3 Grumpy Caps fans

One last time

2009-05-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

Reposted from March 26, 2007, during a season in which the Capitals finished with 28 Wins and 70 points and did not qualify for the playoffs. How far we've come. Just win this one boys.

Just win this one

It's been quite a year for Caps fans, from the peaks of the opening third of the season to the valley of the post-all star losing streaks and the abominable road performances. But as a Caps fan who believes in the rebuiling process, and sees light on the horizon, I only want one more thing this year.

If the Capitals go out and beat the Penguins tomorrow night, I'll be perfectly happy with the season.

So go out there and do it for all the fans that have had to endure the busloads of bandwagon-hopping Penguins fans that were dumped in front of the Capital Center for all those years. Do it for the great Capitals teams of the early 90s that were stopped in the playoffs by Crybaby Lemiux and his gambling degenerate sidekick Jaromir. Do it for the Caps fans that have had to endure year after year after year of hearing Penguins chants and cheers for opposing team goals. Do it to erase the memory of that ugly third period collapse earlier in the season (the Deuce is still convinced Bettman made a call from the league office and told the officials to make the game more... even for TV purposes.)

But most importantly, do it for yourselves. This is a young Pittsburgh team. They're going to be competitive in this conference for the next few years. The Capitals need to get it in their heads that they can beat this team. Because we're going to be seeing a lot of them in the playoffs in the years to come.

So come on, Capitals. Get it done. For the fans. For the team. For yourselves.

Beat the @#$*! Penguins!

Calling it a day

2009-01-03T13:18:00.001-08:00

Well, everyone might have guessed this was coming, seeing as we've posted only once this December... we're closing up shop here, as all three of us have changed positions or jobs in the past year and simply haven't been able to keep up with everything. Never fear, we'll still be at every home game, as loud as ever.

We've enjoyed writing, and hopefully you're enjoyed reading. Happy New Year to all (except Flyers fans, of course).

-Derek, Roger, and Roger
3 Grumpy Caps Fans

Depleted D

2008-12-04T08:14:00.000-08:00

If there was any question about how much the injuries on defense have affected the Capitals style of play, one need only look at the Caps game Tuesday night against the Panthers. Usually a team that plays a defense first, trapping style of play, the Panthers came out with an all out blitz of a forecheck, constantly pressuring the Caps defense for all three periods.

It paid off big time.

The Capitals simply don't have the bodies or talent to compete in the defensive end in their current form. The Caps defense without Tom Poti, Mike Green, Sergei Fedorov, and to a lesser extent Jeff Schultz and John Erskine is now a mirror of what it was during the Caps first post lockout season. Which is not good. At all.

The current defensive lineup doesn't feature a single defenseman that should be playing top 4 minutes in the NHL for any team. Uber prospect Karl Alzner is still adjusting to the NHL game, and needs more seasoning before he's ready to assume a role as a top tier defenseman. Milan Jurcina refuses to play the body unless it's away from the play for a penalty which renders him basically useless. Shoane Morrison gets outplayed and out muscled near the front of his own net on almost every play. And Lepisto, Helmer, and Sloan, with respect to the effort and determination they've shown, are third pairing defensemen at best.

For the Caps to be successful, they must keep the puck out of their own end as much as possible. And with Alexander Semin still injured, the burden for keeping puck possession falls to Michael Nylander and his line. The Caps first line has always been solid at controlling the play in their opponents' end as soon as they gain possession. For the Caps to take the burden off their crippled defense corps, the second line needs to be just as strong to give their defense the relief they so desperately need.

If the Caps top two lines can maintain possession and control the play and allow the defense to bend without breaking, they have a chance to beat the Islanders tonight. If not, it's going to be a long night.

-----------------------------------

Oh, and remember to skip lunch today so you can enjoy as many dollar dogs at the arena as possible. I'm thinking I can take down at least 5... blogger competitive eating contest, anyone?

I got yer closed hand right here.

2008-11-25T08:56:00.000-08:00

Starting the third period last night the contest with the Minnesota Wild seemed all but over. The Caps had been decimated by injury, looked worn down by their West Coast swing, were down by two, and had no offensive rhythm. And yet there was still plenty of time left for the game to turn. And then the referees inserted themselves into the game by calling what might have been the most pathetic and laughable calls of the season.

When Tom Poti and Alex Ovechkin were whistled for closing their hands on the puck within seconds of one another, the duo of Rob Shick and Chris Ciamaga essentially said "this game is about us and not about the teams playing." They put an undermanned team down 2 players, and the Wild promptly scored to go up by 3. The Wild went on to score again and go up 4-0, and the game looked to be over. And if they had been playing most other teams, the offensively bad pair of calls by the officials wouldn't have mattered.

Most teams can't break through the Wild's suffocating trap and get pucks past rock solid goaltender Niklas Backstrom. But the Caps are not most teams. They roared back in the third and scored not once, not twice, but three times to bring the game to within one. That they could not find the net for a fourth time should not have mattered. They shouldn't have had to.

All human beings make mistakes. Referees are human beings. So it follows that referees can and will make mistakes. That's forgivable. What is not is involving yourself in a game simply for the purpose of involving yourself. Calling obscure delay of game penalties that are practically never enforced not once, not twice, but three times in a game AND TWICE ON THE SAME TEAM WITHIN A MINUTE is grandstanding, plain and simple. And it cost the Capitals a point tonight.

I don't pay for my season tickets to watch referees insert themselves into games. I pay to watch the players. Period. Other than the families of Rob Shick and Chris Ciamaga, I bet every hockey fan feels the same way. And last night's display was an absolute embarrassment.

Out of gas

2008-11-21T11:21:00.000-08:00

The formula is simple:
The Caps flew cross country two days ago, played one day ago, and then faced a Kings team that was playing at home and had rested since Sunday.

The predictable result - the Kings thoroughly outplayed the Caps for all but a few minutes in the third period, handing the Capitals a 5-2 loss (that was really a 3-2 loss with a couple empty netters). The Caps needed a some lucky bounces and a poor goaltending effort from the Kings, and got neither.

Not having Mike Green clearly affected the team's ability to get the puck out of the zone quickly, as the Caps had a noticeable uptick in the number of failed breakout attempts. If Green doesn't mean go for Saturday's game against San Jose, the Caps will be at a significant disadvantage.

The Caps simply have to put this game behind them, get some rest, and gear up for tomorrow. You can't jump into a shark tank at less than full strength and expect to avoid getting bitten.

Of sticks and measurement

2008-11-19T13:37:00.001-08:00

On the surface, tonight's West Coast opener looks like a pretty good matchup for the Caps. Anaheim has one less point in two more games than the Caps, and they're a bit long in the tooth. Both teams play some fairly weak competition in conference (Phoenix, LA, Dallas in the Pacific, and Tampa, Florida, and Atlanta in the Southeast). But here's the big difference:

Anaheim plays in the Western Conference.

Surprising? Not if you look at a map (or have a fourth grade grasp of US Geography). But it is important, because the Western Conference is, without a doubt, superior to the East. Pittsburgh fans will no doubt point to their miracle comeback against Detroit as evidence to the contrary, but that game was an abberation (for a number of reasons). Look at a list of Stanley Cup Winners from 95-96 to the present. The West owns 8 Cups to the East's 4 during that period, and if the league actually called penalties during the playoffs it wouldn't even be that close (we're looking at you, New Jersey).

The simple fact is this: San Jose and Detroit are BY FAR the best teams in hockey (and anyone who has read this blog before knows how much I despise Detroit). After that, the next group of teams (Minnesota, Anaheim, Calgary) would all be likely division leaders in the East.

That's why this road trip is so important to the Caps. If they want to call themselves an elite NHL team, they need results out west. A solid victory against a tough Anaheim team would go a long way towards establishing the Caps as a team to beat (alas, beating LA will not). A win against San Jose would... well, lets see how the Caps fare against Anaheim and LA first.

In short, if this team is for real, this road trip will show it.

This is one of those nights

2008-11-12T22:59:00.000-08:00

This is a night that Caps fans have always dreamed of. Your first line stats:
1, 2, 3, +4,
1, 3, 4, +4,
2, 3, 5, +4.

Now lets all hope Brent Johnson isn't for really real injured and that this is just a slick coaching move by Coach B to get J.T. (admit it, it sounds better that Joo-say Theey-oooo-dooore) some minutes without being under the gun.

Oh, yeah, and Carolina... you're old.

Clarification for tonight (with pictures!)

2008-11-10T09:27:00.001-08:00

If you don't cheer him when he's introduced, you're a jerk.

If you cheer him after the game starts, you're a jerk.

Any other questions?

2 for 2

2008-11-10T08:26:00.000-08:00

It's amazing what playing hard the full 60 minutes will do for a team. First, the Caps beat Carolina with their skills, scoring two pretty goals in the last 3 minutes of the game to shock the 'Canes 3-2. Two days later, they beat the Rangers with their will, grinding out a tough 3-1 win by creating havoc in front of Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist and crashing the net at every opportunity.

So what should be taken away from these two wins? First, that the Caps have the talent to compete with anyone in the East. The Hartford...er... Carolina Hurricanes were first in the SouthEast, having won 4 of their last 6 games. The Rangers lead their division and were 5-2 in their last 7 games and had just dropped a five spot on Tampa.

The Capitals played like a team tired of being questioned about their effort, about their talent, and about their commitment to winning. They got contributions from just about everyone on the ice. Their skill players scored (Alex Semin, 3g in 2 games). Their heavyweights scored resounding victories to boost team momentum (Donald Brashear in a one sided whupping of Wade Brookbank). Their grinders went hard to the net (Boyd Gordon setting up Tom Poti's goal with a drive to the front of the net and Brooks Laich slapping a deflected puck out of midair past Lundqvist). And their goaltender performed like a number one is expected (even if it was technically their number 2), making an arrray of difficult saves and even stopping a penalty shot in a one goal game.

A split over the weekend would be a sign of a team still trying to catch its groove. A win against both teams is an announcement to the league: the Caps are here to win, no matter the opponent.

Вы говорите русского?

2008-11-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

Can't understand the headline above? Then you can't play on the Caps top line tonight against Carolina. Brent Johnson gets his second start in a row as the Caps look to keep their streak of games with at least a point at home to, well, all 5 of them.

Sometimes you have to hurt the ones you love

2008-11-03T15:16:00.001-08:00

It finally happened. As often as we've called for wind sprints and punishing practices after subpar losses (and more than a couple subpar wins) over the years, Coach Boudreau kept a level head and allowed his players to work their way out of funks, sometimes even giving them days off to recouperate when it seemed they needed a good whupping. Well, Bruce finally cracked after Saturday's putrid showing against the Sabres. Instead of a day off, the Caps got 50 minutes of sprints. And it's about time.

Caps fans have seen a lot over the years. We've seen the worst team in NHL history (or at least Original 6 has. I wasn't born yet). But the city actually getting awarded an NHL franchise more than makes up for that. The team played hard, but the talent simply wasn't there to field a competetive team. We'll call that the Yvon Labre era.

We've seen year after year of teams just good enough to win in the regular season only to be bounced in the first or second round of the playoffs. Those were teams built with grit and integrity, symbolized by players like Dale Hunter and Rod Langway. There were some good to very good teams in those years, but they could never quite get over the hump, winning more than a playoff round only once (and then suffering the indignity of being swept by the Bruins).

We've seen our one shining run to the Stanley Cup Finals, marked by six overtimer winners, the single most productive run in Chris Simon's career (before a shoulder injury and what appears to be insanity ruined him), and Joe Juneau's overtime game winner in Buffalo. The only blemish that year was the fact that the best offensive player ever to wear a Capitals uniform (Peter Bondra, for you newbies) just wasn't able to put it together during the playoffs that year.

And we've known the embarassment of watching an All-World talent who simply didn't care enough to try hard. 2001-04 was like a gonzo nightmare for Caps fans, rooting for a player they didn't believe in, who repaid them in kind by not bothering to try hard. Most Caps fans still can't discuss this period without attempting to claw their eyes out.

The point in all this reminiscing is simple: we've seen a lot over the years as Caps fans. And, more than most fans, we know when our team isn't putting forth its' finest effort (for an example see Jagr, Jaromir). As a Caps fan, I can tell you that there has only been one game this year where the Caps have put forth an honest effort for 60 minutes, and even that comes with a qualification. When the Caps throttled Vancouver in the home opener the game was so far gone by the third period that they didn't need to bother showing up. There isn't a single game where the team has played to their potential for the full 60 minutes.

And after the embarrassment at Buffalo, something had to be done. The coach knew it. The players knew it. Hell, even the owner knew it.

So Coach Boudreau put away his "player's coach" hat and got down to the business of breaking down a team long on talent but short on effort. He rode his players until he knew they couldn't be ridden any further. The team's owner, instead of trying to sell fans a bill of goods like so many others might, publicly stated his embarassment with the level of effort being shown by the players and made clear that he would not stand for it.

Now all that's left is for the players to take the ice tomorrow in Ottawa and show the fans that they belong with the rest of the generations of hard working Capitals players who bled not just red, but Capitals red, white and blue.

9 Minutes

2008-10-22T09:00:00.001-07:00

The Washington Capitals lost a game they should have won last night to the Calgary Flames, 2-1. The Caps were up 1-0 on Sergei Fedorov's beautiful redirection of an Alex Ovechkin pass. They were in control of the game in terms of both puck possession and physicality. Their freshly called up rookie defenseman Tyler Sloan had just laid out Daymond Langkow with a vicious but clean open ice hit. Calgary's Rene Bourque completely lost his cool and charged Sloan in an attempt at retribution. The result: 19 minutes in penalties and a 9 minute power play for the Capitals.

Calgary was about to implode. Again. Surely, the Caps would pot at least one goal during that stretch, and the Flames were not a team that played well from behind.

9 minutes later, the game was over and the Flames had won. The scoreboard just didn't show it yet. The Caps failed to score a single goal over the course of those nine minutes. Their momentum was totally stopped, and would not be regained. Teams simply do not rebound from that kind of atrocious effort.

Sure enough, after the penalty had expired and the Flames got a power play chance of their own Jerome Iginla potted a power play goal. The Caps and Flames were in a low scoring, plodding defensive game with absolutely no flow. It was the type of game Mike Keenan loves, and his teams win. And win they did.

Certainly, the officials deserve criticism for turning the game into a such a plodding, penalty filled affair as they piled make up call after make up call onto the scoresheet. But they cannot be faulted for what happened in that nine minute nightmare. Only the Caps players and their coach can bear that blame.

What went wrong? The Caps played too fancy, looking for a slam dunk at the far post instead of getting shots on net and applying pressure. They avoided high traffic areas like they were quarantined off. They managed ONLY 3 SHOTS. That's not anemic. It's full on flatlined. And that's exactly what the power play ineffectiveness did to the Caps last night. It killed them.

Part of the blame must also be laid at the feet of Coach Boudreau. He saw the same thing everyone else in the arena saw, namely that the Caps power play stunk. He could have made a drastic change to the power play linep. He could have simply rolled his top 3 lines as is without adjustments for the power play in order to keep the team playing its normal style. Instead, he let the putridity continue for all 9 minutes.

And the Caps paid the price.

And then there were two

2008-10-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

Two top tier defensemen, that is. Tom Poti's groin injury had better not be serious, because the Caps don't have the depth on the backline to have him miss more than a couple games.

If there's any good news regarding the injury, it's that the Caps did not choose to call up a defenseman from Hershey, which they would have done if they believed Poti was going to be out more than a few days. The decision to put Poti on the shelf is much more likely a preventative measure, as it doesn't take much to turn a groin pull into a serious injury (just ask Chris Clark).

In other defensive news, it looks like one of the Caps has finally decided to step up and become a physical force in the defensive end. Mike Green has clearly decided that it's not enough to be one of the league's top offensive threats. He has his sights set on being the league's top defenseman, period.

If you need any proof, ask Evgeni Malkin how his gut is feeling following Greener's classic hip check in the third period. Although he didn't land the shot flush (Malkin wouldn't have finished the game if he had), it's clear that Green has made the decision to be a physically intimidating force in his own end. As Green's timing improves, expect to see more than a few devastating hits this season from the lightning quick defenseman.

Also, Kudos to Matt Bradley for taking one for the team. Sometimes it's not about winning or losing the fight, but sticking up for your teammates, taking your lumps and then going right back to playing hockey. Way to gut it out through that gashed up mouth, Matt.

The Caps look to carry over the momentum from their third period surge against the Penguins to the start of tonight's game against the Devils, who once again bored a crowd (and the opposition) to sleep with a 1-0 victory. Expect Sergei Fedorov to once again distribute from the backline as the Caps look to break the god-awful neutral zone trap. Game time is 7 PM. Unless you're one of the folks who bought the all you can eat and booze Dewars club tickets, in which case you'll probably want to get there earlier.

What we know so far

2008-10-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

We're three games into the season, and four things already stand out.

- Bruce Boudreau is a smart hockey coach. Knowing that he was playing a team that was not strong offensively and played the trap, Boudreau removed John Erskine from the lineup and moved Sergei Fedorov to the back line. Breaking the neutral zone trap depends on quick and accurate outlet passes, and Fedorov provided them in droves last night. Because of this, the Canucks were unable to slow the pace of the game and were completely outmatched by the speed and talent of the Caps forwards.

By specifically targeting the opposing gameplan and adjusting his lineup accordingly, Boudreau was able to completely nullify the strongest weapon in the Canucks arsenal (their boring as all get out system). The Caps have had fits dealing with trapping teams in the past, but it looks like they've found a viable solution for the future.

- Alexander Semin is good. Really good. Not that this is news to anyone who was watching the last 20 or so games last year, but Semin has arrived as an elite level talent. He's much stronger on the puck than in previous years, quicker, andis an absolutely lethal finisher around the net. If he stays healthy, fifty goals should be a cinch. On every team in the East except Pittsburgh or Atlanta he'd be the team's number one scoring option. And yes, I'm including the Canadiens in that list. Who would you rather have on your team, Alex Semin or Alex Kovalev? Thought so.

- Goaltending is going to be an adventure. Goals on the first shot in back to back games? Not good. Inconsistent stickhandling and poor decision making? Also not good. The Caps need to calm their goaltenders down in a hurry. Great puck possesion performances (such as the one the team put together against the Canucks) should go a long way towards settling Theodore and Johnson down and getting them focused.

- Defense is going to be even MORE of an adventure. The Caps right now have three viable NHL calibur defensemen, and one of them is a forward. Everyone not named Poti, Green, or Fedorov has so far looked like they're in a competition to see who can play themselves out of a job first.

So, to sum things up, our coach is showing that last year was no fluke, our defense is showing that the team needs Alzner sooner than later, our goalies haven't shown us much yet, and Alexander Semin is proving that he's got what it takes to be a superstar in the league.

Oh, and as the Deuce said, Viktor Kozlov has a boo-boo.

Breaking down the roster

2008-10-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

And a hearty welcome back! To get fired up for the start of the season, we're breaking down the Caps skaters from potential call ups to 20 year veterans. Instead of by position, they're broken down by expectation.

The Outside looking in- You’re on the short list for call ups.

Quintin Laing:
Unfortunately, Quintin is in the worst possible position, having to clear waivers both down from the big club and up from Hershey. While Laing’s heart, determination, and willingness to put his health on the line to keep the puck out of the net are never in question he doesn’t have the physical aggressiveness to make him a 4th liner or offensive upside to push him into a third line slot. Unless one of the more defensive minded forwards sustains a multi-game injury, it’s likely Laing will spend most of his time in Hershey unless a trade is worked out.

Chris Bourque:
While his size will always be a detriment, Chris showed himself to be a more than capable offensive talent during the preseason. His two way contract made sending him to Hershey the right decision, but his offensive prowess, determination, and exceptional skating ability kept it from being an easy one.

Bourque has a nose for the net and is willing to pay the price to make a play, which is a must for a player of his stature. His natural fit on most teams would be on a second line, and the thought of him lined up with Nylander and Semin is quite appealing… until one thinks that they’ll actually have to play some of the game in the defensive end.

Expect Bourque to be the first offensive call up (especially if Tomas Fleischmann sputters early on) unless one of the Caps fourth liners goes down with an injury (in which case they’d need a more physical presence than young Chris can provide). My money is on Bourque supplanting Flash by midseason, as Chris has already shown more scoring ability at the NHL level and more willingness to get physical with opposing players.

Sami Lepisto:
There hasn’t been enough time to fully evaluate Lepisto, but from his play last year he looks like a guy that won’t crack the Capitals lineup unless he either finds a 6th gear and works on his passing and playmaking skills or develops a much more physical edge to his game. While the former is much more likely than the latter, it’s unlikely we’ll see more than a couple injury call ups for the young Finn unless Erskine’s lack of speed becomes a major issue for the up-tempo style the Caps are trying to establish as their hallmark.

The Make or Breakers – We need to see something from you. This year.

Boyd Gordon:
The Good- Boyd Gordon is an exceptional player in terms of defensive positioning, commitment to defense and willingness to sacrifice the body to make a play. He has adequate speed to play the NHL game.

The Bad- Gordon lacks the temperament or strength to wear down opposing players. He’s ten times more likely to get put on his can while protecting the puck than to put the other player down. He lacks the offensive tools to move him any further up than the third line, and even that’s a stretch at this point.

While he’s a great team player and an asset on the penalty kill, at this point his role with the team rests with his commitment to defense and the lack of a stronger, more physical player with his skillset. Despite how the fans admire his courage and effort and statistical “above averageness” (yes, we’re looking at you, J.P.) Gordon’s days as anything but a grind liner with the team are all but over.

Tomas Fleischmann:
One of the two most interesting players in this grouping. Flash has nothing left to prove at the minor league level and absolutely everything to prove in the NHL. While he is gifted with a strong and accurate wrist shot and above average playmaking ability, Fleischmann has so far been unable to break through on the big stage.

Some attribute it to youth and a small, slow to fill out frame, it may well be that Flash’s quickness and offensive talents are enough to overwhelm minor league goaltenders and defensemen but not quite enough to beat the stronger, more positionally sound and fleet of foot players in the NHL. If Fleischmann can step up and deliver at least 10 goals in the first half of the season, it will be a sign that he simply needed time to adapt to the big leagues both physically and mentally. If he can’t, it’s likely that this will be his last year with the organization, and possibly his last in the NHL.

Eric Fehr:
Eric Fehr represents another conundrum. Having lost almost his entire professional career to injury, Eric Fehr enters a season healthy for the first time. The experience of playing with the big club for the latter half of last year is certainly a plus, but just hanging around as a standard third or fourth line talent would have to be considered a disappointment.

To blatantly rip off The Deuce, Fehr will have to put up some serious offensive numbers this year if he doesn’t want to be forever known as The Guy We Picked Instead of Ryan Getzlaf. It says here he gets the job done.

David Steckel:
David Steckel has the same defensive skills and forechecking tenacity as Boyd Gordon, but adds a stronger offensive skillset, longer reach, and a much more imposing frame. A reliable defensive asset, Steckel should be expected to post double digit goals without sacrificing in the defensive end this season.

D:
John Erskine:
As long as the team lacks a top tier sledgehammer on defense, John Erskine should have the role of defensive enforcer tied up. By far the most physical Caps defenseman, Erskine can be intimidating in close to the crease but his lack of footspeed often leaves him at the mercy of the league’s elite forwards when defending against the rush. His offensive skills are negligible.

All offensive liabilities aside, Erskine can be depended on to do what is necessary to keep the opposition honest. He also has no issues playing rough down low, slashing opponents near the crease, and doing whatever it takes to defend his area. He understands that tripping or cross checking an opponent with a scoring chance with 5 or 10 seconds left in the game is better than holding up and allowing them to shoot. Until the Caps either trade for or develop a marquee hard edged defenseman, Erskine will be called upon to play solid minutes against the more physical teams in the league.

Milan Jurcina:
Will the real Milan Jurcina please stand up? In his best moments (like his first few games after being traded from Boston) Jurcina is an intimidating presence, a giant hard hitting ogre of a defenseman. Unfortunately, just as often (if not more so) he’s completely passive, allowing opposing skaters to skate by him with only a wave of the stick as they pass by. If Jurcina wants to stay on the Caps active roster, he has to commit to taking the body every minute of every game.

The Known Commodities: We know what we’re getting from you, more or less.

Brooks Laich:
Laich appears to have made the leap from a grinder who can chip in a few goals to a legitimate two way forward. His speed is often underestimated and he plays a tough physical game. His scoring touch has improved immensely over the past couple of years, and he should score around 25 goals while providing solid play in all three zones.

Matt Bradley:
Matt Bradley is good for solid all around effort, a few big hits (or at least big attempts) and more one liners than you can shake a stick at every game. Expect the “fan favorite” to chip in with a single digit goal total and 25 or so points along with a few fights smattered in.

Donald Brashear:
Nearing the end of his career, The Donald is still one of the most feared enforcers in the game. The only question with Brashear is whether his already less than stellar footspeed will hold up for another season, and how comfortable he is with what should be a significant reduction in ice time.

Michael Nylander:
If he is truly recovered from shoulder surgery, Nylander should be a big time contributor to the Capitals offense. His puck control skills and ability to find the open man are still in the top 20 in the league. Forget that he will is penciled in as a third liner. He will see significant time on the power play where the extra time and space make him a lethal setup man, and while a return to 80 point form seems unlikely sixty five or so points seems about right.

Chris Clark:
This season a fully fit Chris Clark should return to his post as a upper tier power forward and, just as important, the emotional leader of the team. While another 30 goal season would be icing on the cake, it’s more likely that Clark will chip in somewhere in the range of 25. Clark’s leadership and intangibles will more than make up for the mild production drop.

Sergei Fedorov:
The most versatile player on the roster, Fedorov will be asked to play in just about every situation and position except in goal. As always, he’ll perform admirably, and while his best days are certainly behind him expect Sergei to perform a higher level than he has in years. Great players always seem to have great farewell tours, and even if he’s lost a couple steps Fedorov still has the skill and veteran guile to make his memorable.

Viktor Kozlov:
Viktor Kozlov is by far the most maddening player on the team. Gifted with tremendous hands and size, Kozlov should be a force on the ice each and every night. Unfortunately, his refusal play anything resembling a physical game and his overall lack of interest in the game keep him from being an elite forward.

If Kozlov is given time and space, he is an extremely adept passer and has a shot that is hard and accurate enough to beat most NHL goaltenders. If pressured, Kozlov tends to give up on a play far too easily. Unfortunately, opposing defensemen know this and rarely allow the big fellow to skate free. Just the same as every year in his career, expect above average regular season numbers and yet another disappearing act in the playoffs when it requires heart as well as skill to get the job done. The good news? He’s off the books after this season, so the 2.5 million he earns can be paid to players who actually care.

D:
Tom Poti:
Poti figures to be the team’s number one all around defenseman again this year. While a shoulder injury limited him at both ends of the ice last year, a fully healthy Tom Poti should produce above average offensive numbers and his trademark solid defensive play. While his power play minutes will be reduced because of Fedorov’s ability to play the point and the emergence of Mike Green as one of the league’s premier offensive defensemen, Poti still figures to log a lot of minutes, especially late in tight contests.

Shaone Morrison:
If playing defense was based on slick skating, smooth transition, and positioning, Morrison would be a top tier player. Unfortunately, defense in the NHL also requires a physical element and a willingness to play to the very limits of the rules, which Big Mo has never developed. He’s a solid second or third pairing defenseman, but unless he develops much more upper body strength and a real nasty attitude to match that’s about as far as he’s going to go.

The Potential Breakouts – This is your year kid. Let’s see you go out there and grab it!

Alexander Semin:
Injuries kept the “other” Alex from reaching his potential last season, but he came on strong late. His first playoff experience started slow, but once he adjusted to the physical, tight checking atmosphere he truly came alive. He exhibited desire many though he lacked, and added a physical edge that he’d never before even shown glimpses of.

A healthy Alexander Semin should thrive with the skilled players he’s been surrounded with. A career year is, if not expected, certainly hoped for.

Nicklas Backstrom:
In his rookie year, Nicklas Backstrom adapted quickly to the North American ice surface, showing constant growth. By the end of the season he was a lock not only for the first line and the coveted slot lining up next to Alex Ovechkin, but for the first power play unit as well. If Backstrom continues to develop and improves his skating (probably his weakest area) the sky is the limit. With the depth the Capitals have at center this season, awarding the number one slot to a second year pro speak volumes about how highly the organization regards him.

D:
Jeff Schultz:
In his first season with the Capitals, there were nights when Schultz looked completely outmatched and, quite honestly, not ready for the NHL. In by the end of his second season, he appeared to have shored up his positional issues and had adapted sufficiently to the speed of the game. Will Schultz’ third season be the one in which he finally is willing and able to use his tremendous size to impose his will on opposing forwards? Probably not, but remember how awkward Zdeno Chara looked his first couple of seasons?

Karl Alzner:
Alzner is this far down the list for one simple reason: he may start the season in Hershey, but there’s no way he finishes it there. Alzner has the tools to be a top pairing defenseman, and although that probably won’t happen this year it’s not too much to expect him to break into the second pair. The kid is, quite simply, the real deal.

Mike Green:
I know, I know, Greener’s breakout season was technically last season. The simple (and scary) fact remains that the kid hasn’t neared his potential. If he is able to shore up his positioning issues in his own zone and continues to be willing to play the body as often as he rushes he’s all but assured to be the league’s best offensive defenseman for the second year in a row. And if the Caps can win a playoff round, his mohawk should be something to behold.

The Chosen One
Alex Ovechkin
‘nuff said.

Ankle injury redux: Backstrom

2008-09-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, it looks like the Caps will once again have to deal with a marquee player injured before the start of the season. Tarik has reported that, like Alex Semin last year, Nicklas Backstrom has sprained his ankle. The injury may cause Backstrom to miss the beginning of training camp.

Unlike Semin, Backstrom was injured before the start of the season so it's likely they'll keep him out of workouts until the injury has more time to heal. Missing a couple weeks of camp and possibly a couple preseason games certainly won't help Backstrom get his fitness level up for the season, but after last year we all know it's better safe than sorry with ankle problems.

Expect the team to ease Backstrom along slowly, and for him to be ready for the start of the season. If he's limited in workouts, it may be a few games into the season before he hits his stride, but given the Caps depth at center they have the ability to keep his minutes in check until he is fully recovered and fit.

New news is good news.

2008-08-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's a bit of a wasteland for hockey news these days... which makes Tarik's piece on Captain Clark a bit of a golden nugget in a river full of rocks. Word is that CCC should be ready for the start of training camp, which was until recently still very uncertain. Good news indeed.

That leaves Brian Pothier as the only injured player that's still a question mark for next season. Given that he has been unable to participate in even light physical activity since his most recent concussion, it's highly unlikely he'll be a go to start the season (at this point it's questionable whether he'll be able to lace up his skates again at all).

Fedorov, Laich back in the fold

2008-07-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

The Caps have signed forwards Brooks Laich and some guy named Sergei Fedorov to contracts today. Per Tarik, Brooks' deal averages a little over 2 mil a year for three years, while The Hockey News reports Fedorov will make 4 million for his one year of service.

With that done there's precious little left in the coffers for any other moves (barring a trade). The Caps roster once again looks loaded on offense, but the team has done precious little in free agency to bolster their defense.

Even if this year's uber-rookie Karl Alzner is next in the line of great Capitals defensemen, his first year will still be a learning experience (with all the mistakes and adjustments that come with being an NHL rookie). Get ready for a bunch more 4-3 and 5-4 games this year.

I, for one, can't wait.

Theodore a Cap, Huet to Chicago

2008-07-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

The Caps have certainly made an interesting move here. Figuring one French-Canadian is as good as another Frenchman, the Caps passed over signing Cristobal Huet to a three year deal and instead inked Jose Theodore to a two year, 9.5 million dollar deal.

Apparently, the Caps were willing to meet Huet's asking price of 3 years and $15 million. But when Huet announced his intention to test the free agent market (and this year's market for goaltenders is pretty thin) for a potentially more lucrative offer, the Caps signed Theodore in order to secure a number one goaltender instead of possibly being left out in the cold (no offense to Brent Johnson).

The move certainly makes sense from a financial standpoint (less money per year) and is a shorter term deal, but one has to wonder which Jose Theodore the Caps will be getting. Will he be the confident goaltender who won the Vezina and Hart trophies in 2001-02, or will he be the suspect goalie who couldn't lock down a starting job in Colorado in 2006-07? The hopes for a long Capitals playoff run this season rest on it being the former.

Caps Re-Sign Green!

2008-07-01T05:53:00.000-07:00

TSN and The Hockey News are reporting that the Caps have agreed to terms with restricted free agent defenceman Mike Greeen. It is rumored to be a four year deal with an average annual salary of $5.25 million. So what do you think? A fair deal? Too short a term?

The Deuce: I think it's a fair deal for both teams. Green gets paid as an elite player -- though not quite as elite as Phaneof, which, in my opinion, he's not. The Caps get a few years to see what they really have, but then they'll really have to pay up. At the end of this contract, Green will be 26 (just about to turn 27). Now unless my research is mistaken (which it very well may be), Green is eligible for UFA status at age 27 OR at 7 years NHL service. I don't THINK he reaches either by the end of that deal, as he'll be 26 until October 2012, and he doesn't qualify for 7 years by then either (I don't think he's played what qualifies as 3 NHL seasons, but again, I'm no NHL lawyer or agent). So hopefully the Caps get another crack at Green as an RFA before he hits the UFA market. But either way, if he keeps playing the way he did at the end of the year, and improves defensively, it'll be time to back the trucks up in 2012.

Caps qualify five

2008-06-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Per Tarik, the Caps have tendered qualifying offers to Mike Green, Eric Fehr, Shaone Morrisonn Brooks Laich and Boyd Gordon, thus maintining the rights to those players heading into the upcoming free agency period.

Metal gear? Solid.

2008-06-14T11:00:00.001-07:00

The take:

1 Art Ross trophy
1 Hart Memorial trophy
1 Jack Adams award
1 Lester Pearson award
and lest we forget,
1 key to the city.

Not bad at all. Now lets get to work on winning the only piece of hardware left to elude us.

Fight fans rejoice!

2008-05-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

Fans of fistacuffs (and players short on skill but long on toughness, grit and determination) will be pleased to hear that Matt Bradley has been signed to a 3 year contract extension. He'll make a million bucks a year, and earn every penny of it the hard way.

Alzner on board

2008-05-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

Per the team, the Capitals have signed Team Canada (jr) Captain and WHL player of the year Karl Alzner to a (standard) 3 year rookie contract. Alzner was the Caps first round pick (5th overall) in the 2007 entry draft.

I expect Alzner to split time between Hershey and Washington next year, unless he shows something truly remarkable in development and training camp. The Deuce, however, has him pegged as a full time Cap in his rookie season. I'll gladly pay up the 20 bucks I bet him if that's the case, since he's been pegged as the rock solid physical defenseman the Caps so desperately need. For more on Alzner, click here to read Vogs' washingtoncaps.com feature.

9 out of 10 NHL players agree

2008-05-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

Well, technically it's 8.7 out of 10 NHL players, but we'll round up. Alex Ovechkin is The Sporting News' NHL player of the year, receiving 250 of a possible 287 votes from his peers. Evgeni Malkin finished second (just like the Penguins are about to do) with 18 votes.

Lepisto scores! Lepisto scores! Wait... that's not a good thing?

2008-05-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

Normally, watching Sami Lepisto score in overtime would be good times for Caps (and Bears) fans, but if you're a fan of USA hockey it's the last thing you wanted to see this morning. Caps farmhand Sami Lepisto ended team USA's run 3 minutes and 59 seconds into overtime, sending Team USA packing and moving Finland into the semifinals of the tournament for the third straight year.

IIHF Brawl for it all, part II

2008-05-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

Fate clearly has a sense of humor. After crushing Norway 9-1, the US will play their first elimination of the IIHF world championships tomorrow... against Finland.

The whole US-Finland "brawl" thing

2008-05-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

Earlier today while I was at work, my girlfriend sent me the following email:

"Subject: US vs. Finland hockey tournament debacle

Did you hear about this? Talk about poor sportsmanship--- bad call or not, how embarassing..."

When I saw her later, she asked why I hadn't emailed her back on the subject. It turns out she'd read this AP article on a link from AOL, which detailed the US team's 3-2 loss to Finland and a supposed cheap shot by Dustin Brown on Jussi Jokinen with time running out. I explained to her that I wanted to see the play before I commented on it.

After seeing the play and ensuing altercation (video below), I can say while the hit by Brown was illegal (shots to the head are automatic penalties in international play) he had every right to make a physical play on Jokinen. Brown was covering back defensively to keep Jokinen from potting an empty net goal, which is type of play the US expects from its youngsters. He lined up Jokinen for a big hit, which should not be unexpected as the game was not over yet and separating his opponent from the puck was the best way to prevent him from scoring. There would be nothing at all for the Finns to complain about had Jokinen's momentum not been slowed by the US defensemen's initial check, as Brown would have leveled the Finn with a perfectly clean check.

And as for the ensuing "brawl" (IIHF term for shoving match), the Finns have nobody to blame but themselves. They grabbed and pulled on the US players, as players in the European game like to do. But this time, Anssi Salmela took it a step too far and starting throwing punches, which he would immediately regret. He probably expected David Backes to throw a couple punches with his gloves on and back away. How very wrong he was.

Backes kept from throwing any big bombs and kept his gloves on until the moment Salmela dropped his gloves. Salmela didn't know it, but he was now in very big, very real trouble. Three Backes punches and a bloodied nose later, Salmela was holding on for dear life.

So just to clear it up, it was the Finns that turned a two minute minor into a rinkwide shoving match, and Anssi Salmela has no one to blame for the black and blue marks surrounding his eyesocket but himself.

Interested...

2008-05-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

Huet's agent to the Caps: "We're interested."
Caps to Huet "We're interested too."

Of course I totally made the second quote up, but I imagine it's pretty accurate.

The Russian Machine... two sport star?

2008-05-02T09:13:00.001-07:00

Evidently it's not just hockey coaches who recognize Alex Ovechkin's physical play! Fresh off being named a finalist for the Lester Pearson award (given to best player in the NHL as judged by the players), it looks like other professional leagues are taking notice!

Sadly, this isn't far off from how most mainstream media outlets cover hockey.

NHL Star Called Up To Big Leagues To Play For NFL Team

Your Hart Trophy winner, er, finalist

2008-04-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

Per the NHL, the Russian Machine has been named a finalist for the Hart Memorial Trophy (along with also rans Evgeni Malkin and Jarome Iginla), which is awarded annualy to "the player judged to be most valuable to his team" by the members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

If (when) Alex wins the award, he would be the first player in the Capitals history to be named regular season MVP. He would also be the second Russian (after Sergei Fedorov) and 6th European born player (Stan Mikita, Fedorov, Hasek twice, Jagr, Forsberg) to receive the award.

If you need a reminder of why Ovechkin deserves the award (yeah, right) the NHL's summary on the Machine is below:

"Ovechkin, a first-time Hart nominee, tallied 112 points (65 goals, 47 assists) in 82 games, capturing the Art Ross Trophy as NHL scoring leader and Maurice Richard Trophy as the League’s top goal scorer. He also led all players in power-play goals (22) and game-winning goals (11). Ovechkin set the single-season NHL record for goals by a left wing, surpassing Luc Robitaille's 63 with Los Angeles in 1992-93, and his 65 goals were the most by NHL player since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96. Ovechkin scored 51 of his goals in the 61 games after Bruce Boudreau was named head coach Nov. 22, pacing the 37-17-7 run that carried the Capitals into the playoffs."

Finalists for the Jack Adams Award for Coach of the Year will be announced tomorrow. Don't be surprised if, despite the amazing season he had, Coach Boudreau is left off the list. It seems asinine, but there are already some sportswriters who have already let slip that they refuse to vote for a coach in his first year with a team. Whatever. I think Coach B is probably too busy househunting for a long term living space in DC to be concerned about it.

That's enough of that

2008-04-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

Onward to the ~~consolation bracket~~ IIHF World Championships, where just about a third of the Caps roster is expected to play.

There's always next year

2008-04-23T14:36:00.002-07:00

Yes, the Caps are out of the playoffs. Yes, they're a young team and this experience will no doubt make them better in the long run (as you can read about in articles by just about everyone that can type). And yes, I'm hungover.

No more Caps games until October.

This sucks.

Believe

2008-04-18T17:13:00.001-07:00

Adjustments, or, why the Caps are losing this series 2-1

2008-04-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

Well, Caps fans, it hasn't been a pretty series so far, has it? The Caps are getting outworked, outplayed, and outmuscled. They've had decent stretches of play, but nothing approaching a 60 minute strong effort. So what's going wrong with the team right now? Glad you asked.

First, the Caps defensive corps has been totally unwilling to engage the Flyers physically before, during, or after the whistle. Don't get me wrong, the defense has been great at skating up to Flyers players and giving them a good talking to after they run our goaltender on every shift. Unfortunately, the Flyers don't seem to be listening to our polite requests that they stop doing so. In particular, Milan Jurcina (who is capable of playing a nasty physical game) Shoane Morrison (who needs to learn how to do so in a hurry) and Tom Poti (who can play rough but doesn't want to take a penalty because he's counted on to play so many tough minutes) seem just fine with watching their goaltender get run over and then slowly skating over to the Flyers player performing the deed and giving him a little love tap. That just won't get it done.

In order to make them listen, the defensive corps needs to make a statement by burying the next forward who makes even glancing contact with Huet, no matter whether they get penalized for it or not. I'm not talking about a little slash across the leg. I'm talking a full force cross check in the small of the back in the gap between the shoulder pads and the pants. The Flyers have no problem stretching the rules regarding contact with the goaltenders to their absolute limits (and it appears the referees have no interest in enforcing them) so someone on the Caps needs to make it known that there will be a steep price to pay for such borderline dirty play. If they can't step up and defend their crease they might as well walk out during introductions wearing golfing outfits and carrying a set of clubs, because their season is over.

The Caps other main problem has been their top line, which had been their saving grace during the regular season. The fix for the top line is simple: move Kozlov off it. While rookie Nicklas Backstrom has bounced back from a rough first set of games to perform at a playoff level in game three, Viktor Kozlov has shrunk from just about every challenge in front of him. He doesn't play physical, he's easily intimidated, his puck possesion game has gone to hell, and if you watch him he's not even skating hard (well, in fairness to Viktor, he's never done that).

If the Caps want to get going, they need someone on the right side that's not going to cough up the puck every time an opposing player gets near them. Maybe Kozlov hasn't gotten the memo that there are no shootouts in the playoffs so he figures he's saving up for that. Whatever the reason, he's absolutely KILLING the flow of the first line. If Chris Clark isn't ready to go for game four, the Caps need to think about promoting Matt Cooke to the first line.

In short, the Caps defense needs to start playing like it's the playoffs and repaying the mugging our forwards are receiving in kind, and the Caps first line needs to cut its dead weight and get a player out on the right wing that wants to win more than they want to get through a game without getting touched.

-------------------------------------------
Update: Of course. Per Tarik, Bruce Boudreau has made a change to the first line, but not the one suggested above. Sergei Fedorov moves up to center the first line between The Russian Machine and The Russian Disappearing Act.

Why the Flyers are Doomed to Fail for the Next Decade

2008-04-11T09:49:00.001-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Deuce breaks out his hatchet and murders the Flyers:

Since everyone is wrapped up in predictions and series breakdowns, I thought I would look at the futures of the two franchises facing off tonight at the Verizon Center. As others have noted, these two teams have taken two radically different views on rebuilding. The Flyers’ approach can best be described as “the quick fix,” sort of like that commercial where the engineers stick a piece of bubble gum over that crack in the Hoover Dam. The Caps, on the other hand, were patient, tearing down the team prior to the lockout/work stoppage, and rebuilding through draft picks and deadline acquisitions that do not bring contract obligations past this year.

After one bad year, in which they missed the playoffs, Philly went out like a drunken sailor in the Hotel California and brought in everyone’s favorite punk, Danielle Briere, and traded for and signed Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timmonen, Marty Biron. They then totally lost their minds and signed Mike Richards, everyone’s favorite 20-goal scorer, to an 11-year, $5.75 million a year contract. Good move. For this lunacy, Flyers GM Paul Holmgren was almost universally praised.

The Caps, on the other hand, took the hard road. They traded away Gonchar, Bondra, Nylander, Jagr, and the rest, and got back a bunch of young kids nobody had ever heard of and some draft picks in return. They stank the year before, and two years after the lockout. But they drafted intelligently, refused to panic and trade their prospects and draft picks, and played the kids, both in DC and Hershey. They made smart, reasonable free agent signings (Pothier, Nylander, Poti, Kozlov). For this approach, Ted Leonsis and GM George McPhee were almost universally panned. So let’s take a look at the rosters and salary cap numbers, shall we?

Philly:
Forwards of Note
Danielle Briere: $6.5 million/yr through 2014-15
Simon Gagne: $5.25 through 2010/11
Scott Hartnell: $4.1 through 2012/13
Mike Knuble $2.8 through end of next year
Jeoffrey Lupul: $2.8 through end of next year
Sami Kappanen & Scottie Upshall: $1.25 through end of next year
MIKE RICHARDS: $5.75 through 2019/20
RJ Umberger and Jeff Carter are RFAs this summer

Defensemen of Note
Kimmo Timmonen: $6.33 through 2012/13
Derian Hatcher: (wait for it --- wait for it ---) $3.5 million through end of next year
Mike Rathje: $3.5 million through 2010/11
Jason Smith: $1.975 through end of next year (UFA)
Braydon Coburn: $1.3 million starting next year for 2 years

Goaltenders: Wait for it, wait for it:
Marty Biron: $3.5 through 2009/10
Antero Nittymaki: $1.225 through 2009/10

Cap hit this year $55 million
Cap hit next year $49.5 million - and they still need to resign Umberger and Carter, who will be RFAs this summer.
Cap hit in 3 years: $33 million

Compare that with the Capitals:
Capitals Cap Hit this year: $39.021
Cap Hit next year: $34.8 million (but we still need to sign Green (RFA), Morrison (RFA), and Huet/Kolzig (UFAs))
Cap hit in 3 years: $28.4

So which roster would you rather have in 2009/10 for essentially the same salary cap hit?
Philly - with Briere (31 years old with 5 years left on his contract), Gagne (30 years old); Hartnell ((27 with 3 years left), Richards (24 years old with 9 years remaining); and VanRiemsdyck (on an entry level contract) up front, and
Timmonen (34 with 3 years remaining); Rathje (35); and Coburn (24) on the back line (and Biron and Nittymaki in net)

OR

Ovechkin (23 years old with 11 years remaining), Semin (25 years old coming up RFA the next summer), Clark (33 years old with a year remaining), Nylander (36 with a year remaining), Backstrom (21 and and RFA the next summer), Fleishmann (25 and RFA the next summer) up front; Poti (32 with 2 yrs left), Pothier (???) (32 with 1 year left), Green (who we know we’ll resign), Alzner on the back line (on an entry-level contract with 1 year remaining), Huet or Kolzig in net.

I think if we polled NHL GMs, even Holmgren would take that second lineup. In a second. And remember, that’s when you factor in 5 million a year or so for Green!

Even worse, the Flyers have killed themselves in the long term, as Briere will be a 6.5 million dollar cap hit when he’s 35 and 36 with a no-trade clause!
Timmonen will be a $6.3 hit when he’s 37!
MIKE FREAKING RICHARDS will be a $5.75 hit when he’s 34 years old.
AND, they’re just above-average enough to be a fringe playoff team for the next 6-7 years, meaning no high draft picks, no blue-chip sure fire young superstars in the near future. Oops.

The only deal the Caps have past 2010/11 is Ovechkin: at 9.5 a year. I’ll take that one. So the Flyers have taken the quick fix route back to the playoffs, where they are doomed to be a team that will be average to pretty good for the next, oh, six years or so. They’ll play a hard nosed, hard working style, have mediocre goaltending, and are doomed to eventually bow out to teams with more talented superstars. Sound familiar Caps Fans?

Boy, am I glad those days are over. On the other hand, the Caps still have some work to do…they have to resign their restricted free agents (Green, Morrison, Laich, Gordon, Fehr, probably in that order of importance), and lock up a solid netminder until we find out if Varlamov or Neuvirth are any good (Huet, anyone?), but even then, the Caps will have the salary cap room to make moves and add to an already potent lineup.

Sorry Philly. It looks like the Championship drought is going to last at least a decade or so longer. But you can always reminisce about the old days of the Broad Street Bullies, and talk about how tough your team is. And hey, how about them Eagles?

Oh, and one more thing: Jim Butler --- you’re an idiot. Only someone as dumb as you could insult an entire fan base in the NY Times, then act surprised when they (rightfully) hammer you for it.

An addendum

2008-04-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

Last year, I wrote this post on why the Caps would make the playoffs this year (and win a playoff series). There were a couple misfires (Dainius Zubrus isn't going anywhere? Really?) but for the most part it was pretty much on target. And although the focus lately has been on the Caps trade deadline acquisitions, this team would never have made the playoffs without one major addition made during the offseason:

That's right, folks. Tom Poti is the unsung hero of this Capitals team.

Now I know Poti's offensive numbers this season are nothing to write home about. In fact, his two goals this season tied his career low set in 2001-2002. But make no mistake, Tom Poti is the reason this team has a chance to compete for the Cup this year.

Without Poti, the Caps would have had no veteran leadership after Brian Pothier went down with a cuncussion. Without Poti (second overall in ice time per game, first among defensemen in time on the penalty kill) this defense would have lacked an anchor to hold the D together in tough spots. Poti has been by far the slickest defensive player on the ice, always making the right decision and making it quickly.

I can't say how many times I've turned to the Deuce during a game and said "You know who's a smart hockey player? Tom Poti." He could always be trusted to make the best play available without forcing the issue.

With a player with such a high hockey IQ on the backline, the Capitals knew that one side of the ice would always be taken care of as long as Poti was on the ice. That's exactly the kind of confidence that was missing from the team's defense last year.

So while we rightly celebrate the incredible ability of the Russian Machine, or the lightning-quick maturation of uber-rookie Nicklas Backstrom, or the great crunch time acquisitions of Huet, Fedorov, and Cooke, remember first that one summer day where the Caps signed the rock on which their young defense would be built. Remember July 1st as the day this playoff team was born.

Keep Philly fans out

2008-04-07T07:13:00.001-07:00

Go here. Buy playoff tickets. Wear red. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LET FLYERS FANS INTO OUR BUILDING.
Don't sell them tickets.
Don't give them tickets.
Steal their tickets and give them to Caps fans.

You get the idea.

Big ratings and a programming surprise

2008-04-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

Per the Capitals, yesterday's critical win against the Lightning drew the largest rating for a hockey game in Comcast Sportsnet history (a 2.7 rating). While this is great news, scoreboard watchers will be just as interested in this note buried in the last couple of lines of the release:

"The network will also carry the Philadelphia Flyers regular season finale against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday at 3 p.m., as the game most likely will have an effect on Washington’s playoff hopes."

Kudos to CSN for giving Caps fans a way to follow their team's fortunes by airing this out-of-market matchup.

And for those of you that get NHL Center Ice you might want to tune into tonight's game between the Bruins and Senators, which also has major implications for the Caps. How big, you ask? If the game ends in regulation (meaning no points for the loser), the Caps are guaranteed a playoff spot if they beat Florida Saturday. That, as they say, is frikkin HUGE.

Alex Ovechkin is a big star

2008-04-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

Per NHL.com, The Russian Machine is this month's #1 star. I guess 26 points (14 goals) in 14 games will do that for you.

How the Caps will win the Southeast Divison

2008-03-31T10:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, here we go.

The Caps have three games remaining.
The Hurricanes have three games remaining.

The Caps have 88 points.
The Hurricanes have 90.

Both teams have played 79 of 82 games.
Both teams will face off tomorrow at the Verizon Center.

Beating the Hurricanes on the scoreboard Tuesday will not wrap up the division title. The Caps need to do more. In the words of Coach Boudreau, they need to "touch somebody." Hard.

After Tuesday, the Capitals have a day off to recouperate. The Hurricanes do not. They hop on a bus home to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning the very next night. If the Caps play a pressing, physical, mean style of hockey and take some of the wind out of Carolina's sails, they may not have the gas left in the tank to ground the Lightning's speedy and talented top forward line.

Best case scenario: The Caps beat the 'Canes up Tuesday night, and the Lightning hold off a furious rally to beat Carolina. At that point, the Caps will have the chance to take the division lead the very next night... against a Tampa team playing the second half of back to back road games against playoff calibur opponents.

In other words, if the Caps can bust up Carolina enough, and the beat up Canes throw everything they have against Tampa and can't secure two points, they may inadvertently seal their own demise by tiring out the Lightning before they play a well rested Caps team on Thursday.

But wait, it gets better. After a single day of rest after their game against the lightning, the Canes take on the Florida Panthers on April 4th. With their backs against the wall, the Canes will most certainly throw everything they've got at Flordia. And guess who gets to play the Panthers the very next day with a day's rest? You guessed it. Your Washington Capitals.

So, ironically, the Canes may do the most of any team to help vault Washington into the playoffs, while forcing themselves out.

Of course, all this depends on the Caps winning Tuesday. So grab your red gear (and red facepaint) and get a good night's sleep tonight. After all, the Caps season hangs in the balance. You want to be good and ready to give your team the home team advantage they deserve, right? Then have a cup of tea tonight, rest your vocal chords, and get ready to scream your brains out tomorrow.

If you don't have tickets, then shame on you. Click here to get em. And bring your "A" game tomorrow night. The Caps have been doing it for the stretch run. It's time to return the favor.

Of faith lost... and faith restored

2008-03-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

After the first period of last Wednesday's debacle with Chicago, I have to admit I turned off the television and headed out of the house. The Caps looked like a team whose time had finally run out. The Caps were playing a tired, sloppy game and it looked as if the pressure that had been bearing down on them all season long had finally taken its toll. When I came back later that night and checked the highlights (I couldn't bear to watch the entire game on my DVR), it didn't get any better. A 5-0 loss to a Chicago team not known for its defensive prowess? Surely this was the end for the Caps.

Friday night, I set my DVR to record the game against the Thrashers, more as a postmortem than anything else. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I did know that if I didn't take my girlfriend out for dinner that night instead of watching the game live that the Caps season wouldn't be the only thing in danger.

So I left, hoping against hope Alex Ovechkin would at least tally a goal and bring him closer to the magic number: 60 goals. I thought that the team was too young and too exhausted to produce a win on the road. And when I called the Deuce from my house after returning from dinner, he quickly reinforced my beliefs. I asked him if I could come over to his house and watch the end of the game, since he had recorded it and was at the end of the second period.

"I don't think you want to" was his reply. I asked the score, and he told me. 3-1 Thrashers. Not good. Not good at all. The Caps have had all sorts of trouble with the Thrashers this season, exemplified by a 2-0 loss in which the Caps were essentially trapped to death by a team that at the time lacked its only reliable goal scorer in Ilya Kovalchuk.

I asked who scored, and the Deuce provided what I expected to be the only good news of the night. Ovechkin had tallied number 59 in the first period. "Oh well," I thought to myself. "I might as well head over there just in case he pots sixty." A Capitals win was not even a blip on the radar at this point.

Just a few minutes later, I was in front of the television and watching as the Thrashers looked to snuff the Caps playoff hopes for the year by suffocating them with the oh-so-boring trap. And for the first five minutes or so of the third, that looked like exactly what was going to happen.

And then it happened. It didn't start with a goal, but rather a bone-jarring, damn-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead monster of a hit by Ovechkin on the forecheck. It exeplified everything about Ovechkin that has made him the talk of hockey fans around the world. It showed passion, speed, power, and above all else the burning fire to win. We will not go quietly into the night, his beautiful and brutal check seemed to ring out in the arena.

It stood as a statement for the players on both teams to see. You could see the look on the Russian Machine's face as he skated back into the play immediately afterwards. It needed no translation, no interpretation.

THIS GAME IS NOT OVER. I AM NOT FINISHED WITH IT YET.

And thus the onslaught began. Bruce Boudreau knew his season depended on getting his best players on the ice at all times, so he shortened the bench and rotated two lines: Ovechkin-Backstrom-Kozlov and a hodgepodge of the rest of the team as the second line. The move paid off beautifully. Had the Caps rotated three lines, they would never have been able to keep the constant pressure on Kari Lehtonin and the Thrashers. But with Ovechkin and Backstrom on the ice every other shift, the constant crashing of their offensive forays against the Thrashers overmatched defenders was simply too much to bear.

Yet again it was Ovechkin leading the way, working down in the trenches setting a screen for a Mike Green slapshot and deftly depositing the rebound over the shoulder of a helpless Lehtonin. The joy on Ovechkin's face after 60 was as vibrant as the sun on a clear summer day, but behind it there was the menace, the ruthless, awe-inspiring drive that would not be denied.

Great players feed off each other, and Ovechkin's passion energized the entire team, but most importantly it inspired Nicklas Backstrom to play the best period of his life. Four minutes of intense Capitals pressure after Ovechkin's 60th, Backstrom took a pass in deep from a pinching Mike Green and fired an absolute rocket past Lehtonin, who was beginning to wilt under the Capitals constant barrage. The shot was something you'd expect from Ovechkin or Semin, but from a setup man like Backstrom? Clearly, something special was in the works for the Caps.

Less than a minute later, with score tied and the Thrashers reeling, Ovechkin and Backstrom combined one more time to seal the victory. Ovechkin fired himself from the faceoff dot as if he was shot out of a cannon, beating both Thrashers to a loose puck behind the net in the process. He deftly passed it to Backstrom, who was camped on the short side of the crease. Backstrom made no mistake as he calmly slotted the puck into the net, and the Capitals rejoiced, their season saved for at least another game.

Whether or not the Capitals are able to secure a playoff spot this season, the last 10 minutes of the game against Atlanta showed what this young team and, in particular, its two young stars have brought to Washington. This team may not win out this year, but their time is coming. Any fan that saw Ovechkin and Backstrom on that amazing Friday night knows it.

Something's missing here

2008-03-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

So far, I've checked both Washington papers in order to get some perspective on yesterday's game, and they both fail to address a major issue: the horrendous officiating. It's one thing if the refs missed a call or two, but to miss a blatant trip that immediately resulted in a goal and call a non-existant dive in order to even things up late in a tight game? Just terrible.

For visual evidence of the first blown call, see below:

Now, at the top of the frame you'll see the referee responsible for handling calls in the defensive and neutral zone skating away from the play to pick up the pieces of a broken stick, which meant he was out of position and unable to view the play. Fortunately, the NHL has a two referee system in which the far side official (whose primary zone is the offensive zone) has the right to make a call if his partner misses it. The offensive zone official swallowed his whistle for no apparent reason, and because Brooks Laich was taken down on the play he was unable to cover the third man into the zone (Kobesaw), who was wide open for the only goal the Bruins would score in the game.

The Ovechkin diving call was as ridiculous a call as the trip on Laich was a non-call. Ovechkin had charged into the offensive zone at full speed and was attempting to split the defense when not one but BOTH defensemen lodged their sticks between the Russian Machine's legs. Ovechkin went down (not surprising, since you can't really skate on wood or fiberglass or whatever sticks are made of nowadays) and the referee made a call that was more out of the dead puck era than today's NHL. Instead of simply making the right call, the official "evened up" the penalty by calling Ovechkin for the (non-existant) dive. The result? Instead of a 5 on 4 power play, the teams would skate 4 on 4 and the Caps would be without one of their best players for the entirety of the penalties. It was a chickensh-t call by a chickensh-t ref.

It's not neccesarily an indicator officials are having an off night when there are as many "ref you suck" chants as "Lets go Caps" ones. What IS indicative of a terrible showing is veteran defenseman Tom Poti making comments to a locker room reporter about the slanted officiating while the game was still in progress, which will undoubtedly lead to a large fine. Players in the league know that the calls aren't always going to go their way, and are accepting of that. When they're willing to voice their displeasure in a public forum and take the financial hit that come with it (and they're not crybabies like Jagr or Lemeuix), you know they've got a legitimate beef.

The officiating debacle very nearly overshadowed the game, which the Caps were able to pull out in the shootout with a great delay shot by Alex Semin and a typically nonchalant (read: slooooooooooooooow) move to spread Alex Auld's legs and put the puck between them by Viktor Kozlov. If the NHL expects to have paying customers in the stands, they best be sure that they improve the level of officiating in their games, ESPECIALLY games involving one team in a "traditional" hokey market (like Boston or Toronto) and one that is not. Otherwise the impression will continue to exist among fans that the league has a vested interest in who makes the playoffs (the "traditional markets" and who doesn't (everyone else). And that is as damaging an impression as any other to the league's integrity and a threat to the expansion of the game into non-traditional markets.

A tough draw

2008-03-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight, the Caps look to rage against the dying of their playoff light against the Calgary Flames. And with Calgary coming in (wait for it, wait for it) on fire, taking points in 9 of their last 10 and winning 7 of those games outright, the Caps had better bring their "A" game.

For Calgary, the formula for victory is simple. Trap the hell out of the Caps and fire everything at the net in the offensive zone. Calgary is one of the better teams in the league at clogging the neutral zone, and the post-lockout Capitals have been frustrated by the trap time and time again. And while it seems counterintuitive for the Flames to play a plodding, counterstrike oriented, utterly boring style of play with lightning quick forwards Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay up front and Dion "I kill people for fun, man" Phaneuf patrolling the back line, one certainly can't argue with the results it has produced.

Throw in the fact that Mikka Kiprusoff and Jarome Iginla (fresh off his milestone goal earlier this week) are both stepping up their game as the playoffs draw near, and the Caps hopes for a win tonight seem slim.

Which is exactly what this team needs. Like most young teams, the Caps play their best hockey when they are considered the underdogs. While there is certainly still pressure to produce points and eke into the final playoff spot, most now view the Caps as a team that will be on the outside looking in come the end of the season. Much like a boxer who gets knocked down early in a fight, the Caps are now free to swing for the fences and play with reckless abandon, knowing that they have to score a knockout (or in this case a series of knockouts) to win.

The Caps know that they've been bloodied by the losses this past weekend. They've been knocked down, hurt, and their pride bruised. Now, as the toughest opponent left on their schedule looms in front of them, the question is this: Will they reach deep within themselves and find the strength to rise up and continue the fight?

Two quotes say it all

2008-03-10T08:15:00.000-07:00

"Well, there go the playoffs."
- the Deuce after watching the Penguins defeat the Caps at home yet again to effectively end the Caps playoff chances.

"(Expletive) the Penguins and (expletive) you."
- Original 6 to a group of obnoxious Penguins supporters outside the Verizon Center after the game.

Hey, we're not called 3 Grumpy Caps fans for nothing.

Three points and a world of difference

2008-03-05T07:54:00.001-08:00

Tonight, when the puck drops in Buffalo and the Sabres take on the Washington Capitals, the teams will be separated by only three points in the standings. Both teams will have played 67 games at that point, and both teams are currently on the outside of the playoffs looking in. Aside from those points, the two franchises couldn't be headed in more opposite directions.

The Capitals are clearly on the upswing. Their rebuild may have cost the team in the short term, but the organization's pre-lockout fire sale set the team up to be successful in the long term. Along with winning the lottery and grabbing all-universe talent Alex Ovechkin, the team has steadily stockpiled draft picks and prospects, including (but not limited to) NHL regulars Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, and Shoanne Morrison. The Caps also have highly touted defensive prospects "Giant" Joe Finley and Karl "the human quote machine" Alzner in the pipeline, as well as more draft picks than you can shake a stick at. Once the organization sensed the time was right, it was able to use a 2nd round draft pick and a mid-level prospect to bolster the team's playoff hopes. And the Caps have one of the better (and wealthier) ownership groups in the game, which made their superduperultramega deal to keep Ovechkin in DC for 13 years possible.

Meanwhile, the Sabres have been on a downswing ever since their run in the Stanley Cup playoffs was so rudely snuffed out by Ottawa last season. The Sabres have since lost their top two centers (Drury and Briere) to free agency, and were forced to part with their top defenseman at the trade deadline. And before Sabres fans start moaning about the financial issues that prevented them from keeping their players, remember that the Sabres had the opportunity to sign Briere to a long term deal the season before last, and decided to take their chances with a one year deal with the young center. The decision cost them one of their best players and what could have been a cornerstone of a young team. Instead, they got nothing for Briere when he bolted for Flyers and a boatload of cash. Now, certainly financial issues motivated the moves (or lack thereof) that the Sabres have made the past few seasons, but the fact is they've also made some poor personnel decisions to compound their plight.

As these two teams scrap for a playoff spot, one thing is certain. The future looks a whole lot brighter for the Caps than it does for the Sabres.

But tonight is not about the future. Tonight is about the present. Can the Caps come up large against a depleted but passionate Sabres squad and pull within one of Carolina for the division lead (and within 2 points of the Rangers and the #8 seed)?

And by the way, today is one of the few days in the season where it's permissible to root for the Thrashers.

Credit where credit is due

2008-03-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

With the offensive explosion last night, most of the credit is (justifiably) being heaped upon Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. That's all well and good, but Ovechkin's magical first period performance was made possible by a much less glamorous player: Donald Brashear. Though his first period efforts only produced PIMs on the scoresheet, Brashear's tussle with Zdeno Chara set the stage for the Caps offensive eruption.

Why, you ask? It's simple. For years now Zdeno Chara has been one of the few players in the NHL capable of shutting down Alex Ovechkin. And when Chara dropped the gloves with the Donald, it guaranteed that he would be off the ice for five full minutes (as would Brashear). That's a tradeoff Coach Boudreau would take every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

When Chara heard the penalty box doors slam shut, the score was 2-0. By the time it opened again, the score was 4-0 and the Caps were off and running. Indeed, Big Zeke was so frustrated that he promptly took a minor penalty trying to goad Matt Bradley into fistacuffs moments later. Way to pick on someone your own size, big man. Bradley did the smart thing (in more ways than one) by keeping his gloves on and his nose clean, and the Caps promptly scored again on the ensuing power play. None of this would have occurred without Brashear's fearlessness and, just as importantly, the intelligence to see that Chara was agitated and would drop the gloves if goaded.

Naturally, Brash's smart play was rewarded with more ice time (the fact that the Caps were up by a handful of goals probably didn't hurt, either) and a goal late in the second. A job well done by a man whose hockey intelligence is often underrated.

Game highlights (sans fistacuffs) can be found below for your viewing pleasure:

Maddening inconsistency

2008-03-03T13:19:00.000-08:00

First off, we'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who dropped by Clydes of Gallery Place and supported Wilson High School's hockey team. The event raised over $2000 for the team, which is a testament to the generosity of the hockey loving public here in DC. And thanks to the folks over at OFB for putting on the event. We now return you to your regularly scheduled grousing.

Ok, as of this moment we're no longer using the term must win in accordance with any Capitals game because at this point every game is a must win game. More of this win one, lose one crap just won't cut it. So lets take a moment to examine this weekend's games, then we'll move on to tonight's tilt against the red, er, yellow-hot Bruins.

This weekend had the potential to catapult the Caps back into contention for the Southeast Division title. And after the game against New Jersey on Friday night, it looked like that might just happen. The Caps played a very solid all around game against New Jersey, limiting the Devils to only 18 shots and thoroughly dominating the action. New aqcuisitions Sergei Fedorov and Cristobel Huet both made an impact, with Fedorov notching a pretty second assist on the power play and Huet stoning Zach Parise one on one to keep the Caps lead intact. The Caps also finally showed a killer instinct, piling on a couple late goals to preserve a well earned win.

Unfortunately, all that good was undone by a less than stellar effort against Toronto the next day. Olie Kolzig was solid in goal, but was beaten high to the short side by Leafs captain Mats Sundin, who snuck the shot in from near the upper part of the faceoff circle. It was a good goal, to be sure, but one can't help but wonder if Huet wouldn't have snagged it. The rest of the Capitals also looked lethargic and generally disorganized after dominating the first period. Alex Ovechkin broke out of his scoring slump, rifling a shot low to the left side past the helpless Leafs goaltender. Unfortunately, that was about all the offense the Caps produced, despite several power play opportunites.

In regards to the power play, I think it's time the Caps abandoned the whole Ovechkin at the point idea. It was cute when the Caps didn't have enough puck moving defensemen, but that's no longer the place with Green and Poti (and even new arrival Fedorov) more than capable of handling power play time at the point. And Ovechkin's one timer from the high slot is as unstoppable a shot as there is in the game, so it makes no sense to remove that weapon from the Caps arsenal. The Caps have suffered from overthinking and overpassing lately, and if there's one thing we know about the Russian Machine, it's that he's more than willing to take it upon himself to shoot the puck. Which is exactly what the power play needs right now.

The Caps badly need to win tonight's game (and the next one, and the one after that, and the one after that) if they are going to make the playoffs. In order to do that, they're going to have to do a couple things they aren't very good at. First, they're going to have to get past Zdeno Chara, who has been one of the few defensemen in the NHL capable of shutting down the Russian Machine. Second, they're going to have to get pucks past Tim Thomas, who has been a wall (albeit an unorthodox mess of a wall) against the Caps, posting a 8-0-1 record all time while recording a .940 save percentage. Luckily, the Caps have Chris Huet to throw at the Bs. His stats are equally impressive, with a 8-2-0 record and a .940 save percentage against Boston.

With all that said, I don't see a 1-0 game happening tonight. If the Caps have taught us anything this year, it's to expect the unexpected. I see the Caps pulling tonight's game out 4-2 (with an empty netter) if only to actually kill Original 6 by causing a heart attack at the game.

Come on down

2008-02-29T06:54:00.000-08:00

Just a friendly reminder for all our readers to come on down to Clydes of Gallery Place tonight at 7 to support a great cause and catch the Capitals debut of Cristobel "I guess you can call me Chris since I'm in English speaking territory now" Huet and Sergei "I'm thinking of retiring, but once I play a few games with Ovechkin and Semin and rack up a few easy points I'll stick it out for another year" Fedorov as they take on the Devils.

It's $10 to get in the door, but bring more as there will be lots of great items up for auction (most hockey related, some not). So come on down, catch the game with a bunch of Caps fans, and support DC's first and, so far only, public school hockey program.

If you can't make it, but want to support Wilson's Hockey program, click here to donate via paypal.

Hope to see you all tonight!

Big offense from an unexpected source

2008-02-27T07:41:00.000-08:00

If you heard nothing about last night's game, and someone told you that one of the Caps had two goals and two assists on the night and the Caps won 4-1, who would you bet had the 4 point night?
Lets see:
The Russian Machine? Nope.
Alexander Semin? Nope.
Nick Backstrom? Nope.
Kozlov? Didn't even dress.
Mike Green? Sorry.

How long would it take to come up with Brooks Laich?

That's the great thing about Brooks' performance last night. The team has placed a lot of faith in Brooks, for the last several games he's been rewarding that faith with a level of play that, quite honestly, I don't think many folks (including us) had in him. But up until the last 5 games or so, he just hadn't been able to break through on the scoresheet.

But man, has he ever this past two weeks. In his last 5 games, Brooks has tallied better than a point a game (4 goals, 2 A) and has been playing rough and tumble hockey in every zone. Last night he scored two goal scorer's goals in tight against a legitimate number one goaltender in Niklas Backstrom. If there's been one complaint we've had against Brooks, it was that he just couldn't finish off plays. With the Caps season on the line, he's stepped it up and is starting to find the twine. That's especially important given the "attention" opposing teams continue to give the first line. Secondary scoring will likely determine whether the Caps make the playoffs or not. If Brooks and Co (and new addition Sergei Fedorov) can keep potting a couple goals a game, the wins will come.

Other notes on the game last night-

Great attendance for a Tuesday night (even if there were all kinds of promotions for the evening). It's been a while since that many folks have taken in a Tuesday night game at the V.

Chris Bourque looked very solid in limited action. Solid talent, good work ethic on the ice. Even if he doesn't secure a spot on the playoff roster, you can bet we'll be seeing a lot more of him next season in a Caps jersey.

Mike Green may have been caught out of position on the Wild goal, but it was Ovechkin's failure to clear the puck out of the zone which cost the Caps.

The defense performed extremely well, even if they did run around a bit too much in their own zone. Ditto the penalty killers, who kept Peter Bondra lookalike Marian Gaborik off the scoresheet completely.

Poor Steve Eminger. He's clearly frustrated right now, as his penalty for elbowing early in the game indicated. He's trying to play the body hard, to do everything he can to secure playing time, and two minutes in the box is what he gets. You gotta feel for the guy.

The Caps next must win game (and they all are from this point on) is this Friday against the Devils. Hopefully Kozlov sneezed on Brodeur last game and he'll have to take a seat.

Make that TWO moves we did NOT see coming

2008-02-26T09:22:00.001-08:00

The Caps traded a second round pick in 2009 for Montreal Canadiens goaltender Cristobel Huet today. Even though it's technically a rental, you can bet George McPhee made this trade to evaluate how Huet would fit with this young team long-term. Huet has a solid 21-12-6 record with a 2.56 GAA this season.

Huet could be the bridge the team is looking for between veteran (soon to be UFA) goaltender Olie Kolzig and the prospects currently too green for regular NHL service (Varlamov and Neuverth). Of course, all that depends on how he performs in spot duty this year and whether the team secures his rights this offseason.

It also shows that while the Caps have said all the right things about him, they don't have the confidence in Brent Johnson to hand over the reigns to him without another capable puckstopper waiting in the wings.

It's surprising that the Caps could secure Huet as a rental for such a low asking price. A proven NHL starter is only worth a second round pick? This is where the Caps hoarding of picks comes in handy. If they lose one second rounder if Huet walks, they have plenty more picks (which other teams don't, making the pick much more difficult to part with). Good organizational planning.

The Habs had to make the move for the opposite reason : poor organizational planning. They are up against the Cap and probably wouldn't have been able to sign Huet this offseason, so they had to unload him even though they probably would have liked to have kept him in case Price flops like the rookie he is this postseason.

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According to Tarik, the Caps have just acquired Sergei Fedorov for draft pick Theo Ruth.

This certainly addresses their need for a second line center. Even Fedorov in the twilight of his career is an upgrade from Kozlov at center.

All the comments above on renting Huet apply to Fedorov, except the salary cap issues for the other team. It's safe to say Columbus will be well below the cap next year.

It's all fine.

2008-02-21T09:43:00.000-08:00

That's okay, boys. No need to worry. It's fine to take a night off now and again. It's not like you're in the middle of a race for a playoff spot, or that the Islanders are one of the teams you're likely to be competing with for the 8th seed. No need to show any urgency.

Wait, you mean we are, and they are? Then why on earth did it look like a peewee preseason game out there last night? No hitting, no intensity, no hard skating, and most importantly, NO WIN.

This team has had a terrible habit of playing down to the level of their opposition. They can't beat a lousy Florida team (and haven't been able to do so for years). They give away points against teams they should blow out of the building, like last night's Islander team that was missing pretty much everyone of note to injury. The Caps should have beaten that team 6-0 last night. Instead, they lost 3-2 in a shootout.

And it wasn't as if Rick DiPietro stole a win for his team. He was solid, but unspectacular. The Caps simply didn't pressure him.Young team or not, this can't be allowed.

If Coach Boudreau was as insulted by the effort last night as I was, I wouldn't want to be a Cap at practice today.

No need for pucks out there today, boys. Just skate until you're exhausted, then skate some more. Blue line, then back, then red line, then back, then far blue line and back, then goal line and back. Don't have enough jump in your step to skate past an old, slow, and depleted corps of Islander blueliners? Then I guess we need to work on those legs. Keep skating. No, I don't care if you're tired, or if your leg hurts, or if you need a breather. Keep skating. Feel like you're going to vomit? Believe me, you're not the only one that feels that way after last night's "performance." Just keep skating.

After all, the Caps next game isn't until Saturday. Plenty of time for the players to recover from a good hard skate before then.
---------------------------------------------
*Update: Of course, Coach B has decided to cancel today's practice to give the guys some rest.

Stepping up

2008-02-19T16:08:00.000-08:00

During the Caps recent road swing through most of the Southeast Division, it became painfully clear that teams are throwing everything up to and including the kitchen sink at Alex Ovechkin in an attempt to slow the Russian Machine's insane scoring pace. Common sense dictates that to beat the Caps, other teams need to drape Ovechkin in third line players, hoping that enough will stick on him to keep him contained and off the scoresheet.

Certainly, if the Caps are to make the playoffs, Ovechkin will have to continue with his awe-inspiring play. But what of the rest of the team? Who is capable of stepping up and delivering star-level performances on a nightly basis from now until the end of the season? We may have seen the answer in the Caps performance on Sunday in Tampa.

If the Caps are going to win the Southeast, they'll need consistently excellent performances from Olie Kolzig and Alexander Semin. This should surprise no one, as secondary scoring and goaltending are keys to every team's success. The pressure on Semin and Kolzig will be far beyond that of most goaltenders and scoring wingers down the stretch, for many reasons.

Alexander Semin has always been an enigma. A supremely talented dangler with a deadly wrist shot, he racked up 38 goals and 35 assists in his first full season of NHL play. He could easily have doubled his assist numbers had he not been playing with AHL level talent for most of the year.

Expectations for the uber-talented wing were sky high coming into his second season, even with his position switch from left to right wing. And then, before the season even began, it happened. Semin went behind the net on a routine play against the Flyers, made contact with an opposing defenseman, and went down in a heap. He stayed down for several minutes before being helped to the bench. Although he did test the ankle on a shift later in that same game, it was clear that something was wrong. How wrong, none of us knew at the time.

We kept waiting for Semin's ankle to get better. And waiting. And waiting. Almost 20 games we waited. Meanwhile, the team was in a downward spiral that would result in the release of Coach Glen Hanlon. Semin returned to the lineup, but was clearly not comfortable or fully fit. Paired with Michael Nylander and the left wing of the day, Semin produced lackluster (minus) game after lackluster (minus) game. Which is not to say that there weren't valid reasons for his lack of production. After all, Semin was still recovering from an injury which severely hampered his mobility, perhaps his second most important hockey attribute (after that amazing wrister). And most outside the organization didn't know it at the time, but Nylander was playing on half a shoulder, and eventually opted for season ending surgery. The second line on the Caps was outplayed and outclassed most nights and both Semin and the team were clearly frustrated.

However, as of late we've seen Semin's star beginning to rise again. As his mobility and touch improved with each passing day after the all-star break, we began to see some of the jaw-dropping, game-breaking moves that made him such fun to watch in the first place. His cuts and quick stop-and-starts improved to the point that he became a legitimate scoring threat from anywhere in the offensive zone, whether he was facing the net or not.

And Sunday, he put together his best overall performance, starting by feeding Tomas Fleishmann with a fantastic curl and pass that Flash deposited into the back of the net. He also scored off a rebound late in the third period to rebuke a Tampa comeback attempt and seal a two point night for the Caps. More important than the goal itself was the way Semin scored it. He showed the speed he lacked most of the season beating both defenders and to the puck and sliding it past Holmqvist for the win. Semin was also aggressive, attacking the net the way pure goal scorers must.

If the Caps are going to make the playoffs, they're going to need to see a lot more of that from him. Likewise, they're going to need a lot more performances like they saw that night from Olie Kolzig.

Kolzig was solid for most of the night, but more importantly, he was SPECTACULAR when he needed to be, stopping 24 shots in the second period when his team clung to a one nothing lead. In the third, Kolzig was again amazing, beaten only by two deflections in tight.

To friends, I've often described Caps games post-Hanlon era as a race to 4. Whoever scored four goals first was going to win the game. This exciting (and often hair raising) style of play led to more than a few top quality scoring chances by the opposition, and for most of the year Olie was not up to the challenge. He looked, for lack of a better description, his age. His lateral movement and positioning seemed off, and because of it he was kicking out too many hard rebounds and giving up too many scoring chances. He looks to have righted the ship for the playoff push after some much needed (though grudgingly taken) rest.

If Kolzig can keep opposing teams to 3 or less for the majority of their remaining games and Alex Semin can once again become a dominant scorer, the Caps should lock up at least an 8 seed, if not the Southeast Division title. If not, they'll be golfing early again this year.

Auction/ Fundraiser to benefit Wilson High School's Hockey program

2008-02-15T13:03:00.001-08:00

Where: Clydes of Gallery Place
When : Friday, February 29th at 7 PM.
How much: $10
Why: To support the Wilson Tigers, the DC Public School system's first hockey program.

For more info on the event, click here. For more on the Wilson Tigers hockey program, click here.

Hope to see you all there.

Thanks to the folks at On Frozen Blog, Japers Rink, The Peerless Prognosticator, Capital Addiction, and Off Wing Opinion for making this happen.

Learning to win... ugly

2008-02-11T12:58:00.000-08:00

The game against the Rangers on Sunday afternoon marked a turning point for this young Capitals team. It's one of the first times I can remember that the Caps have been thoroughly outplayed, outshot, taken too many penalties and still escaped with a victory. For a young team learning to win ugly, to get two points despite playing a less than stellar game, is one of the hardest things to do.

The Caps got off to a good start, with Alex Ovechkin pouncing on a loose rebound to put the Caps up 1-0 after a delay of game call on career minor league goaltender Steve Valiquette. But after that, the Caps would show only short spurts of offense, and spent most of the game mucking it up in the neutral zone or chasing the puck in their own.

Agitator and all around douchebag Steve Avery was able to take a freak bounce off the sideboard, cut inside Shoanne Morrison (who was unable to control the bouncing puck) and fire a quick wrist shot past Olie Kolzig to tie the game at one. The score seemed to lift the Rangers to life, as they spent the next period dominating puck possesion and the flow of play. They were rewarded with a Chris Drury putback of a Martin Straka shot from the hash marks that put the Rangers ahead.

That is where the Caps newfound confidence seemed to keep them in the game. Instead of panicking and having the players break out of the system and attempt to win the game singlehandedly, they stuck with their gameplan, kept firing pucks at the net, and caught a break when Alex Ovechkin fired an off balance one legged shot on goal, which Valiquette was unable to fully control. Boyd Gordon pounced on the rebound and slid it underneath the diving goaltender, and the Caps were back in business.

The Rangers still held control of the game for the rest of the game, but strong goaltending by Olie Kolzig combined with an effective penalty killing lead by Dave Steckel and Brooks Laich kept the Rangers off the board. And then, less than a minute before the third period was to expire, Ryan Hollwig blatantly tripped a Capitals player, setting up almost a minute and thirty seconds of 4 on 3 in overtime. It wouldn't take nearly that long, as Mike Green blasted a shot from the top of the circles past Marc Staal and a screened Valiquette for the win.

Other notes on the night:

It was good, no, it was GREAT to finally see the Caps win a game in front of a big home crowd against a team whose fans tend to be real jerks when the visit DC. Don't believe me? After a burrito giveaway between faceoffs, the Caps mascot pretended to dump an empty box of burritos on the head of a Rangers fan. The "fan" punched the box, and stood up as if he was going to strike the mascot (and generally for liability reasons the mascots are girls). Really classy. It's one thing to come support your team when they come to town. It's entirely another to be a drunk jackass when you do so.

Great job by the fans of stifling any attempts at a "let's go Rangers" chant in our building. Nice job, folks. Give yourselves a pat on the back. Especially Horn Guy. Way to cut 'em off at the knees.

Jaromir Jagr is past his prime. Waaaay past it.

Good to see Olie looking like the Olie of old (instead of old Olie), stopping 31 of 33 shots and being named the games first star.

Alex Ovechkin's goal was made possible by Eric Fehr's presence in front of the net. Fehr's got the tools, but it's still too early to pencil him in as a top line NHL power forward.

Jaw all you want, Colton Orr. It's become clear you're scared as hell of the Donald. And with good reason.

The Caps get a much needed rest until Wednesday, when they look to avenge one of their poorest performances of the year, a pathetic home loss to the Atlanta Thrashers in which the Caps allowed only 12 shots but lost 2-0.

One to grow on

2008-02-09T15:18:00.000-08:00

The Caps and Hurricanes had many things in common going into their game Saturday. Both teams had near identical statistics in goals for per game, goals against per game, and power play efficiency. The two teams had split the season series 2 apiece until last night. But the Hurricanes came away with two points, and the Caps with none. The reason? Because the Canes showed something the Capitals, for all their potential, are still looking for: maturity.

The Caps played an emotional and physical first period. Too emotional, and too physical. Players took too many runs at opponents trying to make big hits and too little time attending to the business of playing offensive hockey (and yes, Alex, we're talking about you). While they were busy trying to deposit Hurricanes into the stands, the Canes were busy trying to find ways to put the puck in the net.

Tom Poti is my hero

2008-02-06T09:26:00.000-08:00

There is no doubt who the Caps top acquisition was in free agency this past summer, and it's not who most people expected. Michael Nylander's signing may have made the biggest splash (thanks in no small part to his spurning of Edmonton and the coverage that followed), but Tom Poti has been the single most important signing of the season.

Take last night, for example. Poti played an absolute monster of a game, playing almost 22 minutes, blocking a sure goal by dropping into a semi-butterfly on the goal line behind a fallen Brent Johnson, scoring a goal by rushing the puck into the offensive zone and firing a shot high and tight into the net past the blocker of Norrena to knot the game at 3, and making a pretty cross ice pass to Ovechkin on overtime to produce the game winning goal. That's a lot of work for one guy (and a lot of words for one sentence).

Despite playing hurt for most of the year, Poti has been the anchor that has kept this defense in place. He plays extremely well positionally, but has been unafraid to play the body at every opportunity, even when it was clear that his shoulder was suffering as a result.

While his plus-minus rating is not stellar (even), he leads all Caps defensemen in minutes played and blocked shots, and his ability to make quick effective passes have kept the Caps from being pinned deep in their own zone, which they too often were last season. And while last night marked his first goal of the season, his offensive zone presence and passing ability have been invaluable. If the Caps are able to claw their way into a playoff spot, he'll be the first person not named Ovechkin whose play will be a deciding factor.

Other notes from last night:

Bill McCreary won't be getting any flowers from Caps defensemen for Valentine's Day. First he runs a pick on Shoanne Morrison, then he misses a clear goal by Tom Poti that had to be sent for review to be corrected. Everyone makes mistakes, but if the Caps D didn't feel persecuted after last night's "performance", they never will.

The Russian Machine - he must score. And he does, at a ridiculous pace. I don't think there was a person watching OT that didn't know the game was over as soon as they saw Poti pass the puck into space for Ovechkin. And the Machine didn't disappoint.

Rick Nash is fast. REAL fast. And unlike most speedsters, he has no problem controlling the puck at full speed. When he feels like playing hard, he's among the game's best.

Eric Fehr looked like a guy who hadn't played in the NHL in months, but he did show glimpses of what he's capable of as a player. He was a load to move in front of the opposing net, and created some dangerous scoring opportunities. And in the third, skating agains the boards and about to be ridden into the boards by the Columbus defensemen, he used what can only be referred to as a swim move, flipping the puck by the defenseman before angling his upper body past the D and using his arm to literally shove himself past. Now THAT's a power move, and it's something that's been sorely missed since the absence of Captain Clark.

Overall, an exciting game with a solid 2 point result. Hopefully the Caps will be able to take the momentum from this victory and break out to a quick lead against Philly tonight before the adrenaline wears off.

I don't get it (or "why I'll never be an NHL coach")

2008-02-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

With Eric Fehr recalled to Washington's lineup and apparently recovered from injury, the Caps have a chance to inject some size and toughness into their linuep. Which is a good thing. Except they're injecting it into a line that doesn't need it.

Tarik reports that Fehr is going to skate on the first line, opposite Alex Ovechkin. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the SECOND line that needs size and toughness? Let's take a look at the lines as they are reported:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Fehr
Fleischmann-Kozlov-Semin
Laing-Steckel-Bradley
Brashear-Laich-Gordon

Doesn't it make much more sense to move Fehr to the second line? Yes, Alex Semin plays right wing as well, but he played almost his entire career at left wing, so moving him isn't an issue. I understand the need to have a better playmaker at center, so lets assume we leave Kozlov as is. That leaves Semin-Kozlov-Fehr as a solid and balanced second line.

If Fleischmann can't play the right side, move one of the Caps defensive centers to the right wing on the first line. Seems to make sense. But chemistry is an odd thing, and clearly Boudreau thinks an all skill second line has a shot at putting up some numbers. Lets just hope they don't give up a lot more than they score.

Trouble here

2008-02-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, that was an interesting couple of games there, wasn't it? First, Alex Ovechkin singlehandedly defeats the Habs with the best individual performance of the last 10 years, then the Caps lay an absolute stinkbomb a couple days later, shut out by an Atlanta team devoid their only real scoring threat and playing the second end of back to back days. Both games did serve to highlight an important issue: nobody on the Caps not named or playing on a line with Alex Ovechkin is creating any offense.

The Caps second line has looked lost on offense after losing Michael Nylander for the year. Alexander Semin still doesn't look like he's 100 percent after his set of injuries. Tomas Fleishmann's overall game has improved immensely this season, but he still can't buy a goal. And Boyd Gordon is, well, Boyd Gordon. Defensively responsible, hard working, but completely average in the offensive zone.

And it doesn't get any better after that second line. Poor Matt Pettinger can't even receive a pass out there anymore. This from a guy who scored 20 goals two seasons ago and 16 in 64 games last season. Either he's playing with an undisclosed injury or his confidence is totally shot. Either way, he looks completely lost on the ice right now.

Hopefully, today's recall of Eric Fehr from Hershey will inject some much needed physical play up front. A load at 6'4" and 212 pounds, Fehr will hopefully produce what the current crop of Caps lack: grit. The Caps need a guy who is both willing to work in high traffic areas (much like Brooks Laich does) and can bury the puck in tight when given the opportunity (the opposite of what Brooks Laich does).

If Fehr is truly healthy and can help the Caps salvage a playoff spot, he may well redeem GM George McPhee, who reached for Fehr at number 18 over the consensus best player available (some schlub named Ryan Getzlaf).

Get over it

2008-01-31T14:06:00.000-08:00

A lot has been said by Caps players and coaches about Montreal's pinching and aggressive play with a minute to go in Tuesday's 4-0 loss. Which is ridiculous. Don't like being embarassed in the final minutes of play? Don't like having the other team attack when the result is no longer in question?

THEN DON'T PUT YOURSELF IN A POSITION TO ALLOW IT.

Quite simply, the Caps were handed their butts by Montreal two days ago. They need to focus on that, not the fact that the mean old Canadiens didn't let up on them at the end.

Don't want to get kicked while you're down? Great. There's a simple way to avoid it. DON'T GET KNOCKED DOWN IN THE FIRST PLACE. If the Caps hadn't played an absolutely horrendous first period, they wouldn't have had to worry about Montreal piling on at the end because they'd still be in the game.

Tonight brings the second leg of the home and home series. How much the Caps players believe they were being disrespected last game is totally irrelevant. How they come out and play tonight is all that matters. If they can back up their talk with hard nosed play and a win, then they'll be forgiven. If not, they'll look like a bunch of whining losers.

So which is it going to be?

The battle of the red, white and blue

2008-01-29T10:38:00.000-08:00

Tonight, the Caps travel north of the border to take on the Montreal Canadiens. The teams have split the season series so far, with Mike Green tallying the winner in a 5-4 win and Guillaume "Mr. 3 syllable" Latendresse netting the winner for Montreal in the second. Both teams come into the game scorching hot, winning 7 of their last 10.

To win this game, the Caps need to play to the Canadiens weaknesses, the most glaring of which is lack of physical players. Aside from Mike "I eat people for fun" Komisarek, there is not a Canadiens defenseman who Caps players need to fear in the offensive zone. Likewise, only 2 of Montreal's forwards are listed at 6'2" or taller. More importantly, none of them play like they're even that big. In order to keep the Canadiens 3 Ks (Koivu, Kovalev, and Kostitsyn) off the boards, the Caps need to play a rough and tumble physical game to keep them off balance.

For a blueprint, they should look to Pittsburgh's 2-0 victory over the Habs before the all-star break. Without Secondary Sid (and playing with a shortened bench), the Pens played a puck possesion game in the offensive zone, using their size advantage to keep the smaller Canadiens players at bay. The Habs skill could not get into a rythm on offense because they could not disposess Pittsburgh's forwards, and the end result was a win for the Penguins. In particular, enforcer Georges Laroque could have held the puck all night, and he's got about half the skillset of Caps tough guy Donald Brashear.

If the Caps can reproduce that kind of physical effort, they should be able to rely on their snipers to get at least a couple pucks past the rejuvinated Cristobel "I'm French, not French Canadien" Huet and escape with a win. If not, viewers may be in for a more enjoyable run and gun game, but the prospects of a Caps win drop to about 50-50.

Capitals Eke Out Win, Continue Roll; Caps 2; Leafs 1

2008-01-25T05:33:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Deuce:

After my long-winded post yesterday, I'll keep it short and to the point today. The Caps put together their most boring performance since Boudreau took over (with possibly the exception of that 0-2 Bruins loss a few games ago), but still managed to walk away with a much-needed win over the Leafs. This, of course, continues the Caps' streak of not losing back-to-back games since BB took over behind the bench. This resiliance, more than anything else, is the reason the Caps have skyrocketed in the standings since BB took over. It's hard to be under .500 when you don't lose back-to-back games! Anyway, on to the game points:

Erskine was a monster again last night, and I swear it's wearing off on the other defensemen. Eminger and Jurcina are throwing their bodies around out there with wild abandon. Of course, there were a couple of times when poor Johnny couldn't catch Blake behind the net, and looked a bit silly, but that's what you get with him. We'll take the physicality and give up the speed. Erskine's last shift (the last of the game) was priceless. He absolutely destroyed Blake behind the net, Blake gets up and goes to the front of the net. Erskine blasts him with a cross-check in the back that actually sent Blake flying out of the TV picture. Blake gets up, comes back towards the front, Erskine spears him in the nuts. Game over. See, Johnny understands something the younger defensemen don't -- with 10 seconds left, it's better to take a delayed penalty than to let a guy stand in front of your net and screen your goalie. Good job, Jonnny.

I guess it's safe to say Kozlov is a streaky scorer. His shooting percentage was approximately .03% going into the Florida game. Since then, it's about 30%. And twice, we actually saw him almost hit someone out there. Amazing. Dainius who?

Um, should I mention the elephant in the room? Brent Johnson was really, really sharp. If Kolzig is in that game, do we win 2-1? Not the way he's been playing lately.

Jeff Schultz is still too weak to take on most NHL forwards. We watched him line a Leaf up last night, step up, throw all of his 6'6" frame into the guy, and . . . the Leaf kept skating as if he'd just encountered a slight breeze playing shinny. Not good.

All in all, a crappy game, but we escaped with two very important points leaving the Capitals just one point out of first in the Southeast, with two games at hand. How's that playoff meter look now, Peerless? http://peerlessprognosticator.blogspot.com/

Erskine Decides to Do His Stevens Impersonation; Capitals 2, Leafs 3

2008-01-24T05:22:00.000-08:00

When did Johnny Erskine discover the ability to throw open ice hits like Scott Stevens?! The man was an absolute beast last night, clobbering Leafs forwards and putting the fear of God into them. Is it that Johnny has discovered something, or do the Leafs skate like Mites with their heads down? Either way, he was sure fun to watch last night. That hit on Darcy Tucker was priceless, then the check where he sent another Leafs forward flying into the boards had me out of my seat.

The best part is, his angry play seems to have rubbed off on the younger Capitals defensemen, with Mike Green flooring Blake and Steve Eminger throwing his body around as if his career depended on it (which, of course, it does). I must say that at this point I much prefer Eminger's desperate play to Schultz's "simple" (read: weak) plays. Yes, Schultz is 6'6", and yes, he has a ten foot wingspan, but what good is size if you don't use it. I think some more seasoning in Hershey is just the ticket for young Jeff. Either that, or a few workouts with this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Conte.

Anyway, the Caps were lulled into playing the Leafs' style of boring, boring, boring, slow hockey last night, and payed the price. The Caps totally dominated the first seven and a half minutes of the first period, but Toskala and the Leafs survived the onslaught, and, of course, scored the game's first goal. Somehow, both Caps defensemen decided that after wrapping the puck around the boards, there was no need to go back in front of the net and cover an absolutely naked Chad Kilger. Oops. That one was a little embarassing, and seemed to deflate the Caps. The rest of the game, the old, slow Leafs defensemen did a decent job against The Russian Maching, keeping him to the outside and forcing shots from wide. Of course, OV still fired a bullet past Toskala.

The rest of the game was -- unremarkable (read: practically unwatchable), with the exception of another brilliant move by Semin. Give credit to Dave Steckel for recognizing the fact that he was breaking in on net with Semin. I can just imagine his thought process: I should shoot, wait, that's Semin, I'll just give him the puck and take the assist.

One sweet move by Semin later, and the Caps tied the game at 2. Unfortunately, in a move that could only have been brought on by his being starstruck coaching in Toronto, with less than a minute remaining Bruce Boudreau decided to go all in and put Alexander "Knucklehead" Semin out for the final shift of regulation. Out broke the Leafs 3-on-3. Unfortunately, the 3rd Leafs forward was Mats "I don't want to be traded" Sundin, and the 3rd Capitals forward, the guy responsible for picking up Sundin, the most dangerous Leaf player for the last 10 years, was Knucklehead, who promptly did what he always does and skated straight towards the puck -- like a moth drawn to a flame.

Of course, the puck went right to Sundin, who promptly deposited it under Kolzig (we really could've used that save Olie), who was in position to make a fantastic save, but somehow didn't (seriously Olie). The puck slowly, slowly, slowly crept UNDER Olie's stomach, and that was that. Dammit. Other items of note:
1) Did I mention Erskine was a BEAST. Never sit him again. Ever.
2) I'll take Eminger's boarding penalty any day. Good, aggressive, hard-nosed hockey. Just try not to do it from behind.
3) Typical night for The Russian Machine: 20 shifts, 8 shots, 1 goal, +1
4) Typical night for Knucklehead Semin: 3 shots, 1 beautiful goal, 1 boneheaded, lazy backcheck with the game on the line.
5) One all-too typical lately game for Kolzig: 21 saves on 24 shots: .875 save percentage. Does anyone remember the days in the last two years when his line looked like this: 42 saves on 45 shots .933 save percentage, 4 or 5 all-world saves? Me neither.

Let's see if the Caps can continue their trend of not losing consecutive games. They need to. At least, and I can't believe I'm saying this, we'll have Brent Johnson in net tonight.

Where have we been? Part 1

2008-01-22T13:31:00.000-08:00

So nice of you to ask. Some of you may have noticed that this site wasn't updated much this past week or weekend. There's a good reason why. A few months ago, Original 6 and the Deuce came up with a plan for a hockey guys weekend out. And they were thinking big (or, more accurately, FAR). How far? NORTHERN QUEBEC far.

Now why would any right minded individual make such a trek IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WINTER? They wouldn't, of course. But if you read this blog, you know that you're not dealing with right minded individuals.

Original 6 had gotten it into his head that he wanted to see explosive Caps prospect Francois Bouchard of the Drakkar du Baie-Comeau in person. He floated the idea to the Deuce and I, who were all for it.

Until we looked at a map.

View Larger Map

How far is it from DC to Baie-Comeau? Really, really far. Almost 1000 miles into the great white north. Despite our desire, it was clear that young Francois would have to make due playing out his QMJHL career without us to cheer him on.

Undeterred by our initial roadblock, the Deuce and Original 6 continued to plan for a hockey centered getaway. While their plan to visit one of the one of the most remote outposts in Quebec was thwarted, they instead turned their attention to one of the closest (and certainly the most cosmopolitan). Instead of Baie-Comeau, we would journey to the province's cultural and economic center: Montreal. After scanning the schedules of both le Canadien and our own work and personal plans, a weekend was chosen, and the plan began to take shape.

Since Albany was only a few hours drive from Montreal, we would fly into Albany on Friday the 18th of January to see the Albany River Rats take on the Capitals own Hershey Bears. From there we would drive to Montreal, where we could heartily boo the Pittsburgh Penguins and Secondary Sid as they took on the hometown Habs the very next night.

Our plan in place, Original 6 generously slapped down his credit card for plane tickets, hotel reservations, car rental and ridiculously marked up tickets to the game at the Centre Bell. One would think such kindness would have kept us from busting his chops nearly the entire trip. Alas, it was not to be.

coming soon... Part 2 - The trip begins.

What a Game, What a Game, What a Glorious Game!

2008-01-22T05:50:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Deuce:

1st Period, 17 seconds remaining.

Evgeni Malkin, who had already scored one goal by lowering his shoulder (and head) and barreling over Jeff Schultz, was skating behind the net with the puck. Using his tremendous size and reach, he once again lowered his head and was determined to skate the puck right into the Caps' net. I thought to myself, "here we go again."

Nobody could seem to contain Malkin physically. Suddenly, out of the corner of my TV screen, I saw a white streak. I think it was wearing number 8. This was going to be ugly. At the last second, Malkin appeared to see The Russing Maching and just pulled up. The Machine struck a glancing blow at full speed, causing him to lose his balance and go flying into the boards. Ouch.

I smiled . . . once I saw The Maching get up ("Russian Machine doesn't break.") Those of us that know The Machine know that there are three things that fire him up like nothing else: 1) A duel with a fellow Russian Superstar for supremacy and the title "Best Russian Player;" 2) A big hit, regardless of whether he's giving or getting; and 3) getting booed. Now all three were in place.

Sure enough, the Russian Machine smiled with his bloody lip, and set about putting forth one of his best efforts of the year. He was everywhere, shooting, hitting, talking. He could not be denied. Especially not with your 2008 Calder Trophy winner Nicklas Backstrom sending RE-DI-CU-LOUS passes his way every shift. Young Backstrom is a joy to behold ever since BB took over behind the bench, much like Mike Green, who shockingly failed to tally in the contest.

But this night was all Ovechkin's, as he simply refused to be bested by Geno "Elbows" McMalkin. What a fun game to watch. Offense, hitting, beautiful passes, back-and-forth scoring. Both teams wanted this one bad. But for once, the Caps came out on top. The Caps are now 3 points out of the SE lead,with three games in hand. They are playing with flair and confidence, and not even the Evil Penguins could stop them this time. This season just got a whole lot more exciting. Thanks, Evgeni.

Other Notes: Olie looked bad -- again. He's got to pull his head out of you-know-where, or he's going to find himself sitting on the bench more and more often as the race gets tighter. I love Olie, but that first goal simply cannot go in. And it set the tone for the game. 10 saves and a .667 save percentage -- come on Olie.

Who lit the fire under Kozlov's ass? Finally, some scoring (and emotion) out of him. Let's hope he's heating up just at the right time...(one can dream).

Jeff Schultz looked like a 21 year-old kid out there. Again. Especially when he was outmuscled repeatedly by Malkin.

8 assists in 2 games. Backstrom is simply magical out there. Michael Who?

No more Nyls

2008-01-15T11:04:00.000-08:00

Hope you're sitting down, folks. This is a bad one. Per Tarik, Michael Nylander's season is over. Nylander, who has been gutting it out with a torn rotator cuff the past few weeks, has finally decided to shut it down and have surgery. His recovery time is expected to be 3-6 months, but with a player his age expect it to be more towards the latter than the former.

Nylander, who was the Caps second leading scorer with 37 points, has been visibly hampered by the injury to the point where his effectiveness on the ice was nearly nonexistant at even strength (as evidenced by his team worst minus-19). One wonders if he was playing with the pain partially in an effort to hit the 200 goal mark for his career, which he did this past Sunday against Philly.

The final image we'll take of Nylander this season is of him sending rookie phenom and fellow Swede Nicklas Backstrom over the the referee to collect the puck from his landmark goal. While it may not have been meant as a passing of the torch at the time, it certainly feels like one now.

On the lighter side, the YoungStars game (in which Backstrom will participate) is officially a 3-on-3 farce. Next year I hear everyone is going to have to wear two left skates for the entire "game".

The Reason Green Got Screwed

2008-01-15T06:16:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Deuce:
There have been a lot of articles, posts, etc. lately about the NHL's snub of Mike Green for the All-Star game, including this gem of a quote from Bruce Boudreau: "Shame on them." J.P. of http://japersrink.blogspot.com/ must be shocked at the inclusion of Tomas Kaberle after writing "sorry, Tomas - Mats Sundin is the only worthy Leaf." The problem with that type of (rational) thinking is that it ignores the simple arithmetic involved in selecting the all star team. Let me explain, then, why Mike Green will be watching the game with the rest of us, rather than rushing end to end through the Western All-Stars. it's simple, really. There are so many teams in the league right now that they can only select one skater per team, plus three additional skaters. When you factor in the starting lineup, that's selected by fans, that may leave only one or two additional slots. That's why Malkin and Green are not in the game (especially with Crosby and Gonchar already in for Pittsburg), and why Kovalchuk didn't make it last year! Toronto, Boston, Montreal, and Buffalo had NO forwards or goalies selected, so you KNEW they were getting defensemen on the All-Star team (not that Chara and Markov don't deserve it, but Kaberle? He's got 28 pts and he's a -2 on the season. I guess when you make over 4.2 million a year you can buy a spot!). As long as there are 15 teams per conference, and only 18 skaters per team, snubs like this will continue to happen. Just imagine in a few years when the NHL expands again -- there will only be ONE skater per team on the All-Star Team! So I say, don't worry about it Mikey, rest up, have some fun over the break, and score 25 goals this year. That will put some well-deserved egg on the NHL's face! And just for good measure, pull a little dipsey-do on Kabarle on January 23 (http://capitals.nhl.com/team/app?service=page&page=TeamSchedule).

Ovechkin an All-Star, Green is not

2008-01-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

The Eastern Conference All-Star list has been released. To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Alex Ovechkin is on it. Mildly surprising is the omission of Mike Green from the list, considering his goal scoring tear this year and the league's preference for offense in their talent showcase.

Then again, Green is still eligible for the young stars game (since he's in the last year of his entry level deal). So chances are Greener will probably still get an invite to Atlanta in some capacity. Maybe he and Nicklas Backstrom can get Ovechkin to spring for their bus fare. Something tells me he's got the cash for it.

The deal is done

2008-01-10T15:12:00.000-08:00

Maybe now we can stop all the ridiculous rumors. Per Tarik, the Russian Machine and the Caps have come to an agreement on a long term contract.

Learning to win

2008-01-10T15:11:00.000-08:00

It's all well and good when your team can come out, score five or six goals, and come out with a victory. But in the NHL that is far more often the exception than the rule. Most nights games are decided in the trenches, with the team that makes the fewest mistakes coming away with the victory.

Yesterday, the Caps showed that they can play a solid defensive game without two of their best defensemen, and two men known far more for their physical play than their scoring touch tallied goals that will never be seen on anyone's top 10 goals of the week. And while the Avalanche were able to hold the Caps top two lines scoreless, they still left the Verizon Center without a point.

In the past couple weeks, the Caps have shown us that they can win pretty. Last night, they showed us they can win ugly, too. And though it may not have been the most beautiful game to watch, coming away with two points in the standings certainly makes it feel a little more pretty.

The Caps defensive corps was solid but unspectacular, which is all they needed to be against Colorado's depleted lineup. Short of one poor decision by Shoanne Morrison (which allowed Marek Svatos to skate in alone and beat Olie Kolzig with a tremendous wrister) the defense played a strong positional game, and got some serious physical play from an unexpected source. Oft scratched defender Steve Eminger was a sight to behold last night, throwing his body around with vigor and purpose.

It's safe to say that Eminger would not have been scratched for almost the entire first half of the season if he had shown that hard edge last year. If he keeps playing the body like he did last night, at very least he should be rotated into the active roster on a regular basis. I'd go so far as to say that he should be starting in place of Jeff Shultz at this point, who has been overpowered by opposing forwards in front of the net for most of this season.

Brooks Laich's breakaway was certainly no thing of beauty, but his one timer off a great pass by Matt Bradley sure was. Despite the fact that the goal was eventually credited to Donald Brashear, Brooks should be commended for his strong effort on the night.

Even though Colorado's power play has been awful without Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth, the Caps penalty killers cannot be praised enough for their tremendous effort and willingness to give up the body to block several Colorado shots from the point. Quinten Laing in particular deserves kudos for keeping the Avs from getting the puck deep by sacrificing his body.

And even though he faced only 19 shots, Olie Kolzig came up big when it mattered most, making two strong saves in the last minute to preserve the Caps victory.

It's hard to have an Avalanche when it's 70 degrees outside

2008-01-09T11:36:00.000-08:00

Despite the spring-like heat and the total lack of snow on the ground, an Avalanche will be found in DC as Colorado visits the Caps for the first time in almost five years (thanks to the idiotic and soon to be scrapped unbalanced schedule). Perhaps its fitting that under such poor snow conditions the Avs come in hobbled.

With all-universe talent and surefire hall-of-famer Joe Sakic and garbage goal scorer extraordinaire Ryan Smyth both out with injuries, the Avs scoring burden will fall to sophomore sensation Paul Stastny (he of the ridiculously talent-laden Stastny family) and Milan "it's pronounced hey-dook, idiot" Hedjuk. Both players will look to feast upon a Caps defense that again will be missing two of its top four defensemen in Tom Poti and Brian Pothier. Coming off a 1-0 loss against their archrivals in Detroit, expect the Avs to ratchet up the forecheck in order to press the Caps remaining d-men and try to force turnovers in the offensive zone.

For the Caps, the key to the game will be to jump on Colorado early and wear the Avs down with a physical forecheck, and to play the puck quickly out of their own end. With the exception of wunderkid Mike Green, the Caps current defensive corps is not strong at playing the puck, so moving the puck out of danger quickly (without chucking it into the stands for a delay of game call) will be a tall order for them.

In the offensive zone, it's a night to shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. Neither Peter Budaj nor Jose Theodore is reminding anyone in Colorado of Patrick Roy these days, so expect at least a 7 shot night from the Russian Machine (and hopefully at least 5 from the once-again-returning-from-injury Alex Semin). If the Caps resist getting too cute with posession of the puck and simply pour on the pressure, they should be able to down the Avs to the tune of 5-3. If not, expect a low scoring affair that goes to a shootout.

This just in... but you've known it for a while

2008-01-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

The NHL says Nicklas Backstrom is good. We agree.

He're evidence from the last game. First, tricky Nick fights off a check to keep possesion, then he takes a pass and makes a ridiculous 180 degree spin and pass to Viktor "Don't call me dead meat" Kozlov:

Note to the wonder twins in Chicago: You may not want to dust off the trophy case for the Calder just yet...

Starting the year off right

2008-01-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

Wow. I mean WOW. Two games against the Senators (one to send off the old year, and one to ring in the new) with an amazing 23 goals between the teams and, most importantly, two wins and four points for the Caps.

For anyone that calls themselves a fan of hockey, these last two games have been absolute heaven. A four goal outburst from the slightly knicked up Russian Machine in the first game followed by two tallies by Mike Green in the second, and all the sudden the Caps are only five points out of a eight place and a playoff spot. And while 37 points might not seem like much to brag about, their record since Coach Boudreau took over the team (10-5-4) sure is.

The Caps have also found their personality under their new coach. Where before the emphasis was on defensive positioning and keeping the other team from scoring, Coach B has turned the team's old system on its ear, and instead is emphasizing quick strikes from every skater on the ice. Now instead of having wave after wave of opposing players crash against the Caps until they break, the Caps are now quick to strike at even a hint of weakness from the opposition.

In short, where the Caps system used to resemble a turtle (hard shell, slow, methodical) the Caps style now more resembles a rattlesnake, still appearing defensive in posture but much more threatening and aggresive when approached. Before, there was no reason for teams to keep their players from pinching deep, since the Caps were sure to play low in their own zone and keep a defensive shell. Now, any forward looking to attack had better be sure he doesn't put himself out of position, because if he does it's almost guaranteed that the Caps will send a defenseman to gain a numbers advantage in their counterattack. With the way Tom Poti and Mike Green have been attacking the net, that's something the opposition's defense has got to be nervous about.

Tonight, the Caps look to take two standing points from a stumbling (3-6-1) Bruins team and the goaltending style (or lack thereof) of Tim Thomas. Though he has put up solid numbers this year, I can't think of a goaltender north of Tampa whose style of play inspires less confidence than Timmy T. Look up shaky in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of Thomas sprawling awkwardly to make a play while his defensemen look on terrified.

Game time is 7PM at the Gahden, and despite previous reports, neither Alex Semin (bruised buttbone) or Tom Poti (the dreaded it-could-be-just-about-anything upper body injury) will be in uniform.

A coach's night to remember

2007-12-27T12:34:00.000-08:00

Bruce Boudreau certainly won't forget last night, will he? First he gets the interim label removed from his title by the organization then his team goes out and puts together a gritty performance in securing two points in regulation and a 4 point swing in the Southeast Division by beating the Tampa Bay Lecavaliers 3 to 2.

Coach B saw his team survive a shaky start by Olie Kolzig and yet another amazing performance by Vinnie Lecavalier, who right now is delivering on the promise that lead most scouts to label him the heir apparent to Gretzky and Lemiux while Sid the Kid was still in grade school. And when Tampa's new goaltender Karri Ramo did his best Nikolai Khabibulin impersonation, robbing the Russian Machine and Tomas Fleischmann (twice) from point blank range, the Caps finally got the offense they were hoping to see out of their checking line.

Quinten Laing, David Steckel, and Matt Bradley were by far the Capitals best line on the night. Aside from scoring two of the Caps three goals, they logged major ice time against Tampa's top line, playing strong in the defensive end while holding the puck well and making a wonderful mess in front of Ramo's crease. It seems unfair that Laing will sit tonight against the Pens after such a strong performance (thanks to the return of Boyd Gordon), but if he can string together a couple more performances like last night's he'll get more of his fair share of games in before season's end.

One oddity from the organization... even though the "interim" label has been removed from Coach Boudreau's title, he's still up for review (and possible replacement) at season's end. I suppose the Caps just wanted to let him know he wouldn't be replaced this season. Whatever.

Tonight, the Caps look for another pair of points in Pennsylvania against the Flightless Devilbirds and Sid the Submarine (diving puns are harder to come by than you think after a couple seasons). Game time is 7:30.

Happy Holidays, and welcome back!

2007-12-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

Greetings everyone, and happy holidays from us here at the site. Things have been pretty busy around here, what with all of the eating, gift giving and such. We even missed the site's first birthday (Dec. 13) we were all so tied up. We promise we'll improve our upkeep on the site headed into the New Year. And speaking of new, it appears that Coach Boudreau and the Caps are treating tonight's game as the beginning of the second half of the season. Let's hope that they can start the second half the same way they started the first (with a win).

Per Tarik, the Caps will once again be without Captain Clark, whose groin injury has kept him out over a month. Not good. Not good at all. The captain's physical play and his scoring ability are sorely missed on the right side of the ice.

The Tampa Bay Lightning come to town playing the same brand of maddeningly inconsistent play that has marked their entire season. Unlike so many teams, the cause of Tampa's woes is easy to point out: their horrendous goaltending. With both Johan Holmqvist and Marc Denis posting sub .900 save percentages (and looking awful while doing it) it's clear that Tampa will always be in a position where their offense will have to carry them to victory, because they're going to give up goals.

With Alexander Semin returning to form and the Russian Machine being, well, the Russian Machine, look for the Caps to post at least 4 goals tonight. Hopefully that will be enough to down the evil triplets from Tampa and move us within one point of the Lightning in the Southeast.

Offense from Defense

2007-12-17T09:05:00.000-08:00

After getting a good look at Coach Boudreau's system over the past couple weeks, I can't say for sure what he's done with the offense, except giving them a longer leash to forcheck on. However, one can plainly see that his philosophy concerning defensemen is as different from the previously installed setup as night and day.

Under Glen Hanlon, the defense was set far back, not involved with the offensive rush except in the most obvious of circumstances. The main tenant on defense was to hold good defensive positioning, not extend yourself, and keep the opposition from getting behind you. While players were not routinely beaten by long passes up the middle, this had the effect of always having the defense on its heels, constantly absorbing attacks without countering. And with a set of rookies whose potential was just beginning to show itself, that seemed like the right approach at the time. You can almost hear Hanlon saying it: Sit back, let the game come to you, don't make any big mistakes.

At the time, you wouldn't have wanted the Caps crew of 20 year old defensemen running around like a bunch of mites on ice (not any more than they already were, at any rate). However, with a couple years for the young defensive corps to mature and with the acquisition of solid two way defenseman Tom Poti, newly installed Coach Bruce Boudreau clearly thought that it was time for a change.

The change was first evident in the Caps power play, where offensive wunderkid Mike Green scored twice from within 10 feet of net in the first couple games. How can a defenseman score goals from that close in while still protecting the blue line? He can't, but the risk involved was lessened by the extra attacker for the Caps.

That's all well and good, and pinching the defense on the power play certainly seemed like a good idea. But then it started happening with Green and Tom Poti at even strength. A few games later Shoanne Morrison made several offensive forays that started at his own goal line. And this Saturday, Brian Pothier scored the game winner from about five feet away from the net, taking a Matt Pettinger behind the goal line pass and depositing it in the upper shelf.

So it seems that Coach Boudreau's new attacking system is at least as much about aggressive play from the defensemen as it is about the forwards. With a couple years of development, the Caps blueliners are confident enough to pick their spots to attack, and their coach has presented them the opportunity to do so. In addition to adding to the offense, it keeps the other team focused on defending an extra man, which fundamentally changes their ability to strike back. And while they have been burned by giving up the big play on occasion, the team as a whole seems to function better when their blueliners are pushing forward. It seems like the right fit for this team right now. And it's certainly entertaining to watch.

Mullet night mayhem

2007-12-13T09:08:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the Deuce:

Great game. Very entertaining. But the Caps should have won it in regulation. And if they are going to have ANY chance of making the playoffs, they can't give up a point to other Eastern Conference teams. They may end up battling for that eighth spot with the Rangers, and a point here and a point there add up.

Mike Green is playing unbelievable hockey right now. He was absolutely flying last night -- skating, making GREAT moves, scoring goal scorers goals. He played OVER THIRTY minutes in the game! Looks like he's found his confidence.

Donald Brashear was also a force last night. He beat the living tar out of Colton Orr. Again. Doesn't that guy ever get tired of being pounded by The Donald? Has he ever even come close to winning a fight between the two of them? Of course, the picture in the NY Post was of the beginning of the fight, before Brashear pounded Orr to the ice. And the caption, laughably, states "The Rangers' Colton Orr gets the upper hand on the Capitals' Donald Brashear during Washington's 5-4 overtime victory last night." Even my wife said, "Oh, my God. He really beat that poor guy up." Gotta love the New York media.

After getting out of the box, he made a nice hit followed instantly by a pretty centering feed which resulted in Motzko's first goal, and later made a beautiful pass to Motzko which resulted in the second goal. And of course, he hit everything that moved (and he could catch).

Probably most importantly, he took ZERO stupid penalties (I wish the same could be said for your favorite, Matt Bradley -- Hey Matt, when your team is up by a goal in the third period, and your job is to eat up the clock by cycling the puck in the offensive zone, don't take one hand off the stick (a sure signal to any referee that you're about to hold), wrap it around an opposing player's neck (another sure sign of a hold), and then pull on him, THEN raise your hand up like you didn't just hold (the final sign of an infraction just in case the ref was snoozing for the first three). ESPECIALLY NOT IN THE OFFENSIVE ZONE.

Of course, the Rangers scored to tie the game, even if it was one second after the penalty expired. You're killing me Matt.

Anyway, the best thing about last night is that the Caps fought back from a two-goal deficit, which I wouldn't have believed possible had I not seen it with my own eyes. So that was nice. That's about it. I won't be grumpy and mention that the Caps are now ice cold on the power play, even with an alleged PP Genius behind the bench. At least now they get the puck in the zone, set it up, control it, and actually get shots on net. So I think the PP goals will come.

By the way, I was THRILLED to see that Cap Killer Exraordiare Mark Recchi now gets to play the Caps like five more times this year, having been signed by Atlanta. Great. Put him down for a 20 goal year. We should have signed him just to bench him for the rest of the year.

One to build on

2007-12-10T11:08:00.000-08:00

Well, what a difference a day makes. After looking thoroughly average against the Devils in New Jersey, the Capitals came out and steamrolled Atlanta, scoring early and often en route to a convincing 6-3 victory. The Caps played well in all three zones despite missing their captain (Clark) their best setup man (Nylander) and their best penalty killer (Gordon). Indeed, the holes created by their absences forced Coach Boudreau to make some alterations in the lineup that paid dividends almost immediately.

Playing on a line with Alex Ovechkin and Matt Pettinger, Nicklas Backstrom looked every bit of the player the Caps were hoping for when they drafted him. He played with the poise and presence of a veteran, which lead directly to his goal. Backstrom positioned himself high in the zone just below the blueline in the center of the ice, where he was able to step up and intercept a weak pass attempt by the Thrasher defenseman. While most rookies would not have been in position to make the play, almost none would have been able to react instantly and fire the puck top corner without hesitation as Backstrom did. It was a play that showed all that Backstrom has to offer: great positional play, great read and reaction time, and a finisher's scoring touch. It's going to be a pleasure watching him in Washington in the years to come.

The Ovechkin-Backstrom-Pettinger line dominated play throughout the game, with each forward scoring once. Pettinger's rebound goal was just his second of the season, and hopefully will inspire the winger to continue to play with the reckless abandon he exhibited in getting to the loose puck for the rest of the season. Ovechkin's goal wasn't the prettiest he'll ever score, but tipping the puck out of midair to redirect it past Thrashers goaltender Kari Lehtonin was no small feat.

While the second line of Semin, Brashear, and Kozlov did not directly produce a goal, it was the cause of Jeff Shultz's tally. Semin held the puck down low and drew multiple defenders before being buried from behind with a cross check from one of Atlanta's defenders. But the stage was set, as all the traffic in front screened Lehtonin and he never saw Shultz' shot as it drifted past him.

And what more can be said of Mike Green? He continues to be the Capitals best offensive defenseman, and his two tallies on the night bring his season total to 7, tied for second on the team and tied for first in the league among defensemen. His outstanding puck control and skating ability constantly keeps the opposing team on its heels, and his finishing on both goals was nothing short of superb.

Tonight, the Capitals look to produce a modest two game winning streak at home against New Jersey. Both teams will play their third game in four nights, but looks for the Caps to be the fresher team due to their five day layoff before that stretch. Look for the Caps to take control of the game early and put buckets of shots on the Devils goaltender. Whether or not the Devils can weather the storm in the first period and a half will dictate whether or not they have a chance in the game.

Thoughts while in between games

2007-12-05T13:08:00.001-08:00

While the Caps players are spending this week getting accustomed to Coach Boudreau's system, it's a good time to examine the state of the team and identify which areas have performed well and which, to put it politely, need improvement. While their record certainly indicated there will be more of the latter than the former, there are certainly bright spots to touch upon. After all, with the snow on the ground in the area and the holiday season approaching, we don't want to be called Grinches

On the positive side, the Caps have improved the overall skill level of their team, specifically with the additions of Nylander and Backstrom. While their impact has yet to show in the standings, you'd be hard pressed to find a more improved position for the Caps than at the center dot. Keep in mind, Kris Beech was playing top minutes for the team last year at the position. While Backstrom still has to improve his skating and physical play, he's shown that he can mentally keep up with the responsibilies of playing the pivot. And Nylander is miles ahead of any Caps center since Adam Oates wore the sweater.

Additionally, the Caps defense has developed more offensive swagger with the addition of Tom Poti and the emergence of Mike Green as a geniune offensive dynamo. While Poti has had to contend with injuries and increased responsibility in all zones, he has been effective as the Caps top defenseman. Mike Green, meanwhile, has been one of the team's top offensive threats for most of this season, redeeming himself after a lackluster second season (and making this post from last year relevant again).

Alex Ovechkin has 20 goals and is averaging over a point a game while playing the best two way hockey of his career. Nothing to scoff at.

Unfortunately, the list of problems is much more robust.

First, aside from Poti and Green, the defense for the Caps has looked positively amateurish so far. Jurcina is no longer hitting everything that moves, and Jeff Shultz must have pictures of Ted Leonsis naked in order to keep his spot on the roster. He's been overmatched in almost every game he's played. Why they haven't shuffled him out of the lineup and given Steve Eminger more looks confounds me. And while John Erskine has been effective at playing the body, he has had lapses of discipline that make his spot in the lineup tenuous at best. Another major issue for the Caps blueliners is their lack of footspeed. They simply cannot skate with the faster teams in the league, and they lack the toughness to pound away at quick players when they have opportunities. Looking for proof? Watch the replay of their performance against Buffalo.

In order for the defense to reach a respectable level, they need a banger, plain and simple. I hate to say it, but the Caps sure could use Brendan Witt right now. I think I just lost a year of my life typing that.

Injuries have also played a major part in the Caps horrendous start, but that does not excuse how they've been managed (and how they might have been prevented). First, let's go with prevention. Under Glen Hanlon, the power play lacked movement, which led to players having to flood the front of the net to create scoring chances (since the shot angles didn't change, they attempted to screen the goaltender and fight for rebounds). Unfortunately, their best shooter is at his best shooting for high corners. Close range shots aimed high tend to be VERY, VERY dangerous to anyone setting a screen. Just ask Chris Clark about it. The Caps could just as easily have created the same screen with Clark skating across the shooting lane, instead of standing in it, and Clarkie would still have both ears in one piece.

As far as Alex Semin's injury is concerned, we covered that weeks ago. Ankle injuries should be given ample time to recover, even if the player thinks they're ready to play. Instead of sitting him for a couple weeks, the Caps rushed Semin back into the lineup, after which he promptly reinjured himself and has yet to fully recover. Ugh.

In terms of forward contributions outside of the Russian Machine, there haven't been any. When your primary setup man is second on the team in goals and one of your defensemen is tied for third, you know there's a problem. Simply put, the Capitals second through fourth lines have not been getting it done. And while their old (trap) system is partially to blame, someone on the team has to step up and get the job done.

And speaking of stepping up, will someone let Viktor Kozlov know that the season has started? Kozlov has been by far the least impactful free agent signing, even though he's played on the top line almost exclusively. At this point, it's fair to say that Kozlov is stealing money every shift he's on the ice. At this point, I think every defenseman in the league knows that Kozlov needs time to make a play and presses him before he gets the opportunity.

It's true that despite his size, Kozlov will never be a banger. But would it be too much to ask for his to actually forecheck instead of weakly swiping his stick at opposing players as they skate past? And if he ever takes another shift at center it will be too soon. I'd rather see Backstrom losing draws but refining his technique than Kozlov losing draw after draw after draw after draw. He belongs on the wing (or more accurately right now, on the bench).

So what do the Caps need to do to address these issues? It's clear that not all of them can be taken care of with the team in its current makeup, so a trade is a possibility. It's much more likely that they'll wait until the offseason to make any moves (especially with the Russian Machine's contract coming due).

However, there are certain things that Coach Boudreau can do right now to improve the team (and some things he's already done).

1. Unleash Mike Green and allow him to play an attacking game (check).
2. Move Kozlov to the wing and off the first line (almost there).
3. LET SEMIN'S ANKLE HEAL. At this point, the Caps have played almost a third of the season without Semin. Sitting him a few extra games isn't going to make or break team chemistry.
4. Improve team discipline. The Caps have taken far too many penalties this year, from their Captain on down. It needs to stop if the Caps want to have any hope of a midseason run. You can win a game or two in a row without discipline, but not 5 or 6 in a row.
5. Wake up (or trade) Kozlov.

So, there you have it. Hopefully Coach B will bring the Caps out on Friday full of fire and wrath, and we'll look back at this as the point in the season where things turned around. Even if they don't recover and make the playoffs, at least we might get to watch some entertaining offensive hockey.

Everything old is new again

2007-11-30T09:37:00.000-08:00

More specifically, the NHL schedule for next year will ditch the current format and return to its pre-lockout roots. The division games will be reduced from 8 per team to 6, which means every NHL team will play every other team at least once a year. Which is how it should be.

Two Wins Does Not a Day Off Make

2007-11-27T05:24:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Deuce:

Well, that didn't take long, did it? After putting in two good efforts against two strong teams, New Caps bench boss Bruce Beaudreau gave the team the day off on Sunday. The result: The Caps apparently forgot how to try again.

Last night, the Caps put forth another stinker, a lackluster effort on national TV. Once again, The Russian Machine was the only one who appeared to care out there. Particularly stinky were Alex Semin, back from a 17-game absence (with a game or two in between), Michael Nylander, and Tomas Fleischman. Nylander and Fleischman should both be credited with assists on the Sabres second and third goals, since their horrible giveaways directly contributed to Buffalo scores. I like Nylander a lot, and he is a wizard in the offensive zone with the puck on his stick, but when he has an off game, he REALLY has an off game.

The rest of the Caps looked like they have all season, tentative, slow, and weak. The lack of a bruiser on defense who can actually move his feet (sorry, Erskine) is really starting to get old. In fact, I'm afraid our father, Original Six, is going to burst a blood vessel in his head if the D don't start hitting out there.

The Sabres forwards (and every other team's for that matter) fly around in the Caps' zone all game, trying spin-a-ramas and behind the back passes and all manner of things they would NEVER try against, say, the NJ defense. Somebody, at some point, has just got to tattoo someone out there. Also, could somebody tell Morrison and company that when somebody slashes Olie, you are allowed to shove them, push them, give them a face-wash, SOMETHING for crying out loud?! Anyway, on to the game analysis, depressing as that may be.

Going in to the game, I told Grumpy 3 that the speedy Sabres forwards would give our D fits, and that we would have a tough time beating Buffalo with all the speed they brought to bear. Well, they were faster, and we didn't hit them, but it was actually the Caps, not the Sabres, who killed the Caps last night. If not for the two egregious turnovers mentioned earlier, we might have been in this game until the end. Miller made a couple of great saves against the Russian Machine, and Nylander again missed a wide-open net. But what was most noteable last night was the lack of effort on the Capitals' part again.

I hope Bruce bag-skates them today until they puke. Somebody needs to motivate these guys. Before it kills our father.

Notes on the beggining of the Boudreau era

2007-11-26T09:24:00.001-08:00

Not a bad way to start an NHL coaching career, eh? First, Coach Boudreau leads the Caps to an overtime victory in Philly (snapping a 5 game losing streak), then another win over Carolina at home. Since it's nearly impossible for a coach to drastically change a team's philosophy in only a couple days, let's look at the simple changes he's made to the Capitals gameplan that seem to have reinvigorated the team.

First, Boudreau has abandoned the concept of having two balanced power play lines and has instead stacked his first line with the best available talent. Playing Backstrom, Nylander, and Ovechkin at forward and Tom Poti and Mike Green on defense, the Caps power play unit has managed to pot 4 power play goals in two games. Even better, they've actually been goals created by the entire power play unit, not just individual brilliance from the Russian Machine as had been the case for the past couple seasons.

It's amazing to see how much more puck and player movement the Caps have had on the power play. With two outstanding setup men and the league's premier finisher down low, defenses have been forced to collapse on the forwards, and with Mike Green given the, ahem, green light to attack the weak side the Caps have looked actually looked like the talented offensive team they are. Two outstanding passes from our Swedish centers resulted in two goals by Green, and the Caps power play is back from the dead.

Second, Coach Boudreau has focused on maintaining an aggressive forecheck system instead of sitting back and allowing opposing teams to build up steam headed into the neutral zone. Not only has this made it more difficult for teams to start their attack, it's also resulted in many more opposition turnovers in the neutral zone and the Caps offensive zone, which has lead to the Caps having to cover much less ice in order to generate an attack.

While it's tough to say whether the Caps can sieze on this newfound momentum and claw their way back into the playoff picture, one thing is for sure. The Caps have become a much more fun team to watch, and a much less fun team to play against.

Hanlon let go

2007-11-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

Per the Caps, Glen Hanlon has been relieved of his coaching duties and replaced on an interim basis by former Hershey Bears head coach Bruce Boudreau. The move was not unexpected considering the Capitals are off to their worst start in over 25 years. However, Hanlon's tenure in Washington should not be judged based solely on this year's merits.

Glen Hanlon lead a team with a pittance of NHL caliber talent for two seasons, and for the entirety of those two seasons we almost never saw a team that gave less than everything it had. I don't think it's overreaching to say that the Capitals overachieved for those two seasons, and their coach's optimism, patience and understanding were all major reasons for that.

Unfortunately, most coaches in the NHL are not measured on what they do for young teams or how they teach young players to grow into NHL regulars, but on their records. As the team matured and new talent was added, Coach Hanlon eventually had to be measured by the standards of other coaches: wins and losses. But let us not forget that Glen Hanlon was the right coach for the Washington Capitals for two seasons. He should be commended for the job he did with the organization during that time.

Now it's time to move in another direction. So thank you Coach Hanlon for the job that you did in the previous two years. Caps fans will not forget you for it.

Now a new era begins. While it's far too early to say whether the Boudreau experiment will last past this season, it's clear that it was time for a change. Welcome Coach Boudreau.

And lets go Caps.

More on the offensive production woes

2007-11-21T09:36:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, the offense isn't as bad as it looks on paper. It's worse. Lets break down the list of goaltenders the Caps have faced this year and the result:

Opponent - Result - Goals sc0red - goals against - goaltender - (b) = backup
atl - w 3-1 goaltender: Lehtonen
car - w 2-0 Grahame (b)
nyi - w 2-1 Dipietro
nyr - l 1-8 Lundqvist
buf - l 3-7 Miller
nyi - l 2-5 DiPietro
pit - l 1-2 Fleury
tam - w 5-3 Denis (b)
van - l 2-3 Luongo
stl - l 3-4 Legace
tor - w 7-1 Toskala/Raycroft
nyr - l 0-2 Lundqvist (SO)
phi - l 2-3 Nittymaki (b)
car - l 0-5 Ward (SO)
atl - otl 1-2 Pavelec (b)
ott - w 4-1 Emery (b)
tam - l 2-5 Holmqvist
fla - l 1-2 Vokoun
tam - l 2-5 Holmqvist
fla - l 3-4 Vokoun

Of the Caps 6 wins, a full half have come against goaltenders that are not currently considered starters for their respective teams. At this point, the "we ran into a hot goaltender" excuse is getting as played out as it was in the mid 80s. The Caps barely hold a winning percentage against the league's second tier goaltenders (3-2). It has to be said... it's not the goaltenders, it's the offensive system (or lack thereof).

Tonight, the Caps have a chance to start turning things around against the Thrashers. If the team can't claw out a win on home ice tonight, there may be some folks who get much longer than expected stays at home after the holiday.

So Long, Sudsy

2007-11-19T12:28:00.001-08:00

Per the horse's mouth, the Capitals have traded Brian "Granite Chin" Sutherby to Anaheim for a second round pick in the 2009 entry draft.

Welcome to Lottery City

2007-11-16T07:08:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the Deuce:

Early this morning, J.P. of Japers had his post-game offering. Just one mistake, he had the score 3-2. Wishful thinking, J.P. You're giving the Caps' offense WAY more credit than they deserve. TWO whole goals in one game?! Come on, that's expecting an awful lot. Last night, like this whole season, was atrocious. I wanted to throw up, in part because I knew I'd be reading the same ridiculous, "we're getting our chances, the puck's just not bouncing our way" quotes again today. Good teams make their own bounces. Of course, we are nowhere NEAR a good team right now. In fact, we're bad. Really bad. Has the Peerless Prognosticator upped the Playoff Threat Advisory to RED yet? If not, he should.

There are so many bad qualities about this team right now that it would take me all morning to focus on all of them. Bad line combinations, bad matchups, bad in-game adjustments, poor effort, bad giveaways, atrocious power play, bad penalty killing, bad offense -- just BAD. And of course, the most frustrating part of it all is that we as Caps fans just KNOW this team is better than this, much better (of course, we're the only ones who think this right now). Anyway, before I go through the litany of woes, I'll just look at one of the worst aspects of the Caps offense this year (there will be time to go through another after tonight's thrashing at the hands of the white-hot Lightning): The "Power" Play:

First, let's look at the personnel we could throw out there together (and no Glen Hanlon, I will not include Donald Brashear or Joe Motzko as possibilities):

Ovechkin, Clark, Nylander, Backstrom, Poti, Green. There are six guys to choose from who could legitimately play on the first power play for most teams. I won't include fringe PP-types like Pettinger and/or Flash, because they haven't proven themselves yet in that capacity. Now with those six players to choose from (and you can take out Clark if you want because of all the games he missed with injuries), shouldn't the Caps really be better on the PP than 15.0%? I think so. The Caps have scored 12 PPGs in 18 games so far -- pretty bad. It's even worse when you consider that five of those tallies have come from Ovechkin -- and at least 3 of them were individual efforts that in no way reflected a nicely set up passing play resulting in a PPG (if I remember correctly, two have come on rapid fire wristers off the faceoff, and one came where he dangled his way down the left side, cut into the middle around the defenseman, and scored on the rush). So that reduces the true PPGs from 12 to 9. So basically, without OV's great individual efforts, our PP would be second worst in the league, second only to the woeful Edmonton Oilers power play which has tallied only SEVEN times this season. But I can undertstand EDM's woes: Souray is injured, and the rest of their PP consists of Shawn Horcoff, Rafi Torres, Dustin Penner, Joni Pitkanen, and Dick Tarnstrom. Yikes. So as you can see, there is absolutely NO excuse for the Caps' players listed above to be producing at the level of EDM's PP, which is essentially what they are doing.

So what's the problem? Well, as I've detailed before, the first problem is that Hanlon got way too cute at the beginning of the season, and tried to have TWO good PP units when he really should have been focusing on just one. The exact same mistake he made last year. The result -- you had the evil Victor Kozlov playing with OV and Clark, and Poti and heaven-only-knows who else manning the point. The problem -- those guys couldn't maintain possession of the puck down low. The second unit was Backstrom, Nylander, and Pettinger playing with, gasp, Pothier and Green up top. Not surprisingly, Nylander, a puck possession and passing specialist, leads the team with 8 power play points (3 PPGs, 5 PPAs). In other words, if Nylander and OV ain't on the ice, don't even bother watching! After a few games of this two-headed monster, I was begging Hanlon to put OV and Nylander together. But he steadfastly refused until just three games ago -- against Carolina. Just before that game, I asked Mike Vogel why Hanlon wouldn't put OV and Nyls together. Here was his response:

"Deuce,
Well, they tried it last night. I am one who believes if it’s going to work and work well in the long run that 8 and 92 are going to need some practice time together. Anyone who has watched Nylander play has to know that he is not the easiest guy in the world to play with. As to why they hadn’t tried it before, two reasons. One, they truly believe that the best chemistry combos are with 8 and 25 and 92 and 28. And second, I think they believe the resulting line combos make the team a bit weaker defensively."

Fair enough. But when Semin went down, it should have been obvious to Hanlon that he needed to play his best players together. That has only just started to happen. And I, for one, don't think Nylander would be that hard to play with. Just go to the net and put your stick on the ice -- he'll get the puck to you in great scoring position.

Back to the PP. So the two PP idea didn't work out. The first line didn't work the puck well down low -- in part because of the Caps' D-men's total inability to put a puck anywhere in the vicinity of the net (Pothier). Because nobody feared a big blast nice and low and on net from the point, they cheated down on Ovechkin, knowing he was the only real threat on the "first" power play (I know, you're saying "What? They weren't afraid of Kozlov?) So, about eight games too late, Hanlon adjusted by putting OV on the point. Not a terrible decision -- now teams have to cheat out high, opening space for the other guys to work down low. He also moved Nylander to the first PP. The only problem -- now there's no finisher to bury Nylander's nice thread-the-needle passes.

The Deuces's solution -- Nylander, Clark, and Ovechkin down low -- this allows Clark and OV to win loose pucks, and Nylander to control the play and look for any opening to split the box and hit OV for a one-timer. Poti and Green up high. And Tom, for crying-out-loud, shoot the frikkin' puck every once in a while. Don't get cute -- just crush it. You're supposed to have a bomb from up there, make teams fear it. If not, we'll just call up Godfrey. At least three times last night I watched Poti pass up a good shot opportunity from the point because it wasn't perfect. Who cares? Put it on net, and Clark and OV will do the rest.

So there you have it, the solution to all our power play woes, and the ticket out of Lottery City. Maybe.

And, oh yeah, here are Original Six's words of wisdom on last night's game: "The season is not over however I think that it may be time to look at hiring a new coach that will light a fire under some player’s butts. I love Glen Hanlon but it is now obvious that he cannot motivate these players. Is Mike Keenan still alive?"

Ouch.

Raise your hand if you saw THAT coming

2007-11-09T07:37:00.000-08:00

Now allow me to call all of you with your hands raised liars. What an impressive 4-1 victory over the artists formerly known as the hottest team in the league. The Caps put together one of their better overall games of the year and, thanks to the brilliant goaltending of Olie Kolzig, dominated the Senators for all three periods. The Senators faithful sounded much more like a crowd of 8,000 than a packed house of over 18,000.

It looked to be all doom and gloom for the Caps in the second with the score knotted at 0 when Jeff Shultz and Tom Poti were whistled for minor infractions within a minute of one another. On the ensuing penalty kill, Dave Steckel broke his stick, and Caps fans everywhere waited for the hammer to fall... and waited... and waited... and nothing happened. Olie Kolzig played like a man possessed, the defense held, and the Caps were able to get a stoppage of play. Glen Hanlon wisely spent a timeout to rest his weary penalty killers, who responded by snuffing out the rest of the Ottawa penalty. If the Caps are able to reel off a few wins and get themselves out of the cellar, that penalty kill will be pointed to as the turning point in this young season.

A little more than halfway through the second, someone finally let Viktor Kozlov know the season had started, and he responded with an impressive effort, scoring once on a great individual effort and setting up two more Caps tallies on his way to being named the number one star of the night. Also notable was Nicklas Backstrom potting is first NHL goal, and the Russian Machine sealing the victory with a pretty delayed snapper late in the third.

The Caps need to carry all the momentum they can muster into Saturday's tilt against Tampa, where the Caps look to break out from the bottom of the standings and start the rise to the middle of the pack. Tampa has yet to win on the road, and the Caps will have had a couple days to soak in the glory of this victory and rest up for the game. All signs point towards a hard fought Caps victory, as long as someone can keep Kozlov awake during the game.

Uh oh...

2007-11-08T09:17:00.000-08:00

While we'd love to be optomistic about tonight's faceoff with the Senators, it's very, very difficult to see anything but another Carolina-style whuppin coming. The Caps are sliding dangerously close to irrelevance, having won only 2 of their last 10 games. The Senators, meanwhile, have won 9 of their last 10 and are 13-1 overall. They've mowed down the opposition, racking up goals to the tune of 3 1/2 a game.

The one place to find solace? The Caps beat Toronto by a larger margin (6 goals) than Ottawa (4) in their last meeting. Hey, you gotta find SOMETHING positive in there.

The Caps clearly need a win, but just as important, they need a breakthrough game on the scoresheet. While I'm no fan of moral victories, a 5-4 loss to the league's best team would be something to build on going into this weekend's matchup with Tampa. But in order for that to happen, the Caps need to do the little things that they have been missing.

On the power play, the Caps need to abandon the whole "Holmstrom-like" concept of planting someone in front of the net at all times. A strategically timed skater moving across the goaltender's field of view is just as valuable as a flat footed player in front, and said player is much less likely to be killed by an Ovechkin one timer. So Glen, please stop trying to murder your players by setting stationary screens in front of the net when you KNOW your snipers pick top corners, and do it at high velocity. At this rate, if a change isn't made every player on the roster will be knocked out by an OV slapper by the end of the season.

At even strength, the Capitals absolutely must play physical hockey in all three ends. To paraphrase the great Herb Brooks, the Caps are not talented enough to win on talent alone. The Caps need to grind against skill teams (Ottawa, Carolina, Tampa), play with skill against grind teams (New Jersey, Vancouver), and they've done precious little of either as of late.

Third, to make this even a remotely close game, Olie Kolzig needs to channel a performance from the 1998 playoff run and frustrate the Senators snipers early. If he can hold the score to 1 or 2 goals in the first two periods, the Caps have a chance. If not....

Despite how dire the situation looks, the Caps don't need a win tonight to keep their hopes alive. What they need is a strong performance heading into Saturday's Southeast Division showdown with Tampa, which IS a make or break game for them. I expect a gritty performance, and maybe an OT point tonight.

Caps 4, Sens 5 (OT).

Join The Deuce's Boycott

2007-11-06T08:57:00.000-08:00

The Deuce is ticked. The Deuce was looking forward to watching The Russian Machine dominate Kovalchuk tonight, and in the process forgetting about that-which-need-not-ever-be-mentioned-again that-happened-last-night. But then, thanks to J.P., the Deuce discovered the following:

"Because the NHL has decided to give the Versus Network exclusive rights to some Monday and Tuesday night telecasts, Tuesday’s game from Atlanta will not be telecast in the Washington or Atlanta areas. Instead, viewers can watch the New York Rangers against the New York Islanders on Versus."

Now the Deuce is pissed. I have to watch two teams I can't stand rather than watching the Caps try to finally break out of this horrible slump. And you just KNOW now that I can't watch, OV will have four goals, three set up on beautiful passes by Nylander. Damn you Versus. Damn you to hell. Why couldn't you black out LAST night's game? Now there's one I wouldn't have minded. Anyway, The Deuce encourages everyone to join him in a boycott of tonights NYC Suckfest. We may not be able to watch the Caps, but the least we can do is refuse to watch Jagr and Witt.

-----------------------------------------------------

Update: Looks like we're going to miss Chris Bourque's NHL thanks to the "exclusivity agreement." This sucks.

Caps Run Into Juggernaut; Canes 5, Caps 0

2007-11-06T07:31:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the Deuce:

Well, that was fun, wasn't it. Last night a desperate Glen Hanlon finally did what Caps fans have been begging for for weeks now and the result was -- a total domination at the hands of the Hurricanes. Make no mistake about it, the Caps got absolutely destroyed last night. Anyone who watched saw a thorough domination by what, at this point at least, appears to be one of the best teams in the league this year. Right now, the Canes are playing like the team that won the Cup two years ago. And the hapless Caps simply could not compete. So enough of that. Let's try and analyze what we can from last night's debacle.

1) Glen Hanlon finally gave in and played OV with Nylander and Backstrom. And while no result from last night can be characterized as "good," there are two positive takeaways here: the first is that for most of the time they were together, they controlled the play and got good scoring chances -- it's just that nothing was going to get by Ward last night. The second is that we now know that Hanlon is desperate enough to try this, so we should be able to see more if it. I honestly think if this line plays together against most teams in the league, they're good for at least 2 goals a game.

2) Where is the fire? Why aren't Sutherby, Bradley, and Laich playing like their jobs depend on every shift (because they do). We're down four and five zip, and these guys aren't hitting out there. (Although in their defense, it may be that they simply couldn't catch the blazing fast Canes).

3) What happened to the tightened standards and the "New NHL" last night. Every time the Caps would try to skate the puck up ice last night, they got whacked, not just hooked, but whacked repeatedly on the stick and forearm by the Canes. The Russian Machine especially is going to have to spend all day with his arms in a tub full of ice water. Not saying it would have made a difference last night, because nothing would have, but come on ref, throw us a freakin bone here, will ya? In one eggregious example Staal just about took Oveckin's arm of with two two-handers in a row, causing OV to lose control of the puck and resulting in an offside call. And no penalty. Oh well.

4) Is it just me, or was that a reputation call on Brashear last night? Yes, he hit the guy into the boards. This is hockey, isn't it? And that defenseman already had his face next to the glass, since he was turning away from another Cap (Laich?) who tried to hit him. Five and a game? Only if your name is Brashear (or Pronger)? It seems like Brash gets more than his share of these types of calls. Let's just say I think the refs tend to focus on him when he's out there. And we can't afford any "extra" scrutiny from the officials.

5) The best part of last night's game? That the Caps play again today, so we can forget about it fast. I expect a much better game against Atlanta, since the Russian Machine always gets up to play against another Russian superstar, and Atlanta is not nearly the team Carolina has been in its last 8 games. Too bad Thrasher Killer Semin won't be in the lineup, since he's always good for two or three against ATL.

BOLD PREDICTION: Caps Right the Ship. Caps 5, Thrash 3. Nylander and Ovechkin combine for 3 goals and 6 points. Kovalchuk only nets 2.*

* - all of this goes out the window if Hanlon abandons the Nylchkinstrom Line. Or at least the Nyl-chkin part of it.

A tale of two (Southeast) cities

2007-11-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

Since shutting out the Hurricanes in their first meeting of the season, Carolina and Washington have been teams headed in opposite directions. Carolina has been inconsistent, but still able to post a respectable 6-2-2 record in their last 10 games, while the Caps have gone a pathetic 2-8-0. Carolina is scoring at a league leading pace (3.79 goals per game) while the Caps have scored a paltry 2.53 goals per game. Carolina sits first in the Southeast division with 19 points, while the Caps sit tied for last with 10.

The Caps have already been bitten hard by the injury bug, with Tom Poti, Alexander Semin, and Chris Clark all missing chunks of the schedule. While Poti may play tonight, neither Semin nor Clark will be available.

So how do the Caps right the ship against Carolina, and gain some momentum going into a stretch of 11 in-division games out of 14? While there are many areas that need improvement, there are three that come to mind:

1. More physical play from the top 2 lines. The Caps may not be the group of rough and tumble grinders from last season, but they need to play more like they are. While nobody expects Nylander or Backstrom to level anyone, every player on the Caps roster needs to rededicate themselves to playing the body. I'm not asking for devastating open ice hits like the one Ovechkin laid on Staal last time the two teams met, but is it too much to ask for Viktor Kozlov to actually lay his gigantic frame into an opposing player rather than meekly swiping a poke check attempt at them?

2. More movement on the power play. Since Hanlon has finally decided to throw all his best offensive players on the ice at once, it would be nice to see them create some confusion among the defenders by having the players shift their positions on the ice, rather than simply passing around the defensive box for a minute looking for a clean shot. The way to create shooting lanes is to draw defenders away from their assigned areas, which can only be done by moving forwards across shooting lanes while the puck is being moved. Doing so has several positive effects. First, it creates a momentary screen, so the goaltender temporarily loses sight of the puck. Second, it either forces a defender out of position if one wing is overloaded or leaves an open man in the position the moving player occupies. The point man on that side then has an option to either skate the puck at goal (if the defender follows the moving forward), shooting through the screen, or passing to the open man at the back post (if the defender does not break formation and follow his man). Any way you slice it, the offense has many more options than just passing around the defensive box. Movement on the power play creates offense. Right now the Caps are standing still.

3. Move Kolzov to the wing and move Nylander to the first line. At this point there is absolutely no excuse not to play your best set up man with your best shooter. Furthermore, chemistry with Ovechkin or no, Kozlov has looked absolutely atrocious his last few outings, and something needs to change. If lining Nylander up with the Russian Machine seemed like a no-brainer at the start of the season, it is even more so now with the Caps struggling to find their way on offense. And the Caps have enough natural centers on the roster to allow Nick Backstrom to continue to play the wing without disrupting the entire lineup if they still feel he's not ready to take on the position. (Never thought I'd be typing that sentence a year ago)

4. Get Mike Green shifts with the first line. Right now Greener is the 4th best offensive player in the lineup (behind OV, Nylander and Backstrom). While he still holds the puck too long and is a genuine heart attack waiting to happen in his own zone, he has the talent to draw defending players to him on a rush, freeing up Ovechkin from the constant double teaming he receives and allowing him to take on defenders one on one after a pass. And any time the Russian Machine is one on one with anybody in the league, it's a good thing for the Caps.

So there we have it. Four ways to improve the Caps chances as they head into a stretch of hockey that may well define their season. Lets hope that Hanlon makes at least some of those adjustments and the Caps right the ship. I don't even want to think about what might happen to the Caps season if he doesn't.

Caps Continue to Forget About Offense: Rangers 2, Caps 0

2007-11-02T07:15:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the Deuce:

Anyone who watched the game last night should have known we were in trouble halfway through the first period when we were outshooting the Rangers 8-0, and had 0 goals. You could see Lundqvist starting to find that "zone" that means nothing short of a screened shot or a rebound was getting by him. And you could also see it on the Caps' faces (see, Kozlov, Victor; Nylander, Michael). Of course, there is one thing that can put a puck past even the hottest of goalies: A great first line.

Now I know, I know, the Caps were severly depleted yesterday, missing Chris Clark and Ankle Semin and Groin Poti and blah blah blah and The Donald was double shifting last night and so on. You know when is a good time to just say, "screw it," and throw out your best players together? Um, when there are no other options.

I've said it before and I'll say it until Hanlon or somebody out there listens. A great 1st line in the NHL can get you 3 goals a night. At least. And last night, Ovechkin-Nylander-Kozlov/Backstrom would have been nearly unstoppable. It bears repeating: Nobody in the NHL can take the puck off Nylander's stick. They know it, and just back off him, giving him even more room to operate and look for a sweet pass. Now imagine that the other team has to worry about Ovechkin as well as Nylander (we don't know what this would look like because Hanlon hasn't put them on the ice together for a single even-strength shift this season). It would be awesome.

It's almost as if Hanlon knows this is what everyone wants to see, and is just resisting to be stubborn. Glen, we won't think any less of you as a coach if you recognize that Ovechkin-Kozlov was a mistake. In fact, it will mean you know how to make adjustments, which, I hear, is kind of important in an NHL coach. Let's look at the other teams that played last night:

OTT 6, ATL 4: Alfredsson had 2 G and 2 A, Heatley had 2 A, and Randy Robitaille, filling in for Spezza, had 2 G. On the other side, Kovalchuk had the hat trick and Hossa an assist.

DET 2, CGY 1: Shockingly, the Zetterberg/Datsyuk line combined for 4 points (2G, 2A) - on the other side, Tanguay had a goal, assist to Iginla.

STL 3, MIN 2: The big line of Tkachuk/Kariya/Boyes that killed the Caps came through with a goal for Tkachuk, assists to Kariya and Boyes, and on the other side, the big Gaborik/Demitra line got all the scoring for Min, with a goal and and assist each.

In Colorado, the big Crosby/Malkin line ended up with BOTH Pens goals, both by Crosby, assist to Malkin (now there's a coach who isn't afraid to put his best players together, EVEN THOUGH BOTH ARE CENTERS! Who cares??!! Put your superstars together, and nobody can stop them!). For COL, the Sakic/Smyth line (who by the way have been tearing up the league), finished with assists from both Sakic and Smyth.

In the Columbus/Anaheim game, everyone fell asleep. Columbus, which has no stars, finished with 20 shots and no goals in the shootout. Rob Neidermeyer scored with an assist from Pahlsson for ANA.

Nashville got two power play goals and points on all three goals came from four players: J.P. Dumont, Jason Arnott, David Legwand, and Martin Erat. Vancouver's big Sedin line was shut out.

MON: 5, PHI: 2: Koivu, Higgins, Kovalev, Latendresse get four of the five goals. For Philly, Upshall and Richards get the goals, with assists from Carter and Danielle Briere.

I think that's enough. As you can see, for almost all of these games, the star players scored most of the goals (no surprise there), but the great majority of those goals came from superstars playing TOGETHER - Heatley/Alfredsson/Robitaille; Zetterberg/Datsyuk/Holmstrom; Tkatchuk/Kariya/Boyes; Crosby/Malkin/Whoever, Sakic/Smyth/Whoever (ah, to be Whoever). So you're telling me that Ovechkin/Nylander/Whoever couldn't come up with two measley goals last night?! REALLY? Well, how about we test the hypothesis before we dismiss it Glen! I'm tired of this impotent offense. I'm tired of "spreading the (lack of) scoring around." I'm tired of "just wait until Semin gets back." I'm tired of playing Russians with Russians and Swedes with Swedes. STACK A FRIKKIN' LINE HANLON -- SEE WHAT HAPPENS. You just might like what you get. Especially when Semin and Clark are out, and you're playing Nylander with Brooks Frikkin Laich and/or The Donald. We are wasting Nylander's all-world talents. You don't think the Rangers would kill to have him back right now? Let's do something with him!

Real life intrusions

2007-10-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

As some of you may have noticed, the site has not been updated in a few days. I'm in the middle of moving right now, but hopefully I'll be back by the end of the week, and the Deuce may get a few words in before then.

In the news, Capitals legend Peter Bondra retired yesterday. We'll have a proper tribute to Bondra in the coming days, but for now, we'll just link to this profile hosted, fittingly enough, on the Hockey Hall of Fame website's legends section.

And 'till the website is updated again, we'll leave you with this:

Caps 7 - Leafs 1.

Rainy day, yes... Lightning? Not so much.

2007-10-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

It's a gloomy time in Capsland right now, both figuratively and literally. And what better team to come to town in the middle of a downpour than the Lightning (Bugs)?

At first glance, this looks to be a very difficult game for the Caps. They have always had trouble with Vinnie Lecavalier on home ice (10g, 8A in 22 games), they have no power play to speak of, and Olie Kolzig was shredded by Tampa to the tune of an .887 save percentage against the Bugs last season. All signs seem to point towards the highly potent Tampa offense dismantling the Caps.

Here's why it won't happen:

Olie Kolzig will be primed for tonight, having had a terrible outing his last start against the Islanders. Olie almost never plays back to back stinkers. Additionally, he's playing on almost a full week of rest, which should be extremely helpful to a guy who's a lot closer to 40 than 30. I expect a dominant performance from Kolzig tonight.

Alexander Semin returns to the lineup. While he may not play a ton of minutes, his presence immediately infuses much needed scoring into the Caps lineup. Expect Semin to take a little less than half his even strength shifts, with Flash taking the rest on the second line. Semin's presence should also bolster what has been an absolutely pathetic power play.

Mike Green starts on the first PP unit. This should have happened at the start of the season. Green may well be the third most talented scorer on the team right now behind Ovechkin and Semin. It's about time he gets a chance to prove it with the man advantage.

Tampa is prime for a letdown after their domination of the Thrashers. They're not as good as they looked in last game against the Thrashers (though Atlanta appears to be as bad as they looked). This looks like a classic letdown game for the Lightning Bugs.

Finally, the Caps seem to recognize that they need to start racking up points RIGHT NOW if they want to compete in a playoff race in the months down the line. In-division games are vital, and the team finally seems to understand that (although we won't know for sure until we see them not lay a stink bomb against that other team from Florida).

I see the Caps pulling this game out 4-3, with Kolzig being peppered for around 40 shots and being named the game's first star.

The Deuce: Lineups and Special teams

2007-10-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the Deuce:

As I watched with helplessness the Caps embarrass themselves in front of a lukewarm home crowd filled (yet again) with Pittsburgh idiots, I got angrier and angrier. And Glen Hanlon is now the focus of my rage. I like Glen. I really do. I think he has shown a great ability (up until now) to get the most out of minimal talent, get his guys to play hard every game, and stay positive in the face of mounting losses. But now he has a real NHL team to work with, and the results are not good.

I know we're only 7 games into the season, but the Caps are going to need all the points they can now get to make the playoffs this year. So, I ask you, what are the signs of a good coach in the NHL? How about these, for starters: Good matchups, good special teams, good effort. Glen's one for three. Let's take those first two in turn, shall we? Matchups/Line combinations: First, let's look at the Caps lineup on Saturday:

Ovechkin-Kozlov-Motzko
Backstrom-Nylander-Fleischmann
Pettinger-Gordon-Clark
Brashear-Steckel-Laich

Not exactly Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson, are they? Or Lecavalier-St. Louis-Prospal? Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom? Not even close. Now why is it that most of the guys on those lines are always near the top of the NHL in scoring? Maybe because they are playing with other WORLD CLASS players!

Now I like Joe Motzko, and it's nice that Kozlov and OV can talk Russian together on the bench -- but if I hear any more about their great "chemistry" I'm going to puke. Chemistry is important, but great talent often creates great chemistry. And Kozlov is not a great talent. He is a pretty good player, and, as tsn.ca stated in last year's scouting report: "does not look good playing the pivot." Does that sound like a center you want to pair with your franchise, all-world left wing? NO! In fact, it sounds a lot like Zubrus II.

Know who IS a world-class talent at center? Michael Nylander. I don't know how many times during Saturday's game I turned to Grumpy One and Original Six and said, "Look at Nylander. He's UNBELIEVABLE with the puck on his stick. He's playing keep away with NHL defensemen, and they can't get the puck away from him." And I actually had time to say all that while he was still holding the biscuit. Then he made two beautiful passes to a breaking Backstrom (whom I like), who promptly flubbed both of them. Think OV's going to miss those? Neither do I. If OV and Kozlov have such great chemistry, let them play together: How about OV-Nylander-Kozlov. Then Kozlov can take advantage of that huge frame to park it in front of the net or dig pucks out of the corners while Nyls and OV play keep away together.

I don't know why Caps coaches always insist on having two average lines instead of one great one. Anyone remember when Oates came to DC, and everyone said, "watch out. Bondra's going to score 60 goals now!" Well, guess what? Oates and Bondra played on separate lines, so we could have a "deeper" lineup. Great.

As for the second line, I'd be perfectly happy with Backstrom centering Semin and Clark. Or Flash, if you still want to give him a chance to show what he can do. In fact, while Semin is out Flash could have the perfect opportunity, playing with Backstrom and Clark! Now, I know, Glen doesn't want to "rush" Backstrom to center. I can only assume that's because of either 1) faceoffs and/or 2) defensive responsibilities. OK Glen, that's fine. Put Steckel or Gordon up with those guys until he's ready. They'll still be potent, but more importantly, WE'LL STILL BE STACKED ON THE FIRST LINE! I'll take the above stated first line against any checking line in the league. Let it ride! And we still have a shut down line of Pettinger-Gordon/Steckel-Laich. So there it is. Stop converting wingers to center to play with OV, and give him the setup man he deserves. Did we really pay all these millions to Nylander to play him with two rookies?!

Next - special teams:

Well, really this is just a repetition of the previous rant. Last year (to start off the year), Glen tried to have two good power plays by breaking up Semin and Ovechkin, his only all-star caliber players. The results were so atrocious that (thankfully) he scrapped the idea three games in and just "stacked" the first PP. What's the quote about those who forget history are doomed to repeat it? Well, see all Glen's quotes this year about all the best teams having two great PP units. Um, Glen, at this point, I'd settle for one average PP unit!

Once again, we're throwing out JOE MOTZKO, Kozlov, OV, Poti, and Clark. Please see previous paragraph about Michael Nylander. If you're not going to match him with OV on a line, at least, for the love of GOD do it on the PP Glen! The only goal Saturday night was set up by a nice patented Nylander curl around, followed by a pass to the point, a shot on net (no, really!), and a real honest to goodness screen! So please, move Nyls up where he belongs. How about putting Ovechkin on the point, where penalty killers would be forced to respect his cannon and stay up high, thus opening up space down low for Nylander to operate (not that he needs that much space). It has to be better then putting a career minor leaguer out there, doesn't it?

So, there you have it. My expert analysis from the cheap seats (actually, they're not so cheap this year!) The effort is still there, now we need the smarts to go with them. And that starts with the coaching staff. The players are saying all the right things. They buy into Hanlon's systems and strategy. But they'll also buy into any changes he makes right now. Four losses in a row will do that to you. Please Glen. Do the right thing. Save The Russian Machine. And my two-year old from another thirty-three years of suffering and losing to those G-D Penguins.

What is Bill Guerin, like 70 now?

2007-10-19T08:06:00.001-07:00

Talk about a bitter taste in the mouth. The Caps played a fairly good game last night, but were undone by stupid penalties and even worse special teams play. The Caps power play is, in a word, awful. In the words of Rick Pitino, "it sucks, and it stinks, and it sucks." Wasted opportunities like this at the beginning of the season are going to haunt this team when the playoff chase comes around.

While plenty of blame goes to the Caps putrid power play, there were other issues that certainly didn't help the Caps cause. A rare poor outing by Kolzig allowed the roughly 340 year old Bill Guerin to record his first hat trick since the league expanded from 6 teams in 1967. Kolzig did a particularly poor job of sealing off the 5 hole, allowing goals that literally slid underneath his pads.

The bright spots for the Caps occured within 5 minutes of one another. After apparently not realizing he was playing with the most dangerous winger in the league for most of the game, Joe "don't call me dead meat" Motzko finally fed a pass across the slot to Alex Ovechkin two minutes into the third period. Ovechkin did what he does best, one timing the puck into the twine before Rick DiPietro had a chance to react.

Less than five minutes later, Nicklas Backstrom showed the world why he is considered one of the top prospects in the game. Backstrom charged up the left wing boards, fought off two defenders, then made an amazing feed from behind the net to Tomas Fleischmann, who banged the puck home to knot the game at two.

Now I'm not one to say I told you so, but Flash looked a whole heck of a lot better playing with Backstrom and Nylander than he did on the top line. Flash and Backstrom looked like they had been playing together for years, and for stretches of the third period looked like the most dangerous line in the arena. Their uptempo style and aggressive play in the offensive zone had the Isles on their heels, and it looked like only a matter of time before the Caps would take the lead...

... and then, faster than you can say "they just need to avoid taking a stupid penalty here" Captain Clark upended an Islanders defenseman in the offensive zone, giving the Isles the man advantage. Clark has not looked like himself since the beginning of the season. While some of that can be attributed to his move off Ovechkin's line, he just looks like he's forcing the issue right now instead of allowing the game to come to him. Clark's intensity and his willingness to put everything he has into every shift he takes is what makes him Captain material, but he needs to dial it down a notch and just play his game right now.

Bryan "Just because I wear an eye patch it doesn't make me a pirate" Berard promptly beat Olie Kolzig on the ensuing power play, and the momentum pendulum swung fully the other directions. The Caps continued to take bad penalties, and Guerin put the game out of reach with two late goals to complete the hat trick.

So what can we take away from this game? Well, I certainly wouldn't bet on Olie Kolzig having another bad game any time soon, so that's not an issue. The power play continues to let the Caps down, primarily because they continue to go against conventional wisdom and spread the puck around instead of force feeding it to Ovechkin at every available opportunity. If Joe Motzko has the puck on his stick for more of the power play than the Russian Machine, there's a fundamental problem with the power play strategy. We said it last year, but it bears repeating; It's time for the Caps to go find a power play coach/consultant. There has been no improvement on the power play in the time Hanlon has coached here, and while he's done a good job overall, it's clear that nobody's buying what he's selling with the man advantage.

The Caps also need to cut down on the penalties in the attacking zone. There's no excuse for that. Ever. And without Boyd Gordon in the lineup, the penalty kill looks average instead of unbeatable. Hopefully Boyd's back spasms will settle down and he'll return to the lineup sooner rather than later.

And finally, everyone's burial of Flash might have been a bit premature.

Next game is this Saturday against the Flightless Devilbirds. If you are in the area and consider yourself even a passing fan of the Caps, there's no excuse for not buying a ticket to this game. Seriously. Go do it. Right now. We'll still be here when you get back. Remember, if you're sick and tired of other fans coming in and taking over our building, you can absolutely do something about it. Buy a ticket. Get your friends to buy tickets (as long as they're not from Pittsburgh). Don't let some idiot Pens fan in your section even start that pansy little "let's go pens" chant in your section. Drown their voice out with your own. Do not, however, attempt to drown them in the literal sense. I know they're annoying, but attempted murder is not the answer. Yet.

What's wrong with Flash

2007-10-16T12:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, JP posted a note on Flash Fleischmann's less than stellar output to open the year. While his assesment that Tomas has been "virtually invisible" is right on the mark, let's explore why that has been the case.

First, lets examine Flash's strengths and weaknesses. From TSN.ca's scouting report, Fleischmann "has outstanding setup ability and an understanding of what to do with the puck on his stick... Still needs to add significant strength before becoming a regular in the NHL. Must continue to improve his play without the puck at the highest level."

Having strong skills with the puck is all well and good, but skating on a line with the Russian Machine, Flash is not going to have the puck on his stick very often. Throw in the chemistry between Oveckin and Kozlov and the way they give and go with one another, and the chances for Flash to play to his strengths decreases significantly. Instead, he's being asked to do two things he doesn't do well - play in space without the puck and play strong in his own end.

Defensive play will never be the strongest part of Flash's game. He doesn't yet have the strength to move players off the puck, and his positional play in his own zone has been spotty at best. His physical game has about as much edge to it as a spoon. Indeed, Flash has found himself firmly planted to the bench in late game situations where the Caps are protecting a lead. This makes sense from a coaching standpoint, but it gives Flash even less time to create a rapport on-ice with his linemates.

It appears clear that if Fleischmann is to stay a part of the Caps everyday lineup, some changes have to be made. First, he is not the type of winger that should be paired with Ovechkin and Kozlov. As long as Nick Backstrom isn't ready to center that line and move Kozlov to the wing, the right wing on the first line needs to be responsible defensively and capable of wreaking havok without the puck, but with strong enough skills to contribute in the offensive zone when needed. And if you think I'm talking about anyone other than Chris Clark, you're way off the mark.

So, moving Clark up to the first line, the lineup looks something like this:

Ovechkin - Kozlov - Clark
Backstrom - Nylander - Semin
Pettinger - Gordon - Sutherby/Laich/Motzko
Brashear - Steckel - Bradley

Flash is still the odd man out.

It's too early to declare Fleischmann's tenure here in DC as a failure, but unless he's put in a position to play to his strengths, I don't see him sticking around past this season. But considering Semin's current injury, why wouldn't the Caps at least take a couple games to see if Flash can make an impact on the second line with Nylander and Backstrom? Paired with a couple defensively responsible linemates who both think pass first, wouldn't Flash be in a better position to play to his strengths?

The Deuce breaks down the weekend we'd all rather forget

2007-10-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the Deuce:

See, this is what happens when you start to believe your own hype. The Caps get featured in an article by espn.com's Suck Burnside, get picked by the so-called "experts" as the division winner and playoff contender, play two great games and get one lucky win they don't deserve, and suddenly the Caps think they're so good they don't even have to shoot to score anymore! Apparently, puck possession and pretty passing are supposed to make the other team's goalie simply move aside and let us skate the puck into the net.

The Caps put on what will hopefully be their worst showings of the season this weekend, getting outshot a combined 152-12. Brent Johnson and Olie have to look like Dennis Lemieux from Slap Shot right now, nervously twitching and trying to save phantom pucks they probably still see flying at them from all directions.

And don't try to tell me that Semin and Gordon would have made the difference in these games, because those guys aren't worth an additional 40 shots, which is how many more shots the Caps needed in those two games to make a difference.

The Caps played dumb hockey against the Rangers, led off by The Russian Machine's tripping penalty 5 seconds into the game. And it was all downhill from there.

Against the Sabres, the Caps were playing a dangerous game of trying to match skill against skill. The shot total through 3/4 of the 1st period should have been their clue that it wasn't working. Eventually, the floodgates opened and Buffalo was off to the races.

I'm too depressed by actually having watched these disasters to say much more. Thankfully, my soon-to-be two year old missed both games and didn't cry all night long as a result!

The (very few) positives from this weekend's games:

Glen Hanlon's calm demeanor after the horrendous efforts.

The fact that this will serve as a wakeup call to the team and they'll be forced to put the hard-hats back on.

Eventually, Alexander Semin's ankle will heal. He's good for 10 shots a game!

The resulting articles and polls in the media dropping the Caps back down to near last in the league will piss the team off and result in a great effort this week (I hope).

At least it didn't happen against Pittsburgh.

Gordo = no go?

2007-10-12T13:13:00.001-07:00

Per Tarik, Boyd Gordon is out for tonight's contest (and probably until next Thursday's game). Gordon sustained an undisclosed injury in practice earlier this week.

With Gordon out, Granite Chin Sutherby will see his first action of the season tonight.

Semin out

2007-10-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

As expected, Sasha Semin will not play this weekend, with the team hoping he'll be ready for next week's game against the Islanders.