Pass Shoot Score

Subtle hockey qualities and Troy Brouwer

2012-01-13T18:54:00.000-08:00

Plenty of hockey writers and bloggers use statistics to prove their point about this or that hockey player. The problem with relying solely on statistics to evaluate a player is that it misses the subtle points of hockey that are just as, if not more, important to winning championships. I'm talking about hitting, forechecking, parking your butt in front of the net and winning battles for the puck along the boards. Things the Capitals have struggled with for years.

Troy Brouwer shows those qualities every time he's on the ice. I started this post during the 1-0 win over Pittsburgh the other night when Brouwer had 11 hits! Tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning, he's on fire. Brouwer started by screening goalie Dwayne Roloson on Alex Ovechkin's power play goal. Then, he scored his first goal. On that one, he was to the side of the net and looked like he was going to pass. Roloson thought so, too, as Brouwer five-holed him. On his second goal, Brooks Laich snatched the puck out of the air from Mike Knuble's poke check behind the net and passed it to Brouwer who shot it into a wide open net.

And, he ended the game with an empty netter goal for his first official NHL hat trick. Not so subtle tonight. Congrats Troy!

The Caps need more gritty hockey players like Troy Brouwer. Those type of players win the battles a team needs to survive the sixteen game slugfest that allows them to drink from a shiny silver chalice. I'm enjoying watching Brouwer play.

Other Notes...

Can the Caps PLEASE stop getting stupid, ridiculous delay of game penalties late in the third period that cost them a damn goal? Roman Hamrlik cost them a goal with that penalty tonight. Arghhhhh......
I really don't want to watch Karl Alzner fight Steve Downie as I envision Alznar going out with a concussion. But, I'm impressed by his passion and he got a couple of good shots on Downie. Alzner continued jawing hard at Downie in the penalty box.
Congrats to Ovie and Dennis Wideman for their selection to the All Star game. Wideman seems to be pumped from his all star selection as he had two assists tonight and was visible all over the ice.
A friend of the Capsdreamer household recently witnessed Dale Hunter checking Jason Chimera into the boards at practice. Have I mentioned that I love Dale?

So, the Caps managed to hang on for the win tonight, 4-3, but, I witnessed some ugly hockey during that third period. Caps have two more games against teams on the 2nd night of back-to-back games. Four more must win points.

Carolina is next.

Let's go Caps!

Encouraging signs

2012-01-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

The Caps continued their mini four game winning streak with a 4-1 victory over the Calgery Flames tonight. Under Coach Dale Hunter, the Caps have gone 7-3-1 in their last 11 games, after dropping their first 3 of 4 in the Hunter era. Dale said he was going to instill his system for this team from the blue line out and slowly, but, surely, his system is showing, ending with the offense finally coming alive.

Scoring production is rising fast for the offensive stars. Alex Ovechkin looks like he's enjoying playing hockey again. Watch out when Ovie has fun. He's scored 8-5-13 in these past 11 games, with 5 of his goals coming in the last 3 games. Alexander Semin's (out tonight, unfortunately with an injury) scored 5-5-10 in 10 games. Nicklas Backstrom, the assist machine (3rd in NHL), has 10 assists and 2 goals in that same stretch. When this trio does well, obviously, the Caps do well. The scoring started slowly in Toronto on December 9th, then really went into overdrive beginning against Nashville 11-days after the Toronto game. In those last five games, Semin is 3-2-5 and Backstrom is 0-6-6 and Ovie is 6-2-8. Nice...

Other notes:

Dmitry Orlov - the 20-year old blue liner, with all of 25 AHL games to his resume, continues to play impressive hockey for a young defender. Tonight, as Tomas Vokoun fended off a volley of shots and drifted to the side of the net, Orlov laid down in the net and stopped a goal. He impressed me by his willingness to leave Russia and play in Hershey at the end of last season so he could learn the North American game. Orlov hustles every game and is a delight to watch.
John Carlson - is suffering a significant sophomore slump and I long to see the player from last year. I've worn your jersey with pride since right before your World Junior gold medal game winner, Carlson, so, please get back to playing good defensive hockey. It's my hope that his juniors coach, Dale Hunter, helps him to get his game back.
Tomas Vokoun - seems to be regaining his confidence in net and made some highlight reel saves against the Flames. Dale seesawed between playing Michal Neuvirth and Vokoun because they both were letting in softies, but Vokoun has clawed his way back to #1, for now. I need to see more games to be convinced.

For the first time this season, I'm starting to feel some hope about this team. Of course, that's usually when they stomp on my heart. There's a lot of hockey left to be played.

Caps have a tough two game Western road swing coming up to San Jose and L.A. They typically stink on these road trips, so it'll be a good test for the Hunter team.

And, finally, welcome back Mike Green. Here's to hoping you stay healthy.

Let's go Caps!

Whew....a 2-point night

2011-12-15T22:56:00.000-08:00

After that abomination of a game against the Flyers the other night (which, thankfully, I couldn't watch), long-time Caps fans began wondering. Is this team just awful? Will they ever be able to get it together, even under new coach Dale Hunter? It seems like every season Caps teams are lacking in one way or the other - lack of talent, lack of heart or lack of coaching. This has been the situation since 1974 and this current team is no exception. It remains to be seen if this team can overcome its issues, such as, goaltending inconsistency, defensive breakdowns, lack of strength down the middle and high-priced talent that isn't scoring.

But, tonight, at least, the Caps accomplished what they were supposed to in beating the Jets 1-0. Michal Neuvirth kept the Caps in the game during the first period making some beautiful saves on 14 shots on goal. The rest of the team caught up and helped Neuvirth out in the last forty minutes, limiting them to 8 shots in the 2nd period and 3 shots in the 3rd. It appeared like the players gained more confidence because Neuvirth bailed them out in the 1st period and they responded by shutting down the Jets the rest of the game. Neurvirth got the first star of the game for his efforts. It was great to see him pumping his fist and smiling under his helmet after getting the shutout.

Besides Neurvirth's performance, the highlight of the game was Marcus Johansson's drop pass to Alex Ovechkin with 1:14 left in the 3rd and watching Ovie blast the puck past Ondrej Pavelec for the game winner. It's no secret that if Ovie isn't scoring, the Caps aren't going anywhere and he hasn't been doing much scoring lately, but he's getting a lot more shots on goal in the DH era, which is encouraging.

It's getting easier to see Coach Hunter's system as the Caps get more adept at playing it. I like the other things Hunter is doing, too. He rolls the appropriate personnel for the appropriate situation - no Alexander Semin out there on Ovie's line with under two minutes left in the game, no Jeff Schultz playing much, at all, lately, and no John Erskine when they need a goal to win the game (don't get me wrong, I adore Erskine for the role he's meant to play and plays well) . Hunter hands out ice time based on performance, too, as evidenced by limiting the struggling Cody Eakin to 7:12 in the game tonight.

Although my optimism and pessimism about this team swings wildly based on how they play on any given night, I'm happy with tonight's 1-0 win. I'll be even happier if they make a repeat performance in Colorado on Saturday.

Let's go Caps!

Confidence

2011-12-07T19:03:00.001-08:00

The Caps need confidence desperately. Hopefully, their 5-3 win in Ottawa will give them some of it back. They scored on a power play, finally, after blowing a 5 on 3. Alex Ovechkin scored a goal after turning away from the d-man, stopping in an instant, sending ice shavings into the air, and lifting a wrist shot past Craig Anderson. Troy Brouwer scored 15-seconds later on a pretty pass from Marcus Johansson. Brouwer got the Gordie Howe hat trick tonight - a goal, an assist and a fight (nice fight for Brouwer, too). And, the Caps survived a late third period penalty to Joel Ward, after giving up a goal on an Alexander Semin hooking penalty.

There were times during this game that I still yelled at the TV and threw things around my room, like the hooking penalty to Semin and the goal five seconds later or the John Erskin/Tomas Vokoun out of position Ottawa goal. But, this team appears to be getting better in the Dale Hunter era and, I guess, for right now, that's good enough. It's either that or give up on this team and I'm not ready to do that yet. Hunter hasn't had enough time.

Hunter's nine day era hasn't been easy. Caps lost two 2-1 games to St Louis and Pittsburgh, lost to Florida 5-4 (an ugly game), beat Ottawa 3-2 in OT and beat Ottawa tonight 5-2. The Caps confidence has been visibly missing for a while and neither goalie is playing well enough to bail out the team, although Tomas Vokoun played a strong game in net tonight. But, there have been encouraging signs that the Caps are starting to turning things around like:

Ovie played a monster game tonight and is playing inspired hockey again. Hunter's increasing Ovie's minutes and it's helping. Ovie's getting more chances and more shots. An added bonus is seeing Ovie pressuring in the d-zone. That's never happened.
Hunter is implementing a 1-2-2 trap type system to cut down on goals against and it has done that, although Florida nailed the Caps for five goals. The Caps are playing much more structured and disciplined hockey, in general, including using shorter passes in their transition game. Those cross-ice, fifty-foot passes have mostly led to the puck going back to the d-zone so I'm happy to see less of those.
Jeff Schultz only played 3:55 because "he didn't fit the game," according to Hunter. Hmmm, they were down a goal in the 3rd period and Hunter wanted his offensive d-men out there. John Erskine wasn't out there either. Interesting...
Although they don't consistently play sixty minutes of hockey yet, see first period against Florida and various times tonight, they're still playing more aggressively, winning puck battles, hustling, and hitting.

There is still a lot of work to do. The Caps power play connected once tonight, but it's still dreadful. The power play has sucked since before the 2010 Montreal playoff series so why is the power play coach, Dean Evason, still here when the other coaches are gone? That's a mystery to me.

Toronto comes to town on Friday.

Let's go Caps!

Welcome back Dale

2011-11-28T18:24:00.001-08:00

Most Caps fans felt like Christmas came early today as Dale Hunter took to the ice at Kettler for his first practice as the new head coach of the Caps. Hunter is a legend to Caps fans and that is my biggest fear about him jumping from the OHL to the NHL as a head coach. I don't want anything to tarnish his legend. All day, I've alternated between insane excitement about Dale being here and that lingering fear about his place in Caps history if this goes awry. That fear won't go away -- I am a Caps fan, after all -- until I see how this unfolds.

I think this is GM George McPhee's last stand with owner Ted Leonsis and it's clear from McPhee's comments that he had to convince Ted this was the right direction. Either Dale works out or GMGM won't be GM for life anymore which, after thirteen years, is as it should be. It's far more patience than I would ever have had.

GMGM's been in contact with Dale, for years, while Dale amassed an impressive 451-189-23-24 (.691%) coaching record for the Ontario London Knights. His team made many playoff appearances, won one Memorial Cup and Dale won the Coach of the Year award. Everything I've read and listened to today about his coaching career and through following his team when John Carlson played there, makes me think Dale's a good choice for the Caps. But coaching teenagers, even in the world of rough and tumble Canadian junior hockey, is not like coaching adult multi-millionaires. They've got to want the Stanley Cup not think that they can win it on talent alone (cue Herb Brooks). That's the biggest task for Dale.

Now I have a new set of questions for the rest of this Cap season:

Can Dale turn this team around and make them play hard-working, gritty, disciplined hockey like he did as a player? He gave it all every night. It would be nice if the Caps gave 75% on a consistent basis.
Will he easily adapt to the NHL from the OHL?
Will the players respond positively? Caps, just be warned, if you mess with Dale, you're going to face one angry fan base.
Can Dale bring back Ovie's love of the game and competitive fire? Can he teach Ovie how to become a better and more mature player? Will Ovie take those lessons to heart?

"It's my team," Dale said in his press conference before laughingly saying it was really Ted's team. But, I like that thinking. And, getting his name on the Stanley Cup as the coach, since he was denied that honor as a player, would make all the misery of being a Caps fan go away in one game.

Let's go Caps!

P.S. Thank you Bruce Boudreau for a good ride for a while. I enjoyed the romp to the playoffs, your first year here, and that last game against Florida to get there was unreal, rocking the red at the phone booth. I've been hard on you, but I wish you luck in your future endeavors.

Just pathetic

2011-11-26T18:34:00.000-08:00

There's nothing positive to say about the Caps right now. They got smacked around in Toronto 7-1 when the Leafs had seven players out and they just finished getting trounced by the AHL Buffalo Sabres, 5-1. The Sabres have nine players out. GMGM talks about Mike Green's injury as if it's the only thing wrong with the Caps. I'm so sick of excuses from this organization. If the Caps can't succeed without Mike Green, they're screwed and that's not what's wrong with them anyway. They've quit. If GMGM and Ted can't see that, then they're blind.

The Caps continued their wonderful tradition tonight of allowing a rookie to score his first NHL goal against them. They must lead in that statistic although I'm too lazy to figure that out. It's optional, like the Caps players showing up for their last two games.

I'll say thank you Caps for winning one on Wed against Winnepeg 4-3, since my brother and his girlfriend, long-distance Caps fans were in town for the game. And, whippee, Ovie even scored at home.

But, after these past two games, I'm embarrassed to be a Caps fan because of their unprofessional play.

I hope something changes soon.

Let's go Caps!

I like Nashville

2011-11-15T21:21:00.000-08:00

They're sort of like the anti-Caps - consistent - hardworking - overachieving - battlers. They leave it all out there on the ice every time I watch them play. I watched many of their games during last season's playoffs and enjoyed seeing them overcome the Anaheim Ducks and push the Stanley Cup Champion finalist Vancouver Canucks to six games in round two. All but one of those six games were one-goal games. That says a lot for Nashville.

Maybe it's something about David Poile's teams since the last one I admired was that 1997-1998 overachieving Stanley Cup finalist Washington Capitals team led by stellar play in net from Godzilla, aka, Olaf Kolzig. Pekka Rinne's played a similar role for Nashville with his performance during last season's playoffs. Poile's reputation is about creating hard-working teams that overachieve on small budgets and he's done it again in Nashville. He had to do it for Abe Pollin, during his Washington years, because Pollin never really cared about the Caps.

The Predators signed Rinne to a long-term deal recently, 7-years and $49 million. For a 29 year-old goalie, this deal could turn out to be a disaster for Nashville, but he played in the goalie zone during last season's playoffs and there's no reason to believe he won't again. Keeping defensemen Shea Weber (Norris trophy finalist) and Ryan Suter is still an issue for this team. They need those three to stay competitive.

But, right now, I enjoy watching the Preds, even when they play my Caps. To give the Caps credit tonight, they battled well, for once, didn't leave Nashville much offensive space and paid attention to their transition game and defense -- until the last five minutes of the game. That's an improvement over their play in New Jersey. They didn't, however, crash the net, even after they knew only a garbage goal might get past Rinne. He tracked the puck perfectly and didn't leave any rebounds. Rinne stopped 39 of 40 shots from the Capitals.

Tom Vokoun played equally strong in net for the Caps, stopping 28 of 30 shots he faced. He left a few more rebounds out there than Rinne did, but he played solid overall. Both goalies got lucky bounces.

Troy Brouwer broke the scoring drought at 15:14 in the third period, with a pretty goal shot above Rinne's head, off of a perfectly placed pass by Marcus Johansson. Then, LESS THAN 30 SECONDS LATER, the Caps let the Predators score. This is so typical of this team that it makes me want to scream. Nichlas Backstrom should have been back sooner, John Carlson needed to stop that pass from Weber to Martin Erat and Jeff Schultz should have pushed Weber out of the way. The checking line should have been out there anyway, holding on to a fragile one goal lead, late in the third period. It was obvious the Predators were going to press after the Caps goal.

The 4th line gets my star of the night for the Caps. Mike Knuble hustled all game, like it was his last chance to play hockey, and he tried, unsuccessfully, to bat a puck over Rinne's head from the back of the net. Matt Hendricks and Jeff Halpern played just as gritty as Knuble for that line.

Even though my heart is with the Caps, I like the Predators and Coach Barry Trotz. He gets the most out his players. Most importantly, they're not the - inconsistent - overly talented - underachieving - non-battling Washington Capitals that drive Caps fans, like me, insane.

Other Brief Notes:

Much has been said in the press recently about Alex Ovechkin's play this year and the fact that he needs to change his game with Coach Bruce Boudreau agreeing. I also agree he needs to change his game, but I don't agree it's all on him to figure it out. I think he needs someone to help show him the way and a team system that puts him in the best position to succeed. Then, it's all on Ovie to practice his "new" game so it's as natural as his "old" one used to be. He needs to commit to it. That's all on him, too. I always think of the Scotty Bowman/Steve Yzerman duo when I think of Ovie as it's still my dream that Ovie turns into a late blooming Yzerman type. I'm the Capsdreamer for a reason though. I keep dreaming and things never change.

Florida shutout Dallas tonight 6-0. The Caps got shellacked by Dallas 5-2 last week. Are there any Caps fans out there that think the Caps are a shoo-in for the playoffs this season? Hmmm.

The Caps continue their road trip against the Winnepeg Jets on Thursday.

Let's go Caps!

Accountability...not so much

2011-11-08T22:14:00.000-08:00

I've heard and read encouraging signs from the Caps this young season that they're taking more accountability as they try to overcome their history of playoff debacles. Things like no more optional practices, practices that last longer than 30-minutes, admitting they need to play 60-minutes of hockey, and no more post-game quotes about "hot goalie" excuses. The Caps must not think accountability counts when they play West Coast teams (or the New York Islanders) or their struggles against these teams happen for some other reason. It's certainly not a lack of talent. So what is it? It is accountability and the Caps, all of them, aren't playing like they give a damn when they're on the ice. Mike Knuble's quote tonight, "Of late, I don't know if we're all committed" tells me everything I need to know about this team.

The Dallas Stars whipped the Caps 5-2 in a pathetic display of hockey, by the Caps, at least. Your Washington Capitals did not even show up for tonight's game. The Caps have played one complete game, against the Carolina Hurricanes which the Caps won 5-1, in their last six games. Do you think this style of play will get them very far in the playoffs? Nope, it will get them another first or second round playoff exit, assuming, of course, they make the playoffs since nothing is guaranteed.

So what is so awful about the Caps playing right now - here are some examples:

Battles along the boards - the Caps rarely win those. Stanley Cup winners win those battles more often than they lose them.
Getting out of their defensive zone and through the neutral zone - a theme I've discussed before, but if the Caps can't transition without the often injured Mike Green they're toast.
Passing - I can't begin to count how many times I've seen a Caps player pass the puck into the feet of their teammates. This is a problem that has been going on for years. I've never seen the Caps consistently execute tape-to-tape passes, like other teams do, and like the Anaheim Ducks showed the night they visited the phone booth.
Playing the puck instead of the body - in the defensive zone, the Caps constantly look for the puck or try to play the puck instead of pushing the body out of the way. This gets them into goal trouble often.
Third period goals - the Caps gave up three 3rd period goals playing against the Islanders, Vancouver and Dallas in their last five games. That's atrocious.

I don't expect the Caps to "bring it" 60-minutes for all 82 regular season hockey games as I know that's unrealistic. It's a long season. But, I expect them to act like they're playing hockey and they haven't done that very well in 5 out of their past 6 games.

Let's see if they play better in their home/away series against the New Jersey Devils this weekend.

Let's go Caps!

Caps win in ugly fashion

2011-11-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

In response to an awful 0-2 Canadian road trip against Edmonton and Vancouver where the Caps defense, penalty killing and transition game looked inept, Coach Bruce Boudreau made several changes to the line up against the Anaheim Ducks. He brought up Cody Eakin from the Hershey Bears to man the wing on the 2nd line with Marcus Johansson and Alexander Semin while demoting Mike Knuble from that line to the 4th line with Matt Hendricks and Matthieu Perreault. Jeff Halpern sat in the press box while Perreault played center on the 4th line.

The defensive pairing changes were even more dramatic since Boudreau broke up John Carlson and Karl Alzner. Not that they played that well in Canada together. He paired Alzner with Jeff Schultz and put John Erskine (nice to have you back John!) with Carlson. Dennis Wideman and Roman Hamrlik played together again.

Not that all the lines stayed intact because...for the first 28:59 of the game the Ducks owned the Caps and put on a clinic on how to pass - shoot - score - forecheck - pressure - and keep the puck in their offensive zone. On 11 shots during that time, the Ducks netted three goals, two from Teemu Selanne and one from Saku Koivou. The first Selanne goal happened on an atrocious mistake by Wideman throwing the puck to Hamrlik right in front of Voukoun and Selanne took advantage. That line pairing, with Hamrlik playing minus-3 hockey, stunk it up badly.

The Caps continued to look lost trying to get the puck out of the defensive zone and through the neutral zone, just like in their last two games. It's so obvious when Mike Green is out of the Caps lineup because he's their most effective defenseman at moving the puck up the ice. How many times in this game did you watch the Caps passing around behind the net and in front of Voukoun because they couldn't get past the Ducks. Ugh.

In the last half of the second period, the Caps woke up and flurried around the Ducks netminder, Jonas Hiller, and netted two goals in a little over three minutes. Brooks Laich threw a great pass to Joel Ward and he got it past Hiller. Wideman helped to make up for his atrocious play in the first period by blasting the second goal past Hiller.

In the 3rd period, the Caps 24th placed penalty killing unit got to work about eight minutes into the period on Voukoun's tripping penalty (he looked shaky tonight, too). Corey Perry got a goal after stabbing at the puck in Voukoun's net about three or four times. Once again, the Caps got caught looking around at the puck instead of moving bodies out of the net. Another problem area for them.

Troy Brouwer got the Caps within one at 11:42 in the 3rd. Nicklas Backstrom tied the game with a wicked wrister with 42-seconds left. Boudreau left the Alexes - Ovechkin and Semin - on the bench while Backstrom played the extra man with Chimera, Laich and Ward. Smart move on Boudreau's part to bench the Russians as I trust the third line more to get the job done, when needed. With the Russians, not so much, particularly, with how Ovie played tonight. He needs to step it up, become a better two-way player and realize he's getting nowhere with that barreling toward the net, curl and drag move, as he doesn't have enough space anymore to make that play. He hasn't in a long time.

Backstrom netted the game winner halfway through the overtime period by signaling to Ovie to stay behind him instead of barreling in again. Backie had an outstanding game and was awarded the first star.

So, Boudreau, for the first time in his tenure, sent a message to his star, by limiting his ice time. I never thought I'd see the day. I hope it motivates Ovie. Regardless, all of the Caps need to play better and as a team.

Bottom line from tonight's game:

Caps got lucky, as they played an overall lousy game, and Hiller helped them out by letting in some softies.
Caps don't play well against teams with good forechecking pressure like Vancouver and Anaheim. That's not going to fly in April, May and June just like it didn't last April against Tampa Bay.

The Caps head out for a two game road trip this weekend against the Hurricanes and Islanders. I hope they play better than they did these last three games.

Let's go Caps!

Fun in Philly

2011-10-20T21:43:00.000-07:00

I'm still stunned at the Caps "shock and awe" 5-2 performance against the Flyers in Philly last night. With two goals in 1:08 to take the lead at the end of the first, after the Flyers scored first, and three goals in 2:25 at the beginning of the third period, it was a night of goals in bunches.

For two games in a row, the Caps have played hard for almost 60-minutes (that ridiculous last goal against being an exception to the playing hard theme) and that's a huge difference from last year, particularly, this early in the season. Maybe it's the new guys, maybe it's the new "seriousness", maybe it's Tomas Vokoun standing on his head again, maybe it's Coach Bruce Boudreau matching lines when he can, maybe it's parking guys in front of the net, maybe it's Nicklas Backstrom (2nd star tonight) and Alex Ovechkin (1st star) starting to find their games again and maybe it's all of the above. I don't care what it is, I just hope they keep it up.

Any game the Caps play in the state of Pennsylvania that makes the fans leave early, like tonight, puts a big grin on my face. But, I can't get too excited because it's way too early and the second season (the only one that counts in hockey) is months away.

Players I'd like to call out with an emphasis on the 4th line:

Matt Hendricks - loved his game against Florida and tonight (assisted on Hamrlik's goal, played +2 hockey). That guy his hustling, as is the whole fourth line...which leads to...
Mathieu Perreault - scored an unassisted goal and played +2 hockey. He played a great game tonight.
Jeff Halpern - good to see him back in a Caps uniform, especially, when he's 86% in the faceoff circle on 7 attempts, like he was tonight. Caps faceoff win percentage is ranked 20th in the league...ugh, this is a problem that needs to be fixed.
Ovie - loved that vintage first period goal. More, more, more, please.
Tomas Vokoun - I'm so much happier seeing him a Caps uniform, than a Florida one since he burned the Caps so many times. His laser focus on the pucks tonight was awesome. Vokoun is playing great in net.

Detroit's coming to town for Saturday night's game. Since my friend and fellow hockey fanatic, Steve, is a Detroit fan and is attending the game, I'm pleading for the Caps to bring some more shock and awe. Sorry Steve :)

Let's go Caps!

The Third Line and the Maddening Caps

2011-10-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

Joel Ward impressed me in the playoffs last year for Nashville because he had 13 points - 7 goals, 6 assist in his 12 playoff games and played +4 hockey. In 80 games during the regular season, Ward garnered 29 points and played -1 hockey. Clearly, this is a guy that picks up his intensity in the playoffs. He's a hard working forward that battles for pucks along the boards and I was excited that GMGM picked him up this summer.

Now, he's joined with Jason Chimera and Brooks Laich as part of the Caps checking line and the chemistry is evident based on how well this line has performed while playing against the top lines of their opponents. That line had 2 goals and 1 assist against Carolina and Chimera got the 3rd star. Then, Chimera had 2 goals and that line had 4 points against Tampa Bay while keeping their top line of Ryan Malone-Steven Stamkos-Martin St. Louis to 1 point. Malone got the lone point for an assist without Stamkos and St. Louis. Nhl.com awarded Chimera the second star for his play and he was the first star for the game.

I'm liking that line. They weren't as impressive against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but I think that line is going to be key for the Caps if they can manage to do other things right, which remains to be seen.

So, why are the Caps maddening, part 1? How about because their passing looks like the Mites on Ice and they look disorganized way too often. In the Pittsburgh game, the Caps looked downright horrible in the first period, played better in the second, but trailed off in the third. They managed a paltry 19 shots on net compared to the Crosby-less Penguins 41 shots. They're not going to win too many playoff games playing that way.

Why are the Caps maddening, part 2? Yes, they're 3-0, but they've given away 3 standing points to 2 division rivals and 1 Eastern conference rival by not being capable of closing out a game in regulation. That doesn't matter now, but it will in April.

Other notes...

Thankfully, Boudreau has paired Mike Green with Roman Hamrlik instead of Jeff Schultz. Game over Green, with the overtime winner against Carolina, is starting to look like his old self again and Hamrlik seems to helping that. I like Hamrlik's game, too. He's faster than Scott Hannan, even at age 37, and still throws his body out there to block shots.
After a rocky start against Tampa Bay, Tomas Vokoun stood on his head in overtime and the shootout. He looked strong against Pittsburgh, too, stopping 39 of those 41 shots.
Nicklas Backstrom is starting to look like his old self again, too, and that pass to Dennis Wideman for the game winning goal against Pittsburgh was sweet indeed. Backstrom needs to be successful this season or the Caps won't make it very far in the second season.

The Ottawa Senators are in town for tonight's game.

Let's go Caps!

Questions for the 2011-2012 Caps season

2011-10-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

Like most, I think GMGM picked up some good players this summer in forwards Troy Brouwer, Joel Ward and Jeff Halpern and Roman Hamrlik on defense. I watched all of them, except Halpern, at the last pre-season game yesterday against the Chicago Blackhawks and I liked what I saw. Brouwer and Ward bring desperately needed grit to the team and I like how they battled for the puck along the boards and how they set up plays. And, Hamrlik looked good paired with Mike Green. It's easy to see that he's faster than Scott Hannan.

After last year's epic playoff flameout, GMGM had to have a good offseason. Time will tell if those players will help the team. Regardless, huge questions remain about the Caps and their elusive quest for the Stanley Cup. And, here they are:

Will Coach Bruce Boudreau learn how to adjust his game strategies in a seven game series to effectively compete in the playoffs?
Will Boudreau instill discipline in his players during practice and during games? Will the country club atmosphere be replaced with more seriousness this year? Many of the players came in earlier than they did last year and in better shape, but I'm not convinced the players will listen to the same voice any better than in years past.
Will the players police their own locker room and call out other players, when necessary?
Will Ovie elevate his game to the next level and realize he can't do it all himself? I was pleased to see he didn't try his signature move once yesterday, the one that every defender in the NHL has figured out.
Will Nicklas Backstrom return to form this year? This is an especially important question as the Caps are thin at experience down the middle and Stanley Cup winners are typically strong at center.
Will the power play ever improve? Yesterday, the power play continued to look disorganized and ineffective with the Caps having to chase down pucks far too often.
Will Mike Green stay healthy and will Boudreau please pair him with Hamrlik and not Jeff Schultz? Japer's Rink excellent post, with numerous video clips, shows why Green's partner is crucial to his health.
Will all the Caps, yes, including Alexander Semin, play like they care and with heart on a consistent basis? Will they care enough to leave everything they've got out on the ice in April, May and June?

There are too many unanswered questions for me to get overly excited about this season. And, the important ones don't matter until April.

Changing topics....kudos to Michal Neuvirth for a spectacular game in net yesterday. My other half, Jeff, pointed out to me that it appeared like Neuvy was anticipating where the puck was going. He was in the zone. Yes, he's now the #1B goalie because there is no way GMGM could pass up Tomas Vokoun. Neuvirth will learn a lot from Vokoun and I like his attitude about Vokoun coming in, but I also hope Neuvy gets lots of playing time, too.

Congrats also to Mathieu Perreault for a great pre-season with the most points of anyone on the team.

Let's go Caps!

THE CAPS DID NOT "WIN" THE EAST

2011-06-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

Please excuse my yelling, but if I hear Ted, GMGM or Coach Boudreau talk about how the Caps won the East again I'm going to throw my remote through my TV. Well, not really, since the Caps aren't worthy of causing me to have to buy a new TV. GMGM apparently (and I say apparently because I didn't listen to his interview on NHL Live) once again, spouted the bullshit that the Caps won the East. The Caps were the number one seed in the East going into the playoffs, they didn't win the East. If they won the East, they would be playing in the Stanley Cup finals. The Boston Bruins won the East and I saw them get the Prince of Wales trophy that comes with winning the East. The Bruins should feel insulted every time someone from the Caps organization mentions that the Caps won the East.

The Caps should man up and learn how to play playoff hockey instead of pulling stupid non-existent accolades out of their ass. They don't deserve kudos for anything.

The off season hasn't even begun and I'm already depressed about next season because the Caps won't come close to sniffing a Stanley Cup any time soon with this useless patting themselves on the back for winning nothing. As I always caveat, I hope they prove me wrong because I want to be proven wrong...desperately.

How about accountability instead of excuses

2011-06-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

I'm tired of rationalizations about the Caps ongoing debacles in the playoffs and about good regular season performances from Ted Leonsis, George McPhee and Coach Bruce Boudreau. I got pissed off about the Caps all over again after seeing the Tampa Bay Lightning smack down the Boston Bruins 5-2 in the Eastern Conference finals series opening game. Boston won the series, but I'm still angry.

As a long suffering fan, each season gets worse and worse. Instead of excuses, I'd like to see someone take accountability for the glaring problems with this hockey team as that would give me a little hope. I'd like to see the players take accountability, too, but when the coach doesn't hold them accountable, who will? The veteran leaders that are brought in at the trade deadline? Talk about too little, too late. Hint number one....the lack of veteran leadership has been a problem for years. I wish the organization would review the Detroit Red Wings leadership strategy as it's been quite effective. I realize I'm not "in the game", but people with more credentials than I have say the same thing.

So, let's review:

The Tampa Bay debacle:
"I don't think anything's missing," McPhee said. "We played a team that played better than us in the second round. It happens sometimes. I think we have a good team and we'll just keep trying to make it better."  The Caps didn't just get beat by a team that played better, they got destroyed. Hint number two...this hockey team, collectively, needs hockey smarts instilled by a coach who knows how to get the best out of his players and how to teach them to be smart hockey players. Again, Caps should look at Detroit.

We won the East again. from Ted's Take. I know that's a reference to the regular season, but that is even more irrelevant than the President's trophy. In my viewpoint, when you win the East you get to hang an "Eastern Conference Finals Champion" banner in your barn. The Boston Bruins won the East and the Prince of Wales trophy that comes with it. The Caps won nothing this season, except another Southeast Division champion banner. Whippee. Too bad that doesn't lessen the pain that the Caps are playoff chokers.

“I thought we had sort of an imbalance on the blue line,” McPhee said. “What you really want to have are puck movers. They keep you out of trouble in your own end. They get the puck to your forwards to create more offense, to get more pucks on net, and the only two we had in the lineup were Carlson and Green that generate that offense, and the first three games, both of them didn’t finish one game.” I get that the Caps had injuries, but so does every team in the playoffs, so again, it's an excuse. The Sydney Crosby/Evengi Malkin-less Pittsburgh Penguins took Tampa Bay to 7 games and Tampa Bay lost Pavel Kubina, on their blue line, and Simon Gagne on offense when playing the Caps. And, the Caps flat out laid down and let Tampa steamroll them. That's not about injuries. That's about heart. The Caps don't have it.

The Montreal Canadien debacle:
"We didn't win the series because the goal tender shut us down three games in a row," McPhee said. "He was really good and that's the way it goes sometimes." GMGM on Jarslav Halak after the number one seed collapsed against the number eight Montreal Canadiens. The Washington Capital perimeters, as they're called by long-time fans, didn't challenge Halak with high quality scoring chances. They also didn't crash the net. How many times does that message need to be said to get through to the Caps. I've heard that in post game interviews so often that it makes me want to scream. But, the Caps players don't care enough to leave it all out on the ice night in and night out. Just look at any team that has won the Stanley Cup. That's what they do. "No guts, no glory" is the theme here.

"If that goalie can play the same way as he played the last three games," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said, "anything can happen."  Again, the Caps with their perimeter shots and lack of crashing the net weren't going to get anything on Halak. They had far fewer quality scoring chances than they should have had. Championship teams figure out how to get past hot goalies. Besides, the Caps woes on the power play started that series as they converted on 1 out of 33 opportunities for a whopping 3% effectiveness. There were far more problems than a hot goalie last year.

The prior season they made it to the second round only because future hall of famer, Sergei Fedorov, showed the determination needed to win the Stanley Cup with his game winning goal with five minutes left in game seven against the New York Rangers. In the second round, they went up 2-0 on the Pittsburgh Penguins and eventually collapsed in awful fashion in game seven to lose the series.

The first season the Caps made the playoffs on the last day of the season, in the post lockout era, and they lost to the Philadelphia Flyers. At least they took them to seven games in that series. Considering the Caps would not have made the playoffs if Coach Bruce Boudreau hadn't come in to replace Glen Hanlon in November, they get a pass for that season.

Boudreau gets kudos for his Jack Adam award winning season, but, four seasons later, he hasn't learned to be an effective playoff coach. GMGM doesn't think there's a difference in coaching playoff hockey versus the regular season as here's his quote in the Washington Capital Insider blog post. “I expect him to be back, yeah. He’s a good coach,” McPhee said. “Someone said he’s not a good playoff coach. There’s no difference between a playoff coach and regular season coach. Either you’re a good coach or you’re not. He’s a good coach.” I respectfully disagree. Playoff hockey is a grittier, grind it out, play good defense, don't make stupid mistakes and match lines and strategies against your opponent in a seven game series. The Caps coaching staff made no noticeable adjustments to either Montreal last season or Tampa Bay this season. But, see Tampa Bay and first year coach Guy Boucher. He coached masterfully against the Capitals.

If the Caps organization fails to admit there is a problem and starts fixing this team and their country club atmosphere, this team will continue to fail in the playoffs. Caps fans, particularly long-time Caps fans, care deeply about playoff success. The regular season means nothing in hockey. Hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup is the only thing that matters. I had high hopes for this team when Alex Ovechkin came to D.C. I thought, maybe, they will finally win a Stanley Cup in my lifetime. Until I hear more about accountability and less about excuses as to why they continue to fail, I don't think things will ever change. I'll continue to be a Capsdreamer and a frustrated fan since 1974.  As always, I can only hope the Caps prove me wrong. I'd desperately love to be proven wrong.

History was made...just not the kind Caps fans wanted

2011-05-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

Instead, the Caps made history with a new level of epic failure in the playoffs as the first number one seed swept in the first or second round of the playoffs since 1994. Wow, that's some achievement.

The Tampa Bay Lightning out coached, out played and out hustled the Caps. There is not enough heart, effort or desire in that Caps locker room to win a championship. I feel like a broken record, but I'll say it again anyway. It takes way more than talent to win a Stanley Cup and neither the Caps players nor their coaching staff seem to get it.

Reading GMGM's quotes that he doesn't see major changes being made to his team and organization means that the Caps will continue to go nowhere. Thanks for pouring gasoline on any hope a Caps fan might have for a winning future George. Because the results won't be any different with the players and coaching staff as is.

And, the injury excuse, also in his comments, is just that. An excuse. Pittsburgh took Tampa to seven games without Sydney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Matt Cooke (suspension not injury). Tampa kicked the snot out of the Caps in four games without forward Simon Gagne, a 40 point contributor during the regular season and a point per game performer in their series against Pittsburgh. They also lost Pavel Kubina, one of their top defense men.

So, there you have it Caps fans. Another epically disappointing season. Boy, does it suck to be a Washington sports fan. Oh, wait, I said that last year, too....because nothing ever changes.

Another line change mistake results in another Caps failure

2011-05-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

Who lost this game? The coach. Successful professional hockey teams don't take a too many men on the ice penalty in the playoffs. Last night, that was the difference. If Mike Knuble's goal had counted on the power play in the first period, the score would have been tied in the third, even after Tampa's two goals in under a minute. But, no, another stupid change cost the Caps another goal. Lackluster efforts from too many players aren't helping either, but these momentum swinging mistakes are killing them.

Being a Caps hockey fan truly fits the definition of insanity.

Teams rarely come back from being down 0-3 in the playoffs so whatever hope I had is gone now.

Let's go Caps!

Line Change Mistakes = Coaching Failure

2011-05-02T10:07:00.000-07:00

Not that there aren't many other reasons the Caps are failing in the playoffs, once again, but line change mistakes are killing them in this series. It led to the overtime goal that put the Caps down in their series against the Tampa Bay Lightning 0-2 last night. Atrocious line changes during Friday's game contributed to that first game loss, too. The coach doesn't get all the blame for this failure as the players play a role in making effective line changes, but he is the bench manager. Scott Hannan, however, made the line change mistake that led to the overtime goal on Friday. But, this is "hockey for dummies" stuff and why the Caps can't get this right is beyond me.

Other reasons why the Caps still stink in the playoffs...

The Caps power play. It's been ineffective for over a year now and that the coaches can't fix it means this could be a short series. The Caps can't set anything up, they continue to disregard the effectiveness of putting big bodies in front of the net and they get cute, far too often, passing when they should shoot more.

Alex Ovechkin on the point during the power play. It doesn't work and I'm tired of watching the puck go over Ovie's stick back into the neutral zone when he's on the point. Why the coaches continue to try something that hasn't worked in over a year is maddening.

The disappearance of Nicklas Backstrom. Where in the world did your game go Backie? I don't know if he's struggling with the new way the Caps play, but, prior to this year, he's been one of the more consistent star offensive players. It's so unusual to watch a consistent player's production go down the toilet. It's a head scratcher.

The defensive pairing of Jeff Schultz with Mike Green. Schultz ended the night minus-2 and Green was minus-1. No other player on the team was worse in defensive play than these two. Schultz was on the ice for all three Tampa goals and Green for two. Seeing them together drives me insane because they're a huge liability together. Schultz is struggling to keep up with the speedy Tampa players and looked horrible all night and in Friday's game. I miss Dennis Wideman because he would be a huge help to the Caps with Tampa's speedy players and the power play. Plus, the coaches could break up this awful pairing.

Tampa's coaching staff is out coaching the Caps, which is eerily reminiscent of the series against Montreal last year.

I have little faith that the Caps can win this series if these problems persist, but I also hope they prove me wrong.

Let's go Caps!

Nothing better than game 7 hockey in Stanley Cup playoffs

2011-04-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

I'm watching the series deciding #8 seed Chicago Blackhawks play the #1 seed Vancouver Canucks game, like most hockey fans right now, and it reminds me why hockey is the greatest game on earth. Yes, I know any non-hockey fan would disagree, but they're wrong :). It's a 1-0 Vancouver lead with 3:26 left in the third period. Vancouver is battling back from losing the last three to Chicago after being up 3-0, so the story lines keep getting better as the game goes on like...

Roberto Luongo, the net minder in the first year of a twelve-year contract that blew two games. He also has a pretty bad playoff record since he's never made it past the second round. Luongo got pulled in game 6 and is trying to overcome his playoff choker reputation.

The Vancouver GM Mike Gillis asking for a "level playing field" for officiating since the Canucks suffered 27 penalty kills while the Hawks had 16. Inconsistency of officiating in the NHL is a constant rant from fans, but I've never seen a GM publicly complain about the penalty calling.

Corey Crawford, the rookie net minder, who did not play when Chicago won the Cup last year, is playing lights out. He's making some incredible saves, including a penalty shot to try and help Chicago make history because the Hawks are aiming to come from behind three games in the series. It's only been done three times in the NHL.

Back to the action...

Jonathan Toews, the Chicago captain with only 3 points in the series so far, scores a short-handed clutch goal with 1:56 seconds left in the third period to tie the game. The captain hasn't scored a goal in this series. In one second, the momentum swings and the crowd gasps. It was an unbelievable goal, too.

In the end, Vancouver shakes off their demons for this round with an overtime win on a goal by Alexandre Burrows at 5:22 in the overtime period and Vancouver goes nuts.

Ahhh, NHL playoff hockey. So much fun to watch a game 7 when my team isn't playing!

In other news.....the Caps find out their 2nd round opponent starting now (since I didn't post this last night). It'll be the Pittsburgh Penguins, Tampa Bay Lightning or the Montreal Canadiens.

Let's go Caps!

An electric phone booth and the Caps move on

2011-04-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

The Caps played the game they were supposed to yesterday and came away with the win, 3-1, and the series. The ringing in my ears finally subsided several hours after I left the Verizon Center. The deafening cheers from the sea of red started before the Caps appeared on the ice and they rarely let up yesterday afternoon. From the "we are louder" chant to the "hey, hey good-bye" chant in the last two minutes, Caps fans enjoyed themselves in the post season, for once.

Props to Michal Neuvirth, the first star of the game. The 23 year-old rookie net minder played with confidence. He showed that when he came out to skate for the first star by throwing his hands into the air as if to say, "NHL, do you know who I am now?" The unheralded net minder won't be unheralded much longer. Neuvirth has won every single playoff series he's played on North American soil and earned an MVP award in the AHL by leading the Capitals minor league affiliate, Hershey Bears, to the first of two Calder Cup victories.

I love Neuvirth's cool, calm and unflappable demeanor in net, except when someone is crashing his crease. Then, he gets ticked. Ah, that brings back memories of Olie Kolzig for me and that's a good thing. Neuvy's 1.83 GAA and .946 save percentage has him on the leader board for playoff goalies in the number two position behind Antero Nittimaki of the San Jose Sharks.

Thank you Coach Boudreau for having faith in Neuvirth. I asked for him to be the goalie in my March 14th column and it was the right decision. He's a winner and that's all that matters right now.

The Caps also crashed the net yesterday. Yeah. So simple, yet something the Caps forget to do time and time again. Mike Green's first goal came on a net crashing scrum on the power play that ended up with him getting the puck into the net. Greener also provided the most scary moment of the game when he blocked a shot with his head. Ahhhh. The phone booth went silent. Apparently, he's okay. We'll see.

The game winning goal came courtesy of the Cap's game winning goal Russian machine, Alex Ovechkin and it was a beauty. Ovie out smarted an overworked and tired Marc Staal and beat Henrik Lundqvist coming from the right wing side. Maybe Boudreau needs to play Ovie on the right wing more often. He said he might.

There are other Caps that played key roles in getting them through round one. I'll talk about them in the coming days before round two starts. In the meantime, I get to watch playoff hockey without really caring about the outcome. That keeps my blood pressure down.

Let's go Caps!

Go for the throat please

2011-04-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

After that epic, heart attack inducing, come from behind double overtime victory, I only have a short plea today. Win, just win tomorrow Caps. The Rangers are tired. Send them home. And, please, please do it before overtime.

That is all.

I'm looking forward to rocking the red.

Let's go Caps!

Which team wants it more?

2011-04-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, the New York Rangers wanted it a lot more than the Caps. The Caps played a disorganized, sloppy, penalty filled game that ended in a 2-3 loss and handed the momentum back to the number eight seed. This history is disturbingly familiar. Obviously, even Jason Arnott didn't have magic words for this team, but, at least, he still appeared on the score sheet.

The Rangers spent their game harrassing Michal Neuvrirth. I want to see the Caps pushing the Rangers out of Neuvy's crease. I also want to see them crashing into Henrik Lundqvist's crease a lot more, even at the risk of penalties. They've got to do that to get those garbage goals that win playoff games. Plus, they need to shove that pressure right back at the Rangers. The Caps can't afford to get more penalties than the last game, but if they eliminate the stupid ones like delay of game, interference, hooking and holding it shouldn't be a problem crashing the crease.

I'm still amazed that Lundqvist got the number one star in that game because I'm not sure what he did to deserve it. The Caps played 16 minutes of penalty killing so Lundqvist wasn't all that busy stopping 23 of the Caps 25 shots. Neurvirth faced 35 shots. Since the New York media picked the stars for that game, I'm surprised Sean Avery, the drama queen, didn't get it for deciding to give his team and overworked defensive stars a little rest by breaking his stick prior to that one faceoff.

So Caps, it's up to you. Either shine your golf clubs for your typical early exit or play like you want it by addressing the shortcomings Tarik so eloquently highlighted.

Let's go Caps!

Believe it Arnott

2011-04-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

I loved the sign that said that in the phone booth last night. I also love Jason's remarks in today's Washington Post talking about how the Caps eased up a bit in the third period of their 2-0 victory over the New York Rangers Friday night. He mentions that even with all the positives they have to address the negatives, like being lackadaisical in the third period. Awesome, just what the Caps need to hear. Jason's angry goal look is worthy of love, too. Let's face it, I love this guy.

Arnott is the leader the Caps have needed in the locker room and on the bench for a long time. He's constantly talking to Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin and all the boys on the bench and they listen to him! Arnott is the one that will make damn sure the Caps don't slack off, which has been their downfall more times than I can count in the Ovie era. His attention to detail and making sure they do all the little things right is so important if this team is going to progress in the playoffs. And, it's the little things that have killed them in the past (lousy defense didn't help either, but that's a subject for another post since it's not a problem right now).

Arnott is on a mission and he's arrived at the right place at the right time. Players don't waive their no trade clauses to play for a losing team. They waive them to compete for a Stanley Cup. Arnott saw a situation in Washington where he could be a contributor and a leader and compete for a Stanley Cup again, so he became a Cap. He didn't want to waive his no trade clause to go anywhere else. He wanted to come here. I'm thrilled he's here.

That doesn't mean I'm etching the Caps players names on the Stanley Cup because I'm far from that. There's too much history, too many playoff failures and too many blown 3-1 series lead for me to remotely be optimistic about this team making it to the finals, much less competing for the Cup. I have to take it one game at a time.

And tomorrow's one game at a time game is in Madison Square Garden. If they win, I'm already dreading the deadly three game lead even though I have tickets to game 5. My hope, since this series began, is that I don't get to use them.

Let's go Caps!

The heart attack Caps

2011-04-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

There is nothing more exciting than overtime hockey in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The game moves so fast compared to other sports that in a blink of an eye a puck can fly into the net and the game's over. But, if it's your team playing overtime in the playoffs, the stress can have you reaching for your phone to call 911 because your heart hurts. So, of course, that's how the Caps started their Eastern conference quarter-final series against the New York Rangers because they never do anything the easy way.

I'm glad they won because the Caps needed this win psychologically (I know I needed it!). They haven't won game 1 in a playoff series at home in the last two playoff seasons. But, more importantly, I didn't want the Caps to lose this game and then start holding their sticks too tight wondering how they were going to score on the great Henrik Lundqvist in net.

What I liked:

The Caps blocked more shots than the Rangers 32-28. That shows commitment to team defense.
Scott Hannan played a great game on the blue line and showed why the veteran defenseman was a key pickup for the Caps.
The rookie goal tender Michal Neuvirth stayed cool, calm and collected during his NHL playoff debut and made key saves, particularly in overtime, that helped the Caps win the game.
Alex Ovechkin not giving up on the play that resulted in that dirty goal that tied the game.
Nicklas Backstrom, the Caps ice team leader in game 1, played a smart hockey game. He's struggled this season, but has recently gotten back to his game.
Brooks Laich crushed in the faceoff circle, winning 72% of his 18 faceoffs.
Marc Staal's mistake in overtime that led to Jason Arnott feeding Alexander Semin for that beautiful blast of a shot to win the game.
They won!

What I didn't:

Sloppy play in the offensive zone. The Caps didn't take the time to set up offensive zone plays. Ovie tried to do it all by himself a couple of times and that doesn't work in the playoffs.
Not enough traffic in front of the net. You need traffic in front of the net to get those garbage goal rebound opportunities. Garbage goals win playoff games, particularly, when the goal tender stands on his head to make outrageous saves. Ovie's goal, where he kept jabbing at the puck until it squeezed through Lundqvist's pads, is a classic example of a garbage goal. The Caps need to park themselves in front of the net.
Ovie's stupid roughing penalty shortly after his goal. That could have cost the Caps the game.
Giveaways - the Caps had 20 to the Rangers 13. Not good.
The goal post. That ringing sound reverberating through the phone booth on shots by both Arnott and Semin that hit the post made me want to tear my hair out. It's hard enough scoring on Lundqvist and he was beat on both those shots if they were a tiny bit lower.

The puck drops for game two in about eight hours. I've got 911 on speed dial.

Let's go Caps!

It's about time, but I'm uneasy because I'm a Caps fan

2011-04-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

Finally, the second season in hockey starts next week. The one where the team left standing in June after four grueling playoff series gets to lift the Stanley Cup. Hockey teams are defined by what they accomplish in the second season, not by winning the regular season Presidents' Trophy for most points. Because really, who cares? I've never figured out why hockey awards a trophy to the team that leads in points at the end of the regular season. It's meaningless. Teams in the NFL, NBA or MLB don't give out trophies for being 1st in the league at the end of their regular seasons because winning the championship is the only thing that matters.

So, I'm glad the Caps didn't win the Presidents' Trophy this year. I'm also proud of them for coming in 2nd place in the league after surviving a grueling 8 game losing streak earlier this season. That's when Coach Boudreau finally decided to make this team play defense. Hopefully, it'll make a difference this post season.

Even though I'm proud of the Caps for coming in first in the East, it means they get to play the number eight seed again and that turned into a disaster last year. The Caps lost to a harder working number eight seed, the Montreal Canadiens. This playoffs, they get to play a hard working New York Rangers team. The Rangers shellacked the Caps this season with 7 and 6 goal shutouts. Gee, is it any wonder that I'm uneasy?

The games with the Rangers and Caps seem to come down to two things - Henrik Lundqvist in net and blocked shots. Blocked shots are a good indicator of a hard working team that sacrifices their bodies. In terms of goaltending, Lundqvist is a far more accomplished goal tender than either Michal Neuvirth or Semyon Valamov and he's capable of stealing games and a playoff series. To solve Lundqvist, the Caps have to crash the net and get dirty goals early. It's no coincidence that the goals scored on him tend to be garbage goals from close-in. In the Caps early season 5-3 win over the Rangers, Brooks Laich, Mike Knuble and Matt Hendricks all scored on him from 13 ft in or closer. Those three forwards generate a lot of garbage goals. John Erskine scored a 44 ft slap shot and Brooksie got an empty netter in that game.

As for blocked shots, the Caps need to work as hard as the Rangers. The blocked shot differential in their four meetings this season is telling. The Rangers blocked 73 shots while the Caps blocked 32. Ouch. In the November game where the Caps won 5-3, ten Ranger players blocked shots led by Ryan Callahan with 5 (he's out for the season) while six Caps players blocked shots with Jeff Schultz leading with 2. In the December 0-7 debacle, eight Rangers blocked shots led by Brian Boyle with 7 while five Caps blocked shots with Karl Alzner leading with 2. In the January 1-2 SO loss, nine Ranger players blocked shots, led by blue liners Marc Staal and Michael Sauer with 4 each, compared to the Caps five players led by blue liner John Carlson with 4. In the final game between these two teams, eight Rangers blocked shots with Brian Boyle again leading the way with 5 while six Caps player blocked shots and Nicklas Backstrom led with 3. The Ranger commitment to team defense shows here and the Caps have to match that intensity.

All of the games against the Rangers happened before the trade deadline additions of Jason Arnott, Dennis Wideman (unfortunately, out for this series) and Marco Sturm. Arnott is the most important addition of those three because he's provided much needed veteran leadership in the Caps locker room. The Caps listen to him because he's been there, done that and won a Cup. A Cup victory where Arnott scored the game winning goal in overtime. He knows how to win the Cup and he will not let the Caps get away with slacking off. The Caps have only lost 4 games in regulation of the 19 games they played since the trade deadline.

So, the only prediction about this series I'll make is this, if the Caps want to win this series, they will.

The fun starts Wednesday.

Let's go Caps!

What does game winning Russian machine mean to the Caps?

2011-04-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

A lot when it comes to game winning goals. At 3:19 in the overtime period against the Buffalo Sabres last night, Alex Ovechkin netted another game winner, a shot that deflected off the skate of a Sabre before going into the net past goalie Jhonas Enroth, playing for injured Ryan Miller. Ovie's celebratory dance after scoring his league leading 11th game winning goal amused fans everywhere. It's nice to see Ovie excited about scoring again, too, just in time for the playoffs.

The impact of Ovie's ability to pot game winning goals for the Capitals is significant. This year, seven of Ovie's game winners were the difference between winning and losing for the Caps (two of those games were OT wins). That's fourteen standings points! If the Caps had fourteen less points today as of 7:30 p.m., they'd have 89 points and be in eighth place behind the New York Rangers instead of tied for the Eastern conference lead with the Philadelphia Flyers with 103 points. The Russian machine's impact is pretty significant, huh?

Ovie has been in the top four in the league in game winning goals for the past four seasons. In '07-08, he had another league leading season with 11 game winners, he had 10 in '08-09 where he was tied for 3rd and he had 7 in '09-10 which put him tied for 4th.

Ovie may not have goal totals near those of his past five seasons (50, 56, 65 in his last three seasons versus 30 this season), but he's still making the clutch goals. That's the hallmark of an elite sniper.

Ovie also joined heady company last night as his 1 goal, 2 assist night put him at 30-51-81 for the season. That's his sixth season in a row with 80 plus points, a consecutive points total only players like Wayne Gretsky, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr, Peter Statsny and Steve Yzerman managed to get. This year may not have been Ovie's best personal stats year, but here he is in with this group and leading the league in game winners.

In an unrelated note:

Congratulations to Jason Arnott for scoring his 400th goal on a clutch goal that kept the Caps in the game and able to get to overtime.

Three more games left Caps. Please hang in there and get healthy.

Let's go Caps!

Mike Knuble

2011-03-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

My first comments about Mike Knuble when he became a Cap back in July 2009 were about how much happier I would be to see him in a Caps uniform instead of a Philadelphia Flyer uniform. I still believe that and enjoyed watching the 38-year-old forward wrap up his 8th consecutive twenty goal season against his former teammates. It's how he gets his goals that makes Knuble so wonderful to watch. He's the quintessential net crashing, garbage goal getting forward. And, that's such an important role for any team with Stanley Cup aspirations. He's also a leader for the Capitals.

So, how has Knuble done in his almost two full seasons with the Caps? He's a slow starter offensively. But, this year, he started out looking slow in scoring and skating. It didn't help that everyone struggled on the top line of Alex Ovechkin-Nicklas Backstrom-Mike Knuble. Knuble's production struggled along with that line. In his first season with the Caps, it took Knuble 32 games to score his first 10 goals (.3125 GPG). This year, it took Knuble 40 games to score his first 10 goals on January 11th against Florida (.25 GPG). But, then, all of a sudden, he'll turn it on and he's turned it on this season.

His overtime game winning goal against the Chicago Blackhawks on March 13th netted him the first star of the game that night. That was an important win for the Caps against the defending Stanley Cup champions. A second star performance against the New Jersey Devils on March 18th ended with Knuble being 2-1-3, +3 for the night. His 20th goal against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 22nd was part of a 1-2-3, +2 night for Knuble. In that span of five games, he potted 5 goals and had 3 assists. I like it.

Knuble's playoff stats as a Cap in 7 games against the Montreal Canadiens were 2-4-6. Almost a point a game. Not bad for a then almost 38-year-old. I'd like to see him back for one more year.

After blanking the Canadiens with a 2-0 shutout performance by Braden Holtby (he's impressive), the Caps are home finally for a game against the Carolina Panthers tomorrow.

Let's go Caps!

Eight games to go, Injuries Mount, Flyers Game Heroes

2011-03-23T19:09:00.000-07:00

The news from yesterday that Alex Ovechkin will be out nursing an undisclosed injury for 7-10 days made me stop breathing for several seconds and also made me curse the lousy luck the Caps have. In typical fashion, the Caps demurred when asked specifics about the injury Ovie has been battling through for, apparently, several months. But, he skated today so it can't be too awful. The key injuries continue to climb for this team, although at this time of the season that can be said about most teams. I just hope this team has a healthy Ovie, Jason Arnott and Mike Green when the playoffs start. With the way Ovie plays, he is always banged up this time of year so I'm glad he's recuperating.

The Caps took their battered lineup to Philadelphia and following the lead of 2nd star performer and 1st goal scorer, Nicklas Backstrom, they scored three goals by 1:22 in the second period. Mike Knuble (more on him in my next post) and Dennis Wideman joined Backie in scoring. But, the Caps let up on the gas with the 3-0 lead and the Flyers responded with four unanswered goals. Ugh. The Caps came back because of Marcus Johansson's one timer at 16:41 in the third period on a pass from Mike Knuble.

Heroes of the Evening:

Nicklas Backstrom who was everywhere on the ice. He started the crucial scoring and netted one of the three in the shootout.
Mike Knuble with a 3-point, +2 night.
Marcus Johansson with the clutch 3rd period goal to force overtime.
Michal Neuvirth for hanging in there when the Caps got lazy. He played rough, at times, but kept them in it.
Matt Hendricks with his beauty of a goal in the shootout.

Get healthy Caps.

The Ottawa Senators are up next.

Let's go Caps!

Go with Neuvirth as Tarik Says

2011-03-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

I agree with everything Tarik El-Bashir says about committing to Michal Neuvirth now while the Caps have 12 games left in the regular season. As Neuvy so often says, he's the type of goalie that plays better when he's in a groove and getting the majority of the starts. So, please, play him.

Neuvirth has saved the Caps several times this season, particularly, when the rest of the team played awful. Neuvy's record in 41 games is 22-10-4, a Caps rookie record, with a 2.47 GAA and .914 SV%. His stats aren't going to wow anyone that watches the NHL this season, but his winning record has meant a lot of points for the Caps this season. And, he'll continue to get better.

I'm not confident that Semyon Varlamov, the better goalie statistically & more acrobatic than Neuvirth, can stay healthy. The acrobats may be exacerbating the groin injuries although he supposedly has something wrong with his knee now. Varly's only played 24 games so far this year. He also spent over two months in the minors last year recovering from an injury. Yikes, the injury record is not encouraging and it started shortly before he left Russia. He has the definite edge in NHL playoff experience since Neuvy has zero NHL playoff games to Varly's 19 NHL games over two seasons with a 10-9 record.

Neuvy, on the other hand, led the AHL Hershey Bears to two Calder Cup trophies. Yes, I realize it's the minor league, but Neuvy played 22 playoff games in '08-'09 with a 16-6 record, .932 SV% and 1.92 GAA. That 1.92 GAA is an AHL playoff record and certainly helped him win MVP honors that year. In '09-'10, Neuvy played 18 games with a 14-4 record, .920 SV% and 2.07 GAA.

Finally, you've got the NHL number one star of the week, Braden Holtby, another rookie Caps net minder with a 8-2-2 record and a .931 SV% and an impressive 1.95 GAA. He's going to be a very good NHL net minder, especially, considering he's a fourth round draft pick, but I really don't want a goalie with 12 NHL games under his belt starting in the playoffs for the Caps this season. I don't believe in playing the "hot hand" in this case as Coach Boudreau and others advocate because he's way too inexperienced. It showed in his game yesterday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. It'll show in the playoffs when the games are played at a whole new level of intensity.

Having goalie depth is a good problem to have, but I'm advocating for Michal Neuvirth.

Let's go Caps!

Wow, that was impressive Caps

2011-03-14T19:59:00.000-07:00

The Caps took their "A" game to the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks with a hard working, up tempo 3-2 win in overtime on a beautiful game winning goal by Mike Knuble. Knuble stood in front of the goalie and moved the puck and his stick from one side to the other before twisting around and lifting it past the goalie's pad. That play illustrated how important veterans are to hockey teams as they progress through the playoffs. He may have lost a step this year, but I'll take his experience and patience any day to mix in with the Caps younger players.

Marcus Johansson made the smart move to send the puck to Mike Knuble's waiting stick instead of trying to shove it into the net. The young Swede is going to be an impressive hockey player in this league. He's played well on the top line in the absence of injured Nicklas Backstrom.

The entire Caps team played a smart hockey game today. It was one of their very few complete games of the season where they played the full sixty minutes and everyone was out there hustling. It was a blast to watch.

The difference in this team with the addition of trade deadline acquisitions Jason Arnott and Dennis Wideman supported by the earlier season pick up of Scott Hannan is night and day. This team has won their last 8 games, with 7 of those being one goal games and many of them being come from behind after giving up the first goal in the first period. The younger players are clearly benefiting from veteran leadership, something they've needed for a long time. So, I'll tip my hat to GMGM for once. He made some good trades this year. Still, nothing counts until the playoffs.

Braden Holtby played well enough in net again to get the win although, at times, his inexperience showed. He won the first star of the week on nhl.com so congrats Holtby. More on the goalies in my next post...

Caps begin a rough six game road trip tomorrow in Montreal.

Let's go Caps!

Braden Holtby helps Caps eke out a win

2011-03-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

After an inauspicious start to their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in in the SE division, the Caps won a shootout match on a beauty of a goal by Alex Ovechkin and a stand on his head performance from goalie Braden Holtby. Holtby entered the game cold after Michal Neuvirth didn't come back in the 2nd period because a piece of metal went into his eye after the puck hit his mask on a Tampa shot early in the first period. That's frightening to me and I can't believe he continued playing after the shot. I'm glad he's okay.

The Caps would have lost the game in regulation if not for the heroics of Alexander Semin and his timely goal 14:28 in the third period to tie the game. Semin's play on both ends of the ice during the last couple of games has been impressive. He has the talent to be one of the sickest players in the NHL when he's on, but, unfortunately, Semin being "on" ebbs and flows throughout every season he's played. I have no doubt having Jason Arnott playing center with him helps Semin as his centers have constantly changed during the Caps quest to find a true second line center. Here's to hoping we see the back checking, goal scoring Semin in the playoffs.

There is slight optimism rising among Caps fans this morning about this team. Although the dreadful power play must be fixed in this last month before the playoffs and the Caps need to score more goals and score in the first period, they are winning close games and staying defensively responsible. The Caps have won five one goal games in a row after getting pasted by the New York Rangers, 6-0. Still, I won't be optimistic about this team making a long playoff run until they show me they can actually win a playoff series.

Before closing, I want to talk more about the young net minder and first star on nhl.com yesterday, Braden Holtby. His last appearance in a Caps game came against the New York Rangers on January 24th and that game also ended in a shootout. Holtby tanked badly in that shootout. He overplayed every shot and was too jittery, which is not unexpected from a goalie that has only played a handful of games in the show. Holtby dedicated himself to working on shootouts and breakaway when he went back to Hershey and it paid off. I think that's awesome.

However, the real reason I love Braden Holtby is he's a typical quirky NHL goalie. A lot of goalies are quirky or temperamental and it's just another reason I love the game. Caps fans started hearing about his "holtbyisms" from those that get to watch him in Hershey. I enjoyed watching the Holtby shuffle and water bottle squirt routines the first time I saw him live.

Holtby's in net again tonight versus the Edmonton Oilers. Michal Neuvirth is backing him up so I'm assuming his eye is okay.

This is a game this team should win even without Mike Green and Nicklas Backstrom, but that doesn't mean a thing.

Let's go Caps!

Upbeat hockey and a win

2011-03-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

The Caps brought a spirited game tonight to the St. Louis Blues and won 3-2. In fact, it was one of the most energetic games I've seen this team play in a long while except when they're playing the Pittsburgh Penguins. All four lines played well, too, and the power play buzzed, which are both unusual this season. Hmmm, do I think Jason Arnott is already making a difference? It's obviously too early to tell, but the signs are encouraging. Scott Hannan is getting more vocal, too, so the Caps finally have several veterans in the locker room, including Mike Knuble and Dennis Wideman, which is all good. Who knows if it'll translate to playoff success, but the pieces are there. It's up to the coaches (still a huge worry) and the players to execute.

I like the Laich-Arnott-Semin line. Alexander Semin woke up for the game last night and seems to be benefiting from all that talking I see Arnott doing with him on the bench. Brooks Laich has also picked up his game. Arnott and this line clinched the game in the 3rd period with his goal off a beautiful pass by Semin.

Alex Ovechkin, two assists and 2nd star of the game behind Arnott, appears to be the Ovie that Caps fans love again. Caps need him to be on top of his game now and into the playoffs. His line mate, Nicklas "Bat-strom" as nhl.com called the video of his swinging at the puck in mid-air for a goal, is finally playing much better hockey, too, even with a hurt thumb. He's been more disappointing than Ovie this year and the Caps also need him to be on top of his game in the playoffs.

Other players that were fun to watch last night:
-Matt Bradley hitting hard, flying around taking the puck and winning his second fight in a row without bleeding.
-Dennis Wideman, 5 hits, 2 blocked shots and 1 takeaway in his 22+ minutes of work. The guy plays effectively in every situation, PP, PK and ES.

The game wasn't all good last night. The Caps didn't score in the first period again, the other team scored first again and some players like John Carlson and John Erskine struggled. Carlson's been struggling a lot lately and is probably hitting his rookie wall and needs his minutes cut so he's ready to go in the playoffs. Erskine's flub led to the second Blue goal. He's a player that benefits when he doesn't play every game so it'd be nice to see him sit out a game or two.

Finally, congratulations to Michal Neuvirth for his 21st win of the season, the most by a Caps rookie net minder in franchise history. Neuvirth looked a little shaky on rebound control last night, but he hung in there and made some key saves.

Non-game topics:
-Apparently, there's still animosity in the Pittsburgh Penguin locker room towards David Steckel for his unintentional collision (not hit, collision, the word choice matters), on Sydney Crosby during the Winter Classic game on January 1st because Crosby is still out. When are the Pittsburgh Penguins going to take responsibility for playing Crosby in their next game against Tampa Bay where he got hit in the head again? No way should he have been playing in that game if the Steckel collision left him feeling woozy.

-The booing from Tuesday night in which I took part. Some fans and, at least, one blog writer referenced in Ted's Take , think it's classless when fans boo. You're entitled to your opinion as I'm entitled to boo a team that's not putting any effort for 59 minutes into a game they're paid millions to play. My boos were not directed at Michal Neuvirth or the new guys. They were intended only to show my displeasure with the lack of effort from the rest of the players because lack of effort has been a problem far too often this season. There is no excuse for it and it won't get this team very far in the playoffs.

Next up...another back-to-back set against the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, starting with Florida on Sunday.

Let's go Caps!

Keep telling it like it is Jason Arnott

2011-03-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

Jason Arnott calling out his new Caps teammates for a lackluster effort against the New York Islanders last night is fine by me and I hope he keeps it up. The Caps need an asshole in the locker room since the coach won't hold his players accountable. And that's exactly why I'm thrilled GMGM got him. I don't know if it'll make a difference this season with Coach Boudreau still at the helm, but if Arnott teaches these players to grow up and play their game like they care, that's got to help.

In other notes:
-Michel Neuvirth played lights out in net again and he's the only reason the Caps won that game. As talented as Semyon Varlamov is, I think Neuvirth will end up being the Caps number one because he's far more durable. Neuvy deserved to be the first star instead of Alex Ovechkin since he played sixty minutes and Ovie didn't even come close to that, regardless of his heroics on his last two shifts with an assist and dramatic end-to-end overtime GWG that sealed the victory.

-I enjoyed watching Dennis Wideman, the defenseman GMGM picked up from the Florida Panthers on trade deadline day, and think he's going to be a good pick up for the Caps with his special team skills and playoff experience with the Bruins. The depth he brings is crucial with Mike Green still out.

-Left wing Marco Sturm, picked up off waivers from the LA Kings, played okay in his debut. He hasn't played much since coming back from injury so I think the jury will be out on him for a while.

After one game, I'm happy, so far, with the players that GMGM picked up this last week. I'm still not happy with how the team is playing though, so I joined in with the "boos" at the phone booth last night because I'm tired of spending my hard-earned money watching multi-millionaires coast around on the ice.

Caps play the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

Let's go Caps!

Trying to break a 1974-1975 Caps record

2011-02-26T13:09:00.000-08:00

I officially hate the players, the coaches and the GM of this Washington Capitals team right now. The Caps didn't show up last night again and lost in embarrassing fashion 6-0 to the New York Rangers again (gee, one less goal than the 7-0 debacle the last time they played the Rangers). It was the 9th time the Caps were shutout this season. The 1974-1975 Caps were shutout 12 times and won only 8 games - great team to emulate, huh?

There are no valid excuses for this team's abysmal play and continual lack of effort. We, your fans, at least, deserve effort when you're on the ice. With the exception of Alex Ovechkin and Michal Neurvirth last night there was very little effort and that has happened far too often this season. I'm also tired of hearing the same old bullshit comments that continue to spew forth from the players, the coaches, the GM and the owner because it's all empty talk so, please, just stop talking.

The Caps play the New York Islanders tonight. Sigh, it's not even enjoyable to watch anymore.

Let's go Caps!

p.s. Mercedes advertising people, please wake up. If you're so clueless as to think that cup holder commercial is a hit with Caps fans, let me open your eyes. You've pretty much guaranteed I'll never buy a Mercedes as that commercial is like rubbing salt in an open wound to long-time Caps fans. Ugh.

Neuvy & Brad's - heros from yesterday - and other thoughts

2011-02-22T18:51:00.000-08:00

Michal Neuvirth gave the Caps the chance to earn two points against the Pittsburgh Penguins by making 18 saves in the first period, including some highlight reel saves. That period the Caps mustered a measly 7 shots on goals as they were outworked by the Wilkes-Barrie AHL baby Pen call ups in the first period.

Fan favorite, Matt Bradley, got the Caps going in the second period and fans hailed Brads as the hero of the night. He caught Matt Cooke, he of the slimy dirty hits like the knee-on-knee on Ovechkin in their last game, with his head down and slammed him into the boards. The refs called Brads for charging on what several of the broadcasters thought was a clean hit, but Jordan Staal also took a roughing penalty for going after Brads so no harm done and the Caps picked their game up after that.

Alex Ovechkin provided the only goal on a power play (shocker!) with a rocket shot that Marc-Andre Fleury had no chance to stop. Ovie seems to be finding his game finally as he's netted 9 goals and 8 assists in his last 15 games. He still needs to improve his defensive play and he needs to stop doing his signature move up the middle around the defenseman to try and score. Everyone knows what he's doing so he needs to change it up, but I'm more hopeful than I've been in a long time about his play.

The Caps survived their five game road trip with a 3-2 record, dropping two to the West's San Jose Sharks and Phoenix Coyotes and winning a wild 7-6 one against the Anaheim Ducks in between and then wrapping up their trip back East by beating the Buffalo Sabres and Penguins.

I still don't want to think about this team this season. Scanning my blog posts illustrates the roller coaster ride this team has been on this season. At this point, they've improved and it's clear they're trying to play better defensively and they're scoring more even on the power play but, it's the little things that drive me crazy that the Caps don't execute well. You know, those little things like hustling and sacrificing the body that win Stanley Cups more than offensive prowess. They let the AHL call ups outwork them for the first twenty minutes in their win last night then they picked it up in the 2nd and 3rd periods and played much better defensive hockey to preserve the 1-0 lead. But, they haven't been a first place team in a while so they need to hustle for sixty minutes every night.

The New York Rangers visit the phone booth on Friday.

Let's go Caps!

Two Good Games in a Row, Wow

2011-02-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

I didn't watch the game on Friday, but I did hear the last ten minutes on the radio. After listening to that, reading the hockey news and the Caps message boards, it's clear that the Caps came to play against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Nice to hear Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom racking up points with Jason Chimera on their line. I watched Sunday's 3-0 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins and both these games were great efforts by the Caps.

Does that mean there is hope for this team in April? I've got to see a consistent effort for many more games before I'll believe that. I get that the Caps have been implementing a new defensively responsible system these last twenty games (that time period started with a win against Ottawa at the end of the eight game losing streak in December). They've won 50% of those games with a 1.7 goals against per game. The goals against is astounding for a team that has played run and gun offense for the past several years and last year had a 2.77 GA/G.

However, implementing that new system doesn't excuse lack of effort which is still evident all too often with this team. The game a week ago against Montreal when the Caps went up 2-0 and then sat back until they lost the game in a shootout is a perfect example of how that lack of effort creeps in with this team. The players, like Scott Hannan, said the same thing.

So, when and where will this team finds its consistent killer instinct? In April? I can only hope.

Let's go Caps!

Oh, yeah, I can't watch Caps tonight

2011-02-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

Instead of getting pissed off at the lackadaisical play of the Washington Capitals, I'll be enjoying a nice dinner with some friends. I have no doubt that by the time I get home Tampa Bay will have shellacked the Caps. Amazing, the team that has Steve Yzerman as its GM will probably win another Stanley Cup before the Caps win their first one.

Here's hoping I can somehow get face value for my remaining tickets this year because I'm not going to care again until the Caps care again and that won't happen until there are major changes in this organization. Instead, I'm looking forward to, hopefully, recouping some of my money because I'm not going to waste it on this pathetic team.

Many could argue, rightfully so, that I'd shut up if I didn't care anymore. Point taken. But, I write because I can't believe the disaster this team has become and it's not due to a lack of talent, just a lack of heart. With the organization as it is today, I don't expect any Washington team to hoist a Stanley Cup in my lifetime. Sad, really, after all the enthusiasm I had for the arrival of Alexander Ovechkin.

My husband-like boyfriend (yes, I edited that as it originally said boyfriend-like husband!), Jeff, and I talked during the game the other night about how we're not even excited to see Ovie on the ice anymore. I never thought I'd see that day arrive and I'm depressed about it, but it's where I am. He's not doing anything on the ice to cheer about and neither is Nicklas Backstrom or Brooks Laich or Mike Knuble or Eric Fehr and the list goes on and on.

The game's a sellout tonight in Tampa, Caps team, so they'll be pumped for this game. If you care, you'll be pumped, too, and show it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Let's go Caps!

Watching Caps hockey - a big meh

2011-02-01T14:58:00.000-08:00

The Caps are surprisingly up 2-0 on the Montreal Canadiens as I type this, but I still can't stir up any excitement for Caps hockey right now. They even netted a pretty power play goal on a pretty move and pass by Mike Green to Mike Knuble. However, the 19th ranked power play comes away empty handed way too often.

I probably can't stir up any excitement for Caps hockey because they are now returning to form and sucking it up in the second period after ending the first period up 2-0, an unusual occurrence of late. In typical fashion though, the Caps are easing back on the gas since they have a lead. They start gliding around, playing lazily, overpassing and not finishing their checks. Sigh. I'm tired of the lack of effort from this team. It does not bode well for the rest of this season.

The recent NHL Players Association Players Poll called the Caps the most overrated team in the NHL by a enormous margin. 35% of the players voted the Caps for first place and the 2nd place Vancouver Canucks only got 14% of the players. I have to agree, right now, they do not have what it takes to win a Cup.

The other two questions with interesting results from that players poll are that Bruce Boudreau is the easiest coach to play for with 21% of the vote and yet he doesn't appear on the top 5 coaches players want to play for list. What that confirms for me is that Boudreau doesn't hold this team accountable enough and, even worse, doesn't know how to get this team to the next level. I say that because I believe that players want to win and they want to play for a coach that knows how to win.

This team will go nowhere until they learn to live by the words of Herb Brooks, "You can't win on talent alone." This team is way more talented than that Miracle on Ice team, but that quote still applies to any team with aspirations to win the Stanley Cup. It takes heart, grit, effort and also talent. I don't see heart, grit or effort from this Caps team on most nights this season.

Montreal has now tied the game. Like I said, a big meh.

Update: the Caps managed to lose yet another game after having a lead and yet another game in overtime - they lead the league in that statistic. Clearly, there are not enough players on that team that give a damn anymore.

Let's go Caps!

Matt Hendricks is the man!

2011-01-22T22:11:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention that I love Matt Hendricks. He's a hard working contributor night in and night out. Tonight, he escaped the Toronto defensemen and undressed Jean-Sebestian Giguere and potted a goal worthy of a highlight reel. Maybe Coach Boudreau should think about him for the next shootout the Caps have.

I hope I see him in a Caps jersey for a long time.

Let's go Caps!

Toronto ran into hot goalie Braden Holtby

2011-01-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor from laughing at the quotes from Maple Leafs Coach Ron Wilson and the Toronto media about the hot goalie they faced tonight. For once, it was the Caps that had the hot goalie in net, Braden Holtby, a fourth round pick for the Capitals in the 2008 entry draft. I'm laughing because, as any long time Caps fan knows, the Caps are notorious for making rookie goalies and mediocre goalies look like Vezina trophy winners, so it's nice when the tables are turned.

I'm also laughing because, the "hot goalie" excuse is used far too often by the Caps coaches and management when the Caps don't perform. I hate the "hot goalie" excuse. Okay, back to a glorious hockey game.

Why was it a glorious game? Number one, because Braden Holtby is a competitor and played a stellar and acrobatic game in net. He received the first star of the night, which he deserved. I've heard good things about this young goalie's play in Hershey and it was nice to see him rise to the occasion. Holtby struggled in his last call up to the show, but he's played two very poised games in a row. And, can I help it if I get excited when I hear rumors that he has a temper like Olie :) . I like emotional net minders.

Second star, Alex Ovechkin, made the game even more enjoyable. Ovie scored a hat trick after 8,000 fans watched him during the morning skate in Toronto. I tend to forget, particularly when Ovie's struggling, that I get the privilege of watching him play all 82 games during each season. People in other hockey cities, like Toronto, appreciate Ovie's talents and can only see him one or two times per season so it's no surprise they go to watch him skate. Jeff and I met plenty of Ovie fans in Canada last February.

I'm glad Ovie gave the crowd a show and I'm also glad he looked like his old self. I'm liking Jason Chimera on the line with Ovie and Nicklas Backstrom. Ovie netted himself a hat trick and that line got six points tonight and five points in their last game. Keep them together for a while Coach Boudreau.

No bitching tonight, I enjoyed the game.

Rangers up on Monday.

Let's go Caps!

"We played a very good game last night" - really Ted?

2011-01-19T10:31:00.000-08:00

I wish you would enlighten me more on how you determined that the Caps played a good game last night Ted. Was it the absolutely atrocious passing throughout the game, the 39% faceoff win percentage, the overall team minus-4 statistic or the fact that your hockey players decided to show up and play the last twelve minutes of the game and your typical top liners all got a point? Finally showing up to play in the 3rd period is a really bad habit and the Caps do it far too often, including last night against the Flyers and Sunday night against Ottawa. If the Caps continue to play like they have lately with a ton of road games coming up on their schedule, they could miss the playoffs.

This team isn't very good right now and they are definitely the most frustrating Caps team I've watched since Alex Ovechkin has been here. I miss the early years of Ovie's career when the team worked really hard and Ovie was the most fun player to watch in the NHL. Neither situation applies today - the team doesn't work hard and Ovie hasn't figured out how to take it to the next level, maybe because there is no one to show him the way.

Besides Ovie, I don't know what is wrong with this team because I'm not a hockey expert. Is it the coach, the defensive first system the coach is trying to teach, or is it the players? All I do know is that something is dreadfully wrong when your super star sniper may not even hit 30 goals this year (his lowest total to date was 46 goals in his sophomore season), your super star playmaker, Nicklas Backstrom, is on a .89 points per game (PPG) pace (versus 1.23 and 1.073 PPG in his last two years) and your fans wish you could decline penalties because your power play is about as effective as Metro is at running the subway.

No, it's not about individual hardware anymore and I agree with Ovie on that. But, it's supposed to be about a Stanley Cup and this team seems to be going backwards in that regard. That is a travesty with the talent on this team. Something needs to change. It's a Washington sports team, though, so I'm not holding my breath.

Let's go Caps!

Maybe I'll care about the Caps again

2011-01-12T19:32:00.000-08:00

When the Caps start caring again or

When Alex Ovechkin starts scoring again or

When Nicklas Backstrom wakes up out of the coma he's been in this season or

When the Caps start crashing the net, doing the dirty work, winning the board battles and throwing guys out of their crease or

When their power play isn't known as the power kill by the fans for its complete ineffectiveness and when the coaches figure out what to do about it or

When Coach Boudreau stops putting John Erskine in the press box for an injury riddled Tom Poti who didn't even make it out in the 2nd period in that crap game against Tampa Bay tonight or

When Boudreau figures out how to hold these professional hockey players accountable for their putrid play or

When Boudreau can get this team to show up for a game that decides the division lead.

This screed is not aimed at the rookie blue liners, John Carlson and Karl Alzner, the goal tending duo of Semyon Valamov or Michal Neuvirth, who get hung out to dry way more than they should, John Erskine, Matt Hendricks, the defensive play of the Mike Green/Scott Hannan pairing or the Hershey boys, Matthieu Perreault and Jay Beagle (gee, he was pushing guys out of the crease tonight).

Let's go Caps and see if you can get your heads out of your rear ends although, right now, I'm not hopeful about that. The only thing I am is one very frustrated Washington Capitals fan. Some things never change.

The state of the Capitals

2011-01-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

After losing all hope for my hockey team during that abysmal 16 days in December when the Caps pretended to play hockey, they seem to be regaining their footing with some notable exceptions. More on that later. They’re playing much better hockey during this 5-0-1 stretch, including their 3-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Winter Classic.

“Losing all hope” may seem like an extreme statement in January midway through an 82 game hockey season, but I’ve been watching this team since the beginning and have had my heart broken by them more times than I care to remember. This particular version of the team wasn’t making any adjustments to their game after three years of deplorable playoff appearances culminating in a beat down of the number one seed Caps by the number eight seed Montreal Canadiens last year. This season, so far, looked to me like a good prescription for another early playoff exit in April.

But, finally, finally, they’re making the adjustments that they need to make before April. Coach Boudreau, for the first time, introduced the concept of playing a modified trap defensive system after the 7-0 shellacking by the New York Rangers on December 12th. He’s also matching lines against the opposition more instead of just rolling his four forward lines. As always, it remains to be seen whether or not the system changes will stick. I hope they do. It also remains to be seen whether or not the Caps players really want the Stanley Cup because they are far too many times when they don’t act like they do. No team wins the Stanley Cup on talent alone. It also takes heart, grit and effort.

The bright spots since the losing streak:

Mike Green's play alongside Scott Hannan. Green has been a defense focused, shot blocking machine since being paired with Hannan on the blue line. Hannan played rough in his first several starts with the Capitals, but has since gotten into a groove and is performing like the sound veteran defenseman I thought GMGG finally found.

Green called Hannan “vocal” and said he liked that he talked a lot. Whatever works to hopefully get Green to reach his potential is fine by me. Coach Boudreau paired Green with Hannan when Jeff Schultz went out with injury and has kept them paired even though Schultz is back. I’ve always thought Green could benefit from the wisdom of a veteran defenseman that has a Stanley Cup ring. The question remains though…will Green play like it in April?

The blue line pairing of John Carlson and Karl Alzner. The rookie pairing that played together last year in Hershey keeps improving with every NHL game they play. They both still make rookie mistakes, but that’s to be expected and they have plenty of time to tighten up their mistakes before April. This pair shut down Sidney Crosby at the Winter Classic and they have great chemistry together. Alzner plays a solid positional game, which allows Carlson the freedom to roam a little more and chip in on offense.

The role players and Hershey Boys. Guys like Matt Hendricks, David Steckel and Matt Bradley work their tails off game in and game out. Steckel is killer in the dot with a faceoff win percentage of 63.4%. Hendricks brings it to every game and wins the little battles. The Hershey call ups Matthieu Perreault and Jay Beagle both brought much needed energy and goal scoring during the last month since they were called up. Beagle’s smile upon netting his first NHL goal, the game winner, against New Jersey lit up the rink. Perreault started out his recent call up with two goals against Toronto on Dec 6th during the horrid losing streak and has made it hard to say he doesn’t belong in the NHL since then.

The not so bright spots:

Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. The sniper and playmaker offensive threats for the Caps have been more like offensive gnats this season, easily swatted aside by everyone they play. Ovie clearly needs help in figuring out how to keep scoring with three players hanging on him and shutting down his normal scoring lanes. According to Tarek El-Bashir’s column today the coaches are giving Ovie advice, but he has yet to embrace it. Please work on it Ovie and find your joy in the game again. I miss watching you jump into the glass after scoring a beautiful goal.

Backstrom just needs to wake up. I have no doubt the fact that both are struggling is hurting both of them, but they have to turn it around if the Caps are to have any hope in the playoffs. I’d like to see Coach Boudreau hold them both more accountable by making them attend optional practices. Practices shouldn’t be an option for the stars if they aren’t producing.

Alexander Semin. Semin hasn’t scored since November 28thstarting one of his disappearing acts that are familiar to anyone that has watched him since he’s been in the league. Maybe playing against Tampa Bay tonight where he recorded his last two hat tricks will bring him alive.

The power play. It’s ugly, even though they netted one in the Winter Classic. At the end of last season, the Caps had the number one power play in the NHL with 25.2% effectiveness. This season they rank 12th with an 18.9% effectiveness. There’s a reason many Caps fan call the power play the power kill and want their team to be able to decline penalties and it’s because they’re downright horrible with the extra man. Ovie on the point is ineffective and, at times, the Caps looks like they’re playing the penalty kill by losing the puck so often to their opponents.

Tonight starts four games for the Caps against their Southeast Division rivals the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers. Tampa Bay and the Caps are tied for the division lead right now so now is the time to bring it on boys and gain some points in the division.

Let’s go Caps!

The Caps Mail It In

2010-12-09T20:17:00.000-08:00

The Caps played a disgusting game against the Florida Panthers and lost 3-0 tonight. I couldn't even watch most of that debacle. Their power play went 0-9 tonight, including 1:53 on a 5 on 3. Really, Caps? That's the best you can do? Ugh, this team is going nowhere fast unless they find the mental fortitude to play hard every night.

I'm paying to see this team on Saturday night against the Colorado Avalanche. I might not be paying to see this team much longer if they keep this up.

Right now, I'm wishing for Ron Wilson to take over as bench boss and kick some lackadaisical, no effort players in the rear end. As much as he wears his welcome out, over time, this team could use his special brand of ass kicking right now.

End of rant.

Let's go Caps!

The Blue Liners

2010-12-02T18:52:00.000-08:00

But, first a rant. The officiating against the Caps recently makes me want to throw up. Two slashing penalties, one against Alex Ovechkin in St. Louis and one against Jeff Schultz in Dallas that both ended with broken sticks and didn't get called. Schultz got a penalty because he pushed the guy into the boards although I'm glad he did. Then, Jason Chimera is bleeding everywhere after three non-slashing calls in the game against the Atlanta Thrashers. Really refs?

Now, back to tonight's subject. The Caps much maligned blue line got better with the acquisition of Scott Hannan from the Colorado Avalanche for Tomas Fleischmann. I don't agree with columnist Adam Proteau that the Avs got the better player. Regardless of Fleischmann's potential upside as he's only 26 v. Hannan's 31, the Caps got the player they've needed for several years and Fleischmann struggled in Washington this season. He became an unnecessary spare part on a team full of talented forwards, he was not effective as the team's second line center and he gets pushed off the puck too easily, especially in the playoffs. However, I wish Fleischmann the best of luck in Colorado and I hope the change of scenery is a good one for him.

Scott Hannan, on the other hand, finally, gives the Caps a veteran stay-at-home defenseman that has 73 playoff games to his credit with the San Jose Sharks and the Colorado Avalanche, including an appearance in the Western conference finals. He's also known for his durability and consistent play. Everything I've read about him and seen, so far, including his vocal leadership on the ice, tells me that the Caps found the perfect person to mentor this young corp of blue liners starting with John Carlson.

Carlson played horribly tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but, in general, has been impressive this season. There's no doubt he's going to be a super star in this league, but he's also going to have more games like tonight where he's caught out of position and isn't moving bodies out of the crease like he needs to. He's only 20 and yet he's tied for the lead among rookies in plus/minus at +8 and shares the team lead with Jeff Schultz in blocked shots with 62. Carlson is also in the running for the Calder trophy and leads all rookies in time on ice. One of his best games, worthy of the 2nd star, came against the Tampa Bay Lightning where he blasted a shot off the faceoff from Marcus Johansson past Mike Smith to start the scoring. More importantly, he and Karl Alzner shut down the Steve Stamkos, quite a feat against the top scorer in the NHL.

Karl Alzner is more confident playing at the NHL level this season. He's playing plus-1 hockey, prior to tonight, and has 31 hits and 38 blocked shots. Alzner struggled tonight, too, but the Carlson-Alzner pairing is a strong one. They play well together and appear to be taking their AHL chemistry to the next level.

John Erskine spent his summer conditioning with the goal to make more of an impact for the Caps this season and it has showed. He's been a beast on the ice, playing in all games until the last two. He's got a blast of a shot and netted a game winner and first star performance with it against the Atlanta Thrashers back on November 14th. His career high 3rd goal came in the Caps blowout and best game this season against the Tampa Bay Lightning on November 26th. Erskine's been defensively responsible, too, and has 68 hits and 43 blocked shots. I've always liked what Erskine brought to the table as he's a tough hockey player, but I like the new and improved Erskine even more.

Tom Poti's been hurt more than he's played this season so I hope that groin is fully healed as he was paired with Hannan tonight. He's a decent defenseman with a nice shot, but, there are times when he frustrates me. This year, however, he's been a steady defenseman making key poke checks or goal saving shot blocks just when it's desperately needed. He's the other veteran d on this blue line with 51 playoff games and I'd like him to stay healthy.

I left the one-two pairing of Mike Green and Jeff Schultz for last. The Caps top duo disappears during the playoffs so they both have a lot to prove this season. After a league leading plus-minus of 50 last year (and, plus-minus is not an accurate measure of defensive play as being out of position can lose a game, for ex, but it's a useful tool for comparing seasons), Schultz is only +5, more than a quarter of the way through the season. He's struggled, at times, this season. On the positive side, he's also tied for the team lead with Carlson in blocked shots with 62.

Mike Green's defensive play has improved this season and it's clear he's focusing on it, but there are still times when Green loses focus in games. He also missed another five games with a shoulder injury. One of his strongest games came against the Calgary Flames back on October 30th. Green picked up a goal, an assist, blocked 3 shots, had 2 takeaways, 3 hits and ended up the night plus-1 for a second star performance. Then, there are nights like his minus-2 with 2 giveaways to go along with his 2 takeaways night against the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 3rd.

My hope for the defense is that Mike Green and Jeff Schultz find that consistency and show up in the playoffs, that the rookies John Carlson and Karl Alzner continue to develop, that the new and improved John Erskine hangs around, that the injury prone Poti stays healthy and that newly acquired Scott Hannan teaches all of the them how to clear the crease, how to play the body instead of the puck, when needed, and how to get them all to stay focused on sound defense. I've already seen him do all of that. A tall order, I realize, but that's what I'd like to see and before April.

Other Caps notes:

....Caps took a four goal lead into the 3rd period against the Toronto Maple Leafs and blew the game against the 16th seed in the Eastern conference in a shoot out. Once again, the Caps let off the gas and collapsed in the 3rd period. This is an all too frequent occurrence and the players should be held accountable for it. Whether or not they will be is another question.

....The Captain. After giving up an empty netter goal to end his goal drought by passing to his teammate Nicklas Backstrom, Ovie outdid himself as captain tonight. Colton Orr harassed Ovie early on in the game against the Maple Leafs so DJ King took him to task and they both went off with 5-minute fighting majors. Ovie scored and skated over to the penalty box to tap his stick against the glass in a salute to King. Classy move.

...Mathieu Perrault announced his intention to compete for the second line center with his energetic two goal and 2nd star performance in his latest call up from Hershey. Here's hoping he can show the consistency he needs to stay.

The Caps play the Florida Panthers on Thursday. I hope they show up for it since they're no longer number one in the East and Florida's ranked 13th.

Let's go Caps!

60 Minutes of Beautiful Hockey & A Natural

2010-11-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

The Washington Capitals played their best sixty minutes of hockey last night and, boy, was it fun to watch. They took their game to the high flying Tampa Bay Lightning and stifled them with defense. Yes, that's right, the Caps shut down the league leading point and goal scorer, Steve Stamkos, who made one shot on net and ended minus 2. Martin St. Louis, the other top 10 league leading scorer, managed two shots on net and ended minus 1.

That the two rookie blue liners John Carlson and Karl Alzner were asked to shut down the Stamkos line and did so effectively says a lot about the future of the Caps defense. Carlson played a Calder Trophy worthy game on defense during his 24:55 TOI. He unleashed a shot past net minder Mike Smith off of a beautiful faceoff win by Marcus Johansson, blocked 3 shots and ended the night plus 1.

The rest of the blue liners chipped in, too. John Erskine got the second goal to start the second period barrage and ended the night plus 1. Tom Poti blocked 4 shots and potted the last goal of the 6-0 domination.

By pure luck, I happened to be sitting on the side of Verizon Center where the Caps shoot once so I witnessed the enigmatic Alexander Semin natural hat trick show about ten rows off the ice behind that goal. It took him 4 minutes, 29 seconds to score those three goals. The first one he connected with as it bounced off the ice from a pretty Johansson pass. The second two were from plays started by Alex Ovechkin and passes from Nicklas Backstrom.

Semin's play was impressive on both ends of the ice and his penalty killing just keeps getting better and better. All the Caps, in fact, played well on both ends of the ice keeping up their forechecking throughout the game and sacrificing their bodies when necessary. It's a rare sight to see that for sixty minutes from this team.

Semyon Varlamov didn't get much work last night, only 17 shots, for which I'm grateful. Although his play in net impresses me and he got the shutout, his groin problems make me fear for his longevity.

The other player I have to mention is Marcus Johansson. After starting out slowly and working through an injury already this season, he appears to be coming into his own and adjusting to the smaller NHL rink. His beautiful pass to Semin and key faceoff pass to Carlson netted him a 2 point night. He looks more and more confident, too, as he gains experience and his skating ability stands out.

Was Coach Boudreau's intense practice after two horrible hockey games the inspiration for this performance? I hope so and I hope they keep it up. No matter how talented a team is, it takes effort to win hockey games in the NHL and even more so in April, May & June. The Caps forget that more than they should and it bites them every time. Last night, they played the way their supposed to and the results showed.

Carolina is next up tomorrow.

Let's go Caps!

Fan Favorite Brads is on Fire

2010-11-17T18:24:00.000-08:00

Matt Bradley is playing inspired hockey right now. As I write this, he gets named the Caps player of the game. Brads potted a great goal, drew a key penalty, chased down a Sabre from behind to beat him to the puck and got another point, an assist on David Steckel's goal, for a 2 point, +2 night with 5 shots on goal.

Brads always works hard, but he seems to have an extra kick in his step these days. Maybe it's because he's not getting bloodied as much this season. I love his courage, but I hate seeing Brads with blood pouring down his face. D.J. King, when he has a sweater and John Erskine, he of the haymaker fight against the Thrasher's Eric Boulton, and Matt Hendricks fight instead.

Keep it up Brads. You're the best.

The Caps are on a roll right now, but they're still struggling to play a complete sixty minutes of hockey. They've won several one goal games and I'm glad they're learning how to do that, but they have to keep their focus on eliminating the defenses lapses and taking their foot off the gas. In the Buffalo game, a two minute lapse led to two Buffalo goals and a shaky Michal Neuvirth who recovered his composure, as did the rest of the Caps, to stop Buffalo and win the game 4-2.

Next up, the Atlanta Thrashers tonight.

Let's go Caps!

The positive post

2010-11-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

A 7-2 victory over the Calgary Flames showed what the Caps can do when they're focused on their game. Michal Neuvirth was outstanding in net, again, and Alex Ovechkin broke his goal scoring slump with two power play goals and threw in another assist for a three point night. The Caps anemic power play jumped from near the bottom of the league to 14th from this one game where they converted three of their seven tries. Let's hope that trend continues.

It's apparent that the Caps are trying to play a more defensively responsible game. They sometimes look out of whack doing that, but I'm all for the effort. They'll need it in April. Their 2.27 GAA is far better than their 2.77 from last season. The Caps moved up from 16th to 3rd in that category, tied with Montreal and Los Angeles and behind Boston and St. Louis. The highlight reel saves Neuvy keeps making are a big part of that stat, too, of course.

I hope Mike Green stays healthy. As much as I've ragged on his playoff performances, during the regular season, at least, the Caps are a much better team when he's on the ice. They need Green to quarterback the power play. He's also playing better defensively. His first goal came in the game against Calgary where he had a three point night with three hits, two takeaways and zero giveaways.

The Caps responded after laying an egg in Minnesota. I hate excuses - don't get me started on the hot goalie excuse - but I will give the Caps a teeny, tiny break after playing Carolina the night before and then flying to Minnesota for the game where they had no energy.

They had a team meeting after Minnesota and got it together. Unfortunately, they still played a crappy first period against Calgary, but potted six unanswered goals in the second period. Fun to watch...

That's it. No negatives from me tonight.

Looking forward to seeing Caps play Toronto at the phone booth on Wednesday.

Let's go Caps!

Feeling lackadaisical about the Caps

2010-10-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

I love hockey. I love the Caps. Those facts are undisputed. But, I can't seem to get excited for this season and maybe it's because of the way the Caps are playing. Their woes are well know - a lot of injuries, a too young defense that has a lot to learn, a first line that isn't clicking and a power play that couldn't find the back of the net if the net covered the entire end of the rink.

But, that's not what concerns me the most. Despite their 5-3, 10 point record, they look rough out there. There's too much waiting around for the puck, dumping it in and losing the puck, turnovers and a lack of flow to their game. For a team that's supposed to "Stay angry. Believe in yourself." they aren't displaying a lot of emotion.

I'm sorry I missed watching Saturday night's game against the Atlanta Thrashers only because I would have liked to see Mattieu Perreault (Matty P!) feed Alexander Semin for two of his three hat trick goals, one of which he got to Semin while being tripped. Not to mention witnessing his success at the dot. He won 64% of his faceoffs and he took 14. Gee, you think the Caps need a little more Matty P? I like the energy he plays with and he makes things happen. I understand, maybe, that there's not room for him here full-time now and I understand he faded after playing twenty games last year, but I still think he has what it takes to be a full-time NHL'er. Think Martin St. Louis.

Step it up Caps and please get healthy.

Let's go Caps!

Neuvirth looking strong in net

2010-10-13T18:18:00.000-07:00

Michal Neuvirth gives me confidence about the Caps situation in net with their two young net minders. I'm watching the game against the New York Islanders right now and Neuvirth is in the zone, making highlight reel saves...sprawling diving saves and stopping the puck stone cold saves. He's been impressive to watch and is certainly building his case to be the number one goalie for the Caps.

He's been described as calm and his play exhibits that. Wearing the well earned hard hat tonight, Neuvy displayed his poise in his post game interview. His teammates seem to have confidence in him and that's huge.

In the comparisons between the too often injured for my liking, Semyon Varlamov, and Neuvy, Neuvy is known as the "technician" while Varly is know for his athleticism and acrobatic ability in net. Of course, that acrobatic part may be why Varly gets injured too much, even though it's fun to watch, and reminds me of moves Soviet gymnasts used to make. I was a big Olga Korbut fan.

However, the "technician", is in control. Neuvy anticipates shots well, is rarely out of position, and moves with precision to get the job done. I'm really liking this guy so far.

There were years and years when Caps fans didn't have to worry about the net. Olie the goalie was the workhorse that got the job done game after game. His game faded in the end, but his passion, his temper and his hard work continued to define him. There are times when I miss Olie's "what was said had to be said" demeanor in the locker room. The Caps could use his ability to kick butts in the locker room, at times.

But, I'm encouraged by the emergence of the young Czech. Even though his baby face and calm demeanor could never emulate Olie, he could become a workhorse in net. He's won everything he can at the AHL level, including two Calder Cups and the MVP. Now, it's his time to prove his worth in the NHL and he's doing a great job of it, so far.

Let's go Caps.

p.s. I'm glad the Caps finally netted a power play goal off of Nicklas Backstrom's skate and Ovie got one goal to eke past the injured New York Islanders with a 2-1 win. The Caps aren't much better on the injury front with Matt Bradley, Tom Poti and Marcus Johansson out and Mike Green leaving the game, but that game should have been easier.

And, so it begins

2010-10-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

Another hockey season has started and the Washington Capitals have much to prove after the disastrous end to their season at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs. Being a Caps fan since the beginning, I knew in my gut they weren't going to win game 7 so I couldn't even watch that train wreck. I adopted a dog instead. Some might call me a fair weather fan for that attitude...so be it. The real story is I'm too emotionally invested in a team that has crushed my dreams to see the Stanley Cup come to Washington time and time again.

There are many questions about this team that won't be answered until April, but there is a regular season to play first. And, what have the Caps showed us in their first two games this season.

They still take games for granted. That lackluster effort against the Atlanta Thrashers on Friday is unacceptable.
Instead of "Stay angry. Believe in yourself." as their team motto, this team should adopt "defense first" as their motto. Their play in their own end floundered and resulted in Atlanta beating the Caps 4-2 on the opening night.
Saturday's game against the New Jersey Devils, on the other hand, showed what the Caps are capable of when they turn it on. They didn't do that until the second period when they were trailing 3-2 after, once again, playing sloppy defense.
The Caps stood up for each other, which is good to see. Four third period fights while the coaches yelled at each other showed a frustrated New Jersey team and a Caps team willing to drop the mitts.

So, while the Caps slog through the long regular season, here's what I'm looking forward to:

Watching Alex Ovechkin. I'll never tire of watching the most scintillating player in hockey generate three points in a night like he did against New Jersey.
Seeing how John Carlson develops. I've watched him and followed his career since his first rookie camp and I like how he plays. He had one goal and two assists against New Jersey and I expect to see more offense from him this season. But, his defensive play will be even more important for the Caps, particularly, come playoff time. I think there's no doubt Carlson will be in the race for the Calder Trophy this season.
Following Marcus Johansson's rookie year. The highly touted Swedish center is expected to improve Washington's depth down the middle. So far, he's adjusting to the smaller ice and playing pretty well. His faceoff win percentage took a leap in his second game, but I suspect he'll continue to struggle there as his countryman, Nicklas Backstrom, still does.
Continuing to watch Nicklas Backstrom become an elite center in the NHL. Seeing Backstrom control the game with his vision and making sublime passes is fun to watch.
Celebrating when Mike Knuble and Brooks Laich bag garbage goals with their grit and determination.

Assuming the Caps make the playoffs, these are the questions that will remain unanswered until April.

Can the Caps find the mental toughness and commitment to defense to make a long playoff run?
Will Mike Green show up in the playoffs?
Will John Carlson and Karl Alzner develop enough to shore up the blue line?
Will Semyon Varlamov stay healthy and will the rookie goaltending duo of him and Michal Neurvirth be good enough for a long playoff run?
Will the penalty kill improve?
Will the Caps commit to shorter shifts for players like Mike Green and Alex Ovechkin who cannot do it all?
Will Coach Boudreau learn that matchups are important in April and May and June?

Many unanswered questions and a long season ahead.

I'm looking forward to my first live game tonight.

Let's go Caps!

Utter Failure

2010-04-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

That's what the Washington Capitals achieved this season.

Boy, does it suck to be a sports fan in this town.

Unlikely heroes

2010-04-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

After being on the road much of the month, I'm finally home to watch the Caps in the playoffs. I missed their best game of this series, the 3rd one at Bell Centre, but I was thrilled that the Caps finally seemed to get their game back. The team infuriated me in the first two games, even though they won the second one on the crucial game tying goal by the rookie John Carlson. I wear number 74 with pride. He's one of the unlikely heroes in this series, so far.

Carlson, a mere 20 year old blue liner, and called by Caps defenseman, Tom Poti, the "best defenseman on the ice" in the playoffs has been impressive. After racking up 76 points playing juniors for Dale Hunter's London Ontario Knights last year, he made a pit stop in Hershey, to play 16 games for the Bears while winning the Calder Trophy.

This year, Carlson played in Hershey with a brief side trip to beat the Canadians in the World Junior Hockey Championships with his no look game winning goal. That gave the U.S. the gold medal for the first time in five tries and was the subject of many conversations I had while in Canada in February. I didn't take my 74 jersey to watch hockey in Canada and I swore I wouldn't rub Carlson in, but when two Canadians ask you, "Do you even know who the hockey team is in Washington?," they were destined for an earful. I looked at Jeff, who gave me his "go for it" look and responded, "Do you recognize the name John Carlson because that's the jersey I now wear to Caps games?"

They laughed because they knew then that we knew hockey. "You mean the one that inspired the newspaper headline, 'Canadian pride dented,'" they said. That cracked me up. Carlson has made quite a name for himself in his short career.

I'm not surprised. Carlson intrigued me when he was drafted 27th overall in the 2008 entry draft. Once I saw him play at rookie development and training camp, I knew he was going to be special. But, I can't say, back then, that I expected him to be playing for the Caps this playoff season with the poise and confident play of a veteran defender. Now, I'm relieved he's here. The Caps need him.

The other unlikely hero, so far, is the much maligned by the Caps faithful, Boyd Gordon. That Coach Boudreau selected the quicker, right-handed checking forward to go against the Habs speedy lefties over David Steckel proved to be the right call. Gordon stole the puck for a short-handed goal in game 3 to start the scoring in the 2nd period. In Wednesday's game, he took the puck short-handed again and lofted it smoothly to Mike Knuble who bashed it into the net.

Gordon struggled with back problems, earlier this year, and only played 36 games during the regular season. But, he's proving his mettle in this playoff series and that's the only thing that matters.

There is no question that the Caps offensive stars, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, are doing their part, and their young goalie Semyon Varlamov is doing his part in net, but it's the unlikely heroes that this team needs to keep moving forward.

I hope the Caps put it away tonight.

Let's go Caps!

p.s. Thank you Ottawa Senators for making the Pittsburgh Penguins play through 7:02 in the 3rd overtime and then winning the game! Let's go Sens.

Ovechkin and the Caps in Ontario & thanks to Ryan Miller

2010-03-01T19:12:00.000-08:00

There's been enough written about the Olympics, so I'm going to write about seeing Ovie in the other side of Canada. I recently returned from a trip to Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal to visit hockey in the country of its birth. Although the phone booth, the home of the Washington Capitals, is now a loud, proud and red building, seeing hockey in Canada and, particularly in Montreal, provided me with the perspective of seeing hockey in a place where fans are fanatics in a way Washingtonians will never be and team loyalties are passed down from generation to generation.

The first place I saw Ovechkin was in Toronto at the Hockey Hall of Fame, a shrine to the game that I'm glad I got to see. I didn’t expect to see Ovie there so much already, but, after all, he is the current holder of three pieces of hardware that are on display in the Great Hall. His picture and his grin gapes from behind the hardware that currently bears his name. The Hart Memorial Trophy for MVP, the Lester B. Pearson Trophy for Most Outstanding Player as voted by the players and the Maurice “Rocket” Richard trophy for the most goals scored in a season are the three he owns.

Ovechkin also makes an appearance in the Hockey Hall of Fame for his world juniors play in 2005 where he was named best forward. Finally, Ovie’s jersey is shown in a case near the front of the hall, along with Sidney Crosby I’ll grudgingly add, with the greats of hockey – Wayne Gretsky, Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull, Ray Bourque and that list goes on. That surprised me most of all, but it was great to see and testimony to the fact that Alex Ovechkin is destined to live in that hall for a long time.

Before heading to Montreal, to see Ovie play in Canada, Jeff and I got to experience the opinions of Canadians about Alex Ovechkin. I met so many Canadians that wished Ovie played for their team. I sensed their envy that Jeff and I get to watch the majority of his games and to go see his games on a regular basis. I can’t say I blame them. Watching Ovechkin is a thrill, a roller coaster ride, and a constant anticipation of the unexpected because you see that from him on most every night.

In Ottawa, we talked about Ovechkin, too. On our circuitous route to Scotia Bank arena to see the Senators play the Calgary Flames, we got on a bus going the wrong direction and hailed a taxi in the middle of a highway in a deserted part of town, that, thankfully, picked Jeff & I up along with two Canadians from Newfoundland and got us to the game before the puck dropped. Our newfound hockey friends, Jack and Dan come down to see a few hockey games every season, when Montreal is having a home stand. They were going to be at the Montreal-Washington game on Wednesday.

“He’s the best player in the world,” Dan said. “And, he’s exciting to watch.”

Yes, he is.

And, Alex Ovechkin has had many memorable nights against the Montreal Canadiens. On Wednesday, February 29, 2009, Ovie slide around Roman Hamrlik and passed the puck to himself off the wall, caught the puck, got tripped up by Kyle Chipchura, slide across the ice and chipped the puck over Carey Price into the net. “MVP” chants started raining down again at Verizon Center. It is no wonder Canadiens fans boo Ovie every time he touches the puck. As a Caps fan forever, I’ve never experienced that because Caps have never had players worthy of the booing by Habs fans. In Ovie, they do. Although surprisingly, or not, I saw quite a few fans with Ovechkin jerseys or t-shirts on.

It’s finally game night in Montreal. The mecca of hockey and a city that has 24 Stanley Cup championships to its name is indeed the place to watch Canadian hockey. Jeff wore his Montreal Canadiens authentic jersey and Washington Capitals hat. I wore my Olie Kolzig white away Caps authentic jersey, but had a Canadiens hat on my head. Our intention in going to Canada to watch hockey was to become a Canadian hockey fan not to watch the Capitals. But, after spending two hours in a virtual waiting room on Montreal’s website on Saturday, September 12, 2009, the tickets against the Caps were the only ones I could get in the timeframe I was able to go on this trip due to having tickets to Caps games here at home.

This trip came about because of a group of Vancouver Canuck fans Jeff & I met one night while they were cheering on the Caps at a game at the phone booth. They were on an East Coast vacation and decided to support the local teams in the cities they were visiting. I wanted to do the same thing. But, it’s really tough when your team is playing the team you’re visiting.

So, that explains our mixed outfits. We wanted to support the home team and, yet, let everyone know our true allegiance lay with the Washington Capitals. A woman working at Bell Centre looked at me quizzically so I told her, “We’re from Washington.”

Before we headed up to our seats in the nose bleed section, we stuck our head in at the lower level to look at all the Championship banners. It’s amazing to see 24 banners, plus the banners of their retired players. They surround the arena.

We headed up to our seats as the game was getting ready to start and it was already loud in the Bell Centre. And people are chanting in French, of course, which I loved. It’s another unique aspect of seeing a Canadiens game.

We sat next to several young fans that liked to talk about the game. We debated players and talked about the intensity of Habs fans. They boo their team for committing offsides and they are relentless in booing Carey Price, their current net minder, and a man who no one seems to be able to decide if he’s capable of being their number one.

The game gets started and the crowd goes nuts as Scott Gomez scores 36 seconds in the first. I didn’t flinch at the screaming fans around me. It was early, I knew. Brooks Laich tied up the game 6:23 in the first. Jeff & I quietly fist bumped not wanting to make a scene. Jeff wears Laich’s jersey to Caps game so he’s one of our favorites.

The second period got ugly for the Caps, but I kept my cool and, trust me, that is as tough for me to do as giving up being a Caps fan. But, I was having too much fun soaking in a hockey experience watching a storied team with fans that have been in the making for generations.

What happened in that second period is typical of the Caps, sometimes, but less often this season. After winning fourteen games in a row, the Caps checked out. Tom Pyatt scored forty-one seconds into the second period. The Caps Nicklas Backstrom responded to that by scoring at 1:11 with Ovie and Mike Green assisting.

Then, Montreal stormed back with three unanswered goals. Bruce Boudreau for some unknown reason had pulled rookie goaltender Michel Neuvirth in favor of Jose Theodore. Jeff & I weren’t sure why Boudreau did this considering the score was tied after the end of the first period.

Neuvirth didn’t have a spectacular first period and Montreal is a tough place for any rookie to play in, but he was hanging in there. Boudreau also hasn’t made a habit of playing Theodore in Montreal because of his history there. Theo went from Vezina and Hart trophies during the 2001-2002 season, where he helped his eighth seeded team to an upset victory over the first place Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs, to the doghouse two seasons later when he was traded to Colorado. So, as Glen Metropolit (former Capital that always scores on the Caps), Maxim Lapierre and Tomas Plekanic scored their three unanswered goals, the chants “Theeeeeo, theeeeeo, theeeeeo” got louder and louder in Bell Centre.

Even though I’m a Caps fan, I had to chuckle at the Habs fans. Jose Theodore earned the nickname “threeormore” from Caps fan during his atrocious first month of play for the team. That nickname was a source of amusement to a Montreal bartender we met.

Theo became “threeormore” after winning only 4 of his first 11 games with the Caps. The fans weren’t happy that General Manager George McPhee signed Theoo, but he didn’t have after any other options after Cristobal Huet left. His rental contract that got the Caps to the playoffs for the first time in the Ovie era expired at the end of the season and Huet left for more money.

The third period belonged to the Caps starting with Mike Green’s goal sixteen seconds into the third period. Brooks Laich then completed his first career hat trick by scoring unassisted at 9:02 with Mike Knuble and Ovechkin assisting at 19:41 to tie the game. 19 seconds left in the game and it was tied. The game went to overtime.

Overtime was uneventful until Tomas Plekanec scored with 8 seconds left. Bell Centre was in pandemonium and, for the first time, I was annoyed. Of course, I wanted the Caps to win. I just can’t help it. It doesn’t matter though. I still had a great time and soon got over my temporary snit.

Ovie had 2 assists that night and played plus-2 hockey, but the most memorable scene for him that night was his monster hit on Hal Gill, a 6’7 and 241 lb giant on the Canadiens blue line. Ovie leveled Gil right into the crease. Sweet memory.

Seeing hockey in Canada. Awesome!

P.S. Thanks and hats off to Ryan Miller, stellar Team USA net minder and MVP of the Olympic hockey tournament. You were fun to watch. Now, lose to the Caps on Wednesday.

Let's to Caps!

The game is clicking for the Caps

2010-01-26T18:27:00.000-08:00

Since the players of the Washington Capitals unanimously named Alex Ovechkin captain on January 5th, the team has won 12 of its past 13 games. Coincidence? Maybe, but I think his new role is part of it. One of the other key factors that seems to be a part of the wins the Caps are amassing in January is that Coach Bruce Boudreau has finally kept the forward lines together instead of tinkering with them every night. The third factor is that Boudreau appears to have finally found a way to motivate this team to play well, regardless of whether or not they're playing a winning team or one in the basement of the standings. Considering how often the Caps played down to lesser competitors the last couple of years, that's a huge step forward.

All four forward lines are gelling in a way I have never (and I mean never!) seen in Washington. It reminds me of watching the Detroit Red Wings the one and only time the Caps reached the Stanley Cup finals. During game one, I watched mouth agape at the tape to tape perfect passes the Red Wings made and knew that there was no way the Caps were going to win that series, even though they kept the score competitive in all the games until the final one.

Lately, I've watched the Caps move the puck into the offensive zone with my mouth agape. In last night's game against Florida, the other hockey fanatic in my house, Jeff & I looked at each other in awe as Eric Fehr and Brendan Morrison passed to each other up the ice. It was pretty. And, if a pass doesn't land perfectly on the tape, all the forwards seem to have the ability to move the puck with their feet to get it on the tape. It's sick, as Ovi would say.

And, there's so much more going right for the Caps, right now.

Mike Knuble playing on the line with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom has given the Caps a prolific goal scoring top line because of his ability to crash the net and pot in garbage goals. My excitement over Knuble's arrival last summer has only intensified because it's so clear the hole he fills for the Caps and he nets the kind of goals teams must get in the playoffs. He has 18 goals and 13 assists for 33 points this season and he's having a blast playing with this team.

Ovi is taking his game to a whole new level as he has 6 more assists, at 40, than his 34 goals. He's playing +34 hockey and it shows in his better defensive play. He still has too many giveaways, some nights, but he's playing well and inspiring this team.

Backstrom is also taking his game to a whole different level as he's becoming a goal scorer with 22 goals (his season high last year), in addition to, being a playmaker. He's playing +25 hockey and it's so much fun trying to watch opponents get the puck off his stick. Backstrom frequently looks like he has velcro on his stick.

I'm not sure what's gotten into Alexander Semin but I've never seen him play better. He's always been an extremely talented, but injury prone and streaky player who gets lazy during the long grind of the season. He shows up in the playoffs though, so I give Semin a lot of slack. Since returning from his wrist injury in December, he's been one of the best forwards in the NHL, getting 16 goals and 36 assists and playing +19 hockey. Semin received the number one star of the game four times in a row this month against Anaheim, the New York Islanders, Phoenix and Pittsburgh.

The team's blue line is also playing well and Jeff Erskine, Shaone Morrisonn and Jeff Schultz all broke long scoring droughts in the last several games. Mike Green, unfortunately suspended for three games for an elbow to the head of Michael Frolik against the Panthers last night, is playing much stronger defense, he's +22 and still racking up points.

Goaltending is still a concern for the Caps. Jose Theodore has won his last six games against Pittsburgh, Anaheim, Detroit, Philly, the Islanders and Florida, but he's a streaky goaltender. His stats aren't in the top half of the league. Semyon Varlamov can't get or stay healthy. Michal Neuvirth is going to be a good goalie in the NHL, but, at times, he looks overwhelmed and could use more time in Hershey. He played a strong game last night and made a spectacular glove save as the force of the shot pushed him back down to the ice after he caught it.

So, what does it all mean? It means nothing because it's January. It's just fun to watch.

Tampa Bay Lightning up tomorrow.

Let's go Caps!

The ups and downs of this Caps team

2010-01-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

Prior to producing two solid wins against the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-1 on Friday, and the Philadelphia Flyers 5-3 yesterday, the Caps became the team that frustrates their fans in their little tour of the Southeast Division. They reverted backed to their lazy ways and took it too easy against the Tampa Bay Lightning, for a 7-4 thumping, they managed to eke out a win in the shootout against the Florida Panthers and they played their one good game with a 8-1 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers. The Caps performance at the Atlanta game is what championship teams are supposed to do and they're supposed to do it every game night. Take their two points with conviction when the opponent is struggling. The Caps tend to forget that lesson, at times.

The Caps are back on top of the Eastern conference again, for the moment, so why am I calling them out for their unforgettable performance against the Southeast? Because, I want this team to play hungry every night and I want them to remember that they have won exactly nothing. I do realize that no team plays on the top of its game every night during an 82 game season, but laziness cannot became a habit of a contender so I'm happy to see they played with more energy the last two games.

Positive observations:

Brooks Laich ended his scoring drought against the Flyers, collecting two goals - one short-handed - after having a video review session with Coach Boudreau. Brooks is always a hard worker and I'm thrilled he ended his scoring slump.
The Caps defense, as a unit, is playing better this season. Another year of experience under the belt is helping players like Jeff Schultz and Mike Green. Green made a spectacular poke check deep in the defensive zone yesterday that had Craig Laughlin saying it was a "Norris worthy" play. Schultz looks more comfortable in his body and it's showing. His +/- at +27 is second in the NHL only to his team Captain, who leads the league at +28. Green and Schultz both still have to prove themselves in the playoffs so this season is a big test.
Alex Ovechkin seems to be taking his game to a whole new level recently as his 5 point night (1-4-5) against Toronto showed. His playmaking abilities are beginning to match his goal scoring abilities, as he now has 34 assist and 30 goals for 64 points. Ovechkin has found strong chemistry with Mike Knuble and Knuble, since recovering from surgery on his finger, has become that net crashing, garbage goal scorer Caps fans were hoping for when he was signed.
Jason Chimera took a little while to settle in with the Caps aggressive offensive system, but he's stepping up now. He's a big guy at 6'2, 216 lbs, he plays physical and I liked it when Chimera defended his teammates on Friday night against the frustrated and chippy Maples Leafs.
John Carlson, he of the recent game winning gold medal goal for Team USA fame, received an ovation Friday night when his name was unexpectedly announced in the starting lineup. I cheered wildly in my Carlson jersey. Brian Pothier is hurt so Carlson is playing. His confidence level from the junior world hockey championship carried over into his play during the last two games. Carlson played +2 hockey in 14:32 of work against Toronto and had 2 missed shots, 1 hit and 1 giveaway. He played +2 hockey in 15:51 minutes of work against the Flyers, had 2 takeaways, 2 blocked shots and 1 giveaway. The jitters that showed when Carlson made his NHL debut against the Montreal Canadiens in November are gone and he is playing like he belongs. Carlson was sent back to the Hershey Bears today, but I have no doubt we'll see him again soon.

Nagging Concerns:

Goal tending - is Semyon Varlamov going to be a healthy, productive net minder? I don't doubt his ability to be a #1 goalie in the NHL, just his resilience.The jury is still out as he gets injured every year and has been out since early December, except for playing one game in Hershey where he managed to injure his right knee. Michal Neuvirth gets overwhelmed when the Caps defense is playing poorly and the forwards aren't back checking as effectively as they need to be. He has a 5-4 record with a .892 save percentage, so he's not playing horribly, he just needs more experience. And, Jose Theodore is 13-7-4 with a .902 save percentage. At times, the Caps play horribly in front of Theo and, at times, Theo can't get his rebounds under control. All of this makes me wonder if the Caps currently have what they need in net to contend for a Cup run and the answer is "not right now". Thankfully, it's only January.
Penalty killing - the Caps penalty kill has dropped back to 25th in the league at 78.6% effectiveness. That needs to improve before the playoffs. The Caps are doing somewhat better at avoiding untimely costly penalties, but they need to kill off penalties better.

The positives outweigh the negatives so let's keep it up Caps.

Detroit Red Wings are next.

Let's go Caps!

John Carlson's sublime finish for Team USA

2010-01-06T19:25:00.000-08:00

John Carlson streaked up the ice in overtime against Canada for the gold medal and set up for the pass. And, without looking at the goalie, he whipped a shot right past him for the game winning goal in Team USA's upset win over the Candians at the World Junior Hockey Tournament. It was Carlson's second game winning goal in a row in the tournament. But, it was his defense (he is a defenseman, after all) that was just as impressive as his canny ability to find the back of the net for game winning goals. He ended the 7 games of the tournament playing +8 hockey, he blocked shots, made smart outlet passes, hit plenty, battled hard and made the safe dump play, when necessary. Carlson's offensive ability was definitely on display, too, with 4 goals, 3 assists for 7 points in 7 games. Not too shabby, at all.

John Carlson's NHL debut started against the Montreal Canadiens on November 28th. It went okay, not great as his nerves showed, but he was credited with 5 hits that night (correction from my post last night - Carlson was #1 in hits that night with the #2 guy being the now team captain, Alex Ovechkin). His second game agaimst the Toronto Maples Leafs, he ended with 1 hit, 1 blocked shot, 1 giveaway and 1 takeaway for a -1 night. Carlson's final game against the Ottawa Senators, where he only had 11:33 minutes of work, he had 2 blocked shots and ended +1. Overall, not great, but not horrible. He needs more experience and he'll get it with the Hershey Bears this year, but, if his development continues as it has, I expect to see him on the Caps next year.

And, tomorrow at the phone booth, I will proudly sport his #74 Caps red home jersey for the first time. There is no doubt we'll see him in it again this season.

Meanwhile, the Caps bounce back from a three game losing streak to win 4-2 against the Canadiens under the first game of unanimously voted in team captain, Alex Ovechkin. He game them new energy last night. Congrats Ovie! Now, take this team to the Cup :)

Tomorrow night, the Ottawa Senators.

Let's go Caps!

The Caps Beat the Trap

2009-12-26T20:29:00.001-08:00

The New Jersey Devils play the defensive trap style of hockey - a clog the neutral zone and force turnovers there kind of game- and they play it effectively against the Washington Capitals, particularly, with Martin Brodeur in net. Saturday, however, the Caps brought their "A" game and beat the Broudeur led Devils with a 4-1 victory. A better Christmas present I couldn't imagine, except for my brand spanking new #74 red Caps jersey. Yeehaa.

Okay, back to the game of hockey. The only standard by which I judge games and individual performances by the Caps are whether or not they are playoff worthy because nothing else matters now. The Caps have proven they can win the Southleast Division. They haven't proven they can win the Stanley Cup. On Saturday, they gritted out a win against the Devils and proved they can play against the trap and the number 1 net minder in the NHL when they put their minds to it. In case you don't remember, the Caps lost to the Devils the prior 3 times they've played them this season. So, beating them is an accomplishment.

More importantly, beating the trap is taking a step towards winning that ultimate goal. Teams have to play defensive hockey effectively to win the Cup and that means playing against the trap and the defensive style of hockey that wins playoff games.

Good job Caps!

Next up, the Carolina Hurricanes.

Let's go Caps!

The Case for Mathieu Perreault

2009-12-09T17:24:00.000-08:00

This is the first game since he got called up from the AHL to play for the Caps that Mathieu Perreault didn't play. He's out with food poisoning. The Caps miss him badly. They look lethargic, sloppy and without an ounce of effort in the game going on right now against the Buffalo Sabres. They need Perreault.

The 21-year old center was a late round draft pick in 2006 and the Caps signed him to a three-year entry level contract in March 2008. General Manager George McPhee hasn't drafted too many successful late round picks yet. Perreault may prove to be an exception.

Since he's played 16 games for the Caps, he has 2 goals and 4 assists for 6 points, while playing mostly on the third line. But, it's his intangibles that impress me even more, so far. He's a small guy, at 5'9, and plays with a chip on his shoulder because of everyone who ever told him he'd never make it to the NHL. And, it shows in the heart, energy and grit with which he plays every shift. He'll grind it out against the boards for a puck against anyone, regardless of how big they are.

Perreault's also playing +5 hockey and is an effective forechecker. I like what he bring to the Caps. He's quickly becoming a fan favorite and that's a hard thing to do with that mercurial lot. Hard core Caps fans, and I'm one of them, are an insane lot and we just want a Cup.

I'm grateful Perreault doesn't have to clear waivers so he can stay. He should stay.

Let's go Caps!

A terrible night to be a Caps fan

2009-12-01T17:45:00.000-08:00

Nothing in my history as a huge sports fan prepared me for the feelings that went through me when I watched Alex Ovechkin writhing on the ice after his knee on knee hit against Tim Gleason of the Carolina Hurricanes last night. The sinking feeling that the Caps season was swishing down the toilet made me sick to my stomach (that's not a knock on the rest of the Caps, I love these guys, but they need their star). I was also pissed. I'm a huge fan and I love the way Ovie plays, but I kept thinking his crazy exuberance was going to bite him this time and he was going to be out for months.

Luckily, that didn't happen as it appears Ovie will only miss 2-games because he's been suspended. Not good, for so many other reasons, but I can live with that over a long-term injury. Being a Washington sports fan has been tough for so long because our teams have sucked, but the arrival of Alex Ovechkin and the rest of the young guns brought hope back to this Washington sports fan. It's been a fun ride so far and I'm not ready for it to end.

Before I became a hockey fan, I grew up in a Redskins football family and started watching at the age of 4. I learned early on the fanaticism of sports fans while trying to escape physical injury if I happened to be sitting next to my mother when the Redskins played Dallas. "Why don't they just break his little toe?,"she would say about whatever Dallas player happened to be tormenting the Redskins while she dug her fingernails into my arm. That's where I get it from.

Luckily, Washington hasn't been entirely championship less, it's just been a long time and forever for the Caps. I got to witness that soul stirring Redskin's first Superbowl victory against the Miami Dolphins where John Riggins became a model for an iconic sports photograph that exemplifies the courage, strength and determination of superstar athletes. Hmmm, he's probably a pretty good comparison to Alex Ovechkin in a couple of ways. The Redskins would win two more Superbowls, the last one 18-years ago though, before ownership transferred to Dan Snyder. I gave up my football fandom about 5-years after that because I have no hope he can become a good owner. It's probably been 6-years since I've been to a game.

The Wizards/Bullets haven't been much to talk about since 1978 and I'm not much of a baseball fan yet as the Nats have been a disaster during most of their tenure here. You know it's pathetic being a sport fan in a town when you find pleasure in watching your baseball team fight for 4th place in their division that one year. Yes, I followed them that year and will follow them again. It's the season opposite of hockey so I need something to keep me occupied between drops of the puck.

My sports fanaticism now starts and ends with hockey. I went to my first game as a young girl the first year the Caps came to D.C. I loved it. From there, my fandom went up and down over the years, particularly, when I couldn't watch games while I was in college, but I always followed them. Their Stanley Cup run on the back of Olie Kolzig's stellar play in net gave me something to live on for a while, even as I also realized the Caps were badly outclassed in talent against the Detroit Red Wings. Passing, what's that? I learned how the elite teams did it in that series.

Then, Ted Leonsis bought the team in 1999 and brought the dreaded Jaromir Jagr (I never liked him) here and the Caps went nowhere. After that, the agony of the Caps fire sale and the lockout made it tough to be a hockey fan in Washington. But, those actions resulted in the #1 draft pick in the lottery and the Caps picked Alex Ovechkin.

From his opening hit that took out the glass to his two goals performance in that first game, from "the goal" to the 4 goal, 1 busted nose and 1 knocked out tooth performance against the Montreal Canadiens, from the goal he passed to himself and shot into the net while sliding on the ice on his butt to his all star performance this year, Alex Ovechkin is a joy to watch. He loves playing hockey and I love watching him.

So, Alex do me a favor and stay around long enough to win a Stanley Cup with the Caps. Please.

Let's go Caps!

I hope John Carlson gets a sweater tomorrow

2009-11-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

John Carlson, first round draft pick of the Caps in the 2008 entry draft, is practicing at Kettler Iceplex because Milan Jurcina and Shane Morrisonn are both nursing injuries. I'm going to the game tomorrow night and I want to see Carlson make his NHL debut.

I first watched Carlson play in the Caps rookie development camp the summer of '08 and, boy, was I impressed. I haven't been following prospects or rookies for that long, so I don't know a lot about evaluating rookies, but Carlson stood out to me. I went back to watch him play when the Caps played the Flyers in the rookie scrimmage and, again, his smart hockey sense, great play along the boards, hard hitting, precision passing out of the zone, and offensive prowess all made him my favorite prospect that camp.

The thing I liked most about Carlson beyond his athletic ability is his willingness to do whatever it takes to play in the show. Coach Boudreau apparently spent some time telling Carlson after that first rookie camp what he needed to do to succeed in terms of training and effort. Carlson took him at his word and came into rookie camp showing it this year, even after playing an extended season through the OHL and the Hershey Bears championship run.

Carlson looked like a veteran out there directing the defensive plays. The suicides didn't leave him gasping. He was completely comfortable. Carlson got cut before too long during the Caps camp because Boudreau wanted him back in Hershey knowing he'd start his season there.

Between camps, I followed his career while he played for the OHL London Knights under the tutelage of Coach Dale Hunter. What better person to mentor the young Carlson I couldn't imagine (as a Caps fan anyway). Carlson played great racking up 16 goals and 60 assists for 76 points in 59 games while playing +23 hockey. Not bad! Then, he went on to play 16 games for the Hershey Bears in their successful quest to win another Calder Cup, getting 3 points and playing +3 hockey.

Now, I don't expect much from Carlson tomorrow night, I'm just excited by the possibility of seeing him play. He's the real deal and is going to be an impact player in the NHL. I can't wait to see him develop.

If you get that sweater tomorrow, John, good luck! I'll be cheering for you.

Let's go Caps!

The great 8 is back and Caps fan favorite nets GWG

2009-11-17T18:35:00.001-08:00

Alex Ovechkin returns after two weeks, the longest absence of his career, and nets a power play goal on his signature shot from the point. Welcome back Ovie! Ovie also had 7 hits, so I don't think that injury is bothering him too much.

Matt Bradley, after bleeding all over Aaron Voros, scored the game winning goal on a breakaway. To be fair to fan favorite, Brads, he did get some good punches in on Voros. But, I'm tired of seeing Bradley bleeding. He played a great game though.

The other unsung hero of the game, Quintin Laing, left the game with a broken jaw after blocking a shot with his face. If all the Caps played with the heart, grit and intensity that Laing does on every shift, they'd have multiple Stanley Cups by now. He is a hero and I hope he joins the Caps again soon.

Not that I'll complain about the Cap's intensity last night. They played a complete sixty minutes, without letting themselves get down after Marian Gaborik scored 1:16 into the game, and persevered against the chippy New York Rangers, to win 4-2. There is intense hatred brewing between these two teams. Pushing and shoving is commonplace between whistles. I'm sure the Rangers are still ticked about Sergei Fedorov sending them home from the playoffs last year.

Next up, the Montreal Canadiens.

Let's go Caps!

I get it, but....

2009-11-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

Yes, the Caps are tied for first place in the Eastern conference, even without Alex Ovechkin on the ice. And, yes, the Caps are tied for second place in the league. So, Ted Leonsis keeps imploring the fans to 'enjoy the game' and 'relax'. I've been a Caps fan since 1974 and I'm not in the mood to relax anymore about this town's lack of a Stanley Cup. Not when the Caps have the most spectacular player in the NHL on their team. Sorry Ted.

I interrupt this rant to congratulate Chris Clark on his game winning goal against the injury and flu depleted New York Islanders in the 11th round of the shootout. I like Clarkie a lot and he's struggled since all of his injuries, so I'm happy he got the GWG. I also give Semin kudos for the spectacular game he played tonight. His shot was on fire as he had 11 shots, 2 goals and a goal in the shootout. Finally, I'll congratulate first star, Semyon Varlamov, for his spectacular play in net, particularly, during the shootout. His athleticism was on display with his goal stopping splits. Varly came off the bench to replace Jose Theodore after he let in 3 goals on 5 shots.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming, I mean rant. The Caps have proven they can win the Southeast Division in the regular season. But, who cares? First of all, the Caps play in the weakest division in the league. Second of all, it's only the second season in hockey that counts. Winning the division doesn't matter in the playoffs. The score sheet starts out blank and 16 wins later through a grueling slog of gritty defensively minded hockey, some team out of 30 hoists the best trophy in the world, the Stanley Cup.

The Caps playoff history in the Ovie era is not impressive -- 1 playoff series win in 3 played and that win came on a goal by a determined Sergei Fedorov against the New York Rangers. Ovie himself, however, played tremendous hockey in the playoffs last year generating 11 goals, 10 assists in 14 games and playing +10 hockey. You can't ask for much more from the Caps superstar. I can ask a lot more from the rest of the team during the playoffs.

So, what bothers me about how the Caps are playing right now:

The constant playing down to the level of competition (this started last season) and the inability to put inferior competition away in games. Championship teams do this.
The lack of defense, at times, from both the forwards and the defense. The forwards need to back check and the defense needs to step it up.
The stupid stick handling penalties at inopportune times. Alexander Semin can't seem to stop himself from committing untimely infractions. This is simply inexcusable. He's not the only one, but I'll pick on him for now.

Okay, end of rant for the moment. I still enjoy the game immensely and I'm thrilled the Caps have as many points as they do. I just want the Caps to win the Stanley Cup in my lifetime and while Alex Ovechkin is a Cap. So, I'll end on a positive note.

What I like about the Caps playing without Ovie - the fact that scoring is coming in bunches and from a lot of different people. Let's keep that up Caps when Ovie comes back.

The Caps play the Minnesota Wild on Friday before heading on a road trip.

Let's go Caps!

The Ovie-less Caps aren't Pretty

2009-11-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

After two overtime losses in a row against the New York Islanders (a team that is playing well above expectations) and the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Alex Ovechkin less Capitals debuted tonight against the New Jersey Devils and, what else, penalties did them in. Alexander Semin took three penalties, Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison took one each and New Jersey took one (I'm not counting the fighting majors) and if the Caps think they're going to win games that way, they're sadly mistaken.

This team needs to learn how to play hard. There has been many from the media and fans that have commented that Ovie's injury was an opportunity for this team to show what kind of character it has. Well, tonight showed that they still can't play without making stupid penalties at the wrong time.

The bright spots in an otherwise dismal game:

The Caps plus/minus leader, who made a perfect saucer pass onto Tyler Sloan's stick for his first NHL point, Mathieu Perreault, played a great debut game. He's fast, he mucks it up along the boards and he's motivated. I liked what I saw.
Brooks Laich and Matt Bradley who always play hard, played hard tonight.
Semyon Varlamov played a decent game in net, but couldn't win the game for the Caps.

A home and home series against the Florida Panthers is next.

Let's go Caps!

That was a fun hockey game to watch

2009-10-27T17:32:00.001-07:00

I'm a happy Caps fan this morning as they came out on top in a battle against the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2 after being down 2-0.

I like it when:

the Caps net minder, formerly known as Jose Threeormore, plays lights out in net. His glove hand snatched pucks out of the air in between crowds of bodies last night. Theodore beat the penalty shot caused by Tom Poti. Caps fans couldn't ask for more from their goalie. He deserved his first star of the game after those 41 saves.
the Caps come out flying and play aggressive hockey. But, I'm not going to talk about the patheticness of the power play right now (okay, they got 1). It's happy day,
Alex Ovechkin scores two goals and throws Mike Richards into the boards on 1 of his 5 hits.
Alexander Semin, recently returned from injury, catches Ray Emery napping for a goal.
David Steckel kicks butt in the faceoff dot, with a dominating 63% of wins on 16 draws in the defensive zone. Coach Boudreau played him a lot on 24 shifts to take 27 faceoffs.
Nicklas Backstrom gets a goal and three assists for a 4 point night and 2nd star of the game.
Chris Clark shows the grit that made me appreciate him so much, before all of his injuries. The Caps need him back to his former self.
Keith Aucoin plays like the spark plug he can be.
Jeff Schultz hits somebody and is all around playing better.

It was a good night to be a Caps fans.

Caps visit the Atlanta Thrashers tomorrow night.

Let's go Caps!

The role of luck in winning

2009-10-26T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hockey fans, players, coaches, and anyone involved in the game are typically very superstitious because luck is a part of sports. In fact, my boss happened to mention to me that he watched the Caps lose recently and worried that his bad luck as a fan of the Wizards was transferring to the Caps. I promptly told him he couldn't watch any more games live and the Caps have won every game since. See, it's true.

Good luck plays a part in any team that slogs its way through an 82 game season, followed by an even more intense second season, and a final win to hoist the Stanley Cup. The Caps got a little bit of luck on Saturday night by ekeing out a win against the rebuilding New York Islanders, even when no one named Alex scored. The Caps still gave the Isles a standings point by not putting the game away in regulation. They played a bad game so they were lucky.

The power play went 0-4 again. The Caps lost 70% (yes, you read that right) of their faceoffs which is downright miserable. Alex Ovechkin was held without a goal for the second game in a row. Caps were lackluster and slow and didn't looked like they cared that they were playing a hockey game.

But, the Caps did have heroes. Brooks Laich and Mike Green, 1st and 3rd stars, respectively, won the game with Green's goal coming in the 3rd period to tie it up and Laich netting the overtime game winner one minute into the extra period. I'll also throw in Jose Theodore as the other hero, as he's playing well in net and keeping the Caps in it, at times.

I hope the Caps bring their A game to the Philadelphia Flyers tomorrow night. The Flyers play them tough.

Let's go Caps!

Schultz has a 3 point night, seriously?

2009-10-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

You know it's a weird night in Caps land when your scorers are not named Alex, but instead are named Jeff Schultz, Chris Clark, Eric Fehr, Alexandre Giroux (okay, one Alex) and Matt Bradley. The Caps also got lucky which is in itself weird. Luck usually runs against them, not for them, but when Jeff Schultz's 150 foot shot took a weird bounce on the soft ice and popped over the netminder's shoulder for a goal, that was lucky.

On the down side, they were lucky to win the game, at all. Up 5-2 in the third period, the Caps let Atlanta get back into the game with goals from Maxim Afinogenov and Ilya Kovalchuk. The Caps also went 0-7 on the power play which is just horrendous. Contending teams don't play that sloppily and the Caps need to step it up. Some will say it's only October, but I don't want to hear excuses, period.

Other observations:

I love Mike Knuble. I can't believe he used to be a Flyer, but I love him anyway. It's fun to watch him muck it up in front of the net and try to shove pucks through the goaltender multiple times. Too bad he ended up kicking in that one puck.
Eric Fehr's goal came on a beautiful outlet pass by Jeff Schultz (yes, I said Jeff Schultz and he played a great game last night and not just because of his scoring). Fehr's goal was a beauty, streaking down the ice and shooting it over the left shoulder of the goaltender. I'm glad to see Fehr score.
Alex Ovechkin spent his night tied up by Pavel Kubina. He is human and there are some players who play him really well. He did not have a great night and he also got fined for slew footing. I just hope that doesn't add fuel to the fire that he's a dirty player because it didn't appear as if there were any intent to injure on that play.

Caps visit the New York Islanders tonight.

Let's go Caps!

Oooooovvvvvviiiiieeeee

2009-10-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Both of Alex Ovechkin's goals came in the first period against the Nashville Predators at Verizon Center last night. I enjoyed the goal where Brendan Morrison lobbed it into the air towards Ovie where it landed at his feet.

The Caps should have then put away a team that is struggling on offense, ranked 25th in the league in points. But, no, they let up and the Predators tied it up late in the third with goals from Shea Weber and one where James Dumont took advantage of a bad clearing attempt by Jeff Schultz.

The game went to overtime and then to the dreaded shootout...not the Cap's forte and not Alex Ovechkin's forte either, but his faking Dan Ellis out and then blowing it past the out of position goalie made me smile.

Semyon Varlamov, starting in place of the injured Jose Theodore, played a decent game and stopped all 3 of Nashville's shots during the shootout, including a tough shots from Martin Erat, to seal the win. Varly appeared more comfortable after his two shaky starts and that was good to see.

A disturbing statistic I noted....faceoffs. Overall, the Caps won 46% of their faceoffs and that's only because David Steckel won 56% of his and Brendan Morrison won 50% of his, but Nicklas Backstrom and Brooks Laich with 33% and Keith Aucoin with 25% are unacceptable numbers.

I want to see the Caps play like they played against San Jose. That is the most complete game they played all season. Great teams show up every night. That's what I expect the Caps to do.

Caps head to Atlanta on Thursday.

Let's go Caps!

Best 3rd Period This Season

2009-10-15T17:16:00.000-07:00

The Washington Capitals played the 3rd period tonight like it mattered. Gee, sometimes that makes the difference between wins and losses so I'm happy they stuck with it and won this game considering they've lost three in a row.

My highlights:

Alex Ovechkin breaks a long losing streak against San Jose and scores on Evgeni Nabokov, not once, but twice off of Mike Knuble. The one puck that Knuble handled and back-handed to Ovie for the first score was a thing of beauty.
Prior to that, Alexander Semin started the scoring in the first period by scoring off of a Nicklas Backstrom pass to him from across the crease in between Brooks Laich and a Shark defender. It was sick.
I wish every Washington Capital played with the heart and hustle that Quintin Laing exhibits every single time he's on the ice.
What happened to Jose Theodore? He's been playing like a man in the zone and, now, he's hurt. Arghhh..... Semyon Valamov played capably in Theo's absence and I'm glad to see him get the chance.
Matt Bradley - fan favorite - grabs goal number two.
Brendan Morrison looks like a good pick up to me. We'll see, as the season progresses, but I like the way this guy is playing and he can keep up with Ovie.

For the first time in 12 tries, the Caps beat the Sharks. Yeah.

The Nashville Predators are coming to town on Saturday.

Let's go Caps!

Caps...the details matter

2009-10-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

Ugh. The Caps don't look like a team with high aspirations for the post season, so far. They started out on fire, while I worked my tail off in Las Vegas and couldn't watch. Caps started out with a 4-1 victory over Boston and 6-4 win over Toronto which wasn't as close as it sounds. Tonight, they blew it against the New Jersey Devils and lost in a 3-2 shootout.

Some observations:

Jose Theodore's playing inspired in net. He's kept the Caps in games and had some unbelievable saves in the 3rd period tonight.
Alex Ovechkin leads the league in points, but needs to help this team take the next step.
Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison more than make up for an oft-injured Sergei Fedorov (don't get me wrong, I love the guy and will never forget his $4M goal to keep the Caps in the playoffs last April, but the Caps needed a net crasher) and Viktor Kozlov. Knuble brings that crease crashing forward the Caps have desperately needed. Morrison plays like a guy with a 1-year contract, trying to impress.
Sloppy penalties, sloppy penalties, slopping penalties. Need I go on.
I'd much rather have Mike Knuble on the top line than Alexander Semin. See bullet #3 - Caps need his net crashing on the top line and I like having a scorer on the 2nd line, too.
I'm glad Quintin Laing is a Cap. He gives it his all every single night and he's fun to watch when he's blocking shots even when you're wincing at the impact.
The rest of the forwards need to step it up....hello secondary scoring anybody?
Coach Bruce Boudreau needs to learn how to light a fire under this team and fast.
The defense - sigh - it doesn't seem to be any better than last year. The seasoning isn't helping. The forwards need to learn to play two-way hockey, too, and now. That's what wins playoff hockey games.

A mediocre start based on what little I've seen, so far, and what I've read.

Now, comes a couple of usually troubling West Coast teams to taunt the Caps, starting with the San Jose Sharks.

Let's go Caps!

Lots to Laich about Laich

2009-10-07T16:55:00.000-07:00

Brooks Laich taught me patience with young, still developing hockey players, but not right away. First, there was my constant screaming at him the first year he played 73 games for the Caps in 2005-2006. He's awful, I thought constantly, berating a 22-year old that played 10 games in the AHL that year. I wasn't the only one. The howls from the message boards and long time Caps fans rang out often about Laich that year.

This happened about the time that my Caps hockey fandom went into overdrive. I've been a Caps fan forever, but that year a certain Russian hockey player became a Capital, and I couldn't contain my excitement about the Caps. I understood Ted Leonsis's and GMGM's plan about rebuilding and developing from within, but I'd been waiting for this team to win a Cup for 31-years at that point. I was and still am impatient for that elusive Cup.

The year of Laich's mostly full time debut was the year Alex Ovechkin won the Calder Cup and made the NHL first team all stars. Although Ovie shined with his 53 goals, including "The Goal", the Caps were awful finishing in the cellar of the Southeast division with 70 points.

Brooks's second year he only had 18 points, but looked a little bit more relaxed playing in the bigs. In 2007-2008 he had his breakout year under replacement coach, Bruce Boudreau, who had coached Laich in Hershey. He broke the 20-goal mark with 21 goals and he also had 14 assists for 34 points. That year, Brooksie became the subject of fan adulation on the message boards in a legendary thread that went on for hundreds of pages extolling the mythic like powers of the hockey player named Brooks Laich.

This season, so far, Brooksie is playing like a man possessed, averaging 2 points per game and starting with a 2-goal game that garnered him that night's second star. He appeared briefly on the NHL's goal leader board to the delight of Caps fans. He plays a gritty, muck it up game and the Caps desperately need that. I see him only getting better because he's extremely competitive and plays hard every night. Brooks will also get to learn from veteran Mike Knuble, who plays a similar game, and that will be invaluable for him.

Brooksie, at age 26, is already a leader on the ice and off. He leads by example, by playing hard and by working hard. I'm looking forward to watching him play this season.

And, thank you Brooksie, because I'm much more patient with young developing players now. Okay, not with all of them! I'm only human.

Caps host the New York Rangers tomorrow night. No doubt they'll be looking for revenge after Sergei Fedorov sent them home last playoffs.

Let's go Caps!

I'm missing hockey in Las Vegas

2009-10-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

Some people might appreciate being in Las Vegas when hockey season starts, but I'm not one of them. In fact, if I never saw Vegas again, I wouldn't care. It's just not my kind of place.

Instead, I'm desperately missing hockey and can't believe I missed seeing the Caps win their first two even if they decided to slack off in the 3rd period against Toronto tonight. It's killing me.

I'll be back home on Tuesday...thankfully.

Let's go Caps!

Olie the Goalie

2009-09-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

Thank you! What Caps memories you've given me. I got your jersey the year that turned out to be your last with the Caps. It saddened me because I wanted you to retire in it. It doesn't matter. I will treasure it always.

My favorite moments and things I loved about you as a player and a leader are similar to many other fans, but here's my list:

The '98 Cup run. I'd forgotten just how spectacular you were until one of the networks replayed scenes from that year when the Caps made the playoffs. Wow. That's still my highlight of being a Caps fan since 1974.
Your fight with your best man, Brian DaFoe, was a classic. But, it was also your tenacity in sticking up for your teammates that I loved. You didn't hesitate to go after someone running one of the Caps. Goalies didn't typically do that and I thought it was great.
Your year of winning the Vezina. You were sublime.
Your workhorse seasons. I'd forgotten what's it like, as a fan, to have to rest your goalie. It seemed you never rested.
Your community service. This area misses you. But, you started great things that will live on like Athletes Against Autism. I wish your son Carson the best.

Ahhh, so many memories. I hope you enjoy your well deserved retirement Olie and I can't wait to see you nominated for the Hall of Fame.

Let's go Caps!

Welcome Mike Knuble!

2009-07-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

I'll be so much happier to see you in a Capitals uniform than a Flyers uniform.

I like what I've read about Knuble's vocal leadership. The Caps need that in the locker room. Thank you GMGM for finding a RW replacement for Viktor Kozlov that scored more last year and crashes the net. Whippee.

Now, onto the criticism. "At defense, we're fine." Seriously? Semyon Varlamov stole a couple of playoffs game for the Caps and covered up for the defense that didn't get the job done. Not that other players weren't responsible for that game 7 debacle against Pittsburgh. There was plenty of blame to go around, but the defense needs an upgrade. Maybe he's being the cagey GMGM that plays his cards close to his chest, but we won't know the answer to that, for a while, I suspect.

The Caps also have other needs, like a 2nd line center, but GMGM didn't say they were fine there.

I get that there isn't Cap space and there weren't really any good free agents on defense to go after so I don't hold out hope anything will happen during this period unless a trade happens. Now, I'm a huge fan of John Carlson, having tracked his growth this past season and last summer, but I don't know if he's ready to be an impact player. I'd rather play him than Jeff Schultz though for his physical play alone.

It sure was an interesting day for Caps fans today.

Let's go Caps!

It's too bad that

2009-06-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

the South Carolina Stingrays are the 2009 ECHL Champions

and the AHL Hershey Bears are the winner of the Calder Cup

and the Washington Capitals still aren't built for the playoffs.

David Steckel brings the Caps home for Game 7

2009-05-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

Being a Caps fan is not for the faint of heart, particularly, if you've watched this team for as long as I have. There are two many overtime losses, too many playoff losses to Pittsburgh and too many years that the team was neglected by its owner when they wouldn't put a truly competitive NHL team on the ice. To this day, I will never forget how badly outmatched the Caps were in their only finals appearance against the Detroit Red Wings. To have your heart ripped out in the post season seemed like an annual occurrence. See last year's game 7 against the Philadelphia Flyers for the most recent example.

Then, came Ted Leonsis, General Manager George McPhee and the ultimate gift for a fan, a young Russian rookie named Alex Ovechkin. Ovie was soon joined by Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green and Alexander Semin settled into playing here and being a Capital with his Russian teammate. They became the young guns.

Add to that, Semyon Varlamov, the young rookie net minder who has played six more playoff NHL hockey games than he played in the regular season and generated a .925 save percentage and a 2.28 GAA. His athleticism and acrobatics in net on some of his saves are eye popping to watch. And, Varlamov's calm cool demeanor make me sure the Caps have found their goalie of the future. He's living up to his billing as I've been reading about him for quite some time and saw him last summer at the Caps rookie development camp.

Then stir in the heart and soul players of this Capitals team like Matt Bradley who will gladly take a punch to rile up his team, Brooks Laich who knows how to camp out in front of the net and last night, David Steckel who has played huge, huge, huge in these playoffs with the overtime game winning goal to force game 7 last night after missing his overtime opportunity in game 5. Coach Bruce Boudreau keeps saying Steckel is a big game guy. I believe him now.

And what does all of that get you? The "cardiac Caps" an affectionate moniker widely used to describe these Capitals and it makes it painful for me to watch them, at times. Like last night. Ovie thinks the fans enjoy this, but I don't. I merely want them to win. And, by a lot of goals.

Instead, the Caps are facing another game 7, another win or go home game, against a team I hate with intense passion. I thought I'd be okay if the Caps only won one series this year, but I won't. I'll be heartbroken. Just like last year.

Let's go Caps!

Ovie takes the game with Varly's support

2009-05-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

The phone booth crowd rocked the red in a deafening cacophony of Caps fan cheering, screaming, blaring horns, taunting Fleury and going nuts. That was my most sublime live hockey experience ever. To watch Alex Ovechkin take over a game from the Pittsburgh Penguins with his two goals for the hat trick in under three minutes starting at 12:53 in the third period was awesome. The only thing better will be watching the Washington Capitals life the Stanley Cup and, no, that's not a prediction about this year. See my tagline.

Simeon Valamov, leading in GAA with 1.51, continues to impress and kept the Caps in the game last night too often for comfort. His sprawling side to side saves look like something you'd see in Olympic gymnastics.

David Steckel got another important goal last night, too. Coach Bourdreau says he gets up for big games. He is most definitely showing that during the playoffs.

I loved that game even though playoff hockey is killing me as a fan. These one goal games and being tied in the 3rd are way too stressful.

The Capitals move to Mellon Arena to battle the Penguins in their barn tomorrow night.

Let's go Caps!

p.s. Oh, and yes, Sydney Crosby had his own hat trick and played a good game to keep his team competitive, but I'm a Caps fan and have no interest in writing about him - enough other NHL venues take care of that :)

Cardiac Caps Outlast Penguins 2-1

2009-05-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

In a game as exciting as promised with the last 3 Art Ross trophy winners on the ice, the Caps escaped with a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sydney Crosby scored first at 4:09 in the first on a shot that the young net minder Simeon Varlamov should have had, but I'm going to cut the rookie some slack on that one. The defense certainly wasn't helping him out early in the game as the Caps spent far too much time battling the Penguins in the defensive zone.

Varlamov let in a deflected goal at 12:54 in the second period. I worried about what that might do to Varly's confidence, but I forgot that worry when he made that highlight reel save on Sydney Crosby's shot. Crosby had a wide open net until Varly threw himself back towards the other side of the net and deflected Crosby's shot right at the goal line with his stick. That stop saved the game and got him another #1 star.

Other observations:

Caps were terrible on faceoffs, winning only 47%. They kept throwing everyone out of the circle. I loved Alex Ovechkin's shot off the faceoff.
They also had 22 giveaways to the Penguins 6. They need improvements on those stats to win this 7 game series.
The Brooks Laich - David Steckel - Matt Bradley line is awesome. They are battling hard, crashing the net and that resulted in a goal by David Steckel to tie the game at 1-1. Steckel deservedly got the 2nd star.
I'm glad Ovie and Mike Green learned that in the playoffs you sometimes need to dump the puck in.
Nicklas Backstrom's, 2 assists, patience in feeding Tomas Fleischmann early in the 3rd period resulted in the game winning goal. Backstrom just gets better and better.

The last 17 minutes of that game were excruciatingly painful to watch as I just wanted it to be over. Thankfully it ended with the Caps still up 3-2.

I'll be Rocking the Red Monday night at the phone booth.

Let's go Caps!

Cardiac Caps Push It But Feds & Varly Win It 2-1

2009-04-28T16:43:00.001-07:00

Simeon Varlamov - Tsarlamov, From Russia with Glove, Wallamov - whatever you want to call him, has been awesome in net, 2nd only to Roberto Luongo in stats this playoff season and 1st star of the game 7 tonight. He kept the Caps in it early in this game when they started out playing like shit - okay so let me define that - listless, not hustling, not battling, and generally not acting like it's a play or go home game. Unbelievable, in fact. The Caps believe their press clips way too much. Much of the media handed the Caps the series on a silver platter. That made me anxious all day. Note - I agree that they Caps were way too anxious for this game - they just caused me a heart attack in the process. So my prior comments are reflective of being a frustrated, but passionate Washington Capitals.

Regardless, this game was all about Sergei Fedorov who got the 2nd star - he actually deserved the first star with the game winner. I was critical of his play during the first two periods because he seemed too slow and it seemed like Alex Ovechkin was always way ahead of Feds and Viktor Kozlov. I wanted him off of Ovie's line and fast before the second period ended. Don't get me wrong. I love Sergei Fedorov and couldn't believe he ended up a Capital. I mean, seriously, how did a legend end up as a Capital? Sergei got the game winning goal on an absolutely beautiful shot at 15:01.

In an eerily prescient moment, Craig Laughlin said on the broadcast something to the effect of Sergei will have something to say about how this series end. Wow. He couldn't have been more right.

On a side note, Chris Clark played an up tempo, high energy game for his first game back since January.

It took the Caps until the 3rd period to find their game. They looked downright horrible during the first two periods. And the last almost five minutes of that game after Feds scored were painful. My heart raced way above normal during that time frame. 1998 was a long time ago, damn it, and I was tired of waiting.

Tonight, I don't have to wait anymore. Thank you Washington Capitals.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are up next.

Let's go Caps!

Poti torches former team to lead Caps in 5-3 win

2009-04-26T12:29:00.001-07:00

Tom Poti torched his former team with 1 goal and 3 assists to lead the way in the Caps tying up this series. The tape to tape pass play where David Steckel set Poti up for his goal was a thing of beauty. Poti's holding his ear up for the fans on his way off the ice after his post game interview cracked me up, but the Caps need to win another game so it's no time for cockiness. He played a great game.

Observations:

I'm loving the line of Brooks Laich, Matt Bradley and David Steckel. They are playing with high energy and fighting hard. Steckel's been money in the bank on the penalty kill as he's clearing the puck regularly.
Viktor Kozlov looked Ovie like with his dipsy do around the Rangers on that goal. The 4th puck that went glove high. Caps finally figured out how to successfully shoot on King Henrik.

Nicklas Backstrom continues to hold onto the puck as if losing it would cost him his life. He gets playoff hockey.
Alex Ovechkin deflected in a beautiful Poti pass to net his 3rd goal in three games.
John Erskine also gets playoff hockey.
We like it when Milan Jurcina lets that rocket of a shot go.
Mike Green came alive today and potted his first playoff goal. He apparently feels better which is certainly helpful.
Simeon Varlamov stayed strong in net and got the 2nd star even though he ultimately let in 3 Rangers goals.

But, why is it the Caps do the polar opposite of what their coach tells them to do sometimes? They take stupid penalties (and, yes, the refs appeared to be hard on the Caps) and gave the Rangers not one, but two, 5 on 3s. Ridiculous.

The Caps need to keep game 7 against Philadelphia last year in mind as they prepare for playing the Rangers Tuesday night. It all ends in a second as Joffrey Lupul so painfully showed them and us fans.

Let's go Caps!

Fan favorite Brads solves Lundqvist in a 4-0 win

2009-04-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

The phone booth rocked last night and not even the obnoxious NY Ranger fans behind me could ruin my night, thankfully, because the Caps showed up to play. Matt Bradley scored short-handed 4:12 in the first period against Henrik Lundqvist, the Caps nemesis this series, and then got a lucky sharp angle shot past Lundqvist later in the first to put the Caps up 2-0. Lundqvist should have had that puck and the crowd serenaded him after that.

Brads truly is a fan favorite because he's one of the hardest working players on the ice, he's gotten himself killed in fights against heavy weights just to get his team going and he won a shootout for the Caps being the 12th shooter to go out on the ice after practically jumping on the ice without his Coach's okay. He's also funny and the beat up Saturn he drives cracks me up. All of the fans I talked to last night wanted Brads to get a hat trick. That would have been too cool. He did get the first star, deservedly so.

The next star was Alex Ovechkin, who made another highlight reel goal to make it 4-0 to close out the 2nd and run Lundqvist back to the Ranger's bench. Ovie also had 5 hits, tied with David Steckel last night.

The third star was the spectacular and poised rookie, Sem-yon, Var-lam-ov, in net. He only had to make 20 saves, but some of those were also highlight reel material. His ability to do the splits and thrust his leg out to protect the far side of the net is fun to watch.

The other player I want to give props to is John Erskine. He's playing spectacular defense. Erskine will never be the quickest skater on the ice, but he's playing really hard and hustling out there.

The Caps controlled the neutral zone well and stepped up their forechecking. All in all it was a brilliant effort for the whole team. It's just incredibly frustrating as a fan that they get lazy when their backs are not against the wall. I give Ovie credit for promising us suicidal (kidding, but it's been rough) fans that this wasn't over yet. Thank you for keeping your promise.

Caps managed to rattle both the Rangers and their coach, John Tortorella as he had altercations with the fans and threw a water bottle into the crowd. Wow. How unprofessional is that. Let's hope the Caps are now in the Rangers head.

Keep it up boys.

Let's go Caps!

The definition of insanity...

2009-04-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

... is being a Caps fan since 1974 and still hanging around waiting for a Cup (no, I didn't expect one this year). The last and only time the Caps reached the Eastern Conference Finals was the last time the Caps won a playoff series. In 1998. 11 long years ago. Wayne Gretsky still played hockey for the New York Rangers (sigh) and got 90 points.

There probably isn't any particular hockey game that I remember with more clarity than the Caps first game against the Detroit Red Wings in that '98 finals. The Caps made a glorious ride on the back of their work horse net minder, Olie Kolzig and got some help along the way that year because the #1 seed - New Jersey, the #2 - Pittsburgh and #3 - Philadelphia got knocked out and the Caps, the #4 seed, kept rolling past Boston, Ottawa and Buffalo on its way to the finals.

That first game threw water over my oblivious love of the Capitals in spite of their flaws. Ten minutes into the game and I knew the Caps were doomed in my heart even though I continued to cheer and root for them like a crazy person. Why? Because they simply were out skilled. There was no way this Caps team would be capable of make those perfectly executed tape to tape passes up the ice that were a thing of beauty to watch if only I were a Detroit fan. (Hmmm, they still do that quite well today, 11 years later). Detroit swept the Capitals 4-0 in that series.

The Caps ownership at that time, Abe Pollin, couldn't care less about hockey. That Detroit series made me realize that he would never spend the money to field a competitive team. When he finally sold the team to Ted Leonsis all that started to change. And, then...

Fast forward to the summer I found out about Alex (Alexander at the time) Ovechkin. I read about him all summer and hoped that the sudden flicker of hope in my heart wouldn't be crushed again. When he scored "the goal" and I knew he meant to do that, my heart soared. Wow , we have a bona fide star in the making here. And, he is. From rookie year winning the Calder to his bevy of hardware from last summer - Art, Ross, Richard, Pearson - there's no doubt Ovie is a force for the Washington Capitals.

And, yet, the Caps are struggling again in this playoff series against the 7th seeded New York Rangers. Not that Ovie isn't trying because he's been a beast and, most definitely, a force on the ice in these games even though he hasn't scored much. Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Simeon Varlamov, the young guns, have played well. Everyone else...not so much.

Ovie, I hear you and I'll be loud, proud, in red and probably losing my voice tomorrow. Please, unleash the fury.

Let's go Caps!

Caps & Varlamov Get It Done 4-0

2009-04-20T17:12:00.001-07:00

Wow. Simeon Varlamov. Wow. What else can I say. The 20-year old net minder has been nothing but impressive. A save he made with about 3 minutes left, a diving split, was a thing of beauty. Deservedly, he got the first star of the game.

I've seen this before with other young NHL goalies. They burn out (see Cam Ward's sophomore slump) or they become inconsistent (see Carey Price).

Observations:

John Erskine played one of his best games that I've ever seen. He pestered Sean Avery, got under his skin and forced him to take a couple of penalties. That was fun to watch.
We should be celebrating Alexander Semin's hat trick, but we'll settle for his two goals in the first period. Semin played an excellent game but he blew his first two scoring chances and he should have had them.
Nicklas Backstrom is one helluva a hockey player. This young pivot is very difficult to move off the puck and he's winning the battles along the boards and he's quarterbacking plays..
Alex Ovechkin made some wonderful defensive plays tonight, in addition, to his 2 assists. One of his sliding on the ice poke the puck off the defense man's stick was pretty (to be fair, he corrected his mistake of giving away the puck). His presence was felt.
Brian Pothier is sharp in his return from his long-term injury. He's providing the Caps with a steadiness and level of the experience on the blue line that they need. Their blue line is better with Pothier in it over Jeff Schultz.
The penalty kill performed killing off 7 of 7.

I was scared to watch this game.

Thanks Caps.

Let's go Caps!

Caps stink it up, lose 1-0 to Rags and go down 0-2

2009-04-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

I attended my first Caps game as a child in 1974 and have been sucker punched by them every year since then. They've found every imaginable way to lose in the playoffs over the years or not make it, at all. This game, the 2nd home ice game in the best of seven series against the New York Rangers was imperative for the Caps to win. Instead, they put in a lackluster effort and are now down two games heading back to Madison Square Garden.

The game was a disaster starting with the performance of Alex Ovechkin and including Mike Green, Viktor Kozlov, Alexander Semin, Michael Nylander, Sergei Fedorov, Tom Poti, Eric Fehr, Tomas Fleischmann. The players on this team who showed up to play include Matt Bradley, David Steckel, Nicklas Backstrom and the rookie net minder Simeon Varlamov. Varlamov didn't make the only stop he needed to, but that was a 2 on 1 breakaway in his first NHL playoff game after only playing 6 regular season games. I'll give him a break on that one. He was pretty composed for the most part and he had every right to be nervous.

Observations:

Coach Boudreau needs to change it up. The lines aren't working and they're not getting past Henrik Lundqvist's body in net.
Ovie needs to stop playing like he can do it all himself. He can't and he needs to work better with his teammates. His 5 giveaways were 2nd only to Mike Green.
Mike Green played horribly with 7 giveaways, 1 penalty, minus 1 hockey in only 23:44 of ice time compared to 30+ the first game.
Surprisingly, the penalty killing unit played really well, killing off all 5 of the Ranger opportunities.
The checking line played aggressively and I always noticed Matt Bradley and David Steckel for good reasons.
Nicklas Backstrom continues to impress me in the playoffs and it's amazing how much he flies under the radar screen in the NHL. He's one helluva a hockey player and he's getting impossible to get off the puck even in the grittier environment of the playoffs.
Henrik Lundqvist is an elite net minder and is playing the part, but the Caps need to create traffic in front of the net to get scoring. The coach, writers and players have been saying this all season long and, yet, the Caps still don't do it because they do not have the players that are willing to do that except for Brooks Laich. They will be playing golf in April again if they don't start doing it.
GM George McPhee hasn't won a playoff series in 10 years with the teams he built and it's not looking good this year either.
The Caps are playing worse than last year in the playoffs, so far, and that's the part that is downright depressing.

The series heads to New York on Monday. I'm hoping to see a different team show up, like the one that gave the Boston Bruins fits this season.

Let's go Caps!

Ugh...defense and goaltending kill the Caps

2009-04-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

It was an intensely fought battle and, in the end, the Caps succumbed to poor defense and goaltending.

Highlights and observations:

Jeff Schultz got owned by Brandon Dubinsky and then Jose Theodore muffed the save. Just an unbelievably awful play.
Alex Ovechkin came to play as he had 2 assists, 13 shots, 6 hits, 3 takeaways and played +2 hockey in 26:07. Ovie got the first star for a reason.
Mike Green played 30:47 (a bit much in my opinion) and ended the night -2 with 3 hits.
Nicklas Backstrom won 72% of his faceoffs which is a huge improvement over his numbers in some games this season. He learned how to play playoff hockey last year and I expect bigger things from him this year. The Caps won 70% of their draws. That's important in the playoffs.
Viktor Kozlov finally gets a goal in the playoffs. It is about time.

Jose Theodore played unacceptable hockey in that game and everyone's talking about it. Tomorrow night is probably one of the most important games of his career.

Let's go Caps!

Three more games...

2009-04-07T08:42:00.001-07:00

Caps thankfully only have three more games left before the second season starts. They played a good 3rd period against the Atlanta Thrashers the other night generating 4 goals in the last twenty to win 6-4. Apparently, Coach Boudreau yelled at them for their lazy playing in the first two periods and they finally woke up!

Although the Caps have a win-loss record that I can't argue with and are the winners of the Southeast Division for the second year in a row they've played with a lack of energy over the last month or so. The problem with that is that they still have something to play for and thats 2nd place in the Eastern Conference if they can stay ahead of the New Jersey Devils. Today that means that the Caps would play the Montreal Canadiens versus the Pittsburgh Penguins. It would be nice for the Caps to beat the Penguins in a playoff series, but my biggest hope is that the Caps get out of the first round of the playoffs.

The Caps are certainly capable of making a playoff push, but it depends on which Caps team shows up on any given day. The one that's beaten the Eastern Conference leading Boston Bruins 3 times out of 4 (an OT loss) or the one that plays down to their level of competition and loses to teams near or at the bottom of the standings. The team that can't seem to battle effectively against the gritty physical style of play that the Flyers play (also known as playoff hockey style) or the team that beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings. The team that makes blind cross ice passes that end in giveaways or the team that cycles the puck effectively for another top of the NHL leader board power play goal. We'll find out soon enough.

Regardless of which team shows up in the playoffs, I've enjoyed the regular season. Some of my favorite highlights:

Alex Ovechkin's goal against the Habs where he banked the pass to himself and slide on the ice and got the puck to go into the net. There are too many Ovie highlights to name as he is always a joy to watch on the ice. I consider myself privileged to get to watch him night in and night out.
Participating in the standing ovation for Brian Pothier's first goal after a 14-month recovery from a concussion and eye problems.
Watching the rookie Karl Alzner play smart hockey as a call up for the too often injured Caps. He has a bright future in the NHL.
Seeing Mike Green break a defensive NHL record for goals scored in 8 games in a row, plus seeing him pot 30 goals after missing 13 games due to an injury earlier in the season. That injury gave me a great appreciation for Green's transition game as the Caps suffered without him on the blue line. He may well end up being the Norris trophy winner this year, or at the very least, a runner up.
Watching two young rookie net minders make their impressive NHL debuts. Simeon Varlamov and Michel Neuvirth make it easy for me to believe that the Caps have a long term solution to man the net.
Seeing Jose Theodore go from downright horrible his first two months to solid and, at times, spectacular in net where he often compensated for the Caps defensive lapses.
Following Nicklas Backstrom's development from a rookie into an elite class center in only his 2nd season.
Cheering for the many, many Hershey Bears that made their NHL debuts and ongoing appearances with the big club as the Caps suffered through a rash of injuries early in the season. They kept the Caps at the top of the league and it's testimony to the advantage of sharing playing systems between your AHL and NHL teams.
Watching Alexander Semin becoming a force on the penalty kill. He also played with such intensity early in the season that he was tearing up the league in scoring until he got injured. Seeing him fight made me laugh for two days...sorry Semin, it's meant with affection.
Cheering for the role guys, like Brooks Laich and Matt Bradley, who play their hearts out every shift.
Hoping to see more of next year....Milan Jurcina's slap shot with better accuracy, Tomas Fleischmann's scoring and Eric Fehr's ability to use his big body to crash the net and score more.

The Caps finish out their season on a SE Division road tour starting with the Atlanta Thrashers again tonight, then, followed by the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers to close the season out.

The second season is coming...time to step it up.

Let's go Caps!

Hmmm.who are these Caps, really?

2009-03-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

And that's a good question. Since I last wrote (and my new job precludes me from writing as often as I'd like to, but, hey I have a new avocation instead of spending too much time reading about the Washington Capitals so that's a good thing), the Caps have gotten smacked down by the Atlanta Thrashers, beaten up by the Carolina Hurricanes and Cam Ward but they also shut out Florida 3-0 and beat up on Tampa Bay 5-2. On a nightly basis it's impossible to know which Washington Capital team will show up.

The fans are losing it, as evidenced by the message boards, and are in varying degrees of mass hysteria but there's a history there. Caps fans are long suffering fans when it comes to playoff success. The Caps haven't won a round in the playoffs in ten years. If they win one playoff round this year, that, to me, would constitute a successful season.

The Caps, like Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green, may disagree with my seeming willingness to give up further playoff success so easily. But I don't see it yet. The Caps haven't yet realized that to be an elite team you have to stop playing down to bad teams and up for just the good teams. Elite teams play to win, always. The Caps don't. They sit back when they should be putting away teams.

The Caps defense will not get them very far in the playoffs. They still can't play worth a damn against gritty teams (see the Philadelphia Flyers games) and they get pushed around too easily. That is a recipe for playing golf in April.

I love this team, but I don't see them going far in the playoffs yet. Hopefully, they'll prove me wrong. I'd gleefully admit to being wrong since I'd be happier if the Caps were advancing in the playoffs than if they were out of it.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are up next for the Caps.

Let's go Caps!

Caps tough one out to get 2 points in Philly

2009-03-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

It's hard for me to decide which team from the state of Pennsylvania I hate most, the Pittsburgh Penguins or the Philadelphia Flyers. I think the Flyers have a slight edge right now as the Caps lost to them in game 7 in OT during the first round of the playoffs last year and they trounced the Caps 7-1 in December. On Thursday, at least, the Caps came out on top 2-1 at Philly for a nice mini road trip that ended with 4 points.

Alex Ovechkin scored, assisted and made the biggest defensive play of the game, by knocking the puck off a streaking Flyer's stick while sliding on the ice, for the first star. On the power play goal, Ovie shot to the net and Brooks Laich, perfectly positioned in front of the net, deflected the shot for the goal. The Caps win more games when they remember to park themselves in front of the net. Ovie's game winning 48th goal with a pass from Alexander Semin came with 2:41 left in the game. Semin interupted a Philly pass and sent it to Ovie in a beautiful move to get that goal.

The Caps penalty killers were stellar killing off 3 penalties in the first period and Jose Theodore made some highlight reel stops on Philly to get the 2nd star and keep the team in the game for the win.

The puck drops in two hours against the Carolina Hurricanes who are fighting for the 8th spot in the playoffs. They'll be hungry as every game counts for them so it'll be interesting.

Let's go Caps!

The fighters give the Caps momentum in Nashville

2009-03-13T17:22:00.001-07:00

The Caps won a hard fought game in Nashville against the Predators to get a rare win against a Western conference team. The first period between these teams erupted with two fights. The first one ended with watching Donald Brashear crumple to the ice after getting decked by Wade Belak. Brashear is one of the top fighters in the NHL and I've never seen him go down by like before. Matt Bradley went for redemption 3 minutes after the Brashear fight by going at it with Jordon Tootoo and left the ice a bloody mess. He came back after getting stitches. The fights energized the Caps and they played for their battle weary teammates.

Sergei Fedorov, once again, showed why he's a future hall of famer by taking the puck from a pretty Viktor Kozlov pass and patiently stick handling until he could make a slick move and shoot the puck around backup goalie Dan Ellis for the game winning goal. He was awarded the 2nd star of the game for his efforts. Ellis got the first star as he stymied the Caps on 42 of their 44 shots.

Nicklas Backstrom was awarded the 3rd star for his goal and overall stellar play in 23+ minutes of ice time. He is playing mighty impressive hockey these days. I don't envy defensemen trying to get him off the pucks because it stays on his stick through tough battles along the boards. Backie is playing physical playoff style hockey and it's only his 2nd year in the NHL.

The other two players playing like demons right now are Alexander Semin and Jose Theodore. Semin is playing with playoff intensity and Theodore, at times, is standing on his head to keep his team in the game. I'm not sure where this Theodore came from, but I like him a lot better than the Oct/Nov 2008 Theodore.

The Caps then traveled to Philly.

Let's go Caps!

Not a good time to slump - maybe OT loss signals a change

2009-03-09T19:39:00.000-07:00

The Caps have been playing like a team that doesn't care for the past couple of weeks other than a win over the Boston Bruins. They showed a little more heart and played a little better yesterday, coming back from 3-1 to tie the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 3rd period and ended up with a point in an overtime shootout loss.

This team has lost it recently and no one should think Coach Boudreau is happy with the way his team has played even if they are in first place in the SE and now in 3rd place in the Eastern conference. So, what is it? Do they believe their own hype too much as many have said? Is their defense just that bad (or that young and inexperienced) to begin with? Do they really think they're an elite team too good for the likes of the teams that are below them in the standings? And, if that's the case, why in the hell didn't they learn from their early losses against those teams? Is Coach Boudreau struggling to motivate this team? Do the Caps need new assistant coaches? Are the guys waiting for the playoffs to turn it on?

I don't know the answer, but I do know that I'd really like the Caps to win their first playoff series in 10 years this year. I have no expectations for this team beyond that because all the pieces aren't in place yet, particularly, on defense. The atrocious defense is a glaring weakness that must be addressed before this team will be a serious Cup contender.

The Caps make a rare trip to Nashville tomorrow to take on the Predators.

Let's go Caps!

Capitals choke and miss an opportunity

2009-03-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

Elite teams play as hard against teams that are behind them in the standings as they do against teams they are trying to catch in the standings. The Caps, on the other hand, seem to consistently follow up a strong game against a top opponent, see Boston yesterday, to take a team that is trying to catch them in the standings, the Florida Panthers, way too lightly. The result...they got shellacked by them for a 6-2 loss. Ugh.

Putting Sergei Fedorov on defense means Coach Bruce Boudreau got as tired of the putrid defensive play as the rest of the fans. Coach Boudreau needs to find a way to motivate this team to play better on defense, in general, play as a team, quit trying to do it as individuals, stop making stupid cross ice passes that result in giveaways and stay out of the damn penalty box. It's quite simple but this team fails to execute in a consistent manner and they give up two points.

Goaltending wasn't much better. Jose Theodore, the losing goalie, got pulled after letting in four shots. Michal Neuvirth couldn't save the Caps and let in two goals.

A disgusting loss.

The Caps play the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.

Let's go Caps!

Cardiac Caps outlast Boston for an OT win

2009-03-01T08:39:00.000-08:00

The Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins are evenly matched teams. Most of their games are close games and they frequently go to overtime, just like yesterday. I'm tense watching because an untimely penalty or a giveaway to Marc Savard may mean the Caps lose But, they prevailed 4-3 although Boston also got a point.

The Caps had 1 penalty in the first period, none in the second period and then fell apart with three penalties in the third period with the score tied. Not the time to start playing undisciplined hockey. Boston, Zdeno Chara to be specific, scored on the last penalty. You can't give this team too many man advantage opportunities. The Caps were only in the penalty box 4 times last night which is great for them, but to have 3 of those come in the 3rd period is not good. There were also a number of non-calls made by the refs which was an irritating part of watching the game.

I'm sure Boston net minder Tim Thomas wishes he had two goals back from the Caps because, on most days, I think Thomas would have had both of them. The Caps third goal came courtesy of Tomas Fleischmann's goal off of Dennis Wideman's skate. This happened to the Caps against Boston off of Milan Jurcina's skate. The overtime game winner came courtesy of Alexander Semin's 80 foot puck toss. Semin was hungry for scoring yesterday. You could see it in his face, at times.

Nicklas Backstrom's goal from Semin and Mike Green caught Thomas on the wrong side of the net. Backstrom's on an 8 game scoring streak, his personal best a 9 game streak, happened earlier this season. He is one helluva of a hockey player and I think he flies way under the radar screen of the NHL. Backstrom's game has developed significantly this season even though he started out slow. He's a strong puck handler and is tough to get off the puck. He battles hard against the boards and wins more than he loses. He's a consistent point scorer and his passes are beautiful. His vision on the ice is spectacular, too. His faceoffs are his weak point as evidenced by yesterday's 33% win percentage on 15 tries. I have faith he'll improve there. He's +14 so he's defensively responsible although he has room for improvement there, too. He is in his 2nd season so I can't wait to watch him become even better.

Jose Theodore made some spectacular saves and survived some serious flurries of activity in front of the net but should have saved the shot from Chara that forced the game to go into overtime.

The Florida Panthers come into town this afternoon. Can I just say that I'm sick of having to be around to watch so many day games. It makes it tough to get things done on the weekend.

Let's go Caps!

1 ugly loss followed by a close win over Atlanta

2009-02-26T17:55:00.000-08:00

My new job is keeping me way too busy to blog on a timely basis, but I'm still able to watch (or go) to the games. The ugly loss against the Philadelphia Flyers had me yelling at the TV and throwing my glasses as usual. The Caps lost that game in a few minutes during the 3rd period when Philly scored 3 times. Although those goals were scored at even strength (total defensive breakdowns by the Caps), the Caps also spent 18 minutes in the penalty box which has got to stop. They're assessed the 4th most minor penalties in the NHL and that shows the lack of discipline from this team, at times.

The Caps played a more disciplined game against the Atlanta Thrashers on Thursday as they only ended up in the penalty box 6 times. But, they should have put away the team sitting in 14th place in the Eastern conference instead of letting them get within 1 goal with two minutes left in the game. It was a short-handed goal no less.

Goalie Michal Neuvirth got his 2nd win in a row. The Caps future looks bright on the goal tending front. Alexander Semin, 1 power play goal, 1 assist and no penalties got the first star of the game. Mike Green, 1 power play goal and 1 assist got the second star of the game.

Let's go Caps!