Theodore a Cap, Huet to Chicago

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.

Interested...

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.

Maddening inconsistency

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.

Make that TWO moves we did NOT see coming

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.

The battle of the red, white and blue

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.