The Hockey Stop

I just witnessed the Washington Capitals suffer perhaps their worst loss in the Alex Ovechkin era with a 7-0 thrashing by the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on a cold, rainy December night in Manhattan. The defeat extended the Caps' losing streak to six games and will inevitably lead to hand wringing by the media and soul searching from the top to bottom in the organization. As a Caps fan, I have not felt this deflated since the Game 7 loss to the Montreal Canadiens after blowing a 3-1 lead in the first round of last year's Stanley Cup playoffs.

Maybe the biggest question this organization has to answer is a structural one. When owner Ted Leonsis and General Manager George McPhee decided to blow up the team and rebuild, they drafted, picked up in free agency and traded for high-flying, offense-first players -- Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, just to name a few. And when the Caps are cruising through the regular season in the weak Southeast Division and goals are coming easy, then the offense first structure looks brilliant. But when the playoffs roll around and offense is at a premium and defense is emphasized, then the house of cards collapses and the Capitals are simply awful. That was evident the past three years in seven-game losses to the Flyers, Penguins and Canadiens. This season, McPhee acknowledged the defensive deficiency when he traded offensive-minded forward Tomas Fleischmann for stay-at-home defenseman Scott Hannan.

Even with Hannan however, the perhaps fatal flaw in the structure of the Capitals is being exposed by an improved Southeast Division. The Atlanta Thrashers and Tampa Bay Lightning are now right on the tail of the Caps in the standings and are threatening to leave the Caps in the dust if the slump continues. And the game tonight against the Rangers exposed every weakness the Caps have been criticized for -- too young, too much offense, not enough defense, not mentally strong, no heart, no killer instinct, no identity, no discipline.

So as the Winter Classic date of January 1st quickly comes up, the Caps are a team in turmoil. It is gut check time to say the least for the team that won the Presidents Trophy last year and has received so much hype and given so much hope to long-suffering Caps fans who have poured their hard-earned money and their hearts out for this team by rocking the red at the Verizon Center every game night after years of disappointment.

We will soon find out the true character of this team at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

And the team they will face is red-hot, having won 12 straight games. And their Captain Sidney Crosby has an 18-game point streak. With their most recent win at Buffalo, the Pens matched a franchise-best by winning their seventh consecutive road game. And Pittsburgh is pulling away from the pack atop the standings with a record of 21-8-2 for 44 points.

It should also be noted that Crosby and the Penguins have already proven themselves by getting to the Stanley Cup Finals three years ago and winning the Cup two years ago. On that magical Cup run they also beat the Caps in a thrilling seven-game series which ended with a 6-2 blowout at Verizon Center (see above for all the reasons why that happened).

So needless to say, as these two proud franchises clash outdoors in front of 65,000 fans and millions watching around the world, it really shouldn't be a contest. The Pens should blow out the Caps. But then again, when these two teams get together you can just throw out win streaks or losing streaks and get ready for one of the fiercest rivalries in all of sports.

NBC's Crosby-Ovechkin Winter Classic preview: