The Rumor Mill

Per the Globe and James Mirtle:

According to multiple sources, free agent centre Eric Belanger has a one-year deal in waiting to return to the Washington Capitals. The contract is believed to be a slight raise over the $1.75-million he made last season, to $1.85-million.

What's interesting is that he has been told not to announce where he's going, leading to Belanger telling the French language newspaper Le Soleil on Wednesday that he is about to sign but can't say where due to the fact the team he's headed to is working on a trade.

Washington apparently does not want to announce they've signed Belanger in order to help first complete another deal, potentially to move out a forward and bring in a defenceman. I'm told that one player the Caps are looking to trade is 26-year-old Tomas Fleishmann, who had 23 goals and 51 points in a bit of a breakout season last year and signed a one-year, $2.6-million deal this summer.

The rumor is the Caps are deep in talks with Brian Burke and the Toronto Maple Leafs to land Tomas Kaberle. Kaberle is certain he will be traded despite his no trade clause he has with the Toronto organization. In return, Fleischmann has been dropped in as bait. As a result, Belanger can't say he is signed until the deal is finalized.

Unfortunately, there are also rumors that 19 other teams are in trade talks with Burke for the 11 year veteran defenseman. Burke also has struck down the rumors in the very same article:

"We are not in discussions with the Capitals about Tomas Kaberle," Burke said. "Not once."

Hmm.

Another rumor circling the rounds concerning the Caps is a possible trade with the Oilers. While this one has far less steam and less national media attention. The trade would include Fleischmann and a prospect for Sheldon Souray. Souray wanted to be traded after the Oilers finished out of the playoff race last spring and it may have set the organization looking for the best offer before the season starts to depart ways with the hard shooting defenseman.

Souray's contract is for another two years with the Oilers at $4.5 million a season. Close to the same price as Kaberle who is his final year of his contract with Toronto at $4.25 million.

Something to chew on.

Editor's note: Washington Post and other sources have confirmed that Eric Belanger will resign with the Washington Capitals for a one year deal around $1.85 million. The announcement will not come until the Caps finish making their roster moves. Not sure what the wait is for, considering that sources have said that the resigning will happen whether a trade happens or not.

Caps Finish With 121

Capitals 3, Bruins 4 OT/SO (0-2)
Game Summary

For a game that really did not mean much in the standings there was plenty of fireworks between these two Eastern Conference foes. The Washington Capitals would come up just short and Alex Ovechkin would miss out on any hardware for the regular season as they drop one in a shoot out against the Boston Bruins 4-3.

Alex Semin scored to reach 40 goals on the season, a career high for the Caps' forward. Capitals also got goals from Eric Belanger and Mike Knuble. While the Caps had the lead twice (1-0 and 3-2) but some break downs in defense and the Bruins new found confidence in offense were able to match the Caps with some big goals by Micheal Ryder and Marco Strum.

The real fireworks came just 2:43 into the game, just twenty seconds after Semin's goal to give the Caps the lead, when Jason Chimera ran Tim Thomas. Thomas returned the favor with a few jabs of his blocker into Chimera's face. The Bruins goaltender would draw a double minor for the punches and Chimera would get a misconduct later when he went back to talk to Thomas about the rest of his blocker that was still in Chimera's face.

That seemed to wake Thomas up and the Caps seemed to struggle after that encounter. The Bruins seemed embolden by the incident. The result was a gutsy game by the Bruins and a well earned 2 points won in the shoot out.

It was clear the game didn't mean much for the Capitals' head coach Bruce Boudreau. He put Boyd Gordon and Matt Bradley out to take the shots against the Bruins goaltender. Both failed to score, as the Bruins got scores from David Krejci and Miroslav Satan.

Ovechkin came up short on both the Rocket Richard Trophy and the Art Ross Trophy as he was shut out from getting a single point or goal. Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos would tie for the Rocket and Henrik Sedin will win the Ross.

The Capitals finish the marathon season with a franchise record 121 points, the President's Trophy for best regular season record in the league (a franchise first), franchise record road wins at 24 and the first team outside the original six to get 120 points in a season.

It was a season of firsts as the Caps finish first in team goals (318), first in the league in wins (54), first in the league on the power play (25.2%, the Caps have never led in the NHL), first in the league in road goals (157), first in power play goals on the road (38), first in team +/- (+74, the closest team in second is Chicago with +46), first in Goals For average of 3.8.

The Capitals also found out who they will face the Montreal Canadiens. Preveiw of that match up will come soon.

This was a great season by the Washington Capitals. But turning that success into playoff success depends on a great deal for them. If Jose Theodore continues to hold true to form, the Caps would benefit from a tighter defensive crew. There is not much to complain about though, since the goal differential of +85.

Theodore Shuts Down Rangers

Capitals 2, Rangers 0
Game Summary

It wasn't pretty, but the Washington Capitals get by on a 5 on 3 power play goal by Eric Fehr and a great passing play that ended with Eric Belanger getting his first goal as a Capital. The Rangers couldn't get anything going offensively giving Jose Theodore his first shutout of the year as the Caps down them 2-0.

The Caps really had a problem with the Rangers shot blocking. Instead, the Caps' shooters found themselves looking for the pass before the shot. It lead to a lot of broken plays. But the Rangers couldn't stay out of the penalty box and the Caps would score the game winner on a 5 on 3 power play. It was scored on the break late in the two man advantage. Tomas Fleischmann's pass to the slot was deflected off a Ranger stick, but it still found its way to Fehr's stick and he tapped it high over Auld's shoulder.

The second goal would be a complete break down by the Ranger defense. The Caps entered the zone with a cross ice pass by Brooks Laich to Alex Semin. Semin returned the pass inside the zone spreading the Ranger defense and allowing Belanger to get in behind them. Laich found him open in the slot and Belanger scored on Auld's five hole. The Ranger goaltender was unable to react fast enough to the play.

"It feels great to get it out of the way," Belanger said of scoring his first as a Capital and wearing the hard hat in the locker room. "[It takes] a lot of pressure off my shoulders and now I can just play."

While the win keeps the Capitals home win streak intact at 13 games, it's their top scorer's funk that has the rest of us worried. It is nice that Alex Ovechkin's lack of offensive hasn't hindered the Caps yet. But his scoring drought has given Sidney Crosby the scoring lead in the league.

It seems that both Ovechkin and Nick Backstrom have not gotten over their post Olympic hang over. Ovechkin would finish with seven shots and no points in this game. His partner Backstrom would not score a point and struggle in the face off circle winning only 8 of 20 draws.

"They are just off by a half a second," Bruce Boudreau said of his two star players. "Their timing since the Olympics has just been a little off. But you know they are going to catch on and it's going to happen sooner or later."

The Caps made plenty of mistakes. Shaone Morrisonn turned the puck over in the slot to Branden Dubinsky. Theodore was there with the save, sticking his blocker out after Dubinsky deked to the backhand. It seemed when the Caps turned it over, Theodore played well enough to make up for it. Since January 13, Theo has been better than just good enough, posting a 12-0-2 record, 2.38 goals against average and a .929 save percentage.

"We played a solid game," Theodore said to reporters after the game. "During the break we were talking alot about solid defensive hockey and in the playoffs that is how you are going to win games."

"I though [Theodore] was great," Boudreau said. "I thought by far he was our best player."

Night Of The Garbage Men

Capitals 5, Lightning 4
Game Summary

Who says the Southeast Division is boring. The Capitals insert the new guys and the Lightning take advantage of a team that played the night before. The result, a 5-4 win for the good guys and a couple of grinders makes the difference.

Mike Knuble and Scott Walker were two players meant to give the Caps a better presence in front of the net. The pair of them contributed 2 goals each. Even if you do everything to keep Alex Ovechkin off the score sheet, it is the grinders that add the offensive spark the Caps needed.

Knuble has been hot, scoring 18 points in his last 15 games (11g, 7a). He would score two in this game, his 24th and 25th of the season. Eric Fehr scored his 16th of the season, a shot that fooled Mike Smith and hit top corner.

The Caps got into some penalty trouble late in the second period giving the Lightning a prolonged 4 on 3 power play. It would be the shot blocking heroics by Nick Backstrom who was with out a stick to stall the Bolts advantage. He blocked two big point shots and when Semyon Varlamov covered the puck, Backstrom got a pretty loud ovation for his efforts from the hometown faithful.

But give the Lightning credit, they didn't sit back. Vincent Lacavlier seemed to get the big goals when the Bolts needed most. The Caps, maybe a bit road wary, seemed to let up in the third. A few defensive miss reads kept the game interesting before Walker sealed the deal for the Caps. But we will get into the newcomers in a bit.

Varlamov was good in places. It was mostly a let down by his defensive squad and he had little chance of making the save. He did get some help at the beginning from his defensive squad, but the goals the Bolts were able to score Varly was left high and dry.

Newbie Capital Walker may have come to this team with only 3 goals this season, but he scored two big goals and shook off his offensive drought he had in Carolina. It made Eric Belanger and Joe Corvo's arrival seem less enthusiastic. But, overall, the new guys did well for the Caps.

The newcomers were learning on the fly, so I expected not to see too much from them. They didn't have a practice with the full team, only a morning skate. Walker seemed to fit right into the Caps aggressive forecheck and he quickly found a home in front of the net to gobble up rebounds and send them past the Lightning goaltender.

Belanger looks like he needs more adjustment time, but he showed some promise. He played on a line with Eric Fehr and Tomas Fleischmann. It was a quick line, showing a lot of spark for a third line. Belanger would finish with a plus 1 and a few really sneaky shots that just missed the net.

Corvo did not overly stand out, but that might have been a good thing. He was on the ice for two of the Lightning goals, one on the penalty kill and the other was the tying goal by Steven Stamkos. He saw some power play time too. He looked okay to me, was solid defensively.

Milan Jurcina was the only "newcomer" not on the ice. He was a scratch, but I suppose we will see him in the lineup shortly.

With a day off, it will be interesting to see if the new players find new spots in the lines as Bruce Boudreau has time to teach their system and the boys work out the kinks.

The Caps jump out to a 14 point lead in the east over the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens are looking to chase down the Caps with their improvements at the trade deadline. The two teams meet up later this month.

GM Adds Plenty Of Depth

George McPhee had a plan going into this year's trade deadline. Add some depth to get through the playoffs. Injuries played a bit role in the past two post seasons for the Capitals. Forcing younger players to mature much faster than planned.

"I like what we did," McPhee told reports as the dust settled on trade deadline day. "We got better, and deeper, and we didn't give up our future to do it, and we didn't take on any bad contracts to do it, so I was really pleased with the way it went."

What they got were a pair of forwards and a pair of defensemen for a development player, a defenseman and two second rounders, a sixth rounder and a seventh rounder.

The Capitals bolstered their blue line with the return of Milan Jurcina come back from Columbus and big guy Joe Corvo from Carolina. McPhee felt that getting Juice back puts his best shut down pair of Poti and Jurcina back together. Jurcina played solid enough to get a start every night for the Blue Jackets earning him a roster spot on the Slovakian national team at the Olympics in Vancouver.

Joe Corvo will bring a heavy shot to the point and some solid veteran defensive skills back there too. TSN.ca analyst Micheal Peca broke down Corvo's role with the Capitals: "I think Mike Green's going to need some support. You get into the playoffs, as an opposing team you identify certain players that you're going to target and try to affect physically, and I think if Washington has the ability to reduce Green's minutes early on in the playoffs, it'll benefit the team in the long run. I think Corvo's the guy."

With the pair of defensemen, McPhee took on some more grit and veterans up front. Eric Belanger and Scott Walker add some muscle and some set up ability for the Capitals up front.

"Belanger brings us some speed and experience at center ice," Mcphee said of his new centerman. "[It's] the sort of thing we were looking for, and he's also real good on faceoffs."

"We like his experience and his ability to shut people down, he's on pace for probably 18 goals this year, which is fine; he'll help us on our penalty killing. We just got another player who is a hard guy to play against."

"I like Walker because Ovechkin and Semin are going to face a lot of physical attention, come playoff time," Peca said on TSN. "Walker is a great equalizer. He's a guy who will identify the other team's best player and you don't know what's coming."

The Capitals did lose Brian Potheir and development player Oskar Osala. But for the most part, McPhee was able to keep his core of youth together while getting the players he wanted. "We had an untouchable list and we didn't give away any of those players," McPhee explained.

Overall, I give the Caps and GMGM a B. He was successful in adding the depth he needed, but the market wasn't there for better players. He didn't give up anything he couldn't live without and in the end that is probably the most important fact on day's end.

Fitting the new players in will take some time for everyone. But they won't have too much time to think about it since they play a pair of back to back games, then play a game every other night through March. A busy schedule will force the coaching staff to figure it out on the fly.