A lackluster effort by a hockey club can  manifest itself in a wide variety of ways. Losing battles to loose pucks. Consistently crappy passing. Each and every five-man unit generally looking out of sync with one another. Skating seemingly without much of a sense of urgency . . . as in going one-for-nine with the man advantage. The Caps were all this and much more of the morose in a spirit-sapping and thoroughly underwhelming showing Thursday night.   And yet . . . most improbably, ...