Thirty Six (36) - It's Just A Number But 732 and 674 Are Significant Numbers

 Well I don't know if anyone will read this post it's been a long while since I posted but I had a thoroughly enjoyable time this evening attending the Washington Capitals 2021-2022 NHL Season Opener at Capital One Center.  What a great hockey game to watch if you were a Washington Capitals fan like I am.

If you had told me back when I saw Alex Ovechkin first play for the Washington Capitals at then Verizon Center in 2005-2006, I was going to see him score his 731st and 732nd NHL goals 16 years later and the he'd score a shorthanded goal to surpass Marcel Dionne for number 5 on the NHL All Time Scoring list, I really don't know what I'd have said.  I mean from his first NHL season I think we knew we were watching a guy with special talent, possibly generational talent, but legendary talent? That wasn't yet something I suspected.  I mean every time over the past two seasons when asked by sports journalists "What's it mean to pass <Insert Legend's Name Here>, Alex clearly indicates it's very special and somewhat humbling.  But on the way home from the game tonight I thought about watching games that Marcel Dionne played and fantastic goals he scored in the late 1970's while he played for the Los Angeles Kings, he was just so, so good, you rarely thought of him as being only 5'8" tall but he is and he had such awesome hands and shot placement.  How amazing and legendary was Marcel Dionne as an NHL Player - well in January 2004, Dionne was one of six NHL All-Stars immortalized in a series of Canadian postage stamps.  That's pretty legendary to have your face on a national postage stamp, that's the company Alex Ovechkin is now among.  Thank you Mr.Ovechkin for all the wonder and joy you've filled my and other hockey fans, especially us Washington Capitals fans for the past 17 seasons.  It's been so cool to me to watch so many of your 732 goals live in person from my seat in Section 103 since you've entered the league.

In other hockey news this evening at 7th and F Streets in Washington DC, Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette won his 674th game as an NHL Coach, surpassing John Tortorella as the US Board NHL coach with the most career wins; as an aside he did so when our/his Washington Capitals beat the New York Rangers, the team Laviolette played for, 5-1. During the game Capitals First Round Draft pick, 19 year old Hendrix Lapierre played his first NHL game and scored his first NHL goal.  Lapierre's first NHL goal was a beauty, a "goal scorer's goal" as the cliche' goes.  Lapierre had a great camp this fall to earn his spot on the opening night roster, and looked excellent all night long. Capitals goaltender Vitek Vanecek played an excellent game as well, especially during the first period, where the Capitals had a slow start and were outplayed by every measure by the Rangers however, thanks to Vanecek, and a PPG by TJ Oshie, primary asset to Alex Ovechkin, the score at the end of the first period was Capitals 1 - Rangers 0.

Thankfully the Capitals came out for the second period "hitting on all cylinders" took control of the game and played the entire second period with control, discipline and speed.  By the end of the second period Justin Schultz had a PPG; and just 24 seconds after that Lapierre scored his first NHL goal with both his parents and grandparents in attendance to see him play in his first NHL game; that was just very cool. The second period ended with the score Capitals 3 - Rangers 0.

The third period was well played, especially by the Capitals, but despite Rangers speedster, Chris Kreider scoring a PPG for the Rangers, to break Vanecek's bid for a shutout; it really was "The Alex Ovechkin Show."  Just after the start of the third period, the Capitals went on the power play. The Caps PP was excellent all game long, during this one, Alex Ovechkin potted a rebound down low on the left side of the low slot to net his 731st career goal and tie legendary 5'8" scorer Marcel Dionne for number 5 on the All Time List; a goal that put the Capitals up 4-0 just 2;37 into the period.  Then at 9:13 in the period Kreider scored his shutout breaking PPG making it 4-1. At the 10:05 mark of the third, TJ Oshie was called for tripping and sent to the sin bin; this set the stage for what ended up enabling all of us in the sellout opening night crowd, a rare event as regards Alex Ovechkin goals - the Great Eight scored career goal 732 while the Capitals were short handed, and took sole possession of spot Number 5 on the NHL All Time Goal Scoring list.  Wow, just WOW.

Takeaways from the opening night game versus the Rangers:

1) In the second and third periods, the Capitals looked faster and more "in synch" that the Rangers.  The new faces in the lineup all younger blood played well and seem to be blending in well with the veterans.  To me thats just very, very encouraging.

2) Vanecek (SV% 0.958) had a much, much better game than Georgiev (SV% 0.815).  Regardless of how everything else goes in an NHL game, it's a rare night a team looks good when their goaltender has a SV% < 0.880 - the Rangers need him to play much closer to his ability if they are to achieve their goals for this season.  Of course it doesn't help matter when your team's ownership is stuck in the 80's wasting $1.75M of salary cap space and a roster spot on the 2021-2022 version of Nick Fotiu (aka Ryan Reaves.)

3) The Capitals woes in the Face-off Circle a carry over from last season continued through this Season's opener. The Rangers took 61% of the draws.  That's just not good enough.  They need to bring in a specialist to examine what they are doing wrong closely and work with their centerman to fix this issue, else it will be an arrow to their heart in some important games between now and hopefully next June.

Looking ahead to next game vs. Tampa Bay on Saturday evening, the Capitals have to come out faster in the first period, and be harder on the puck as well as much better in the face off circle. That said last night's game was a great start of the season, the Capitals passing game looked much better than the Rangers and the Capitals played with more structure and disciple than their opponents. Additionally, the Capitals' shot select was much better than the Rangers making their puck possessions much more productive particularly from the start of the second period and through the end of the third period.

#LetsGoCaps

Should I or Shouldn't I ? ... Blog That Is

Last March I threatened to return to blogging but now I really do think it's time.  After watching the first two Capitals games of the 2018-19 season and a couple of other games I think I'm ready to actually do it.  I hope I can again become disciplined and rigorous enough to muse and blog about hockey at least after every Caps game this season and maybe even about a couple other things in my middle age pretty boring life.  To catch up, we no longer live in Bucolic Bristow, or Charleston.  We're back in Northern VA and now living in Friendly Fairfax.  Fairfax is nice! It's closer - no more daily 30+ mile commute to Arlington/Crystal City via and with the traffic on the Sunset Strip.  Why it took me 22 years to realize, that for us, a place like this, and a smaller house (in square footage) was right for us, I have no idea, That said both my wife and I and our furry family members are very happy here - side bonus is it's A LOT easier to get to and from Capital One Center, and a lot other places in the DCMVA area we typically go.  Enough about me, what about hockey?  Well, I still split the tickets with two former colleagues I used to work with - it's a great arrangement.  I never gave up the tickets or on the Capitals so they are still awesome seats with and around awesome fellow hockey fans in Section 103.  So here we go, I'm gonna blog again.

As I mentioned earlier, I did not have the tickets for opening night so I watched that game on NBCsN.  I also watched the Pittsburgh game at home. Both were great games to watch IMO, even though the Bruins really were not ready to play on opening night.  The Caps retained their structure and the result showed what they could do - which is basically play the same way that propelled them through the playoffs to the Cup.  The first line 8, 92, and 10 in for 43 looked very good the entire game.  13-19-77 looked very good and very fast when they need/wanted to.  63-20-18 was very solid and fast, in fact 18 (Stephenson) was wicked fast a couple of times in GM 1 vs Boston, but flashed his speed even more-so the following evening in Pittsburgh.  The fourth line looked very good as well during game 1, I think we're all going to decide Nic Dowd was another great pickup by GMBM The fact that during the 7-0 trouncing of the Bruins the scoring came from six different players across all four lines last seasons leading scoring defenseman - John Carlson, and the Matt Niskanen, and even Braden Holtby had assists was #awesome.  Simply put, Game 1 could not have gone better for the Caps all around.  The team played fast, structured hockey and there were no passengers.

Game 2 in Pittsburgh was a different story.  We can all whine about starting the season with a back to back against two good opponents, but why should we - what would be the point? I submit there is none.  Look the Caps-Pens rivalry is fun hockey to watch anytime.  Game 2 for the Capitals was Game 1 and the Home Opener for the Penguins.  It needed up being fire wagon hockey, a least on the score sheet.  The Caps had their chances to win it for sure.  Their legs as a group didn't look like they held up as well as we Caps fans would have liked to have seen, especially in the this period when they took three penalties because, IMO, of the Pens moving their feet better and faster.  That said, the Caps did have their chances to put the game away, they led 3-2 after the first period, trailed 5-4 after the second, and forced overtime at 6-6 thanks to two goals from TJ Oshie in the third.  They lost in OT 7-6 with Evgeni Kuznetsov in the penalty box and the Pens on the PP.  Given as Sidney Crosby said in post game comments "It's not often you win a game giving up 6 goals in this league" -it's even less often you win one if you give up 7 goals.  As pretty and well executed as Game 1 was for the Caps, Game 2 was that chaotic, crazy and unstructured by both teams, I'm sure neither coaching staff was all that happy with what they saw from their teams in the Caps Game 2.

For the Caps the consolation is they finished the first two games of the season and their first set of back to backs against two good teams earning 3 out of 4 possible points.  They then have a rest until this coming Wednesday when they take on VGK, here at home.  I can't wait that's the first "real" game of this season that I will be at.

LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!

2015-16 Washington Caps: Just How Good Is 98 Points in 63 Games, and What Do The Caps Need to Do Now To Reach Their Goal?

Wow, ... just wow.  That's how good 98 points in 63 games is - the Capitals have played 0.7778 hockey over the course of the season thus far; in the 77% of the season completed to date, the Capitals have basically amassed enough points so that they would have qualified for the playoffs in either conference last season.  That's pretty good in itself.  Then consider these items, the Caps:

• Current Goal Differential (+63) is already better than last season's awesome +60 goal differential by the 2015 President's Trophy winning NY Rangers.
• The Caps current GF/Game and GA/Game numbers are right up there with last season's league leaders numbers as well.
• The Caps current record over the last 10 games 7-3-0 is the third best in the league behind only Anaheim's perfect 10-0-0 and Tampa Bay's 8-2-0 numbers despite the fact the league leading Capitals are 7 1/2 games ahead of the second place (for the league) Black Hawks and 9 1/2 games ahead of the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference.  Both the Ducks and the Lightning on the other hand are now in dogfights to win their division after relatively slow starts to their seasons.  To be clear the Caps have shown basically slow starts to their games over the last 10 plus games but have responded over the course of those games and shown their talent and compete levels are there and able to find ways to take control of most games and win against anyone and play in "heavy style and games."

Basically from a general perspective, the challenges now for the Caps between no and April 15th is integrating their trade deadline pickups to the lineup, which shouldn't be overly difficult since GMBM's pickups were for depth vice addressing any key position needs.  The other thing they need to do is to stay interested and get or stay healthy. That means continuing to play the right way and make sure they don't develop any bad habits over the last 19 games of the season.

What do the Caps need to do to reach their goal - which is to still be playing and winning in June? That's a harder question, if the season ended today I think their road to that goal would be through: Pittsburgh; Madison Square Garden (NYR); Tampa Bay; and either Chicago, LA, or Anaheim.  Think about that and you can clearly see why the Stanley Cup really is the most difficult Professional Sports Championship to win.  Despite likely winning the league regular season by 5 or more games, to win the Championship the Caps will have to win 16 of what will likely be 22+ games against other teams who now have average records of 0.620 and are all very solid, accomplished teams of prideful, professionals.  That's a long row to hoe for anyone who wants to win "The Cup."  To do so will, as with prior years, take complete teams playing complete 200' hockey for sixty or sixty plus minutes per game.  Thankfully the Capitals are a deeper and stronger on the puck hockey team then they've been, possibly ever, but certainly for any time over the past decade.  They now have eight (8) NHL quality defensemen capable of playing in basically any situation - yes I'm assuming that John Carlson will end the regular season back in the lineup and in awesome playing shape for the start of the playoffs.  They have two (2) NHL quality goalies, on having a season clearly worthy of Vezina Trophy consideration, and I predict assuming they have a deep playoff run the way he's been playing Holtby is likely to be in consideration for the Conn Smythe as well.  Then there's the Caps depth on the forward lines, the Caps are clearly a four line team with threats on all four lines from Rocket Richard leading Alex Ovechkin to late season pickup fourth line Center Mike Richards.  As long as they continue to play the right way and play a 200' game generating their scoring chances from sound defense and solid breakouts from their own zone, the Caps at times appear unstoppable.  That said the road to Lord Stanley's Cup will be through four other teams whose fans and Bloggers will likely be justifiably writing similar comments and accolades.  One things for sure, the next two months we Capital's fans will be again treated to some excellent hockey contests and I am as optimistic as I've ever been that will continue into June.

LETS GO CAPS

- starting with tonight's game against the Rangers at Verizon Center.

It's All Good As Far As I can Tell In "CapsLand" Today....

Well fellow Caps fans in the week that has occurred since my last public musings/blog post as far as I can tell it's pretty much all good here in "Capsland." 

From a "big picture perspective" the Caps remain on track for a 100 point/40+ ROW season even though currently they are in the top wild card spot in the Eastern Conference as the third place NY Rangers have 3 games in hand on the Caps.  However the overall metropolitan Division race has tightened as only three points separate the Caps from the First Place Islanders.  Additionally the top of the Eastern Conference Standings have also tightened, even though 7 points separate the seventh place Caps from the first place Tampa Bay Lightning, only three points separate them from the Third Place Montreal Canadiens. Additionally there are now 8 points between the Caps and the currently "wrong side of the bubble" ninth 9th place Florida Panthers.  All things to ponder, muse/consider with just three weeks left before the 2014-2015 NHL Season trade deadline.

The Caps have played four games this past week racking up a 2-1-1 record, that 0.625 hockey, more importantly they had a GAA of slightly under 1.50 in those four games including a less than stellar defensive performance against the Saint Louis Blues where they allowed a high of 40 SOG by the Blues and lost 4-3.   Backup Goalie Justin Peters posted a SV% of 0.900 in the Saint Louis game but the Caps were basically just slightly outplayed by the Blues in every facet of the game and neither team played even close to their best hockey in front of wither Peters or Blues goaltender Brian Elliott who posted a 0.917 SV% against 36 Capitals SOG.  To me the second two periods of the game were the best goaltending we've seen from Peters since the start of the season and give me cause for hope.  I feel much of the fan calls for Peter's head are as much a result of just how well Braden Holtby is playing as they are caused by the fact that to date Peters has played just that much under where the Caps need him to play.  I've said it before, in the Caps are on their game and our net-minder posts a 0.915+ SV% two regulation goals should get the team at least one standings point and three goals all but guarantees a two point ROW night.  Hopefully in his next outing Peters gets more team defense in front of him and he notches his gam up from a 0.900 SV% to a 0.915+ SV%.  The other three games the Caps played this week were well played, if not excellent+ efforts all, even the 1-0 OT loss to Montreal at Belle Centre.  My view of the Montreal Game is the loss was due to two words - Carey Price, the Caps were very good up in Montreal but it was a night where Carey Price basically stole two points from Washington. 

The other two games were just awesome clinics in one way or  another.  Tuesday evening the reigning Stanley Cup Champion LA Kings came into town and faced Braden Holtby and the Capitals and all the Caps did is have Holtby pitch a perfect game 4-0 shutout while Troy Brouwer-Power scored two goals in 16:10 TOI while playing in his 500th NHL game.  As others noted afterward it was as complete and perfect execution of the Caps game plan as we've seen thus far this season. Against Ottawa last evening in Ottawa the Caps put on a clinic in three things a) how to properly respond to an opposing team opening the scoring in a game; and b) how to kill off penalties when the calls are going against you (Senators had 4 PP, Caps 0); and finally c) how to play with and protect a one goal lead in the final period of a game, other than the penalties, that is.  Finally a simple observation, perhaps only in Ottawa does a one tem get basically outplayed in pretty much every aspect of the game, lose 2-1 and still somehow end up having two of the three named stars of the game. 

In any case now looking ahead to this coming weeks games, the Caps have two home games this weekend - the Ducks tonight and the Flyers on Sunday afternoon.  Then they leave for a West Coast/California road trip facing the Sharks in San Jose on Wednesday evening; the Kings at LA's Staples Center on Saturday Evening and then the Ducks on the other side of LA LA Land in Anaheim at Honda Center on Sunday Evening before jetting home. So over the next nine (9) days the Caps have five games - 2 at home and 3 on the other end of a pretty darn long road trip.

Before we look forward and muse about tonight's Duck-Caps tilt at Verizon Center a couple of season to date notable statistics and associated musings:

1)  Along with his score of his thirty second goal of the season last evening, Alex Ovechkin returned to his position atop the NHL goal scoring leaders in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy. As noted elsewhere, Ovechkin is just the fifth player in the "modern era" to put up thirty or more goals in his first ten NHL seasons and as long as the stars stay aligned for him, he could possibly "notch" his sixth 50 goal season this year.  He also has 18 assists and is + 13 for people that care about those things as well.  Oh and over the past couple of weeks he gave a car away to a charity, you might have heard about it cause it means that unlike last season when he was a selfish, self-absorbed, person and not very good/incomplete hockey player, this season he's both great at hockey and a really, really excellent human being.  Don't you just love it when a young man turns his life around?  ... Just kidding but lets be clear Ovi is now a great person having a great season, and apparently Sidney Crosby is as close to an enigmatic professional hockey player as someone not born in Russia can get. Maybe this off-season Sid can retain whoever counseled Ovi last summer.

2) Braden Holtby is now in the top five NHL Goalies stats for GAA and Save Percentage with season to date numbers of GAA 2.14; SV% of 0.925.  Holtby is also number two in shutouts with six (6) and and sixth in wins with 25.  Solid numbers given his league leading forty - five (45) games played and 2,634:04 time on ice this season to date.

3) Nicklas Backstrom has slowly climbed his own way up the league leaders overall scoring leaders to fourth with 54 points; Nicklas is also second on the "assists" leaders board with 38 apples.  Also not too shabby.

4) The Capitals now have six players on the roster with 11 or more goals; eleven (11) players with 15 or more points; and eighteen different players have scored at least one goal. 

5) Among NHL Defensemen, John Carlson is 10th in scoring and Mike Green is 14th with 35 and 30 points respectively.  Overall as a team to date the Caps are 9th in the Goals Against Department with just 130 goals against allowed and sixth in differential with a +23.  No doubt this is a much tougher team to play against then the Capitals teams of the past two seasons.

Now about tonight - I'm rooting for another two point night for the Capitals and the way I see it they'll get the ROW.  I figure the Ducks should be tired from scoring 5 goals on the Predators and Pekke Renne last evening in Smashville and flying to DC last night - that flying stuff really makes those guys wings/arms tired as I hear it.  Seriously, another great test for the Capitals, if they can keep playing like they have for the last four games, smart, disciplined, structured hockey the Caps could win tonight against a team coached by their old coach. 

I'm calling it 4-2 final for the Caps with the fourth goal into the empty net with under 1:30 to play.

LETS GO CAPS!!!

The Way Forward To The Playoffs For The Caps - A Fan Boy's Opinion

Okay I admit it, I'm a fan boy - a very competitive fan boy - but a fan boy none the less.  Yes I've played hockey growing up, even a little semi-formal" club level/DIII hockey a long time ago in college.  I also admit I wasn't very good, nor were the teams I played on.   So while I have some knowledge of ice hockey I consider myself a fan boy.  I did other sports much more seriously though and I'm quite competitive.  As a Capitals fan, last season (2013-14) was frustrating for me - as I absolutely love spending money to go see NHL playoff games and "my" Washington Capitals did not make the playoffs.  So this season with the Capitals on track to make the playoffs if they keep up the pace they've been playing my fan boy cheers are there to exhort our Capitals on to a clear path to the playoffs.  To me that means 100 points and 40+ ROW (Regulation/Overtime Wins). 

Sure as some have pointed out 95 points will probably be good enough in the East to make the post season, but I say - why chance it.  Go for 100+ and be safe.  The Capitals are currently on track - if they keep playing  to their 2014-15 "norm" the rest of the season.  This season over the first 46 games our Washington Capitals have played 0.619+ hockey and are on track for 101 points.  So I say stay the course Caps, don't let up, don't look back or down the standings at teams like Florida, or even Boston; look up at Pittsburgh, and even the New York Islanders, that way you'll be striving for excellence, rather than working to prevent any sort of collapse/slide.  Working to avoid something rather than achieve something just doesn't seem to me to be a "winning posture/mentality," nor does trying to be "just good enough" to get to the next step up from where you finished the prior season.  That's why I say reach for the stars, if you fall a little short, what's the worst thing that could happen - you get to Mars?  Think about it.  Strive for 100+ points and only get 98, you're probably still good to go for "the second season" - strive to squeak into the playoffs and miss, what happens - get the golf shoes out, ... AGAIN.  So I say skate fast, play hard (all 60+ minutes, have fun and win.

That's should be tonight's theme in Columbus - let's all push for the Caps to play so well tonight Holtby gets shutout number five, we don't hear that obnoxious cannon and Ovi gets the hat-trick just like Tavares did in the ASG out there.

Keys tonight for the Caps: a) hit on all eight cylinders all night long; b) backcheck, backcheck, backcheck; c) play the Blue Jackets key weapons tight to stifle there game and take it to them all night;  d) win the faceoff and therefore the puck possession battle; and finally e) keep it simple and shoot the puck on net, a lot.

Okay, forget about the last three games before the all star break and

 

LETS GO CAPS!!!!

2015 Week 2 - Capitals Games 38, 39, and 40 Are In The Books ...

Well fellow Caps Fans here we are basically at the mid-point of the 2014 - 15 NHL regular season and the Barry Trotz era Capitals appear to have jelled into their new system rather nicely and with a new culture as well.  No "Winter Classic Hangover here (nor in Chicago for that matter.)  The Caps are now 3-0-1 so far in the New Year after going 8-2-3 for the month of December, all of which means that at this season's midpoint the Capitals find themselves 21-11-8 with 50 points & 20 ROW on track for 100+ points and 40 ROW.  That's a pretty big change from last season when they finished the regular season with 90 points and a paltry 28 ROW which meant golf lessons.  The biggest difference, the one that validates how much harder a team, the Caps are to play against is the ROW number.  That and the overall goal differential the Caps finished last season with a goal differential of -5, this season through 40 games, the Caps are +16.  Those two things are really huge, IMO. 

Then we have the basic way the Caps play now which in games like the Winter Classic or any of games 38, 39 and 40 you can see, this is a much different team then we've seen in a pretty long time.  The 2014-15 version of the Washington Capitals are constructed fundamentally different then the Caps have been built in some time.  Over the past summer when the Caps decided that GMBM, former Deputy GM Brian , would succeed GMGM his former boss George Mc Phee, I feared the Caps would not change enough.  Then when  free agency opened and the Caps went out and spent big money to bring in not one but two high priced UFA Defensemen, one of whom is 34 years old, I still wondered how this season would play out.  I was encouraged but apprehensive.  The first two full months of the season, and to some degree even now, the jury remains "out." But for me December gave me enough encouragement that I've transitioned from "cautious" through "cautiously optimistic" to just plain "optimistic."   One of the reasons for my shift is that same 34 year old UFA defensemen that GMBM signed over the summer - Brooks Orpik, let's face it the Caps haven't had such a physical "stopper" defensemen on the blueline since trading Brendan Witt to the Nashville Predators during the 2005-2006 season.  And when was the last time the Caps had five bonafide NHL top four caliber defensemen in their lineup?  Clearly the team has and retains a scary good group of forwards who now have scored a total of 120 goals and average of 3.0 goals per game so far this season, buts its the fact that despite having a group of forwards lead by a generational talent who has averaged 0.615 goals/game over his career so far (678 NHL regular season and 58 NHL playoff games) is now clearly built from the goal line out.  A team built so that the offense starts and is rooted in solid defense.  Still not convinced look at the scoring stats of the Capital's blueline corps led by John Carlson who is having a career year: 4 G and 26 A, 30 Points through 40 games played; followed by a resurgent Mike Green: 4 G, 19 A, 23 Points in 32 games played; Karl Alzner with a career high 3 G (and 6 A), even though the season is only half way over.  Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen who also have 9 and 13 points respectively.  Clearly the blue liners are stepping up and participating in the offense as well as blocking shots and making sure the overall team defense numbers are looking good including resulting in a average goals against per game of 2.6 goals/game (10th best in the NHL so far this season.)

Then look at the difference in the forwards and the offense - clearly Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom are at the core of the Capitals "offensive game" but with four other forwards (Fehr, Ward, Brouwer, and Johansson) besides Ovechkin and Backstrom on track for 20+ goal seasons and another six players (Laich, Beagle, Burakovsky, Kuznetsov, Carlson, and Green) likely to end the season with 10+ goals this is clearly a much more balanced group of scoring forwards as well.   And I'm not the only one starting to notice some of the other Washington forwards "gifts" and impact.  If that isn't enough to convince you please also note that 10 different Capitals have scored the game winning goal in the Caps 21 wins so far this season. 

Now back to a quick set of thoughts on the three games this past week. 

Game 38 was a  solidly played, 2 point afternoon home win on Sunday January 4th over the never say die Florida Panthers.  While there were a few flitches and lapses, to my thinking the Caps played a well structured game that they pretty much controlled the full 60:00 IMO. 

Game 39 was a good road game on Wednesday evening in Toronto that ultimately the Caps won in regulation by a score of 6 - 2.  Despite the final score, for the first ~27:00 the game was closer than the final score indicates but from that point on the Caps clearly controlled the game and the Maple Leafs. 

Game 40 was the second game of back to back road games that the Caps stole a point from the Flyers on the back of Braden Holtby's performance in goal last night in Philadelphia.  That said the Caps never quit and it was the second game of  two back to back road games in a hard building to play in and three points out of a possible four in two nights are three points I'd gladly take without complaint.  If you're counting that's five out of a possible six points this past week or 0.833 hockey if you're counting.

Next up the Red Wings at Verizon Center tomorrow evening....

LETS GO CAPS!!!!!

Caps End 2014 In Fine Form But Start 2015 Off Even Better - Next Up the Streaking Florida Cats At Verizon Center On Sunday

Okay so I figured I'd just muse in my own head while all the Winter Classic "hubbub" swirled and then settled. Don't get me wrong the game was an awesome experience and once again despite the high cost of the tickets and the fact my sightlines were often obscured during the play during the first and second periods by people who didn't or don't know the basic courtesy of when to get in and out of your seats at a hockey game or ushers who don't know them as well (I was in Section 109 about 30 rows up (HH)) so if you're reading this and sat lower than me or above me you know what I'm talking about...) just like the Pittsburgh Winter Classic it was an experience I highly recommend for NHL fans anywhere.  But with so much focus and blogging about the Classic and every aspect of it, I don't feel I have much to add to the specific points or discussions other than in the context of where it leaves the Caps as far as looking forward towards the rest of the regular season.

As you likely know the Caps had a pretty awesome month of December going 8-2-3 (0.731), capturing at least a point in 11 of 13 games, only four (4) of which were at home.  It's even more impressive to me that during the month the Caps played ten of those thirteen games against teams with better than 0.500 records who are also having solid seasons so far and/or competing directly with the Caps for an Eastern Conference playoff spot.  While there really are no easy games in the NHL the results the Caps had against solid, "top 10 power rankings teams" last month were also encouraging:

- they faced and beat Tampa Bay in regulation twice;
- they fought hard but lost the record longest shoot out getting a point off a hot Florida Panther team on their Sunrise Florida Ice;
- they split two hard fought OT games against Columbus and a hot Sergei Bobrovski;
- they beat the Ottawa Senators in a 2-1 goalie dual here at Verizon Center in regulation;
- they shutout the Penguins in Pittsburgh (when was the last time that happened?) .

They also won three games they were supposed to win in regulation (the Devils twice, and Carolina).  The only two teams they really couldn't solve during December were their first game of the month against Vancouver at Verizon Center and their first meeting of the season against the Rangers at MSG on the even of the Christmas break, December 23rd in NY, where they lost 4-2 in regulation.  They finished the year with a comeback against the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum on December 29th to force overtime, and basically steal a point before a double minor high sticking call on Evgeny Kuznetsov, the second 2:00 of which were questionable, IMO, gave the Islanders the chance they needed to halt the comeback by the Caps and get the second point they really did deserve anyway for playing a full 60:00 game against the good guys from 7th and F.

In any case the Caps came out of December and into 2015 skating confidently and playing far more consistently than they started the month and that bodes well for them for the rest of the season as the rest of the 2014-15 season looks to be a tightening battle for the eight playoff spots in the Eastern Conference as the Capitals aren't the only teams competing for the playoffs that are looking good through their last ten games but more on that after a quick comment on the last Capitals game - the Winter Classic.

As pretty much anyone who watches any NHL hockey knows yesterday the Caps become only the third "home team" to win the Winter Classic.  That's the part of a very well played game against a really, really good opponent that I'd like to point to as the best thing as a Caps fan to takeaway from yesterday's Winter Classic.  A lot of commentary has gone in to wondering why the Home Teams very often loose the Winter Classic.  To me after hearing all the discussion I drill in to one thing - focus/distraction.  For the away team like the Caps were against Pittsburgh, even with all the hype and the likely fact a visiting team's players have a few friends and family at the game, the distractions are far less than for the home team.  It's much more similar to a "big" road game for them and little more than it is likely for the home team, especially now with the three day mandatory Christmas break.  For the Caps and the Winter Classic, many of them had ten or more friends and family with them through the holidays as well as at the game.  Think about how much having a big family gathering at your home for the Holidays creates pressures etc. on you and then add  this Winter Classic thing/hype to it, it can't be at all easy to stay focused on just going and doing your job even or maybe especially if your job is being a professional athlete in the middle of your sports season.  I think two things really helped the Caps stay focused on what they needed to do yesterday: 1) they had two road games between the Christmas break and the Winter Classic - so it's likely we should all thank the Caps wives, girlfriends and families for dealing with a lot of their own "logistics" between December 26th and yesterday morning; 2) that "culture change thing" we all heard about during the Epix series leading up to the Winter Classic where the Caps now focus more on playing a simpler game geared towards team success, getting two points, and doing so one game at a time, for that I think we should thank the coaching staff for putting it out there, and the team (all of them) for buying into it and taking forward.  As a whole the other thing to really be happy about if you're a Caps fan is it was a well played, 200' game against a very, very solid opponent for the full 60:00.  The only thing not to like about this game for the Caps, IMO, is/was the fact they are still taking too many penalties but (7 minor penalties for the game vs. 5 for the Blackhawks) however I really grow more and more disappointed with the "activist referees" in the NHL this season and will likely blog more on that another time, when I can distill my thoughts and give a bunch of great examples though it's likely that both the call against Matt Niskanen at 16:46 of and Jonathan Toews at 18:47 of yesterday's third period will be examples of my issues on that list. 

In any case I like Mr. Leonsis am very grateful for having had the opportunity to attend yesterday's game and for all who helped make it happen, first let me say thanks to everyone who helped put me in a position to shell out a pretty penny for both my Season Tickets and my extra tickets to the WC that were pricey.  This is not a backhanded statement, it's a pricey addiction I've developed but as I've mentioned before going to games like this with my only child like yesterday are truly a joy and I don't ever want to forget that while I am splurging on things like this, others who are less fortunate are struggling, especially as the holiday season winds down.  My son and I now have two sets of Winter Classic memories both of which are really special to me. Thanks to all the other hockey fans here in DC - like the NHL commercial used to say, Hockey Fans are generally special people and I really enjoy being part of that community here in the DC metro.  Thanks to the players in the NHL - you guys all of whom seem to "keep it real" make it far, far easier for me to stay very supportive of pro hockey in a way that frankly I find much, much harder to do for any other professional sport. 

So now what about January?  Well our Washington Capitals are already 1-0-0 on January and have another busy month like December ahead of them.  Including yesterdays Winter Classic the Caps have thirteen (13) games on the schedule for January.   Of the 13 games the Caps had the Winter Classic now in their rear view mirror an a nice two point "home" win.  The rest of twelve (12) games in January consist of six (6) home games and six (6) away.  Of the thirteen (13) games, only the two games against the division rival Flyers who have only 35 points in 37 games played, as well as the games against the Avalanche (36 points in 37 games played), and  Oilers (24 points in 38 games played) are against teams with less than 0.500 records.  The Caps have a total of five (5) against Western Conference Teams and eight (8) are against Eastern Conference Teams this month. Their lonest home stretch is three games (January 10th to 14th - Red Wings, Avalanche, Flyers - three (3) games in four (4) days/nights.  They also have two sets of "back to back" road games - 1/7 and 1/8 Maple Leafs then Flyers, and 1/16 and 1/17 Nashville and Dallas .  So as you can see this month won't be an easy one for the Capitals.  Add to that that their Metropolitan Conference rivals are all also playing pretty well: Division Leading Pittsburgh 5-3-2; the second place Islanders 6-3-1; the fourth place Rangers an awesomely hot 9-1-0 and fifth place Columbus 8-1-1 all in their last 10 games and you can see why the Caps need to keep playing with the same focus and intensity - one game at a time - like they did yesterday to keep up and/or beyond the pace of the guys they are both chasing and being chased by this month.

Starting on Sunday they host the Florida Panthers who have not been an easy opponent for the Caps so far this season.  They've played the Panthers twice this season first on October 18th at Verizon Center a game the Caps won in a 2-1 shootout victory and then on December 18th at Sunrise Florida where the Panthers won the game in the NHL record 20th round of the shootout.  To say I think the Caps might be able to "get up" to play a hard 60:00 200' foot game against the Panthers is probably understatement but the Panthers are also playing well of late 5-3-2 (0.600 hockey) in their last 10 games and have 41 points in 35 games so far this season so are not to be taken lightly in any case.

So with those thoughts in mind I just want to once again say ...

LETS GO CAPS!!!!

Last Night - The Perfect Illustration of Why I Think They Should ALL Be Three Point Games....

If you understand the title of this blog, and if you are here reading my musings you probably do, you know exactly what the title referees to.  If you don't well here it is, in the NHL during the regular season some games count for two points and some games count for three points in the standings, and well that just , well ... makes no sense at all.  Until a couple of years ago every game counted for two points in the standings, win get two points, tie each team gets one point.  But hey someone decided , we hockey fans hated ties and in every game there had to be a winner and a loser, so the solution was ... now get this, if a game ends in regulation in a tie, each team still splits the two original points, but then gets to play first a 5:00 overtime at 4 on 4 and if that doesn't result in a winner they do a shootout - basically the NHL's version of a layup completion for an extra point and the one who wins that is the "winner" of that game, with the one who loses it getting the consolation prize - keeping the "looser" point they already won. And just to make sure they make it clear how dumb they know we fans think this skills competition to decide the winner of a team sport game is, if at the end of a season two teams are tied in the standings the first "tiebreaker" is the total number of Regulation and 4 on 4 overtime wins in the season.

However this past week in the NHL, especially if you are a Capitals fan, the ludicrousity of the current way things are done couldn't be driven home to you more with an 8# sledgehammer. First our Capitals take part in and loose a 20 round shootout in Florida, now remember one of the so called excuses for the shootout vice a longer 4 on 4 OT or following the 4 on 4 with a 3 on 3 is well it takes too long.  So that really short 20 round shootout, that was the way to go right? And now we had last night, the Caps are "on the bubble" battling the NY Rangers for third in the Division, they basically owned their opponent last night, the New Jersey Devils, especially for the last 40:00 of the game beating them in a 4-0 shutout.  For their efforts they were awarded two standings points and New Jersey got no points.  That makes sense right?  Sure until you look at the game that was played between the Rangers and the Hurricanes last night in Raleigh, NC.  There while the Rangers certainly did enough to earn a win, it too them a 3 round shoot out to get is so they too got two points last night just like the Capitals.  My point is had all games been worth the same weight in the standings the Capitals would have edged one point further in front of the Rangers last night.  In fact if a Regulation win was worth three points while the Metropolitan Division Standings would be the same then the Capitals would have 50 standings points to the Rangers 47  and we wouldn't need to keep track of "ROW" at all. 

 

I could talk about last night's game in Newark more but it's been all over the web and NHLN all day so far.  Here's five quick hit take away points from the game and the coverage: 

1) Braden Holtby played very well and earned his shutout - 21 saves were required of him and several were very difficult to make.

2) Ovechkin's goal was one of those highlight reel Ovi goals we will see many times more and one of his best moves ever.

3) Nicklas Backstrom is an awesome hockey player too and it takes Ovi doing something like 2) above to cast even a small amount of shade on that fact from time to time.

4) This Mike Green guy ... really good at hockey as well, probably time for the Caps to figure out how to extend/resign him.

5)  The entire Capitals team is now wholly invested in the new system under Barry Trotz and basically getting better every game they play at executing it.

But in the end this is just hockey not world peace we are talking about here so moving on to my next hockey musing, "How 'Bout dem Caps! anyways?" Playing 0.700 hockey in their last ten games and looking more and more like a very solid team every game they play.  Next up are the Ottawa Senators, who are solidly on the bubble right now so that won't be an easy game, tomorrow night at DC's Verizon Center.  Then on Tuesday night it's a trip up to Madison Square Garden to face those very same NY Rangers on Manhattan.  Then after Christmas they face the Penguins in Pittsburgh on the 27th and the Islanders in Uniondale on the 29th before coming home for the Winter Classic on New Year's day here in DC.  And I thought I had a busy holiday season planned, wheh!

LETS GO CAPS!!!!

What A Difference A Week Can Make and Game 16: Caps vs. Devils Tonight at Verizon Lookahead

Well fellow Caps fans it's been a week since my last post and for the Caps and we fans it's been a good week.  Our boys in Red have gone from dropping four in a Row to having won three in a row with a reasonable chance of getting that fourth two point night in a row tonight.  They've gone from having a below 0.500 record on the season to date and being on the outside looking in, to having an overall 0.566 record, 17 points and being on the right side of the bubble.  Granted not where they started the first 6 games of the season but right now the trend is our friend as can bee seen if one wants to look at the various "fancy stats" over at War On Ice. 

Tonight the Caps have a chance to once again make the vast majority of us back into hopeful believers as opposed to cautious skeptics.  Tonight they take on the New Jersey Devils for the second time this season, this is New Jersey's second visit to Verizon Center this season and last time the Capitals were rather rude hosts, handily beating the Devils 6 - 2 in Regulation on October 16th.  Tonight the Devils come into DC rested and confident having beaten the Minnesota Wild in their last game by a score of 3-1 on Tuesday Night at "The Rock" in Newark on the back of some excellent goaltending by Corey Schneider.  Both Washington and New Jersey are 5-5-1 in their last 10 games but the Caps are slightly hotter and are one standings point ahead of their Metropolitan Division Rival Devils with one game in hand having 17 points in 15 games played so far this season.  As a team the Capitals also have a positive goal differential of five goals versus the Devils who are -7 in that department.  Both teams play a puck possession game but at this point you have to give the talent differential to the Capitals and the Devils have a much older team in terms of average age.  Overall this is a game the Capitals should win, assuming they play a full sixty minutes and they play their system very well and very, very hard.  Additionally they should always keep their feet moving and stay out of the penalty box, if they do that they should draw a few penalties as they play the game at a much faster pace than the Devils usually do and if they execute in such a manner it will mean they are forcing the Devils to play the game at their pace and in their style instead of slowing their own game down to "Devil Speed."  For tonight's songs to sound like they have a "Capitals Beat" this game needs to be played at 45 - 78 RPM for all 60 minutes.  The Devils want to sing/play it at no greater than  33 1/3 speed.  Further the Caps should expect the Devils to come into the game hungry, and push very hard in the first period to make sure they don't get embossed like they did in the October 16th game and to take the Verizon Crowd out of the game early.

I belive the Caps are as hungry if not hungrier for a two point night than New Jersey.  So barring a lights out night by Corey Schneider or the Caps failing to play hard for some reason, I see this game being a 4 - 2 regulation win, with a final minute empty net goal by the Capitals.  If somehow New Jersey plays very poorly and gives the Caps more than 4 power plays then it could be a win by the Caps by greater than a two goal margin.

If however the Caps are looking past New Jersey or fail to play their game well a full sixty minutes, or Corey Schneider has a totally "lights out" night the Devils could win this game so the Caps cannot fail to play hard and smart for all sixty minutes.

Assuming I am correct and the Caps finish the night with 19 points and 7 ROW in 16 games the Caps will be on a solid 0.594 pace ~20% into the season and on pace for 35 ROW this season which last season was on the right side of the bubble but still on the bubble last April, so the Caps still need every point and likely will continue to do so for the remainder of the season.

Four key players and key points for New Jersey tonight: Jaromir Jagr, Corey Schneider; Mike Cammalleri, and Marek Zidlicky.  Also not to be overlooked is Patrik Elias.  You might notice of these five payers only the goaltender Schneider is under 30 and the second youngest Cammalleri is a recent off season pick up at 32 and until recent injuries has not been skating more than 15 minutes a game.  Schneider had a relatively inauspicious start to the season but in his last several games has put himself on track.  For the season to date he has a SV% of 0.904 and a GAA of 2.87. At 42, Jagr still seems ageless and leads the Devils in scoring and has really been their on ice leader in may other ways so far this season.  In this his 20th NHL season the future hall of famer has 3 goals and 9 assists so far this season and for some strange reason, pundits like Gord S don't seem to dwell on his current =/- (-2) like they do Ovechkin's nor have they harped on him as any sort of one dimensional player, etc even though he hasn't been nearly as productive or important to his teams since he departed Washington for the New York Rangers in the 2003 - 2004 season, go figure?  In any case he is a key guy for the Caps to make sure they shut down and while he may have slowed a quarter to a half stride over his 20 NHL seasons fastest, his hockey sense is second to none and his on ice presence is still incredibly noteworthy and effective.  Camalleri is currently in his 12th NHL season and is basically the Devils' "sniper"/finisher with 6 goals and 4 assists so far this season.  Some of the other Devils' usual offensive threats like Adam Henrique are out with injuries so the lion's share of offensive load goes to Cammallleri and Jagr right now, aided by 38 year old defenseman Zidlicky who has 3 goals and 6 assists for the Devils and is fourth leading scorer right behind the injured Henrique.  Centers Elias and Travis Zajac are important more from a faceoff, puck possession and distribution perspective in the Devils' current system.

Four key players and key points for your Washington Capitals tonight: Braden Holtby, Alexander Ovechkin, Eric Fehr, and Jay Beagle. Starting from the goal line out the key for Braden Holtby and the Caps in this game as all games this season is a system that limits the opposition to 30 or less SOG and a team defense anchored by a SV% of 0.92+ and that stat/final line of defense is Holtby or Peters.  Holtby needs to get more comfortable with staying patiently in net and not doing things like happy feet, high risk move to keep his head in the game.  Last game the Caps got away with a couple of "loose" moves and defensive plays by both Holtby and the blueline corps.  In tonight's game they cannot do that against the "experienced" (long in the tooth) New Jersey squad.  Any game involving the Capitals top four guys to watch means that either Alexander Ovechkin or Nicklas Backstrom will be on these lists.  For a game against a team like the Devils, leadership on both the offensive forecheck and keeping pressure on the Devils with O-Zone presence and Corsi For to me means of the Backstrom/Ovechkin pair I'm thinking a flying, fast power forward/wing is slightly more key than a solid game by our first line center, only slightly though.  I put Eric Fehr on this list as I still have concerns that Troy Brouwer will be somewhat hampered by the thumb injury he suffered last game so I'm looking for secondary scoring and a spark from a third line of Chimera-Fehr-Ward.  Fehr has been buzzing more and as long as he plays a hard on the puck game, I believe he'll be rewarded against the slower pace the Devils will want to play.  Of the second and third lines I look to Fehr to drive the pace and speed of the third line and I also think that as long as Burakovsky plays smart hockey like he did the last game against the Devils, he and Marcus Johannson should be able to execute smartly on the second line against the Devils.  Final key I have listed is Jay Beagle, it looks like Tom Wilson will still be out of the lineup tonight and Beagle will get another chance to play on the first line with Ovechkin and Backstrom.  He did well and was rewarded last game in this role, tonight the key is for him to again play within himself, make smart decisions and again play his assigned role playing alongside two of the League's elite forwards.  All of the above though ties to the Caps out playing and out "Fenwicking" the Devils so they score three or more goals and the team defense resulting in less than 30 SOG and a team SV% of 0.926+ - that is the top level recipe for success tonight, IMO.

LETS GO CAPS!!!! 

Like I Said, Really, Really, REALLY Hard - Game 12, A One (1) Point Night

Well last night at Verizon Center I, a Washington Capitals fan, watched a hockey game between the Capitals and the Flames from Calgary.  It was exciting, generally well played and exceptionally frustrating to watch, at least for me. I can only imagine how frustrating this must be for both the players on the team and even more-so the coaching staff.  To be fair unlike Sunday's game where by the end you could really say nothing positive about a regulation loss at the hands of what is, was and remains an inferior opposing team, last night's game had some positives, actually a lot of positives.  However, my theme today, even upon retrospective reflection is mediocrity is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.  Last night what the Capitals organization both needed and wanted was a 2 point regulation win - what they got was one (1) point, a loser's point, at the end of overtime.  Say what you want, a one point night that puts your team as playing under 0.500 (11 points in 12 games) hockey is mediocrity.  Mediocrity is "life on the bubble."  Life on the bubble, now early in the season or in April is not what I imagine a team with the 4th highest payroll in the league the Ted Leonsis and the Monumental Group were going for this season.  I'm pretty sure, they like we - the Capitals fan base, did not think or want a team that has trouble finishing games, for whatever reason.


However, I will not discriminate, you can't fault only the players here.  Everyone in this organization seems bent on celebrating mediocrity.  Last night the Capitals organization went out of it's way to do so.  Making sure we as fans saw the passing of the torch from Peter Bondra to Alex Ovechkin.  Celebrating Ovechkin overtaking Bondra as the leading scorer in Capitals history.  That's a meaningless record, by the way and one anyone capable of simple extrapolation knew would fall, and fall hard early in Ovechkin's career, barring significant injuries just three years into Ovechkin's career.  "Smokin' Al Koken's" Intermission Interview with Nicklas Backtrom was the height of celebrating mediocrity, however of the participants, the only one who seemed to understand just how stupid it was - Backstrom - who pointed out what one would expect both he and Ovechkin no doubt feel - "really right now it's all about getting a W."  Maybe if the organization didn't take so much away from focusing on it last night, having Ovie come out and wave to the crowd after a jumbotron homage, etc. everyone would realize what they needed to do and make sure a W for the Capitals was what happened.  Maybe if the MSM who voted the games top three stars realized that another example of the definition celebrating mediocrity is having the home team for two of the three stars of the game while not giving one of them to the guy who sealed the deal for his tam - opposition goalie - Jonas Hiller with his 0.912 SV% and robbing the Capitals in the final seconds of regulation, as well as several times in OT who "stole two points" last night for Calgary.  Fine give Ovie the third star if you want, I'm not saying his achievement isn't worth mentioning, but in the middle of a losing streak it's not worth celebrating the way this organization did last night.  Look let's face it, if this team never ever looks inside and fixes itself so it can win these games, let alone a Stanley Cup, ten years from now Ovechkin will take Marcel Dionne's place on the NHLN special on the "greatest players to have never won the Stanley Cup."  I don't think that's what the son of a two time gold medalist is shooting for, do you? But hey let's further celebrate the mediocrity of this meaningless record with a splash screen rather that focusing on fixing the team...if you've gone to the Caps website today you know what I'm talking about: "Congrats Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals Franchise Points Leader 827 points #AllTimeGr8"  Dissect that for a minute folks - All time franchise points leader of a team that in forty years has been to the Stanley Cup finals once and has never won.  Why not start a "40th Anniversary Celebration that celebrates what the Caps are really about - frustration and futility? That's what we'll keep being as a fan base unless this entire organization stops celebrating and taking joy in mediocrity.

Enough of the rant.  As I said last night's game had a lot to like, it had two short periods, maybe 4:00 of play where the Caps throttled back just a little and on both occasions, the Flames sensed it and took advantage of it that resulted in two goals for them.  If that was will that happened they'd have won.  Then we have the Flame's third goal - watch the replay - tough luck for the Caps, yet again if that was all that happened the Caps would have still won.  Then we had the save with seconds left where young Tom Wilson failed to raise the puck over Hiller's outstretched pad, again tough luck but again, if that was all that happened they could have won.  No this game was lost by the Capitals with you pick it, either the first goal of the game or the overtime goal - on both those occasions the Capitals "team" defense failed to properly challenge the Flames on the blueline and that set up the Flames ability to score a goal rather than getting a Caps "takeaway."  Other than that hey it was great, well played game by the Caps  - see how easy it is to accept and even celebrate mediocrity, maybe that's why so many do it, so often.  Look bottom lines -

• Caps forwards - all of them - need to forecheck and backcheck more aggressively and more effectively for every second of every game whether it's a 60:00 or 65:00 game.
• Caps defense  - all of them need to be better, both defensively and offensively.  Niskanen in particular needs to get his game and numbers closer to what the Caps paid for - his last season numbers.  Green needed to challenge and end up with the puck last night at the 4:10 mark of OT - watch that play, it was an inauspicious end to an otherwise good game for him.  The rest of the defense needs to be better at both ends of the ice, and get pucks through and on net in the offensive zone and be more constantly effective physically in the defensive zone.  Simply put at the end of a game against the Capitals, the entire opposing team's forward lines, every one of the twelve of them should be very, very tired and sore.
• Caps Goaltenders need to frankly not stink, mediocrity for an NHL goaltender is a less than 0.900 SV%, that's what this teams goaltenders are.  They need to do better, period.  The rest of this season and through the playoffs, they need to make all the saves they should and 70% of the rest required to win.  If they can't then management needs to move the players they need to move to get someone in here who can.  This isn't a personal assault on the goaltenders, they have in many, many cases the hardest job on the team and they have nowhere to hide.  That's the life they chose though.  They need to fix this and themselves so this happens pretty much now so in another eight games, when the season reaches the 25% mark (20.5 games played) the Caps are in a much better place as a team and with a much better record than they are now.  Make no mistake both #1 and #2 above need to happen for that to occur but number 3) is just as important as items 1) and 2) combined after watching last night's game.

Next up the Blackhawks in Chicago on Friday evening.  Look I'm still a loyal fan and I know this post will irritate some but Step One of any 12 Step program is admitting you have a problem, to me as I've ranted above right now the Caps real problem is accepting and indeed celebrating anything less than excellence.  However, anything can change and I hope for the Caps 2014-15 season that changes now - they played the game right last night and basically dominated the Flames they just did not however, "get it done" and celebrating anything about what leads to the results of "not getting it done" so far this season makes no sense to me.  So again I shout:

LETS GO CAPS!!!!

Sometimes It's Really, Really, REALLY Hard ...

Sometimes, it's really difficult to be a tried and true fan.  That's something we Capitals fans know well and if we didn't we are definitely learning this season.  Look it's easy to be a fan when "your team" is doing well.  It's even pretty easy to be a fan when your team is struggling, "rebuilding" , etc. when they are playing up to their potential.  It's gets more and more difficult as "your team" does not deliver on reasonable expectations when they are not delivering results.  However, it gets "REALLY" hard when they aren't delivering on expectations AND you see things that make you question the team's commitment to each other let alone you, the fan base.

It's not rocket science - realizing and understanding professional sports is a business, that is.  It's also not rocket science that it's easier to "sell" and get behind either "a winner" or "an underdog" story than it is to sell the entertainment value of watching "your team" just outright blow a game they seemed to have in hand.  Yes, of course I'm talking about Sunday's game versus the "Arizona" Coyotes.  As was noted in Peerless's postgamer - for all of 16 minutes - the Capitals looked like the team we the fan base, and no doubt they and management, want them to be.  Sure they let up an early goal, BUT, they then took control and the first period ended with them up 3-1 and looking pretty much in control of things.  Of course that was before, "Arizona", a team not known for offensive firepower, came out and scored five (5) - yes you read that correctly - five (5) - unanswered goals before the Capitals responded.  The Caps finally woke up in the middle of this nightmare of a game with less than five minutes to play in regulation and managed to score two (2) late goals with the game ending 6-5 and not looking as badly played by them as it actually was.  They then retired to the dressing room where I'm sure they got an earful from the coaching staff, and then held a lengthy players only meeting. 

To a fair degree, the entire season so far can pretty much be summed up by Brooks Orpik's post-game quote:

“I don’t think there’s one guy in the room who’s happy with the way he played the past four, five games, I don’t think it’s one or two guys who’s responsible. Everybody’s had their moments.”

However, I'm sure at this point I am not the only Capitals fan whose reaction is that while I'm glad nobody seems to be taking things lightly and the words sound right, I don't really care about the words right now.  What I care about is I expect more out of "my team" right now, and I think that's fair since we are talking about a team that has basically been pretty well assembled and is being paid up to the salary cap maximum.  After all this team, like every NHL team, is composed of professional athletes, a rare breed.  I know they can't be happy, at all, with things, you don't get to their level by being mellow and less than 1,000% competitive, they all have to have that.  But to win consistently at their level, they all need to execute, every minute of every game, and NOT get rattled or slowed by the inevitable mistakes in a game - they like us are human and mistakes will happen.  When that occurs the other team usually capitalizes unless someone on "your" team comes up big.  You know that save by a goalie that leaves you wondering - something we've really not seen in a while.  Or that herculean effort to get back, make a seemingly miraculous back-check and turn things around and into a scoring chance for your team, etc.  Most important, when those bad things happen, is to "step back" gather yourself and your teammates and start anew - avoiding the "quicksand", you know what I'm talking about.  Stepping into the quicksand and what happens - well Sunday night for example- five unanswered goals by a team that averages less than 2.5 goals/game.

Look the Capitals showed many things on Sunday - none of them good.  They need to go back to the basics, not the fundamentals of the game basics, but the determination that keeps you from loosing.  Funneling the fear of loosing into the focus that lets a team reach it's potential and win.  They can do it, but it has to come from within the guys on the bench, not behind it.  They have a good system and they need to keep believing in it and executing.  That's what the team they're facing tonight - the Calgary Flames have been doing. To begin to turn things around they once again need to play a 60:00 game and execute well like they did before these less than stellar last four games intervened between their win at the Saddledome against these same Flames. 

So, Caps, let's ignore our fears of insects, stay out of the quicksand, and execute.  Oh and to the Capitals management - I think it would be in poor taste, and frankly disrespectful of the fans and the game, if when Alex Ovechkin breaks an otherwise meaningless "team scoring record" any sort of big deal were to be made of the fact.  Regardless of how many goals or assists, Ovechkin, who will no doubt join Bondra in the HHOF, notches tonight or in the next several games, what needs to be the focus is winning games and that's a TEAM, not individual item to be celebrated.  In the meantime, next up Calgary's Flames at Verizon Center, tonight.

 

LETS GO CAPS!!!!

I'd Have Rather ... But, Alas ... ; Game 9 Recap and Thoughts

I'd have rather been writing about a Caps 2-1 regulation win when recapping tonight's Caps - Red Wings game, but alas it was not to be.  Instead I am forced to write a less fun but much more accurate recap about a 4 - 2 regulation loss.  Yes, it was a no point night - the Caps despite starting the third period leading the Red Wings 2 -1 gave up three (3) unanswered goals to drop the game at the end of the third period 4 -2 to the Detroit Red Wings. Simply put it was a total bummer.  Another "Goose Egg" night,  last two games, two regulation losses, last four games, 3 losses out of four opportunities.  So instead of ending October on a high note, we Caps fans are less than subdued, but not in a good way.  The Capitals finish the first month of the 2014 - 15 NHL regular season with a 4-3-2 record while the Red Wings finish it with a 5 - 2 - 2 record.  Both Detroit and Washington came into last night's contest with identical records, they finished it in markedly different style and moods.  Washington now has more questions than answers as to the path forward, and those outstanding questions need at least some of the necessary answers, fast.  Detroit, exits October with confidence and poise, at least until teams like our Washington Capitals mature and get more patient and confident in their system, as well I suspect, better conditioned.

The headline over at NHL.com on this game reads " Red Wings Score Three In Third; Rally To Defeat Caps."  The headline after you "click through" says: "Red Wings Top Caps; Ovechkin Drought Hits 5."  Only in reference to Alex Ovechkin, and only on a "slow" sports news night is a guy with five (5) goals in the first 9 games of the season (on track for 40+ goals in the regular season" in a drought.  But the article captures the essence of the game in a very (seemingly) post game quote from Caps coach, Barry Trotz:

"Every turnover that we did have, it seemed to end up in the back of the net; those are the things that are killers, big-time killers."

Unlike other early season losses, the Caps did not have a bad or slow start to the game.  At least they played the first period with the same energy and intensity level, actually more so, than the Red Wings.  While the first period ended in a 0 - 0 tie, the Caps outshot the Wings 8 - 3, and generally outplayed the them in every facet of the game, and at both ends of the ice during the first period.  The only thing really lacking in the first period was much grit, and nobody really got in Rad Wings goalie Jimmy Howard's "grill" to push any of the 8 shots on goal the Caps had past Howard.  Additionally,
Washington held Detroit to three shots on goal in the first period.  Red Wings coach Mike Babcock apparently agrees with my assessment of the first period as seen in his post game quote:

"I didn't think we were very good early, they skated way better than us. We weren't good enough. We had no tempo to us."

That said even though the Caps outshot and outplayed the Wings, last evening's first period was one of the less interesting 20:00 of Hockey I've seen/watched in a while.

On the other hand, last night's second period was perhaps the most entertaining and well played 20:00 of hockey I've watched so far this season.  It was fast, exciting and a really fun game to see.  Lots and lots of speed, and back and forth, and best of all the Capitals, despite a few miscues, managed to stay within the structure of their new system and kept up with the Wings, in fact the period ended with the Capitals ahead of the Red Wings 2 -1. were it not for the third period, but alas I get ahead of myself.  In the second period the Wings came out skating fast and the Capitals responded.  Red Wings youngster, Gustav Nyquist got the Wings on the board first with an even strength tally, assisted by Justin Abdelkader at 8:53 of the period, for the Capitals the "first" "Frankenline" of 90-19-43 along with the Mike Green and Nate Schmidt, both of whom otherwise had a very good night, were on victimized.  The Caps did not breakdown or abandon their system after that goal though, and at 11:26, Nicklas Kronwall was sent to the sin bin for interference which afforded Caps youngster Evgeny Kuznetsov the opportunity to get his first goal of the season on the ensuing powerplay, victimizing Detroit's league leading penalty killing unit.  Game tied  1 - 1.  Then Justin Abdelkader was whistled off to the box for high-sticking at 17:01 of the second stanza, and just as the penalty ended, Troy Brouwer put a wickedly placed wrister past Jimmy Howard at the 19:02 mark of the period.  The Caps went into the final intermission with a 2 - 1 lead and the games momentum in hand. 

The Caps should have come out in the third period and played it with the same stifling efficiency they had played the first period.  Unfortunately, the Red Wings were determined to not allow that to happen.  Their veteran first line of Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Abdelkader just kept coming ... and coming and coming.  Like Barry Trotz's quote above indicates, it's not that the Capitals gave the Wings a lot, it's that they gave them anything at all and what the Caps did not give, if the Red Wings needed it, they took it anyway.  the game's overall statistics show the Caps with 10 giveaways and the Wings with 6 takeaways.  Unfortunately for the Caps to have won this game the Caps needed to have 5 less giveaways and have played harder on the puck so the Wings would have ended with no more than 2 takeaways.  The Red Wings started their "comeback" by Justin Abdelkader scoring what is shown on the scoresheet as an "unassisted" goal at the 4:04 mark of the final period.  Not shown on the scoresheet is the giveaway Brooks Orpik made that landed on Paval Datsyuk's stick, literally right next to the right side post that Braden Hotlby kept out of the net at about the 3:50 mark or the Henrik Zetterberg  "almost takeaway" from Andre Burakovsky at ~4:02 breaking the puck loose in the lowere lefthand slot that Abdelkader pounced on and put past Holtby two seconds later. Well my mother always used to tell me bad things happen in threes - guess she was right.  Had the Capitals managed to rebound from that goal, things would have likely been different.  That was probably on at least several Caps minds then, since that's about the time they started to not play their system dogmatically and trying to make more herculean individual efforts. Victimized at the time was the "Frakenline" of 8 (Ovi) - 65 (Burakovsky) - 42 (Ward) and defensive pair 44 (Orpik) - 74 (Carlson).

 Looking back now - I imagine at about the 5:00 mark realizing this Datsyuk and Zetterberg must have gotten wry grins they worked to disguise and suppress. In any case the Red Wings second goal of the evening seems to have convinced the Caps coaching staff to reunite 8 and 19 on the first line, which in itself is/was, at least in my opinion, a smart move/good thing.  Unfortunately, it didn't really do the trick as the veteran Red Wing team now had life and relentlessly pressed the issues, whenever they were given the slightest bit of "daylight."  Had the Caps stayed disciplined, exceptionally disciplined, and committed  no further errors from the 4:04 mark of the third period, I'll speculate they could have turned the tide and gotten one if not two points and maybe even a needed "ROW" - Regulation/Overtime Win.  Alas that was not to be, at the 10:34 mark of the period with the first line of each team, or at least for the Caps 8 (Ovi) - 19 (Backy) and 42 (Ward) on the ice, playing "mano a' mano" once again Abdelkader, Zetterberg, and "the magician" Datsyuk combined to put the Red Wings ahead to stay 3 -2.  Was it a goal Braden Holtby would like back, yes - he likely wants every goal ever scored on him back, I think that's just the way he is.  Was the goal Holtby's "fault" no.  Was the score one of those times this season when we saw/will see the quarter step that Brooks Orpik no longer has and why the Penguins let him go this past summer, yes.  Was it the reason the Caps lost last night - no, that reason is/was they moved, all be it, slightly off of their system and that allowed the Red Wings to "play their game." From this point on, even though Datsyuk scored a final goal for the Red Wings, little matters worth discussing.  Yes the tripping call on Joel Ward was absurd, as was the blatant too many men (7) the Red Wings had that wasn't called; as was the high sticking call on Backstrom.  Also missed were several cross checks Orpik laid on Abdelkader and at least one corss check Abdelkader laid on Orpik; as were ... oh forget it, my point is yes the zebras were really bad, but they weren't biased, just bad.  In any case let's look for the good things, ..., ..., ..., okay other than yeah they played better last night than they played in Vancouver, I got nothin'.

Other notes I think are worth musing upon and mentioning:

Alexander Ovechkin - last evening,  Ovi had seven shots on goal, matching his total of the past four games, but did not have a point for a fifth straight game. Yes, it's the longest drought, in terms of points, of his NHL career to date, and yes he was "-2" on the night, as for that matter so was Backstrom.  Am I worried about Ovi's "production" - simply put, no, not at all.  What Ovi needs to get going again, is in my view simple, I'd put/keep 8 - 19 together, but if Trotz doesn't want to do that then at least pair him with a natural, fast skating, center - that would either Kuznetsov or Johannson.  I'm not sure what Trotz sees/fears that makes it so he's not paired Kuznetsov as a center with Ovechkin on any of the "Frakenlines" to date but pairing him with Burakovsky did not work last evening and I think that was for two reasons - a) Burakovsky, like Ovechkin is a natural wing, at least right now he is; and b) the third forward on the line needs to be faster than Ward if they are going to play the system the way it's meant to be played - all three guys coming into the zone pretty much "abreast" and sustaining a five man forecheck. My vote is a little more patience - across the board by Trotz and staff  (see: "Frankenlines" below) keeping 8 (Ovechkin) - 19 (Backstrom) as the core of the first line, and using either 16 (Fehr), 20 (Brouwer), or 43 (see: "Tom Wilson" below) at Right Wing on that line.

"Frankenlines":  I think I get why Trotz is so quick to shake up the forward lines - it's about developing a more complete confidence in the system so every one of the forwards on the team can and does really rely on and plays the system - every second of the entire game.  However, chemistry and even more-so timing are also important.  It seems to me, the system was meant to be played at as fast a tempo as the personnel on the ice at any given time can play it.  For that reason putting a noticeably slower cog onto a wheel with two other faster line-mates, does nothing from what I see than force all three of the forwards to slow their game.  Last night, particularly in the first 10:00 of the third period, that meant that instead of the Red Wings having to match speed with speed on the top two lines, they had more time to push and force the Caps play.  It was only about ~5:00 of the first 10:34 of the period that the Red Wings did that successfully but they were a disastrous 5 minutes of hockey for the Capitals.  I am ALL for accountability and I'm not suggesting we stick to line combinations through thick and thin, not at all.  I am suggesting there is a limit to the everybody in the lineup of forwards can play on any line and well with any other forward on the team; and that limit has been reached and exceeded.  The coaching staff needs to step back and look at footspeed in addition to a few other things and adjust their thinking about the line combinations.  The only "uneven" footspeed combinations that should even be considered the rest of this first half of the season, IMO, is 25 (Chimera) and 42 (Ward).

Tom Wilson - hopefully, last evening, Tom Wilson realized he got a chance to look across the ice and see the player Barry Trotz aspires for him to be.  That player wears number 8 for the Red Wings - Justin Abdelkader, who was the first star of the game when the final horn sounded.  Simply put, the Caps video team needs to take last night's game, especially the third period, and compile as much isolation video of Abdelkader's 17:44 TOI and just have Wilson watch it over, and over, ... and over - maybe even while he sleeps.  It's important for young players to have guys with similar skill levels/sets to look at and aspire to reach or exceed their accomplishments.  I think for Wilson, Abdelkader would be that role model.

Joel Ward - Ward has raised his game, a lot these past two outings and should be re"ward"ed - some PP time, yes; some more 5 on 5 minutes, yes; playing this system 5 on 5 with Ovi as his opposite wing, no.  Playing with Ovi at 5 on 5, Ward has the same issues as Brooks Laich (when healthy and confident), he just doesn't have the high gear footspeed to match Ovi when "the Gr8" puts it into overdrive.  On the powerplay this is not a factor as once the Caps are setup in the offensive zone, Ward hockey IQ, and grit mean he's anchored in/around the net and the Caps are already in the zone together.  In this system at five on five it means Ovi and the Caps faster centers need to slow their pace back to Ward's and that gives the opposing team the time they need to set up across the width of the blue line.  It just did not work last night nor will I think it work much against any other fairly good team.

Nate Schmidt: played very well last evening from what I could see despite finishing the night at - 1; he's had a pretty good season so far , though last night he played a little cautiously - no hits, no blocked shots.

Mike Green:  the games third star deservedly so had another monster evening.  Not on the scoresheet is the awesome backcheck he made to break up what would have been a 1 on 0 breakaway in the third period....

Braden Holtby: sure the assist on the Kuznetsov power play goal was cool, but for my druthers he had happy feet last night, a 0.818 SV% isn't going to win many games in this league, and which of the two - offensive points or SV% is he being paid for?  Bottom line he didn't make the saves he needed to make in the third period and that's as much a reason as any the Caps lost last evening, however it wasn't the only reason and it wasn't as bad a night for him as the just looking at the SV% numbers might lead you to believe.

Burakovsky & Kuznetsov:  Well Burakovsky did cough up the puck leading to Abdelkader's game tying goal but overall he continues to develop and look better and better every game.  If it wasn't Zetterberg, and it wasn't the third period with the Wings down by one goal, he might have gotten away with slightly over-handling the puck where he was.  For all that he had 13:35 of even strength TOI and was 83% in the faceoff circle and "even" on the night with an assist on Troy Brouwer's goal. Kuznetsov had 13:52 of even strength TOI; was 50% in the faceoff circle and scored his first goal of the season, he had an exceptionally solid night - the only time he was on the ice that the Captials were "victimized" was the final Datsyuk powerplay goal at 19:06 of the third period while he was on the PK unit.  Overall both players continue to develop exceptionally well and despite my earlier statements about Burakovsky not being the right venter to pair with Ovechin, that thought should ent with the word "yet" - he's not the right center to pair with Ovi "yet" because he needs more time paired with Wings who stay in their "lanes" more until he gets more comfortable in the Center position. 

O' Brien & Latta: Latta was 0 for 4 in the faceoff circle, uncharacteristic and something he needs to work on.  Other than that a solid evening for both these youngsters.  Clearly they wanted to make sure Coach Trotz's belief in keeping them here while sending Chris Brown to Hershey was the right  move, which I too agree with.  While they each had less than 8:00 TOI, they made their presence known and felt when they were put out onto the ice.

Brooks Orpik & Matt Niskanen:  Last evening was neither of these two off season pickups "best outing."  As I described in my recap, the Red Wings victimized Orpik just a little too easily.  Orpik and Abdelkader had a war on ice going all night and for the entire first two periods it was a stalemate and like watching two heavyweights go toe to toe.  In the third period, Abdelkader with the help of Zetterberg and Datsyuk used their speed to clearly win the bout in the late rounds.  You just know that Orpik is going to go watch the film of last night's third period and make whatever adjustments he can to try and make sure that never happens again.  I only hope he's only lost a quarter step over his career to date and can do so.  Niskanen's performance, like his entire game, was more sublime than Orpik's.  It's still unclear to me how they did it, but somehow the Red Wings managed to make it so, even though Niskanen had his usual 20:00 TOI he was ineffective.  Good teams do that and you can't have a monster game every night but last night Niskanen di not look like he was a force to be reckoned with, as he had in big games for Pittsburgh last season. 

Well next up Steven Stamkos and the Lightning in Tampa on Saturday.

LETS GO CAPS!!!

Looking Ahead to Game 9: Detroit Red Wings at Washington Capitals

Well Caps fans tonight at Verizon Center our Washington Capitals cross over  the 10% mark through the young 2014-2015 NHL Regular Season. 

The Caps and the Red Wings enter tonight's contest with identical 4-2-2 records (10 standings points).  Both teams are coming off road losses but should be rested and ready to play.  The Red Wings lost their last outing 4-2 to the Broad Street Bullies (aka Philadelphia Flyers) at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center on Saturday evening.  The Caps lost their last outing to the Canucks in Vancouver on Sunday 4-2.  Tonight's game should once again be a good measuring stick.  Will our Capitals play
the opposing team that's on the ice or will they play the reputation that Detroit has built over the past 25 seasons?  If the Caps play the opposing team on the ice, this should be a good, solid, hard fought game that they win.  If they decide to play the reputation of past seasons then the may as well not show up - #justsaying.  Both teams could really, really use an ROW - especially the Capitals who only have three to date. 

The keys to tonight's game is for the Caps are IMO:

1. Return to form and play the system - limit the Red Wings to less than 30 SOG;
2. Shot the puck more - especially our top two lines;
3. Get in the Red Wings paint" and their goaltenders "grill" more than they have the past two games;
4. A Save Percentage of 0.920+ for Holtby; and,
5. Come out faster and harder on the puck in the first period than they have yet to do this game.

The keys to tonight's game for the Red Wings to get the Verizon Crowd behind them are:

1. Play like gentlemen, realize the are the visiting team, lay down and politely give the Caps the two points we want and need.
2. Look it's a long season, Babcock should save his stars for when he really needs them and give Datsyuk and Zetterberg a night off so they rest, after all neither is getting any younger.
3. Be careful, very careful there is NO need for any Detroit skater to risk injury by getting into any Caps shooting lanes or blocking any shots, that "puck" thing is made of really, really hard rubber and it could hurt somebody.
4. Remember the importance of helping our Swedes look really good.  Washington is a growing hockey market ad the Red Wing's Swedes should go out of their way to help Backstrom and Johansson look really good tonight.
5. Prior to the game eat a really heavy, unhealthy meal, it's a long flight after the game and they'll all likely want to immediately catch some "Z'ssss" right after the game or on the flight, nothing helps you sleet better than a really heavy dinner.

Hope you weren't looking for anything too serious there - bottom line for the Red Wings is th old adage for road hockey - "play your game" - the basic keys for Detroit will be to try and dictate the pace and tenor of play.  It will be very important that the Caps don't let them especially during the first 40:00 of the game.

I'm not Peerless but my "prognostication" assuming the Caps execute on their keys 1-5 is: 

Capitals 3 - Red Wings 1

LETS GO CAPS!!!!

If You Ever Wondered ...

Fall is in the air here in "Bucoulic Bristow" the leaves on the hardwoods are turning, sunny Saturday traffic on Westbound route 66 will be packed with cars heading to Skyline Drive to see the fall splendor tomorrow.

Oh and  wow, it only took six games for Hockey's "mainstream (lower case because of the following lower class examples) media" (MSM) to decide they want to continue to pummel on their made up idea that "Alexander Ovechkin is a stupid, coach killer."  See here.  Such tripe only continues to fuel my belief that since Hockey's MSM is filled with Canadians, who still apparently can't stomach the fact that Europeans and Russians can play their National Game too, 98+% of what they write (or is that "wright" or "rite" who knows, or they say on TV) is fueled by Hockey Xenophobia.  But hey why listen to his current coach, who has not been fired and has an Ovechkin led team playing 0.667 hockey, on pace for a 109 point season ( See Here)?  I mean wouldn't you rather listen to some guy who still craves the spotlight even though his on ice career is over or even worse is a "Never Was" let alone a "Used to Be".  I don't know why Healy, Krypos, or anyone else's comments get me "going" but they sure do so here's a couple of points to muse - backed by facts and real data instead of sensationalistic, bigoted adjectives and "bloviation":

A) Ovi's average shift time, as with the rest of the Capitals is shorter than ever - and it's a product as I see it of the new system that EVERYONE on the Capitals including the Captain, Alexander Ovechkin buys into.  Until I listened to Healy, I always thought "buying in" was a trait associated with being "coachable" though I admit and point out that is a "second order" relationship.  I offer the "Event Summary" from the Edmonton game and suggest if you or even better Glenn Healy before he spouts off inaccurate "stuff" again examine ANY of the other 5 games statistics of real data available for 2014-15 Season. If you don't want to go read it, in Edmonton Ovi played 22 shifts in the game with an average shift length including the 2:11 TOI he had on the PP of 53. 73 seconds.  Ovechkin's average shift length in every game so far this season has been tracking, similar and shorter than the other two forwards on his line (Backstrom and either Fehr or Brouwer) throughout the season. Further reinforcing evidence to me that he is indeed playing the system as desired by his coaches.  The only difference on this last game is Ovi only had 2 SOG and 5 attempts vice more in earlier games.  Of course a guy who's shooting percentage so far this season is markedly higher than it has been over his earlier career, might be also changing where he shoots from.  Also, how many SOG he takes when he isn't in those higher percentage areas might also be lower, of course that's just speculation on my part, and probably NOT something a "dumb" player with awards like a Hart Trophy would think to do.....

B) As far as loosing the room and/or other reasons why either Glen Hanlon, Bruce Boudreau, or Adam Oates were replaced as Caps coach, sure the easy thing to do is point to Ovi's big contract and role as Captain and say he's the reason.  However, as a guy who's been focused on the Capitals through Ovechkin's entire career to date I feel otherwise and point to the following:

1. Glen Hanlon:  Hanlon was replaced in November 2007,  Ovehkin's current contract was signed in January 2008.  While some could say perhaps Ovi was the reason Hanlon was fired and the driver is/was Ovi's current contract, to me at best that's a third order relationship.  Perhaps Ovi then playing under his entry level contract, and his team of advisors that does include his Mother (a two time Gold Medalist and former Commissioner of a women's pro basketball league, who probably knows something about winning formulae,  was saying that among other things he did not think Hanlon didn't seem to be the coach to reach that level, but clearly there were other things they wanted before hitching Alex's star to the Capitals for what was likely his entire career. Further there were a lot of other current and former players who had issues with Hanlon's playing not to loose system.
   
2. Bruce Boudreau:  Come on?  All on Ovi?  Really if you feel that you really didn't follow the Capitals.  I agree that letting Boudreau go wasn't a smart move or answer to the Caps woes when it happened, but he had lost over "half" the room if I can read between the line.  I'll also agree that Ovi was indeed one of the guys Boudreau lost.  I don't know why but I'll guess that Boudreau wanted to change up his system slightly - a system that in the regular season had frankly served Boudreau, Ovechkin and the entire team well, and Ovechkin was saying Hey, Coach Why Mess With Success? Instead of okay lets tweak things.  That said I'll bet just as Trotz's "leadership group" is a way for him to manage things and different, and Ovi is clearly responding differently to things like this now, Boudreau handled things like this differently since he arrived in Anaheim. So I guess I am saying I agree if you want to say Alexander Ovechkin is one of the reasons Boudreau was fired but he wasn't the only reason.
   
3. Dale Hunter: Again come on.  Hunter wasn't the right guy.  He is like a King and Dictator in London and he likes it that way.  He was never going to be happy in the NHL as a coach.  As soon as he realized it was going to take a couple of years to get the Stanley Cup as a Coach he was going to insist whoever was GM do things his way as much as he was going to tell his star player, especially a non-North American player to shut up, sit down, and block shots first and foremost.  I'm betting the entire room, except for a few of the guys who played for him in London, grimaced every time he talked to them in front of his "Fathead" at KCI.  Total transparency here - I am not a lifelong Capitals fan and based on what he did in 1993 and I could never fault any hockey player for having trouble respecting the guy who did this. No to me Ovechkin wasn't the reason Hunter isn't the coach today - I'm betting he asked for some aspect of control, driven by his ego, that neither Leonsis or McPhee wanted to give a guy capable of being that out of control.
   
4. Adam Oates:  Look Oates is a Hall of Famer and in his first half of season as Caps coach I think him moving Ovi to right wing worked for both of them and made Ovi a better player so how does that make Ovechkin "uncoachable"? Bottom line is the way last season ended lost Oates and McPhee their jobs and put this entire team, including Ovechkin, "on probation." Anyone who thinks, says, or writes otherwise is NOT looking at the big picture.  Clearly from the off-season moves the Capitals ORGANIZATION realized the blueline needed more focus, both in the system being played AND the personnel playing it.  Further a decision seems to have also been made, rightly so, IMO, that a winning team in the post season needed to play more of a "Western Conference" type game and say what you will but to me, Oates' system was more an Eastern Conference, tweaked New Jersey Devils approach to hockey than Trotz brings from his long tenure in "Smashville."  Finally post season comments by guys that include very stoic, clearly team players like Karl Alzner make me believe a LOT of post season discussions between ownership and players would have only further solidified a belief it was time for a change in both the GM AND the coaches offices here in DC.

C) Dumb? Not the sharpest knife in the drawer"?  "his mommy negotiated his contract and that's dumb" or any similar backhanded implication of such - come on.  Okay, Ovi never "gradiated" from a prestigious North American University like Western Michigan University like Healy did. Nor did he create any sort of on air in depth analysis segment, like Healy that highlights good players having bad games. I mean coming up with something like that requires deep thinking, after all it is the hockey media's equivalent of a movie like "Jacka$$", and no doubt requires a really smart creative guy to come up with something as intellectually stimulating as his TSN segments were/are. But Ovi did avoid paying 10% to someone outside his true inner circle to negotiate a contract, that at the time was the richest ever negotiated in NHL history.  He does have numerous endorsement deals worldwide that help he and others in the hockey world raise awareness for what is, world-wide, a niche sport.  He is bilingual, though it did take several years for him to be so and he still talks with pretty deep Russian accent. How well do you think Healy, Krypos, or any of these other MSM geniuses speak a second language? I know Ovi's English is a lot, lot better than my Russian, or my German, or my Spanish....

Healy played 15 NHL seasons and 437 NHL games as a NHL goaltender and managed a career 0.888 SV% a 3.37 GAA and 166 wins.  Contrast that to Ovi's career to date 9 NHL seasons, 678 games played, 422 goals, 392 assists, 3 World Championships (+ a silver and 2 bronzes) and yes NO Stanley Cups or Olympic Gold Medals, yet. Also Six (6) time first team and three (3) time second team NHL All Star; Calder Trophy, Hart Trophy (MVP) - 3X;  Art Ross Trophy (2008) and Richard Trophy (four times). Why not buy into Healy's assessments, ignore Ovechkin's current coach's recent statements and the basic facts/contrast of between a long tenured, "average" former NHL player, and one of it's current superstars?  Could this just not be a guy like Healy frustrated that a Non-Canadian like Ovi has kids in Edmonton lining up for his autograph and wearing his Jersey and number while often the only guys from Healy's era they remember or have heard about are truly generational players like Gretzky, Messier, etc? Of course, me I disagree with Healy's assessment of Ovechkin and look at him, as I do Crosby, as one of those generational players and start, who I have the pleasure of watching play at least 82 games a season.

 Of course the most ridiculous thing to note is that in spite of all the trash the SI NHL beat writers spew about Ovechkin, he was selected by them as "NHL Player of the Year" in 2013, I'm pretty sure that's the season they now say he was a coach killer to Boudreau and Hunter, showing just what jokes they are as hockey writers, at least to me.  And who is the dumb one?  I mean isn't it "dumb" to contradict yourselves so loudly and vociferously as they seem to do? Wouldn't a "smart" person, say one with a degree from such a prestigious university as Western Michigan (which ranks academically as 181 per US News and World Report) at least know when to research things and use facts accurately in a debate?  I mean even I know there's these things called the Internet and fancy search engines like "Google" to find out actual facts and statistics to use to confirm or refute my suspicions.  Then in a debate in front of millions I might actually only use those arguments that are substantiated by facts, I'm pretty sure it was news to Barry Trotz that with a 2-1-2 record he'd been fired this week. Finally yes Ovi's Mother is his agent, per say.  Her qualifications - two gold medals in Olympic basketball, and she was the head of a  Professional Basketball League and his father was a professional soccer player. So I'm pretty sure when he and they decided they didn't need some former hockey player, likely Canadian, or otherwise or an American or Canadian Lawyer to negotiate his contract with Ted Leonsis, they knew what they were doing. In retrospect, it looks to me like they had about 12.5 Million reasons to go the way they did - and for my money only a stupid person would ignore that many reasons to do something.

Sure, when a team doesn't succeed and that gets a coach fired every player, particularly the leading players in the lineup bear some of the blame.  But when you read the SI article how can you ever wonder why Ovechkin, or any similar athlete say, when they are being honest, they really don't care and CANNOT care what media, has beens, used to bes or never could bes, say?  Also and this is me talking, how can you conclude anything other than these guys i) have some kind of ax to grind, ii) write/say things that are intentionally sensationalistic to garner attention, and iii) SI is the worst place to read anything about Hockey.

Next up for Trotz and his un-coachable Captain - the Flames tomorrow evening in Calgary.  I can't wait to hear the commentary from guys like Healy and Krypos after that game, regardless of the results or facts. Sorry for the rant I hope you at least found it entertaining, this fanboy, just had to get it off his chest.

LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!