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

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!

Fan Favorite Brads is on Fire

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 great 8 is back and Caps fan favorite nets GWG

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!

Fan favorite Brads solves Lundqvist in a 4-0 win

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 fighters give the Caps momentum in Nashville

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!

Caps win a sloppy 7-4 game against Lightning

The Caps played a sloppy game last night and came away with 2 points against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Brent Johnson, in net for the Caps, probably wishes he had 1 or 2 of those goals back and I can guarantee you that Mike Smith, the Lightning's goalie, wishes he had several of the Caps goals back, particularly, the one where he was out of the net and Boyd Gordon took advantage of the puck that landed on his stick right in front of the empty net.

The highlights:

• The Caps got seven goals from seven different players.  That's some nice secondary scoring by the 3rd and 4th line players and the defense.
• Sean Collins played a stint in the ECHL last year and last night he potted his first NHL goal on a pass from Alex Ovechkin.  It dribbled past Mike Smith.
• David Steckel got the 2nd goal of the first period off a beautiful pass from Matt Bradley.  The puck landed perfectly on his stick and he shoved into the net.  Bradley was awarded the first star of the game for an overall inspired performance.  Brads scored the 4th goal in the second period.
• Boyd Gordon is playing great hockey.  His between the legs pass back to Bradley made the 4th goal happen.  And, he also quickly capitalized on Mike Smith's mistake to get the 5th goal of the game in the 3rd period.
• Chris Clark appears to be back in good form. He's such an agitator out there and he finally scored for the first time since November 2007.  Clarkie got the 2nd star of the game.
• Mike Green, in addition to, getting his 9th goal of the season from a perfectly placed pass by Ovie, played good defense last night.  He played +2 hockey although he did have 5 giveaways.  Ouch.  Regardless, he stopped a Steve Stamkos goal and twice made great plays knocking pucks off Lightning sticks on players streaking towards Johnson.  The second time was against Adam Hall and the refs awarded him a penalty shot on a bogus call.  Luckily, Johnson made the save.
• Alex Ovechkin got the 7th goal of the game by using Steve Eminger as a screen.  He had two assists and one goal for the night.

The lowlights:

• Alex Ovechkin's hit on Jamie Heward had him out motionless on the ice for several minutes.  Apparently, Heward has a concussion and is going to be okay.  I like Heward. After viewing the hit several times, it appears to be an unfortunate accident where Jamie was in an awkward position with his head down when Ovie hit him.  Of course, there are hockey fans all over the place looking for Ovie to be suspended, but I hope that doesn't happen.  The Lightning didn't retaliate against Ovie so they didn't think that hit was that bad either.  
• After going up 3-0 in the first, the Caps, once again, played a bad second period. The Lightning scored 2 goals within the first 2:37 of the second period.  On the second one, Michael Nylander spun around and lost the puck.  Ryan Malone capitalized on that one.  
• Apparently, Brent Johnson thought icing was being called and Sean Collins let up on the play that ended with Vincent LeCavalier getting the 3rd Lightning goal from Vaclav Propsal to end the second period at 4-3.  
• The Caps still need to play with intensity for 60 minutes, but I'm happy with the two points and the 10 wins in 11 games.

The New York Rangers visit the phone booth tomorrow night and I'm looking forward to going to that game. They'll be ready for revenge after the Caps beat them 5-4 at Madison Square Garden. Caps are 4 points ahead of the Rangers in the Eastern conference.  Let's make it 6 points.

Let's go Caps!

Caps overcome a slow start to beat Blackhawks 4-2

After celebrating the raising of the SE Division Champion banner, it only took 26 seconds for the hometown crowd to collectively gasp as the Chicago Blackhawks potted their first goal past Jose Theodore.  Their second goal came at 11:41 in the first period and I have no doubt that many fans and the team thought what in the world did the Capitals get when they signed Jose Theodore.  To be somewhat fair to Theodore, the entire Capitals team looked as sluggish in that first period as they did on Friday night in Atlanta.

Finally, Matt Bradley scored at 13:26 in the first period and hope returned.  The grinders, including David Steckel and Donald Brashear played better hockey than the rest of the team, particularly, in the first period of this game and against Atlanta.  Coach Boudreau rewarded that line, rightly so, with more ice time than usual.  David Steckel impressed me last night, and on Friday, as he seemed to be everywhere making his presence felt so he deserved the 3rd star of the game.  Donald Brashear showed bursts of speed on occasion to disrupt a play that I didn't realize he had in him.  

During the second period, Theodore settled down, made some good saves and the Caps started playing their game overall.  Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal of the season at 5:07 in the second to the delight of the crowd.  And, once the crowd serenaded the team with "unleash the fury", Brooks Laich netted the game winner off a rebound from Alexander Semin and Ovie scored his 2nd goal, a beauty, with less than two minutes left to seal the win.  

Other observations:

• Tomas Fleischman seems to be a different player out there this year, playing with more aggression and better puck handling, even though it hasn't converted into points yet.  The shot he blocked in the 3rd where he then got up and deflected the puck off that same shooter was a great play. But, Japers Rink talks about his poor statistics along with those of his current line mates, Chris Clark and Michael Nylander.  That trio has been on the ice for a lot of goals against the Caps.  It sounds like that line combo may need to be changed.
• Nicklas Backstrom has been nearly invisible in both games.  Is this a sophomore slump or what is going on with him? 
• Jeff Schultz scares me every time he's on the ice.  And, I'm not the only one as the fans sitting next to me felt the same way.  He's been on the ice for 5 goals against the Caps in his first two games and is playing -1 hockey.  When is that guy going to learn how to use his 6'6 body and play with some aggression?
• John Erskine played a good game last night.  He's relentlessly bashed by the Caps faithful as being too slow and out of position all the time and he frequently lives up to that reputation, but not last night.  He showed real effort out there and it paid off in a good game for him.

The most important thing is that the Caps won and came away with 2 points.  Vancouver comes to the phone booth tomorrow which means so does the net minder Roberto Luongo with his 10 game winning streak against the Capitals.

Let's go Caps!