The good: The Capitals have re-signed one of their key components, agreeing to a four year, 21 million dollar contract with Mike Green:

The Washington Capitals have agreed to terms with restricted free agent defenceman Mike Green.
Sources tell TSN it’s a four year deal with an average annual salary of $5.25 million.

Despite the cries of some GMs in training voicing their opinion on Huet and the Caps, in fact, aren’t that far apart, I’m told. But, as you know, a deal isn’t a deal until it’s signed. If one is struck, look for it to be three-years, as previously reported, in the neighborhood of $5 million per. That’s a lot of money, but the Caps are comfortable with Huet and vice versa.TSN’s comments sections, Green’s contract is a good one for the Capitals: it’s less than ten percent of the new salary cap and more than a fair price given this statistic pointed out by TSN in the same article:

Green, a first round pick by the Capitals in 2004, had 18 goals and 56 points in 82 games last season. The 18 goals led all NHL defencemen, making Green the youngest player to accomplish that feat since Paul Coffey in 1981-82.

The bad: The Capitals still haven’t agree to a contract with Cristobal Huet, despite continued insistence that talks are going well:

Huet and the Caps, in fact, aren’t that far apart, I’m told. But, as you know, a deal isn’t a deal until it’s signed. If one is struck, look for it to be three-years, as previously reported, in the neighborhood of $5 million per. That’s a lot of money, but the Caps are comfortable with Huet and vice versa.

If those numbers are accurate, it’d be surprising to see Huet land anywhere other than Washington. A three-year deal is perfect for the team and Huet is certainly worth five million a year.

Lastly, the sad news:

…the latest on Brian Pothier is neither particularly encouraging (from a hockey standpoint) nor surprising: “Running, weights and skating are a long way off for now, but Pothier is excited that his mind is strong and his body is, albeit slowly, following.”

And while that’s good news in terms of his cognitive skills and whatnot, it’s nearly gut-wrenching to read that a guy who one year ago was among the best-conditioned men in the world was bed-ridden for a week not long ago because he tried to jog a couple of blocks.

Even though they have been eliminated, there’s still a decent among of news coming out of the Capitals’ camp today:

• Nicklas Backstrom was announced as one of the finalists for the Calder Trophy today. Not surprisingly, the other finalists were Chicago rookies Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Each has a knock on them: the two Blackhawks have the potential to cancel one another out and Backstrom suffers from the “anyone would have a good year playing with Ovechkin” attitude. I personally think Backstrom deserves the trophy because he has the best all-around game at this point. Kane is an offensive force, but is unpolished on defense and Toews is a very good defender and physical player, but he doesn’t have the offensive skill to make the kids of plays Kane and Backstrom can.
• Olaf Kolzig has taken his nameplate off his locker and skipped a mandatory team meeting. To me, this suggest Kolzig doesn’t consider himself a part of the team any longer. Guess it’s time to open those contract negotiations with Cristobal Huet and try and get him signed before the Capitals end up taking a chance on Ray Emery.
• The defense situation is starting to get complicated: Brian Pothier’s career may be finished and Steve Eminger is expected to get a qualifying offer. Hopefully Pothier does what’s best for himself and his family in the long term, even if it isn’t the best for his NHL career. As for Eminger, the Caps should bring him back. He’s better than John Erskine and is more consistent and has more offensive upside than Milan Jurcina. A defense corps of Mike Green, Tom Poti, Shaone Morrisonn, Steve Eminger and some combination of Jurcina, Karl Alzner and Sami Lepisto sounds pretty good to me (especially if the Capitals adress their need for a physical defense-first defenseman as well).
• The covert operations have ended for this season and the Caps have subsequently let the cat out of the bag on injuries. Per Tarik El-Bashir: “Boudreau said that defenseman Shaone Morrisonn played the past two weeks with broken jaw, which made it tough for him to eat. He also said Mike Green was hampered with hip pointer (suffered in Game 6) and a foot injury last game, and that Boyd Gordon had a torn hamstring in the playoffs. Boudreau also said Ovechkin was suffering from a nagging injury, which is why he didn’t practice for the last month of the regular season.”

Lastly, for now, I’ll leave you with this quote from Matt Bradley, which sums up how most Capitals fans are probably feeling today:

“It’s going to take a while for this to sink in. What we did this season was good, I guess, but we still could have gone a lot further in this.”

…or: Why the Caps Might Turn Things Around. Okay, maybe that’s not best title, but I really like those ‘or’ titles, you know? Like Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb.

Anyhow, per Tarik at Capitals Insider Brian Pothier will be watching tonight’s game from the press box. Boudreau is no joke - he clearly expects the team to win and man, is it refreshing. I still think Hanlon did a great job when he was here but his “Aw, shucks, it’s okay, we all make mistakes, let’s just go out and try to do better next time” attitude, which was perfect for a rebuilding team, wouldn’t suffice for situations like this. Boudreau has clearly brought a little instant respectability with the way he holds players accountable, demands they play their best and expects to win.

Hanlon’s buddy-buddy attitude and constant encouragement were great for a team full of players trying to find their way in the NHL who needed to go out and play relaxed every night. Now, the team is not so young and most of the players have enough NHL experience that they ought to be able to step up and have more expected of them without “gripping the stick too tight” as the expression goes.

I’m not exactly sure why it is that so many Caps fans like to scapegoat Brian Pothier.

The Caps chat with Post beat writer Tarik El-Bashir yielded another example:

Round Hill, Va.: In regards to the previous question about Pothier, isn’t he protected by the new CBA and that is why he is not being sent down to the Bears?

Tarik El-Bashir: Are serious? The Bears? Pothier is not going anywhere.

Just to clarify Pothier is not “protected by the new CBA”. I’m not sure what that means exactly, but unless a player has a no-trade clause they can be traded and unless a player has a no-movement clause they can be sent to the AHL. Verteran players would have to clear waivers first, but they can still be sent down (see: Clymber, Ben).

As Tarik noted elsewhere Pothier, prior to the game against the Hurricanes, Pothier was tied for the team lead in points by a defensemen with nine and actually led the team with a +4 +/- rating.

I don’t think Pothier is great by any means. He’s a fine depth defenseman and decent guy to have on the point on the second powerplay unit and is a solid NHLer as long as he plays within his abilities, who was overmatched by how much he was asked to do last year.