Wow - Cool Hockey Weekend Even If It Is Summertime....

Okay, since you probably read this and other blogs you know that The Washington Capitals' ECHL affiliate South Carolina Stingrays captured the Kelly Cup - the ECHL Championship in Anchorage on Friday Night. It took 23 playoff games for the Rays to get 16 wins, but with a 4-2 victory in game seven, the South Carolina Stingrays knocked off the Alaska Aces and clinched their third Kelly Cup Championship!! Congratulations to the Rays Organization. The winning goaltender Friday Night, and the ECHL Playoff MVP, was James Reimer who stopped 26 of the 28 shots he faced. The XX year old Reimer was a 4th Round, 99th overall pick by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2006 NHL entry draft, and as per Hockey's Future is part of the Leafs system, this season he played in Reading for the ECHL Royals, Toronto for the AHL Marlies, and South Carolina. He was a great pickup for the Stingrays by their coach/gm - Jared Bednar. Also on the winning team were Capitals prospects: Center & Team Captain Travis Morin, and Left Winger Maxime Lacroix.

The Capitals AHL affiliate Hershey Bears took a 2-1 Series lead in the AHL's Calder Cup finals with a 3-0 win in Hershey yesterday over the Vancouver Canucks' affiliate Manitoba Moose. The Bears try and make the series 3-1 this evening in Hershey with a 5:00PM faceoff while the Moose try and even the series up. Both Hershey and Manitoba are filling their buildings and the series is filled with solid hockey. Yesterday, The Bears found the back of the goal first, as Graham Mink netted his sixth of the postseason at 6:22 of the first period. Michal Neuvirth earned his fourth postseason shutout, turning aside all 28 Moose shots. The Hershey power play went 2-for-3, and the penalty kill silenced Manitoba on all five attempts. The three stars of the Game: 1. Michal Neuvirth (4th postseason shutout) 2. Alexandre Giroux (league-leading 14th playoff goal) 3. Staffan Kronwall (two assists, on ice for all three goals).

Good luck to the Bears today; hopefully next year at this juncture all three teams in the Capitals Organization, including those who regularly play at the Verizon Center will still be competing. Speaking of NHL Hockey how about those Red Wings? Last night's game was truly a lesson in puck control and self control by the Red Wings. Pavel Datsyuk notched two assists and almost had a third in his return to the ice after 18 days on IR. Chris Osgood turned away all 22 shots by the Penguins and the Red Wings as a whole totally frustrated both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Marc-Andre Fluery had his "human game" letting 5 of 21 shots by for a save percentage of just 0.762 before being pulled in the second period. By that point it was basically all over "except for the crying" as they say. The way this series has been nothing is for sure but there was no doubt who the better team on the ice last night was. Clearly Pittsburgh has a lot of adjustments to make over the next couple of days while Detroit seems to determined to try and repeat and not give the young talented Pittsburgh team anything to motivate themselves with. Lots of physical play and some of it marginal ensued last night, but in the post-game comments and Q&A, the Red Wings were clearly not biting on any leading questions and seem determined to let their play on the ice do their talking next game as well as this one. So Pittsburgh now has their backs against the wall and Detroit appears determined to try and win their 12 Cup overall and 2nd in a row in Pittsburgh. It should be a great game - I have a new poll - who do you think will win on Tuesday and who will win the Cup? I'm thinking Detroit holds it together and once again wins the Cup in Pittsburgh on Tuesday; I'm not making any predictions on scores, etc. though. I do predict that Franzen and Malkin will go at it before the end of the second period though.

Five more weeks till the Capitals Development Camp Opens ... in the meantime

LETS GO BEARS!!!! and once again
CONGRATULATIONS STINGRAYS!!!

Caps 2 - Maple Leafs 1; Alzner Gets His First NHL Goal

December 6th Scores to Remember: Caps 2 - Maple Leafs 1; Navy 34 - Army 0 ; Hershey Bears 4 - Hartford Wolf Pack 2; Villanova 27 - James Madison 31...

Well tonight in Toronto it was a two point night for the Washington Capitals, despite all the help the help the referees tried to give the Maple Leafs. The lack of a call on Toronto when Alex Ovechkin was interfered with, hooked and basically pulled down on a breakaway in the last minute of the second period was a bad piece of officiating. However, the two penalties given to Ovechkin, especially the second holding call by an official who couldn't see the play while the ref who could didn't call any penalty was actually worse. Also, you couldn't tell from the replays that Brooks Laich did or didn't kick the puck in into the net, so since the call was a goal how was it overturned? I guess the guys in the booth had some video we didn't see. Finally since the Caps won 2-1 in regulation and ended a four game road losing streak, none of that matters, life is good. Well sort of good, since another Cap got injured tonight, Eric Fehr - that makes 9 + Brian Pothier, if your counting.

Before reviewing the Caps game and play in Toronto, a comment has to be made about the depth of the Capitals organization. With the Capitals injury situation, so far this season 30 different players have played for the Caps. Over the past two weeks, the Caps have called up numerous players from the Hershey Bears, tonight in Toronto, the Caps lineup included Kieth Aucoin, Sami Lepisto, Karl Alzner, Bryan Helmer and Sean Collins. Add to that the fact that Tyler Sloan is still on the Caps roster but is injured and you have 6 players that started the season as Hershey Bears (5 Defenseman), that haven't been around Hershey much in the last week or so. Yet Hershey beat the Hartford Wolf Pack 4-2 tonight, that was the Bears 10th straight win. The call ups of course go all the way down to and affect even the Caps ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays, the Stingrays played the Charlotte Checkers and dropped the game to them 3-2. Looking at the Stingrays - Checkers score sheet, it was a hard fought game (3 fights in the first period and one fight in the second). It also doesn't look like Charlotte outplayed the Rays, the difference of the game was a power play goal by the Checkers at the tail end of a 5-3 man advantage. So the depth of the organization is without question, just well ... pretty amazing.

How does a team plagued with so many injuries win two games in a row and break a four game road losing streak? Well first they play passionate hockey for sixty minutes and focus on the basics - that's probably the biggest thing the Caps did tonight. No we're not talking about "the system" here, though that's part of it, we're talking about simplifying the game plan to enable a lot of new faces to work well together and focusing on the basics. Combine that with the passionate play, and the high general talent level of the many young players in the Caps organization and you have the fundamentals required to facilitate winning hockey. The injury replacement call ups played well tonight. The defense pairings played within themselves and there appears to be good chemistry between the pairings put on the ice tonight. The Jurcina - Alzner pairing seemed to work especially well [ed note - I guess that's pretty easy to say since they scored both goals and Alzner had a goal and an assist.] Karl Alzner was second in ice time tonight at 23: 06 only to Ovechkin. Alzner had a goal, an assist, was +2, blocked 3 shots and had 1 hit - not a bad nights work for a 20 year old rookie. Sami Lepisto played 20:37 and had 3 hits, turning in a solid night's work. In 13:29 TOI, Kieth Aucoin played well he took 1 shot, had 2 takeaways and was 56% in the face off circle. Aucoin frequently generated traffic in front of the net and at least one scoring chance for the Caps. Bryan Helmer was very solid and confident, especially on the penalty kill, and his partner Sami Lepisto looked like the prototypical, big, mobile, two way Scandinavian/European defenseman that Peerless talks about here (see his discussion of Tomas Kaberle).

As for the other Caps on the roster, nobody had a bad night. The Maple Leafs scored their only goal on the power play, as such no one on the Caps roster was +/- negative, Alexander the Great had a good night leading the team in hits (6), shots on goal (7) and attempts blocked (8) as well as PIM (4) - he worked hard during every second of the 23:17 he was on the ice, trying to create and capitalize on opportunities. Tonight could easily have been Milan Jurcina's best game so far this season. In 19:56 TOI, including 1:31 of PK, Jurcina was +2, had a goal, blocked 4 shots, and had 2 hits; also, he was NOT on the ice when Antropov scored the Leaf's only goal in the third period. Brooks Laich, Nicklas Backstrom, Fleischmann, Nylander and Kozlov all had solid outings and contributed very positively to the game. Overall, the Caps played a solid 60 minute game of two way hockey. Brent Johnson was solid in net all night long despite facing only 20 shots. It was a fun game to watch as well and not just because the Caps won in regulation.

In Philadelphia today, Navy beat Army for the 9th time in the last 10 meetings. The score was 34 -0. President Bush attended and both teams debuted new uniforms.

Next up...

For Navy it'll be the EagleBank (formerly Congressional) Bowl at RFK Stadium in Washington DC on December 20th (at which time the Capitals will be playing the Philadelphia Flyers in Philly). It looks like Navy will take on Wake Forest but this is apparently not definite yet.

For the Caps it's the Carolina Hurricanes at RBC Center in Raliegh, NC - tomorrow. Yep it's another of those "fun" back to back road games for the Capitals. The 'Canes are coming off a 2-1 home overtime loss to the Flyers tonight.

LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!

A "Look Ahead" at Tonight's Matchup Between The Capitals & The Thrashers

The big story about tonight's match up between the Southeast Division First Place (Washington Capitals) and last place (Atlanta Thrashers) will be injuries and who the Capitals end up dressing and playing. A couple of sidelines in order of impact to the potential outcome will be four sidelines. 1) The goaltending "matchup" between the netminder at both end of the ice - neither team has a netminder right now who has been anywhere near a "Berlin Wall" over the past several games. 2) The "Ovechkin vs. Kovalchuk" scoring duel - not near the drama of the growing epic Washington sharpshooters vs. Penguin sharpshooter rivalries but it is known that both are big game players who "get up" when they play opposing stars, especially of Russian descent. 3) The motivation the Caps must inherently feel to return the favor of the opening night drubbing Atlanta gave the Caps at Philips Center, the last time these two met. 4) Lastly, the fact that just shy of the first anniversary of Bruce Boudreau taking the reigns as Caps' coach, they are seeking to end longest losing streak at three consecutive games, and to keep their home ice streak of no losses in regulation alive.

Any more detailed look at or analysis of the match up is currently muddied and complicated by the Caps injury situation and lack of clear understanding on who will really suit up. Tune in to see just how many Hershey Bears end up making the drive from Hershey today or have already made it that we don't know of right now. I'll be "Rockin' the Red" while driving to Myrtle Beach to spend the holidays with relatives and for the first time this season neither my partner Tom or I are using our seats - compared to last season that's quite a great statement for me to make 1/4 of the way through the season. However, I'm sure Tom gave them to a worthy, nice person so here's to hoping they are Caps Fans and they are happy when the third period buzzer sounds.

LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks Like Two As Yet Unamed Players Will Be Called Up From Hershey

This recently posted on the South Carolina Stingrays' site: "Lacroix and Pokaluk Reassigned to Hershey." My guess is that means the Caps will recall Sami Lepisto or Karl Alzner and either Chris Bourque, Oscar Osala or Quintin Laing from Hershey...but nothing is as yet posted on either the Capitals or Bears websites. My bet is it's Lepisto and Bourque. What's your guess?

So How Are Things Down On The Farm?

What's going on "down on the farm"? or "in the system?" Well despite the Capital' up and down performance which has captured 0.550 of the points available to them so far this season, the Capitals two Minor League affiliate the AHL Hershey Bears and the ECHL South Carolina Stingrays have gotten their seasons off to a good starts. As of the completion of Hershey's game in Philadelphia, against the Flyers' AHL affiliate Philadelphia Phantoms, the Bears are 8-3-0-1. So the Bears are actually flying high atop the AHL standings. The Stingrays have gotten off to a fair start and are 3-2-0 in five games played, they are in fifth in the ECHL's American Conference's South Division however they have at least one game in hand on the four teams ahead of them and three of those four teams are tied for second place.

In one of the more "interesting" goings on in the Capitals Minor League pipeline, it appears that Michael Nevirth is headed back to North America and the ECHL South Carolina Stingrays because of an inssue with his contract with the team he was being loaned to in the Czech Republic. In addition to Neuvirth the Stingrays have 10 other players on their current roster who are on contract to the Capitals, and zz players who are on contract to the AHL Hershey Bears. In addition to the prospects in the Caps pipeline the Stingrays also have several other players with NHL potential.

In fact, the Stingray's lineup includes these players under contract with the Capitals and the Bears. Twenty four year old Center Travis Morin, a 9th round choice in the 2004 entry draft who spent 4 years in the NCAA before signing with the Caps in March 2007; twenty-one (21) year old LW Maxime Lacroix, a fifth round pick by the Capitals in the 2006 entry draft; twenty-four (24) year old right wing Steve Pinizzotto who looked very good at the Caps Rookie Camp this summer but wasn't getting enough playing time during the first 5 games of the AHL season up in Hershey; 20 year old defenseman Josh Godfrey, a 2nd round (34th overall) pick in the 2007 NHL entry draft, who look like with some seasoning is a potential NHL'er; 22 year old defenseman, Sasha Pokulok; a first round selection (14th overall) from the 2005 NHL entry draft who has yet to "come into his own" and reach the potential orginally seen in him; Russian Victor Dovgan, a 20 year old defenseman who was a 7th round pick in the 2005 entry draft by the Caps and who is here in North America for his first season after spending a couple of seasons in the Russian Elite league "bulking up"; and Hershey Bears "properties" - 20 Year old LW Michael Dubuc, who recently signed a two year contract with Hershey; twenty- two year old right wing Tom Maxwell; twenty-three year old foward, Keith Johnson, a University of Maine product; and twenty-five (25) year old goaltender Bobby Goepfert, who has been up with Hershey for the last week while Simeon Varlamov nurses an injured groin. In two games with Hershey this past week Goepfert has had a save percentage of 0.903and a 1-0-1 record. In fact as of the end of this past weekend Goepfert has the best save percentage of the three goalies who have worn a Bears sweater so far this season. When he gets back to South Carolina, the Stingrays will be with the services of a top notch netminder.

All these things should make the Stingrays highly competitive with the elite in the ECHL this season and should mean that Hockey Fans in and around Charleston, SC will see a lot of good hockey. In addition to prospects in the Caps development pipeline South Carolina has a few other solid players with developmental prospects. Looking ahead it sure seems like the South Division of the ECHL's American Conference will likely be a battle between the Stingrays and the Florida Everblades who also have a very solid roster.

Things in Hershey are going simply "swimmingly." How else can one describe an 8-3-0-1 record in 12 games. Even though this weekend the Bears went 0-1-0-1 against the Philadelphia Phantoms in a "Home-Home" pair of games, Hershey is remains 2 points ahead of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in the East Division of the Eastern Conference of the AHL. The Bears have four players in the top 20 scorers in the AHL: scoring leader Keith Aucoin with 18 points (5 goals, 13 assists) in 12 games, #5 Aleaxdre Giroux with 13 points (9 goals, 4 assists) in 12 games; #12 Graham Mink with 12 points (6 goals, 6 assists) in 12 games; and #14 Chris Bourque with 12 points (4 goals, 8 assists) in 10 games played. Bourque has also played one game already this season with the Capitals.



So things "down on the farm" are solid, hopefully after these past couple days of reaffirming the importance of accountability here in DC, things will return to being on a solid footing for the "Big Club." All accounts indicate that the Caps had a hard, solid practice on Sunday to shake the memories of Saturday's poor outing against the Sabres from the teams collective psyche. Now the team Capitals can begin to prepare for their upcoming game against Ottawa on Tuesday.



LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!