Caps Blue Line

Caps Blue Line Has Moved!

2008-01-26T23:57:00.000-05:00

Caps Blue Line has moved!

This blog will no longer be updated at this address (capsblueline.blogspot.com) as it has moved to swanky new digs at www.capsblueline.com

This new website will feature the continuation of this blog as well as several new resources, such as:

Team Schedule
Individual player pages with scouting reports (work in progress - for an example see Alex Ovechkin)
Capitals historical record

I've got plans to add another resources or two (coaching histories is a must). Sometimes you want to see? Let me know by dropping me an email at DMG@capsblueline.com or leaving a comment on the about page.

See you on the other side, folks.

The All-Star Game is Fine

2008-01-26T20:00:00.000-05:00

There's not really any way around the fact that for a number of years it has been frustrating to be a hockey fan. The NHL saw its on-ice product become significantly less appealing as the trap and clutch-and-grab styles of play becoming increasingly effective and popular, suffered through the first work stoppage to ever cancel an entire season in North America and lost its contract with (and hence its coverage from) ESPN. And to top it off, Gary Bettman is still the commissioner.

These problems have built a culture of negativity around the NHL, where it has become en vouge to criticize the league on everything from the on-ice product to the off-ice management to the rules of the game to the uniforms. To an extent these criticisms are warranted and anyone who thinks the NHL doesn't have significant obstacles in front of it needs to either take of their rose-colored glasses or have their opinion taken again once they're off Bettman's payroll. But at the same time anyone who doesn't believe that the NHL is an exciting, world-class league that is in better shape for the long term financially and in terms of the on-ice product than before the lockout is...well, wrong. But I digress.

This aura of negativity has unsurprisingly extended to the center of the NHL world for this weekend, the All-Star game in Atlanta. Even before All-Star weekend started the chorus of critics ratcheted up with claims the NHL All-Star game is irrelevant, meaningless to casual fans and boring, all because the game itself won't resemble a real NHL game. While I don't disagree with those assertions my overwhelming response is "so, what?"

These "problems" aren't singular to the NHL by any stretch. When is the last time you ever saw an NFL game played without blitzes, a Major League Baseball game where both managers made an effort to get all the players in and were required to change pitchers every three innings or that ended in a tie, or an NBA game that ended in regulation with both teams scoring over 130 points? It doesn't happen anywhere but the Pro Bowl, the Midsummer Classic or the NBA All-Star game and yet you don't hear people within the professional football, baseball or basketball fanbases or journalistic circles fret about the integrity and nature of the all-star game nearly as much as hockey fans and journalists do. The other major sports realize what an all-star game is: a chance to honor the best players in the game, take a break from the grueling regular schedule and a chance to watch the best the game has to offer play in a non-competitive exhibition environment that is, yes, meaningless.*

The NHL and its fans shouldn't expect or hope for anything more for their all-star game, yet they do, a direct result of the other problem with the negative attitude that permeates the NHL these days. Besides making it fashionable to levy criticism at events like the All-Star game before they even occur the culture of negativity has in and of itself created a severe images problems for the NHL. Imagine you're a relatively casual sports fan surfing websites during down times at work and every time you read something about the NHL the league is unconvincingly insisting attendance and television ratings are up and while pundits mock the leagues rule changes, uniforms and leadership while painting a doom-and-gloom picture of the future while wistfully writing about how much better the league was twenty years ago. Does that sound like the kind of league you'd want to check out? If the guys who are paid to write about hockey having nothing but complaints about the NHL, what do people expect the casual sports fan's response to be?

Not that the NHL can silence the pundits, nor should they try to. But the league can control what it discusses and why. To insist at every turn that the league is drawing people to arenas in records numbers or that television ratings are steadily on the rise makes the league seem desperate for approval; desperate to impress and is completely at odds with the image the league had cultivated for years. If this were high school the NHL would have gone from being the kid that not a whole lot of people knew but who everyone thought was a badass to the kid who, yeah I mean he's pretty cool, like, if you get to know him but yeah it's totally weird how, like, he's like always asking about whether or not people like him or not and junk (and why does he always change the way he dresses and stuff, does he think people are going to like, like him more for it or something....?)

Let me say this: I am a hockey fan, no doubt. I played travel hockey as a kid, I still play, I purchased NHL Center ice and a DVR just so I could watch more hockey and I spend hours every week writing about hockey without compensation. But I'm not going to watch the All-Star game.** I don't think people like me a problem for the league any more than people who watch the NFL every week but skip the Pro Bowl are for the NFL.

Simply put, the NHL All-Star game is what it is: a nice little break in the middle of the season where the players can have fun and as fans we might see some dazzling offense and as such, it is fine. But it isn't enough to be a savior for the league or even a legitimate chance to showcase the NHL or its players, so of course the event is going to fail to live up to any expectations people might have that it should be. The league needs to realize this and concentrate their efforts on making the on-ice product as good as possible rather than continually hoping that if they can just nail the presentation in All-Star game/Winter Classic/Opening Night/Crosby vs. Ovechkin/Playoffs or whatever else all their problems will be solved.

*I know the MLB All-Star game decides home field advantage in the World Series. To me that's not really enough to make it important to most people, even those in the Major Leagues. Rather, it's just an embarrassing example of what happens when a league decides it tries to all-star game mean something.
**Okay, the full version is less dramatic. I'll be playing hockey during the All-Star game, but I'm not too upset that I'll miss it and if I weren't playing I'd probably have the game on in the background, but not really watch it.

Caps Enter All-Star Break One Point Out of First

2008-01-24T21:51:00.000-05:00

Capitals 2, Maple Leafs 1

Now that's more like it.

After clearly outplaying the Maple Leafs Wednesday night in Toronto and losing, the Capitals came home to Verizon Center last night and claimed two points in a game in which they were outshot 32-20 and in which they twice had the man advantage and saw themselves shorthanded five time. If we're going to be objective, you'd have to look at this game and say the Capitals didn't necessarily deserve two points. Not that they were outplayed or deserved to lose per se (I don't think Toronto played all that well either), but the Maple Leafs were pretty effective in shutting down the Caps offense and without the stellar performance from Brent Johnson Washington's defense wouldn't have looked that great either. But given that the karmic balance after last night was such that the Capitals were probably deserving of two, I won't feel too bad about it.

The story of last night's game goes beyond the Capitals and the Maple Leafs though. Now, heading into the all-star break, the Capitals are the only team in the Southeast Division above .500 and are one point out of the division lead, with two games in hand. I can't speak for any other Capitals fans but if I were offered that scenario at the beginning of the season, I would have taken it. If I'd been offered it Thanksgiving Day I would have asked if you thought I believed in Santa Claus too.

Yet here we are, mid-January and the Capitals are not only poised to take control of the Southeast Division, they are clearly looking like the class of the division, going 17-8-4 since Bruce Boudreau took over while each of the other teams in the Southeast have played well below .500 since then. With Carolina and Atlanta still looking inconsistent at best it would be surprising if the Capitals don't take first place in the division with their two games in hand on the 'Canes. It'd be even more surprising if, once they took the lead, they ever relinquished it.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Brent Johnson - 31 saves on 32 shots, .969 save percentage
(2) Alexander Ovechkin - 2 assists
(3) Viktor Kozlov - 1 goal (game winner)

Quotable

Since Coach Bruce Boudreau stepped behind the bench on Nov. 22, Johnson has been one of the team's best players. He is 5-1 with a 2.05 goals against average and .926 save percentage since Boudreau arrived, and his coach believes he has earned the right to play more down the stretch.

-Tarik El-Bashir, from his Washington Post write-up

Quick Hits

John Erskine's first period penalty for delay of game was real bad because there's no reason to even come close to putting the puck off the rink when there's no pressure.
Each Capitals player who took a faceoff (Nicklas Backstrom, Brooks Laich, David Steckel, Boyd Gordon, Matt Bradley) was at 58% effectiveness or higher. For the game the Capitals won 33 of 53 faceoffs (62%).
Milan Jurcina led the Capitals with six hits. Nice to see the big man finally using his body.

Photos: AP

Caps Lose to Leafs, 3-2

2008-01-23T21:45:00.001-05:00

Maple Leafs 3, Capitals 2

I can't remember the last time I saw a team get dominated like the Maple Leafs were last night and still win the game. The Capitals outhit, outshot, outchanced, outskated and outworked the home team in Toronto last night but they just couldn't outscore them.

Two things can bury a team that generally outplays its opponent: bad luck and bad plays; the Capitals fell victim to both. The Leafs first game came when Donald Brashear tried to make a between-the-legs breakout pass in his own zone (bad play). The Leafs second goal came at the end of a sequences where the puck was kept in the Capitals end because Mike Green blew a tire behind his own goal line (bad luck). The Leafs third goal came because whoever should have been covering Mats Sundin (the center on the line, I think Dave Steckel) was no where to be found (bad play), because Olaf Kolzig put a rebound in a bad area (bad play) and because Sundin just happened to be in exactly the right/wrong spot (bad luck). Take away those combined thirty seconds and there's really nothing to complain about as a Caps fan.

The Capitals haven't yet lost consecutive games in regulation under Bruce Boudreau and with the team coming home and looking to get the two points they earned last night, I'd be willing to bet today won't be the first time it happens either.

Quick Hits

If he's going to hit like that every game I, for one, can overlook John Erskine's deficiencies in the skating department.
Where was Tom Poti going with that hog-tie on Dominic Moore?
The Maple Leafs had 11 players take shots; the Capitals had 16.

Least Shocking Headline Ever:

2008-01-22T16:28:00.001-05:00

Leafs GM Ferguson Fired

Fun with Numbers!

2008-01-21T23:09:00.000-05:00

From last night's game:

Shots against/saves
Olaf Kolzig: 15/10
Danny Sabourin: 13/9
Ty Conklin: 17/16

Shots, by team
Washington: 30
Pittsburgh: 15

Goals, by team
Washington: 5
Pittsburgh: 5

Saves in overtime:
Olaf Kolzig: 1
Quintin Laing: 3

Resiliant Caps Win in Shootout, 6-5

2008-01-21T22:56:00.000-05:00

Capitals 6, Penguins 5 (SO)

It took "the gimmick" to do it but at the end of the night the Capitals had won their fourth in a row and snapped a seven game losing skid against the Penguins.

It was an ugly game for the Caps, but imagine this: Your team has just had a goal waived off and to boot it's because a penalty was assessed. The other team has gone on the powerplay and scored to take the lead. Your goalie has stopped eight shots and let five get by him for the game.

Now that's a discouraging hockey scenario if ever there was one.

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Well, imagine this: Your team is battling in overtime and one of your top two defensemen is called for a phantom slashing penalty and only 53 seconds later your team is again whistled for an infraction, sending you down two men for 1:07 against a skilled team with nothing to lose.

Now that's a discouraging hockey scenario if ever there was one. And yet, as they have done ever since Bruce Boudreau took over behind the bench, the Capitals remained focused and resilient and battled back behind another four assist night from Nicklas Backstrom, another two goals from Viktor Kozlov and a two-goals, eleven-shot performance from Alexander Ovechkin.

While it's nice to pick up two, especially against the Pens, as a Caps fan you'd have to look at this game and say the Capitals were somewhat fortunate to get one point, let alone two. The red, white and blue had a lot of major miscues: far too many penalties, far too many blown coverages in their own end and far too many pucks getting by Olaf Kolzig that simply shouldn't have. But then that's the advantage of having a resilient team...and a line that will combine for three goals and eight points:

DMG's 3 Stars (1) Alexander Ovechkin - 2 goals, 1 assist, 11 shots, +1, shootout goal
(2) Nicklas Backstrom - 4 assists, +1
(3) Viktor Kozlov - 2 goals, +1

Quotable

"To me, [the Capitals] are the most exciting team in the National Hockey League to watch play"

-Keith Jones

Quick Hits

If Ovechkin connects on his run at Evgeni Malkin it immediately becomes the front runner for hit of the year.
I don't know if anyone watched the Versus post-game show but Mike Green wasn't even on the list of guys who were overlooked for the all-star game. Talk about being overlooked...
In a 4-on-3 situation, if you're going to play one defenseman, why the hell would it be John Erskine? That's the question I was asking myself approximately two seconds before Erskine was whistled for hauling down Malkin.
Nice job by Tom Poti to keep his cool against Jarko Ruutu and put the Caps on the powerplay to start the second.
I'd still taken Donald Brashear over Jordan Staal in the event those two bodies collide again.
Tough night for Ty Conklin. Come of the bench cold and you stop 15 of 16 shots only to lose to a goalie who only stopped two-third of the shot against him.
Tough first sixty-five for Alex Semin. A great move is stopped by Ty Conklin and backhand at a wide-open net hits a Penguins' defender in front. And then there were the penalties...
Was anyone else shocked to see that Semin was at only 25% success in the shootout coming into this game?

Photos: AP

Random Thoughts on Versus

2008-01-21T22:47:00.000-05:00

Has anyone ever seen the movie Dead Man, directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Johnny Depp?

I ask because it's exactly what the Versus ads are like - random, in black and white and interspersed by jangly distorted guitar chords (although I don't think Versus has Neil Young working for them).

I Told Ya, He's Comin' for Ya....

2008-01-21T22:30:00.000-05:00

Rookie Scoring, morning of January 19th:
Patrick Kane: 45 points
Nicklas Backstrom: 32 points

Rookie Scoring, morning of January 20th:
Patrick Kane: 45 points
Nicklas Backstrom:36 points

Rookie Scoring, right now:
Patrick Kane: 45 points
Nicklas Backstrom: 40 points

Pens/Caps Gameday

2008-01-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

Washington Capitals at Pittsburgh Penguins
Monday, January 21st, 2008, 7:30 PM
Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Last Meeting: 12/27/2007, Caps lose 4-3 in overtime

Two days after finishing their homestand 4-1 and working their way back to .500 for the first time since late October, the Capitals head to Pittsburgh to face their rival the (now Sidney Crosby-less) Pittsburgh Penguins, who are 8-1-1 in their last ten games.

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About the Opponent

Pittsburgh Penguins (27-17-3, first in the Atlantic Division, second in the Eastern Conference)

Team Leaders
Goals: Evgeni Malkin (24)
Assists: Sidney Crosby (43); active: Evgeni Malkin (29)
Points: Sidney Crosby (63); active: Evgeni Malkin (53)
Plus/Minus: Sidney Crosby (+15); active: Colby Armstrong (+9)
Penalty Minutes: tie - Ryan Malone and Georges Laraque (70)
Fights: Georges Laraque (8)

Betcha Didn't Know...
Several years ago The Hockey News took a poll of hockey journalists, asking them to rank the NHL's best fighters. Penguins enforcer (then with the Oilers) received more than twice as many points in the voting as anyone else, more points than the next five players and was ranked first on 31 of 42 ballots

Random Penguins Statistic
When he was 15 years old Sidney Crosby played prep school hockey at Shattuck St. Mary's, a boarding school in Faribault, Minnesota and amassed 72 goals and 90 assists (162 points) in 57 games.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Use your depth. The Penguins match up pretty well with the Capitals top guns and have the tools to contain Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin and Nicklas Backstrom. They do not have the tools to contain those three plus Viktor Kozlov, Mike Green and Tomas Fleischmann.

Pittsburgh
Use team speed to create chances. The Capitals could have better speed on their checking lines and on defense. The Penguins, with their large number of skilled skaters, should look to exploit that lack of mobility for goals and draw penalties to get their top-ten powerplay on the ice.

Players to Watch

Washington
Tomas Fleischman - could he be playing any better or be any closer to breaking out without doing it? Any day now...

Pittsburgh Evgeni Malkin - Malkin's been superb so far in his NHL career but can he play as well as Pittsburgh wants him to when (1) he doesn't have Sidney Crosby on his line and (2) he is the go-to guy?

The Impact of a Crosby-less NHL

2008-01-20T18:58:00.000-05:00

As you may have noticed, had you read or seen just about anything about the NHL over the last couple days, Sidney Crosby suffered a high ankle sprain during the Penguins January 18th loss to Tampa Bay.

So just what are the ramifications of this injury? Are the Penguins still a playoff team? Does this affect the Capitals at all? What will they talk about in-studio on Versus now? Is this actually a good thing for Crosby and Penguins fans, giving him a chance to rest to help avoid a more serious back injury, the result of being asked to carry an entire professional sports league?

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Let me preface this by saying that I like Sidney Crosby, and I have ever since his rookie season (2003-04) in the QMJHL. His talent is undeniable, he's got as much professionalism as anyone else in the NHL and his character flaws from when he first entered the league (complaining to referees too frequently; diving) were forgivable and have been fixed. In addition the criticisms leveled against him are generally, well....wrong. Crosby doesn't rack up most of his spoints from secondary assists (see here and here) and he isn't soft - he played through a broken foot in the playoffs and he takes as much abuse as almost any other player in the league and still go into high-traffic areas hard to fight for points.

Anyhow, let's start with Sid the Kid himself:

Sidney Crosby

A high ankle sprain is one of those injuries, like a groin pull, that any NHL player fears. Of course there are worse injuries (just ask Bryan Berard or Pat Peake), but as far commonly seen injuries a high ankle sprain is about as bad it gets. It's nearly impossible to play through, hard to rehab, easy to reaggravate, and once reaggravated can be just as bad as it was when it first occurred.

If Crosby tries to play with his ankle at anything less than 100% his skill set is going to be severely diminished. Given that, and how easily a high ankle sprain can be reinjured, Crosby needs to focus on his rehabilitation and not give in to the temptation to return to the lineup early, which will certainly set in in the likely scenario that the Penguins see their play drop off without him.

With a lot of players, given how sensitive the ankle will be during the rehab stage and the time away from game speed, there would probably be a period of adjustment, but I don't think Crosby will have that given how focused and talent he is. That is, of course, provided that Crosby does sit until he is 100%.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Are the Penguins a playoff team without Sidney Crosby? You could make a case that they're not: Crosby is their captain, their first line center and their leader in points and assists (he's second in goals). On the other hand the Penguins still have a ton of young talent, lead by Evgeni Malkin, and were better than a borderline playoff team with Crosby in the lineup (Pittsburgh currently sits at second in the Eastern Conference).

What this means to me is that without Crosby, Pittsburgh is a borderline playoff team that would probably get in as a 6-8 seed. Thus they should be able to continue to win on a regular basis without Crosby, and while they won't pick up as many points as they otherwise would they should still be firmly in a playoff spot when Crosby gets back.

The one scenario where Pittsburgh gets in trouble is if they suffer a loss of confidence without Crosby in the lineup and let it snowball into a losing streak. The Penguins need to realize they're still a pretty good team and not panic even though their leader scorer is on the shelf.

Evgeni Malkin and Ty Conklin

While it's unrealistic to expect anything less than a team effort would be needed to compensate for the loss of a player like Crosby the Penguins' immediate fortunes rely in large part on these two players. Malkin has been an excellent NHL player in his short career, but he has also been afforded a luxury very few players selected second overall have had - being able to fly under the radar for the first couple NHL seasons. With Crosby out, Malkin is going to be asked to prove he can be a big-time player without the kind of help he's accustomed to.

The Penguins will also be hoping Ty Conklin's incredible season continues. Although Conklin has already done more than anyone would have ever asked of him it'd be unfortunate for the Penguin if he decided to come back to earth while Crosby's out.

The League and its Broadcast Partners

Speculation already exists about the panic going on within the league offices because of Crosby's injury but the reality is that the injury is not for a long enough term or enough severity for the league to become concerned about hitching their star to Crosby; in reality the ones who are concerned are the television networks: Versus is already cursing Crosby's ankle, as they'll have to come up with at least one topic of discussion beyond "Crosby vs. Ovechkin" (suggestions: each team's record since Thanksgiving, Mike Green, Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, Bruce Boudreau).

In my view it's not such a bad thing that the league's talking heads may have to talk about other players. In addition to Malkin and the Capitals' quintet of skilled player under the age of 24, Eric Staal, Jason Spezza, Patrick Kane and Phil Kessel are part of the league's immense amount of young talent. In addition the contribution of guys like Joe Thornton and Jarome Iginla have been criminally underrated for years.

Maybe the league will realize that there are other players worth talking about. If they do, it will be a good thing because it's difficult to be as relevant as the NHL wants to be when the majority of the country associates your league with only one face.

The Capitals

Well...Crosby won't be playing when these teams meet on Monday. So....that's a break for the Caps.

Watch out, Patrick, he's coming for you...

2008-01-20T13:00:00.001-05:00

...I kind of feel like someone should be cuing the theme from 'Jaws'

Caps Finish Homestand 4-1

2008-01-19T19:17:00.000-05:00

Capitals 5, Panthers 3

....so close to free wings.

For about fifty minutes of this game the Capitals were dominant and for about ten they were terrible. That ten minute stretch looked like it had the potential to bury the Caps but at the end of the night the boys in red, white and blue held on to improve to 4-1 on their homestand, behind strong efforts from Viktor Kozlov, Mike Green and Nicklas Backstrom, who assisted on four of the Capitals five goals.

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Aside of securing eight of ten possible points the Capitals reached another important milestone last night, reaching .500. That's right Caps fans, with the win the Capitals pulled to 21-21-4 and are at .500 for the first time since October 24th.

I don't really have that much more to say about this game, so I'll close with a playoff race update - the Caps are three points out of the division leader and have played three fewer games and only four points out of the eight seed in the Conference.

DMG's 3 Stars (1) Nicklas Backstrom - 4 assists
(2) Viktor Kozlov - 2 goals
(3) Alexander Ovechkin - 1 goal, 1 assist

Quotable

"We've officially reached mediocrity"

-Bruce Boudreau

"Right now we're .500. But for us, it's just a beginning."

-Alexander Ovechkin

Quick Hits

The Panther ice the puck like they have a collective contract clause that pays them each time they do it.
It amused me when Craig Laughlin referred to "Iron Mike" Keenen as Mike "Iron" Keenen.
Speaking of Laughlin, does anyone else think it's kind of adorable how he thinks every goal hits the water bottle?
Jeff Schultz is become more physical - he was credited with three hits and did a nice job getting in the face of the Panthers player who made too much contract with Brent Johnson.
Alexander Ovechkin was not credited with any hits.

Photos: AP

Panthers/Capitals Preview

2008-01-18T22:13:00.000-05:00

Florida Panthers at Washington Capitals
Saturday, January 19th, 7:00 PM
Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
Last Meeting: 12/1/2008, Capitals win 2-1

This game is important for so many reasons: it concludes the Capitals homestand and for this team the difference between going 4-1 and 3-2 over five games is huge, the winner assumes sole control of third place in the Southeast Division and a win would let the Capitals gain ground on the stumbling Carolina Hurricanes (3-6-1 in their last ten) and Atlanta Thrashers (lost 10-1 to Buffalo last night).

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About the Opponent

Florida Panthers (21-23-4, 46 points, third in the Southeast Division, 12th in the Eastern Conference)

Team Leaders
Goals: Olli Jokinen (22)
Assists: Olli Jokinen (22)
Points: Olli Jokinen (44)
Plus/Minus: David Booth (+7)
Penalty Minutes: Nathan Horton (59)
Fights: Gregory Campbell (4)

Betcha Didn't Know...
The Panthers have finished in fourth place in the Southeast Division each of the last five seasons.

Random Panthers Statistic
6'2'', 239 pound forward Anthony Stewart has never been in a fight. This season, Stewart has played in 23 games for the Panthers and has yet to pick up a penalty.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Play a high-octane game. Florida is a defenseive (read:boring) team that likes to slow down the play and limit chances. The Capitals need to take the game to them and force the Panthers out of their game plan.

Florida
Be aggressive. Alex Ovechkin has five goals in his last five games, Alexander Semin has four in his last three, Mike Green has goals in three straight and ten points in his last seven games and Tomas Fleischmann and Viktor Kozlov look ready to break out. There's no way the Panthers can contain all the Capitals offensive weapons for a full sixty minutes, so if they want to win they're going to have to put some pressure on the Caps.

Players to Watch

Washington
Tomas Fleischmann - I said it already, but Flash really does look ready to break out and finally start putting pucks in the net after creating those great chances, and I think he'll start tonight.

Florida
Jay Bouwmeester - For any team playing the Capitals, the biggest priority has to be stopping Ovechkin. If there's anyone on the Florida roster who can do it, it's Bouwmeester.

Caps Win After 12-Man Shootout

2008-01-17T19:06:00.000-05:00

Capitals 5, Oilers 4 (SO)

When your opponents' powerplay is clicking and the referees are trigger-happy, you're usually in for a long night and that's exactly what the Capitals had to endure last night against the Oilers.

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The call on Viktor Kozlov (slashing) was terrible and it looked even worse given that Alexander Semin had a stick broken across his legs only seconds earlier - Oilers goal.

Brooks Laich gets called for finishing his check on an icing call. If there isn't an icing call he doesn't get that penalty and to me that's not a good enough reason to send him to the box. It wasn't a case of a clear icing and Laich didn't hit the Oilers' player way after the whistle. Laich was just doing what any decent hockey player does in that situation - finishing his check and playing until the whistle, and if the NHL doesn't want players getting hit on icing calls they should institute no-touch icing. Anyways, Laich gets a weak call - Oilers goal.

But enough complaining. The Capitals picked up two points and improved to 3-1 on the homestand. So what does that mean?

Well, Carolina lost and Atlanta lost in a shootout, so:

	Games Played	Points	G.P. (Relative to Caps)	Pts (Relative to Caps)
Atlanta	48	49	+2	+4
Carolina	49	48	+3	+3
Washington	46	45	n/a	n/a

Okay, show of hands - who thinks Atlanta or Carolina look like they're going to beat the Capitals out for the Division title? Okay, let's try again...show of hands - of those of you who don't own an Ilya Kovalchuk or Eric Staal jersey, who thinks Atlanta or Carolina looks like they're going to beat the Capitals out for the Division title? Yeah, me neither.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Olaf Kolzig - his numbers were a far cry from stellar, but Olie made a number of big saves, had no chance on the goals he allowed and stopped all 12 shooters Edmonton sent his way during the shootout. Without a doubt Kolzig was the biggest reason the Capitals won this game.
(2) Boyd Gordon - 2 assists, +1
(3) Alex Ovechkin - 1 goal, 1 assist, 4 hits, +1

Quick Hits

Sheldon Souray sure does like to shoot on the powerplay, doesn't he?
Nice hit by John Erskine on Dustin Penner in front of the net on the Oilers powerplay. Of course it would have been nice if it had happened before Penner put the puck in the Capitals' net.
Sometimes a second assist is an indicator of a really nice play. For example, Jeff Schultz's breakout pass to Boyd Gordon on the play that lead to Ovechkin's goal.
On his goal Mike Green picked his spot and hit it as well as any forward in the league.
Jarret Stoll was crying about having to go to the box for slashing Nicklas Backstrom halfway through the second period, though I'm not sure why because on the replay you could see Stoll take his stick to Backstrom three times.
The Capitals gave up the fourth goal because they were playing aggressively in the physical game. You want to be physical and hit with a lead, but not to the point where you're taking yourself out of the play to land a check.
Mike Green had 31:13 of ice time, during which he blocked 5 shots.
The following Caps had 4 hits: Alex Ovechkin, John Erskine, Mike Green and Matt Pettinger.

Photos: AP

Oilers/Capitals Preview

2008-01-17T00:40:00.000-05:00

Edmonton Oilers at Washington Capitals
Thursday, January 17th, 2008
Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
Last Meeting: 10/28/2006, Capitals lose 4-0

Let's be frank. The Capitals should win this game. Period.

They're at home, just proved to the NHL they can beat top-flight opposition (four times without losing), and if it weren't for the the shootout (or as Peerless calls it "Bettman's gimmick") the Oilers might just have the fewest points in the NHL.

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One of the more interesting subplots of the evening will be the Capitals goaltending situation - will Brent Johnson or Olaf Kolzig be starting? And what will the implications of either choice, and the respective netminder's performance, indicate for the Caps' situation between the pipes for the rest of this season?

About the Opponent

Edmonton Oilers (21-22-4, fifth in the Northwest Division, fourteenth in the Western Conference)

Team Leaders
Goals: Shawn Horcoff (19)
Assists: tie - Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky(25)
Points: Shawn Horcoff (44)
Plus/Minus: Tom Gilbert (+7)
Penalty Minutes: Zack Stortini (114)
Fights: Zack Stortini (12)

Betcha Didn't Know...
The Oilers official colo(u)rs are: Midnight blue, copper, red, white and silver

Random Oilers Statistics
(1) During his first three seasons at Michigan State, Shawn Horcoff averaged 0.77 points per game (36+51 in 113). His senior year he averaged 1.55 points per game (14+51 in 42)
(2) Sheldon Souray was brought in during the offseason to provide offense from the blue line and help improve the Oilers powerplay. So far Souray has played in 21 games, has nine points (three goals, six helpers), and if quarterbacking a powerplay that ranks 28th in the NHL.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Don't underestimate the Oilers. They don't have a lot of big names, they're near the bottom of the standings and the Capitals just beat Ottawa for the fourth time this year, but that doesn't mean the Capitals will be able to roll right over their guests.

Edmonton
Go to the shootout. Edmonton has won 11 times in the shootout this year; seven of those wins have come with Mathieu Garon in net, as Garon has stopped 21 of the 23 shots he's faced in shootouts this year (91.3%). The Oilers' best bet for a win is to fight tooth-and-nail till the clock hits zero in overtime and then try to pry away a twelfth points from the skills competition.

Players to Watch

Washington
Alexander Semin - Semin finally looked like he was hitting his stride on Tuesday against the Senators picking up three points, including a highlight reel goal.

Edmonton
Jarret Stoll - Stoll is the type of center any coach would want - he can can play both ends, has a good shot, plays a physical game and has grit to spare. The Oilers will be looking to him to help generate offense from the second line. Horcoff can't do it all himself.

Caps Win; Pull to Within Five Points of 'Canes

2008-01-16T00:29:00.001-05:00

Capitals 4, Senators 2

The Capitals, behind a three-point night from Alexander Semin, a strong outing from Brent Johnson and a team total of 21 blocked shots*, swept the season series from the Eastern Conference leading Ottawa Senators and improved to 2-1 on their current homestand.

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The Capitals again managed to keep the Senators best players in check - Jason Spezza had no points and Daniel Alfredsson was limited to just one assist (Dany Heatley is injured and did not play) - and controlled special teams play, going 2-5 on the powerplay and keeping the Senators scoreless on their two chances with the man advantage.

Scoreboard watching Caps fans may have noticed a change in the composition of the Southeast Division as a decimated Hurricanes squad lost and Atlanta won. The 'Canes and Thrashers both have 48 points (to the Capitals 43); since the Thrashers have more wins they're in first. The good news for Caps fans is that Carolina and Atlanta have played 48 and 47 games respectively, while the Capitals have played only 45 and with Edmonton (21-22-4, eight shootout wins) and Florida (20-22-4) coming in to finish off the homestand the Caps have a very good chance to make up some ground. With the way each team has played, if the Capitals can get to a point where they are tied with Atlanta and Carolina for the division lead I think they become to favorite to take the division. And with four remaining games against each Atlanta and Florida, the Capitals will have the chance to prove it.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Alexander Semin - 2 goals, 1 assist, +1
(2) Tomas Fleischmann - 2 assists, +1
(3) Alexander Ovechkin - 1 goals (game winner)

* Capitals blocked shot leaders: Milan Jurcina (4), Quintin Laing (3), Shaone Morrisonn (3), Tom Poti (3)

Senators/Caps Preview

2008-01-14T23:29:00.000-05:00

Ottawa Senators at Washington Capitals
Tuesday, January 14th, 2008
Verizon Center in Washington D.C.
Last Meeting: 1/1/2008: Capitals win 6-3

The Capitals look to both get back over .500 on their current homestand and get back to the winning ways they've become accustomed to under Coach Bruce Boudreau against the Senators tonight. With a win the Capitals would complete an unexpected sweep of the season series against the Eastern Conference's best team and while it might seem improbable, so have each of Caps' wins against the Senators so far this season - while I wouldn't necessarily expect the Capitals to win, I wouldn't bet against them either.

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About the Opponent

Ottawa Senators (29-11-4, 62 points, first in the Northeast Division, first in the Eastern Conference)

Team Leaders
Goals: Daniel Alfredsson (29)
Assists: Jason Spezza (38)
Points: Daniel Alfredsson (59)
Plus/Minus: Dany Heatley (+31); active: Jason Spezza (20)
Penalty Minutes: Chris Neil (114)
Fights: tie - Brian McGrattan, Chris Neil (6)

Betcha Didn't Know...
Only one Senators player, Alexander Nikulin, has a negative plus/minus rating. Nikulin has played in just two games for the Senators this season and is -2.

Random Senators Statistic
Brian McGrattan sees 2:31 of ice time per game and spends 1:18 per game in the penalty box. McGrattan has as many games with four or more minutes of ice time as with less than one minute (six), including a season low of six seconds against Buffalo on January 4th. And no, that's not a typo.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Weather the storm early. The Senators are the best team in the Eastern Conference points-wise and will be desperately trying to avoid being embarrassed by being swept by the Capitals for the season, so they'll come out very strong. The Capitals need to keep things simple at the start and frustrate Ottawa, rather than letting themselves be outgunned.

Senators
Exploit the Capitals defense. With John Erskine, Jeff Schultz and Milan Jurcina all playing the Capitals defense lacks mobility; the Senators are fast and can move the puck well so they will be looking to take advantage of the Capitals' slow defensemen to create offense.

Players to Watch

Washington
Milan Jurcina - Jurcina, a 6'4'', 235-pound defenseman, had zero hits in the Capitals last game and has been a plus player only once since December 29th (five games). The Capitals biggest weakness tonight is going to be their defense's poor foot speed, butSchultz helps negate his mediocre skating by playing smart and positionally sounds; Erskine helps negate his by playing and extremely physical game. If Jurcina can't find a plus to offset his skating he could be a big enough liability to cost the Caps two points.

Ottawa
Martin Gerber/Ray Emery - During the last two games these teams have played the Gerber/Emery tandem has allowed 13 goals on 54 shots (.759 save percentage). The Senators will need strong goaltending if they hope to stop the Capitals' offensive weapons.

Capitals Goaltending By the Numbers

2008-01-14T14:16:00.001-05:00

I've put together this table comparing the league's goaltending statistics with the Capitals' netminders. There are currently 44 goaltenders who have played enough to qualify for the league lead in statistics. As Olaf Kozlig is one of them, the number in parentheses next to his statistics is his league rank; since Brent Johnson is not among the 44 qualified goalies the number in parentheses is what his rank would be if he has enough minutes to qualify.

League median is derived by calculating the mean of the 22nd and 23rd ranked goalies.

	Goals Against Average	Save Percentage	Shootout Save %
Olaf Kolzig	3.04 (39)	.888 (42)	50.0 (t-25)
Brent Johnson	2.85 (31)	.900 (t-33)	n/a
League Median	2.69	.907	58.55
League Leader	1.82	.930	100

Caps Fall to 1-1 on Homestand

2008-01-13T16:55:00.000-05:00

Capitals 4, Flyers 6

As has happened far too regularly this season, the Capitals were felled by questionable defensive play and sub-par goaltending and as a result lost a game where they should have had one point and could have had two. The Flyers, playing for the second time in two days and third time in four days, should have been outgunned by the Capitals (who were playing their only game in a seven day stretch), and if they game had stayed close they probably would have been. But by allowing Philadelphia to get out to a three goal lead and hence play a more conservative style the Capitals diminished their ability to use each team's scheduling situation to their advantage.

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Where does the blame fall? I think jointly on the shoulders of the defense corps and Olaf Kolzig. While Olie had a bad game, I don't think it's by any means inexcusable - he's 37 years old and was playing his 11th straight because of Brent Johnson's injury. Still, Olie should have done a better job controlling rebounds and staying with the puck (not surprisingly Olie's lack of lateral movement played a role as well).

The defense corps was especially poor at clearing the front of the net during during yesterday's game and a lot of it has to do with mobility. With Milan Jurcina, Jeff Schultz and John Erskine all in the lineup the Capitals' defense is simply too slow to not get caught out of position on a regular basis. The numbers tell the story as well: Mike Green and Shaone Morrisonn were paired together and were each a +2; all the other Capitals defensemen were worse.

The loss puts the Capitals in a tough spot. The team was hoping to get eight points or more on their current homestand and this loss puts them at 1-1 after two, so to meet their goal the Caps would have to win their remaining three games. It might sound like a tall order but: the Capitals haven't lost two in a row under Bruce Boudreau, face Ottawa (a team they've beaten all three times the two teams have met this season) next and then face Florida and Edmonton. In other words, if the Capitals can build off this loss and come out strong on Tuesday against the Senators they still have a very good chance of picking up their desired eight points.

Quick Hits

Tom Poti was -3 in this return to the lineup - perhaps he wasn't ready?
The Capitals has 32 shots on goals and 40 shots that were either blocked or missed the net (19 blocked; 21 misses). For comparison, the Flyers had 32 on net and 19 blocked or miss the net (11 blocked, 8 misses).
Boyd Gordon blocked three shots; Quintin Laing only one.
Milan Jurcina had zero hits - not acceptable for a 6'4'', 235 pound, poor-skating defenseman.
Daniel Briere was -2, had one shot and no points and lost 11 of his 13 faceoffs.

It Has Begun

2008-01-12T12:03:00.000-05:00

Capitals fans had to know, as soon as Ovechkin's monster 13 year, $124 million contract was announced that there would be pundits who would decry the deal and as it turn out one of the first was The Hockey News (this was originally linked to from Japers' Rink).

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Let's begin, shall we?

Well, isn’t this interesting.

Well, aren't you a smug little sportswriter? Surely with that attitude you must have insightful and valuable analysis for us, right?

Didn’t we have a year-long lockout a couple of years ago because teams like the Washington Capitals couldn’t afford to pay runaway salaries like the one they’re going to be giving Alex Ovechkin for the next 13 seasons?

Yes and no. What the owner's primarily wanted was cost certainty, so they could have some idea of what payroll expenses would look like, especially with regard to revenues. The result of the lockout were limits on what individual teams could spend what individual players could make, each based on the league's total revenues. This is kind of the opposite of "runaway salaries" since the salaries are in fact limited by the new CBA. I'm pretty sure that by definition the fact that salaries are limited means they aren't runaway. Plus, if you don't think team salaries or individual players salaries for the stars would be higher if there were no cap, you're nuts. Know who I know? Because they were higher before the new CBA, before inflation. Plus the nine million that Ovechkin will make for the next six years and ten million for the seven after that are not going to be the top salaries for their time unless the NHL suddenly starts losing money.

So this is what you must do the next time Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, or any one of his cronies complain about their financial state...
Ignore them, laugh at them, look incredulously at them with your mouth agape, but please don’t buy their malarkey for a second.

Important just for reference.

You could say the Capitals had little choice but to offer Ovechkin somewhere near the fully mandated $10 million and they did. After all, he’s one of the league’s most talented players and the prospect of losing him was far more difficult to fathom for the Capitals than the prospect of paying him a minimum 20 percent of the team payroll.

So, point #1 was "it's bullshit that owners like Leonsis may have difficult with their finances, and this deal proves it!" and Point #2 is "the Capitals had no choice but to sign Ovechkin to a contract paying him this much"? Also, I don't think there's any way Ovechkin will exceed 20% of the Capitals payroll for very much of his contract and he may not at all - the Capitals payroll is $39 million this year (with Ovechkin making about $3.8 million). If everyone resigned for the same amount (which won't happen) payroll would go up to about $44 million, with Ovechkin making $9 million. This would be 20.45% of the payroll.

The cap hit will be $9.53 million, about as close as you can get without hitting double digits without the decimal point.

Very good observation! Nine is the closest single-digit whole number to ten! Gold star for you today, Ken!

But they did have a choice on the term. Thirteen years is simply preposterous for any player, regardless of his star quality. And now that he’s throwing that kind of money at Ovechkin, does it make sense to stop there? Well, no it doesn’t.

No one is going to insist that a thirteen year contract is without risk. But, one of the "problems" laid out earlier was that the Capitals were paying Ovechkin a "runaway" salary. You know what, Ken? One of the ways to mitigate cost over the long term is to fix it in nominal dollar amounts and watch the actual (real) value decrease as inflation occurs.

Or perhaps it is that Ken Campbell is actually an economic genius and think that the United States in headed for its first period of deflation since the late 18th century.

Leonsis and the Capitals will now have to join the arms race and spend to the cap. No sense in paying one of the best players in the game that kind of money and not surrounding him with any kind of talent.

Indeed, that Capitals should build around Ovechkin. Maybe get him a tough, playmaking center in the Peter Forsberg mold, another sniper to take the heat off of Ovechkin, some solid offensively skilled veterans and a number of gritty, tough, checking-line players.

It's not all about offense though, as I'm sure Ken must know. The Caps probably need a good defenseman too, one who can compete for the NHL lead in goals from that position, or a guy with a rocket shot who can also get helpers and a solid, tough defenseman to balance things out. Don't forget the need for a true number one back there, maybe a guy who can lead as well.

And then there's the net. Well, the current goalie, a former Vezina Winner, is getting a little long in the tooth. If I were the Caps I'd a young gun, maybe someone tearing up juniors who could start at the World Junior tournament or a young guy already making his mark in the RSL. Yeah, that sounds good, get that Capitals and maybe then you can have Ovechkin weave his magic on your ice!

Oh wait, the Capitals already have all of those.

In a likely best-case scenario, Ovechkin will average 50 goals and about 100 points per season through the life of this contract. Could they not have signed three players for $3 million each, which could have given them more than that?

Maybe, maybe not. What three players could have been signed from this past year's free agent class for nine million dollars who would give than kind of production? How would you have gotten all of them to sign with the same team? Would they all contribute the same to the physical game as Ovechkin does? Would the opposition have to account for each of them every time they stepped on the ice? Would they, collectively, become the face of the franchise? Would their merchandising sales be enough to significantly defray the cost of their contracts in the same amount that having one of the inherently most marketable players in the league will?

And so it goes on. The more we see deals like this, the more two things become clear.

First, the Rick DiPietro contract is looking better with each passing deal and secondly, the league will most definitely insist on limiting the term of deals in the next collective bargaining agreement.

Because keeping player costs down and keeping marketable, fan-favorites with one team is no way to make fans of the game, of course.

Silence, Fools!

2008-01-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

For anyone who hasn't seen yet, Alex Ovechkin has signed his new contract with the Capitals and it's a whopper: $124 million over 13 years.

Tarik has more details here.

I'm generally a pretty modest, reserved guy. In addition, two of the things I hate most is when people use their blogs to vent/rant and when people call names or insult other people. But you'll have to excuse me this once because each of these journalists is guilty of at least one of the following:

(1) Chasing ridiculous rumors with no credibility
(2) Failing to understand the CBA
(3) Failing to do any research regarding the players in the Capitals organization
(4) Insulting the Capitals organization, the Capitals players, the Capitals fans and/or the city of Washington D.C.
(5) Pandering to fans in their home market
(6) Ignoring the facts in front of their faces

By doing this, all are guilty of failing to their job are journalists and consequently open themselves us to mockery by us mere mortals who aren't paid to write about hockey, yet somehow know exponentially more and comment on it without smugness and without insisting that anyone who doesn't write for a major new publications has opinions that don't matter.

Let me just be perfectly clear: to be wrong, propose ideas that I (or other Caps fans think are silly) or have an opinion I disagree with is perfectly fine, and while I may criticize the article I won't be rude to the author. But if an author is going to willfully ignorant (or even proud of their ignorance) or is going to insult Washington D.C., the Capitals or their fans as a substitute for research, insightful commentary and good writing, well then I take the Fire Joe Morgan approach: such authors do not deserve the respect of us fans and they will not get it.

That said...

Shut up, Larry Brooks, and realize that just because the Rangers are the most obnoxious franchise of the last fifteen years doesn't entitle them to a damn thing. You know, when you're done with your hissy fit.

Shut up, Jack Todd, and learn the names Mike Green, Nicklas Backstrom, Semen Varlamov, Michael Neuvirth, Alexander Semin, Karl Alzer, Josh Godfrey, Chris Bourque, Francois Bouchard, Jeff Schultz, Sasha Pokulok, Books Laich, Shaone Morrison and Bruce Boudreau before you say the Capitals have a lack of young talent or can't win with the players they have now.

Shut up, Mike Brophy, and learn the meaning of the word "cosmopolitan" before you use it in an article suggesting it's something D.C. is not. (note: the above tip to Jack would be a good one for you to follow as well)

Shut up, Bruce Garrioch, and learn when to trust a source and learn not to insult George McPhee's intelligence.

Shut up, Eklund, and...just...stay shut up until you actually successfully predict an NHL personnel move (being signed to a13 year extension is almost the same thing as being traded to Nashville, right?)

Ted Kulfan, I won't tell you to shut up because you were not rude, insulting or willfully ignorant. But you were wrong, and that's one more article for Capitals fans to look at giggle while they sit back and simply say, "Thirteen years".

And all of you - Larry, Jack, Mike, Bruce, Ted, Eklund - sit and listen to the one voice of reason I've found in all this madness: Spector of Fox Sports.

Thirteen years, Caps fans. Thirteen years.

To close, here's Ovechkin on his extension:

I cannot say how happy I am. I didn't want to go nowhere. If I want to go somewhere, I could sign for three years.
I decided I didn't want to go anywhere, and they didn't want lose me, so we signed a long-term deal. It won't put more pressure on me. I will play the way that I always play.

Photo: AP

McPhee on the Ovechkin Extension

2008-01-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

McPhee on the Ovechkin Extension: "Of course we f*ckin' signed him. We're not idiots".

Okay, I made that quote up. But isn't that what this picture seems to say?

Alexander Ovechkin: SIGNED

2008-01-10T21:26:00.000-05:00

I'll have a longer version later, where I mock all the stupid sportswriters who were wrong about this but Alex Ovechkin will be a Capital for the next thirteen years.

Fehr Returns

2008-01-09T22:24:00.000-05:00

Eric Fehr did indeed return to action last night with the Hershey Bears and had a very good game, registering an assist 40 seconds in and finishing the game with the one point, a +1 rating and four shots on goal.

More on Fehr's return from the On Frozen Blog team here.

Avalanche/Caps Recap

2008-01-09T21:39:00.001-05:00

Capitals 2, Avalanche 1

Although it took until the third period, the Caps picked up the game's first two tallies and were able to hold on 2-1 for a crucial win to open their five-game homestand.

With the game developing into a tight-checking, low-scoring affair you got the feeling it could be the grinders that decided the outcome and indeed that was the case with Donald Brashear and David Steckel accounting for the Capitals two goals, with assists from Brooks Laich, Matt Bradley, Boyd Gordon and Milan Jurcina. Secondary scoring has been an issue for the Caps all season and while they could still be getting more at least now it seems like someone from a checking line has been able to set up and find the twine when the team needs it the most.

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Of course, you can't downplay the importance of Olaf Kolzig's solid effort - while the Capitals played good defense and let only 19 shots get through to Olie he was very good in net, stopping 18 of them, including several big saves towards the end.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Olaf Kolzig - 18 saves on 19 shots (.947 save %)
(2) Brooks Laich - 1 assist, +1
(3) David Steckel - 1 goal (game winner), +1

Quick Hits

Kolzig's been the focus of criticism both on this blog and elsewhere, but I bet Tyler Arnason thinks Olie's still pretty good.
Steve Eminger played just 10:05 but had four hits (more than anyone else on either team) and blocked a shot - think he was trying to make a case for some more playing time?
The longest average shift for a Colorado player was Marek Svatos' 0:51. The Capitals had seven players who exceeded that: Viktor Kozlov (1:08), Nicklas Backstrom (1:07), Michael Nylander (1:06), Alexander Semin (1:06), Alexander Ovechkin (1:05), Brooks Laich (0:52) and Mike Green (0:52).
The Caps had four players (Eminger, Laich, Steckel and Bradley) who registered three or more hits.
Shaone Morrisonn's one shot on goal, zero points and -1 rating were apparently enough to get him selected as the game's third star.

Kind of a Big Deal

2008-01-09T11:52:00.000-05:00

Two articles of interest for Capitals fans are making their ways through the internet today:

Eric Fehr may play tonight for Hershey (my thoughts on a Fehr's return).
Former Head Coach Glen Hanlon has been offered a job as a scout for the Capitals.

Avalanche/Caps Preview

2008-01-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Colorado Avalanche at Washington Capitals
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008, 7:00 PM
Verizon Center in Washington D.C.

The Capitals look to kick off their crucial five-game homestand win a win tonight against the Colorado Avalanche, a team that hasn't visited D.C. in almost four years. While the Avalanche have a pretty solid roster from top to bottom they are somewhat ripe for the picking given the injuries to key forwards Ryan Smyth and Joe Sakic and the failure to have either José Théodore or Peter Budaj emerge as a true number one goaltender.

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About the Opponent

Colorado Avalanche (22-17-3, 47 points, fourth in the Northeast Division, ninth in the Western Conference)

Team Leaders
Goals: Marek Svatos (16)
Assists: Paul Stastny (29)
Points: Paul Stastny (44)
Plus/Minus: Kurt Sauer (+11)
Penalty Minutes: Scott Parker (56)
Fights: Ian Laperriere (7)

Betcha Didn't Know....
The Avalanche hold the NHL record for most consecutive sellouts with 487, a streak that spanned almost eleven years (November 9, 1995 - October 16, 2006).

Random Avalanche Statistic
Joe Sakic's 1,611 points with the Nordiques/Avalanche franchise are the third most for a player with one team. Sakic trails only Steve Yzerman (1,755 with Detroit) and Mario Lemieux (1,701 with Pittsburgh), both of whom are retired. Sakic was drafted 15th overall in 1989 with a pick the Quebec Nordiques had acquired as part of the trade that sent Dale Hunter to the Capitals.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Score the first goal. The Capitals have done a great job of coming from behind to pick up wins since Bruce Boudreau's taken over behind the bench but they can't expect to keep doing it. Eventually constantly surrendering the game's first goal is going to catch up with any team and the Capitals need to look to break this habit.

Colorado
Play hard, and for a full sixty minutes. The Avalanche have a lot potentially working against them: they are playing the second night of a back-to-back set, had to travel to D.C. after playing Detroit last night, suffered a tough loss on Tuesday at the hands of the Red Wings, are playing a hot opponent and are missing two of their best offensive players in Ryan Smyth and Joe Sakic. If the Avs fall behind it might be tempting for them to just quit. Colorado needs to be resilient and play a gritty game in the face of the aforementioned adversity if they want to pick up two points in the nation's capital.

Players to Watch

Washington
Tomas Fleischmann - between the injuries the Capitals are dealing with (Nylander, Clark, Semin) and the inconsistent play of some of the guys they'd hoped would be solid offensive contributors (Pettinger) the team could use some secondary scoring. Flash has looked like he's on the verge of breaking out for several games now and the Caps sure could use some offense from the second line.

Colorado
Paul Stastny - With both Sakic and Smyth out of the lineup the Avs are going to look to this young center to lead their offense. Stastny has been great in his NHL career to this point, but is he yet able to produce when he's the guy that the opposition will be looking to shut down?

The Strange Case of Steve Eminger

2008-01-07T16:16:00.000-05:00

Steve Eminger was drafted twelfth overall in 2002 (one spot ahead of Alexander Semin, incidentally) and broke into the NHL that same year, playing 17 games with the Caps before being returned to his junior team in Kirchner, Ontario. Eminger became a full time member of the Capitals in 2005, after the lockout and played 134 games for the team over the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons, accumulating a respectable six goals, 29 assists, 144 penalty minutes and a -26 rating*. Yet this season Eminger has hardly been seen on the ice for the Capitals (recent sightings notwithstanding), playing in on 3 of 42 games thus far. This has brought forth a wave of speculation from devoted Capitals fans: does Eminger has a crucial flaw in his game he has yet to fix? Are there concerns about his work ethic and/or attitude? Did he sleep with a family member of someone in the Capitals brass? Well I have an explanation and, to the disappointment of some I'm sure, it's quite light on conspiracy theory.

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What I think is often being overlook in the discussion of Eminger's playing time is that playing time and roster moves are actually contingent on two groups: the management, headed by GM George McPhee and the coaching staff, (obviously) headed by Coach Bruce Boudreau. Each of these groups is playing a role in Eminger's difficulty getting ice time.

NHL teams generally dress six defensemen for games and generally carry seven so players can rotate in and out as needed due to injuries, fatigue or a more favorable matchup with an opponent. But of course a team wants more than just seven defensemen in the organization so they can be prepared for long-term injuries or for several players being hurt simultaneously, and that's where Eminger comes in. By keeping Eminger the Capitals have eight defensemen on their roster who can play NHL minutes and since there is a steep drop off in the organization after these guys it makes sense the Capitals want to keep all of them. All of the Capitals current defensemen except Jeff Schultz and Mike Green would have to clear waivers to be sent to Hershey and those two have played their way into the team's top five. Thus from a management standpoint the only way to give the Capitals the necessary depth on the blue line is to keep all eight NHL-caliber defensemen the organization has under contract on the NHL roster.

This creates a problem for the coaching staff when everyone is healthy - rotating seven defensemen through six spots is tough enough; rotating eight through six spots can be nearly impossible, especially when a team has five defensemen (Green, Schultz, Tom Poti, Brian Pothier, Shaone Morrisonn) who are going to play every night as the Caps do. That leaves one spot for three players (in this case Eminger, Milan Jurcina and John Erskine). If you're perceived as the weakest of the three in such a situation, you're going to have a hard time cracking the lineup. Period. The job of the coach is to put out the best lineup he can every night and while that might provide some room for a seventh defenseman to get in the lineup, the one who's eight on the depth chart isn't going to get in unless players ahead of him are hurt.

That's where Eminger stands - a victim of circumstance and the CBA, too valuable as a depth player to just be waived but not good enough to play on a regular basis.

So what should the Capitals do at this point? Honestly, as much as I hate to say it, exactly what they are doing. Getting rid of Eminger just because he isn't playing would be a mistake because the organization does need the depth he provides on the blue line and while it's unfortunate for Eminger to be put in this situation the reality is that the NHL, like any professional sports league, is a cutthroat business and general managers are paid to keep their team as competitive as possible, not coddle athletes. If McPhee gets a a good offer for Eminger or can pluck a depth defenseman from the waivers wire or from another team for a mid-round pick it would be nice of him to let Eminger move on, and if the team doesn't play on playing him next year to offer him a qualifying offer would just be cruel**. But right now the Caps need to keep Eminger because it'd be a mistake for the organization to hurt its chances of succeeding this season so that one player can have a more enjoyable four months.

* I am well aware that a -26 rating is not good by any stretch but given the quality of team Eminger had been playing on and his age I can't think that'd be the reason we've seen so little of him this season.
** For the record I think it would be mistake to get rid of Eminger because I think he has more long-term potential than Jurcina, Pothier or Erskine. I'd like to see the Caps break camp with Poti, Pothier, Alzner, Morrisonn, Green, Schultz and Eminger next season and try to retain Erskine by putting him in the AHL if possible.

Let's Talk About the Southeast

2008-01-07T15:01:00.000-05:00

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Let's talk about a division where:

Each of the five teams has been outscored by its opposition for the season
The division leader is on pace to finish with 86 points (85.7 actually), a total that would have been tied for 12th in the Conference in 2006-07 and have put them in fourth in each of the Conference's three divisions
More teams have starting goalies with save percentages of .890 or worse (two) than .903 or above (one). For reference, .903 would put a goalies in a tie for 26th in the league in save percentage
Only one team is over .500 in games outside the division, and they are 12-11-3 in said games
No team in the division is .500 against teams outside the division when overtime losses are counted as losses
The division is a combined 50-64-13 against the rest of the NHL

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Southeast Division, home of your Washington Capitals...and their opponents in 15 of their remaining 40 games (37.5%). The Caps actually aren't playing a Southeast-heavy schedule right now and after February 1st the Capitals play Southeast foes in 14 of 30 games (46.7%). The NHL is dropping the extremely unbalanced schedule next season, and it's the right decision. But Caps fans are very lucky they'll get to play almost half their games down the stretch, when continued development and better health should mean the team is playing its best hockey, against what is inarguably the worst division in hockey.

It's quite possible that only one team from this division will make them playoffs; indeed that would be the case if the season ended today. So the question is: who's going to go on a tear and run away with this division? Atlanta's too inconsistent and has too many holes and Tampa Bay is just...bad. Carolina looked like they were going to easily be the class of the division at the season's outset but they've been inconsistent on the offensive front (though still quite good) and Cam Ward's save percentage has gone down each month. Florida clearly has the best goalie in division with Tomas Vokoun but the team is 27th in the NHL in scoring despite playing in the division with weakest set of starting goaltenders you'll find this year and their long-heralded crop of young players, with the possible exception of Nathan Horton, are not showing the kind of skill a lot of people thought they would. Although it's still possible Florida could have a good number of its youngster have a great second half and become a good team, Carolina is the team to beat at this point.

Right now the Capitals are seven points behind the Hurricanes for the division lead, and have played two fewer games. If the Capitals can get wins (or even a win and overtime loss) in those two games they have in hand they could easily make up the remaining ground on Carolina just in the head-to-head games the teams have remaining.

Given this, that the Caps have been the best team in the division for the last six weeks or so and that the Capitals have a ton of very good young players who seem to be getting better almost by the game, would it be unreasonable to call Washington the favorite to be atop this division when all is said and done?

What kind of an alias is that?

2008-01-06T19:04:00.000-05:00

Alright, it's a slow news day for the Capitals and I think this is funny: An article from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution titled Be wary of opening the checkbook for [Marian] Hossa, written by a gentleman named Jeff Schultz.

Caps top Habs 5-4

2008-01-05T13:16:00.000-05:00

Capitals 5, Canadiens 4 (OT)

Saturday's matinée between the Canadiens and the Caps ended in a familiar fashion for each team with the Capitals picking up another come from behind win and the Habs continuing their struggles in the Bell Centre.

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For the moment the Caps are only four points out of a playoff spot and seven out of the division lead, heading into a five-game homestand. This is the Capitals' best chance to get themselves into a playoff position until a four-game stint at home in mid-March and they look poised to put up a lot of points as they're playing well, within striking distance of the teams in front of them, playing mostly average teams during the homestand and have three days to rest, get healthy and prepare.

There has to be a little concern over Olaf Kolzig's less than stellar showing, not necessarily because of of the raw numbers, but because of the way he looked. Earlier this year Kolzig allowed far too many goals through the five hole; now he is allowing too many where the opposition has a wide open net to shoot at, the result of Olie's lack of lateral movement and positioning bringing him out well beyond the blue paint. Kolzig is still enough to contribute to a good team but at times it feels like every shot on goal the opposition takes is a scoring chance.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Alex Ovechkin - 2 goals, 23:53 ice time
(2) Mike Green - 1 goal (game winner), 2 assists, 27:46 of ice time
(3) Michael Nylander - 2 assists

Quick Hits

I'm really glad the Capitals are able to come from behind to pick up wins now that Bruce Boudreau is coaching, but they have to try and prove it every game?
By my count there were four times in the first period alone that the puck bounced over the stick of Caps defensemen at the Montréal blue line.
In his return to the Capitals lineup Steve Eminger played just 6:32, which was 3:01 less than forward Donald Brashear and less than any other player in the game on either team. This organization really has clearly lost faith in him.
Michael Nylander had only 13:13 of ice time.
For whatever reason the Montréal media didn't feel that Mike Green's game winner, two assists and +1 rating were worthy of making him one of the three stars. Raisins aigres, non?
Ovechkin made a great play coming out of the penalty box to break in and score his second goal but without the great look and pass from John Erskine the play doesn't happen.
On the play that resulted in the game winner I'm pretty sure everyone in the building - including Mike Green - expected Nylander to shoot, not pass.
Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin were really laying into Carey Price. Joe B. described Backstrom's goal as "making [Price] look like a rec leaguer" and after Gordon's slapshot goal Laughlin said Price looked disgusted with himself "and he should be".

All photos AP

Hey, Look at That! A Journalist with Common Sense!

2008-01-05T00:44:00.000-05:00

In the wake of the myriad of articles proclaiming Alex Ovechkin might/will/should/could leave Washington after this season, there's one breath of fresh air, courtesy of Fox Sports' Spector:

The Washington Capitals will re-sign Alexander Ovechkin. Some pundits and rumormongers are conjuring up dream scenarios of where he could or should be dealt or sign as a restricted free agent because the Capitals haven't re-signed him yet.
It's nonsense. Ovechkin is the Capitals' franchise player, whom team owner Ted Leonsis sees as the foundation upon which to rebuild the team. It's taking longer than some expected but the Caps appear to be on the right track, and their front office has no intention of ditching Ovechkin.

The only reason these rumors are popping up is because the Caps haven't re-signed Ovechkin yet, but those dreaming up these preposterous theories conveniently overlook that it's still seven long months until July 1, 2008, when he'd become a restricted free agent and eligible to receive offer sheets.
They're also overlooking the fact that the Capitals have the right to match any offer and will. They're not about to lose a franchise player for first-round picks. It's also possible the Caps could take Ovechkin to arbitration simply to prevent him from receiving an offer sheet.

Then:

As with Ovechkin in Washington, the Calgary Flames will re-sign defenseman Dion Phaneuf. The only reason there's not as much silly speculation about Phaneuf's future is because in the minds of many fantasists he plays in a "real" hockey town that "deserves" him.

So there. They aren't all crazy.

Habs/Caps Preview

2008-01-04T22:43:00.001-05:00

Washington Capitals at Montréal Canadiens
Saturday, January 5th, 12:30 PM
Bell Centre in Montréal, Québec

The Canadiens are actually a lot like the Capitals last opponent, the Boston Bruins: they've been successful by playing tight defense, have a deep blue line, a solid goalie and aren't dependent on one player to score. And although they're built in much the same way, they're much better than the Bruins. But the Habs were also outshot by the Capitals 37-21 the last time the two teams played (12/20, in D.C.), so the karma should be on the Caps side. Plus the Habs haven't been playing well on home ice so far this season.

It seems silly to keep saying it, but this is an important game. The Islanders, Bruins, Flyers, Maple Leafs, Panthers and Rangers are all in action tomorrow and all lead the Capitals by seven points or less. With a win tomorrow, and a little luck, the Caps could be in a great position to pull themselves into a playoff spot during their upcoming five-game homestand. With a loss, they're likely to still be in a very deep hole.

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About the Opponent

Montréal Canadiens (20-13-7, 47 points, second in the Northeast Division, fourth in the Eastern Conference)

Team Leaders
Goals: Alexei Kovalev (17)
Assists: Saku Koivu (24)
Points: Alexei Kovalev (36)
Plus/Minus: tie - Christopher Higgins and Roman Hamerlik (+6)
Penalty Minutes: Tom Kostopoulos (66)
Fights: Tom Kostopoulos (6)

Betcha Didn't Know....
When the Canadiens traded José Théodore on March 8th, 2006 they were left with Cristobal Huet and David Aebischer as their goalies - the first time the team did not have at least one French-Canadian goalie on their team since the 1965-66 season.

Random Canadiens Statistic
Center Tomas Plekanec has been a plus player every North American he's played for, every season he's played in where he dressed for more than two games - three in the AHL and two and half (including this season) in the NHL. In a pair of two game stints (one in the AHL, one in the NHL) Plekanec was even each time, meaning he has never posted a minus rating in North America.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Stay out of the box. I swear I have other keys to the game and I'm not going to run this one out every time. The Canadiens are the best in the NHL (24.2%) on the powerplay and powerplay goals account for 36.9% of their total goals.

Montréal
Get ahead early. The Canadiens can be a shutdown team in their own end and have two very good goalies in Huet and Carey Price, so if the Habs score first score first it could be very difficult for Washington to mount a comeback.

Players to Watch

Washington
Alexander Ovechkin - after a four-goal game, followed by a two-assist game, (both against the Senators) Ovechkin was left point-less (as well his teammates) against Boston. Given that Ovechkin loves showcasing his talent in Canada, he's unlikely to go two games in a row without registering a goal (let alone a point) and the Capitals could pull to within four points of a playoff spot with a win in today's game, look for Ovechkin to again come up big.

Montréal
Cristobal Huet/Carey Price - the last time these two teams met Huet had 35 saves on 37 shots. Price was the fifth overall pick in the 2005 draft, put up a .936 save percentage in the playoffs last year en route to a Calder Cup win for the Hamilton Bulldogs (over the Hershey Bears) and has shown that he can cope with the bright lights and high expectations of Montréal fan at the age of 20. With either in net the Caps have their work cut out for them.

Capitals Midseason Report Card

2008-01-04T14:07:00.000-05:00

With last night's loss to Boston the Capitals have played their first 41 games on the 2007-08 season, reaching the midpoint and finding themselves six points out of playoff spot and ten points out of first in the Southeast Division. So how has the team stacked up this season? How have individual players fared? I'll look at these questions two ways: by rating each group of players (forwards, defense, goaltenders) on an absolute A-F scale and also at the team as a whole, as well as individual players, based on how they have performed relative to their preseason expectations.

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Team as a Whole: B-; meeting expectations
That might seem like a surprisingly high grade given how much distress Capitals fans have been forced to endure this year but I think it's appropriate. If you go back to the season's outset the most reasonable expectation for the Capitals was that they were a team that could contend for a playoff spot but could also easily fall just short. Thus being in playoff contention is, to me, meeting expectations.

But if you were to go back to the beginning of the season and wonder what would happen if, through the first 41 games, Alexander Semin was going to play only 23 (and be less than 100% much of the time when playing), Chris Clark only 17, Tom Poti only 34 and Boyd Gordon only 26, with two or more often overlapping and then assess what could expected of the Capitals performance I think you'd have to say they'd be lucky not to be dead in the water. And that's where the team is now - at six points out of playoff spot and ten points out of the division lead they've performed quite well given the injuries they've had.

Forwards - B-
The forward corps hasn't been nearly as explosive as people hoped, as a number of players have underachieved in some facet (Fleischmann, Kozlov, Pettinger) and others have struggled with injuries (Semin, Clark). They have played pretty well defensively however, and with scoring down around the NHL the difference between expected output and actual output can be chalked up (somewhat) to a league-wide drop in scoring.

Exceeding Expectations

Nicklas Backstrom - on the year maybe his numbers aren't any higher than expected (29 points in 41 games), but that's changing fast - Backstrom put up 14 points in 13 games in December and was named rookie of the month. Even if his numbers aren't to the point where just looking at them will indicate he has surpassed what people expected him to do, he has shown far more poise and defensive acumen than could be expected of any player his age.

Brooks Laich - has been a versatile member of the team, competing hard in every game and is on pace for a career-high in points, despite not playing as important a role as in years past.

Quintin Laing - the fact that he's in the NHL at all means he's exceeded expectations. The fact that he's been a solid contributer in his own end and on the penalty kill means he's exceeded them by far.

Alexander Ovechkin - a little surprising maybe, given how high expectations were after his first two season. But The Great Eight is on pace for 60 goals and is tied for the team lead in plus/minus (after being the worst in that category last season). I don't think anyone expected him to be this good.

Meeting Expectations

Matt Bradley - Bradley is generally playing a tough, physical game and is avoiding making crucial mistakes. Just what you'd want from a fourth line grinder.

Donald Brashear - Brash is still one of the best fighters in the league, plays smart and knows his role. His lack of speed is an obvious and exploitable problem though.

Boyd Gordon - I had hopes Gordon would get his offensive game to click and provide some offensive in addition to his checking prowess but, truthfully, I didn't expect it. Has done a great job on faceoffs and in his own end.

Viktor Kozlov - some people have criticized Kozlov for having only four goals at this point and while he should be finishing more effectively, he is tied for second on the team in assists, tied for first in plus/minus and is second in shots.

Michael Nylander - Nylander in borderline between meeting expectations and falling short of them. He is producing fairly well (33 points in 37 games) and serving as a mentor to Backstrom, but he has also failed to click with Alexander Ovechkin and his -16 rating is not only worst on the team - it's one of the worst in the league.

Dave Steckel - in camp Caps fans heard a lot about how Steckel had been working at the craft of winning draws and was a solid defensive player but I don't think anyone expected him to be as useful as he has been shorthanded on in the faceoff circle. Still, for a guy who put up 30 goals and 61 points in Hershey last year, Steckel has shown little in the offensive end.

Playing Below Expectations

Matt Pettinger - put up 68 points in 135 games over the last two season, while shooting 14.69%. This season has 5 points in 39 games and is shooting 2.74%. His -11 is the second worst rating on the team.

Tomas Fleischmann - has put up big numbers in the AHL (114 points in 102 games since 2005) but has only 12 points in 37 games this season, far too few for a skilled forward expected to play a top six role.

Incomplete

Chris Clark - has played in only 17 games due to injuries during which he's looked solid but unspectacular.

Alexander Semin - has missed 18 games due to injury and often not played when completely healthy. Has looked dominant at times and invisible at others, probably due to his ankle injury.

Defense - B+
Expected to be the weak point of the team, the Caps defense has been much better than expected, contributing quite a bit offensively (Green, Poti, Pothier) and being much better at limiting the kinds of growing pains in their own end that you'd expect from the league's youngest defense.

Exceeding Expectations

Mike Green (pictured) - Green flashed his talent at times last year but not too many people expected him to be competing for the lead in goals among NHL defensemen - or rushing the puck 175 feet on a regular basis.

Brian Pothier - on pace for the same number of points as last year but is also seeing much less ice time, especially on the powerplay. Tied for the team leader in plus/minus.

Jeff Schultz - already has five goals and eight points, more goals and the same number of points I expected for him on the season. While Schultz is still somewhat inconsistent in his own end his is doing a better job than I expected he would, and a very good job for his age.

Meeting Expectations

John Erskine - not playing every night, but he knew that would be the case. Is tough in front of his own net when he does play. Had a couple big defensive mistakes but his six points in 19 games are more than you'd expect.

Shaone Morrisonn - started the season poorly in terms of plus/minus but seemed to get back on track once he was no longer paired with Jurcina, and is now back in the positive (+1). Playing good defense but not showing improvement in the offensive end.

Tom Poti - no goals, but playing the point well on the powerplay, leading the team in ice time and has been a solidifying presence on the back line.

Playing Below Expectations

Milan Jurcina - going into the season there was hope he could be a quality physical shut-down defender. Has looked like a borderline NHL'er.

Incomplete

Steve Eminger - he's only seen action in two games. What other category could he be in?

Goaltenders (there's only two, so I won't break them into categories)

Olaf Kolzig - below expectations. The numbers (3.02 GAA, .889 save percentage) have been painful; the abundance of soft goals even more so. Seems to be coming out of his funk right now, but most certainly has not been as good as expected.

Brent Johnson - met expectations. Been able to come in off the bench and give his team a chance to win most of the time.

Best in Class: Alex Ovechkin. C'mon, it's not even close

Most Improved: Mike Green. He's gone from being a talented kid with great skating stride to one of the best and most exciting offensive defenseman in the entire league...in less than a year.

Most Studious: Dave Steckel, for his attention to detail in the faceoff circle and penalty kill and attention to his diet which requires him to take in 8,000 calories daily.

All photos AP/Getty

Peter Forsberg Looking to Return to NHL

2008-01-04T14:06:00.000-05:00

According to TSN Peter Forsberg wants to return to the NHL. The Capitals need a right wing (where Foppa is best suited due to his injury trouble) to displace Fleischmann and play with Ovechkin on the first line and have a talented young Swede people are calling "the next Forsberg".

Hey, a guy can dream can't he?

Caps Chat!

2008-01-04T13:13:00.000-05:00

Caps Chat (or as the Post calls it "Capitals Live Discussion") with Tarik is back!

Truthfully, now that it's over, I don't have much to add to anything Tarik said. He did a phenomenal job. I will note this though:

Atlanta: Mr El-Bashir,

The Bruins' second goal last night (where Schultz and Kolzig were tangled up) has raised a little debate today. Do you think Schultz was "outmuscled" down low or do you think it was a case of Kobasew giving him a well-timed nudge while the two were skating together? Should it have been a penalty or crease violation on Kobasew?

Tarik El-Bashir: I think it was a well-time shove. But I also think it should have been an interference call. I mean, when a team is already down two players, the refs can't allow the opposing team to intentionally take out the goalie, too, right? Kobasew knew exactly what he was doing.

Apparently it's me and Tarik against the rest of the blogosphere.

Bruins/Capitals Recap

2008-01-03T23:59:00.000-05:00

Capitals 0, Bruins 2

In what comes as a shock to almost no one, the Capitals, missing Alexander Semin, Chris Clark and Tom Poti, playing one of the league's better defensive teams and Donald Brashear on the second line, struggled to put the puck in the net. In a surprise to anyone who's ever watched a hockey game, it is no longer an interference penalty to push a player without the puck into his own goaltender, causing the goaltender to be knocked onto the ice out of position.

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I have two theories as to why Chuck Kobasew wasn't called for interference for knocking Jeff Schultz into Olaf Kolzig and knocking Kolzig over in the process. One is that the referees were so overwhelmed by the two penalties committed by Kobasew on the play (and the borderline "player-in-the-crease" call) that they stood shell-shocked, unable to raise their arms. The other is that this is now a legal play, another hare-brained attempt by Gary Bettman to raise scoring in the league by letting players shoot at an open net, an idea only slightly worse than the trapezoid and the delay of game call for shooting the puck over the glass in the defensive zone.

As a preemptive measure to criticism I'm sure is to come I'd like to point out that the Capitals did not have a terrible night offensively. They had 31 shots, a number of good chances and moved the puck well. They hit the post at least three times, meaning they were less than six collective inches from winning the game. That said, they still should have done a better job of finishing and not let themselves get shutout by Tim Thomas who, to his credit, did have a very good game in net for the Bruins.

It's hard to remember sometimes under Boudreau, but even the best teams lose games.

Quick Hits

I don't think there's any way to make it through this without mentioning Joe Beninati's bright blue suit and tie combination. Been taking style advice from Bruce Boudreau and Don Cherry have we, Joe?
Craig Laughlin - Randy Jones was suspended three games for his hit from behind on Bergeron, he didn't get off scot-free. Research, guys!
Comcast Sportnet - who the heck is Mike DiPietro?
Kolzig's first period was a good a period as any he's had this year.
Not only is Milan Lucic an exciting young prospect, he's also a heck of a nice guy. I mean you have to be pretty generous to let John Erskine use your face as a punching bag, right?
Apparently Brian Pothier is hurt again. Eminger? Please?

Bruins/Capitals Preview

2008-01-02T22:27:00.000-05:00

Washington Capitals at Boston Bruins
Thursday January 3rd, 2008, 7:00 PM
TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, Massachusetts

Coming off a home and home sweep of the Ottawa Senators that could be deemed "improbable" the Capitals embark on a two-game road trip in Boston tonight, facing a Bruins team with a decent record due to Marc Savard's playmaking savvy, Tim Thomas playing beyond his ability and Zdeno Chara's ability to (1) stymie top opposition forwards, (2) rip the puck from the point and (3) beat the crap out of some guy named Dave Koci. Beyond that the B's haven't impressed too much this year and the team ranks 20th in goals scored per game and 17th in goal differential - and this is with a guy with a career .913 save percentage playing to the tune of .929 so far. Make no mistake about it, without Thomas playing the way he has the Bruins aren't over .500 at this point. The team doesn't have great offensive depth and isn't a tight checking team in the mold of Minnesota or New Jersey either. Frankly, they're mediocre and Thomas will come back to earth soon enough - why not against the Capitals?

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About the Opponent

Boston Bruins (19-16-4 42 points, 3rd in the Northeast Division, 9th in the Eastern Conference)

Team Leaders
Goals: Chuck Kobasew (14)
Assists: Marc Savard (34)
Points: Marc Savard (42)
Penalty Minutes: Zdeno Chara (69)

Betcha Didn't Know...
The Capitals have outdrawn the Bruins in terms of home attendance six of the last ten years.

Random Bruins Statistic
The Bruins are ranked 25th in the NHL in shots taken per game and 26th in shots allowed per game.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Stay out of the box. The Bruins are not a strong offensive team - they rank 20th in goals per game, 25th in shots per game and behind Marc Savard their leading point producers are Zdeno Chara and Marco Sturm, who each have 23 points (in 39 and 38 games, respectively) - but they are 7th in the league with a powerplay that clicks at a 20.3% rate.

Boston
Move the puck. As has been painfully obvious to Capitals fans, Olaf Kolzig no longer has very good lateral movement; the Bruins have several players who are good at moving the puck and their defensive corps can shoot, giving them lots of options. If the Bruins can move the puck and get it on net, they're odds of scoring go way up, because there isn't a whole lot of sniping talent on this roster.

Players to Watch

Washington
Viktor Kozlov - Kozlov has struggled to put the puck in the net this season. Hopefully his goal against Ottawa opens the floodgates. The Caps could use one from him, as Tom Poti is going to miss the game, Alex Semin is questionable and Ovechkin could have his hands full with Zdeno Chara all night.

Boston
Milan Lucic - Some Boston fans have proclaimed the 6'4'', 220 pound Lucic the second coming of Cam Neely for his size, scoring touch, hitting strength and willingness to drop the gloves. While Lucic doesn't have Neely's hands (he'll never score 50 goals in 49 games) he is a great power forward prospect with solid offense upside who should wind up being like Chris Neil with more offensive talent. Although Lucic's offensive skill isn't at the point where the Caps have to gameplan for him he could change the game with a big hit or fight...but honestly the real reason he's on here is is that I think he's real fun to watch and want to alert other Caps fans to him.

Zdeno Chara - For all his talents Chara is neither particularly swift nor particularly agile - can he keep up with Ovechkin?

Prediction:
The Bruins aren't as talented as the Caps and with the Capitals playing how they are right now they should roll over the B's. Not even Tim Thomas can save you now, Beantown faithful. Caps win 5-2.

Caps top Sens (again)

2008-01-01T16:41:00.000-05:00

Capitals 6, Senators 3

After being surprisingly well outplayed for the first five minutes the Capitals swiftly mounted a comeback, taking a lead less than three minutes later and controlling the game for most of the remaining fifty-five minutes. Who's the first place team and who's the last place team again?

What the Capitals are showing is that they are a playoff caliber team. With this win they are 10-5-4 under Boudreau (a 104 point pace), have beaten Ottawa twice, tied Detroit and been competitive in every game they've played. The only questions at this point are whether they were in too deep a hole when Boudreau took over and whether or not they can stay healthy.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Mike Green - 2 goals, 1 assist, +3
(2) Brooks Laich - 1 goal (game winner), 1 assist, +2
(3) Alexander Ovechkin - 2 assists, 5 hits, +1

Quotable

"You can tell they feel confident playing us. I mean, you see them playing tonight, you'd think they would be at the top of the standings."

-Senators Captain Daniel Alfredsson

Quick Hits

Throwing Ray Emery into an already physical, high-tempo, high-pressure game? I guess that's what you'd call the "lesser of two evils".
Apparently Craig Laughlin either thinks Alexander Semin is a defenseman or thinks the average NHL team dresses only five defensemen. This may also be due to the fact that he apparently thinks NHL teams dress nineteen players for games.
Pettinger's apparently still snakebitten - he made a good read, took the puck to the net and got off a nice shot which was met by Martin Gerber's only good save of the afternoon and was later stopped by Emery on what Craig Laughlin called the "save of the game".
Bad decision by Semin to go after Chris Phillips and negate the upcoming powerplay. Bad call by the referees as well. Each should have received two for roughing and Phillips should have received two more for boarding.
When a guy like Brashear can protect players and lay heavy hits he's doing his job, but when he's able to get the other team to take penalties you can't ask for anything more.
When Hanlon did it I was critical of playing Brashear on the powerplay, however I think it was the right decision to put him out there for the last 23 seconds of the first after the Senators went down two men for a couple reasons, neither of which is that I love Coach Boudreau. One is that between the war of words coming from the Sens after last game (sore losers), the way the Senators were clearly frustrated with Brashear and Ray Emery's temper it was possible that the Senators could take yet another stupid penalty going after Brash. The other is that with how frustrated the Ottawa players were getting it wouldn't have been surprising to see rough stuff erupt at the buzzer without a guy like Brash on the ice.

All photos AP

Gameday Preview: Capitals/Senators Round II

2008-01-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned before I'd gotten a bit lazy during the holiday season because, well, that's what the holidays are all about. As part of my laziness I'd stopped writing gameday previews. Well, I'm trying to start the New Year off right (so far, so good) and with that in mind I've adopted a new format for gameday previews. As always, suggestions as to what sections aren't really helpful or interesting, what it might be nice to add or layout suggestions are welcome. And awaaaaay we go!

Ottawa Senators at Washington Capitals
Tuesday January 1, 2008, 4:00 pm
Verizon Center in Washington D.C.

For all their struggles this year the Capitals have been able to handle the Senators, the Eastern Conference's best team, notching a 4-1 victory on November 8th and a wild 8-6 win December 29th to close out 2007. It might seem too much to expect to think the Capitals can defeat the best in the East three times in a row but then, how implausible did it seem they would beat them in November? How plausible did it seem they would beat the Sens two games in a row? You can bet Coach Boudreau and the boys are expecting a win tomorrow afternoon and Caps fans should too.

About the Opponent

Ottawa Senators (25-9-4, 54 points, 1st in the Northeast Division, 1st in the Eastern Conference)

Team Leaders
Goals: Daniel Alfredsson (24)
Assists: Jason Spezza (35)
Points: Dany Heatley (52)
Penalty Minutes: Chris Neil (98)

Betcha Didn't Know....
The modern-day Senators were founded by real estate developer Bruce Firestone, who suggested it to other executives at his company (Terrace Investments) after a game of shinny.

Random Senators Statistic:
During the 2004-05 season Brian McGrattan had 551 penalty minutes in 71 games for the Senators AHL affiliate in Binghamton, New York.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Stay out of the box. The Senators have so much firepower that it's a challenge just to stop them 5-on-5, so the Capitals can't afford to give them extra opportunities.

Ottawa
Outwork the Capitals. There's no doubt Ottawa is the better team but the Capitals, especially after Boudreau took over, work in all three zones and play a full sixty minutes. The Senators will have to match that if they want to win. As Coach Boudreau said, "Hockey is a simple game. It come down to the will and the want. If you want it more than them, and you're willing to pay the price more than them, you're going to have success."

Players to Watch

Washington
Olaf Kolzig - Kolzig has been struggling over the last several weeks and although he has looked better he hasn't has that great game to let everyone know he's back on track. With how much firepower the Senators have Kolzig can't allow any softies and may have to make a big save or two for the Capitals to win.

Ottawa
Mike Fischer - He's not going to put up another hat trick, but Fischer's performance in this game could be the difference between a win and a loss for the Senators. If Fischer can build off last game's outburst and be the catalyst for secondary scoring Senators fans and management hope he can the team becomes a lot harder to handle. A team with two scoring threat lines is always harder to handle than a team with only one - even if that one is Heatley, Spezza and Alfredsson.

Prediction:
Both teams button down and play tight defense after the 8-6 shootout north of border a few days ago, with the Capitals prevailing 3-2 in front of a large (and enthusiastic) New Year's matinée crowd.

Capitals Players Looking to Turn a Corner Heading into the New Year

2007-12-31T11:24:00.001-05:00

Resolutions, promises, a fresh start: What better time than New Year's Eve to take a look at some of the players on the Capitals who look like they're going to (and need to) turn a corner in the very near future?

Without further ado, here are a half-dozen Caps players who will be looking to elevate their game start January 1st against the Senators:

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Tomas Fleischmann - Flash has nothing left to prove at the AHL level, where he's scored 114 points in 102 games since 2005, but he hasn't been able to consistently contribute offensively in Washington. I think Flash stands a pretty good chance at getting on the scoresheet on a regular basis now that he's becoming aware that he is not skilled enough to get by on skill alone and has hence started working harder without the puck and driving to the net. I'm still not completely sold on Fleischmann though and time is starting to run out for him, although you'd have to think that if he's ever going to show he can play at the NHL level it would be under another relatively slight winger who showed a ton of skill in the minors but couldn't stick in the NHL.

Viktor Kozlov - Kozlov hasn't been as bad as some Caps fans seem to think (a number of people have recently advocated his benching in the comments on Capitals Insider). He's second on the team in assists and shots and is getting his chances - he just needs to start converting them. And he will.

Olaf Kolzig - After allowing six goals on 22 shots against Ottawa (despite not playing all that poorly) Kolzig's save percentage is down to .888 and his GAA up to 3.02. His numbers haven't been stellar and he's let in a number of soft goals, but he has been playing better recently, even if the numbers don't show it. With Johnson out 2-4 weeks and with the team playing well and gaining ground in the playoff race the Capitals need Kolzig to be a solid presence in net.

Matt Pettinger - In a season that has been disappointing thus far for Capitals fans perhaps no single player has been as disappointing as Pettinger, who has only five points in 37 games and was a healthy scratch against Ottawa. But the numbers look worse than Pettinger's play has been - while Pettinger has only two goals he is getting his chances and his shots per game average (1.86) is about the same as what it's been the last couple years (1.81), and you don't go from being a guy who shoots better than 14% to a guy who shoots under 3% without some bad luck in there. Although Pettinger has only three assists he has played much of the year with Boyd Gordon and David Steckel, neither of whom is finding the net on a regular basis. At this point I think Pettinger's problem is largely mental - he looked like he was on his game early in the year and I think the lack of success he's had playing his game started to get to him, he started to doubt himself, got off his game and has looked a little lost. Hopefully sitting out a game or two helps him get his head back together and boosts his on-ice performance.

Jeff Schultz - Schultz is a defensive defenseman, so unlike Kolzig or Kozlov it might not be as obvious when he turns a corner and is able to elevate his game. Rather than flashy goals or saves, Schultz is at his best when he plays positionally, frustrates opponents and avoids mistakes. Not especially jaw-dropping stuff, but it's an important role nonetheless. Sarge has been looking smarter and more comfortable almost by the game and is close to becoming a very solid backline presence. Schultz has also taken some heat for not being physical enough given his size (6'5'', 215) and the nature of his game. I don't think it's that Schultz won't initiate contact, I think it's that he doesn't want to draw himself out of position trying to deliver a big hit. As he become more aware and more confident in his own end watch for his physical game to improve as well.

David Steckel - I conceived this post a couple weeks ago, but the holidays make me lazy (you know it happens to you too) and I wish that I'd written it up before before Steckel three-point performance against Tampa Bay, but here it goes anyway: Steckel has received praise from Caps management and fans for doing jobs that are all too often underappreciated (playing a defensive role, faceoffs, penalty kills) and so it's become easy to forget that he put up 61 points (30+31) in 71 games for Hershey last year. While Steckel will never be a great scorer at the NHL level he has enough talent to chip in offensively on a consistent basis. Lately he's looked more comfortable in the offensive end, going to the net more often, being more assertive and showing better vision, so I'd expect some points to follow.

Wild One in Ottawa: Caps Beat Sens 8-6

2007-12-30T01:27:00.000-05:00

Capitals 8, Senators 6

On one hand the Capitals scored eight times against the best team in the Eastern Conference, held the Senators to just two shots (!) in the first period and dominated the play for much of the game. On the other hand they also let the Senators get a number of good scoring chances, gave up two short-handed goals and nearly squandered the three-goal lead they have going into the third. Incidentally, the officiating was terrible.

Offensively the Capitals eight goal output speaks for itself, but the question as to why this offensive outburst is relevant and I think it's because of the way the top two lines are put together; that right now the Ovechkin/Backstrom/Kozlov and Fleischmann/Nylander/Semin combinations are ideal.

Obviously first line discussion begins with Ovechkin. Backstrom looks like a better center for him because he plays the type of game Ovechkin does (fast moving, looking to jump on opponent's mistakes) better than Nylander, who is more inclined to play a puck-control game and wait for something to open up. Viktor Kozlov seems to play a better game and have more energy and confidence when he plays with Ovechkin and since Fleischmann and Semin don't seem to be able to click with the Great Eight the Caps aren't missing much by having those guys on line two. Plus, Semin and Nylander seem to work pretty well together as Nylander is content to hold the puck and wait for Semin to find a seam in the opposition's defense. And once Semin gets the puck with a little time and space in the slot, look out.

Defensively the Capitals were all over the place, oftentimes dominant but also unsettlingly easy to break. That's not to take anything away from the Senators - the plays by Fisher and Alfredsson to get shorthanded breakaways were great plays, as were Fischer's deflections and Spezza's slapshot (though Kolzig should have that one). It might be tempting for Caps fans to do some hand-wringing over it but I, for one, am not too concerned because these goals aren't going to happen all that often. Kolzig has looked pretty solid the last few games and I think he's done allowing really soft goals on a regular basis, Tom Poti's not going to put one in his own net off his hand very often, the opposition isn't generally going to get two goals off great deflections and the Caps have generally been solid enough defensively they won't allow as many odd-man rushes as they did last night. The Caps had an off-night defensively against a very good offensive team. It happens to every team and until it happens at least in consecutive games I won't worry about it.

Speaking of off-nights, the referees didn't have their best night either (to say the least). They missed at least one too-many-men call for each team, missed Brashear getting Gerber behind the Sens net, called Fleischmann for hooking a Senators player but not a Senators player for hooking Fleischmann only a second earlier (which caused the turnover and led to the hook by Flash), got Morrisonn for interference but not the Senators playing for holding onto Morrisonn's jersey on the way down (see picture) and let Kozlov get run into the boards, from behind, without the puck, after the whistle by Chris Phillips. The only consolation is that it didn't seem to affect the outcome of the game - the Capitals were the better team and won.

The Caps picked up one point relative to the last playoff spot in the East and are now only five out.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Alex Ovechkin - 4 goals, 1 assist, +2...who else could it be?
(2) Alex Semin - 1 goal, 2 assists
(3) Nicklas Backstrom - 1 goal, 2 assists, +1

Quick Hits

Poti's play to control the puck with his skates and make a quick pass to Ovechkin for Ovechkin's second goal could easily became the overlooked play of the game.
I mocked Chris Neil after his fight with Brashear but I have to hand it to the guy - apparently getting the crap kicked out of you is great way to fire up your team.
The only Capitals player who wasn't either positive or even in +/- was David Steckel.
I've really been wanting to have Ovechkin have a big game so I could say that the fire eye'd boy gave 'em all the slip. So...there's my ultra-smooth way to include indie music in my writeup.

All photos AP

Caps/Penguins Recap

2007-12-27T21:09:00.000-05:00

Capitals 3, Penguins 4 (OT)

It's funny how the Capitals seem to manage to find a way to make fairly successful games feel like soul-crushing losses. It happened in Detroit, it happened on Long Island and it happened again last night as the Capitals picked up a point in the second game of a back-to-back set in different cities, in which their struggling goaltender had to come off the bench (and not even the Caps' bench, the special Visiting Backup Goalie bench) due to injury, without their best player for the last ten minutes and in front of a hostile sell out crowd. Picking up a point on the road almost always deserves to be called a success and the Capitals were able to do so last night, pulling out of sole possession of the Eastern Conference basement.

That's not to say the team should be completely happy with pick up only one point in a game where they could have picked up two but not being shut out on the road is, at the very least, acceptable.

I think it'd be hard to overstate how well Olaf Kolzig played or the importance of seeing him play as well as he did. Aside of making several impressive saves Kolzig looked sharp, positionally and technically sound and confident. For the first time in months he looked like he was ready to be the backbone of the team again. I've already seen some Caps fans who want to blame Kolzig for the Penguins overtime goal, but it wasn't his fault. Sidney Crosby was driving to slot with the puck and made a great pass to send the puck over to a wide open Sergei Gonchar, who in turn took a great shot. For Kolzig to have made that save would have been quite impressive and you can't fault him for letting it get past.

Kolzig was solid against the Lightning and very good against the Pens, especially when you consider he had played the previous night and had to come in cold, and again it'd be hard to overstate how encouraging his recent play is. Even at his best Kolzig isn't going to be a dominant keeper or steal a lot of games but if he can play like he did last night every night the Capitals aren't going to have to worry about their goaltending.

It's still hard not to be a bit disappointed with the way this night played out. Going into the game a win, combined with favorable results around the league, could have put the Capitals just four points out of the Eastern Conference's last playoff spot. At the moment the Caps are still six out, having neither gained nor lost any ground last night.

One final note: the Pens resurgence that allowed them to come from behind started when Shaone Morrisonn was called for roughing with less than five minutes left. I didn't see the whole play since the cameras focused on the play but it looked like he was called for going into the boards with Evgeni Malkin and if that's the case it was a bad call. Morrisonn was going to play another Penguins player who had the puck (I believe it was Crosby) and Malkin stepped in, essentially setting a moving pick. Regardless of whether Morrisonn gave him more than he should have and earned the two for roughing it sure looked like Malkin should have been called for interference.

Quick Hits

Ovechkin's goal was made possible by a nice play by Backstrom - his decision to not play the puck.
Quite a nice night for Brashear - a goal, a fight and four hits (all of which came in the first period).
European players are often accused of being soft, but both Alexander Semin and Malkin both play with reckless abandon, get knocked around, get up and don't complain, as evidence by last night's game.
The shot Brian Pothier scored on was a bomb.
I miss Mark Tinordi.
Early indications are that Brent Johnson will have to miss 2-4 weeks with the injury he suffered last night. Word is that Ovechkin's injury was a cut, so he shouldn't miss any more time.

Eric Fehr Update

2007-12-26T23:54:00.000-05:00

It could have easily and understandably been missed, a short paragraph in the notes section at the end of Tarik's Washington Post writeup from last night's game, but it potentially has significant ramifications for the Capitals:

Prospect Eric Fehr, who has been out since February because of a mysterious hip ailment, recently has begun ramping up his rehabilitation with Hershey (Pa.) of the American Hockey League. General Manager George McPhee said last night that Fehr, a 2003 first-round draft pick, could play as soon as next month, though he likely would play in Hershey first. . . .

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The Capitals have struggled to get offense from the right wing position all season as Viktor Kozlov (three goals) and Tomas Fleischmann (eleven points) have not been as productive as it was hoped and Chris Clark and Alexander Semin (who's a natural left wing) missed significant time due to injury, and Fehr is regarded as a skilled offensive player who's especially adept at scoring goals. If Fehr does continue to get healthy it wouldn't be surprising to see Fehr called up and contributing with the Capitals once he's in game shape.

That might sound silly given that Fehr has two goals and one assist in 25 NHL games. But consider this: last year Fehr put up 21 goals, 19 assists, an 18.33 shooting percentage and was +20 in 40 games with the Bears. For a young prospect like Fehr those numbers generally mean they're ready to contribute at the next level.

Now it's possible that Fehr might not play at all this season, in D.C. or in Hershey and it's possible he may play in Hershey and not quite be able to get back into the swing of things enough to warrant an NHL call up this season. But the best case scenario, given the numbers that Fehr had in Hershey last season and the way other former Bears have responded under Boudreau, is that Fehr could come up for the last 10-15 games with the Capitals and provide the same kind of impact a solid deadline deal could during the final stretch run...provided the Caps are still in it at that point, of course.

Caps/Lightning Recap: Caps Win 3-2

2007-12-26T22:49:00.000-05:00

Capitals 3, Lightning 2

It took overcoming a hot goaltender on a video-reviewed goal in the final minutes of the third, but when the final horn sounded Capitals fan were able to breathe a sigh of relief as their team came out on top in a game that at times looked like it could become yet another game in which the Capitals outplayed the opposition but were unable to pull out a win.

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On the day Bruce Boudreau was rewarded with the removal of the "interim" tag from his title he proved his coaching mettle by juggling the lines to start the third period, which the Capitals in turn dominated. I don't mean to pick on Glen Hanlon but that really is the kind of adjustment that the Capitals didn't seem to be making when he was behind the bench this season.

While we're on the subject of coaches I thought I'd share a thought I had during the game: John Tortorella is sort of the NHL's version of Ozzie Guillen - he got lucky and won the championship one year because he was in the right place at the right time, not because he has any managerial talent and right now his most distinguishing characteristic is that he's a world-class blowhard.

The first period of this game was an example of what having a good goaltender versus an average goaltender can do for a team. In that period the Caps had twelve shots and three or four excellent scoring chances chances while the Lightning had nine shots and a one decent scoring chance, yet each team picked up one goal and they went into the intermission tied. That's what's great about having a guy play like Karri Ramo did that period - it takes a perfect play to beat and sometimes even that isn't enough (remember Ovechkin's chance on the powerplay?) That's why having a great goalie is such an advantage. As long as you score a decent number of goals and don't leave them out to dry six times a game, your team will win more than they'll lose.

In the Capitals net Olaf Kolzig had his first solid game in a while and while he wasn't spectacular, and I'm sure would have like to have the first goal back, his performance was a key part of the Capitals win. Even without making highlight-reel saves Kolzig gave his team enough confidence that they could play their game without having to be overly focused on their own end by correcting some of the mistakes he's made recently, specifically holding the post well and doing a better job with rebound control.

Final thought: this game wasn't nearly as close as the score and if Ramo hadn't made so many great saves the Capitals could have easily had six goals.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) David Steckel - 2 goals, 1 assist, +2
(2) Matt Bradley - 1 goal, 1 assist, +3
(3) Olaf Kolzig - 18 saves on 20 shots

Quick Hits

Kolzig didn't look very good on Vincent Lecavalier's goal, but that one is on Viktor Kozlov for first turning the puck over at the opponent's blue line and then failing to clear the puck out of the front of the net.
Pet peeve alert: people who yell "Shoot!" on the powerplay irritate me for oh so many reasons, the biggest being: the team has a much better chance of scoring by setting something up that by just shooting and when you're at the blue line and there's a 6'2'', 215 pound player bearing down on you and at least two of your teammates are open, what's the better play: to pass it off and to knock it into the opposition's skates and give them a shorthanded breakaway? It's especially bad when the team's powerplay is clicking (like the Caps was early last night) and generating shots (five in four minutes).
Alex Ovechkin is not playing his best game right now, registering no points against the Lightning while taking the Capitals only penalty and leading the team in giveaways with three and taking more than 59 minutes to register a shot against the Islanders on the 23rd.
Memo to last night's refs: it's still cross-checking even if it happens after the whistle. I'm all for letting players clear out the other team in front of the net with your hands, but cross-checking is a penalty because it's dangerous. It happening after the play doesn't make it any less so.
For most of the first two periods I kept thinking 'Geez, Pothier sure is shooting a lot for a guy coming off a broken thumb. I don't think that's such a good idea, if I were the coach I'd tell him to look for a pass'. This is why I am not a coach.
If the Capitals schedule consisted of playing the Lightning 82 times would Dave Steckel lead the league in goals?
If Steckel didn't, would Pothier?
Brooks Laich won 9 of 11 on faceoffs.
Tamp Bay had four minor penalties; the Capitals had one.

Caps/Isles Recap: Caps Downed 3-2 in OT

2007-12-22T22:27:00.000-05:00

Capitals 2, Islanders 3 (OT)

The Capitals would have been a bit fortunate to have come out of last night's game against the Islanders with two points. The teams were fairly evenly matched, but the Capitals were outshot (allegedly 31-16) and would have needed a little more luck than they had to pick up the two. But they deserved better than what they got: losing on a soft goal, in overtime, while their most dynamic defensemen lay behind the net with blood gushing out of a gash in his ear.

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In this morning's Washington Post Olaf Kolzig was quoted as saying "Over the last two weeks, going back to the Devils game in Jersey, I've probably given up a goal [each game] that I could be better on, that I can stop". At the risk of beating a dead horse, that was the case tonight. You can't fault Kolzig on either of the Islanders' first two goals. The first was in equal parts the fault of John Erskine, Jeff Schultz and Miroslav Satan. The second was bad luck more than anything else - you can't cover everywhere in the offensive zone and below the circles, fifteen feet from the net is a spot that has to be considered a low priority. Very nice play by Bill Guerin to put that one in.

But Park's goal in overtime was completely Olie's fault. It wasn't from a good angle, it wasn't with men in front of the net, it wasn't off a nice pass and it wasn't a rebound. It was a weak shot that, like so many this season, simply found its way through Kolzig's legs and into the net, and it wound up costing the Capitals an opportunity at an extra point.

This Capitals are currently seven points behind Florida for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. In the ten days alone Kolzig has cost the Capitals at least two points (from the Buffalo game) and legitimate chances at two more (against the Isles and Red Wings). With solid goaltending the Capitals could be in the Panthers' rearview mirror by this point. With good goaltending they could be knocking on the door, three points (or less) out of a playoff spot. Instead they're still seven out, with a huge hill in front of them.

I've been hard on Kolzig in recent days, I know. I'm not trying to be unfair - Kolzig is as classy as a professional athlete as there is and has done more for the Washington Capitals that any other play in terms of on-ice performance and off-ice activities. I'm hoping he turns it around, because he deserves success for his dedication, professionalism and loyalty to the Capitals. The good news is that Kolzig's problem is that he is allowing too many soft goals, not that he's regularly getting beat because his skills have clearly diminished. At this point Kolzig can still be a decent NHL goalie if he can stop letting so many soft goals in , but probably nothing more. Here's hoping he pulls it together and helps the Capitals pick up a lot of points in a hurry.

It sure would have seemed weird to say at the beginning of the season, but if the Capitals make the playoffs it might be in spite of Kolzig's play, not because of it.

Since Kolzig's debacle against the Sabres on the 13th, Ilya Bryzgalov has allowed five goals in 184 minutes of play and stopped 96 of 101 shots (95.05%), and won three games in a row.

Quotable

That, my friends, was a clinic.

-Islanders television commentator after Alexander Semin's second period goal

Quick Hits

Maybe this is silly to say coming from a Caps fan, but the ice looked pretty bad on The Island last night.
The Islanders television commentators also noted Ovechkin's contract running up and then mentioned that Ovechkin liked the team, like the city and that the Capitals had a lot of young talent to play with him. Funny how guys who aren't blinded by an original six/big market sense of entitlement see things so much differently, huh?
Lots of Caps fans were scratching their heads over the Erskine/Schultz pairing before the game due to the duo's lack of puckhandling skill and foot speed/agility. It appears the concerns were somewhat founded because these two factors lead directly to the Islanders' first goal.
The Islanders certainly helped the Caps out tonight, more than once taking themselves off the powerplay with penalties and more than once taking unnecessary penalties in the offensive zone.
The official stats say the Capitals had 16 shots on goal. I'd have to question that number. They definitely seemed to be getting ones on net that weren't being counted on the shot total (and for what it's worth the Islander television commentators agreed with me).

Caps Chat!

2007-12-21T14:29:00.000-05:00

CapsChat from Friday, with Tarik from the Post.

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Interesting selections:

Fairfax, Va.: The Caps rank dead-last in attendance this season and have always been near the bottom of the rankings even when the team was decent. I'm a huge fan of all Washington teams, but in the back of my mind, I get worried that the NHL may try to move the Caps if the attendance doesn't pick up. Are the Caps safe in D.C. or are they one or two seasons away from being the KC Caps?
Tarik El-Bashir: The Caps are safe in DC. Trust me on that one. And if you are basing "last in attendance" on ESPN.com's numbers, those are really off.

There's announced attendance and there's real attendance. Some teams give away 3,000-4,000 tickets per night to boost their announced attendance. The Caps give away less than 1,000.

The "real" numbers are known only to the owners and the NHLPA execs.

That said, the Caps' attendance on most nights stinks. It should be much better. But a winning team would help a lot.

The Capitals are not owned by the NHL. They are owned by Ted Leonsis. Leonsis would have to want to move them, not the NHL. And given that Leonsis owns the Mystics and is in line to buy the Wizards and the Verizon Center, there's no chance he'll be moving this team anywhere.

Friendship Heights: Any frustration from Caps management/coaches about their offseason free-agent acquisitions?
Poti has yet to score, Kozlov has only three goals despite getting a lot of ice time with Ovechkin and Nylander is a minus 15 and all three seem to be MIA for long stretches of games.
Or were these just bad signings and a reflection of management not the players?
Tarik El-Bashir: I don't think anyone is overly disappointed in Poti. But he does need to start playing with more consistency. A goal (or five) would be nice, too.

Kozlov, on the other hand, has been a disappointment. I don't think anyone would argue that. Not even him.

I haven't got a good feel for how management views Nylander. He's putting up points, but he does seem to be on the ice a lot when the other team scores. As Boudreau said, some people think plus-minus is a flawed stat. But, as he said, if one player has a much higher minus than everyone else, something is wrong.

I really wish Kozlov would stop smiling when he missing his chances. Other than that I don't really have much to add. It's an excellent question.

Atlanta: I agree that Kolzig has been hung out to dry on a number of the goals against him this year, but he's also let in a lot of soft ones on wraparounds, rebounds he could have controlled better and especially through the 5-hole. Given that the team is playing pretty well right now but Kolzig is not, is there any indication the team (or coach) is losing confidence in him?
Tarik El-Bashir: I spoke to Boudreau today about Olie. He said he wants Olie to pick up his play, but that Olie is still his guy. I did find it interesting, though, that he didn't name Olie the starter for tomorrow

My question. So you know it's important.

Finn: Tarik,
What is your honest opinion of Kolzig based on his play this season? Do you think it was a mistake by the Caps not to pick up Bryzgalov? Would Bryzgalov as an UFA cost the team less than Kolzig at $5.45 million?
Thank you.
Tarik El-Bashir: I'm told the Caps didn't pick up Bryzgalov because they were concerned about upsetting the dressing room's chemistry.

But if I were running the team, I would have snagged him. Because even if you're not going to re-sign him, you could flip him at the deadline for a high-round pick.

Thank you, Finn. Thank you, Tarik. I have defended McPhee in the past, but I just don't understand this move. Bryzgalov is better than both Johnson and Kozlig, is a legitimate number one goaltender, is fairly young (27), could have been had for nothing and would serve to bridge the gap between Kolzig and Neuvirth/Varlamov very well.

McLean: Nylander is no Hart candidate, but isn't part of his role to be a mentor to the rookie Backstrom? That's worth something outside of the stats.
Tarik El-Bashir: That is very true. The two of them spend a lot of time together at practice, in the dressing room and on the road. Nyls has definitely taken Backstrom under his wing.

That cannot be underestimated.

Atlanta: Speaking of Kozlov as a disappointment -- how do Coach Boudreau and others in management feel about the fact Kozlov is frequently seen smiling/laughing after missing good scoring chances?

Tarik El-Bashir: I was just talking about this with someone. He's obviously not happy that he missed the net, or that he's struggling. It's just an unfortunate expression that he makes.

Me again! I had considered that - you know what they say: "sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying".

Frederick, Md.: I don't get putting Erskine in Pothier's place over Eminger. Eminger and Pothier play a similar style where Erskine is more compatible with Jurcina or Schultz in terms of a big body. Just me?
Tarik El-Bashir: I asked Boudreau about that today. He said that Erskine has been the No. 7 all year, so he's the first to go into the lineup when someone gets injured.

Erskine later told me that he was scheduled to play tomorrow anyway as a part of the D-man rotation.

My thoughts exactly. I still think Eminger is better than Erskine. Hopefully he gets a chance to prove it, getting in the rotation now that Pothier is hurt.

Too Good to be True

2007-12-21T14:02:00.000-05:00

Yet another article proclaiming Alexander Ovechkin is possibly headed on his way out, this one is from the Montreal Gazette and titled "Ovechkin joining Habs rare rumour that has legs". Alright, so fans of Les Habitants can dream, can't they? But the best part of this article is this:

All it will take is, oh, $120 million over 15 years and a slew of first-round picks.

Caps fans should hope so! Given that the Capitals can match any offer another team signs Ovechkin to, if Ovechkin were accept that offer sheet what he would be doing would be assuring that he would be in a Capitals uniform until he's 37, at the cost of eight million dollars a year to the Capitals. Think the Caps would take that chance? I do. Of course, Ovechkin knows this (unlike oh so many stupid journalists) and unless he's willing to commit to D.C. for that long, he won't sign a 15-year offer sheet.

And I can't help being offended by this:

Or the Canadiens can go another route: If the Capitals are reasonably certain they're bound to lose Ovechkin, the Habs might be able to swing a multi-player deal, offering Washington any player on the roster not named Carey Price. The Canadiens get Ovechkin, while the Caps get a balanced lineup capable of winning hockey games.

and referring anyone to an earlier response I had to a similar proposal: No young talent? No depth on the team or in the farm system? Alexander Semin, Shaone Morrison, Boyd Gordon, Matt Pettinger, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, Jeff Schultz, Karl Alzner, Josh Godfrey, Semen Varlamov, Michael Neuvirth, Chris Bourque, Francois Bouchard, Sasha Pokulok. Yeah, the Capitals need more young talent.

Plus they're 7-5-2 since Boudreau took over. Plus they've had a lot of injuries. Plus they just outshot the Canadiens 37-21, so I don't know that's the lineup the Caps will want to be pilfering if they're trying to get better.

Really guys, you're professional journalists. Is it so hard to do a little research?

Caps Goaltending Needs an Upgrade

2007-12-21T02:20:00.000-05:00

It's a fact that's been beating down on Capitals fans for most of this season, and it was again underscored during last night's 5-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens: you can't make the playoffs with a mediocre goalie. There are simply too many teams with good goaltenders for that to happen.

Let me explain. In my mind there are four classes of goaltenders in the NHL (please note the examples I use are how good the players are right now, not their career potential):

Tier I - "Dominant"

Dominant goaltenders have three distinct characteristics. One is that they have no obvious weaknesses. They are technically and positionally sound, control rebounds, play smart and are just as hard to beat up high as down low. The second is that they very rarely allow soft goals. The third characteristic is mental toughness: these netminders aren't going to get rattled when things don't go their way (which is going to happen sooner or later if you play in net).

Results-wise these goalies will virtually never cost their team the game and will in fact keep their team in games they have no business being in and will "steal" games for their team on a regular basis. I would estimate that there are between three and five such goalies in the NHL right now, the prototypical example being Roberto Luongo (pictured).

Tier II - "Very Good"

These goalies are generally solid and can be counted to play a good game the vast majority of the time, but are not quite at that dominant level because they aren't top-notch is every aspect of the game. They may have only average lateral movement, five-hole coverage, positioning or rebound control. They may allow too many soft goals, not make enough big saves or get rattled too easily.

Although goalies in this second tier are not dominant night in and night out they are difficult to beat and it usually takes a nice play, a rebound, a screen or sustained pressure to get one by them. While they won't steal games for their teams on a frequent basis it's not exactly a rare occurrence either. Although you could technically do better as a coach or general manager, any solid team should have success with a goalie of this caliber. Ryan Miller would be an example of a Tier II goalie.

Tier III - "Decent"

An average goalie is just that - average. They probably don't excel at any particular aspect and the areas where they are above average are offset by other areas where they are below average - or worse. Tier III goalies have clearly exploitable holes that they are unable to compensate for without making themselves even more vulnerable. Soft goals are not uncommon and if the goalie steals more than a game or two a season for his team he's outperformed expectations. These goalies are often "tweeners" - not quite good enough to be a starter for a contending team but better than most backups. Examples would include Marc Denis and Vesa Toskala.

Tier IV - "Mediocre"

Mediocre goals will very rarely steal a game for their team, will let in soft goals on a regular basis and have easily exploitable holes visible even to casual fans. While Tier IV goalies may make passable backups any team that is starting one is going to be in trouble, no matter how skilled the rest of their lineup is. For an example think of any unspectacular career backup, such as John Grahame or Curtis Sanford.

Goaltenders are not necessarily normally distributed and these tiers are based more on how difficult a goalie is to beat than how good they are compared to other goalies in the league. I believe that the distribution of goaltending tiers is significantly different than it has been in the past. When I was younger (and playing as a goalie myself) it seemed to me there were 2-4 dominant goalies and another 5-8 very good goalies in the league at any given time and that most teams were starting decent (Tier III) goalies. Now I believe there are 3-5 dominant goalies, at least 10 more very good goalies* and as many as 30 decent goalies.

Why? Better coaching has lead to better technical ability, so fewer holes open up to shooters. Bigger equipment and bigger players at the position mean that when those holes do open up they're smaller than ever before.

That a team needs an above average goaltender to be a serious contender and, in most cases, to get into the playoffs has not changed. What has changed is what it means to be an average goalie in the NHL. Just as major league pitchers now throw more pitches and throw harder than in the past and just as NHL skaters are bigger, faster and have harder shots than their predecessors, goalies have gotten better.

So where is Kolzig in all this? In my opinion Kolzig borders between a Tier III and Tier IV goalie at this point in his career. Kolzig is not the kind of goalie a contending team would want - he has poor lateral movement and has let in far too many soft goals this season, mostly on wraparounds and through his five-hole. But at the same time he is not a clear-cut backup.

Regardless of whether Kolzig is a Tier III or Tier IV goalie, he is well below average for the league and ranks 37th in save percentage and 35th in goals against average (GAA). This is not a new trend for Kolzig. Last season he tied for 17th in save percentage and 33rd in GAA; the year before he was 33rd and 44th. Part of that is due to the fact that the Capitals were not a very good team (to say the least), but the numbers suggest what should have been apparent to anyone watching the games: Kolzig was now a average NHL goalie at best. This season having Kolzig be average would be an improvement. With so many talented goalies in the NHL right now a team has to have a guy who is at least on the border of Tier II and Tier III to be a playoff contender, unless the rest of their team is very talented.

So can the Capitals make playoffs with Kolzig? They can, but it will be difficult. What would be ideal for a team with so many young players (including the league's youngest defense corps) would be to have a solid netminder who's going to steal them some games - not one they'll have to bail out more often than he bails them out. But the Capitals are a dynamic, talented team that's getting better every day and they may soon be able to carry a mediocre goalie and still win with regularity.

If that sounds crazy, consider this: how much better are Mike Green, Jeff Schultz and Nicklas Backstrom playing right now than they were in October? With so much young talent this could be a significantly stronger team in less than a month. If the Capitals can have their key players continue to develop quickly they stand a very good chance at being a solid enough to carry a questionable goalie. Pittsburgh made the playoffs last year, didn't they?

Caps fans ought to hope the team can do so because General Manager George McPhee's hands are tied at this point in terms of trying to bring in a goalie to supplant Kolzig as the starter as such a player would be difficult to acquire and the inevitable rift in the clubhouse from Kolzig being forced to accept such a demotion would likely ruin any team chemistry. It's not that Olie isn't a team guy, he is. But he's also very competitive...and not very good at hiding it when he is upset.

The offseason is different story though. In fact, I think I heard Joe B. say Cristobal Huet would be a free agent after this season...

*Goalies who I think would clearly fit into either Tier I or Tier II include the ones listed below. There are several others who may or may not be in Tier II, such as Martin Gerber, Ray Emery and Carey Price.

Martin Brodeur
Ilya Bryzgalov
Rick DiPietro
Jean-Sebastien Giguere
Cristobal Huet
Miikka Kiprusoff
Pascal Leclaire
Henrik Lundqvist
Roberto Luongo
Ryan Miller
Evgeni Nabokov
Marty Turco
Tomas Vokoun

Caps/Habs Recap

2007-12-20T20:04:00.000-05:00

Canadiens 5, Capitals 2

How do you outshoot a team 37-21, have more than a 50% advantage over them in scoring chances and still lose? The answer: difference in the quality of netminding. If not for Cristobal Huet's performance last night the Canadiens, in all likelihood, don't win that game.

The Canadiens didn't have a high number of good scoring chances and when the Capitals defense was good it was very good. But when it was bad it was very bad. The Capitals held the Canadiens to only one shot in the first half of the first period (six for the period) and only three for the first nineteen minutes of the second (five in all in the period), but they also conceded the first two goals because they left men wide open in front of their own net.

As for Kolzig: it's hard to fault a goaltender when their defense leave men wide open in front of the net or let screened shots get through, but it's also hard to totally absolve a goalie who's stopped only eight of eleven shots through two periods. The Canadiens first and third goals were stoppable - the first wasn't a great shot, even though it was in close and the third was through a screen but also wasn't a great shot. You certainly can't blame Kolzig on either of those, but it would have been nice if he'd stopped one of them. The Canadiens second goal was one where Olie couldn't have done much - if your defense is going to let the other team have that opportunity you don't have much of a chance as a netminder. That said, Kozlig should have done something. He literally didn't have any of the net covered. Not one. Single. Inch. In fact, Tomas Plekanec had to miss the net to hit Kolzig with the puck (by the way, Merry Christmas, Tomas. If you can't even hit the net from four feet out with no one one you, you'd better believe it's a gift when you score.)

The score might give the impression that this way the type of game the team was accustomed to playing under Hanlon. It wasn't. The Capitals played well for the vast majority of the game, created chances for themselves in the offensive zone and held the Canadiens to 21 shots. This, along with Boudreau's attitude, gives me faith the Capitals will come out strong next time.

Quick Hits

Al Koken reported during the third period that Brian Pothier had broken his thumb and is week-to-week. Now's your chance, Steve. Show us you shouldn't have been sitting all this time.
Interesting decision to Boudreau to play Ovechkin on the point with Pothier out and the team in need of goals. I like it.
Ovechkin needs a new stickhandling move. He does the one he does, where he tries to put the puck through the opponent's legs and go through them, very well. But he tries it every time he's one-on-one with a defender. NHL advance scouts are going to pick up on that and NHL defenders are going to stop it when they know it's coming. Ovie either needs to get a new move or start getting rid of the puck, because all he's doing now is turning it over.
Nicklas Backstrom's goal was a very nice play. Taking a bouncing puck at putting in the net from that angle, with the backhand takes a lot of skill.
If I were Coach Boudreau I would consider calling Viktor Kozlov into my office and ask him why he thinks it's so funny that he can't score goals.
Did anyone else raise any eyebrow when Craig Lauglin said "this period's just about over" when there was 8:30 remaining in the second? At that point (8:30) the period was 57.5% over. Does this mean the Capitals had "just about" as many points (70) as the Senators (112) and Red Wings (124) last year?
While we're on the subject of Laughlin, he apparently thought his comment that the "teams must think the ice time over over at nine o'clock" was the funniest thing he's ever heard because he was giggling uncontrollably for a good ten seconds afterwards. What I thought was amusing was that Beninati's comment that "we'd better get them some orange wedges" that came right after was much better than Laughlin's.

Brophy Strikes Again

2007-12-19T18:14:00.000-05:00

Mike Brophy is becoming my favorite hockey writer. Because he's so damn easy to mock.

Apparently not satisfied with embarrassing himself to the hockey community with this gem about why the Capitals should looked to trade Ovechkin (my commentary here), Brophy has penned a new piece about why the NHL should retain the instigator penalty.

I'm not nuts about removing the instigator rule; I think good arguments can be made both for keeping it and eliminating it. I'm not going to attack Brophy for his opinion, but rather for his reasoning and writing. After much consideration (must have been at least four seconds) I decided to use the tried-and-true method favored by the pros at FireJoeMorgan.com. Thus I give you the glory of Mike Brophy.

You hear it nearly every week – get rid of the instigator rule.

...

While we’re at it, let’s arm motorists, so if somebody follows too closely or cuts you off, you can pull out your piece and shoot out their tires. Let’s give grocery store cashiers baseball bats so if somebody gets in the 10-or-fewer items line with 12, they can be kneecapped.

Best. Analogy. Ever.

I'm kind of tempted to just let that sit and speak for itself, but I feel that I have to dig beyond the superficial, surface level of idiocy that jumps out of this article. Because it's just more fun that way.

The surface-level idiocy I referred to is the general absurdity of the analogy. But the ineffective use of analogy goes beyond that because it compares different things. And I just can't let butchering of the English language stand.

The issue of the instigator rule is an issue of severity of punishment. What Brophy talks about in his analogy [motorists; grocery store clerks] is providing people with the means to commit a violent act more effectively. The instigator penalty does not deal with means to commit an illegal act. It deals with punishment. These are two very different things. Acceptable analogies using the same basic framework would include:

(1) "Removing the instigator penalty would be like reducing the jail time for shooting out someone's tires because they cut you off from [current sentence] to [new, lesser sentence] - it's just not enough of a deterrent."

(2) "Arming motorists so they can shoot out the tires of people who have cut them off would be like giving grocery store cashiers baseball bats so if somebody gets in the 10-or-fewer items line with 12, they can be kneecapped or allowing NHL enforcer to carry sharpened sticks to injure players that have offended their team in some manner."

I'll assume Brophy didn't go with option number one because it doesn't have shock value and isn't "clever" and didn't go with option two because it makes no sense, since the issue of what equipment players can carry is not affected by the instigator rule. Why he chose to combine the two into a statement that makes even less sense is beyond me.

Oh, and let’s allow Chris Simon to drop his gloves and beat Ryan Hollweg to a pulp because Hollweg, who is not a fighter, has the audacity to hit him. Let’s let Chris Simon slug the snot out of Jarkko Ruutu because, like Hollweg, he banged the Islanders’ aging tough guy.

Keep in mind that this passage is already stupid because it references the aforementioned stupid and meaningless analogy. But then also consider this: "let’s allow Chris Simon to drop his gloves and beat Ryan Hollweg to a pulp because Hollweg, who is not a fighter, has the audacity to hit him".

Now watch this.

It's currently 6:56:01 PM, December 19. Ryan Hollweg fought 13 times in the 2006-07 season. It is now 6:56:45, December 19. It took me 44 seconds to research and write that.

I'm not a professional journalist in any sense. Especially not for one of the biggest hockey publications on the planet. I am a graduate student in Atlanta killing time and watching the replay of the Senators/Bruins game from last night. Yet I was willing and able to research this post before I posted it. Can't Brophy do the same? And if he can't (or isn't willing to), and as a result makes such an obvious oversight, why should anyone take his opinion seriously?

Here’s a novel idea for NHL players – if you don’t like the way Ryan Hollweg or Jarkko Ruutu hit your teammates, hit them back. Drive them hard into the boards. Crunch them with an open-ice hit. Get even or, heaven forbid, drop your gloves and fight them whether they want to fight back or not. Take that whopping risk of receiving an extra minor penalty for being the instigator.

So then, just to recap:

Oh, and let’s allow Chris Simon to drop his gloves and beat Ryan Hollweg to a pulp because Hollweg, who is not a fighter, has the audacity to hit him. Let’s let Chris Simon slug the snot out of Jarkko Ruutu because, like Hollweg, he banged the Islanders’ aging tough guy. Give me a break.

then...

Here’s a novel idea for NHL players – if you don’t like the way Ryan Hollweg or Jarkko Ruutu hit your teammates, hit them back...drop your gloves and fight them whether they want to fight back or not. Take that whopping risk of receiving an extra minor penalty for being the instigator.

So...this article's first point is that the idea that players should police themselves and fight is ridiculous ("give me a break"). This article's second point is that the much better solution is to...fight with opposing agitators whether they want to or not.

Oh. Well, at least that's clear.

Also, the phrase whopping risk of receiving an extra minor penalty for being the instigator is incorrect as well. Being the instigator results in a two minute minor, a five minute fighting major and a ten minute misconduct. Again, where's the research, Brophy? For that matter, where are the editors?

The NHL will never, ever get rid of the instigator penalty. It would be so politically incorrect it defies consideration. The league says repeatedly it is comfortable with where fighting is now, largely because stiff penalties have eliminated nasty brawls. Fact is, we see more brawls in baseball than we do in hockey these days.

You think Gary Bettman is going to stand before a microphone and tell the world the league has decided, for the good of the game, the NHL will let goons run the show? Ain’t gonna happen, folks.

If the NHL can give a guy on his eighth suspension 30 games for a play that could have easily ended another player's career and adversely affected his quality of life outside of hockey for the rest of his life less than a year after he used his stick like a baseball bat against a guy's face (an infraction which resulted in only 25 games) and give a guy who attacked another play from behind, cracking several vertebrae and not only ending his NHL career but taking away the chance to ever play hockey again 20 games, I think they can justify removing the instigator penalty.

Contrary to the opinion of some, removal of the instigator penalty would not turn NHL games into brawls on a regular basis. Why? The aggressor penalty that's still on the books in the NHL, which reads:

"The aggressor in an altercation shall be the player who continues to throw punches in an attempt to inflict punishment on his opponent who is in a defenseless position or who is an unwilling combatant. A player must be deemed the aggressor when he continues throwing and landing punches in a further attempt to inflict punishment and/or injury on his opponent who is no longer in a position to defend himself."

With this rule on the books players are still protected from completely unprovoked attacks or from being attacked after they've gone into a defenseless position, but the
player who has challenged an opposing player to a fight won't get an extra penalty for dropping their gloves first.

There's a decent case to be made for the instigator penalty, folks. But this ain't it.

Be sure to check back next week when Brophy advocates the return of the glowing puck!

All the Cool Bloggers Are Doing It...

2007-12-18T12:45:00.000-05:00

....so I will too.

Thanks to (1) getting older and smarter (2) the internet as a means of fact-checking and (3) the genius that is FireJoeMorgan.com, I have discovered the joys of bad sports journalism. And boy do we have a whopper today, in the form of a Hockey News blog entry by Mike Brophy that argues the Capitals should trade Alexander Ovechkin (or at least look into trading him).

Read what Peerless (The Peerless Prognosticator) and CapsChick (A View From the Ch eap Seats) had to say.

The argument goes something like: The Capitals aren't winning with Ovechkin and he's not going to be happy there and Washington doesn't deserve him, thus they should trade him in a deal reminiscent of the Lindros-for-the-world swap.

Now for the fun part: picking apart this argument bit-by-bit.

Point #1: Ovechkin is/will be unhappy in Washington: But what if Ovechkin doesn’t want to play in Washington any longer?

Why Point #1 is stupid: Despite the fantasies of some bigger/older hockey markets Ovechkin hasn't said anything to indicate he is unhappy in Washington. He say he likes the team, likes the fans, likes the city, likes his teammates and likes the direction the franchise is headed. He has said he wished he played in front of bigger crowds, but I'm sure he know that when the Caps starting winning, the fans will come. Maybe writers in other hockey markets are hoping that if they keep saying Ovechkin wants out of D.C., Ovechkin will decide that's the case.

Point #2: Washington doesn't deserve Ovechkin. What if the young superstar tells the Caps he’d prefer to play someplace a little more cosmopolitan than Washington?

Why Point #2 is stupid: With its highly educated and highly skilled workforce, abundance of restaurants/bars and myriad of cultural opportunities (including many of the world's best museums, which are free), Washington clearly doesn't stack up in terms of cosmopolitan-ness, right? Naturally Ovechkin will want to go to some other cultural hotbed like Detroit, Buffalo, Edmonton or Raleigh. This statement by Brophy is one of those ones that's so stupid it makes the whole article lose credibility. If anything, the fact that Washington is so cosmopolitan hurts the Capitals because there's so much else to do.

Really though this just comes down to another point writers have been trying to make - Washington doesn't deserve Ovechkin. Why is that? Because the Capitals haven't won a Cup? Philly hasn't won one since 1975; Toronto since 1967, but I'd bet no one would complain they don't deserve Ovechkin. Because of low attendance? Over the last ten years the Capitals have outdrawn the Bruins six times, even though Washington has been terrible for several years. Yet, would anyone claim Boston is not enough of a hockey town to deserve a player like Ovechkin?

Just for the record here's my cosmopolitan-ness rankings for NHL cities:
(1) New York
(2) Washington
(3) Toronto

Point #3: The Capitals aren't going to win any time soon. Let’s face it, with Ovechkin in their lineup, the Capitals have shown no signs of being a playoff team.

Why Point #3 is stupid: The Capitals are five points out of a playoff spot and seven points out of the division lead and fifth spot in the East. They're 7-4-2 since Boudreau took over. They have this year beaten Ottawa and Detroit, in Ottawa and Detroit, when each team was the best in the league.

Point #4: The Caps don't have enough young talent/enough depth. Let’s face it, with Ovechkin in their lineup, the Capitals have shown no signs of being a playoff team...There are no guarantees re-signing Ovechkin will make the Capitals a successful franchise. In fact, if history has taught us anything, moving a young star just might be the best medicine for a struggling team...[discussion of Lindros trade]

Why Point #4 is stupid: No young talent? No depth on the team or in the farm system? Alexander Semin, Shaone Morrison, Boyd Gordon, Matt Pettinger, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, Jeff Schultz, Karl Alzner, Josh Godfrey, Semen Varlamov, Michael Neuvirth, Chris Bourque, Francois Bouchard, Sasha Pokulok. Yeah, the Capitals need more young talent.

Point #5: The Capitals could get a haul similar to what the Nordiques got for Lindros. When the franchise was still located in Quebec, Eric Lindros put a gun to the team’s head, demanding a trade. The Nordiques considered a few options and ultimately traded Lindros for a package that included Peter Forsberg, Ron Hextall, Chris Simon, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Steve Duchesne, a first round draft pick and $15 million.

Why Point #5 is stupid: The Nordiques got six players for Lindros, $15 million and two first round picks. The six players were: a sure-fire Hall of Famer and probably the most dominant player in the league in his prime (Forsberg), a very good goalie (Hextall), a tough guy with some skill (Simon), a great defensive player with good offensive upside (Ricci), a solid defenseman (Huffman) and a great offensive defenseman (Duchesne).

Who even has that kind of talent in the NHL with the parity that exists? I'd say the best team in terms of young talent are Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. With that in mind I give you Mike Brophy's potential trade ideas:

Ovechkin to Los Angeles for Kopitar (Forsberg), Johnathon Bernier (Hextall), Jack Johnson and Brad Stuart (Huffman and Duchesne), Alexander Frolov (Ricci) and...someone else who's analogous to Simon. Oh yeah, and $15 million dollars, adjusted upwards for twenty years of inflation. And two first round draft picks.

Ovechkin to Pittsburgh for Malkin (Forsberg), Fleury (Hextall), Staal (Ricci), Orpik and Gonchar (Huffman and Duchesne), and again someone unknown who's analogous to Simon. Oh yeah, and $15 million dollars, adjusted upwards for twenty years of inflation. And two first round draft picks.

What do you think, guys? Would Pittsburgh or L.A. go for it? I bet they would! Because handing over money and cost-controlled skilled youngsters is a formula for success in the salary cap era of the NHL! Oh, wait....

Plus, I still don't think either of those trades would be as good as what Quebec got for Lindros.

Point #6: It would be a good idea for the Capitals. [whole article]

Why Point #6 is stupid: Washington's fans are already skeptical of management's commitment to win and whether the Capitals can achieve success and trading Ovechkin could deal a blow to the fan base that it may never recover from.

Conclusion: This article is stupid and Mike Brophy probably knows it. But it's getting people to talk about it, write about it, and visit The Hockey News website.

Wings on Caps

2007-12-18T11:47:00.000-05:00

So what do the Red Wings have to say after last night's game? The Peerless Prognosticator has compiled a nice assortment here. I highly recommend it.

Caps/Wings Recap

2007-12-17T19:12:00.000-05:00

Capitals 3, Red Wings 4 (SO)

Behind a strong game from Olaf Kolzig and a late goal from Alexander Semin the Capitals were able to pick a point against the best team in the NHL, in the league's toughest building to play in.

There might be a natural inclination to feel like last night's game was a loss since the the Red Wings picked up two point with their shootout victory, but it was a tie. That the Capitals couldn't pick up the extra point in the shootout is too bad, but the actual hockey game was a tie. And a tie is a good thing on the road, especially against a team like Detroit.

What the Capitals are starting to show at this point is consistency. Early in the season they showed, at times, what a good team they could be - winning their first two games of the season handily, beating Toronto 7-1, in Toronto, and taking a win from the Senators, in Ottawa, when the team was at its hottest. Despite their flashes of brilliance the team wasn't able to play well night in and night out and in fact had trouble even putting together solid efforts in consecutive games. I think that the fact that the Capitals have been playing more consistently is in large part due to Boudreau's attitude. The fact that he doesn't accept moral victories against any opponent, holds players accountable and wants the team to play aggressive hockey because he knows they can is key because it's going to help prevent the team from falling into lengthy losing streaks. Even the best teams are going to lose games. It's the ability to come back the next night, play hard again and avoid hanging your head that lets teams pick up point on a consistent basis and builds a winner.

Quotable

"If you told me before the game that we would have gotten a point out of tonight, I think all of us would have pretty happy with that. ...I don't look at a shootout loss as a loss. I look at it as a tie."

-Olaf Kozig

Quick Hits

After the Caps' Saturday game I criticized the classlessness of the Tampa Bay Lightning's fans; tonight I will commend the class of Wings' fans for applauding when the injured linesman was able to get back to his feet after being hurt about a minute and a half into the game.
The referees called the game very tight all night, except when Mike Green was hauled down in the Wings' zone rushing the puck in. Why? Because the Wings already had a player in the box. The most important thing as a referee is being consistent and that means being consistent the whole game - even if a team is already short-handed.
I'm tickled pink the Capitals scored with less than two minutes remaining in the game to force overtime and pick up a point, but it's too bad it came on a powerplay that was the result of a puck over the glass delay of game penalty because that is really an awful rule.
I tend to view going to overtime and a shootout as a tie with the opportunity to get lucky and get an extra point, but it'd be nice if Kolzig were better in the shootout. He's now 5-12 in his career and has stopped fewer than 40% of shots. With the style he plays it's not surprising that he isn't a great shootout goalie, but it'd also be nice if he didn't get beat by the exact same move three times in a row.

Caps Bounce Back; Beat Tampa Bay 3-2

2007-12-15T19:44:00.000-05:00

Capitals 3, Lightning 2

I'll start off by talking about what might have been the most controversial play of the game for Caps fans - Filip Kuba's high-sticking penalty on Alexander Ovechkin. Bottom line is this: the Lightning were very lucky they weren't down for more than four minutes, because there's no way a two-handed slash across a player's face should be a double minor. Kuba deserved a five minutes slashing major. For Caps fans there's that instinct to call for Kuba's head and say he should have been thrown out for an intent to injure play and suspended three games. I know, because I felt it. But looking at it from an objective point of view, I don't think Kuba meant to slash Ovechkin up high. It still should have been a major, no doubt, and perhaps even a misconduct because it was such a reckless play, but I honestly don't think Kuba's intent was to hit Ovechkin that hard or that high.

I will say this though: it's easy to make a case that it doesn't matter what the intention was. After all, Marty McSorley has vehemently denied that he intentionally hit Donald Brashear in the head with his stick but still received a year-long suspension that effectively ended his career, and I'd be willing to be that if the Kuba-on-Ovechkin play happens with Brashear, Sean Avery, George Parros or anyone in a Philadelphia Flyers uniform, it's five and a game, no question. As I said before, the bottom line is that as dangerous as that plays was for Kuba to only get four minutes was a mistake on the part of the referees.

I'd like to finish this section by talking about the class level of the Tampa Bay fans in attendance last night, which measures up to where it should be in about the same way Martin St. Louis measures up to the average NHL player (height-wise, not skill-wise). To boo Ovechkin from the outset just because he's Washington's best player is simply stupid, a bit classless and quite immature ("you're better than us! I'm gonna yell bad things at you 'cause I'm jealous!"), but to cheer when he goes down, boo when he gets up and boo when he touches the puck after being felled by an obviously illegal move (and borderline cheapshot) is classless. The constant moaning and yelling about penalties being called or allegedly missed, the booing of the other team's best player for no reason and when he's hurt, the general boorish classlessness... I guess those Tampa fans really take after coach. Or maybe Bettman just had a bunch of flunkies in the crowd tonight trying to build that Caps/Lightning rivalry.

Now, as for the rest of the game:

In what was perhaps an homage to teammate Olaf Kolzig, Brent Johnson started off the game for the Caps by allowing a goal on a shot that shouldn't have even been a challenge and then continued the theme by allowing a mediocre wrister from Vincent Lecavalier to get through his legs.

Between Friday night and last night, the Capitals scored six goals, surrendered one that was the fault of the skaters (non-goalies), one that was an empty netter and five that should have been stopped by the guys with the big pads and cool helmet decals. It's great that the Capitals' skaters have been playing well enough to either keep the game close or win when their goalies have been less than stellar, but the fact is you simply can't be a playoff team when any shot the opposition gets on net is a scoring chance (or, in the case of Buffalo's first goal on Friday, you create scoring chances for the other team).

So is the Caps goaltending in crisis? A fair question, but the short answer is "no". The long answer begins with Brent Johnson because it's quicker to address his situation. Brent Johnson is inconsistent, won't make a lot of great saves and will rarely, if ever, steal a game for his team. On the other hand, he is generally pretty solid and gives him team a fair chance to win every night. You can't ask for much more out of a backup goaltender, and as far as backups go Johnson is solid or better.

The situation is a bit more complicated for Kolzig. As I mentioned before, Kolzig looks like he is a mediocre goalie at this point in his career, and a borderline starter. At this point he may indeed be one. But no one works harder than Olie, no one is as competitive as Olie and no one is as hard on themselves as Olie. While ripping himself after the 5-3 loss to Buffalo Kolzig said he needed "to sit and stew [a while]". It wouldn't shock me to see Kolzig come back strong against Detroit and have a string of very good games. At the same time, it wouldn't shock me to see Kolzig struggles to keep his save percentage above .900 for the rest of the season.

Switching gears: a large part of the Caps success tonight came from their defense's ability to hang with Lightning players rather than be tricked by stickhandling moves or head fakes (Jeff Schultz was especially good about this). That, along with the success the Capitals had in cutting off the passing lanes, let the Capitals force Tampa Bay's attack to the outside. The results: only 25 shots against including a stretch of more than ten minutes where Tampa failed to register a shot. Those numbers are good any game, but against a team as offensively skilled as Tampa they're even more impressive.

I like what Boudreau did with the lines. I think Nicklas Backstrom is the best match for Ovechkin at center - Viktor Kozlov doesn't have enough skill and Michael Nylander's style of slowing the play down and waiting for it to develop doesn't mesh well with Ovechkin's constant all-out attack. Matt Pettinger has looked very good playing on Ovechkin's wing, always going at full speed (which is quite quick for Pettinger) and digging around the net. I like Kozlov centering Brooks Laich and Brashear as well. Kozlov and Brashear are two very big bodies for opponents to have to try to deal with, Laich is solid two-way grinder and Kozlov has quite a bit of skill. Plus it works really well for me in NHL 08.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Brian Pothier - 1 goal (game-winner), 1 assist, +1
(2) Tomas Fleischmann - 1 goal, 1 assist, +1
(3) David Steckel - 1 goal, +1

Quick Hits

I didn't see who but one of the Capitals defensemen failed to clear the puck during the penalty kill situation that came from Morrisson' slashing penalty, because he tried to clear up the middle of the ice. Another rookie mistake (and that's being generous). C'mon guys, remember the phrase "high and hard off the glass"?
To return to the Kuba/Ovechkin play: What's the point of dressing Donald Brashear if he's not going to make guys pay for hits like that?
I was a bit skeptical when I saw Fleischmann was dressed tonight as the lines scrolled across the bottom of the screen. Thanks for proving me wrong Flash.
Since being scratched Brian Pothier seems a lot more willing to take a hit, and I think that's helped him get more "in the game" and stay focused.
Lecalvier made a real stupid play at the end of the game when he drove the puck into the Capitals zone from his own blue line, resulting in an icing. That's just a frustration play, and you've got to give the Caps credit for frustrating Vinny and the Lightning like that.

I Love You, Coach Boudreau: Part III

2007-12-15T17:28:00.000-05:00

...or: The Capitals Better Win Tonight.

According to Tarik, Boudreau had this to say after last night's game:

"I'll find out about a lot of guys [tonight]. Is it a, 'Hang my head, woe-is-me crowd,' or a 'Let's be determined and turn it around again'" crowd?

Honestly, right now I think it's the latter, with the way this team has been playing under Boudreau.

Either way, there's no doubt the Capitals should win tonight. They're better than Tampa, should come out hungry after last night's ~~Kolzig inflicted~~ frustrating loss and Tampa is struggling with injuries.

Not too long ago I would have said a team would be fortunate to face the Capitals after a game they had last night because the Caps would likely be discouraged and frustrated and come out with an uneven effort. Now it's just the opposite - I expect the Capitals to come out aggressive, focused and determined to get the two points they should have had last night.

Kolzig's Rough Night: Caps fall 5-3

2007-12-15T00:59:00.000-05:00

Capitals 3, Sabres 5

Going into this season a lot of things would have to had to have gone right for the Capitals to earn one of the Eastern Conference's eight playoffs spots; one of them was that Olaf Kolzig needed to steal some games for the team. So far this hasn't happened this season and last night against Buffalo Kolzig cost his team the game. Of the five goals the Sabres scored last night one was an empty netter and three were ones Kolzig should have had.

The Sabres first goal was the most frustrating because it was not only a physical mistake but a mental one. Physical mistakes like flubbed passes, missed rebounds or stumbling on the ice will happen to anyone sooner or later, and can only be helped so much. But there are no excuses for mental errors. Especially when you're a 37-year-old veteran who's supposed to be a leader on a young team, and Kolzig's mistake was a big one. Coming out to play the puck was not the problem; in fact it was probably the right decision. But the way he chose to play it was downright stupid. As a netminder, if you're going to play the puck you need to slide your blocker hand up to the top of the stick and play it like any other skater (for example), you cannot slap at it with the backhand like Kolzig did. I learned this within the first few months of playing goalie as a nine-year-old, just from common sense (rather than a coach) so I'm sure Kolzig knows better, and of course the end result of his bad decision was as bad as it gets. Kolzig was out of the net and put the puck right on Roy's stick. The only way he could have made things easier would have been if he'd picked the puck up and dropped it into his own net.

The second goal wasn't entirely Kozlig's fault (it rarely is when you have a guy like Maxim Afinogenov bearing down on you), but he should have had that particular puck. Yes, Mike Green tipped the puck and it probably threw Olie off a bit, but it didn't take a weird bounce or anything like that - it slid by Olie's leg on the ice and Kolzig needs to have the bottom portion of the net taken away so that a puck like that doesn't get in.

The Sabres' third goal (from Drew Stafford) was another than was Kolzig's fault. Behind the net is not generally a high-scoring area and it's not a priority for defensive players compared to the slot, the corner or the point because scoring opportunities don't come from behind the net very often unless the player is allowed to move through the area very quickly (or is Wayne Gretzky). Stafford was not moving particularly fast, didn't wheel his way into the slot and didn't get off a particularly good shot. Simply put, there's no reason that puck should have wound up in the Capitals net.

This isn't the first game Kolzig's had like this in the 2007-08 season. While he's been good on some nights and made some great saves, far too many shots have slipped under Kolzig's legs or through the five-hole. Save percentage is not a perfect indicator of a goaltender's ability and with the relatively inexperienced defense Kolzig probably faces tougher shots than the average netminder. That said, after last night's game Kolzig's save percentage is .896. Among qualified leaders the median is .907, and Kolzig ranks 34th out of 43 goalies who qualify. This is simply not getting the job done.

Even during his prime, Kolzig was not as good as he was often given credit for. I've always felt that, even at his best, many of Kolzig's goaltending attributes were average or slightly above average - his lateral movement, reflexes and ability to make the most difficult saves. None of this is surprising for a positional goalie, and as far as positional goalies go Kolzig was one of the best: huge, good on his angles, technically sound and great positionally. Given this, Kolzig was perfect for the Capitals in the 90's, when the Caps were a sound defensive team. With the rest of the team allowing very few shots Kolzig could play the angles, control rebounds and be very successful. Recently Kolzig has become vulnerable with a young team in front of him, especially in the post-lockout NHL because of his style of play.

What is comes down to at this point is: right now, Kolzig is a mediocre NHL goalie. I've been holding off on saying that, but the fact it is it's true. Since the lockout Kozlig's has a .902 save percentage and only two shutouts; this season he's had as many games (8) with a save percentage of .880 or worse as he's had with a save percentage of .910 or better. Since his last solid game on November 28th against Florida, Kolzig has stopped only 85.8% of shots against him.

Recently the Ducks put Ilya Bryzgalov on waivers, causing a debate to crop up amongst Capitals fans about whether the team should place a claim on him to replace Brent Johnson as the backup (I thought yes; others disagreed). Bryzgalov went on to be claimed by the Phoenix Coyotes, where he posted a .921 save percentage. Hindsight is of course 20/20, but perhaps the Capitals would have been well served to pluck Bryzgalov from the waiver wire to be their starter (or at least for a platoon role).

I appreciate all that Kolzig's done for the franchise over the years both on and off the ice and he will deservingly go down as one of the best to ever wear a Capitals uniform and will see his his number raised to the rafters. But this Capitals team isn't good enough to make the kind of run it needs to with a sub-par starting goaltender. If the Caps want to challenge for a playoff spot Kolzig is going to need to significantly step up his play.

Aside of Kolzig the team played decent, but not great. On the plus side the Caps put good pressure on the Sabres for the most part and moved the puck well in the offensive zone, especially on the powerplay. On the negative side the team struggled to get the puck out of their zone too often, let a man open in front to score the Sabres fourth goal and were called for six minor penalties, including one for too many men.

As frustrated as I was with Friday's loss, the Capitals had a very successful homestand, winning three of four from difficult opponents, getting their offense going, showing they can win close games and, perhaps most importantly, playing with confidence. It would be hard to overestimate the effect of the newfound confidence for the players - earlier in the season they would have folded in each of the last four games and picked up two points if they were lucky.

With that in mind, the Capitals play Saturday against Tampa Bay, a team they should beat. If they can do so they could be a little as six points out of a playoff spot and seven points out of the division lead. As we've seen, it could be much worse.

Quotable

""You can't gift wrap two goals. The first goal -- I never go out and play the puck with one hand. It was just a rookie mistake and was inexcusable with a minute left, especially with a one-goal lead and playing pretty good."

-Kolzig on his play that led to the Sabres first goal.

Random Thoughts: Team Names, Facebook and the Blogosphere

2007-12-13T13:28:00.000-05:00

I've discovered a hockey-related pet peeve: when people use stupid derogatory names for opposing teams. Specifically I am referring to people called the Capitals the 'craps' or 'crapitals'.

Now, I don't have an inherent aversion to teasing teams or their fans by calling them something other than their actual name. I have no problem with people using the terms Rags (Rangers), Kitties (Panthers) or Fishsticks (Islanders). But 'crapitals' offends me. Not because I am a Capitals fan but because it brutalizes the English language because it is is such a bad pun. It's not clever in any sense, it's not a very inventive play on words and frankly, it's childishly crude. Again this isn't because I'm a Capitals fan - I get almost as irritated when people refers to Atlanta as the 'Trashers' (it's just as bad a pun but it doesn't have the fourth-grade level 'slight crudeness=funny' aspect to it so it doesn't bug me as much).

What got me thinking aout this was actually Facebook (yes, I am young enough that Facebook was a must-have for the end of my undergraduate career). After friending Ted Leonsis (seriously) and seeing he had the Washington Capitals Fan application, I added it. This little thing lets you discuss the Capitals, post articles, etc. One of the features is "Smack Talk", that matches fans of each team against one another on a common page in the days leading up to a head-to-head match-up and basically lets them rip into each other. A more depressing thing I have not seen on the internet in a long while.

What you might have hoped for would be (relatively) good-natured ribbing: teasing about Mike Green's haircut, arena quality, jerseys, and so on. Rather it quickly turned into people making baseless assertions (one person referred to the "skill and teamwork" of a group of players that included Ryan Hollweg and Jagr; another said Kolzig was one of the best goalies in the NHL) and personally attacking other people and the cities they lived in (often with rampant profanity) and the constant use of the term "gay" as an insult (another pet peeve of mine). I was actually considering going back and looking up some comments and posting them here but honestly I was afraid it would just depress me.

But once I started to look on the bright side it made me realize how lucky the NHL, and the Capitals, are to have such an active and intelligent blogosphere. Sure, there are still blowhards and jerks out there, but they're less likely to muck things up and they're less likely to survive, since a blog that's just profane complaining and insults isn't going to get read and isn't going to last very long. People who have nothing to contribute but clichés, insults and wishes of bodily harm to players they would love if they wore the right sweater but instead hate and who take the game more seriously than the players who play in it are either forced to adapted or are weeded out. Intelligent discourse reigns in the blogosphere.

We Capitals fans are lucky to have so many intelligent, devoted and insightful fans who are willing to share their thoughts with the rest of us and make being a Capitals fan a little bit more interesting and fun every day. Thank you, CapsChick, Peerless, JP, Shmee, Mark, those at On Frozen Blog and all the other Capitals bloggers out there who are helping make the internet what it can be: a forum for intelligent and passionate discussion, rather than a place for people to take out their frustrations about life in general at others from behind the anonymity and protection of a keyboard.

I Just Don't Have It In Me...

2007-12-12T19:36:00.000-05:00

Capitals 5, Rangers 4 (OT)

For those who went to college: remember back to college, how bad finals were? Well, they're exponentially worse in graduate school and I just don't have the energy for a full recap.

What a fun game to watch though (especially for how it ended if you're a Caps fan). It's great to see the Capitals step up in certain areas to make up for where they're shaky; on a night when the defense was shaky and Kolzig was average the offense put in five against one of the best defensive teams in the NHL.

I'd like to briefly make a couple notes about Kolzig, who had a bad first period. The first goal wasn't his fault - it was Schultz's for not getting back on Gomez, but man was it frustrating to see another one get through Kolzig's five-hole. The play the led to the second goal wasn't Kolzig's fault either - you can't expect him to stop a bang-bang play like that. But the reason the Rangers even had the puck in the Capitals end was the Kolzig decided to play it out to a Rangers player in the corner rather than freeze it, and you can fault him for that, just as you'd fault a defenseman who failed to get the puck out of the zone and let the other team gain possession without having to clear.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Mike Green - 1 goal (game winner), 2 assists, +3, 30:05 of ice time
(2) Joe Motzko - 2 goals, +2
(3) Donald Brashear - 2 assists and a nice fight win

Quick Hits

The Caps may be 26th in the league in scoring but they've got to be first in goals waived off.
First period shots: 18-7, Washington. First period faceoffs: 18-9, Washington. First period goals: 2-1, Rangers. Such is the advantage of having a goalie like Henrik Lundqvist.
Man, the call on Bradley for holding about seven minutes into the third was weak.
The Mike Green curl-and-drag that almost led to a Caps goal with three seconds left was simply beautiful.

Could the NHL be returning to ESPN?

2007-12-12T16:08:00.000-05:00

CNNSI is reporting that the NHL may be back on ESPN before too terribly long:

According to an ESPN source, the network could be interested if it saw a fit in terms of cost and content. The network would require playoff hockey and one night of exclusivity during the regular season. "It's totally in the NHL's hands," the source said.

As one media critic expressed it, does the NHL want to be No. 7 on ESPN or No. 1 on Versus? The league does indeed receive more loving care from Versus than it did on ESPN, despite the half-hour show ESPN2 used to give it nightly, but its absence from the cable heavyweight has taken hockey one step further from the national conversation. ESPN's tentacles reach so many places, and a hug by the network might help restore some luster.

This is a move the league desperately needs. For all the hardcore hockey fans out there (and there are a lot, probably more than some of the other major sports) the league has had trouble reaching casual fans - the kind who flick on ESPN and watch whatever is on; whatever ESPN is covering. By getting out there the NHL is going to gain more fans. Look at the NFL - it's near impossible to not know the biggest stories in the NFL and to it's very easy to be a fan because it's covered so much. The NFL is at the forefront of sports news because it's the biggest league in the United States but it's also the biggest league in the United States partially because it's at the forefront of sports news every night.

Caps Over Devils 3-2 at Verizon Center

2007-12-10T19:58:00.000-05:00

Capitals 3, Devils 2

Before I get into the game recap, I'd like to look at what was the most exciting part of the night (other than the final buzzer) for me: Quintin Laing's first NHL goal.

For those who may not know, Laing is 28 years old and prior to joining the Caps this year had played three NHL games, all in the 2003-04 season with Chicago. Laing has been playing professionally since 2000 in places like Jackson, Mississippi, Norfolk and Hershey. He's blocked nine shots in his first four games with the Caps, twice blocking four. He grinds, he works, he hits, he gives up the body and now, at age 28 and after more than six full seasons in the pros, he is an NHL goal scorer. The fact that his goal was the game winner makes it even sweeter.

Just three days after being beaten by a goal in Newark, and called out by their coach, the Capitals returned the favor on home ice behind goals by Nicklas Backstrom, Jeff Schultz and Laing.

The Capitals were solid in the first, dominant in the second and came out looking like crap in the third. While there are no excuses for coming out as disorganized as the Capitals did in that period, it looks worse than it was because of the fact that Olaf Kolzig let in a goal he simply shouldn't have. It was a decent play by David Clarkson to win the puck behind the net, pull down the Capitals defenseman (either Schultz or Shaone Morrisonn) without being noticed by the officials and put the puck on net, but Kolzig has to have that puck. Period.

I think it's worth noting what helped the Caps get back on track: a great shift by Bradley, Laing and David Steckel. That's exactly what you want your third/fourth/checking line to do - go out and create momentum for your team and keep the puck away from the opposition when they seem like they've got things going.

Next up: Rangers, in D.C., on Friday.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Quintin Laing - 1 goal (the game winner), +1
(2) Nicklas Backstrom - 1 goal, +1
(3) John Erskine - 2 assists

Quick Hits

Man, does Nicklas Backstrom ever have some poise with the puck in front of the net.
Milan Jurcina had six hits; Schultz had three for the second game in a row (Ovechkin had five; Brash had three)
Whether or not the play at the end of the first should have been reviewed to see whether the Caps should have had a goal is debatable, and that debate took away from something important on the play: Tomas Fleischmann going hard to the front of the net and digging around. Look like Fleischmann may be realizing that, despite his successes in the AHL, he isn't skilled enough to get by on skill alone at the NHL level.
Is it wrong that as soon as Craig Laughlin said "to me, that's not a kick", suggesting the Devils goal would stand I thought 'Oh, good, this is getting waived off'? Seriously, Laughlin has be awful this year at predicting when goals would be called off/allowed to stand. But then this is also the same guy who tonight said "getting that shot [from the point] through is a skill and the Caps' young defensemen have been able to do it all season long".
Tough guy, that David Clarkson. Wouldn't go with Brashear off the draw early in their shifts about five minutes into the third but had no problem shoving Brash in the back after the whistle at the end of the shift.
Brian Pothier was scratched again - no surprise with how this lineup played against Atlanta a few days ago.
With his goal tonight Jeff Schultz leads the team with a 27.2 shooting percentage. Just sayin'...

I Love You, Coach Boudreau: Part II (Caps over Thrashers, 6-3)

2007-12-08T22:09:00.000-05:00

...or: Why Mike Green Should be an All-Star

Capitals 6, Thrashers 3

"Wow, the Capitals working very hard here in the first period. They must have gotten a very strong message last night, even beyond Pothier sitting out."

So said one of the Thrashers television commentators a little more than halfway through the first period, with the Capitals up 2-0 and buzzing around the Thrashers' zone.

The first period in tonight's game was the complete antithesis of the first period against New Jersey is almost every way - the Caps came out with a snarl, looked energized and aggressive, and finished the period with a two goal advantage. The most notable improvement was the forechecking, as the Capitals put pressure on the Thrashers' players every time the puck was in their zone. Not only does aggressive forechecking yield the commonly talked-about advantages of wearing out the other team, keeping the puck out of your own zone and generating more scoring chances, it helps you to draw penalties as the opposition gets tired and frustrated, something that's especially true in the post-lockout NHL. That Capitals saw that first hand tonight, drawing five penalties in the game's first twenty-five minutes (one was waived off due to Schultz's goal).

Why, why, why does it feel so good to beat the Thrashers? Their ugly uniforms? Their whiny, poutey, superstar who can't control his temper (and who once grabbed Chris Clark by the facial protection Clark was wearing after breaking his palate bone and pulled)? Retribution against Don Waddell for ruining the U.S. Olympic team? Because I live in Atlanta? Whatever the reason, this was a very satisfying win.

One question I'm toying with is this: was the game closer than the score or not as close? On the one hand the Capitals controlled the play most of the game and the Thrashers' last two goals came late enough that they weren't really a threat. On the other hand the Capitals only outshot the Thrashers by one (27-26) and had at least one lucky goal (Ovechkin's), one caused by the Thrashers' player running over his own goalie (Pettinger's) and one that where Kari Lehtonen just should have made the stop (Green's second).

I'm inclined to say that the game really wasn't quite as close as the score. Yes, Ovechkin and Pettinger scored goals that were at least somewhat lucky but they were also good plays by the Capitals. Plus, on the Thrashers' last two goals Olaf Kolzig didn't look too great - they weren't scored as the result of the Capitals being clearly outplayed

That note brings me to another question mark: Kolzig's inconsistent play in this game (one goal on eighteen shots through periods one and two; two goals on eight shots in the third). Early on Kolzig looked like a man on a mission, not surprising as his career success, veteran status and competitive nature probably meant he was upset about being called out by Boudreau, and hence indeed was a man on a mission. Still, those third period goals were pretty weak. Here's hoping they were just the result of a 37-year-old playing on back-to-back nights getting tired in a game that was already decided.

All things considered, a stellar effort for the Caps and much of the credit must go to Coach Boudreau. This team could easily have shrugged off last night's loss against the Devils as a decent game and the result of bad luck and come out flat again against Atlanta. Instead the team came out flying, playing like they were hell-bent on winning and, just as importantly, like they expected to win. Quite a change from the Hanlon days when the team looked like they were merely hoping to win.

SportsSouth aired a brief pre-game interview with Boudreau in between the first and second period. As part of it Boudreau said (this is a little paraphrasing):

We won't accept mediocrity and we shouldn't accept mediocrity. There might be guys who want to look at it as 'oh, well we lost by one goal to New Jersey and we outshot them in the last two periods' and think that's enough. That's not enough.

and then went on to talk about how what mattered was winning, essentially giving a roundabout explanation as to why there are no moral victories at this point for the Capitals.

Boudreau's approach is quite refreshing after Hanlon's. With Hanlon the impression was that if the Capitals came out and outshot the other team and were the better team for the last two periods it would be considered a successful night. There was nothing wrong with that approach initially; in fact it was the right one while the Capitals were more concerned with developing their young players than their win-loss record. The problem was that attitude had carried over into this season, where the emphasis is on the win-loss record. With Boudreau behind the bench it's not going to be okay to play fifty-five good minutes out of sixty, and wins and losses are measured by the final score alone. Boudreau has said several times that it's his job to prepare the team to the point where they think they will win every night. I can't speak for the team, but his attitude has me believing they can pick up two points any and every time out...and unwilling to accept less.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Mike Green - 2 goals, +3
(2) Nicklas Backstrom - 1 goal, 2 assists, +3
(3) Alexander Ovechkin - 1 goal, 1 assist, +3, 5 shots

Quick Hits

The Caps first penalty of the game, to Erskine was painful for two reasons. First of all, what's happening in this league when you can't even hit a guy as the puck is getting to him? Secondly, if the refs had called intereference like that in Jersey on Friday the Caps would have spent 40% of the game on the powerplay.
The wave at a Caps game? I can't remember the last time I saw that!
Garnet Exelby should have been called for kneeing Kozlov in the second period. It wasn't intentional, but it was still a knee and needed to be called.
Speaking of Excelby, he's a tough one on the blue line. Imagine if Atlanta had him and Dion Phaneuf patrolling back there. Could have happened if Don Waddell hadn't decided to pick Braydon Coburn with the eight overall pick, leaving Phaneuf for the Flames at #9.
Speaking again of Excelby, how did he make it through the game without being beat down by Brashear?
Man, from the goals he has scored it seems weird to me that Nicklas Backstrom was only shooting 5% coming into Saturday's game.
Three Capitals had three hits: Brashear, Erskine, Ovechkin and Jeff Shultz (!) (bet you didn't see that one coming).
The Thrashers' announcers were pretty adamant Holik didn't hit Matt Pettinger from behind, or even from the side, in the second. Didn't look that way to me.
Fantastic decision to pinch by Green on the play that led to his first goal.
Does anyone get more excited when their teammates score than Alex Ovechkin?
Marian Hossa had a very quiet night - I didn't hear his name until 10:45 had gone in the third.
Milan Jurcina had one play in the second where he cleared the net by putting a guy right on his butt and a big hit on Chris Thorburn (who drew a retaliatory penalty) in the third. Quite different from when Jurcina tried to explain a holding penalty by saying the Capitals wanted him to play physical. I guess he's getting things figured out.
I really wish John Erskine were a decent skater because it's great to have his attitude in front of the net.
Against New Jersey he was zipping around the ice, drew penalties and scored a nice goal. Against Atlanta he drew at least one more penalty, picked up an assist and broke Kari Lehtonen's mask with a wrist shot. Alexander Semin looks like he's finally back.
And now for the unsung hero section - Quintin Laing. Late in the second the was not only tough around the net, he tried to goad Ilya Kovalchuk into a fight. Laing is the prototypical NHl fourth-liner: hustles every second he's on the ice, fights for puck, blocks shots. At this point I'd like to see him in the lineup over Bradley if the Caps ever get healthy enough that they have to make that decision.

I Love You, Coach Boudreau

2007-12-08T17:57:00.000-05:00

...or: Why the Caps Might Turn Things Around. Okay, maybe that's not best title, but I really like those 'or' titles, you know? Like Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb.

Anyhow, per Tarik at Capitals Insider Brian Pothier will be watching tonight's game from the press box. Boudreau is no joke - he clearly expects the team to win and man, is it refreshing. I still think Hanlon did a great job when he was here but his "Aw, shucks, it's okay, we all make mistakes, let's just go out and try to do better next time" attitude, which was perfect for a rebuilding team, wouldn't suffice for situations like this. Boudreau has clearly brought a little instant respectability with the way he holds players accountable, demands they play their best and expects to win.

Hanlon's buddy-buddy attitude and constant encouragement were great for a team full of players trying to find their way in the NHL who needed to go out and play relaxed every night. Now, the team is not so young and most of the players have enough NHL experience that they ought to be able to step up and have more expected of them without "gripping the stick too tight" as the expression goes.

The Funniest Hockey Video I've Ever Seen

2007-12-08T12:46:00.000-05:00

Let me say first of all that Dion Phaneuf is one of my favorite players (along with Iginla, Ovechkin, Halpern and a few others), and the second biggest reason I think Don Waddell ought to be fired is that he drafted Braydon Coburn ahead of Phaneuf (the biggest being the United States Olympic debacle in Turino). But this video is just so funny I feel I have to share it with everyone.

Oh, and it's even better with the sound on.

Caps Lose in Newark (no word on whether any were mugged coming out of the arena)

2007-12-07T22:57:00.000-05:00

Capitals 2, Devils 3

The Devils just had to pick the game against the Caps to have Scott Stevens night, didn't they? And they just had to have the first image of Stevens in the tribute video be him on the Capitals bench didn't they?

I don't know how much of it was aired on the Caps broadcast, but I was getting Devils feed from Center Ice and I would have to say it was a nice little ceremony. The only part that was a little weird was when they showed Stevens' famous (infamous?) hit on Lindros. It might be his most notable check and it sure is a hell of hit but it's just unsettling to me to see the moment that one of the most exciting players to come into the league in the last twenty years had his career effectively ended (or at least diminished). Classy on Stevens' part to thank both the Capitals and the Blues in his Hall of Fame introductory speech (which was shown as part of the ceremony), but the most interesting part was when Stevens thanked Lou Lamoriello for making New Jersey his home. Think that's the first time that's ever happened?

I also think this is worth mentioning: the Devils commentary team was as woefully prepared as I've ever heard any broadcast team be in any sport. And I've seen this. And this. And I watch the World Cup on the broadcasts with American announcers. But these guys were a whole new level - they referred to Backstrom and Zubrus as teammates from last year, stumbled over their own notes and at one point confused Mike Green with Jeff Schultz. How do you even do that? I mean, yeah, they're both Capitals defensemen but Green is right handed and is about 6'1'' and 190 pounds (I know what he's listed at, but there's no way he's over 200) and Schultz is left handed and 6'6'' and 225.

As for the game:

What an atrocious first period, full of stupid plays on the Capitals part. Stupid, unnecessary penalties on Schultz for tripping and Laich for ~~tackling~~ holding. The crowning moment (of stupidity) was Pothier's pass right up the middle of his own zone that lead to Vishnevski's goal and put the Caps behind 1-0. Anyone, anyone, down to grade-school kids, who's been playing or following hockey for more than a month can tell you that you never make that play unless there are acres of free space in front of you. Especially bad when your team is trying to play a tight defensive game against a defensively sound opponent who has won eight straight.

The stupidity continued right up the very end, with Green's hooking penalty with a minute left in the third. There's not way to blame that call on the refs either. It was a clear hook and just....well, stupid on Green's part.

The frustrating thing for fans (and for the team as well, I'm sure) is that other than their momentary lapses (Pothier's pass, Green's penalties) and bad breaks (Ovechkin having his shot off the post go out; Travis Zajac's goal) the Capitals played well, and if the Devils don't have Martin Brodeur in net, I'm not sure so they win that game. Considering the Capitals were missing their captain (Clark), their number one center (Nylander) and their best defensive forward (Gordon), they played very well for most of the game.

Regular readers know you're not going to make it through very many of my write-ups (for this season at least) without a mention of the bad luck the Capitals have faced and here it is: The Devils third goal, scored by Zajac is the latest example of horrible luck for the Caps: guys getting tied up; mixed up down low and the puck comes both right in front of the wide-open net and right onto the offensive player's stick. That's only happened against the Capitals this year; it doesn't happen for them.

The unfortunate reality, I think, is that this just isn't that Capitals year. They can't get bounces, can't get calls, can't even get the ice to freeze at Verizon Center and have been dealing with injuries to key players since training camp. The bad news is that it may be time to accept the team's fate of another year out of the playoffs, another lottery pick and another season of crowds of 13,000 at the Verizon Center for Caps games.

The good news is that I don't think all that much has changed from the start of the season to now really. Were it not for injuries, bad luck and timely mistakes the Capitals could easily be in the playoff race. Alexander Ovechkin is still one of the best players in the game, Alexander Semin is still capable of scoring forty goals in a season, Clark and Matt Pettinger are still solid two way players, Gordon and Dave Steckel are still good shutdown forwards, Mike Green is going to be an all-star caliber player before too long, Tom Poti can log a lot of important minutes, if someone else can step up to play with Shaone Morrisonn the Capitals will have a very good shutdown defensive pairing and Boudreau seems to be doing an excellent job coaching the team thus far. Add that to the fact Karl Alzner, Chris Bourque and (very likely) a very high draft pick (Steve Stamkos?) will be ready to compete for roster spots and Jaromir Jagr will be off the books for the Caps and things still look pretty bright for next season.

Maybe it seems silly to be talking about next season three weeks before Christmas and maybe in some ways it's premature. After all, I'm not quite ready to call it quits on the 07-08 campaign yet (but I am very close). The point I was making is just that, although the Capitals have been very disappointing this year, most of the cause of the preseason excitement is still going to be around next year. This organization still has a wealth of young, talented players and that's not going to change. The Capitals will be a force in the Eastern Conference before too long.

As for the present: the Capitals are now 9-17-2, a full ten points out of a playoff spot and in need of a serious run, a Devils-esque (nine in a row) run in fact. If they're going to there's no better time to start than Saturday night: playing at home coming off a tough loss and facing the Thrasher who . . . you know, suck.

Quick Hits

Eleven minutes into the first period shots were 4-1, Capitals. Five shots. In eleven minutes. For both teams combined. That's Devils hockey for ya, folks.
The Caps were dominated in the physical game. Period.
That said, the Devils were lucky the refs were fairly lenient. There were about a half dozen potential interference minors, none of which were called.
Thank you, Alexander Semin, for reminding us just how good you can be.
I was surprised to see Langenbrunner back on the ice after he went hard into the boards - from how he was favoring his right arm I was sure it was broken.
Joe Motzko had a really nice play in the first where he cleared what would have been a sure goal out of the crease and into the corner. Great awareness.
Credit where credit's due: David Clarkson did a great job frustrating Ovechkin in the offensive zone.
At one point one of the Devils announcers said Jeff Schultz "low-bridged" David Clarkson. I'm pretty sure that for Jeff Schultz to "low-bridge" anyone they'd have to be about nine feet tall. Plus, Schultz actually stood him up.

2007-12-05T11:15:00.000-05:00

CapsChick over at A View From the Cheap Seats brought this to my attention (it originally comes from Interchangeable Parts) and I thought it would be a neat little thing to address. This is what us bloggers are doing during the Capitals off days, I guess. If you're looking for something more as a reader, I have this.

1. What was your motivation for starting blogging? Has that changed at all in the time you’ve been blogging?

I'd been considering starting either a baseball or hockey website for several years but always thought I'd never have the time (or the resources - trying getting Caps games in 2003 in a dorm room in Lake Forest, Illinois or Atlanta). A friend of mine recently started a D.C. Sports Blog and asked me to write for itand seeing a chance to write a little but without the obligation to maintain a site on a daily basis I agreed. Once I started writing (primarily about the Capitals) I found that I really enjoyed it and pretty soon I did want to want to update on a daily basis, with every little bit of Capitals or NHL news I found interesting. Since Wayward Sports Sons was intended to be a D.C. sports-centric blog I decided it would be best to put all the smaller notes and stories on a different blog, so as to not clutter W.S.S. up and thus Caps Blue Line was born.

Has this changed at all? Actually it has, even though it's only been a couple months. Since I get all my thoughts on the Capitals out in this blog I find that I'm talking off the ears of my friends and family who don't really follow hockey a lot less. So everybody wins!

2. What do you think your blog contributes to the hockey conversation?

Most of all I hope it contributes intelligent discourse and gets people to think about topics in hockey they hadn't thought about before or to think about them in a different way. I try to do this by providing my rationale behind my opinions. All too often the anonymity of the internet allows people to post bold, declarative statements without having to give their rationale; this is a pet peeve of mine and has directly resulted in my (brief) defense of Brian Pothier and my (lengthy) defense of George McPhee. It's not that I think either of these guys are irreplaceable, but rather than they deserve to have their strengths and weaknesses laid out and examined in a somewhat objective manner. Hopefully by providing my own view on Capitals news and by making points in non-news related posts I can get people to think about the Capitals or the NHL a little harder, in a slightly different way.

3. What do you want to get out of the blogs you read?

There's really not any one aspect that's essential in making a blog great. It can be humor (A View From the Cheap Seats), in-depth statistical analysis (The Peerless Prognosticator) or up-to-the-minute updates from around the league (Japers' Rink).

There are two things that I think are essential in making a blog worth reading. One is that it has to be updated regularly - there are so many good bloggers out there that if you wait several days to comment on a trade, a signing, or a game you're going to get left behind. The other is that blogs need to offer opinion; they need to be more columnist than beat reporter. I've seen blogs for football, baseball and hockey that just offer brief recaps of games. To me, those aren't terribly interesting since each NHL game now has at least a half dozen traditional media outlets that write up recaps and dozens of bloggers who write lengthy, in-depth recaps. I like it when bloggers show some initiative and come up with their own post/story idea rather than just waiting for news to break.

4. What determines which blogs you read and which you don’t?

In the end hockey is a sport and blogs are entertainment; thus I like to read blogs that are interesting. As I mentioned above there are a number of ways a blog can be interesting and worth the time to read, but the one thing they all have in common is that they offer something different - different strengths, different interests, different voices.

It's also important to me that the author lay their stance out, rather than just making judgments. If someone can offer a well-reasoned argument for why trading Brian Sutherby was a bad move, I'm happy to sit and read because I want to see what the point being made is. On the flip side, if someone just writes a "WHAT ARE THEY DOING?!?!?!? SUTHERBY IS AWESOME AND A 2nd ROUND IS NOT ENOUGH! MCPHEE SUCKS!!!!" post, they're adding nothing and wasting the reader's time. Part of the reason I feel so strongly about this is that I like to read opinion I disagree with because I feel it makes me develop a more informed opinion.

The other key factor is the motivation behind the blog, which has gotten to be a bit of a problem in the Capitals blogosphere with all the attention Capitals bloggers have gotten from traditional media outlets. Wanting to talk about every aspects of Caps hockey, going back and analyzing transactions years after the fact, checking on prospects and wanting to be part of a community that dissects all things Capitals - these are good reasons to start and maintain a blog; wanting to get a press pass and watch games for free, sit in the owner's box or get your face on Hockey Night in Canada are not. If you make the rounds on the blogosphere it doesn't take long to determine which are which, as it generally shows pretty clearly. It's not a moral stance, it's just that people who write because they have something to say are generally much more interesting than people who write only because they want attention.

5. How important is the issue of gaining press access to you as a blogger?

The short answer is: not at all, since I don't live in the D.C. area.

The longer answer is that at this point it isn't important because I don't think it would make that much difference in the writing I do for this blog. Maybe in a year or two, if I am in the D.C. area,
I'll consider how active my blog is and whether having press access would benefit it.

6. To what extent do you feel accountable for the content of your blog? How concerned do you think readers should be about the authority and accountability of your blog?

I think readers ought to be concerned with the accountability of the blogs they read. A blog that isn't accountable can't be trusted to be factual or relevant, and if it isn't factual or relevant it isn't worth reading (unless of course it's obviously fake and funny as hell). That said, accountability is very important to me and if it weren't I wouldn't expect anyone to read this.

7. How concerned are you about the authority and accountability of the blogs you read? Do you find it difficult to judge the authority and accountability of the blogs you read?

My opinion is that all bloggers need to be concerned about accountability. There are no gatekeepers in blogging and new blogs pop up every day. If a blogger doesn't see accountability as important then the relevance, and readers, they may have will soon move to another blog... and I will be one of them. A blog that tries to make points or voice opinions without providing evidence isn't worth the time to read when there are so many great ones out there.

I don't think it's too hard to judge the accountability of a blog. Just like the accountability of traditional media or an academic paper, it's all in the sources. If a blogger provides their source then it can be independently verified and whatever commentary the blogger has becomes much more credible; if it's a situation where there make not be concrete analytical data say, discussing the job performance of a general manager, then examples should be provided.

8. What value, if any, do you think blogging brings to the NHL?

There's no doubt blogging bring value to the NHL, much of which comes from the fact that bloggers are independent. As a blogger, you can feel free to write whatever you want, whenever you want, an opportunity not afforded most traditional media writers who have to deal both with space restrictions, topics assigned by editors and a league that is very concerned with its public image.

The blogosphere let's people know there are other fans out there, even if markets where hockey doesn't much attention. For me personally it's been great to find out that there are other people just as nutty about the Capitals as I am; who know all the Capitals top prospects and where they play, who want to discuss possible line pairings and who understand the C.B.A. The fact that there are these people out there benefits the casual fan too. Bloggers are accessible and generally quite friendly and can answer questions casual fans might have, but might not be able to ask someone in their hometown's front office or one of the local beat writers; this is more important to hockey than any other sport.

In my experience there are so many people who are not hockey fans not because they don't like it, but because they haven't been exposed to it or who aren't very familiar with it ("wait, what's 'icing the puck' mean?") and if bloggers can provide the kind of coverage people need to learn more about the sport, gain a better understand and become more active fans, then there's no doubt the blogosphere will benefit the NHL.

Hangin' in the Southleast

2007-12-04T11:21:00.000-05:00

...and now that that terrible pun is out of the way, let's turn our attention to the standings. Notice anything, say about the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings? The bottom four spots are occupied by Southeast division teams: Atlanta, Florida, Tampa Bay and Washington. While this is embarrassing for the Capitals, it also works in their favor.

Of the Capitals remainging fifty-five games, twelve are against Atlanta (5), Tampa Bay (4) or Florida (3). That means 22% of the Caps' remaining games are against the worst teams in the Eastern Conference. A team in such dire need of points coudn't ask for anything more.

Guess it's good for Caps fans that the NHL isn't going to their new scheduling format until next season.

Posts for the Off Days

2007-12-03T12:58:00.000-05:00

Well Caps fans, the team finally has some time off. Five days total in fact, which means there probably won't be a ton of news coming out of the Caps camp in the coming days. Given this, I thought now would be an appropriate time to post several things I'd been working on:

Capitals
Stop the Panic! Ovechkin isn't going anywhere
Capitals Advertising Leaves a Lot to be Desired

NHL
Economics + Hockey = More Fights, Hold the Scoring Please

Capitals Videos
Caps Video Clips Post

Stop the Panic! Ovechkin Isn't Going Anywhere

2007-12-03T05:30:00.001-05:00

As many Capitals fans know, Alexander Ovechkin's contract expires after this season, at which point he will become a restricted free agent. Hearing phrases like "contract expires" and "free agent" has created a tizzy amongst both Capitals fans and at least a couple members of the press too stupid to do any research (here and here) who are either fearful (Caps fans) or hopeful (fans of any rich team in the NHL) that Ovechkin will leave Washington. The reality of the situation is this: Ovechkin is not going anywhere this offseason.

Here's why: After the first three years a player who signed a contract between the ages of 18 and 21 will see their entry-level contract expire. At this point, if he has not signed an extension, he will become a restricted free agent provided his team has offered him a pay raise of at least ten percent if he makes less than $660,000, a five percent raise if he makes $660,001-$1,000,000 and no raise (at least the same amount as the previous season) if he makes more than $1,000,000. If the team does not offer a high enough contract, the player becomes an unrestricted free agent.

The differences between restricted free agents and unrestricted free agents is twofold. Unrestricted free agents can sign potential contracts (referred to as "offer sheets") from other teams. Once they sign an offer sheet one of two things will happen - either the team the player was originally contracted to will match the offer sheet and the player will remain under contract to his original team or the original team will let him walk and received compensation in the form of draft picks from the team that has signed the player in question away. How many picks, and what rounds they are, depends on the value of the contract. The maximum compensation is four first round draft picks. How much of this information comes form reading articles about the C.B.A. and the C.B.A. itself and how much comes from too much time spent playing Eastside Hockey Manager, I'll decline to say.

COMPENSATION CHART

$660,000 or below = No compensation due.
$660,001 to $1 million = One 3rd Round draft pick.
$1 million to $2.0 million = One 2nd Round draft pick.
$2.0 million to $3.0 million = One 1st Round and One 3rd Round draft pick.
$3.0 million to $4.0 million = One 1st Round, One 2nd Round, and One 3rd Round pick.
$4.0 million to $5.0 million = Two 1st Round, One 2nd Round, and One 3rd Round draft pick.
$5 million = Four 1st Round draft picks are.

By contrast unrestricted free agents can sign any contract they want to (their original team does not have the option to match) and the team they are being signed away from is not due any compensation.

Now, as for Ovechkin. If he makes it to the summer (still seven months away, by the way) without a new contract from the Capitals he will probably get offer sheets from other teams. But Ted Leonsis isn't stupid. He knows what it would mean for the on-ice product and what a massive P.R. blow it would be to the team to let Ovechkin walk and he isn't going to allow it to happen. The fact that the Capitals are allowed to keep Ovechkin just by matching whatever other contract offers he may receive means that he's not going to be simply signed away.

There is one scenario in which Ovechkin could leave Washington this summer, and that's if he refuses to resign with the Capitals and demands his rights be traded to another team (similar to what happened with Mike Comrie and Alexi Yashin). While such a situation is possible, I think it's unlikely. Ovechkin just doesn't seem like that kind of player and while he's frustrated by the losing there's nothing to indicate that he wants out at this point.

So what kind of contract does Ovechkin deserve? It makes sense for discussions to start with Sidney Crosby's five year, $43.5 million contract (8.7 million per year - the same as Crosby's number 87 jersey). It would also make sense for the Capitals to offer Ovechkin the same deal as Crosby, were it not for the uniqueness of the per-year dollar amount. Given this, and the fact that it would be an unwise move to offer anything Ovechkin could perceive as an insult, it would make sense tho offer Ovechkin a contract in the $8.8-9 million per year range. Reports are that Ovechkin wants more money than that though, and is looking for a contract in the $9-10 million dollar range. If Ovechkin think he's worth more per year that Crosby, he's wrong.

You can certainly make the case that the two players are of equal value on the ice: Crosby has better playmaking skills and plays a more difficult position; Ovechkin is a better pure goal scorer and athlete, and does very well in the physical game. But Ovechkin hasn't been as marketable as Crosby so far in his NHL career and thus probably does not make as much money for his franchise. The result is that, even if each player were making the same salary, Crosby's team is going to be out less money at the end of the season for having him on their roster since his immense marketability helps to defray the cost of his salary.

But that's really incidental. The important thing is that Alexander Ovechkin will indeed be wearing a Capitals uniform next season.

Caps Advertising Leaves a Lot to be Desired

2007-12-03T05:30:00.000-05:00

As many Capitals fans already know, the team has struggled in recent years with attendance. Some of this can be chalked up to the team's performance, the horrible schedule NHL teams have had to deal with the last several years and perhaps the location of the Verizon Center. But probably more than a little of it has had to do with the Capitals' marketing campaigns, which have been lacking in recent years. This is especially true of their television ads.

There have been three television ads the Caps have run frequently this year. One features a woman in a tattoo parlor watching a Capitals game and getting the Capitals new 'W' logo tattooed on her shoulder; one features a "guy's night out" theme; one focuses on Chris Clark's leadership and toughness. Please note that when I refer to these ads I use my own terminology as I do not know for sure what the ads are officially called.

#1 - Tattoo Parlor

I couldn't find anywhere to download or embed this video, but it can be viewed by going to the Capitals website, going to the Multimedia section, clicking Caps TV and then going to Caps Insider>Commercials and In-Game Features. Here the ad is simply called 'Tattoo'.

For those of you who have not seen it and don't want to load it up, here's what happens in a nutshell. A woman is shown in a tattoo parlor watching a Capitals game. As she is being tattooed Ovechkin comes in on net and we hear Joe Beninati calling a goal for the Caps. The tattoo artist pulls back to reveal that she has finished the Caps 'W' logo on the woman's shoulder as the voiceover says "Capitals hockey. The cool alternative".

Let me be frank. I hate this ad. I do appreciate where it's coming from: "everyone in D.C. follows the Redskins religiously. Your grandparents watch baseball. The NBA is built on the image of hype and hipness to urban culture. Don't buy in. Be different. Watch hockey." But the execution of this ad is laughable.

First of all it feels like obvious pandering. A girl in a dark tattoo shop, with what I assume is supposed to be a badass look on her face, being told outright that hockey is the "cool alternative" (emphasis on the word cool)...it's all too much and way too obvious what they're trying to get at. You're going to have a hard time convincing people who want to different to be different by telling them how to be different.

But the biggest flaw in this ad is that I don't imagine it making many people who are relatively indifferent become more interested in catching a Caps game, either in person or on television and that of course is the whole goal of advertising. Rather, I think most people who don't care to much about the Capitals either ignore the ad or roll their eyes at it.

Plus, why is the woman scowling when Beninati calls the goal? Isn't she supposed to be a Caps fan?

#2 - Guy's Night Out

This ad obviously makes an effort to appeal to whole "guy's night out" concept which, again, is a good idea in theory. However the execution again needs some work. We've got shots of the guys psyched about their Caps tickets, out to dinner, having a beer, playing some pool and finally arriving at the Verizon Center where they view a Caps win. Again, maybe a decent plan but bad execution. The jerky camera, fast cut scenes and obvious references to 'chicks' and beer don't come across as fun as exciting but rather as comical (you can almost here the guys repetedly calling one another 'Dude'), and is capped by the guy who's rubbing his hands together in glee and anticipation upon sighting the Capitals tickets.

But to me, the biggest problem with this ad is how reminiscent it is of the Chappelle's Show sketch 'Dude's Night Out' featuring the imaginary Schlipps beer. It might not seem a problem at first but consider this: the target for the Capitals ad is clearly young men and many (most?) young men are familiar with Chappelle's Show, especially the more popular sketches like 'Dude's Night Out'. The association popped into my head immediately the first time I saw the Caps ad (and I'm not a huge Chappelle's Show fan or anything); now every time it airs I just laugh at the absurdity of how closely it resembles 'Dude's Night Out'. And truthfully, it makes me want to rent Chappelle's Show more than go to a Capitals game when I'm watching by myself and makes me embarrassed to be a Caps fan when I'm watching with family or friends who aren't.

Please note that the second video, 'Dude's Night Out' from Chappelle's Show may be not safe for work (NSFW) in many places.

Please also note that, to the Caps credit, this ad has been updated to feature the new uniforms and logo.

#3 - Captain Clark

The third Capitals ad I've seen aired so far this season features captain Chris Clark talking about the injuries he has suffered, his toughness and what it means to be a leader. Again, let me be frank. I love this ad and it's clearly the best of the lot from this year. The appeal is fairly simple as the ad focuses on Clark's dedication to his teammates, to the organization and to the game of hockey. Aside from being appealing to Capitals fans, most of whom would be happy to see Clark's toughness recognized, this commercial is also the most likely to interest casual fans and get them to come out and see a game.

The Capitals still have a ways to go with their marketing campaign. From what I observed while in the D.C. area, and what I'm told by others, the Capitals don't advertise much except for during telecasts of their own games which obviously hurts their odds of acquiring new fans. In addition the omission of ads featuring Kolzig (for his loyalty to the organization and achievement, including a Vezina), Semin (for his ability to make highlight reels plays) and Ovechkin (for...well, obvious reasons) is something that ought to be addressed. But at least the spot with Clark is a step in the right direction.

Hockey + Economics = More Fights, Hold the Scoring Please

2007-12-03T05:29:00.000-05:00

Anyone who's been paying attention to the sports landscape in the United States can tell you that hockey has a tenuous hold on the title "major sport". In reality the NHL is not on the same level in terms of revenues, relevance or attention as the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball and understandably the league has been working to change this. The three issues the league has primarily focused on when trying to increase its fan base have been: parity, scoring and fighting.

The league has worked to increase parity under the belief that fans will better support a team that has a better chance of winning every night, increase scoring because of a belief that games with more goals are more exciting to fans (and as a reaction to the incredibly low scoring games that were all too common in the early 2000's) and decrease fighting under the belief that the NHL's reputation as a league of violence was turning away casual fans.

So what actually determines interest (and hence attendance) in hockey? This was the question Rodney J. Paul attempted to answer in this paper, published in April 2003 in The American Journal of Economics and Sociology.

Winning and Parity

Not surprisingly Dr. Paul found that teams that tend to perform better on the ice in terms of standings points tend to draw bigger crowds, all else being equal. Specifically an average of one more point per game raises the attendance by 1021.809 fans per game, and by 1426.866 fans per game in the United States. Now, obviously one more point per game is an enormous difference in success. The best teams in the NHL in the 2006-07 season (Buffalo and Detroit) averaged 1.37 points per game while the worst averaged (Philadelphia) averaged 0.68, so the effect is not as large as might be expected. However, previous season's points (one additional point from the previous season means 120 more fans per game for U.S. teams, all else being equal) and playoff success (reaching the second round of the playoffs or further) were also statistically significant. Given this it seems pretty clear than more successful teams draw bigger crowds. Not shocking, I know. But since team success has significant impact on attendance and the NHL wants all of its franchises to be financially healthy it makes economic sense to increase parity, and especially to do so by the means of a salary cap.

Scoring

The league has been adamant in its insistence that fans want to see more scoring. This insistence has been the impetus behind a number of changes in recent years: not allowing goalies to play the puck in the corners, calling hooking and holding penalties when there is even intent to hook or hold, decreasing the size of goalie equipment, making a team that has iced the puck keep its players on the ice for the next faceoff and calling delay of game any time a player puts the puck out of play while in their own end. Given how loudly NHL head office officials insist fans want to see scoring Dr. Paul's finding are surprising: if all else is equal, the number of goals per game a team scores actually lowers average attendance (this coefficient was also statistically significant). On the other hand, visitors with higher per-game averages in terms of goals scored did draw bigger crowds. I would attribute this to fans desire to see marquee players, who are general offensive talents, a variable Dr. Paul did not control for. At best, the jury is out on this one, which makes you wonder why the league is so concerned with upping scoring.

Fighting

Do the fans really like fighting? That's a question that been posed in a number of different forms for years now and the overwhelming statistical evidence says 'yes'.

According to Dr. Paul's paper an increase of one fight per game will raise per-game attendance by 3859.880 fans; 4686.510 fans for U.S. teams, all else being equal. As with points per game a difference of one fight per game would be huge - the Anaheim (Fightin') Ducks led the NHL with 0.87 fights per game last year and the Detroit Red Wings had the fewest with 0.12 per game. So while in increase in fights of one per game is unlikely it's feasible that a team could see a 20% increase in their fighting majors which would result in 937 more fans per game (in the U.S.) (note: Detroit is playing to 88.8% capacity this season; Anaheim is playing to 107% capacity).

I'm not a hockey fight advocate nut and don't want to see bench clearers, the league averaging six fights a game or line brawls on a regular basis. It already irks me when people have the notion that hockey is just constant fighting and just whine about wanting to see a fight when they're at a game and I want the league to be viewed as the toughest sport in the world, not a spectacle. But I, like most hockey fans I think, do like fighting and think it has a place in the professional game. Like the league's obsession with increasing scoring it is curious, to say the least, that there has been such a crackdown on fighting when the numbers seem to clearly indicate that it draws more fans.

My theory is that one of two things is going on. One possibility is that the NHL has different data or is getting different results from what is presented in Dr. Paul's paper. However, I would be pretty surprised if that were the case as it's unlikely people's preferences would have changed so drastically in only a few years. What I think is more likely is that the NHL is chasing people who are either casual fans or are not fans of the NHL and in doing so they're following an opinion that is parroted by so many talking heads with little or no knowledge of the NHL or the game of hockey. It seems like the league is chasing these people and trying to make them into fans which really just isn't going to happen. This is in large part, I believe, due to the fact the Gary Bettman does not come from a hockey background and thus is predisposed to give these voices more pull than they should have. Sadly I do not have any analytical data for this but my experience has been that when people start talking about what a travesty it is that the NHL has lesser penalties for fighting than other sports, they're people who wouldn't watch the NHL anyway (seriously, the next time it happens, ask).

The reality is that fighting, along with exciting games with plenty of scoring chances, draws crowds as long as the fighting doesn't get out of control. That's why hockey was booming in the early to mid 90s - the 80s (and early 90s, to me, but maybe that's because I can't remember much before then) were great hockey and so people started to sit up and take notice. Now the league is chasing whatever additional attention and revenue it can get in the next six months without thinking about what it can do to make itself the best professional sports league in the world in the long run.

That's really what it comes down to. The league needs to stop its obsession with month-to-month attendance and dreaming up new gimmicks to try and put a few more people in the seats for a short period of time and instead focus on making the league the most exciting league in the world and marketing it as so. If they're able to do that concerns over the NHLs popularity and viability should cease.