Ovie and the Caps, quite literally, got off to a flying start in Boston.(AP Photo/Winslow Townson) Capitals 4, Bruins 1: It’s been a rough few months for D.C. sports — a summer of futility at Nationals Park, the Wizards’ dreadful season, Georgetown missing the tournament, the Redskins losing to the Lions, and so on, and so on. Will the Capitals be the messianic force that leads us out of the dark times? If they…

Who would have thought that adding former MVP and three time Stanley Cup winner Sergei Fedorov would help a Caps team on the playoff bubble? Who could have predicted that picking up Christobal Huet, last year’s NHL leader in save percentage, would make the team noticeably better? If you could have told us that adding these two preeminent veterans without giving up any professional players in return would make a big difference, then we’d like…

>> The Black Cat’s backstage is going to be pumping out the punk noise tonight as Antelope stops by, with Thank You and The Andalusians. $8, 9 p.m. >> DC Scores, a local nonprofit that provides innovative after-school programming to Washington kids, is hosting its 10th Annual Poetry Slam tonight. The event will feature 300 of the District’s public elementary and middle school students competing for the coveted Golden Mic trophy — obviously it…

George Mason capped a successful holiday week by beating South Carolina yesterday to take third-place in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla. Will Thomas paced the Patriots with 22 points and 11 rebounds, solidifying his place on the All-Tournament team. George Mason kicked off their tournament with an 87-77 win over 18th-ranked Kansas State. John Vaughan’s 21 points led the team, which put all five starters in double figures. Folarin Campbell’s 25 points made…

>> The video above gives a pretty great perspective of last night’s bedlam in G-town. This UCLA alumna is more than a little dismayed at the bandwagon fans she’s encountered all over D.C. today. At least we can all agree it’s unacceptable to root for Florida or Ohio State. Go Bruins! [Deadspin] >> Don’t think we’re ignoring the call for a new slogan for D.C. that went out over the weekend. On the contrary,…

Funniest thing — we met Dave from Monopoli at Warehouse Next Door on Friday evening and he told us a story about a Boston band called Two Man Advantage who wear Bruins jerseys and random bits of hockey gear for their shows. Try as we may’ve, we couldn’t convince Dave that Monopoli should follow suit in a local equivalent, and when he sees the Caps new uniforms, he’s definitely not going to go for…

Tonight the Capitals will face the decisive game of their season. After weeks of injury troubles and youthful inconsistencies, the team finds itself in position to drop from twelfth in the East down to fourteenth, all in one night. The Capitals, who finished near the bottom of the league last season and retooled over the summer to perform better this season, are in a position to slip behind the Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins, who…