Believe it Arnott

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!

What does game winning Russian machine mean to the Caps?

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!

Upbeat hockey and a win

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

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!