

(By Dan Steinberg / The Washington Post)

A few minutes before the best Caps defenseman of the modern era returned to Verizon Center on Tuesday night, the best Caps defenseman in franchise history was asked to explain Mike Green’s importance. Rod Langway paused to consider the question.

“He brought electricity,” the Secretary of Defense said, linking a young Green with his coeval Alex Ovechkin. “You had Ovi going for the MVP, you had Green the runner-up for the Norris Trophy, you had All-Star players, and there was electricity. That’s when the Capitals really came back.”

There was glaring symbolism in Green’s departure over the summer, an air horn signaling that the Young Guns days had ended and that something new was afoot. Less than a minute after Green’s return with the Red Wings on Tuesday came more symbolism: a goal from Justin Williams, one of the offseason additions who have spurred the Caps to the best start in franchise history, continuing with a 3-2 shootout win against Detroit that put them in first place in the Metropolitan Division with 4o points.

It was popular to talk about windows opening and shutting a few years ago, about whether the Caps had already missed their best chance to find postseason success with Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Green. That talk seems silly now; mix Barry Trotz’s systemic reboot with the development of Braden Holtby and some roster surgery from GM Brian MacLellan, and the Caps appear as threatening as ever. (No jokes, please.)

Trotz said this week his intention was never to move away from the offensive magic created during the best Rock the Red years, but rather to make his team more comfortable playing a variety of styles, so they could match up with a range of opponents.

“The skill and the creativity, we want that,” he said. “The ability to score, the ability to put pressure on teams, all those things that were part of that high-flying group, we wanted to keep that. We just wanted to get more balance and be able to handle different games. … You’ve got to win in different ways, [against] a team that can lock it down defensively, a team with a more active D. You’ve got to be able to deal with every different animal that’s out there, and in the National Hockey League there’s 29 other animals you have to deal with.”

So it’s not that there was some fatal flaw in Washington’s approach or some hammer-and-nail solution; last year’s big and bruising roster has already given way to something new. If there was a major deficiency from the early Ovechkin-Backstrom-Green teams, it may have been in experience, meaning the Young Guns inherent appeal was also their weakness.

“The maturity level has grown a whole lot,” veteran Jason Chimera said this week. “You get a lot of the positives still here from six, seven, eight years ago, but I think the maturity level has kind of skyrocketed.”

Some fans judge those years a failure now, but that’s a fairly cynical approach, like refusing to enjoy a piece of fruit because the last two bites were mushy. That group rejuvenated Washington hockey, and while that isn’t the same as winning a championship, the memories still stick in your head, already more sepia than bright red.

After years of empty seats and uninspired play, suddenly there was that electricity Langway mentioned; it’s wavered since then but never gone away. Green’s first home game in October of 2005 attracted a crowd of 10,394, an unimaginable number today. There were nights when the upper deck was more purple than red. Not anymore.

“Mike was a very special part of the explosion of hockey onto the D.C. scene,” said Brooks Laich, with Ovechkin the only holdover from the fall of 2005. “He was one of the building blocks. … It’s unfortunate we didn’t have the ultimate success with him here, but he was a great part of building hockey to what it is today.”

Green, who felt lost in the renovated Verizon Center tunnels Tuesday morning, chuckled at such talk while sitting in the intimate visitors dressing room he had never before visited.

“I didn’t do anything spectacular other than enjoy playing the game here,” he said. “I was just a piece of the puzzle. It’s exciting to see how far it’s come, though, since when I first started.”

And while he downplayed his role, he could have looked at the crowd watching pre-game warmups to get a different idea. There was 18-year old Shea Crispell, who said she got into hockey as a fifth- or sixth-grader because of Green, “my first-ever favorite player.” There was 25-year old Sarah Abrecht, wearing a t-shirt from Green’s Web site, who said Green “meant everything to me.” There was 41-year old Jen Roberson, wearing a Green Winter Classic jersey, who talked about Green’s grace; “it’s like butter, watching him come down the ice,” she said.

And there was 44-year old David Schwab, also in a Green jersey. His wife always says Green is his man crush, and he didn’t exactly say otherwise.

“He was The Guy,” Schwab said of Green. “He was part of the moment that really saw hockey become a staple in D.C.”



(By Dan Steinberg / The Washington Post)

Green is playing heavy minutes now in Detroit, and the Red Wings loom as potential competition for Washington in the East. Tuesday’s fond feelings — which included a video tour through Green’s career, a show of respect from the Washington bench and a hearty ovation from the crowd — will run out at some point. A few fans already began whooping Green during his first game back.

The 30-year old acknowledged the Stanley Cup had always been his group’s “ultimate goal,” but said that “we always took pride in the journey to try to get there, including myself, and we had a lot of fun doing it. It’s just my time kind of ran out there.”

Indeed, Washington has a new crop of youngsters who have helped spark this season’s early success. But you suspect a career like Green’s — 10 seasons in a single city, and some of the best offensive numbers of any defenseman in franchise history — won’t have an expiration date. You suspect, in other words, that Green might be in that seat Langway occupied Tuesday night, signing photographs for VIP fans and chatting with D.C. reporters about the good old days.

“When a guy plays that long for an organization, you always remember those years,” Chimera said this week. “Greenie’s one of those guys that will probably forever be linked to the Capitals.”