After two straight losses knocked the Capitals five points out of a playoff spot at the trade deadline, General Manager George McPhee pulled off four deals to give his team the strength to make the playoffs. Then, last night, with all four new players in other cities making travel arrangements, the Caps put together a great team effort to beat the Minnesota Wild.

Alleged puck-bunny favorite Brooks Laich stayed hot and continued scoring with two goals and two assists. Shaone Morrisonn got his first goal in 76 games. Matt Bradley and David Steckel both won fights. Olaf Kolzig played an extremely sound positional game, helping Washington beat one of the best of the West.

It's lucky for them that they worked so hard. All but Morrisonn will find it much harder to get ice time this Friday when the team is joined by all-star goalie Christobal Huet and forwards Matt Cooke, Alexandre Giroux and Sergei Fedorov. For those of you who follow hockey or were simply alive in the nineties, that is not a typo. The Caps have acquired Sergei Fedorov.

Photograph of Olaf Kolzig by rjv541

Fedorov may be the oldest player in the Capitals lineup, and twice as old as Nicklas Backstrom, but he also brings three more Stanley Cup victories to the table (three) than the rest of the team combined. He has played in as many all star games as all other current Capitals. For the record, the rest of the team only matches Fedorov's five all-star games with the addition of Huet, who represented Montreal last year.

Fedorov has played in a defensive role for the last several seasons, but the Capitals have struggled to find a third forward for their top offensive line, which features longtime Fedorov fan Alexander Ovechkin and rookie of the year candidate Backstrom. Both Backstrom and Fedorov play center, but each has played right wing before, on lines with Michael Nylander and Steve Yzerman, respectively.

According to the team, Huet will challenge Kolzig for the team's starting job. The Frenchman is five years younger, and is currently among the league's top twenty-five goaltenders in wins, goals against average, save percentage and shutouts. Kolzig is ahead of Huet in wins. He has 22 in 48 games played. Huet has 21 in 38. Both will be unrestricted free agents at the end of the season, so both will want to earn playing time to audition for contracts for next year, either in Washington or elsewhere. Kolzig is a team leader and a class act, but Huet is an incredible talent playing in his prime.

Most amazingly of all, the Capitals have not given up any significant part of their future plans to add this extra firepower for their stretch run. They reacquired Giroux for hard-working, non-drafted former-ECHLer Joe Motzko. They picked up Cooke for fan-favorite Matt Pettinger, who used to play the same kind of game as Cooke, but hasn't lately. They got Huet for a second round pick and Fedorov for Theo Ruth.

Ruth was the third defenseman the Caps picked in this past summer's amateur draft, behind Karl Alzner and Josh Godfrey. While he may well end up playing in the NHL, we will readily admit to Googling his name a moment ago, after reading this. Alzner and Godfrey, on the other hand, we remember because they helped Canada win last summer's Summit Series over Russia, with Alzner taking home honors as the MVP of game one.