Five things: High-octane Caps trying to take game one step higher

If the judge who just ruled Sergei Fedorov's $60 million claim against a former associate was legitimate had made that decision earlier this summer, the veteran Russian might have accepted the money offered by the Washington Capitals instead of signing for much more with a team back home.

Thing is, the Capitals probably won't feel the absence of the one-time Hart Trophy winner, who will be 40 before the year ends and whose value to Washington turned out to be more intangible than practical after he arrived at the 2008 trade deadline.

In the Russian league, Fedorov will make about three times the salary the Capitals could fit under the cap, but there he'll miss out on a chance to be with the NHL's most exciting team as it takes another step toward hockey's biggest prize.

The Capitals already looked like a serious Stanley Cup contender last season with Alexander Ovechkin en route to a second consecutive MVP and young players like Mike Green, Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin proving they're all-star caliber talents. And it's fair to say Washington is no less a threat now, despite a stunning Game 7 shellacking by the eventual Cup champs from Pittsburgh in the second round.

Funny thing is the Game 7 result could have been very different had Ovechkin scored on an early breakaway when it was still scoreless. Pittsburgh struck back quickly and caused the Capitals to implode, but there was likely a lesson in there for a young, and perhaps overconfident, team about what it takes to go deep in the playoffs.

Defensman Mike Green is great in the offensive end, but the Caps could use more on the blue line. (Getty Images)

The talent is there for the Caps to go far because it starts with having the incomparable Ovechkin in the lineup. He's a force all by himself and the trigger for an offense Washington relies on to succeed. The Capitals make no apologies for their run-and-gun style of play, even if it leaves a defense with built-in challenges and the goaltenders more vulnerable than necessary at times, because it works for them. And it certainly makes them fun to watch, probably even for a guy like Fedorov who will be thousands of miles away.

Here are five things to know about the Capitals.

1. Jose Theodore will head into the new season as Washington's No. 1 goalie. Sure that's hard to believe considering the veteran appeared to lose his job to rookie Semyon Varlamov during the playoffs, but that's coach Bruce Boudreau's story and he's sticking to it. There's some logic to it considering the 21-year-old Varlamov still has some things to learn and won't have the adrenaline rush that comes from being in the playoffs, and because Theodore is in the last year of his contract. That tends to be a good motivator -- it pushed Theodore into the best season with Colorado a couple of years back -- and if it has that effect, it means Washington will get some quality goaltending from its veteran and a chance to showcase him for a possible trade.

2. Alexander Ovechkin led the league in goals and was second in total points last season, which made his case for another Hart Trophy pretty strong, but look deeper into his numbers to understand just how much of an impact he had on Washington's success. The Capitals were third in the league in scoring and 19th in goals against, so their offense was obviously critical to them. And Ovechkin generally had a hand in it, scoring a league-best 20.9 percent of the team's goals while being involved in 41 percent of Washington's overall offense.

3. Getting Ovechkin first overall in the 2004 draft was like hitting the lottery for the Capitals, who didn't do so badly later when they made Green the 29th pick. And grabbing Semin 13th overall two years earlier hasn't worked out badly either for the Caps. Much of the current team, though, has been constructed through free agency and trades. But Washington is starting to develop some talent in its own system, evidenced by last season's AHL title by the Capitals top farm team in Hershey.

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4. With Fedorov and Viktor Kozlov now plying their trade in the Kontinental Hockey League, Washington's Russian flavor has been greatly reduced. Instead, the team has brought in a couple of North American veterans in Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison to change the dynamics a little bit. Knuble is a 37-year-old veteran who is tenacious enough to get in to the dirty areas and can chip in with a respectable number of goals as well. Morrison, at 34, is a few years removed from his best seasons centering Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi in Vancouver, but still able to be a productive second-line and power play center.

5. Mike Green was the first defenseman to score at least 30 goals in a season since Kevin Hatcher in 1991-92, and it earned the 23-year-old a Norris Trophy nomination and an invitation to Team Canada's Olympic orientation camp last month in Calgary. But Green, who is entering his third full NHL season, lost out in the Norris voting to Boston's Zdeno Chara, and the feeling up north is that he'll be bypassed when Canada's final roster is chosen because of the flaws in his defensive game. He's not the only one with those kinds of problems in Washington, where a mistake-prone group of blue liners may be the biggest thing preventing the Capitals from being a truly elite team.