Capitals Insider

A few of the Canadiens conceded this morning that they're in awe of what the Capitals have been able to accomplish over the past month. That said, they're itching to put an end to Washington's 14-game winning streak tomorrow at Centre Bell.

But if the Habs are going to be the ones to snap Washington's historic run, they'll have to do it without several key players. The Montreal injured list is a lengthy one. Among the wounded are Mike Cammalleri (knee), Marc-Andre Bergeron (knee), Andrei Kostitsyn (knee), Benoit Pouliot (upper body) and Paul Mara (upper body).

In all, the Habs are expected to be without about 40 percent of their goals.

What wasn't so clear was which goaltender will start in goal for the Canadiens. Coach Jacques Martin declined to say whether he'll tap Carey Price or Jaroslav Halak. Price has played the previous three games (1-1-1) against the Caps this season but Halak has been the better of the two.

Most of the questions from reporters after this morning's practice at Complexe Sportif Bell in suburban Montreal dealt with GM Bob Gainey's unexpected resignation yesterday. But I figured you'd be more interested in what they had to say about the Caps, who can move into a tie for the second longest streak in league history with a win (the 1981-82 Islanders also won 15 in a row).

Mark Giannotto reports from Kettler Capitals Iceplex that our favorite big-headed former presidents picked up where the Caps left off after today's practice, running several of their signature Nats game races -- on skates. They must be practicing for a future promotion at Verizon Center, Mark said, because they did several races around the rink

SPOILER ALERT: Teddy lost every time.

Some photos from Mark's phone:

George Washington makes his way around the rink.

One day, Teddy. One day.

This is what happens when you leave Caps practice early, Dan Steinberg. (But do check out some Snovechkin shots here.)

It's not often an escape from winter weather involves a trip up to Canada, but that's exactly the situation in which the Capitals find themselves. The team held an early 9 a.m. practice in order to catch a flight to Montreal before the D.C. area is hit with another heavy snowfall.

"It kind of reminds me of Russia, but Americans don't get used to it," said Alex Ovechkin of the snow. "For us, it's okay, for you guys, it's not okay."

Washington will take on Montreal Wednesday night, the first of a three-game road trip that will send the team to Ottawa on Thursday and St. Louis on Saturday before the players head their separate ways at the Olympic break.

And unless you've been inside a bunker lately (or you're one of the folks still without power), the big story for the Capitals is their current 14-game winning streak, a franchise-record. If Washington can win its last three games before the break, it would tie the NHL record of 17-straight, set by Pittsburgh during the 1992-93 season.

"It's important, but I think if you're gonna concentrate on it, you're gonna lose," Ovechkin said. "It can be history, but we just want to win and we just want to play."

The Caps have recalled goalie Semyon Varlamov, who started in Hershey on Sunday and made 26 saves in a 5-4 comeback win over the Baby Pens.

Varlamov, who has been rehabbing a lingering knee injury, is practicing with the team at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. The 21-year-old hasn't played for the Caps since Dec. 7.

"I thought he got better as the game wore on," Bears Coach Mark French said after Sunday's win. "I don't know what the game plan is. As far as I know, his health throughout the game was fine."

More to come.

One quick snow-related programming note: The Caps have moved their practice time up to 9 a.m. to get a head start before Mother Nature pelts D.C. with another giant snowball, and Tarik is doing the same -- his flight to Montreal is in a few minutes. The team is going to keep things short and sweet at Kettler, but we'll keep you updated if there's any kind of news.

On to the morning roundup:

In today's Post, Gene Wang writes that while the NFL is winning the battle for TV by billions of dollars, Caps owner Ted Leonsis believes the NHL can own the Web.

"Where we should be advantaged is our customers are younger, more educated, Web-savvy than the NFL audience, which is older, less wired," Leonsis said. "So let's pick a fight we have a shot at winning, and if our consumers are younger, and they love video games, and they have shorter attention spans, and they love interactivity, and they love social media, and everyone blogs, and everyone's on Facebook, why wouldn't we put ourselves right in the middle of that?" | Full story »

The snow will be here by the time you finish checking out these links:

"Mike Milbury who?" (AP/The Washington Post)

Today the NHL announced that Alex Ovechkin is its first star of the week and Nicklas Backstrom is the third. It's probably the Caps' least significant accomplishment all week, so... it's been a pretty good week. From a team release:

Alex Ovechkin has been named the NHL's First Star of the Week for the second time in four weeks and the third time this season. It's the 13th time in his career that he has been named either one of the Three Stars of the Week or NHL Player of the Week.

Nicklas Backstrom has been named the NHL's Third Star of the Week for the second week in a row; it's the third time this season and the fourth time in his career that he has been one of the three stars of the week.

(John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

What Super Bowl? The game of the day -- the season, really -- was played at noon (as scheduled, despite the snow) and the season's second installment of Caps vs. Pens did not fail to impress:

Sidney Crosby scored the first two goals Sunday. Alex Ovechkin, though, ended up doing the Pittsburgh Penguins captain one better.

Ovechkin recorded his first regular season hat trick in almost a year, then assisted on Mike Knuble's overtime winner at Verizon Center, where the fans who trudged through two feet of snow were treated to a 5-4, come-from-behind win that extended the Washington Capitals' winning streak to 14 games and ended any discussion about which rivalry is hockey's best. | Full story »

The aftermath of Snowvechkin was enough to keep many at home, but for the Caps fans who were able to make it to Verizon Center, writes Post reporter Gene Wang, the trip was well worth the hassle.

*Check out some shots of Ovechkin, Crosby and hats all over the ice in our photo gallery. You can also look back through each of the Caps' 14 straight wins here.

Whether you made it to Verizon Center or not, aren't you glad this game didn't get postponed?

I heard people afterward calling today's 5-4 overtime win the best regular-season game in Capitals history. Because I haven't seen each and every last one of them, I can't say whether it was or wasn't. But it's got to be in the conversation.

Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau said the team would not be practicing on Monday but that the players shouldn't necessarily consider the day off as a reward for their 5-4 overtime win against Pittsburgh.

It's more about rest and recovery for a team that has played three games in four days, including Friday's 5-2 victory over Atlanta just hours after the blizzard began in the metro area. That was Washington's second of back-to-back games.

The Capitals are scheduled to practice again on Tuesday before departing for Montreal, where they play on Wednesday. That begins a three-game road trip for Washington leading up to the NHL's two-week break for the Olympics.

Despite the below-capacity crowd and a slow start for the Caps, defenseman Mike Green said today's 5-4 overtime win over Pittsburgh had a postseason feel.

"It felt like a playoff game," he said. "Not like a regular-season game. They came out really strong. You can't expect anyone to be tired or not, but we had heard [the Penguins] had come in late. They came out flying, and it took us a while to get going."

After the win, Coach Bruce Boudreau had no shortage of praise for his players, including goalie Jose Theodore, who made 31 saves and got his career-high 10th straight win.

"Theodore played great," Boudreau said. "Couldn't do anything on the first two, I don't think, you know, [Sidney] Crosby's goals, and then there were bang-bang goals in front of the net. A sign of a good goaltender, to me, is when it's tied at the end or you're up by a goal and somebody can preserve that one-goal lead and preserve it so it gives you an opportunity to win it. And he did."