It's Pens Day, Need I Say More?

The Caps are in Pittsburgh tonight and it would be really easy to stop at that given the history between the teams. But with the Caps laying a big ole egg last night against the Oilers, there's much more to report. The mantra(s): effort and sticking to the game plan -- and the Caps aren't doing either right now.

"A lot of teams in the NHL seem to be winning an awful lot of games with guys being called up [from the minors]," Boudreau said after last night's debacle. "And it seems when you call guys up they do what you ask them to do, verbatim, and they don't get away from it. Sometimes here, players come in and they say, 'Well, I know we're supposed to do it this way, but I like to do it this way.' And consequently you don't have the success you had when you had the guys working hard."

The locker room was barren after the game and it took a while for anybody to emerge. Mike Green was first out, followed by Alex Ovechkin.

"It gets to the point where everybody wants to be the scorer but nobody wants to be the mucker and you're not going to do anything," Boudreau said. "Everybody's waiting for somebody else to do the work. They want to finish."

"When we didn't have the puck instead of being a pressure defense, which we talk about all the time we're waiting," he added. "[People say] 'Aw somebody else will get the puck out to me and I'll go score. But I'm not going to worry about too much checking.' When that happens you're not going to win."

Green and Ovechkin also stressed storming the crease and getting traffic in front of the net.

"Until we can get somebody to the front of the net, really battle and screen the goalie we're not going to get any chances and there's no point in shooting the puck," Green said. "That's why we're passing around the perimeter and hoping somebody else is going to do it."

The interesting part is that Brooks Laich and Chris Clark, the most likely candidates to park themselves in front of the net, only got 1:36 combined (all by Laich) on the extra-man unit and Clark only got 10:29 for the entire game. Although Laich got 18:17, fifth on the team, he was off his game.

As for changes for the Pens game, Brian Helmer is at the Igloo. Corey of the Washington Times writes on his blog that he thinks Helmer will take Karl Alzner's spot but, based on minutes from last night, Milan Jurcina is ensconsed in the dog house and rightfully so after another horrible game. Jurcina only logged 12:31 last night, by far the lowest totals among blueliners. Green was on ice for a whopping 30:06, while Ovie clocked in at 26:05.

One of two things is going to unfold tonight: either the Caps will play the way they need to be successful or they'll keep their tail between their legs and roll over. Here's hoping for the former.