Caps Briefing: Getting the Message

Knuble, in a different room after the game, told reporters that it was good to get two points in the standings, and that it was good not to let Florida get those two points. He said with the other teams that lost tonight, it meant a lot to stay ahead of those teams and increase the distance. By minimizing his own contributions and focusing on the meaning the coach assigned for this contest, Knuble showed just why he is a great veteran leader in the NHL. By scoring two goals and adding two assists, he showed why he is a great player.

I asked Knuble about the play in the game against Columbus in which he singlehandedly controlled the puck in the offensive zone for 30 seconds of a penalty-kill -- drawing a standing ovation from the entire Verizon Center crowd.

He pulled his tape off his socks, smiling dismissively.

"You don't plan for that," he said. "You try to get 5 seconds or 10 seconds." Then he pointed out that he hurt the team later that night by taking a penalty in the third period.

The Capitals have maintained for years that they are building a team of leaders and people of good character. With his unshakable focus on the meaning of each game to the team's success, it's easy to see why Mike Knuble is here to lead this kind of a team.

Other highlights of the night included two goals for Tomas Fleischmann and one for Mathieu Perreault. Fleischmann continued to show the benefits of the upper-body conditioning he focused on while enduring leg surgery to remove a blood-clot over the summer.

After scoring his second goal of the night, Fleischmann stayed on the ice for the next faceoff and lined up close against Florida right wing Michal Repik. When the puck came to Repik, Fleischmann didn't try to rely on foot-speed to race around to it as he might have last year. Instead, he focused on knocking Repik over before the puck arrived and let his teammates recover it. It was the kind of play one would expect from a veteran defensive specialist -- not a young, small offensive player like Fleischmann.

Speaking of small offensive players, Perreault had some terrific plays down low leading up to his goal. He moved the puck confidently and made the kind of play from behind the goal line that helped linemates Chris Clark and Eric Fehr look as offensively dangerous as they should.

Last night's win was the second time this season the Caps have come from behind when trailing after two periods. Panthers' coach Peter DeBoer was impressed with his own team, saying, "If you were to draw a blueprint of how to win on the road, it would have been this game." Clearly DeBoer sees the same risks for his club's confidence that Boudreau hoped to establish, but the Panthers also kept the game even until midway through the final period.

The Caps won through a complete team effort. Only two of their forwards and three of their defensemen failed to register a point. Quintin Laing even scored his second goal of the year, setting a career high. Though Laing usually focuses on shot-blocking, lately he has grown more and more confident in the offensive zone. The Caps are a stronger team when 72% of their players produce offensively.

Panthers Defenseman Bryan McCabe summed up the net effect: "They are a very skilled team with or without Alex [Ovechkin]. They're one of the best offensive teams in the league, and they showed that tonight."