This weekend the Capitals won their first two games under new head coach Bruce Boudreau. WashingtonCaps.com Senior Writer Mike Vogel announced that Boudreau had turned the team around by fixing the power play. This is true, but Vogel writes that he fixed it by “promoting Nicklas Backsrrom (sic) and Mike Green to the first unit and moving Alex Ovechkin up to his more customary forward spot from the point, where he had been stationed for the first 21 games of the season.”

The Capitals have certainly been bad this year, and they may have driven many to drink, but we’re surprised to see a team employee completely forget the beginning of this season. He must have drank something tasty to forget that, other than Boyd Gordon and Dave Steckel who stayed on the checking line and first penalty killing unit, and Eric Fehr who stayed injured, no other Capital played the same role for all of the first twenty-one games. Fact is, the Caps started out with three straight victories, thanks largely to a first power play unit that starred Mike Green on the left point and Alex Ovechkin at his customary position of left wing. Recently dismissed head coach Glen Hanlon moved Ovechkin to the point only recently, as a desperate attempt to cope with a prolonged injury to Alexander Semin.

Nicklas Backstrom started out the season on the team’s second power play unit with fellow Swedish center Michael Nylander there to mentor him. Backstrom is a rookie; the team brought him along slowly until he got his bearings. In recent games, Backstrom has gone to the net more and started scoring goals. Therefore it made sense to give him some more time with the man advantage, and Hanlon had been gradually increasing his opportunities.