So Caps coach Bruce Boudreau conducted a full-scale practice at Kettler Capitals Iceplex on Wednesday – a rarity the day after a road game. The players skated hard for over an hour and everyone healthy enough took part, including Ovechkin, who scored twice against New York.

Washington gets another shot at a struggling team when it faces the St. Louis Blues (12-15-3) tonight at Verizon Center. The Blues, who rank 27th in the league in points, have lost four in a row and are missing three of their top six forwards and starting goalie Manny Legace. That’s not a good recipe against a Caps team that is 12-1-1 at Verizon Center this season and has won 18 of its last 20 regular-season games at home. But the Islanders provided yet another lesson that no team in the NHL can be taken for granted. It is one the Caps say they are determined to put to use tonight against the Blues.

“We didn’t play third period well, lost the battles, didn’t shoot the puck, didn’t control the puck,” Ovechkin said of Washington’s effort Tuesday. “We take that as a negative. We were winning 4-2 and just stopped playing.”

Caps notes

» The Capitals have long implored defenseman Milan Jurcina to use his powerful point shot more often. He scored a goal on Tuesday against the Islanders, his second in six games and third of the season, and has tripled his meager total of one last year. Jurcina, now consistently paired with steady rookie Karl Alzner, has also broken three panes of glass at the team’s practice facility over the last two practices with his booming shot. Is the message finally getting through?

“Well, you ask your kid to clean up his room everyday,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “Why doesn’t he do it everyday? We tell [Jurcina] to shoot, shoot, shoot and he doesn’t. Just have to keep pounding it in him.”

» Ovechkin actually skated with a green jersey for the second half of practice – usually designated for third-line players. But that was to limit his ice time. He’ll be back in his normal spot on the No. 1 line with teammates Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin tonight.

» Boudreau wouldn’t confirm a starting goalie against St. Louis. But he did say Brent Johnson (hip) would be available even though he didn’t practice on Wednesday. Boudreau was tight-lipped, however, on who his other choice would be – rookie Simeon Varlamov, who won his NHL debut last week in Montreal, or the injured Jose Theodore (hip), who did practice on Wednesday. None of the three was named to start.

» Injured winger Eric Fehr (shoulder) practiced as well. If ready, he could supplant Alexandre Giroux on the third line tonight.

» With several regulars still nursing injuries, defenseman Sean Collins and Giroux stuck around for another day rather than be returned to AHL affiliate Hershey.

» Forward Sergei Fedorov (ankle) did not practice.

» Team captain Chris Clark (forearm stress fracture) is eligible to come off the long-term injured reserve list today, but has yet to practice. Boudreau said Clark is not expected back before Christmas.

» Defenseman Brian Pothier isn’t expected back any time soon after battling post-concussion symptoms since last January. But he has begun skating and did so in full gear for the first time on Wednesday before his teammates took to the ice.  

» Believe it or not, St. Louis probably has a worse injury situation than the Caps. Top defenseman Eric Brewer is also out. Promising young defenseman Erik Johnson, 20, will miss the whole season after ACL and MCL tears suffered when he jumped out of a golf cart during the team’s charity golf tournament in September. Johnson was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2006 NHL draft.

» One player the Caps still need to watch out for tonight: Right wing Brad Boyes. He scored two goals in a 4-3 win over Washington last season in St. Louis. Boyes leads the Blues in goals (16) and points (30).

» Forward Tomas Fleischmann showed no ill effects against the Islanders, playing for the first time since Dec. 7 thanks to a leg injury. He missed three games and didn’t travel with the team to Montreal last Saturday.

“When I watched [the Montreal game] on TV I just couldn’t sit still,” Fleischmann said. “I wanted to be out there with the guys. A tie game like that?”

One moment he would rather forget in his comeback, however, occurred late in the third period. A two-minute penalty for holding New York forward Doug Weight gave the Islanders a power play with 4 minutes, 19 seconds to play and the Caps up 4-3. The power play actually had expired. But just as Fleischmann made a mad dash out of the penalty box, noted Caps killer Jon Sim fired a shot from the point that deflected past Johnson to tie the game.  

“I don’t even want to talk about that. It was so stupid – two, four inches,” said Fleischmann, who was that close to catching Sim from behind and poking the puck away or blocking the shot. “If the [penalty-box] door opened the other way I would have been there. But I had to go around it, instead. Really bad moment. Even the penalty I took was just a stupid penalty.”