WASHINGTON -- The captain, Alex Ovechkin, is trying to dispose of teammate Brooks Laich's shoe with a remote-controlled bomb-disposal robot.

T.J. Oshie, one of the new Washington Capitals, tries on a bomb-disposal suit, as does Laich. Evgeny Kuznetsov, the team's emerging star center, is at the controls of a shiny Huey helicopter in the sprawling hangar at Andrews Air Force Base.

Nearby, another offseason addition, Mr. Game 7 himself, Justin Williams, joins his new teammates on a platform to peer inside the cockpit of an F-16 fighter jet.

There are a couple of relay races, and an attack dog takes turns leaping at various Capitals players -- including Ovechkin -- sporting heavily padded training coats, much to the delight of their teammates and the mild consternation of the coaching staff. After all, who wants to make the phone call to GM Brian MacLellan telling him Ovechkin's arm's been torn open by an attack dog?

Somewhere across the base is the hangar Air Force One calls home, and the bus driver is firmly-but-good-naturedly reminded that he's not to take the team bus off the prescribed route across the tarmac.

Hearing the stories of pilots and others at Andrews Air Force Base reinforced some important themes and lessons for Braden Holtby and the Washington Capitals. Scott Burnside

Not quite your typical day off for an NHL team that has played nearly one-third of its schedule. Then again, these Capitals aren't your average team.

Blessed with an abundance of high-end skill for most of the past decade, the Capitals have become the poster boys for playoff regrets. The team has been to one Stanley Cup final -- that in 1998 -- and since Ovechkin came into the league in 2005, the team has never been beyond the second round of the playoffs.

Last season, the first under veteran head coach Barry Trotz, the team blew a 3-1 series lead against the New York Rangers in the second round and lost in overtime in Game 7 at Madison Square Garden.

Same old, same old. Or so it would seem from a distance.

However, in the short time that has passed since that Game 7, there has been a change in the Capitals that is both subtle and, at this relatively early juncture of the season, seemingly profound.

Although they do not have the most points in the league -- they are third in winning percentage as of Wednesday morning as they prepare for a Thursday night clash with the league's top team, the Montreal Canadiens -- you can make the argument that the Capitals are in fact the best team in the Eastern Conference, if not the entire NHL.

Disposing of bombs required a bit more protective gear than T.J. Oshie is used to putting on. Scott Burnside

Consider the following:

The Capitals are currently fourth in both goals scored (3.22) and goals allowed (2.22) per game; they are second in power-play efficiency (26.8 percent) and tied for ninth in penalty killing (83.3 percent); they have not lost back-to-back games all season; their six wins when opponents score first are second, and in the advanced statistics SAT (shot attempts; aka Corsi), they are eighth.

Goaltender Braden Holtby was named the NHL's second star last week, and leads the league in goals-against average (1.95) and wins (15).

"You look at this team and they're confident in everything they do," said former Capitals player Alan May, who has been a broadcast analyst since 2009, the year the Capitals won the Presidents' Trophy but were upended by the Pittsburgh Penguins in a classic seven-game, second-round playoff series.

May gives kudos to the coaching staff led by Trotz for helping instill order and consistency.

"They have an honest, mature team right now," May said. "It's been unbelievable to watch. It's so calm the way they play right now."

One longtime NHL player and scout agreed that there is a lot to like about the construction of this Capitals team, especially the options up front and the consistency along the back end.

"Very versatile top nine and solid five D," he said. "Acquiring Oshie and Williams are two significant pieces ... never doubt that Williams won't find a way to win. The emergence of Kuznetsov does play a very big part in their ability to handle or matchup versus the New York Rangers or Montreal."

He predicted this is a team built for a long playoff run even if they still need to find a way to get beyond Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers.

"Very well coached to boot," he said. "Playoffs are not around the corner but I do see them having a very good shot at representing the East in the Stanley Cup."

Which brings us back to the team's field trip to Andrews Air Force Base.

With a rare break in the schedule, Trotz believed it was important to allow the players to step away from their world inside the rink to be the watchers and the questioners, instead of being watched and questioned themselves, if only for a day. But this wasn't all fun and frolic.

To watch and listen to the men and women at Andrews Air Force Base is to understand that teamwork and professionalism extend far beyond the walls of a locker room or the confines of a hockey rink. The commitment to training, the reliance on others to execute a difficult and often dangerous task was an underlying element of this visit, even if using a remote-controlled robot is pretty cool.

"Everybody has their own jobs," Ovechkin said. "You were there to do your job. I was there to do my job and to have fun. It was a great time."

Alex Ovechkin had fun at Andrews Air Force Base, but he knows regular-season smiles have little to do with serious work in the postseason. U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st. Class Philip Bryant/Released

Will it matter down the road? Will this represent yet another lesson learned by a team hungry to put the disappointments of last season and others behind it? Certainly, many players are anxious to prove those lessons have been learned.

"I guess your identity is kind of proven in the playoffs," said veteran Jason Chimera, who is having a renaissance season with seven goals and seven assists in 23 games.

"We're playing good hockey. We always seem to play good hockey. But you want to prove it in the playoffs. I think that's the biggest thing this team has to do," said the 36-year-old, who is in the final year of his contract but hopes to re-sign with the Caps.

"For us to become an elite team, we have to do that. Up until that, you can't say 'Oh, we've got a winning team,' because we judge winning by winning a Stanley Cup and that's the ultimate goal, for sure. Until you do that, you can't really say you're a winning hockey team, winning franchise."

Laich has been part of the core group of players that has grown up in the organization and has seen first-hand the promise and expectations go unfulfilled. He, too, sees something different in this team.

"You look at our complete game, I think this is probably the best defensive team that we've had," Laich explained. "We actually played very well defensively under [former coach] Dale Hunter, but we weren't able to play both ways as well. We can play offense now, but I think a lot of that comes from such sound defense. And we still have an offensive freedom. I think we're very, very tough to play against. I think tougher than any team I've been on here before."

Still, Ovechkin is also wary of reading too much into the team's early successes.

"Every year we have pretty good teams, obviously," said Ovechkin, who recently passed Sergei Fedorov as the highest-scoring Russian-born player of all time. "When you're older, you feel like you have that experience and that time has moved forward.

"Soon, half a season's going to be gone, and you just need to realize you have to be real good at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, especially at the end of the year," he added. "It doesn't matter how many games you're going to win in a row in the regular season. Nobody is going to think about and nobody going to remember that. Everybody is going to remember what you're going to do in the playoffs."

Marcus Johansson, part of the strong supporting cast in Washington, got geared up for a selfie in an Air Force helicopter at Andrews Air Force base. U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st. Class Philip Bryant/Released

Swedish center Nicklas Backstrom is the quiet conscience of this team. Not given to hyperbole or overstating things, he insisted that no one is looking too far ahead, that there's still lots of work to be done in the here and now without worrying about April, May or perhaps even June.

"We're playing good, but the most impressive thing, I think, is that we're never satisfied," said Backstrom, who missed training camp recovering from offseason hip surgery, but has 20 points in 20 games.

"We're playing good, but we still have some areas we can clean up and get better at, and that's what you want to do. You want to get better and better as long as the season goes along. That's what we're trying to do every day. That's the kind of team we want to be."

Can the Capitals be that team in the playoffs? There is a long road to travel before that question is answered, although this season the team has seen youngsters Dmitry Orlov and Nate Schmidt take on bigger roles along the blue line with veteran Brooks Orpik injured. Kuznetsov has shown that his breakthrough playoffs showing last spring was no fluke with a team-high 26 points.

Last season, under the tutelage of first-year defensive coach Todd Reirden, a rising figure in the coaching world, the team finished 10th in shots allowed per game, up from 27th the previous season. That's the biggest decline in shots per game for any team in the past seven seasons.

This season, the Capitals are second in shots allowed per game.

Oshie has been a nice fit coming over from the St. Louis Blues in a deal for Troy Brouwer, although GM MacLellan would like to see him be a bit more selfish and shoot more. Williams has been excellent.

"He just goes about his business," McLellan said of former Conn Smythe winner Williams. "He's just a real smart player."

The team's balance up front has allowed Backstrom and Ovechkin to shoulder less of the nightly load, which should, in theory, leave them with more in the tank come playoff time. It's tiring having to be the guys every night, McLellan noted.

May said there is simply a different vibe around this team than other incarnations of the Caps. Maybe it's maturity, or understanding that the opportunities to win are finite. Everyone wants to be a champion, and no one wants to realize that they've run out of time to win that championship.

"All the little things are finally falling into place," May said. "They realize now, they see all those other teams winning the Stanley Cup and how great it is for their careers."