in front.

- This is the second straight game against the Caps in which the Lightning have taken two penalties at exactly the same time. It’s also the second straight game in which the Caps have made the Lightning pay 5-on-3. Do you think having two guys in the box at once against one of the league’s best power plays might not be a winning strategy for Tampa? Something to work on this summer, Bolts – but if you get too busy to work on it, we’ll understand.

- Mike Green owes Tomas Fleischmann a beer for stealing his empty netter last night and keeping Flash at the 19 goal mark. It capped off a nice night for Green, but still.

- There were stretches in this one where the passing and movement and flow of the Caps offensive zone presence were simply breathtaking. Those are the moments we have to think about when projecting what kind of team they can be on a bigger stage; the defensive lapses and that first minute tally, maybe things we can conveniently forget. Deal?

- The Caps are 11-0-0 against the Lightning in the last two seasons. Hey, at least there’s one division opponent we can consistently beat – never let it be said that this team plays down to the level of every opponent. Just…most of them.

So for the first time in a long time we actually don’t have to care that the Devils won last night. It doesn’t matter. Two points gives the Caps the second seed and that’s the only playoff math we care about.

…okay, so I suppose it matters that the Devils clinched their division. They were going to anyway thanks to a Philadelphia loss, so there. Have fun with Carolina/Philadelphia/Pittsburgh, Devils. I’ll take Montreal or New York any day.

Speaking of which, we’ll talk a little bit more about our potential dates for the first round later – and we’ll talk about the actual first round opponent ad nauseum once it all shakes out. But here’s a quick overview:

The Caps are 3-1-0 against the Habs, 3-0-1 against the Rangers this year.

One has an arguably more talented team up front, the other has one of the best goalies in the league.

One is a familiar(ish) postseason opponent, the other would be brand new territory (and potentially heartbreaking territory for CC).

One has a potentially dangerous power play, the other has a potentially dangerous penalty kill.

One has Miracle Mathieu, pronounced done for the season only to come back and not only play but also score a crucial go-ahead goal, the other has…Sean Avery.

And neither one wears black and gold.

There was so much to celebrate tonight.

Mike Green made NHL history in spectacular fashion, scoring in his eighth straight game. Michal Neuvirth got his first NHL win on the back of some pretty slick goaltending.

Shaone Morrisonn didn’t take a penalty (and actually scored a goal…not sure which was more surprising).

Hugs and kisses all around, boys! Happy Valentine’s Day indeed.

It’s no secret that one of the recurring themes for the Caps this season has been their inability to beat those teams they should beat. Games against the lower third of the standings seem to be looked at a little more cautiously by Caps fans than games against the elite teams – somehow Boston and Detroit don’t seem as scary as Edmonton, LA and Atlanta.

And while we won’t know if there’s been a permanent shift for a little while yet, it’s nice to see that, for tonight at least, the killer instinct isn’t completely dead. Sure there were defensive miscues and a few scary moments; and let’s not forget that Tampa isn’t as bad as their record would indicate, especially with top class talent like Lecavalier and St. Louis among their ranks. For the most part, though, the Caps really controlled the game and never really seemed to let up.

Let’s be honest, though – tonight was just as much about the individual as it was the team, about the promise this team continues to show and the immense talent there is throughout the organization.

There was the top line of Semin, Ovechkin and Backstrom, all three flying and all three picking up points. The Semin penalty aside (and believe it or not I’d call that a “good” penalty), that line was dominant.

Eric Fehr continued to display his growing confidence as well as the budding chemistry he has with linemates Fleischmann and Fedorov, potting a goal that could only be described as the icing on the triple-iced cake.

Michal Neuvirth introduced himself to the NHL with a stellar performance, turning aside 27 of 28 shots on goal in the first two periods and robbing Lecavalier and friends with some timely glove saves. After that first shaky mishandle of the puck he looked calm, cool, positionally sound and lightning (heh) quick. A great debut and another great first win.

And the man of the hour, the guy who continues to put his name up there with some of the all-time great offensive defensemen at the young age of 23, the kid with the wheels and the laser-hot shot…Mike Green.

Going into this game it was hard to predict what would happen. Would the team pass up scoring chances of their own to try and give him the record, undermining the game itself? Would Green be squeezing his stick to hard or over-thinking plays because of all the hype?

Either would have been perfectly normal; neither one happened.

For the players on the ice, Green included, it looked like just another game. Just another day for #52 and just another great, opportunistic goal to catapult him into the record books all on his own. And was it ever a special moment to watch.

Tomorrow we see how quickly they can come down from what was a highly emotional night. Tomorrow features a tougher opponent that suddenly has made the Southeast race a little more interesting. Tomorrow talk of whether Green can break the record and when if ever Neuvirth will make his first start will be a thing of the past and we get back to the business at hand.

But tonight…tonight we celebrate a very special night made possible by some very special young stars.

As the post-game buzz starts to die down a bit from last night, the main thing on the mind of a lot of Caps fans is the Ovechkin hit on Jamie Heward last night. Good news on Heward – Capitals Insider reports that Heward was released from Sibley Hospital earlier today and is on his way back to Tampa as we speak. I know that like me, everyone around DC and around the league is issuing a collective sigh of relief that he’s okay.

As for the hit itself, the view from my seat last night didn’t offer me a very good look; I didn’t even know who had been hit until long after it happened. I only witnessed the aftermath – and until that moment I don’t know that I ever truly understood the phrase “my blood ran cold”. It’s a scary thing to watch, medical personnel being rushed over to the injury by various players, the look of fear on everyone’s face, and the worst part…the stretcher and backboard making their slow way across the rink.

What made it even worse was finding out via text message who the victim was. It shouldn’t have mattered – an injury is an injury, regardless of the name on the back – but it did. Heward was a personal favorite of mine during his time here and seemed to be genuinely liked by Caps fans, so knowing that he was on the ice and clearly in some kind of trouble was truly heartbreaking.

It wasn’t until I returned home that I was able to see what happened. I watched it a couple of times to figure out what happened, as often as I could bear it before I had to turn it off. And hometown bias aside, my love for each of the participants aside, it looked to me like simply a bizarre, awkward play that ended badly.

I think JP describes it best:

Watch it again. Heward was skating along the boards, Ovi had him lined up, and then Heward turns back and towards the boards with his head lowered because (presumably) the puck wasn’t coming around as hard as he had thought. A crisper pass along the boards and Ovi just finishes Heward a bit as they skate out of the zone, as he does a dozen times a game. But that’s not what happened.

For all the bile that’s being spewed in Ovechkin’s direction this morning – from the usual sources, of course – it’s important to remember that hockey is a risky game. Injuries happen. You do what you can to protect against them, you hope that the players show respect for one another enough to prevent them, and you play the game.

And yes, Ovechkin plays with an edge. He hits, skates, scores, even celebrates with an edge. Watch his joyful pounces on his own teammates sometime – leaves his skates a little then, too, by the way, out of the sheer exuberance of it all. Ovechkin plays with an edge, but he’s not dirty. There are a lot of players who get away with worse and couldn’t make the same claim.

Will it warrant a suspension? Probably not. Given Ovechkin’s clean track record, the fact that no penalty was called, the fact that Heward clearly puts his head down, the fact that Ovechkin tried to let up when Heward put himself in a vulnerable position, and a host of other factors, it’s hard to see where a suspension is required.

If the league wants to crack down on head shots (as they should) then they should go after the guys who dish them out regularly and without remorse – not the guy who plays the game hard and was just put in an unfortunate, mostly unavoidable situation.

Or the guy who punches someone repeatedly between the legs when he’s unable to protect himself.

…just a suggestion.

Update: Word from the league (by way of Lightning Strikes) is that no disciplinary action will be taken. As it was explained to Tampa GM Brian Lawton:

“I was told by the league it was not a targeted hit to the head,” Lawton said. “In their assessment, Ovechkin never left his feet.” Lawton said the league decided Heward’s crouching on the play also contributed somewhat to the hit to the head.

First and foremost, best wishes go out to Jamie Heward on a speedy recovery. Injuries happen (as we well know) but seeing a stretcher be wheeled out onto the ice has to be one of the scariest things to watch, and you hate to see it happen to anyone. Heward was a Cheap Seats favorite during his brief tenure in DC, though, so this was particularly rough – Get well soon, Hewie.

This was just a weird game from start to finish. There was something eery about it, good mixed with bad mixed with bizarre mixed with horrifying. At the end of the day it’s two more points, dirty though they might be, and an amazing 16-1-1 record at home for the Caps.

Bullet point time:
- Mike Smith is going to be having nightmares about Boyd Gordon for weeks. The Tampa goalie had a rough night in general, giving up a few soft shots from far away among others, but those two flubs with the puck were extremely costly thanks to #15. Gordon’s pass from behind the net (and between his legs) to Matt Bradley was especially lovely – a bad night for Smith, a great night for Gordon.

- With all the injuries this team has suffered, it’s always nice to see a player return to pre-injury form. Mike Green is pretty much there, as evidenced by his blistering shot to put the Caps up by three. (And yes, Greenie, we all agree – it was an…effing great pass by Ovechkin). But so is Chris Clark, who had a fantastic Clark-esque night and earned himself the hard hat for his efforts. This was old school Clark, with a goal, a bloody scrap and a few choice words for the idiot referee.

- Speaking of that idiot referee…what game was he watching when he awarded Adam Hall a penalty shot? It was clear to the Caps, the 18,000+ in attendance and anyone watching at home – at regular speed, no less – that Green got the puck, then the player. Perfectly legal, and perfectly moronic to be whistled down.

- Speaking of idiot officiating, take two…how on earth did the ref not know that Recchi goal was in, and since when do you get to just stop play randomly to review a goal? Methinks a few officials both off the ice and on were indulging a little too much as they rang in 2009. Blurred vision abounds.

- Vincent Lecavalier scores two, Mark Recchi adds one…where have we heard that before? Seeing those two score against the Caps is just deja vu all over again.

- A solid night by the top line and Mike Green, but that’s not the big story in this one. The story is that by the time Ovechkin scored his goal, there were less than two minutes left in the game and the Caps were already up by two. Congrats to Sean Collins on his first, congrats to Steckel for his continuing dominance over the Bolts, and good for Bradley, Clark and Gordon for adding to the goal total as secondary scoring was in full force tonight.

- Four goals doesn’t sound like a good night for a goalie, but Brent Johnson was great tonight and held the Caps together when they were flailing around him. Brilliant glove save on the idiotic penalty shot, too.

- Jeff Halpern’s first visit back to DC as an opponent a few years was a rough one for #11. Since then, however, he’s proven to be quite the thorn in the side for the Caps. He only registered an assist on the Malone goal, but Halpern was all over the place and had a couple of great scoring chances.

- That was a former Cap bonanza, wasn’t it? The first visit by the Bolts this year only featured two of the five, but tonight was like 2005-06 all over again. Surreal.

If there was any doubt whether the Caps were ready to face their former goaltender in net last night, it was dismissed the second they took the first shot. Nothing in their demeanor, approach to or effort in last night’s game seemed any different than if they had been facing any other rival goaltender – which is exactly what we want.

Heck, by the time I had finished watching, I was almost there myself.

Extenuating circumstances kept me from churning out a preview for last night’s game, but I’m not even sure what I would have said had I the time or inclination to do so. Olie was such a huge part of my childhood, such a huge presence in what I knew to be the Caps, such a huge figure in Washington sports in general. Reading the articles that pored out of local and national writers alike in the 24 hours leading up to this one I found myself getting more emotional than I’d expected, remembering the heartbreak that was bidding farewell to Olie Kolzig.

But as soon as the puck dropped and we faced our old friend in foe’s clothing, all of that nostalgia had to be put aside. It had to be put aside.

Because Olie didn’t come to DC just to catch up with old friends and pay tribute to the fans who supported him all these years – make no mistake about it, he came here to take two points away from our team. The fact that the loss can’t be completely attributed to him is probably some small amount of comfort to those finding it hard to take their leave of Zilla; for the rest of us the only thing that should matter is the win by the Caps.

We’ve had a long summer and about a month of regular season hockey to adjust to the idea of Olie as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. And sure, there was still something strange about seeing that silhouette – that figure that is so clearly Olie and no one else – dressed in white and black instead of red, white and blue. Seeing a close-up shot of his face in a mask that was familiar and yet completely foreign was definitely a surreal moment.

Now that the game is over, though, it’s time to move on. Getting that first one out of the way was key, for the team, for Olie, and for the fans. Who knows? The next time we meet, maybe there will be a bit more fervor behind the mocking “Ooooo-lie” chants, a bit more sarcasm and a bit less reverance. We’ll give him the honor and respect he’s so richly deserved when the #37 is raised to the rafters – until then he’s a rival, an opponent, someone blocking our way to where we want to be. And I, for one, have closure.

On to that game, because, in case you missed it amongst all the Olie-centric media, there was actually a game played last night. I started watching long after everyone else had probably gone to bed, and admittedly fast-forwarded through parts so as not to be a complete zombie today. But from where I was sitting the boys looked pretty good, especially in the first.

Of course Barry Melrose didn’t give the Caps any credit for the win, but that’s understandable – his team didn’t show up, why give them an excuse to hide behind? Tampa didn’t show up until late, the Caps showed up early and held on, and it goes in the books as a win for Washington.

It’s funny how things work out. For a week or two people have been talking about the solution to the Caps’ temporary scoring problems being the procurement of one or two ugly goals. Well, they’ve since achieved the ugly goals and sprinkled a few pretty ones in to boot, returning to the semi-highpowered offense we all know and love.

So there has to be some optimism at the way that Ovechkin snapped his 9-game scoreless drought. A goal that was both ugly and gorgeous is exactly what he needs to get going again; it’s one more thing that is now out of the way, a sign that maybe #8 will stop squeezing the stick as tightly, shoot more, and trust himself to make the play. We hope.

As for the rest of the team, it was great to see Eric Fehr get his first of the year, Johnson added more fuel to the nonexistent goalie controversy, Backstrom continues to hover on the edge of having a breakout game, and John Erskine needs to stop taking stupid penalties before I hunt him down and shove a stick up his…

…ahem.

Two points, on to Carolina!

Monday promises to be a very interesting night, indeed, as the Caps take on a new-look Tampa team – half of which is now weirdly composed of Caps’ alumni (hey, look, it’s an Eminger). But I for one am very excited that it’s going to be on Versus.

I know what you’re all thinking. Why is being on the same station as bull riding and hunting a good thing?

Because not only do the Caps seem to play their best games on Versus, they also tend to win. In fact, over the last two seasons they have but one loss when appearing on the much maligned network:

11/26/07 vs Buffalo, L, 3-1 – the one exception to the rule in recent days, a game we just…don’t even need to go into.

12/17/07 vs Detroit, L, 4-3 (SO) – A loss, sure, but a fantastic game and a great effort by the Caps to take the eventual Stanley Cup Champs to the shootout. Just because the Wings used the same move on all three shootout shooters and scored all three times…yeah.

1/21/08 vs Pittsburgh, W, 6-5 (SO) – Not a great night for goaltenders but a highly entertaining game that foreshadowed what has become a much more intense rivalry between Ovechkin and Malkin.

2/26/08 vs Minnesota, W, 4-1 – Trade deadline day games are always a little tough, but you could feel the energy from every Cap as they awaited their new teammates. Olie Kolzig’s brilliant performance was overshadowed only by Brooks Laich and his 4 point night.

3/3/08 vs Boston, W, 10-2 – Ovechkin gets goal #50…and 51…and 52. Laich has two, Backstrom has two, and Matt Bradley – the fan favorite – nets the Caps’ 10th goal in an absolutely one-sided thriller.

10/13/08 vs Vancouver, W, 5-1 – Arguably the best game for the Caps this year, they dominate the Canucks and finally vanquish the demon that is Roberto Luongo by chasing him from the net.

What’s in store for Monday night? We can only imagine…but maybe it would be the perfect time for a certain Russian to break out.