Remember the beginning of this season, when the Caps were awful, and everybody was about to get fired? Then-coach Glen Hanlon famously summed up the pressure he was under by comparing his situation bitterly to a daring move in the early 1990s by the winningest coach in NHL history. He said, “When you’re Scotty Bowman, you put [Sergei] Fedorov on defense and you’re a genius. Now, when you’re Glen Hanlon if you don’t play the [right] guys the very first day of training camp for the next six months all together, you’re a nitwit.”

Fast forward to this week, and we find new Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau struggling in game three of an unexpected playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers. Emerging offensive defenseman Mike Green is in the penalty box for fighting Scott Hartnell in defense of his linemate Shaone Morrisonn, and Boudreau moved newly acquired 37 year-old center Sergei Fedorov back to defense to keep the attack going. Fedorov looked OK, but failed to salvage victory from the jaws of defeat, and the Caps head into tonight’s game trailing Philadelphia 2-1 in the best of seven series.