Nov. 3 (Arlington, VA) – General Manager George McPhee and owner Ted Leonsis watched from above the Kettler Capitals’ Iceplex Sunday as the hour-long practice session mercifully came to an end. The players huddled around center ice, most of them doubled over and wheezing for breath.

This was supposed to be a day off, but following an embarrassing 5-0 drubbing at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres the night before, head coach Bruce Boudreau had seen enough. He instead decided to run the most rigorous practice of his tenure in Washington.

"If they're not going to work to our standards during the game, then they're going to work that hard during practice," Boudreau said. "Everyone would have loved to have had Sunday off and relax and enjoy themselves. But this isn't a country club."

Not that it’s panic time in Washington. The Capitals are hovering over the .500 mark and remain in good position to leap to the top of the pack in the Eastern Conference as the season progresses.

That said, it’s also clear that the team hasn’t played up to its capabilities so far after a historically great finish to the 2007-08 season that inflated expectations in D.C.

None of that changes the fact that the Capitals possess an abundance of offensive talent. Alexander Semin appears to have taken the next step, having put up the second best point total in the league so far. The return of gifted center Michael Nylander has also provided the team with an additional playmaker which it lacked at crucial moments last season and Mike Green has picked up where he left off as a lethal offensive weapon from the blue line.

With so many weapons the Capitals could easily be ranked higher than ninth in the league in goals per game. So why aren’t they? One reason is that two pillars of what is supposed to be a high-powered attack haven’t been showing up on the score sheet.

2007-2008 Calder Trophy finalist Nicklas Backstrom and Hart Trophy winner Alexander Ovechkin, who single-handedly carried the offense for large chunks of last season, have amassed nine points combined. The 21st-ranked power play unit has also been frustratingly inefficient. The worst transgression occurred on the road in Calgary when the Caps failed to score on a power play that lasted over seven minutes. For a team built around offense like Washington, converting power play opportunities is crucial.

Despite the slow start, it’s hard to imagine this offense not clicking sooner or later. It’s only a matter of time before everyone gets in sync and players like Ovechkin, Backstrom and talented-but-struggling captain Chris Clark turn it around. The one-two punch of Semin and Ovechkin may end up rivaling the production of Pittsburgh's Sydney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin by year's end, and the case can be made that Washington boasts a better supporting cast of forwards than the Penguins.

No, the offense will be fine. The more pressing concern is that the Caps don’t seem capable of stopping anyone else’s attack. They’ve allowed 3.30 goals per game, which ranks 24th in the league. Chief among the culprits is goaltender Jose Theodore, who McPhee acquired in the off-season to replace Cristobal Huet.

To say it hasn’t worked out so far would be a massive understatement. Boudreau called out Theodore, among others, during Sunday’s intense practice for his lackluster play. The newcomer ranks a paltry 34th in the league in save percentage and has borne a frightening resemblance to the 2007-2008 version Olaf Kolzig.

Even though the Caps showed the ability to clamp down at times last season, nobody is going to confuse Washington’s defense with that of the 1990’s New Jersey Devils. It’s been especially difficult along the blue line with Tom Poti missing significant time so far. The Caps need a goaltender to lean on and perform the way Huet did last season and Theodore hasn’t come close.

Boudreau has often been forced to start backup Brent Johnson, who simply isn’t the kind of netminder who can put a team on his back. The goalie situation in Washington will be interesting to monitor moving forward. The team is out of cap room and will be hard-pressed to trade for a replacement for Theodore mid-season if his struggles continue. Simply put, the Capitals need Theodore to turn it around, or else.

Perhaps Boudreau’s brutal Sunday workout will spark some life into a team that has plenty of room to improve and lots of time in which to do it. The coach knows that as offensively stacked as the Caps may be, they can’t afford to get outworked and take breaks for entire periods as they’ve been prone to doing.

Despite the team's early struggles, fans would be wise to remain optimistic. The roster is largely the same as the one that lit the league on fire after the All Star break last season. It's also not time to give up on Theodore, who slumped early on in Colorado last year too but stepped up his play down the stretch.

There’s too much talent and, as we learned last season, too much iron resolve for this team not to be a contender in due time.