Barring either catastrophic injuries or the biggest fall off in production since black Tuesday the Washington Capitals appear to be front runners for some of Hockey’s most impressive Awards.  It appears Alex Ovechkin is a lock for the Hart, Richard and the Pearson awards (again). For those who think Alex the great is slowing down, nothing could be further from the truth. This year we have seen Ovechkin’s game mature beyond just scoring goals. When he is not scoring goals he is hitting everything near him to free up his line mates. He is the first one to get down and block a shot even though everyone has a heart attack when he does. He stands up for his teammates and his overall defensive play has improved dramatically. Ovechkin will have to catch his former line mate and buddy Evgeni Malkin if he wants the Art Ross Trophy but it is certainly possible.  My days of doubting the self described, “Russian Machine” are over. This guy plays the game like he is playing for his dinner and when your best player has that mentality then your team is destined to be successful.

The real surprise is the emergence of Mike Green who surpassed both Nick Lidstrom and Zdeno Chara as the league’s best defenseman stat wise. Chara and Lidstrom are both great players but the stats (plus/minus, points and goals) bare out the fact that Mike Green is having the better season.  Not to mention Green has earned a piece of hockey immortality with an NHL scoring streak that no one can match.  The real surprise here is the plus minus ratings so for those of you that think Mike Green is just an offensive defenseman you are sadly mistaken.

Consider this…Both Green and Ovechkin missed games early in the season. Ovechkin missed a few games due to the illness/death of his grandfather while Mike Green missed a bunch of games due to injury. If Ovechkin and Green played all of the games their numbers would be even better.

Lost in all of this excitement is the steady hand of Coach Bruce Boudreau.  Bruce should get some serious Jack Adams consideration for keeping the Caps near the top of the conference when the Caps had more Hershey Bears (AHL Affiliate) than regulars in the lineup. A grand total of 16 kids have made their NHL debut with the Caps which usually translates into a bottom feeder record. Most of those kids played with Bruce down in Hershey so they produced and were not overwhelmed when called upon in the big league. The results speak for themselves with the Caps in 2^nd place in the conference and one of the deepest teams in the NHL. While you certainly cannot take anything away from the achievements of Todd McLellan, Claude Julien and Mike Babcock, Bruce Boudreau’s accomplishments make him a serious candidate to win back to back Coach of the Year honors.

Despite what happens in the playoffs the Washington Capitals will need to call Lowes or Home Depot because they are going to need a bigger trophy display case.