As everyone who reads this blog already knows - Brent Johnson signed a 2 year, $2M ($1M per year) contract with Pittsburgh to back up MAF. I hate to see Johnnie go anywhere, and really hate to see him or anybody else go to Pittsburgh. No I don't really hate them - I sportsfan hate the Penguins - I feel they are our rivals - the guys that we got Jagr from and stupidly saddled ourselves with a bad contract from (as opposed to Nyls who we pursued...go figure another 3rd degree of separation from Jagr that is now an issue for the Caps).
In any case Brent Johnson has been a good Capital, he married a local girl and if the Caps had wanted him to stay they could have made that happen, but we have Theo and three good prospects in the pipeline one of which will back him up. I know folks may try and make it like Brent left the Caps but that's not the case, so let's not even think about going there. I liked the guy as a Cap and for a guy who played less than 100 games as a Capital he's been a fan favorite - a guy we all hoped would do well. To me getting a raise after a good season in a contract year that ended in an injury is doing well. Too bad it's playing for a rival. It'll be interesting to see if he moves, Pittsburgh is a pretty cool town and I guess it's between he and his wife's families so there's another positive if you're him.
Good luck next season Johnnie and I hope you do well, I just hope the Caps goalies and players do a little better on any games where we play against you.
Showing posts with label Brent Johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brent Johnson. Show all posts
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
Reflections on Last Night's Game and the Road Ahead for the Capitals (along with a little bit of a rant)
Well as usual The Peerless beat me to the punch with a great post on last night's game. It was everything, good and bad that he said it was here.
Before getting into the thoughts about the Caps perfromance last night, an item of note about Jamie Heward , this from Tarik El-Bashir's Blog: "Update: *Just got off the phone with Lightning PR director Jay Preble who said Jamie Heward has been released from Sibley Memorial Hospital with a concussion and is on his way back to Tampa Bay. He is expected to land in Florida this afternoon." That seems indeed good news, especially for this blogger and the other 18,000+ hushed fans at Verizon Center last evening.
Now back to the regularly inteded blog. It has indeed become a season where "good is not good enough," for as last night was a clear two point night, in that the Capitals never trailed and a 2 point win wasn't in doubt for more than 2 or 3 minutes at a time, the Capita
ls have now transcended to a much higher level of hockey than they ever achieved or many, including this writer, ever thought during the so called rebuilding years. This year the Caps are generally playing excellent hockey, so much so, that during those periods of a game when they are not, you notice it, even, perhaps especially, when the opposing team is also not playing great hockey. Last night was one of those games. The Caps won by three goals, "going away" and never trailed, but because they have now conditioned us to expect great hockey, you notice when they don't play at or near their potential. For example, the whole team seemed pretty flat the last half of the second period, sure it's hard to stay driven and "into it" when you are up by such a margin and it seems like you can't loose, but guess what, it's the NHL and you can - didn't you watch the Winter Classic? And while it was great to see Sean Collins get his first NHL goal and on the score sheet go +/- even, if you watched the game you noticed that his miscues resulted in two Lightning goals. That's not to say the 25 year old rookie is the first,nor will he be the last, NHL caliber defenseman to have his pockets picked by Martin Saint Louis and Vincent Lecavalier. I bring it up to highlight the level of play, we all have come to expect from the Capitals, every game, regardless of who is or is not in a particular game's lineup. It's really pointless whether or not, we the fans, now expect the Caps to play near perfect hockey and strive for perfection every night. The teams setting the standard in the NHL are the ones driving the Capitals to do so; the Caps have a goal this year, it's the goal every professional sports team should have. At the risk of superstition, I'll say it - to win the Stanley Cup Championship. You have to know and believe it is the same goal shared by 29 other teams and the same goal that at least ten other NHL teams are thoroughly convinced is possible.
ls have now transcended to a much higher level of hockey than they ever achieved or many, including this writer, ever thought during the so called rebuilding years. This year the Caps are generally playing excellent hockey, so much so, that during those periods of a game when they are not, you notice it, even, perhaps especially, when the opposing team is also not playing great hockey. Last night was one of those games. The Caps won by three goals, "going away" and never trailed, but because they have now conditioned us to expect great hockey, you notice when they don't play at or near their potential. For example, the whole team seemed pretty flat the last half of the second period, sure it's hard to stay driven and "into it" when you are up by such a margin and it seems like you can't loose, but guess what, it's the NHL and you can - didn't you watch the Winter Classic? And while it was great to see Sean Collins get his first NHL goal and on the score sheet go +/- even, if you watched the game you noticed that his miscues resulted in two Lightning goals. That's not to say the 25 year old rookie is the first,nor will he be the last, NHL caliber defenseman to have his pockets picked by Martin Saint Louis and Vincent Lecavalier. I bring it up to highlight the level of play, we all have come to expect from the Capitals, every game, regardless of who is or is not in a particular game's lineup. It's really pointless whether or not, we the fans, now expect the Caps to play near perfect hockey and strive for perfection every night. The teams setting the standard in the NHL are the ones driving the Capitals to do so; the Caps have a goal this year, it's the goal every professional sports team should have. At the risk of superstition, I'll say it - to win the Stanley Cup Championship. You have to know and believe it is the same goal shared by 29 other teams and the same goal that at least ten other NHL teams are thoroughly convinced is possible. Who is setting the bar now, well here's the top 10 teams in the NHL based on the results of the last 10 games:
1) Boston Bruins/10-0-0 (1.000 hockey)
2) Washington Capitals/9-1-0 (0.900 hockey)
3) Chicago Black Hawks/8-2-0 (0.800 hockey
4) San Jose Sharks/6-1-3 (0.750 hockey)
5) Calgary Flames/6-1-3 (0.750 hockey)
6) Detroit Red Wings/6-3-1 (0.650 hockey)
7) Montreal Canadeans/6-3-1 (0.650 hockey)
8) Philadelphia Flyers/6-3-1 (0.650 hockey)
9) Columbus Blue Jackets/6-3-1 (0.650 hockey)
10) Dallas Stars/6-3-1 (0.650 hockey).
So if you think you've been watching some of the best hockey played in the NHL of late, you're probably correct.
A final "heart warmer" for other Caps fans who felt unjustly spurned and used in June when the Blackhawks picked up Christobel Huet. From James Mirtle's blog on the Winter Classic comes this subtle reference (my emphasis added): "The best part if you're a new Blackhawks fan? While the team (Blackhawks) was outplayed in this one, mostly in goal, this is the tip of the iceberg for this group, and there's a very real possibility they'll be a contender over the next few years." So as I told the two overly smug Red Wings fans (who wears Redwings sweaters to a Caps - Lightning game anyway - do they think that is "Rockin' the Red"?) that were in section 103 with wingman and I, I'm happy with Theodore. Of course the guy wearing the Yzerman Jersey thinks that the other goalie (yes he plays goal so he's an expert) in his beer league has "better form," his words I kid you not, than Theodore.
Now I ask your indulgence and for you to please excuse the following rant, however one of the most disturbing things for me of late is to continue to hear folks "worry" about Jose Theodore and/or continue to second guess the Capitals goaltending situation. I feel it does three egregious things: i) trivializes the great team (including the goaltenders) effort that has resulted in a great start to the season, ii) fails to take into account that the current situation was not one of first choice for the Caps organization, and iii) really fails to recognize that goaltending hasn't been too much of an issue despite a game of total musical chairs on the blueline due to injuries for over the past 7 weeks. First and foremost, let's review the bidding on the Capitals choices re: netminder at the end of last season and how things look after three months of the 2008-2009 season are in the bag.
As of yesterday afternoon had the Caps gone for a 3 year/$5.5+M deal they MIGHT have had Christobel Huet in the net as their number 1 goaltender this season; Huet's numbers with the Blackhawks to date are as follow. The 33 year old French-Canadian netminder is 9-6-3 with 1 shutout, a GAA of 2.55 (17th in the league) and a save percentage of 0.910 (tied 
for 21st) in 18 games played. These numbers (save percentage and GAA) are slightly below his career NHL regular season numbers of 0.918 and 2.44 in 201 games played. Last regular season he played a total of 52 regular season games for the Caps and Canadeans, the most he's ever played since entering the league. He's been in the playoffs twice (2006 and 2008) in both instances he took his team into the second round but not beyond; his career playoff save percentage matches his regular season numbers of 0.918. In brief, he was and is a solid NHL netminder but NOT someone you'd want to overspend on nor one you could likely build a team around for the long haul from a proven talent perspective. Ask yourself this. Had the Capitals spent an extra million this season for Huet and also gone for the extra million for next season, AND agreed to give him a contract one year longer than they gave Jose Theodore, do you think their record would be better than it's current 25-11-3? Would they be on par with Boston's pace? As data for making your choice of answers A or B consider this - Of the Capitals 11 losses only 3 are by one goal and only 2 are by two goals, the remaining 6 are by 3 or more goals. So even if you feel Huet would have been the difference in a game you could only reasonably feel he would have won a maximum of 8 more games than Johnson and Theodore, if he were superhuman - being reasonable and assuming he is an almost mere mortal, NHL starting goaltender as his current rankings would suggest call it 4 games and give the Caps 8 more points maximum and he still isn't the silver bullet to overtake the freight trains that are Boston and San Jose in the standings.
for 21st) in 18 games played. These numbers (save percentage and GAA) are slightly below his career NHL regular season numbers of 0.918 and 2.44 in 201 games played. Last regular season he played a total of 52 regular season games for the Caps and Canadeans, the most he's ever played since entering the league. He's been in the playoffs twice (2006 and 2008) in both instances he took his team into the second round but not beyond; his career playoff save percentage matches his regular season numbers of 0.918. In brief, he was and is a solid NHL netminder but NOT someone you'd want to overspend on nor one you could likely build a team around for the long haul from a proven talent perspective. Ask yourself this. Had the Capitals spent an extra million this season for Huet and also gone for the extra million for next season, AND agreed to give him a contract one year longer than they gave Jose Theodore, do you think their record would be better than it's current 25-11-3? Would they be on par with Boston's pace? As data for making your choice of answers A or B consider this - Of the Capitals 11 losses only 3 are by one goal and only 2 are by two goals, the remaining 6 are by 3 or more goals. So even if you feel Huet would have been the difference in a game you could only reasonably feel he would have won a maximum of 8 more games than Johnson and Theodore, if he were superhuman - being reasonable and assuming he is an almost mere mortal, NHL starting goaltender as his current rankings would suggest call it 4 games and give the Caps 8 more points maximum and he still isn't the silver bullet to overtake the freight trains that are Boston and San Jose in the standings.So how does the Theodore pickup look right now anyway? The thirty two year old French-Canadian netminder is: 12-6-1, with 1 shutout, a GAA of 3.08 (36th) and a save percentage of 0.889 
(39th) in 22 games played so far this season. Okay, he got off to a very rocky start and he does need to show consistency. The solid netminding of his last four games have been well chronicled elsewhere, but what hasn't been discussed much is the comparison of potential and the value of having been there before. As well as the value of wanting to be here versus the apparent fact that Huet realy didn't care that much where he played his next three seasons after last year. Theodore's career regular season numbers are a save percentage of 0.908 and a GAA of 2.68 in 466 games; he has played over 60 games in two seasons and over 50 in three others, his numbers are better in seasons where he has played over 50 games. In 47 career playoff games his GAA is 2.76 and his save percentage is 0.914. He's been through the second round of the playoffs and into the third before and his career statistics indicate two things: a) he gets better as the season goes on and b) even more importantly he clearly elevates his game come playoff time. All for $1M less a season than Huet and for a contract term the Capitals wanted for their goaltender. So yes i) rocky start, ii) improved play of late, iii) so far three more wins in four more starts than Huet, and iv) wants to be here and seems committed to the system - so far no prima donna stuff over the goaltender rotation or play when your hot stuff though to be fair this seems to be the case for Huet and Khabibuhlen in Chicago as well, and v) the Capitals have $1M more of Cap space then they would have had.
(39th) in 22 games played so far this season. Okay, he got off to a very rocky start and he does need to show consistency. The solid netminding of his last four games have been well chronicled elsewhere, but what hasn't been discussed much is the comparison of potential and the value of having been there before. As well as the value of wanting to be here versus the apparent fact that Huet realy didn't care that much where he played his next three seasons after last year. Theodore's career regular season numbers are a save percentage of 0.908 and a GAA of 2.68 in 466 games; he has played over 60 games in two seasons and over 50 in three others, his numbers are better in seasons where he has played over 50 games. In 47 career playoff games his GAA is 2.76 and his save percentage is 0.914. He's been through the second round of the playoffs and into the third before and his career statistics indicate two things: a) he gets better as the season goes on and b) even more importantly he clearly elevates his game come playoff time. All for $1M less a season than Huet and for a contract term the Capitals wanted for their goaltender. So yes i) rocky start, ii) improved play of late, iii) so far three more wins in four more starts than Huet, and iv) wants to be here and seems committed to the system - so far no prima donna stuff over the goaltender rotation or play when your hot stuff though to be fair this seems to be the case for Huet and Khabibuhlen in Chicago as well, and v) the Capitals have $1M more of Cap space then they would have had.How about Brent Johnson, how's that guy look? Well, funny you should ask, he looks pretty good compared to both these guys too. So far this season the thirty one year old American netminder is: 11-5-2, with no shutouts, a GAA of 2.61 (22nd) and a save percentage of 0.913 (15th) in 19 games played. All for more than 
$4.6M less than Huet and $3.6M less than Theodore. Johnson, like Theodore has been a little inconsistent, and of late hampered by a nagging hip injury but he has been one of several feel good stories for the Capitals. His career numbers also compare favorably with Huet's both in tenure and results. Over a ten NHL season career that started in Saint Louis in the 1998-1999, "Johnnie" is 110-93-13-12 with a GAA of 2.62 and a save percentage of 0.903 in 245 regular season games; his career playoff numbers are 5-6 with a GAA of 1.84 and a save percentage of 0.931 in 12 playoff starts he took the Blues through the first round and into the second round of the 2001 - 2002 season. The only "knock" of sorts against Johnson is he is basically untested over the long haul as a workhorse goaltender, the only season he's played more than 50 games was the 2001-2--2 season with Saint Louis. He is a consummate team player and a solid citizen on the ice, in the dressing room and in the community. The biggest challenge for the Caps with Johnson at the end of this season will be affording him if he keeps his level of play up to where it has been so far this year. His play so far has enabled the Capitals to have a 1A/1B situation in goal and it seems that both he and Theodore get along as well as he and Kolzig did in the past. Another plus for Caps fans to note about "Johnnie" is that while like Huet he has limited (less than 15 games) playoff experience, like Theodore, he clearly elevates his game in the playoffs. All for a bargain basement price of less than $900K against the salary cap this season.
$4.6M less than Huet and $3.6M less than Theodore. Johnson, like Theodore has been a little inconsistent, and of late hampered by a nagging hip injury but he has been one of several feel good stories for the Capitals. His career numbers also compare favorably with Huet's both in tenure and results. Over a ten NHL season career that started in Saint Louis in the 1998-1999, "Johnnie" is 110-93-13-12 with a GAA of 2.62 and a save percentage of 0.903 in 245 regular season games; his career playoff numbers are 5-6 with a GAA of 1.84 and a save percentage of 0.931 in 12 playoff starts he took the Blues through the first round and into the second round of the 2001 - 2002 season. The only "knock" of sorts against Johnson is he is basically untested over the long haul as a workhorse goaltender, the only season he's played more than 50 games was the 2001-2--2 season with Saint Louis. He is a consummate team player and a solid citizen on the ice, in the dressing room and in the community. The biggest challenge for the Caps with Johnson at the end of this season will be affording him if he keeps his level of play up to where it has been so far this year. His play so far has enabled the Capitals to have a 1A/1B situation in goal and it seems that both he and Theodore get along as well as he and Kolzig did in the past. Another plus for Caps fans to note about "Johnnie" is that while like Huet he has limited (less than 15 games) playoff experience, like Theodore, he clearly elevates his game in the playoffs. All for a bargain basement price of less than $900K against the salary cap this season.Next up the blueshirts, the New York Rangers, at Verizon Center on Saturday evening, I'll be watching from the couch as Tom has the tickets to this game since growing up he was a Ranger fan. I don't know who he'll be rooting for but I'll be hoping the Caps make it six in a row and find themselves at six points ahead of the Rangers at the end of the evening's contest.
LETS GO CAPS !!!!!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Caps 7, Bolts 4 - Quick Recap
It was another two point night at Verizon Center for the Washington Capitals, who started 2009 the same way they ended 2008 - on winning notes. Once again the atmosphere at Verizon Center was electric and there was a sellout crowd present to "Rock the Red." The Caps raced out to a 3-0 lead through the end of the first period before the Lightning's Vinny Lecavalier got the Bolts on the scoreboard at 00:58 of the second period, by the end of the second period the Lightning had pulled to within one and the period ended with the score Caps 4, Lightning 3. That was as close as the Lightning would get though - one goal and the game ended with a final score of Caps 7, Lightning 4. The Caps scoring was spread around and all seven goals were scored by different players. The Lighting on the other hand got two goals from Vincent Lecavalier and a goal each from Ryan Malone and Mark Recchi. The Capitals goals were scored by: 1) Sean Collins (his first NHL goal,) 2) Dave Steckel, 3) Mike Green, 4) Matt Bradley, 5) Boyd Gordon (the Game Winner,) 6) Chris Clark (his first of the season) and 7) Alexander Ovechkin. Capitals Captain, Chris Clark had another good game, missing a a"Gordie Howe Hat Trick" by an assist but finishing the evening with 11:30 TOI on 16 shifts 3 shots, a goal, 1 hit, 2 blocked shots and +1. Alexander Ovechkin had an excellent night 1 goal, 2 assists, 4 shots, 4 attempts blocked, 1 miss, 3 hits, and 1 faceoff won (0 faceoffs lost). Boyd Gordon had an exceptional night, Gordo went 7 for 12 (58%) in the faceoff circle, had a goal and an assist on the night and was +/- +2 on the night. Matt Bradley also had a super night. "Brads: had a goal, and assist, 2 hits, went 1 of 2 in the faceoff circle and was +3 on the night.One other quick n
ote, former Capital Jamie Heward was taken off the ice on a stretcher after being knocked unconscious by a clean hit from Alexander Ovechkin in the third period last night. Per the post game recap on the Caps website: "According to postgame reports, Heward has a concussion and he will stay overnight at Sibley Memorial Hospital for observation. "He was moving his arms," said Lightning coach Rick Tocchet. "He was unconscious for about a minute and a half. So we made sure that we called his wife. I don't know for sure, but it seems that it's hopefully positive. We'll keep him overnight."
ote, former Capital Jamie Heward was taken off the ice on a stretcher after being knocked unconscious by a clean hit from Alexander Ovechkin in the third period last night. Per the post game recap on the Caps website: "According to postgame reports, Heward has a concussion and he will stay overnight at Sibley Memorial Hospital for observation. "He was moving his arms," said Lightning coach Rick Tocchet. "He was unconscious for about a minute and a half. So we made sure that we called his wife. I don't know for sure, but it seems that it's hopefully positive. We'll keep him overnight."Happy New Year - A Look Ahead To Tonight's Caps-Bolts Game
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Last night's result of note: IIHF Juniors - Canada 5, United States 4.
In case you didn't watch last night's IIHF showdown of sorts, it was an awesome game. The US zoomed out to a 3-0 lead before Canada came back and tied it up. The second period ended with Canada up 5-4; the third period was scoreless. Lot's of great play from folks on both teams. Of greatest notes relative to the players though for folks following the NHL prospects in general and Caps fans in particular were the following two items. Canada's John Tavares showed everyone watching why he should indeed be the #1 NHL draft pick in 2009 and Stefan Della Rovere showed Caps fans why he may turn up as being the best bargain in the 2008 NHL draft.
Today's NHL Games:
- This afternoon, the Winter Classic in Chicago: Blackhawks vs. Red Wings @ Wrigley Field
- Tonight: Washington Capitals vs. Tampa Bay Lightning @ Verizon Center
- Tonight: Pittsburgh vs. Boston @ Boston
- Tonight: Vancouver vs. Nashville @ Nashville.
The one folks reading this blog likely care most about is Caps vs. Lightning so that's the one that gets previewed. Besides, despite some thoughts to the contrary it's probably t
oo early to be rooting for Pittsburgh over Boston and the only way to be rooting for either Chicago or Detroit would be if there was a way a game could conclude and neither team got a point. In the final game, you have to be for Nashville because, hey we want them to do well, and who needs/wants a team to move anyway? Maybe if Nashville started to get a home record like the Caps, Sharks or Boston have this season their attendance would improve. Now onto the key thoughts and items about tonight's game at "the Phone Booth."First despite Jose Theodore winning his last four in a row, Brent Johnson will apparently start tonight. This is probably a good move by Coach Boudreau since as he told Tarik and others after this morning's skate: " Looking around the league this year you need both goaltenders....Very few teams have been able to run with one at all times so we have to keep our guys sharp." While Johnson and Theodore are both pretty healthy and playing well it makes sense to play them both, giving Johnson a little more rest over the next couple of weeks to allow his hip a little extra rest to further mend.
Virtually all the Caps skated at least a little today, except Sergei Federov. That said it appears the only change to the lineup of skaters from the team on the ice in Buffalo on Tuesday is that Karl Alzner will be back in the line-up and Tyler Sloan is probably headed back to Hershey.
Donald Brashear will be a game time decision apparently and Alexander Giroux and Chris Bourque are still here in DC and will apparently dress and take warm-ups as well. Odds makers are guessing Brashear won't play tonight but will likely return for Saturday's Rangers game and other optimists are also hoping that Alexander Semin will return to the lineup sometime next week, likely either for the January 6th home game against the Flyers or the games on Friday and Saturday against Columbus and Montreal.
Tom Poti, Brian Pothier and John Erskine all skated today, but there hasn't been any word or speculation otherwise on any timetables for their of Sergei Federov's return. The way the team is playing this all makes sense, the important thing is for the team to keep looking ahead and re-integrating the players into the "normal" lineup on a timetable that allows them to be healthy and set for a run to and through the playoffs after the All-Star Game on January 25th in Montreal.
As for tonight's opponents, Tampa Bay is 3-0-1 since the Christmas break. Their last game ended as a 2-1 shootout loss to a visiting Montreal Canadean team at Saint Pete Times Forum on Tuesday night in front of a sellout crowd. In addition to going 3-0-1 since Christmas, the Bolts beat the Penguins 3-0 in Pittsburgh on December 23rd and are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games. Tonight's game is the second of six meetings between the two Southeast Division foes this regular season. The last time the two teams met was Monday, November 10th at Verizon Center; the Caps won that contest 4-2. That game was long-time Capitals netminder Olie Kolzig's first return to play against the team that drafted him into the NHL in 1989. The likely starting goaltender for the Bolts tonight will be Mike Smith, who has a 2.00 GAA in his last four games in regulation, including the shutout against Pittsburgh. Smith, a 26 year old in his third NHL season, will be playing in his 87th NHL games tonight, assuming he gets the nod, his career numbers are 35-36-0-11 with a save percentage of 0.912 and a GAA of 2.44. So far this season he's 8-12-0-9 with a GAA of 2.42 and a save percentage of 0.923.
Clearly both Smith and his Lightning Bolt teammates have raised their level of play since the two teams last met in November. Ryan Malone has 7 points (2 goals and 5 assists) in the last three games and the Bolts have scored a total of 12 goals while allowing only 9 goals against over the past 4 games. So since December 23rd the Lightning has scored an average of 3.00 goals/game while allowing and average of only 2.00 against. The Lightning players the Caps need to contain are primarily the two usual suspects plus a couple of guys: Martin Saint Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, Mark Recchi, Ryan Malone and Steve Stamkos. The Lighting need to be weary of probably all four of the Capitals lines, assuming they come out and play the type of hockey they have shown themselves capable of throughout the month of December. However, this won't be an easy game for the Capitals, as if any game on any night in the NHL can be taken for granted. The Caps will need to come out focused and determined. Against a team like Tampa Bay, getting the first goal is probably a key item. With a roster that includes six former Caps, including two who have been playing very well of late - Matt Pettinger and Steve Eminger - as well as former Capitals Team Captain, Jeff Halpren, and being division rivals who have met eight times over each of the past two regular seasons, these two teams know each other well.
My
former wingman and I will be back together and Rockin' the Red in Section 103. Hope you are too. I'm looking for the Capitals to make it five in a row and stop the Bolts point streak at four. Besides, doesn't the prospect of hopefully making this guy look silly (well maybe the right term is sillier) sound good to you?LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Are The Caps Shopping For A Goaltender? Does A Deal Make Sense?
Last week there was some chatter started that indicated the Capitals might be looking at making a deal with the Chicago Blackhawks to trade Michael Nylander and some considerations for Nikolai Khabibuhlen. One might ask, would such a deal make sense? For myself, analyzing the situation I come up with a very definite ... well, maybe. The first thing one has to do to assess the viability of the deal is ask, would such a deal have the possibility of making both teams better. On this aspect the answer is a definite probability.
The Blackhawks style of play is probably even better suited for Nylander than the style of the Bruce Boudreau Capitals and the average age of the top 4 centers in Chicago is 23 years old. Further the 44 games of NHL playoff experience that the 36 year old Nylander has could be to the Blackhawks what Sergei Federov was to the Capitals these past two seasons. The only players on the Chicago roster with significant playoff experience are 27 year old Martin Havlat and 35 year old Kahbibuhlen. So Nylander would probably help the Chicago front line attack with his mature steady hand. However, the whole Christobel Huet/Nikolai Kahbibuhlen "deal" continues to befuddle. So far this season as #1 and #1A goaltenders the Chicago goaltenders statistics look like this:
Khabibuhlen: 10-1-4 with 1 shutout; a GAA of 2.44 and a save % of 0.922;
Huet: 8-5-3 with 1 shutout; a GAA of 2.38 and a save % of 0.916.
Over their careers Kahbibuhlen has a save % of 0.908 (652 games) in the regular season and 0.922 in the playoffs (57 games), while Huet has a save % of 0.918 (199 games) in the regular season and 0.918 in the playoffs (13 games). So why trade down from Khabibuhlen who has a Stanley Cup ring now when they are only trailing the Red Wings by five points and they have a game in hand on Detroit? On the season the Blackhawks have played 31 games so far and have 114 goals for and 82 goals against. They also have two experienced defenseman in Brian Campbell and Brent Sopel - in short other than one or two more experienced forwards they have what they need for a playoff run and they do indeed have an extra number 1 goaltender. However, the goaltender with the most playoff experience is Khabibuhlen and while he does indeed become a free agent at the end of the season, does it make sense for the Blackhawks to count on Huet who has only 13 games of playoff experience to drive them deep into the playoffs this season and next? Of course, based on signing Huet to a four year contract, the Blackhawks have probably already made that decision. Assuming the Blackhawks trade either Huet or Khabibuhlen, they will be counting on either 25 year old prospect Corey Crawford or 25 year old prospect Antti Neimi to step into the void and provide a solid backup to their number 1.
Would having Khabibuhlen as a Cap make sense and make the Capitals better? Could the Caps make such a deal work? The Caps have Jose Theodore and Brent Johnson. So far this season both have done adequately, Johnson probably more so. However, both are now battling back from hip injuries and neither have had the success of Kahbibuhlen either this season or consistently over the length of their careers. So far this season their numbers look as follows:
Theodore: 8-6-1 with 1 shutout; a GAA of 3.26 and a SV % of 0.883;
Johnson: 10-5-2 with no shutouts; a GAA of 2.55 and a SV % of 0.916.
Over their careers Theodore has a save % of 0.908 (462 games) in the regular season and 0.914 (47 games) in the playoffs; while Johnson has a save % of 0.903 (243 games) in the regular season and 0.931 (12 games) in the playoffs. While Theodore has a Vezina and Hart Trophy to his credit, he doesn't have any Stanley Cup Rings and the deepest he has been in the playoffs is 12 games. Johnson becomes a free agent at the end of this season, Johnnie's salary cap hit this season is $812K. Theodore is signed through the end of next season with an average salary cap hit of 4.5M. Kahbibuhlen is a free agent at the end of this season, his full season salary cap hit to the Blackhawks this season is $6.75M. Michael Nylander is signed to a contract with the Capitals through the 2010-2011 season that has a salary cap hit of $4.875M and a no movement clause. Another factor, though doubtful will be that Kahbibuhlen might be willing to take something more on the order of what the Caps could afford next season for their number 1 goaltender - say $4.5 to $5M and accept a two or three year deal, to play on a team with Russian countryman like the Alexes: Ovechkin & Semin, even if Viktor Kozlov and Sergei Federov do not resign, and to be the mentor to Caps 20 year old prospect Simeon Varlamov. That assumes that somehow the Caps resolve the issues such a deal would create with Theodore as well. That Khabibuhlen would be a fair to great mentor for Varlamov shouldn't be in doubt; just the fact someone with Khabibuhlen's NHL experience could coach the protege' without having to battle a language barrier has to be a plus. The bigger issues are who back fills Nylander until everyone is healthy and what do the Capitals do with Jose Theodore if they decide that neither he nor Brent Johnson are likely to be the goalie to take them deep into the playoffs this spring. Also what has to happen to make the salary cap numbers even begin to work this season? The Capitals basically have no Cap room right now and Khabibuhlen's cap hit is a prorated $1.9M larger than Nylander's. Clearly there has to be another player or two involved to make the numbers work and with the Capital's injuries to date, it's very hard to figure out who that might be.
So to me everything about this discussion looks like a definite maybe.
The Blackhawks style of play is probably even better suited for Nylander than the style of the Bruce Boudreau Capitals and the average age of the top 4 centers in Chicago is 23 years old. Further the 44 games of NHL playoff experience that the 36 year old Nylander has could be to the Blackhawks what Sergei Federov was to the Capitals these past two seasons. The only players on the Chicago roster with significant playoff experience are 27 year old Martin Havlat and 35 year old Kahbibuhlen. So Nylander would probably help the Chicago front line attack with his mature steady hand. However, the whole Christobel Huet/Nikolai Kahbibuhlen "deal" continues to befuddle. So far this season as #1 and #1A goaltenders the Chicago goaltenders statistics look like this:
Khabibuhlen: 10-1-4 with 1 shutout; a GAA of 2.44 and a save % of 0.922;
Huet: 8-5-3 with 1 shutout; a GAA of 2.38 and a save % of 0.916.
Over their careers Kahbibuhlen has a save % of 0.908 (652 games) in the regular season and 0.922 in the playoffs (57 games), while Huet has a save % of 0.918 (199 games) in the regular season and 0.918 in the playoffs (13 games). So why trade down from Khabibuhlen who has a Stanley Cup ring now when they are only trailing the Red Wings by five points and they have a game in hand on Detroit? On the season the Blackhawks have played 31 games so far and have 114 goals for and 82 goals against. They also have two experienced defenseman in Brian Campbell and Brent Sopel - in short other than one or two more experienced forwards they have what they need for a playoff run and they do indeed have an extra number 1 goaltender. However, the goaltender with the most playoff experience is Khabibuhlen and while he does indeed become a free agent at the end of the season, does it make sense for the Blackhawks to count on Huet who has only 13 games of playoff experience to drive them deep into the playoffs this season and next? Of course, based on signing Huet to a four year contract, the Blackhawks have probably already made that decision. Assuming the Blackhawks trade either Huet or Khabibuhlen, they will be counting on either 25 year old prospect Corey Crawford or 25 year old prospect Antti Neimi to step into the void and provide a solid backup to their number 1.
Would having Khabibuhlen as a Cap make sense and make the Capitals better? Could the Caps make such a deal work? The Caps have Jose Theodore and Brent Johnson. So far this season both have done adequately, Johnson probably more so. However, both are now battling back from hip injuries and neither have had the success of Kahbibuhlen either this season or consistently over the length of their careers. So far this season their numbers look as follows:
Theodore: 8-6-1 with 1 shutout; a GAA of 3.26 and a SV % of 0.883;
Johnson: 10-5-2 with no shutouts; a GAA of 2.55 and a SV % of 0.916.
Over their careers Theodore has a save % of 0.908 (462 games) in the regular season and 0.914 (47 games) in the playoffs; while Johnson has a save % of 0.903 (243 games) in the regular season and 0.931 (12 games) in the playoffs. While Theodore has a Vezina and Hart Trophy to his credit, he doesn't have any Stanley Cup Rings and the deepest he has been in the playoffs is 12 games. Johnson becomes a free agent at the end of this season, Johnnie's salary cap hit this season is $812K. Theodore is signed through the end of next season with an average salary cap hit of 4.5M. Kahbibuhlen is a free agent at the end of this season, his full season salary cap hit to the Blackhawks this season is $6.75M. Michael Nylander is signed to a contract with the Capitals through the 2010-2011 season that has a salary cap hit of $4.875M and a no movement clause. Another factor, though doubtful will be that Kahbibuhlen might be willing to take something more on the order of what the Caps could afford next season for their number 1 goaltender - say $4.5 to $5M and accept a two or three year deal, to play on a team with Russian countryman like the Alexes: Ovechkin & Semin, even if Viktor Kozlov and Sergei Federov do not resign, and to be the mentor to Caps 20 year old prospect Simeon Varlamov. That assumes that somehow the Caps resolve the issues such a deal would create with Theodore as well. That Khabibuhlen would be a fair to great mentor for Varlamov shouldn't be in doubt; just the fact someone with Khabibuhlen's NHL experience could coach the protege' without having to battle a language barrier has to be a plus. The bigger issues are who back fills Nylander until everyone is healthy and what do the Capitals do with Jose Theodore if they decide that neither he nor Brent Johnson are likely to be the goalie to take them deep into the playoffs this spring. Also what has to happen to make the salary cap numbers even begin to work this season? The Capitals basically have no Cap room right now and Khabibuhlen's cap hit is a prorated $1.9M larger than Nylander's. Clearly there has to be another player or two involved to make the numbers work and with the Capital's injuries to date, it's very hard to figure out who that might be.
So to me everything about this discussion looks like a definite maybe.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Way Cool Game Ends - Final Score Caps 3 - Bruins 1
Well the "Beast of the East", the Conference leading Boston Bruins came to the Verizon Center tonight to play the Washington Capitals. At the end of regulation play, after a fast paced game, the Capitals had captured a two point victory. Two of the Caps previously injured players returned to the line up tonight: Alexander Semin and Tom Poti. Both played solid games tonight and figured in the outcome. The lineup was once again jumbled. Five "call ups": Alexandre Giroux, Oscar Osala, Karl Alzner, Tyler Sloan and Sean Collins, all played tonight and played well tonight. All things considered if you have to be dealing with injuries and making call ups to your AHL affiliate, it's better to be calling up the AHL's leading and number three goal scorers, Giroux and Osala respectively, than many other alternatives. However, the two biggest stories of the night were probably: the super play of Caps goalie Brent Johnson; and "the game within the game" battle/match-up between Alexander Ovechkin and Zdeno Chara. Brent Johnson stopped 33 of 34 shots, a save percentage of 0.970, including at least three "totally awesome" saves that robbed the Bruins and kept the Caps in the game during the first two periods. The Capitals came out and started the game "ready to play." However just 41 seconds into the game Caps defenseman Shoane Morrisonn ended up in the penalty box with a high sticking penalty. That situation turned into a 4 on 4 and then a power play for the Capitals, when Stephane Yelle took an interference penalty at the 2:17 mark. The Caps went onto the power play at 2:41 and at 3:53 Nicklas Backstrom scored his ninth goal of the season, assisted by Alexander Ovechkin and Vicktor Kozlov. The period ended with the Caps up 1-0 despite being out shot 14-6. The difference at that point a power play goal, solid team play getting the puck into the Bruins' zone deep, and a nice save or two by Johnnie.
When the second period got underway, the Caps initially picked up where they left off, playing tight, crisp, committed hockey. At the 4:52 mark, Alexandre Giroux crashed the net during a scoring chance that was instigated by Vicktor Kozlov. Giroux was on the doorstep and "banged the biscuit into the basket" putting the Caps up 2-0. However late in the period the Caps got a little sloppy and Chara sprung Phil Kessel and Milan Lucic on a 2-1 breakaway that Kessel played superbly. Kessel made a move and then a great, crisp cross ice pass to Lucic, when the puck hit Lucic's stick he was looking at about half the net open, and he made a "wicked fast" writ shot that found the top shelf behind Johnnie. Once again the period ended with Caps holding a 1 goal lead.
The Capitals appeared to come out of the locker room for the third period determined to play the final period like they played the first period. All four lines and three defense pairs played the third period with drive and passion keeping the Bruins off their game. The Giroux-Nylander-Kozlov line kept the pressure up and at 1:22 Giroux was sprung on a 1-0 breakaway. He was hooked from behind and awarded a penalty shot. Unfortunately, he failed to score shooting the puck just wide of the net after seeming to have beaten Manny Fernandez. The Caps played intensely for the remainder of the period but couldn't get the puck past Fernandz and the score stayed 2-1 Caps. Then at 19:08, with Fernendez on the bench in favor of an extra Bruins skater, Alexander Semin played solid two way hockey, dug the puck off the boards in the Caps own end and started a breakout with Alex Ovechkin. Semin then fed Ovechkin who notched his 15th goal of the season when he put the puck into the Bruins' empty net. Despite the Bruins calling a timeout and attempting to regroup, the Capitals kept the momentum and the game ended in regulation caps 3 - Bruins 1.
Notable stats from tonight's game: shots on goal - Bruins 34, Caps 26; hits - Bruins 31, Caps 29; faceoff win % - Caps 61, Bruins 39; takeaways - Caps 14, Bruins 10; Giveaways - Bruins 12, Caps 18; blocked shots - Caps 18, Bruins 13. Notable plays of the night: 1) Milan Jurcina's stuff of Phil Kessel on the Caps doorstep at about the 15:00 mark of the third period. 2) Kozlov's great setup that led to Giroux's goal. 3) Several of the plays by the Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin line, especially in the first period. 4) The save Johnson made stuffing the Bruins and giving us all a scare that he had gotten hurt again. Notable Caps performances of the night: 1) Brent Johnson definitely deserved the #1 star of the night that he received. 2) Alexandre Giroux definitely deserved the #2 star of the night he got for his game winning goal as well as his +1, 3 shots, 3 hits, in his 13 shift, 10:14 TOI appearance. 3) Alex Ovechkin had 2 points - a goal and an assist, spent 19:44 on the ice, led the Caps with 5 shots and 4 hits in 21 shifts and could easily have been the third star of the evening. 4) Tom Poti - led the Caps in ice time with 29 shifts and 22:01 TOI, Poti also had an assist, 2 hits and 2 takeaways in his first game back in the line-up. 5)Alexander Semin had a solid first night back notching an assist, a hit and two take aways. 6) Karl Alzner was +2 in 20:44 TOI/27 shifts; Alzner 2 hits, a takeaway and blocked 3 shots. 7) Vicktor Kozlov had a 2 point night, took 4 shots and had 2 takeaways. 8) Brooks Laich and Boyd Gordon both won 11 faceoffs each. Overall it was a very good night for the Capitals with the exception of the giveaways which continue to plague the Caps. Of course you'd have to expect that to win against the Bruins, the way they are playing now, any team would need to play sold hockey all night long.
As far as the "guess the lines" and pairing contest - the actual Caps lineup for this game were as follows:
Ovechkin - Backstrom - Semin (YES!!!)
Giroux - Nylander - Kozlov
Osala - Steckel - Laich
Brashear - Gordon - Bradley
Poti(YES!!!!) - Sloan
Jurcina - Alzner
Collins - Morrisonn.
So even though my predictions weren't that close, they weren't that far off - except for my wishful thinking to get Mike Green back into the lineup. Solid play by all the Caps tonight enabled a more even distribution of the minutes played across the entire roster and that's probably good for the injury situation the Caps are now dealing with.
Next up, the Ottawa Senators at "the phone booth" on Friday.
LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, November 21, 2008
Injury Depleted Caps Outplayed By Kings, Lose 5 - 2
Last night's game against the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center was a ZERO, NADA, NO point night for the Washington Capitals. The Caps were beaten by solid play and hard work by the Los Angeles However, a large part of the story was who did NOT play on "Russian Heritage Night due to injuries for the Capitals: Brian Pothier; Sergei Federov; Alexander Semin; and Mike Green. So two of Washington's three Russian stars were on the sidelines tonight, as was their star Defenseman; and they were playing for the second night in a row - they were indeed vulnerable. How things would play out with the once again slightly shuffled defensive pairings was a question before the game started. The Caps lineup for the game looked like this:Forwards
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Kozlov
Fleischmann-Laich-Fehr
Steckel-Gordon-Bradley
Brashear-Nylander-Clark
Defense
Poti - Sloan
Schultz - Morrisonn
Erskine - Jurcina
Goaltender
Johnson.
The Line-up for the Kings was:
Forwards
O' Sullivan - Kopitar - Brown
Frolov - Stoll - Moller
Calder - Handzus - Simmonds
Ivanans - Boyle - Zeiler
Defense
O'Donnell - Doughty
Greene- Quincey
Preissing - Gauthier
Goaltender
Ersberg.
Both teams seemed to start the game playing tentatively. In the first 8 minutes of the game the Kings out shot the Caps 5-3. At 13:58 into the period, Kings rookie defenseman, Drew Doughty put a slap shot on net that was deflected by Alex Ovechkin's stick, when he tried to block it, by Brent Johnson to put the Kings up 1 -0. At the 16:29 mark the Caps went on the power play when Brian Boyle hooked Dave Steckel. Up to that point the Kings had been outplaying and out shooting the Caps (12-2). The Kings penalty kill unit just did a great job collapsing in front of Ersberg and disrupting the Caps power play unit. The Caps had life at the end of the period but really never exerted much pressure on Kings goalie Erik Ersberg. At the end of one it was Kings 1 - Caps 0. The Kings had out shot the Caps 12 -3. Without Mike Green in the lineup, the Caps power play had a couple of opportunities in their two chances but never really got going in the first period. This was as much the Kings doing, with excellent penalty killing as anything else. All three of the Caps shots on Ersberg were by OV, on the power play. The Kings were just somehow able to just smother the Caps.
The second period started with both teams at even strength and the game went back and forth until 3:54 when the Caps got a 5 on 3 power play. The Caps power play got some real good play making and patience until at 4:48 Nicklas Backstrom banged home as forehand writer from a good feed by Viktor Kozlov and Alexander Ovechkin. Then the second power play unit came out and once again, as on Wednesday evening, Michael Nylander couldn't get anything going as the pivot on the 5 on 4. However, up to that point the Kings penalty kill unit did a great job and pretty much tied up any 5 on 4 power play unit the Caps put out there. The penalties ended with the score tied at 1-1. After the 5 on 3 was over, the Caps seemed to turn up the pressure for the next five minutes but the Kings were able to hold them off. Then at 10:17 Chris Clark was whistled off for Tripping Alexander Frolov. Then Dave Steckel high sticked Dustin Brown at 10:53 giving the Kings a 5 on 3 for 1:25. Somehow the Caps killed off the 5 on 3 without allowing a goal. Brooks Laich had three blocked shots over a span of 30 seconds when he played without a stick. At about the 15:30 mark, John Erskine got tangled up deep in the Kings zone and they got a breakout that exerted pressure on the Caps and Brent Johnson, while rushing back to help out Eric Fehr committed hooking penalty giving the Kings another power play. The Caps killed the penalty off and Dave Steckel found Eric Fehr out of the box but Fehr couldn't pull the trigger before he was tied up by the Kings smothering defense. Unfortunately, shortly after that Kings' defenseman Matt Greene found Patrick O'Sullivan with a nice outlet pass. O'Sullivan came down the right side and let loose a slick wrister from the center of the face off circle between Milan Jurcina's legs and past Brent Johnson to put the Kings back on top 2 - 1. At the end of the second period the shots on goal differential continued to heavily favor Los Angeles: Kings 23 SOG, Caps 9 SOG. The Caps looked a little sluggish at times and when they didn't LA either put on a "full court press" or collapsed around Erik Ersberg. At the end of two the Caps were fortunate to still be within "striking distance" of a win. Through two periods the Kings out hit the Caps 28 - 18; the Caps had 12 giveaways to the Kings 8; the Kings had 6 takeaways to the Caps 3, and finally the Kings had 12 blocked shots to the Caps 8. Through two periods the Kings had won 18 face offs and lost 16. At the end of two, it was unclear how the Caps were going to get things going their way and even try to take control of the game so they might capture even 1 point.
During the first six minutes of the third period, both teams once again tried to establish themselves as dominant. The game got a lot more physical, however neither team really took control of the game and the play continued to go back and forth. Then at about the 10:30 mark of the period the Caps kicked it up a notch with their forecheck and started creating some scoring chances. However at 12:54 Dustin Brown drew an interference penalty on Alex Ovechkin and then Brown scored a power play goal to put the Kings up 3-1 a minute later. OV was clearly upset with the call and when he left the penalty box he once again tried to plead his case to the referee; of course, it was at least 1:05 too late for that. After that the Caps responded at 15:25 when Brooks Laich got a goal on a rebound from a Michael Nylander shot. Unfortunately right after that at 15:51 Chris Clark put the puck over the glass and got a two minute delay of game penalty, though it was questionable as he had at least one foot on the blue line. The Caps killed off the penalty but ultimately gave up an empty netter to put the Kings up 4 -2 at 19:20 to Michal Handzus, and then another one at the buzzer Anze Kopitar . While the Caps were coming off a hard fought game with the Ducks on the prior night, you should take nothing away from the LA Kings, they played an excellent game and basically outplayed the Caps in virtually every statistical category. Also you have to love the quality of play and maturity that Kings rookie defenseman Drew Doughty played with all night.
All you can do after a game like that is move on and get ready for your next opponent. There were some bright spots, Brent Johnson handled 28 of 38 shots for a SV% of 0.903 in his first game back from being injured; Tyler Sloan blocked 6 shots; in the stats sheet Brooks Laich blocked 2 shots but I counted 3 and scored a solid goal to pull the Caps to within one; and Viktor Kozlov has clearly elevated his game and wants to stay on the first line even when Alexander Semin gets back in the lineup.. Next up the league leading San Jose Sharks on Saturday evening. The Sharks are 16-3-1 overall so far this season and are the only other team, besides the Capitals who are unbeaten in regulation at home this season with a record of 10-0-1. Hopefully at least one of the three - Semin, Federov, or Green - will be back in the lineup because the Caps are going to need as much firepower as they can get to beat the Sharks.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Caps 4 - Lightning 2; Caps Tied For First In Southeast Division
Ovechkin Ends "Drought" With Score In Third;
Large, Boisterous Monday Night Crowd Has Very Enjoyable Evening
Well, all I can say is WOW! First off a SOLID "2 Point Night" - that's what it was.
Last night's nationally televised NHL Game on Versus was the game held at Washington, DC's Verizon Center and it was a very, very good "testament" to why more people ought to become NHL fans. Per the game summary a crowd of 17, 932 attended the game; the crowd included me and one of my USMMA college friends, Rob. Rob and I started last evening off by have a very nice dinner at the bar at Clyde's. I mention this because as we were finishing up our dinner Nicklas Backstrom's father and a group of his friends and family came in to gather and have a drink or two before coming over to the game. Rob and I made it over to the Phone Booth earlier enough to catch the warmups from our seats in Section 103 and I noted Pappa Backstrom did as well from his seat in 102. However, it did appear that a good part of the "Backstrom Party" decided they needed to provide CLyde's with a larger economic stimulus package and didn't arrive until just before the National Anthem. In any case, I digress, back to the WOW - game.
Quick summary: Olie Kolzig returned to Washington, got a short, dignified tribute on the jumbotron during the first major stoppage of play, and then got peppered by the Caps for three goals in the first while his teammates pretty much let the Capital's "Young Guns + 1 (Tom Poti)" do so. After that the Caps played pretty defensively in the second period. Unfortunately at one point they got back on their heels on a Tampa Bay power play and Brent Johnson gave up his first goal of the night and several us in Section 103 lamented for him since the way he's been playing he deserves a shutout. During the third period Caps "ace" Alex Ovechkin ended his goaless streak at nine (9) games when he was set up masterfully by young guns Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom. All six goals scored by both teams "were good ones - no softies". Both Tampa Bay goals were scored on the power play and the four goals given up by Olie Kolzig were all goals where he didn't get much help, if any, from the team in front of him. Every Capital in the game was +/- 0 or better, Poti, Tyler Sloan, Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin, and Mike Green finished the evening +2. In addition to Ovechkin, the Caps other goals were scored by Tom Poti, Mike Green, and Eric Fehr. The Caps accomplished their mission (proving they could establish themselves early and control a game "start to finish") when the first period ended with the score 3-0. Even more emphatically the Caps' first two goals came on their first two shots of the game. The best player on the ice for the Caps last night though was the game's number one star: Brent Johnson. Johnnie stopped 34 of 36 shots.
More Details follow below.
Last night, the Caps came out for the start of the first period apparently determined to show the world that, despite letting up four goals so far this season on an opponent's first shot, they can establish themselves in the first period and control a game from start to finish. Even though the Lightning tallied the first four (4) shots of the game, Brent Johnson stopped them all with "routine saves", if there is such a thing at the NHL level of play. Then on the Capital's first shot of the game at 8:20 of the first period, with the "energy line" on the ice, Defenseman John Erskine made a solid outlet pass to Donald Brashear. Brashear carried the puck down the ice to the right side faceoff circle hash marks, stopped and did a move Caps fan's are more accustomed to seeing from Alexander Semin or Michael Nylander, got himself enough breathing room to put the puck right on the stick of Tom Poti, who, as they say, "put the biscuit in the basket." The goal was Poti's second of the year and matches his goal total through 71 games last season. The play was truly beautiful, and really goes to show the depth of offensive talent the Capitals. The Capitals second goal followed a short while later, on their second shot of the game. At the 9:55 mark, Nicklas Backstrom found Alexander Ovechkin at the left circle faceoff dot who when two Lightning defenders moved toward him, dished the puck deftly over to Mike Green who was following up as he often does on the right side. Green then put the puck past a "naked" and frustrated Olie the Goalie, his fifth tally of the season. Caps 2, Lightning 0.
The Capitals then "took it" to the Lightning for the remainder of the first period, they had several other solid scoring opportunities and Kolzig responded sometimes with a little help but often alone in keeping the Bolts within striking distance. Then at the 16:24 mark, in a setup that looked like it had probably been played out at least several times on the ice sheet in Hershey, Pa, Dave Steckel and Brooks Laich setup Eric Fehr who had no problem putting a laser beam into the open side of the net. Once again on the Caps third goal, it was solid, while the Lightning did have defenders in the zone they were nowhere near Fehr and had left Kolzig to fend for himself. Finally after the Caps third goal the Lightning tightened up their play and started to go to the net on Johnson. However, it was too little to late. Even though in the second period the Lightning outshot the Caps 18-6 and outscored them 1-0, Brent Johnson came up big when he needed to do so and the Caps never let the Bolts get too much momentum. Also, after the second intermission, it seemed as if the Caps once again began pressing their opportunities and forcing the play as much or more than the Bolts.
From a shots on goal perspective, the Caps and the Lightning each had 12 in the third period. Scoring wise the Caps opened the third period scoring with an even strength goal at the 15:54 mark from ... wait for it .... "CAPS GOAL AT 15:54 OF THE THIRD PERIOD BY NUMBER 8, ALEXANDER OVECHKIN." Jeff Schultz sent an outlet pass to Alexander Semin, who shot and Ovechkin blazed it by Kolzig to put the Caps up 4-1.
Later in the period at 17:51 Caps Defenseman John Erskine was whistled off for roughing, on a call that never would have been a penalty even a couple of years ago. Erskine was simply clearing the crease and mixing it up a little, "old time hockey style" with the Lightning in traffic. Like the marginal calls against Caps Left Wing Donald Brashear in the second for high sticking and the uncalled for "unsportsmanlike conduct" he, an alternate captain got for objecting to that call against him, it was a penalty that I call all part of Bettman's ruination of the sport. Hockey is a physical, contact sport and if Mr. Bettman really wants to see more goals scored he should do two things: 1) outlaw "the trap", and b) further restrict the size/width of a goalie's equipment. Instead he and his band of henchman at NHL headquarters want to outlaw or otherwise hamstring good, solid physical defensive play. Once again in the final two minutes of the game the Caps found themselves shorthanded and despite a pretty good night for the Caps penalty kill unit, yielded a goal to Gary Roberts, his second of the night. The game ended 4-2, with Barry Melrose, smartly and classily NOT pulling Olie Kozig while he was down three and two goals respectively.
The three stars of the game were:
3. Eric Fehr, 13 shifts, 10:13 TOI, 4 SOG, 2 Hits, 1 goal, +1 for the night - truly a solid
outing and demonstrative of the promise he has for the future.
2. Tom Poti, the 31 year old defensman, logged 21:04 of TOI in 27 shifts including 5:57 of PK time, had 2 SOG, 1 goal and was +2 for the night. Poti was only on the ice for one of the Lightning's two power play tallies and with 3 points in the last three games is playing far above his 2007-2008 offensive production and on track to have similar TOI and +/- numbers.
1. Brent Johnson: Johnnie had a save percentage of 0.944 turning away 34 of 36 Lightening shots. The only two goals he let in were when the Caps were a man down and in heavy traffic. His play in the second period when the Caps seemed to set back slightly on their 3 goal lead and were outshot 18-6 was even more excellent than his play in the first and third periods.
A couple of side notes, interesting facts and other thoughts related to last evening.
- 1. I'm just no longer a fan of Steve Eminger. When he was a Capital, I felt he had the promise and could maybe one day even be on par with a guy like Mike Green. After last night, I've decided he just doesn't have the character or class to ever reach his athletic potential. When he got frustrated in the second half of the game he just played lazy and dirty. For the life of me, watching from my seat in the stands in the right corner, lower lever, I have no idea how he wasn't called for at least three minors for holding/slashing and yes interference.
- 2. Contrary to what I've seen written elsewhere in the blogsphere - NONE of the goals were Olie Kolzig's fault and while the ultra-competitive Kolzig always wants "every one of them back" and occasionally, even at age 38, makes super-human saves, it's hard to see how he could have stopped any of the Caps goals even with a second chance. I couldn't agree more with Barry Melrose's reported quote when referring to the skaters on his team: "If I’m those guys, I can’t look Olie in the face. Probably the biggest game he’s played in years and they show up and do that for him. Those guys should all be hiding their eyes when they walk by Olie Kolzig tonight.”
- 3. My friend Rob, a Redskins' season ticketholder commented very positively on the size of the crowd, the energy level of crowd and the large % of fans in the stands with Caps Jerseys, particularly Red Sweaters. I couldn't agree more and note that an attendance at just shy of 18,000 folks at a Monday Night game against a Southeast Division Team when it's not April with the Caps fighting for that last playoff berth is indeed a positive commentary on what the Caps are doing right and how much the region is embracing these Capitals, this Coach and it's management. For my professional sports entertainment dollar there is no better value to be had. - 4. When the game was over, the Caps found themselves with a 1/2 game lead for the Southeast Division lead, tied at 18 points with the Carolina Hurricanes but with a game in hand. This situation should make for an interesting Wednesday Night @ the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC when the two team next meet. So far for November, the Hurricanes are 3-3-0. The Caps are 3-1-1 so far in November including a 3-2 win in regulation at Verizon Center in DC on November 5th.
- 5. For the game the Caps as a team were +20 on the night; they out hit the Lightning 20-15; and they were 51% in the faceoff circle. But statistically they lost the SOG category 36-30 and the giveaways/takeaways battle. The Lighting had 12 giveaways and 16 takeaways, while the Caps had 22 giveaways and 5 takeaways. Tampa Bay also has 17 blocked shots to the Caps 8.
- 6. So far on the season counting last night's victory the Caps have 18 points in 14 games. From a points available - points captured perspective that is 0.643 hockey and on pace for a 105 point season. That's not as great as it sounds given that so far this season so many games have ended in "3 point nights" that it may take as many as 100+ points to make the playoffs. However, it's infinitely better than being on pace to compete for the lottery pick like the Caps were on pace to do last season at this point in time.
Next up: Coralina Hurricanes, at the RBC Center, in Raliegh, NC, tommarrow night. I'll be "Rockin' the Red" from my seat in the ol' den in Bristow, VA.
LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Large, Boisterous Monday Night Crowd Has Very Enjoyable Evening
Well, all I can say is WOW! First off a SOLID "2 Point Night" - that's what it was.
Last night's nationally televised NHL Game on Versus was the game held at Washington, DC's Verizon Center and it was a very, very good "testament" to why more people ought to become NHL fans. Per the game summary a crowd of 17, 932 attended the game; the crowd included me and one of my USMMA college friends, Rob. Rob and I started last evening off by have a very nice dinner at the bar at Clyde's. I mention this because as we were finishing up our dinner Nicklas Backstrom's father and a group of his friends and family came in to gather and have a drink or two before coming over to the game. Rob and I made it over to the Phone Booth earlier enough to catch the warmups from our seats in Section 103 and I noted Pappa Backstrom did as well from his seat in 102. However, it did appear that a good part of the "Backstrom Party" decided they needed to provide CLyde's with a larger economic stimulus package and didn't arrive until just before the National Anthem. In any case, I digress, back to the WOW - game.Quick summary: Olie Kolzig returned to Washington, got a short, dignified tribute on the jumbotron during the first major stoppage of play, and then got peppered by the Caps for three goals in the first while his teammates pretty much let the Capital's "Young Guns + 1 (Tom Poti)" do so. After that the Caps played pretty defensively in the second period. Unfortunately at one point they got back on their heels on a Tampa Bay power play and Brent Johnson gave up his first goal of the night and several us in Section 103 lamented for him since the way he's been playing he deserves a shutout. During the third period Caps "ace" Alex Ovechkin ended his goaless streak at nine (9) games when he was set up masterfully by young guns Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom. All six goals scored by both teams "were good ones - no softies". Both Tampa Bay goals were scored on the power play and the four goals given up by Olie Kolzig were all goals where he didn't get much help, if any, from the team in front of him. Every Capital in the game was +/- 0 or better, Poti, Tyler Sloan, Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin, and Mike Green finished the evening +2. In addition to Ovechkin, the Caps other goals were scored by Tom Poti, Mike Green, and Eric Fehr. The Caps accomplished their mission (proving they could establish themselves early and control a game "start to finish") when the first period ended with the score 3-0. Even more emphatically the Caps' first two goals came on their first two shots of the game. The best player on the ice for the Caps last night though was the game's number one star: Brent Johnson. Johnnie stopped 34 of 36 shots.
More Details follow below.
Last night, the Caps came out for the start of the first period apparently determined to show the world that, despite letting up four goals so far this season on an opponent's first shot, they can establish themselves in the first period and control a game from start to finish. Even though the Lightning tallied the first four (4) shots of the game, Brent Johnson stopped them all with "routine saves", if there is such a thing at the NHL level of play. Then on the Capital's first shot of the game at 8:20 of the first period, with the "energy line" on the ice, Defenseman John Erskine made a solid outlet pass to Donald Brashear. Brashear carried the puck down the ice to the right side faceoff circle hash marks, stopped and did a move Caps fan's are more accustomed to seeing from Alexander Semin or Michael Nylander, got himself enough breathing room to put the puck right on the stick of Tom Poti, who, as they say, "put the biscuit in the basket." The goal was Poti's second of the year and matches his goal total through 71 games last season. The play was truly beautiful, and really goes to show the depth of offensive talent the Capitals. The Capitals second goal followed a short while later, on their second shot of the game. At the 9:55 mark, Nicklas Backstrom found Alexander Ovechkin at the left circle faceoff dot who when two Lightning defenders moved toward him, dished the puck deftly over to Mike Green who was following up as he often does on the right side. Green then put the puck past a "naked" and frustrated Olie the Goalie, his fifth tally of the season. Caps 2, Lightning 0.
The Capitals then "took it" to the Lightning for the remainder of the first period, they had several other solid scoring opportunities and Kolzig responded sometimes with a little help but often alone in keeping the Bolts within striking distance. Then at the 16:24 mark, in a setup that looked like it had probably been played out at least several times on the ice sheet in Hershey, Pa, Dave Steckel and Brooks Laich setup Eric Fehr who had no problem putting a laser beam into the open side of the net. Once again on the Caps third goal, it was solid, while the Lightning did have defenders in the zone they were nowhere near Fehr and had left Kolzig to fend for himself. Finally after the Caps third goal the Lightning tightened up their play and started to go to the net on Johnson. However, it was too little to late. Even though in the second period the Lightning outshot the Caps 18-6 and outscored them 1-0, Brent Johnson came up big when he needed to do so and the Caps never let the Bolts get too much momentum. Also, after the second intermission, it seemed as if the Caps once again began pressing their opportunities and forcing the play as much or more than the Bolts.
From a shots on goal perspective, the Caps and the Lightning each had 12 in the third period. Scoring wise the Caps opened the third period scoring with an even strength goal at the 15:54 mark from ... wait for it .... "CAPS GOAL AT 15:54 OF THE THIRD PERIOD BY NUMBER 8, ALEXANDER OVECHKIN." Jeff Schultz sent an outlet pass to Alexander Semin, who shot and Ovechkin blazed it by Kolzig to put the Caps up 4-1.
Later in the period at 17:51 Caps Defenseman John Erskine was whistled off for roughing, on a call that never would have been a penalty even a couple of years ago. Erskine was simply clearing the crease and mixing it up a little, "old time hockey style" with the Lightning in traffic. Like the marginal calls against Caps Left Wing Donald Brashear in the second for high sticking and the uncalled for "unsportsmanlike conduct" he, an alternate captain got for objecting to that call against him, it was a penalty that I call all part of Bettman's ruination of the sport. Hockey is a physical, contact sport and if Mr. Bettman really wants to see more goals scored he should do two things: 1) outlaw "the trap", and b) further restrict the size/width of a goalie's equipment. Instead he and his band of henchman at NHL headquarters want to outlaw or otherwise hamstring good, solid physical defensive play. Once again in the final two minutes of the game the Caps found themselves shorthanded and despite a pretty good night for the Caps penalty kill unit, yielded a goal to Gary Roberts, his second of the night. The game ended 4-2, with Barry Melrose, smartly and classily NOT pulling Olie Kozig while he was down three and two goals respectively.
The three stars of the game were:
3. Eric Fehr, 13 shifts, 10:13 TOI, 4 SOG, 2 Hits, 1 goal, +1 for the night - truly a solid
outing and demonstrative of the promise he has for the future.
2. Tom Poti, the 31 year old defensman, logged 21:04 of TOI in 27 shifts including 5:57 of PK time, had 2 SOG, 1 goal and was +2 for the night. Poti was only on the ice for one of the Lightning's two power play tallies and with 3 points in the last three games is playing far above his 2007-2008 offensive production and on track to have similar TOI and +/- numbers.
1. Brent Johnson: Johnnie had a save percentage of 0.944 turning away 34 of 36 Lightening shots. The only two goals he let in were when the Caps were a man down and in heavy traffic. His play in the second period when the Caps seemed to set back slightly on their 3 goal lead and were outshot 18-6 was even more excellent than his play in the first and third periods.
A couple of side notes, interesting facts and other thoughts related to last evening.
- 1. I'm just no longer a fan of Steve Eminger. When he was a Capital, I felt he had the promise and could maybe one day even be on par with a guy like Mike Green. After last night, I've decided he just doesn't have the character or class to ever reach his athletic potential. When he got frustrated in the second half of the game he just played lazy and dirty. For the life of me, watching from my seat in the stands in the right corner, lower lever, I have no idea how he wasn't called for at least three minors for holding/slashing and yes interference.
- 2. Contrary to what I've seen written elsewhere in the blogsphere - NONE of the goals were Olie Kolzig's fault and while the ultra-competitive Kolzig always wants "every one of them back" and occasionally, even at age 38, makes super-human saves, it's hard to see how he could have stopped any of the Caps goals even with a second chance. I couldn't agree more with Barry Melrose's reported quote when referring to the skaters on his team: "If I’m those guys, I can’t look Olie in the face. Probably the biggest game he’s played in years and they show up and do that for him. Those guys should all be hiding their eyes when they walk by Olie Kolzig tonight.”
- 3. My friend Rob, a Redskins' season ticketholder commented very positively on the size of the crowd, the energy level of crowd and the large % of fans in the stands with Caps Jerseys, particularly Red Sweaters. I couldn't agree more and note that an attendance at just shy of 18,000 folks at a Monday Night game against a Southeast Division Team when it's not April with the Caps fighting for that last playoff berth is indeed a positive commentary on what the Caps are doing right and how much the region is embracing these Capitals, this Coach and it's management. For my professional sports entertainment dollar there is no better value to be had. - 4. When the game was over, the Caps found themselves with a 1/2 game lead for the Southeast Division lead, tied at 18 points with the Carolina Hurricanes but with a game in hand. This situation should make for an interesting Wednesday Night @ the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC when the two team next meet. So far for November, the Hurricanes are 3-3-0. The Caps are 3-1-1 so far in November including a 3-2 win in regulation at Verizon Center in DC on November 5th.
- 5. For the game the Caps as a team were +20 on the night; they out hit the Lightning 20-15; and they were 51% in the faceoff circle. But statistically they lost the SOG category 36-30 and the giveaways/takeaways battle. The Lighting had 12 giveaways and 16 takeaways, while the Caps had 22 giveaways and 5 takeaways. Tampa Bay also has 17 blocked shots to the Caps 8.
- 6. So far on the season counting last night's victory the Caps have 18 points in 14 games. From a points available - points captured perspective that is 0.643 hockey and on pace for a 105 point season. That's not as great as it sounds given that so far this season so many games have ended in "3 point nights" that it may take as many as 100+ points to make the playoffs. However, it's infinitely better than being on pace to compete for the lottery pick like the Caps were on pace to do last season at this point in time.
Next up: Coralina Hurricanes, at the RBC Center, in Raliegh, NC, tommarrow night. I'll be "Rockin' the Red" from my seat in the ol' den in Bristow, VA.
LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, November 10, 2008
A Look Ahead To Tonight's Caps-Bolts Game
Well here's a look ahead to tonight's Caps - Lighting game at the Verizon Center. The game features the resurgent and "Hot" Washington Capitals at home taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning, who despite an up & down/inconsistent start are only two points behind the Caps. The Lightning are coming off a 2-1 win in regulation in Philadelphia Saturday night. The Caps lineup has a few question marks and possible holes in it but they are the same ones as the Caps had on Saturday night when they faced and beat the NY Rangers. Shoanne Morrisonn, Sergei Federov, and Chris Clark's status for the game are all unknown. Chris Clark is a possible return to the lineup. However, based on comments attributed to Coach Bruce Boudreau after Sunday's optional practice would have to result in listing Morrisonn and Federov as doubtful against the Bolts. However, the biggest storyline tonight won't be who plays and who doesn't for the Caps. It's going to be who is between the pipes for the Lightning: former Cap Olie Kolzig. Rumor has it there will be a video tribute to Kolzig before the puck drops. Then as Tarik El-Bashir reported, Coach Bruce Boudreau's team will go try and put more pucks past him then his new teammates get by his former back-up Brent Johnson. ""I like Olie, I think we all like Olie, and the people in Washington love Olie and rightfully so," Boudreau said "But when the puck drops, I hope we score more against them than they score against us. .... I hope if he's starting [the fans] give him the round of applause I think he deserves and the recognition he deserve. But when the puck drops, it's our team versus their team, and we want to win." So how do the matchups look tonight?
Intangibles: Even with the emotion a start by Kolzig and coming off the 2-1 Win Saturday night in Philadelphia, you have to give the intangibles solidly to the Capitals. The Caps are unbeaten in regulation at home this season and actually haven't lost in regulation at home in 13 games going back to last season. The crowds at "the Phone Booth" have done nothing but energize the Caps since last February and Kolzig''s "homecoming" will only drive more local hockey fans to attend tonight's game. Finally, you have to believe that if Alexander Ovechkin is going to "come out of his slump" he'd love to do it while facing division rivals Lecavalier and Saint Louis. Also the Johnson - Kolzig matchup also has to motivate both teams but the Caps even more so than the Bolts. Also look for Steve Eminger to work hard to show the Caps they should have kept him as he has every game since they traded him to the Flyers, but the young Caps defenseman like Jeff Schultz and Mike Green will be responding in kind as well.
Forwards: The Caps lines for tonight's game are likely to be similar to Saturday's lines: 1) Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin, 2) Fleischmann-Nylander (or Steckel)-Kozlov 3) Laich-Steckel (or Nylander) -Fehr (or Clark) and 4) Brashear-Gordon-Bradley. Though look for the "fourth" or energy line to get almost as many shifts as the second or third lines. These lines matchup pretty well against the Bolts, since even when you factor in the relatively low scoring games the Caps have participated in during their last four games, the Caps have lit the scoring lamp 10 more times so far this season than the Lightning. Key Matchups: Ovechkin/Backstrom - Lecavalier/Saint Louis. Lecavalier leads the Bolts scoring with 6 goals and 11 points; Saint Louis has 3 goals and 10 points. Ovechkin has 2 goals and 8 points, and Backstrom has yet to score this season and has 5 assists. Add Semin to the first line with his 11 goals and 21 points and it doesn't matter who the Bolts pair with their dynamic duo as long as Ovie and Nick have at least the kind of solid performance they've shown these past five games. Also given the mediocre +/- numbers of all of Tampa Bay’s forwards except Lecavalier and Vaclav Prospal and it's not hard to imagine the possibility of both Ovechkin and Backstrom breaking their slumps tonight. As for lines 2 and 3 looking at the pairings there the key guy the Caps have to contain is likely to be Prospal. The Lightning's second line center is third on the team in scoring with 3 goals and 7 assists and has been looking every bit as potent in a Bolts uniform as he did during last years playoffs when he was wearing a Flyers' sweater. That said even with the relatively lackluster production of the Capitals second and third lines, they have been more productive than in the past two seasons and this balance is a true asset. When this fact is joined with the production numbers of Tampa Bay's second through fourth lines, there is little doubt that the current advantage in this category rests with the Capitals.
Defense: Assuming the Caps pairings will once again be the same as Saturday Night: a) Tom Poti - Tyler Sloan, b) Jeff Schultz - Mike Green and c) John Erskine - Milan Jurcina, the matchups look like this. Tom Poti - Andrej Meszaros: Meszaros is a third year pro and arguably the Bolts #1 D-man and minute muncher. He was +/- +5 through 82 games last season with the Ottawa Senators, he also had 9 goals and 32 assists. It might be better to compare him to Mike "Game Over" Green given where each of them are in their career but a) that's not how the pairings lay down and b) as will be noted in a few more sentences the Bolts don't have anybody to compare with Green. Poti is in his 8th NHL season and was +/- +9 in 71 regular season games last season and had 2 goals and 27 Assists. Call this matchup a draw or even give a slight edge to Meszaros. Mike Lundin - Tyler Sloan: Lundin is a 24 year old second year pro whose play so far this season has been sound; in 12 games played he has 2 assists, is +4 and has 2 PIM. Sloan is filling in for injured Shoanne Morrisonn, despite being 27 years old and having had a long and fairly successful AHL career, this is the first year he's seen action at the NHL level. So far this year he's played in 5 games for the Capitals, scored his first NHL goal, is +1 and has 2 PIM. He has been playing very well and in the Caps - Rangers game the Poti - Sloan pairing was solid. Call this matchup a draw. Mike Green - Paul Ranger: Probably not the right matchup to consider given Steve Eminger will play his second game with the Lightning tonight and I expect him to have more minutes and a second pairing position but based on the Tampa Bay - Flyers game this is where things fell. Okay - this is a no contest, Green is the absolute going away better player, even on an off night where he makes a mistake or two on the backend while trying to add too much to the offense; Ranger was - 13 in 72 games last season and is +/- 0 so far this season. Mike Green was +6 last season and is +4 so far this season. Jeff Schultz - Steve Eminger: Last season Schultz played 72 games and was +/- +12 with 5 goals and 13 assists. His play so far this season has been solid but uninspired - he's -1 and has 5 assists in 13 games. Eminger spent most of the last regular season in the Capitals press box before having a solid performance against the Flyers in the playoffs. He was traded to the Flyers in the off season and was performing fairly well but inconsistently there in the first 12 games of the season before being traded to the Lightning last week. Eminger's numbers so far this season are +1, 2 assists and 10 PIM. Because of intangibles and solid communications between Kolzig and Eminger based on their prior play together, if Kolzig is in goal I give a light advantage on this match-up to Eminger. Milan Jurcina - Marek Malik: A weird but valid comparison none the less, these two players are on the opposite ends of their careers. Both are big, strong European (Malik is Czech and Jurcina is Slovak) mostly stay at home defenseman. Last season with the Rangers, the 33 year old Malik played in 42 games, was +7, had 2 goals, 10 points and 48 PIM. The 25 year old Jurcina played in 75 games for the Caps last season, was +4, and had 1 goal, 9 points and 30 PIM. So far this season Malik is +3 and Jurcina is -3. Give this Comparison to Malik and the Lightning but recognize last game out Malik logged over 20 minutes against the Flyers while Jurcina logged only 15:06 TOI against the Rangers. My point being that you take this matchup anf give it to the Bolts for 15 minutes of Malik's ice time and then the remaining five minutes he's up against Mike Green who averages about 25 min TOI and that matchup gos to Green. John Erskine - Lucas Krajacik: Another slightly strange comparison, the 25 year old Krajacik, like Jeff Schultz is a former first round draft pick (Florida, 2001, 24th overall) while the 28 year old Erskine was a second round pick by Dallas, 39th overall in 1998. Last season Krajacik played in 39 games for the Vancouver Canucks, was -3, had 2 goals, 11 points and 36 PIM. During the 2007-2008 season, Erskine played in 51 games for the Caps, was +1, had 2 goals, 9 points and 91 PIM. Erskine is probably the number #2 pugilist on the Capitals behind Donald Brashear, which accounts for about half those PIM. Both are comparable statistically so far this season, however given the greater mobility and improved communication between Erskine-Jurcina and Johnson over the last three games you have to give any slight edge in this comparison to the Erskine. Overall give call the defensive matchups a draw or a slight edge to the Capitals if Poti continues the solid play he's had since his return and Green has a good or better game.
Goaltending: Assuming a Brent Johnson - Olaf Kolzig matchup you have to give the slight edge or better to the guy who is playing at home. Of course that means the "Rock the Red" crowd have to remember that's Johnson and not Kolzig. Both Johnson and Kolzig are playing well. However, Johnson will be starting his fourth game in a row, and as Kolzig would tell us the constantly improving communication between a goaltender and his defense that back to back starts give a team are worth a couple of extra blocked shots and stopped scoring chances. Also given last year’s stats and this year’s so far Johnnie has a slight edge in save percentage. So even though it pains me after years of rooting for Olie the Goalie, I'm giving this edge to the current Caps team as well. If it's Mike Smith in the net for Tampa Bay then call it a draw, though if I were Barry Melrose I'd give the nod to 'Zilla and be hoping he has one of those awesome "steal the game" nights as well. Besides, look at the drama it all creates.
Overall prediction: Caps win in regulation 4-2. I'll be Rockin' the Red in Section 103 with one of my college buddies, Rob, after a nice meal and a few beers at Clyde’s. Here's hoping my prediction is on the mark and "the good guys" have another two (2) point night.
LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Intangibles: Even with the emotion a start by Kolzig and coming off the 2-1 Win Saturday night in Philadelphia, you have to give the intangibles solidly to the Capitals. The Caps are unbeaten in regulation at home this season and actually haven't lost in regulation at home in 13 games going back to last season. The crowds at "the Phone Booth" have done nothing but energize the Caps since last February and Kolzig''s "homecoming" will only drive more local hockey fans to attend tonight's game. Finally, you have to believe that if Alexander Ovechkin is going to "come out of his slump" he'd love to do it while facing division rivals Lecavalier and Saint Louis. Also the Johnson - Kolzig matchup also has to motivate both teams but the Caps even more so than the Bolts. Also look for Steve Eminger to work hard to show the Caps they should have kept him as he has every game since they traded him to the Flyers, but the young Caps defenseman like Jeff Schultz and Mike Green will be responding in kind as well.
Forwards: The Caps lines for tonight's game are likely to be similar to Saturday's lines: 1) Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin, 2) Fleischmann-Nylander (or Steckel)-Kozlov 3) Laich-Steckel (or Nylander) -Fehr (or Clark) and 4) Brashear-Gordon-Bradley. Though look for the "fourth" or energy line to get almost as many shifts as the second or third lines. These lines matchup pretty well against the Bolts, since even when you factor in the relatively low scoring games the Caps have participated in during their last four games, the Caps have lit the scoring lamp 10 more times so far this season than the Lightning. Key Matchups: Ovechkin/Backstrom - Lecavalier/Saint Louis. Lecavalier leads the Bolts scoring with 6 goals and 11 points; Saint Louis has 3 goals and 10 points. Ovechkin has 2 goals and 8 points, and Backstrom has yet to score this season and has 5 assists. Add Semin to the first line with his 11 goals and 21 points and it doesn't matter who the Bolts pair with their dynamic duo as long as Ovie and Nick have at least the kind of solid performance they've shown these past five games. Also given the mediocre +/- numbers of all of Tampa Bay’s forwards except Lecavalier and Vaclav Prospal and it's not hard to imagine the possibility of both Ovechkin and Backstrom breaking their slumps tonight. As for lines 2 and 3 looking at the pairings there the key guy the Caps have to contain is likely to be Prospal. The Lightning's second line center is third on the team in scoring with 3 goals and 7 assists and has been looking every bit as potent in a Bolts uniform as he did during last years playoffs when he was wearing a Flyers' sweater. That said even with the relatively lackluster production of the Capitals second and third lines, they have been more productive than in the past two seasons and this balance is a true asset. When this fact is joined with the production numbers of Tampa Bay's second through fourth lines, there is little doubt that the current advantage in this category rests with the Capitals.
Defense: Assuming the Caps pairings will once again be the same as Saturday Night: a) Tom Poti - Tyler Sloan, b) Jeff Schultz - Mike Green and c) John Erskine - Milan Jurcina, the matchups look like this. Tom Poti - Andrej Meszaros: Meszaros is a third year pro and arguably the Bolts #1 D-man and minute muncher. He was +/- +5 through 82 games last season with the Ottawa Senators, he also had 9 goals and 32 assists. It might be better to compare him to Mike "Game Over" Green given where each of them are in their career but a) that's not how the pairings lay down and b) as will be noted in a few more sentences the Bolts don't have anybody to compare with Green. Poti is in his 8th NHL season and was +/- +9 in 71 regular season games last season and had 2 goals and 27 Assists. Call this matchup a draw or even give a slight edge to Meszaros. Mike Lundin - Tyler Sloan: Lundin is a 24 year old second year pro whose play so far this season has been sound; in 12 games played he has 2 assists, is +4 and has 2 PIM. Sloan is filling in for injured Shoanne Morrisonn, despite being 27 years old and having had a long and fairly successful AHL career, this is the first year he's seen action at the NHL level. So far this year he's played in 5 games for the Capitals, scored his first NHL goal, is +1 and has 2 PIM. He has been playing very well and in the Caps - Rangers game the Poti - Sloan pairing was solid. Call this matchup a draw. Mike Green - Paul Ranger: Probably not the right matchup to consider given Steve Eminger will play his second game with the Lightning tonight and I expect him to have more minutes and a second pairing position but based on the Tampa Bay - Flyers game this is where things fell. Okay - this is a no contest, Green is the absolute going away better player, even on an off night where he makes a mistake or two on the backend while trying to add too much to the offense; Ranger was - 13 in 72 games last season and is +/- 0 so far this season. Mike Green was +6 last season and is +4 so far this season. Jeff Schultz - Steve Eminger: Last season Schultz played 72 games and was +/- +12 with 5 goals and 13 assists. His play so far this season has been solid but uninspired - he's -1 and has 5 assists in 13 games. Eminger spent most of the last regular season in the Capitals press box before having a solid performance against the Flyers in the playoffs. He was traded to the Flyers in the off season and was performing fairly well but inconsistently there in the first 12 games of the season before being traded to the Lightning last week. Eminger's numbers so far this season are +1, 2 assists and 10 PIM. Because of intangibles and solid communications between Kolzig and Eminger based on their prior play together, if Kolzig is in goal I give a light advantage on this match-up to Eminger. Milan Jurcina - Marek Malik: A weird but valid comparison none the less, these two players are on the opposite ends of their careers. Both are big, strong European (Malik is Czech and Jurcina is Slovak) mostly stay at home defenseman. Last season with the Rangers, the 33 year old Malik played in 42 games, was +7, had 2 goals, 10 points and 48 PIM. The 25 year old Jurcina played in 75 games for the Caps last season, was +4, and had 1 goal, 9 points and 30 PIM. So far this season Malik is +3 and Jurcina is -3. Give this Comparison to Malik and the Lightning but recognize last game out Malik logged over 20 minutes against the Flyers while Jurcina logged only 15:06 TOI against the Rangers. My point being that you take this matchup anf give it to the Bolts for 15 minutes of Malik's ice time and then the remaining five minutes he's up against Mike Green who averages about 25 min TOI and that matchup gos to Green. John Erskine - Lucas Krajacik: Another slightly strange comparison, the 25 year old Krajacik, like Jeff Schultz is a former first round draft pick (Florida, 2001, 24th overall) while the 28 year old Erskine was a second round pick by Dallas, 39th overall in 1998. Last season Krajacik played in 39 games for the Vancouver Canucks, was -3, had 2 goals, 11 points and 36 PIM. During the 2007-2008 season, Erskine played in 51 games for the Caps, was +1, had 2 goals, 9 points and 91 PIM. Erskine is probably the number #2 pugilist on the Capitals behind Donald Brashear, which accounts for about half those PIM. Both are comparable statistically so far this season, however given the greater mobility and improved communication between Erskine-Jurcina and Johnson over the last three games you have to give any slight edge in this comparison to the Erskine. Overall give call the defensive matchups a draw or a slight edge to the Capitals if Poti continues the solid play he's had since his return and Green has a good or better game.
Goaltending: Assuming a Brent Johnson - Olaf Kolzig matchup you have to give the slight edge or better to the guy who is playing at home. Of course that means the "Rock the Red" crowd have to remember that's Johnson and not Kolzig. Both Johnson and Kolzig are playing well. However, Johnson will be starting his fourth game in a row, and as Kolzig would tell us the constantly improving communication between a goaltender and his defense that back to back starts give a team are worth a couple of extra blocked shots and stopped scoring chances. Also given last year’s stats and this year’s so far Johnnie has a slight edge in save percentage. So even though it pains me after years of rooting for Olie the Goalie, I'm giving this edge to the current Caps team as well. If it's Mike Smith in the net for Tampa Bay then call it a draw, though if I were Barry Melrose I'd give the nod to 'Zilla and be hoping he has one of those awesome "steal the game" nights as well. Besides, look at the drama it all creates.
Overall prediction: Caps win in regulation 4-2. I'll be Rockin' the Red in Section 103 with one of my college buddies, Rob, after a nice meal and a few beers at Clyde’s. Here's hoping my prediction is on the mark and "the good guys" have another two (2) point night.
LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
The Cardiac Kids (aka Washington Capitals) Nab Two More Points; Beat Rangers 3-1
Well the Caps did it again, another two (2) point night. In a goalies duel and nail biter, the Caps prevailed. Brent Johnson played an awesome game stopping 28 of 29 shots (save percentage 0.966) including a penalty shot by Rangers star Chris Drury. The Caps scored the first two goals of the night by following up and getting traffic in front of the net and Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. First at the 9:14 mark of the first period the Caps tallied on a relatively bizarre power play goal. Brooks Laich scored his 3rd goal of the season when Alexander Semin took a shot from the right circle that bounced off goalie Henrik Lundqvist, hit the back glass and came back toward the net. The puck ricocheted off the crossbar and struck Lundqvist on the top of the mask before Laich tapped it in midair into the net. "After further review" it was determined that Laich's tip-in wasn't a high stick and the goal stood. Later at the 17:06 mark, Tom Poti's first goal of the season was also the result of solid follow-up and traffic in front of Lundqvist. Boyd Gordon skated down the left side toward the net, where his shot was stopped by Lundqvist. Poti skated in from the right side with sold follow-up and was in position to stuff in the rebound. Once again, "after further review" (New York tried to argue the net was knocked off its moorings during Gordon's rush) the goal was upheld.Ranger's all-star goalie, Henrik Lundqvist, was stingy for the rest of the game and didn't allow another Capital goal, he finished with 25 saves on 27 shots (a save percentage of 0.926.) The only Ranger goal came on the power play at 6:27 of the third period when Aaron Voros got a wrist shot by Brent Johnson. This goal was also "old time hockey" - in heavy traffic in front of the net.
Perhaps the biggest, most exciting moment of the game came with 10:35 left in the third stanza, when New York captain Chris Drury was awarded a penalty shot. But as Drury was about to take a backhander, Brent Johnson slid to his right and poke checked the puck away from him preserving the Caps one goal lead. The final burst of excitement for the night, was provided when at the 17:45 mark Alexander Semin was called for tripping. At the time of the call, most of us watching probably thought it was merely just a simple bad call for slashing against Semin, however, it was an even worse/horrible call for tripping, since no one tripped and Semin's stick never touched anything but the Ranger players stick. The Caps penalty killing unit and Brent Johnson were very solid holding the Rangers at bay even when they pulled Lundqvist 19:13 opting for the 6-4, 2 man advantage. After exiting the penalty box Semin, intent on redeeming himself, got the puck at the 19:54 mark, deep in the Caps end, and rocketed a slapshot the length of the ice, dead center into the empty net, for the insurance goal; his 11th of the season.
The three stars of the game were: 1) Brent Johnson, 2) Henrik Lundqvist, 3) Boyd Gordon. Other notable good perfromances by Captials were turned in by: Tom Poti; Tomas Fleischmann, Tyler Sloan, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom, Jeff Schultz, David Steckel, Donald Brashear, and Brooks Laich. Michael Nylander had a "light night", only 14 shifts and 12:52 of TOI but he won 7 of 9 faceoffs. No words on any blogs indicating any injury problem but we'll be watching the "wires". Sloan recalled to Washington from Hershey for his fifth (5th) NHL game, turned in another solid performance: 24 shifts, 16:49 TOI, had one (1) shot on goal, and two (2) takeaways, and was +1 on the night. Semin had a two point night - the empty net goal and an assist and was +1. Tom Poti and Boyd Gordon were both +2. Alexander Ovechkin led the Caps in Hits for the second game in a row with 4 and had 3 shots on goal, and though he failed to score for the ninth (9th) straight game, he was a factor in the game. John Erskine had perhaps his best game of the year so far, logging 17:40 of TOI on 19 shifts, 2 shots on goal, 2 hits and 2 blocked shots. Once again tonight, the Caps played disciplined hockey and had fewer penalties then their opponent for the second straight game.
Next up - Olie Kolzig and the Tampa Bay Lightning, Monday evening at "the phone booth", I'll be there watching in section 103, Rockin' the Red, with one of my USMMA Class of 1982 College Buddies, Rob. I can't wait, this season just keeps getting better and better.
LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
A Look Ahead to Tonight's Caps - Rangers Game
Tonight at the Phone Booth (aka Verizon Center, Washington DC) the Washington Capitals take on the Eastern Conference leading New York Rangers. Both teams won their last game on Thursday Night. The Caps defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in a nail biter; the Rangers soundly defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 in a game they dominated from start to finish. [ed note: I'll be watching the game on Comcast Sportsnet as my STH partner Tom grew up a ranger fan and he has both Ranger home games. Tom's loyalties may be divided, mine will be firmly with the Caps.] The Rangers have gotten off to a blistering start this season. After winning their first two games in Europe against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Rangers have continued to romp through the first month of the season and have amassed 23 points while compiling an 11-4-1 record and sit firmly atop the Eastern Conference standings. The Washington Capitals have collected 14 points while compiling a 6-4-2 record and sit just in playoff range at eighth place in the conference. Tonight's game is a chance for the Capitals to make up two points on a conference foe and another step back to where many felt they would be before the season started - firmly in control of their own destiny this year.
This game is another real character test for the Capitals. The Caps longest winning streak so far is 3 games. Tonight would be the second in a row against a Conference opponent/foe; winning these sorts of games in November make March and April much less stressful. However, the Rangers are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games while the Caps are 5-3-2. Tonight's match-ups shape up as follows.
Forwards: If Sergei Federov plays the Caps lines will probably be similar to Thursday Night's which you'll recall were: 1) Ovechkin-Federov-Semin; 2)Laich-Backstrom-Kozlov; 3)Fleischmann-Nylander-Clark; 4) Brashear-Gordon-Bradley. That said as of yesterday both Federov and Shoanne Morrisonn are potential scratches in which case there will be a recall from Hershey. The recall is likley to be Tyler Sloan. Additionally, given the Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin line was on the ice for the Caps last two goals Thursday, that could very well be the first line. There could also still be some more shuffling in lines 2 and 3, it wouldn't be too much of a streatch to see Eric Fehr in the lineupin which case 2/3 could look something like 2) Fleischmann-Nylander-Fehr, 3) Laich-Kozlov-Clark. The energy line looked pretty solid Thursday night and with the Rangers heaveyweights you'd have to bet that Brashear-Gordon-Bradley will be together once again. The Ranger's scoring is fairly balanced and as of their last game they have 5 forwards with 5 goals each. They also have five forwards and defenseman Dan Girardi with 10 or more points. The Caps have 3 forwards and Defenseman Mike Green with 4 or more goals, even though they have played 4 fewer games than the Rangers. They have 4 forwards and Mike Green with 8 or more points. The only key scoring threat on either team off his pace from last season is Alexander Ovechkin who continues to seem ready to breakout every game. Call this aspect of the game even right now, if Ovechkin continues to get more success like he did Thursday AND Tomas Fleischmann has one of the better outings he has shown himself capable of about 2/3rds of the time so far this season, the Caps might have a slight edge. If they don't you have to give a slight edge to the Rangers because of their balanced attack.
Defense: With or without Morrisonn in the lineup, you have to give the edge here to the Rangers. Call Wade Redden & Mike Green a wash; the Michal Rozsival - Tom Poti "matchup" goes at least slightly to Rozsival; then the comparisons start to really go to the Rangers as you get further dow the depth chart. Even if he's playing and playing well the Shoanne Morrisonn - Dmitri Kalinin comparison goes to Kalinin. Next down, the Jeff Schultz - Paul Mara is pretty even though in a tight big game you have to give the edge to Mara with his 9 seasons of experience. Next spot on the Caps depth chart is a toss-up between Milan Jurcina and John Erskine but let's take Erskine for comparative purposes since he was just resigned to $1.25M per year for each of the next two seasons. John Erskine - Dan Girardi has to go to the guy who was +/- 0 through 82 games last season as oppossed to the guy who was +1 through 51 games last season and who has never played more than 51 games in a season - slight advantage to Girardi. Finaly comparing Milan Jurcina - Marc Staal you have to call it a draw based on last season with a slight edge to Staal based on this season to date since Staal has 1 goal, 2 assists and is +/- +2 and Jurcina has 1 goal, 0 assists and is -3.
Goaltending: Regardless of who starts for the Caps, Jose Theodore or Brent Johnson, assuming Henrik Lundqvist starts for the Rangers, the edge goes to the Rangers. Though either Theodore or Johnson have the ability and talent to put together a game night performance where they basically "steal one" for their team Lundqvist, with 9 wins, a save percentage of 0.928 and a GAA of 2.00 so far this season seems to make games like that a habit whenever the Rangers are a little "flat". Of course the minute you make this prediction then Theodore or Johnson has one of those nights "steals the game" and Lundqvist looks like a mere mortal. If that happens it wouldn't break this Caps fan's heart at all.
Intangibles: Solidly goes to the Capitals. The Rock the Red crowd will be out in force for this weekend match up, though there will no doubt be a contingent of "blueshirt" fans as there are for all Caps - Rangers games. The Caps are coning off a confidence building win and generally raise their level of play against better teams in general and the Rangers, Devils, Flyers in particular.
Prediction: If the Caps keep their forecheck up towards the relentless level they are capable of and continue to get excellent 0.915 save percentage or higher goaltending, then the Caps win 3-2 in Overtime or the Shoot Out.
LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This game is another real character test for the Capitals. The Caps longest winning streak so far is 3 games. Tonight would be the second in a row against a Conference opponent/foe; winning these sorts of games in November make March and April much less stressful. However, the Rangers are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games while the Caps are 5-3-2. Tonight's match-ups shape up as follows.
Forwards: If Sergei Federov plays the Caps lines will probably be similar to Thursday Night's which you'll recall were: 1) Ovechkin-Federov-Semin; 2)Laich-Backstrom-Kozlov; 3)Fleischmann-Nylander-Clark; 4) Brashear-Gordon-Bradley. That said as of yesterday both Federov and Shoanne Morrisonn are potential scratches in which case there will be a recall from Hershey. The recall is likley to be Tyler Sloan. Additionally, given the Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin line was on the ice for the Caps last two goals Thursday, that could very well be the first line. There could also still be some more shuffling in lines 2 and 3, it wouldn't be too much of a streatch to see Eric Fehr in the lineupin which case 2/3 could look something like 2) Fleischmann-Nylander-Fehr, 3) Laich-Kozlov-Clark. The energy line looked pretty solid Thursday night and with the Rangers heaveyweights you'd have to bet that Brashear-Gordon-Bradley will be together once again. The Ranger's scoring is fairly balanced and as of their last game they have 5 forwards with 5 goals each. They also have five forwards and defenseman Dan Girardi with 10 or more points. The Caps have 3 forwards and Defenseman Mike Green with 4 or more goals, even though they have played 4 fewer games than the Rangers. They have 4 forwards and Mike Green with 8 or more points. The only key scoring threat on either team off his pace from last season is Alexander Ovechkin who continues to seem ready to breakout every game. Call this aspect of the game even right now, if Ovechkin continues to get more success like he did Thursday AND Tomas Fleischmann has one of the better outings he has shown himself capable of about 2/3rds of the time so far this season, the Caps might have a slight edge. If they don't you have to give a slight edge to the Rangers because of their balanced attack.
Defense: With or without Morrisonn in the lineup, you have to give the edge here to the Rangers. Call Wade Redden & Mike Green a wash; the Michal Rozsival - Tom Poti "matchup" goes at least slightly to Rozsival; then the comparisons start to really go to the Rangers as you get further dow the depth chart. Even if he's playing and playing well the Shoanne Morrisonn - Dmitri Kalinin comparison goes to Kalinin. Next down, the Jeff Schultz - Paul Mara is pretty even though in a tight big game you have to give the edge to Mara with his 9 seasons of experience. Next spot on the Caps depth chart is a toss-up between Milan Jurcina and John Erskine but let's take Erskine for comparative purposes since he was just resigned to $1.25M per year for each of the next two seasons. John Erskine - Dan Girardi has to go to the guy who was +/- 0 through 82 games last season as oppossed to the guy who was +1 through 51 games last season and who has never played more than 51 games in a season - slight advantage to Girardi. Finaly comparing Milan Jurcina - Marc Staal you have to call it a draw based on last season with a slight edge to Staal based on this season to date since Staal has 1 goal, 2 assists and is +/- +2 and Jurcina has 1 goal, 0 assists and is -3.
Goaltending: Regardless of who starts for the Caps, Jose Theodore or Brent Johnson, assuming Henrik Lundqvist starts for the Rangers, the edge goes to the Rangers. Though either Theodore or Johnson have the ability and talent to put together a game night performance where they basically "steal one" for their team Lundqvist, with 9 wins, a save percentage of 0.928 and a GAA of 2.00 so far this season seems to make games like that a habit whenever the Rangers are a little "flat". Of course the minute you make this prediction then Theodore or Johnson has one of those nights "steals the game" and Lundqvist looks like a mere mortal. If that happens it wouldn't break this Caps fan's heart at all.
Intangibles: Solidly goes to the Capitals. The Rock the Red crowd will be out in force for this weekend match up, though there will no doubt be a contingent of "blueshirt" fans as there are for all Caps - Rangers games. The Caps are coning off a confidence building win and generally raise their level of play against better teams in general and the Rangers, Devils, Flyers in particular.
Prediction: If the Caps keep their forecheck up towards the relentless level they are capable of and continue to get excellent 0.915 save percentage or higher goaltending, then the Caps win 3-2 in Overtime or the Shoot Out.
LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Caps 3 - Hurricanes 2; A Two (2) Point Night
Well tonight at Verizon Center, we once again witnessed the Cardiac Kids play three energized periods of ice hockey against those pesky guys from North Carolina. In what has become typical Caps 2008-2009 NHL season, the Caps fell behind 1-0 to start the game. At 2:59 of the first Scott Walker deflected a shot by Josef Melichar past Johnson. It was the fourth time this season the Capitals allowed a goal on their opponent's first shot. The first period ended with the Caps trailing the Hurricanes 1-0, shortly after Donald Brashear put a solid beatdown on Hurricane's defenseman Wade Brookbank and both left the ice with a five minute major for fighting at the 16:45 mark of the stanza.
The second period started out as the first period ended, a back and forth affair with the Caps turning up the tempo a notch in a fair effort to take control of the game. The Ovechkin - Federov - Semin line was fairly dominant whenever they were on the ice and the 2nd and 3rd lines held their own and more at times. At 3:05 of the second, Sergei Fedorov tied it, taking a lead pass from Alex Ovechkin on the fly and lifting the puck over Ward's right shoulder. However, the Hurricanes countered at 12:13, Tuom0 Ruutu skated in from the blue line and fired the puck between Johnson's legs, shortly after the Canes had successfully killed off a Caps power play. Once again the Caps ended the period trailing by a goal.
The third period was all Washington Capitals once they successfully killed off a 5-3 power play by the Hurricanes that ended at the 3:26 mark and transitioned to a 4-4 at 3:40 when Rod Brind'Amor was whistled off for slashing. In another point of note, tonight's game was one of the few this season where the Caps played very disciplined hockey and had fewer minor penalties then their competition. The Caps took three (3) minor penalties while the Hurricanes took four (4). However both teams penalty killing units and goaltending while penalty killing were perfect and no extra man situations resulted in goals. While the Caps clearly seemed to "want it more" then the Hurricanes in the third period, they did not tie the game until the 17:17 mark. As has been the case most often this season, the Caps goal scorer was Alexander Semin. Semin tied it by scoring from close range with 2:43 to go after being fed the puck by Ovechkin. Then with time running out Semin got his second goal to propel the Caps to victory and deny their division rivals any standings points at the 19:49 mark by ending a rush toward the net with a wrist shot from inside the right circle that beat Cam Ward. Both of Semin's goals were excellent to watch from Section 103 ---SWEET!
Summary of good points from tonight's game. 1) Brent Johnson, despite probably wanting the first goal back was solid again stopping 32 of 34 Hurricane shots for a save percentage of 0.941; for his efforts Johnnie got a W and the third star of the game. 2) Alexander Semin continued November where he left off in October. Semin now has 10 goals and 19 points in 12 games. For his two clutch goals, Semin earned the first star of the game. 3) While once again failing to score a goal, Alexander Ovechkin was a force on the ice and in the Caps offense - he had 3 primary assists, in addition to seven (7) hits to grab the second star of the game. 4) Even though he was on the ice for both Hurricane goals and finished +/- -2, John Erskine looked very mobile and looked solid through the entire game, he had 21 shifts and 15:59 TOI. During his ice time tonight, Erskine took 3 shots, made 5 hits and had 2 blocked shots. 5) Except for Brooks Laich who was 3 for 7, every Cap to go into the faceoff circle tonight won more than 50% of their draws. Sergei Federov led the way in this category with a 79% faceoff win rate going 11 for 14.
Not so good things about tonight: 1) The Caps yielded a goal on the first shot of the game again. 2) The Caps got into situations where they had to play from behind much of the game. 3) Playing in his 300th NHL game, Washington's Shaone Morrisonn left after the first period with a groin injury.
Well hopefully this is the beginning of a trend since tonight the Caps "wanted it more" and showed it in their play. Even though the Hurricanes out shot the Caps 34-33; the Caps otherwise outplayed the Canes in virtually every other aspect of the game. The Caps outhit the Canes 21-19 and won 35 of 55 faceoffs. Next up the New York Rangers at Verizon on Saturday.
LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The second period started out as the first period ended, a back and forth affair with the Caps turning up the tempo a notch in a fair effort to take control of the game. The Ovechkin - Federov - Semin line was fairly dominant whenever they were on the ice and the 2nd and 3rd lines held their own and more at times. At 3:05 of the second, Sergei Fedorov tied it, taking a lead pass from Alex Ovechkin on the fly and lifting the puck over Ward's right shoulder. However, the Hurricanes countered at 12:13, Tuom0 Ruutu skated in from the blue line and fired the puck between Johnson's legs, shortly after the Canes had successfully killed off a Caps power play. Once again the Caps ended the period trailing by a goal.
The third period was all Washington Capitals once they successfully killed off a 5-3 power play by the Hurricanes that ended at the 3:26 mark and transitioned to a 4-4 at 3:40 when Rod Brind'Amor was whistled off for slashing. In another point of note, tonight's game was one of the few this season where the Caps played very disciplined hockey and had fewer minor penalties then their competition. The Caps took three (3) minor penalties while the Hurricanes took four (4). However both teams penalty killing units and goaltending while penalty killing were perfect and no extra man situations resulted in goals. While the Caps clearly seemed to "want it more" then the Hurricanes in the third period, they did not tie the game until the 17:17 mark. As has been the case most often this season, the Caps goal scorer was Alexander Semin. Semin tied it by scoring from close range with 2:43 to go after being fed the puck by Ovechkin. Then with time running out Semin got his second goal to propel the Caps to victory and deny their division rivals any standings points at the 19:49 mark by ending a rush toward the net with a wrist shot from inside the right circle that beat Cam Ward. Both of Semin's goals were excellent to watch from Section 103 ---SWEET!
Summary of good points from tonight's game. 1) Brent Johnson, despite probably wanting the first goal back was solid again stopping 32 of 34 Hurricane shots for a save percentage of 0.941; for his efforts Johnnie got a W and the third star of the game. 2) Alexander Semin continued November where he left off in October. Semin now has 10 goals and 19 points in 12 games. For his two clutch goals, Semin earned the first star of the game. 3) While once again failing to score a goal, Alexander Ovechkin was a force on the ice and in the Caps offense - he had 3 primary assists, in addition to seven (7) hits to grab the second star of the game. 4) Even though he was on the ice for both Hurricane goals and finished +/- -2, John Erskine looked very mobile and looked solid through the entire game, he had 21 shifts and 15:59 TOI. During his ice time tonight, Erskine took 3 shots, made 5 hits and had 2 blocked shots. 5) Except for Brooks Laich who was 3 for 7, every Cap to go into the faceoff circle tonight won more than 50% of their draws. Sergei Federov led the way in this category with a 79% faceoff win rate going 11 for 14.
Not so good things about tonight: 1) The Caps yielded a goal on the first shot of the game again. 2) The Caps got into situations where they had to play from behind much of the game. 3) Playing in his 300th NHL game, Washington's Shaone Morrisonn left after the first period with a groin injury.
Well hopefully this is the beginning of a trend since tonight the Caps "wanted it more" and showed it in their play. Even though the Hurricanes out shot the Caps 34-33; the Caps otherwise outplayed the Canes in virtually every other aspect of the game. The Caps outhit the Canes 21-19 and won 35 of 55 faceoffs. Next up the New York Rangers at Verizon on Saturday.
LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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