An Ovie classic to start the season

It never gets tiring watching Alex Ovechkin undress a defenseman, in this case New Jersey’s John Moore, and completely confuse a goalie, Keith Kincaid, by pulling the puck back to his forehand and going to the top corner of the net. It was the game winner and started the Caps rally in the third period. They outlasted a tired New Jersey team and ended up with a 5-3 victory. The Caps started the game playing sloppy hockey as if they forgot how to play during their five day break, but they got the two points.

The Caps changed again this summer, thanks to General Manager Brian MacLellan, after he assessed another gut wrenching loss in the playoffs, after, once again, being up 3-1 in the series against the New York Rangers. The top 6 forwards needed an upgrade and trades for T.J. Oshie and Justin Williams netted that at the cost of losing Troy Brouwer and Joel Ward. It seems like a good deal right now, but getting to the playoffs and further than the first round is when Caps fans will be able to tell.

In the game against the Devils, T.J. Oshie made his presence known on the ice. Even with a 0 point, minus-1 performance, Oshie’s hustle and compete level shined as he finished his checks, doled out hits and took pucks. As noted in the Washington Post, Oshie feels he had unfinished business in St. Louis so let’s hope Washington is the place where he makes up for that.

Justin Williams, the veteran winger, known as Mr. Game 7 much to his chagrin, is a Stanley Cup winning leader for the Caps locker room. He started his Caps career with two assists on special teams, one on Jason Chimera’s short-handed goal in the 1^st period and the other on the power play empty netter put in by Matt Niskanen.

Some intriguing Caps story lines for this season…

• Will Evgeny Kuznetzov continue to grow as a player and a leader? Early results, starting in the preseason, are encouraging?
• Will T.J. Oshie find chemistry playing on the opposite side of Ovie?
• Will Nicklas Backstrom successfully recover from offseason hip surgery and return to form?
• Will the confidence Tom Wilson displayed versus New Jersey and in the preseason turn into more scoring and better hockey playing from the gritty winger?
• Will Andre Burakovsky break out this season?
• Will Braden Holtby keep up his strong play in net?
• Will the Caps make it to the playoffs and escape their post season history?
• And last, but not least, will the Caps escape the dreaded jinx of Washington sports teams named to be the champion or finalist by many prognosticators at the beginning of a 162-game, oops 82-game, season? Enough already, this team has a dreadful post season history, and after watching the Nationals implode, crowning the Caps champion of anything is the last thing any Washington sports fan wants to hear.

More on all of these and other story lines as the season progresses.

Now, onto Caps versus Sharks.

Let’s go Caps!

Is Trotz Ovie's Bowman?

Alex Ovechkin scores! 50 times this season Caps fan heard that. It is the 6^th time in Ovie’s career he’s reached that goal, one of only six players ever. That list – Wayne Gretzky (9 seasons), Mike Bossy (9), Mario Lemieux (6) Marcel Dionne and Guy LaFleur (6) - includes kings of the game. Ovechkin belongs with them and surely punched his ticket to Toronto last night to join them in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He has a 10 goal lead on everyone else this season and he’s doing this in an era where goalies are much better, players are bigger and quicker, and everything about the game, including coaching, has advanced. Ovechkin is special and Caps fans revel in watching his highlight reel goals, game winning goals, power play goals from the same spot he’s tortured goalies for 10-years, ferocious hits and taking the Caps on his back to another win.

The knock on Ovie has always been his leadership and unwillingness to play defense. But, this season there’s a new defensive mind set to his game. Last season, Ovie heard widespread criticism for his lack of defensive play after he ended the season a minus-35, good for 3^rd worst in the league. To be fair to Ovie, plus-minus is also an indication of the team surrounding the player and the Caps have had some bad defenses during his tenure, but everyone has also seen Ovie ease up when he shouldn’t.

This season, Ovechkin is a plus-11, good for 87^th in the league out of 826 players. Quite an improvement and that doesn’t include the things that don’t show up on the stat sheet, like not seeing Ovie loaf around while the play transitions to the defensive zone. He’s joining in the defensive side of the game and playing hard from end-to-end. He’s 1^st in goals, 1^st in shots, 1^st in game winning goals, 1^st in power play goals and 2nd in overall points.

The best change from last season, however, is that Alex Ovechkin became a true captain by leading the way on the ice, sacrificing his body for blocked shots – yes, it’s scary to watch and not something he should do unless absolutely necessary – and tying the score or getting a game winning goal, when needed. That’s the real treat.

So, what’s the difference? Two things changed. One, General Manager George McPhee’s understudy Brian MacLellan became General Manager after telling owner Ted Leonsis, among other things, that the Caps defense needed an upgrade, a request that seemed quite obvious since Ovechkin arrived here. MacLellan plugged that hole with two Pittsburgh Penguins, Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen. Orpik’s veteran leadership on the bench focuses the players. It sounds like his “glare” is something to avoid.

The second thing that changed is Barry Trotz became the coach of the Washington Capitals. Is Trotz Ovie’s Bowman? Can Trotz do what Scotty Bowman did for Steve Yzerman, the hall of fame Canadian center that captained the Detroit Red Wings from the age of 21 during the 1986-1987 season. It took Yzerman 10-years to win his Cup in 1997 and then he won two more, all three under Coach Scotty Bowman who started with Detroit in 1993.

After leading the Wings to their first division title in 23-years, Yzerman did not lead them to the Stanley Cup finals until 1995. The New Jersey Devils swept the Wings. Yzerman was 4-8-12 in 15 games with a minus-2. In 1996, they lost the Conference final series to the Colorado Avalanche, 4-2.

Before the 1996-1997 hockey seasons started, noise started in the media questioning Yzerman’s leadership capability. He struggled under Bowman’s coaching and his back-checking expectations for his forwards. Yzerman didn’t want to play defense and the pair’s relationship deteriorated to the point there was talk of trading Steve Yzerman, the longest tenured captain of the same hockey team ever, to the Ottawa Senators.

It clicked for Bowman and Yzerman in 1997, when they ended their season by sweeping the Philadelphia Flyers for their first Stanley Cup. In 1998, they did it again making the Washington Capitals – sigh – their victim. In 2002, the Wings beat out the Carolina Hurricane’s 4-1 to cement Yzerman’s place in hockey’s history books. Yzerman holds many individual accolades, too, including the Conn Smythe in 1998, the Lester B Pearson for outstanding player in 1989, and a Selke for best defensive forward in 2000.

Caps fans can only hope that the dream of seeing Ovie raise the Cup comes true. If they make the playoffs, they don’t have all of the pieces they need to make a deep run. It would be great if they defied expectations, as strange things happen in the NHL playoffs, like the 8^th seed winning the Cup, but Trotz has created a good foundation for the team sand, so far, Ovie can still score 50 goals.

Let’s go Caps!

  

 

Niskanen's Uneven Play

Washington Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen’s uneven play contributed to the Caps recent losing streak. He’s one of the expensive free agent defenseman General Manager Brian MacLellan picked up over the summer, Brooks Orpik being the other. At $40.25 million for 7-years, a lot was expected of the then 27-year old.

During the 2013-2014 NHL season, Niskanen posted a plus-33, first among NHL defensemen. He generated enough offense at 10G-36A-46P to end the season 13^th among blue liners. This, along with an average ice time of 21:07, were career bests for Niskanen. He thrived with the added opportunity he got in Pittsburgh because of injuries to that team. When the Caps played Detroit on October 24^th of this season and Coach Mike Babcock complemented both pickups and talked about how it was harder to play against teams with back ends that can move the puck up the ice, it felt like maybe MacLellan hit the lottery with his defensive pickups.

Read more here.

Let's go Caps!

Caps MacLellan Era Starts by Adding Ex-Penguin Defensemen

Rookie General Manager Brian MacLellan signed defensemen Brooks Orpik to a staggering  5-year $27.5 million deal and Matt Niskanen to a 7-year $40.25 million deal. There is no question the Caps defense improved over last year's crop of 23 years old and younger crowd, but I'm perplexed by the length of these contracts. That's risky.  

Orpik turns 34-years old before the season starts. Did I mention that I hate him? Orpik is on the downside of his career. Did I mention that I hate him? Will his leadership help Mike Green return to his form by protecting his back? So hard to tell, but it will be interesting to watch. Did I mention that I hate him for his sometimes classless behavior and Pittsburgh whininess? It will be hard for me to root for him, but I can't argue with the fact that he's won a Cup.

Read more here.

Let's go Caps!

Caps Fans Waited For This? Brian MacLellan Promoted to GM

Really Ted? You hired the guy that worked for General Manager George McPhee, as assistant GM for the past seven years, and a guy that has been in the organization for thirteen years. Clearly neither you nor Dick Patrick want to win a Cup because if you did, MacLellan would not be your new general manager. How someone inside the organization qualifies as "fresh eyes" that can look critically at this team is beyond me. Were you turned down by other candidates? That's the only reason this decision would make sense to me.

The Caps problems start with drafting and trading for players that aren't hard workers and won't get dirty by sitting in front of the net to score, as an example. Teams that win the Cup play hard. The Caps don't. That's a culture problem that the Caps have had since the Alex Ovechkin era began. You can't fix that problem by promoting someone that's been in the organization while that culture was created. There are specific player needs, too, like stronger defense, better goal tending and depth down the middle, but the culture needs fixed, too, and that's harder to do. 

Read more here.

Let's go Caps!