Written by DCist contributor Eli Resnick

Last year’s Washington Capitals were bad at everything. This year’s team, while still decidedly bad at many things, has some distinctly strong aspects. For instance: they ice-skate very quickly; they have several decent offensive players and a loaded power play; and, oh yeah, they’re insanely tough. We’re not just talking about a team loaded with Hanson Brothers indiscriminately pouring violence on opponents, teammates and fans alike. We’re talking about a team full of confident, swaggering destructive force.

This became a little more obvious to the public after last week’s game with Atlanta, which yielded an hour’s worth of penalties in its last two minutes and led to suspensions to the Caps’ Brian Sutherby and Donald Brashear. It became even more obvious when, during those suspensions to two of the toughest Capitals, defenseman John Erskine, recently recalled to the team from the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears, held his own in a fight with former unofficial NHL heavyweight champion Chris Simon. Simon won by a knockdown in a fight where each player landed a good six or seven solid blows to the other’s head. The twist is the Simon didn’t actually knock Erskine down. Rather, the old soldier took a page from Mr. Miyagi’s book and sidestepped a roundhouse punch that would have otherwise taken his head off, letting Erskine fly right past him and land face-first on the ice.