Would the Caps consider not retaining/replacing Donald Brashear and going without a designated enforcer for next season? Sure sounds like it from general manager George McPhee. He said some teams need that guy and some don't -- adding that no one is going to intimidate guys like Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.

"If you are fortunate enough to make the playoffs, you are always looking up and down your roster for more talent," McPhee said. "You go into games and say, ‘Geez, are we better than these guys and do we have more talent on our team?’

"One thing that happened for sure with the tough guys is their salaries have gone down because people don’t want to spend as much on them because they need the money for more talent. The next step is,do we really need it at all, or should we take a page from Detroit’s book and just throw as much talent at this other team as we can. If people want to screw around, then you beat them up on your power play if you have a good power play."

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