When it comes to defense and goaltending, four Southeast teams rank in the NHL’s bottom 10. (Gerry Broome/AP)

By Allan Muir

Ask any coach and he’ll tell you it’s not how you score that matters, but how many. It’s a pragmatic approach for a sport that judges a winner based on a simple tally rather than the awarding of style points.

But does it also matter who you score against?

That’s the argument being posed this morning on Twitter by some fans and media members who are wondering whether the value of Alex Ovechkin’s stats have to be measured with an eye on the pillowy soft competition he faces in the Southeast Division.

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Adam Oates had to sell Alex Ovechkin on a position switch and a new approach, but the results have been dazzling. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Adam Oates was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2012 on the basis of his 1,079 career assists, the sixth-most ever posted in NHL history. Not a bad case. But his latest helper may be his greatest.

What Oates has accomplished this season with the Washington Capitals is nothing short of miraculous. Sure, Ottawa’s Paul MacLean is getting most of the Jack Adams buzz, but if it wasn’t for plucky, undermanned teams rising up against the odds, we wouldn’t have half the sports movies we do.

We’ve seen that bit before, just like we’ve seen a coach cajole a star player into sacrificing offense for the good of the team. But what Oates has done with Alex Ovechkin, and by extension, the Capitals, is different. This is a rookie coach convincing a veteran superstar that everything he knew was wrong…and that Oates could make it all right.

It wasn’t that long ago that almost everyone (yours truly, included) had downgraded Ovechkin to the mundane status of just another guy. (HACKEL: What’s wrong with Alex Ovechkin?) He was stuck in a creative rut, disinclined to change, and content to simply take what the game gave him. That was a problem for Oates, because no team more accurately reflects its leader than Washington. While Ovi took the easy way, the rest of the Caps took it right along with him.

That led to a slow start. Really slow. By the time Feb. 21 rolled around, this team that was favored to win the Southeast Division had earned just 11 points and was dead last in the NHL. The calls started coming in from the cheap seats for the coach’s head.

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Taylor Hall (right) is now one of the few hockey players that can say they’ve done something better than the Great One. (Dan Riedlhuber/Reuters)

By Allan Muir

A notated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• Was last night’s 4-0 lambasting of the Canucks a preview of things to come for Taylor Hall and the Edmonton Oilers? Hall’s hat trick broke a Gretzky franchise record for fastest from the start of a game, but this was a total team effort. It was the sort of night that makes you wonder if Edmonton should be buyers before Wednesday.

• It was also the sort of night that makes Canucks fans imagine a future without the Sedins. With their contracts expiring at the end of next season, the team’s status as a contender could impact the decision to move forward with or without them.

• Jarome Iginla said his Pittsburgh debut made him feel like a kid again. Meanwhile, the Pens are hoping a date with the oral surgeon is the worst thing to come out of Sidney Crosby’s facial injury yesterday.

• With Iggy off the board, Ryane Clowe is hockey’s most wanted man ahead of the deadline. Wait … zero goals, lingering shoulder injury … what? David Pollak says the Sharks played Clowe’s career highlights on the video board to impress the scouts. Had to do something to obscure his play on the ice, I guess.

• The slumping Boston Bruins looked a little too comfortable as they lost for the fifth time in seven games on Saturday.

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By Allan Muir

How can you tell things are going well for Alex Ovechkin? If he’d had his chin split open for 22 stitches a month ago, he would have kept his reaction to himself.

Now? With six goals and 10 points in his last six games, it’s all grins and giggles for the Great 8. So after taking a puck to the face this morning at practice, he decides to tweet before and after images of the spectacularly gory gash.

Hey, thanks for sharing!

It's hockey ))) hahaha http://t.co/JJiagN7mVk—
Alex Ovechkin (@ovi8) March 28, 2013

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Alex Ovechkin has 15 points in 18 games this season. (Cal Sport Media).

By Allan Muir

If Mike Milbury ever admired Alex Ovechkin, it’s a safe bet that he’s long since allowed his fan club membership to lapse.

The bombastic NBC Sports Network analyst brought his lunchpail to the rink every day as a player, so he’s never had much patience for athletes who appear to get something less than the maximum out of their prodigious natural talents.

Ovechkin has made himself a frequent, and easy, target of Milbury’s wrath over the past couple of seasons. But after a very rough start to 2013, he’s gotten his game back on the right track over the past few games. Not yet up to his previous standard, but you could see the effort, the beginning of a turnaround.

HACKEL: What’s wrong with Alex Ovechkin?

That should have been enough to keep him out of Milbury’s crosshairs during tonight’s broadcast of the Caps/Flyers tilt. But Ovechkin basically loaded both barrels for Mad Mike with a stupefyingly soft performance through two periods.

GALLERY: Best and Worst of Mad Mike Milbury

And in between the second and third, Milbury set upon Ovie with great vengeance and furious anger.

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After a disastrously slow start, things are looking up for Alex Ovechkin and company. (Rob Carr/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

It’s too early…way too early…to suggest that the Washington Capitals are clawing their way out of the deep hole they dug with their disastrous 2-8-1 start.

Even after a calmly efficient 3-0 win over the Hurricanes on Tuesday night, the Caps remain in 14th place in the East, spared residence in the basement only by virtue of two games in hand over the equally slow-out-of-the-gates Sabres.

DATER: Buffalo hits bottom in NHL Power Rankings

But there were signs in that victory, and the one that directly preceded it, that suggest we might want to hold off just a little longer on engraving the tombstone for Washington’s troubled season.

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The enigmatic Alexander Semin has been a model citizen in Carolina so far this season. (Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

Apparently, the internet is shocked — shocked, I tell you! — that Washington Capitals forward Troy Brouwer decided to spill the beans this morning about former teammate Alexander Semin.

I can’t figure out why.

It’s not the timing that’s surprising. Semin is making his first visit to Washington tonight with his new team, the Carolina Hurricanes. Naturally, the return of a player who scored 408 points in 469 games over seven seasons as a Capital will be a talking point.

And it certainly wasn’t what Brouwer said. Because really, he didn’t put anything out there that varied from the widely held opinion that Semin has a somewhat “irregular” competitive drive.

Was it a problem with giving Semin and the ‘Canes some bulletin board material? As if Semin wasn’t already pumped to prove the Caps wrong for letting him skate as a free agent last summer?

No. It’s just like Colonel Jessup said: People can’t handle the truth.

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Braden Holtby is off to a bit of a rocky start (5-6-0, 3.37 GAA, .896 save pct.), but the Capitals still have faith in him. (Paul Bereswill/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Early-season struggles aside, the Washington Capitals believe that Braden Holtby can be their goalie of the future. And they’re giving him two years to prove it.

The team announced early Monday afternoon that it had agreed on an extension with last spring’s playoff hero. Holtby, who was scheduled to become a restricted free agent this summer, will make $1.7 million in 2013-14 and $2 million in 2014-15. (Good on the Caps for not playing coy and simply giving the salary figures in their press release.)

This feels like a smart move by Washington GM George McPhee and a reasonable one by the 23-year-old Holtby. McPhee is taking a cautious approach by limiting the term to two years. If Holtby doesn’t progress as the Caps hope, they can cut bait and move on in short order. And if he does develop into the No. 1 stopper they believe he can be, the team will be happy to set up his grandkids with the next deal.

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Could Robert Luongo be headed to Washington? A potential deal makes sense for both sides. (Ben Nelms/Reuters)

By Allan Muir

There are plenty of good reasons for gentlemen of culture to visit Washington this time of year: the museums, the Auto Show, Restaurant Week, the International Wine Festival. So it’s possible that Mike Gillis and Lawrence Gilman were in D.C. for any or all of those and figured they’d stop in at the Capitals-Penguins game just to top off a fabulous weekend.

But probably not.

When scouts from a team at the center of every other trade rumor show up in another building on the opposite side of the country, it could mean anything or nothing. That sort of thing happens all the time.

But when the general manager and assistant GM show up, there’s probably a very specific purpose for their visit.

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John Erskine has always played the game close to the edge, but on Friday night the big, physical defender stepped over the line.

As a result, Erskine will miss the Washington Capitals next three games for his blatant elbow to the head of Philadelphia forward Wayne Simmonds.

In making his ruling Saturday night, NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan noted that there was “no malicious intent” and Erskine was just reacting to being beaten at the offensive blueline, but “this was a reckless elbow to the head that caused a serious injury.”

Simmonds didn’t return after the hit in Washington’s 3-2 victory, and was initially said to be suffering from a mild case of whiplash. He’s not skating tonight in Philly’s game against Carolina and there’s no timetable for his return. (UPDATE: Flyers confirm Simmonds suffered a concussion on the play.)

Shanahan noted that Erskine had no previous suspension history — a factor that always plays into his decisions — but you have to wonder if that weighed a little too heavily into this ruling, especially with Simmonds’ status still up in the air. Three games (and the loss of more than $24,000 in pay) will probably get the point across. But considering how dangerous the play was, there was room for this suspension to keep Erskine off the ice for as many as five games and make a stronger statement to the rest of the league. Quick reaction play or not, this was a pretty vicious hit. The next guy who tries this shouldn’t get off so lightly.