Sergei Fedorov has had a miserable series so far.  He looks old and slow, with none of the jump that made him a legit first-line threat against Philly last year.  So my question is, what if he played some on D?  That would allow him to use his intelligence and vision without having to chase up and down the ice.  He's exceptional at moving the puck out of his own end and plenty good enough in his own end.  He could give us a second puck-mover to play on a different pair from Green (who, by the way, has also had a miserable series).

The question would be, how to make it happen.  I'd be hesitant to put him on D full time, but you could get him minutes at D, say at Jurcina's expense, when you wanted to pick up the tempo back there.  One approach would be to bring up Aucoin and put him with Flash and Fehr.  Then at different times during the game, you could shift Feds back to D, move Aucoin up to a line with Laich and Semin/Kozlov, and move Steckel up with Flash and Fehr.  (The fourth line is only getting a handful of even-strength shifts anyway.)  Feds could probably play with anyone on D, but the best candidate would likely be Poti, who can easily shift to the right side.

Obviously, all that shuffling would create some risk.  But it might be worth it if it allowed you to get some more value out of a guy who is supposed to be a centerpiece player, but is not producing.

Steve Hindle, the Caps guy at HockeyBuzz.com, reported recently that the Caps have the maximum of 50 players already under contract, so they have to trade a player under contract in order to add a player:  If that's true, it means they cannot 1) trade a draft pick for a player; 2) trade an unsigned prospect for a player; or 3) pick somebody up off waivers.  That would significantly limit their flexibility tomorrow.  (And incidentally, if it's true, does that call the Kronwall signing into question?) 

Here's the post: http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=19726.