Caps Season Preview: The Future Is Later

The Rookies
The Caps' best rookie will obviously be Simeon Varlamov, who will start about forty games. The team will play up a "rivalry" between Varlamov and veteran Jose Theodore, who will also start about forty games. In fact, neither goalie is in good enough shape to start more than half of a season and have anything left for the playoffs, so the plan to share evenly already exists. The only interesting wrinkle could be if goalie of the future Michal Neuvirth gets an extended call-up from Hershey, further democratizing the situation.

Brandon Sugden, currently with the Hershey Bears, will probably be the most popular rookie when he is called up -- Sugden allegedly fought to a draw with Donald Brashear in a preseason away game. As for sleepers, watch for defenseman Tyler Sloan, one of the few newbies that ended up with a roster spot despite tough competition at the defensive positions.

The Players On The Upswing
The biggest offensive improvements will come from Chris Clark, Brian Pothier and the aforementioned Morrison. If asked what they're doing differently from last year, Clark and Pothier will say "playing hockey," and Morrison will probably chime in, "playing with both my knees." This will of course be remembered ironically across the blogotubes around the time of the Olympic break, when at least one of his knees goes back out.

The Phone Booth, the League, and the Olympics
Speaking of the Olympics, the Caps will send at least four players to the Olympics, and all four will likely come back dog-tired and look somewhat bored by the pace of regular season professional hockey for the next few months. This will give a starless team like Florida a chance to inch back up in the standings, likely making for an interesting battle down the stretch. Hey, at least they will only have to travel across the country to Vancouver this time.

And yes, the Verizon Center will continue to charge too much for refreshments that continue not to include extensive healthy or vegetarian options, and hockey jerseys will continue to cost more than a complete set of baseball equipment. As far as the league goes, Gary Bettman will continue to incrementally grow the game of hockey in the South and will continue to be reviled by fans of hockey in Canada and fans of hockey with fights. Not much changing there.

The Most Popular Caps Haircut
More fans will rock the Mike Green mohawk come postseason than the Varly mullet; that is, unless Ovechkin or Laich decide to go with a fro – then all bets are off.

The Southeast Division
The Southeast will once again feature some poor hockey teams. This isn't because the other teams in the division don't each have a few very talented forwards, a couple of respectable defensemen or a solid goalie who can shut down any team in the league when he's on. It's because other than the Hurricanes, no team in the Southeast has the depth to withstand the number of injuries they face in a typical NHL season. For the Panthers and Thrashers, their key injury risk is with their goalies, while the Lightning's big duo of Lecavalier and St. Louis aren't getting any younger or healthier, no matter how much they're getting paid. Only Carolina built a team deep enough, with veterans playing different styles, to regularly withstand the physical setbacks inherent to an 82 game season. That said, we don't know how they consistently pull off such a trick, when the average age on their roster tends to hover in slow, lazy circles, and doesn't have feathers on its head.

If the Caps are lucky enough to catch these teams on their predictable off-nights, they will have no trouble repeating as division champs.

The Chances Of A Parade Down Pennsylvania Avenue
We must play it safe and bet that the Caps will once again finish this year in the top half of the East, but once again fall short in the playoffs. A recurring cause of their imperfection is that their second-most expensive player (Nylander) will once again remain a non-factor, at least long enough to minimize the salary-cap space the Caps have available to bring up their more expensive young players from Hershey, let alone make any significant addition at the trade deadline.

The best thing the Caps can hope to do is to win the Stanley Cup, and it's certainly possible that the Caps can get to the Finals this year based on the experience of this team as a unit – especially if Varlamov can grow enough during the regular season and top last postseason's breakthrough performance. And if you ask the team, they'll happily tell you this is their goal.

If you ask us, though, this is not their year because they don't have a dependable goalie or enough great defensemen to neutralize their vulnerabilities.

The Players' Aspirations
Green hopes to improve on special teams: "I know that power play and penalty kill are one of our most important, and for our goalie to have a good save percentage. I think we could for sure. Maybe have to work on our penalty killing a little bit."

Steckel meanwhile, has a want for silverware, and not just the Cup. When asked what he'd like to see the Caps lead the league in, the center replied, "hopefully, it's points. We'd like to win the President's Cup. Realistically, I think a good goal for us to reach again would probably be goals scored."

The Fruits Of Success
All in all, after a successful season during which fans are pampered and appreciated, the Caps will become the most popular sports franchise in D.C. – until the Redskins start winning again, which could happen next week or not 'till 2012. In any case, drop the puck already!