David Steckel brings the Caps home for Game 7

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

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

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

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!

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!

  

Caps & Varlamov Get It Done 4-0

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 survive the Blues and get 2 points in 4-2 win

The Caps, once again, played down to their competition and could have easily lost this game to a beat up team. They lost something more important though and that was Alexander Semin and Mike Green to injury although Green says he'll play against Philly tomorrow. Semin got cross checked in the back and crumpled against the boards and no call was made by the refs against the St. Louis Blues just against the Caps for abuse of the officials. Per Tarik's blog, Coach Boudreau mouthed off so that's why the penalty was called, but I couldn't see him from where I sat.

In the Caps blogosphere, many fans were wishing for serious retribution against that cross check coming from someone other than Alex Ovechkin who did stir it up right after the hit on Semin as he was angry. Ovie and Donald Brashear kept throwing Blues into the boards the rest of the game, but the Donald didn't drop the gloves much to dismay of many fans. The Caps have had some problems with letting other teams abuse their players...see last year's playoff series when the Philadelphia Flyers kept running their netminder Cristobal Huet so it is an issue. However, in this case, I side with those who also remember when Donald Brashear lost it against the Boston Bruins last year and the ensuing penalties cost the Caps the game. They didn't need that last night. If they were up 5-0 as they should have been, then fine, let Donald throw down. Otherwise, take the two points and move on.

The highlights:

• Viktor Kozlov, first star of the game, scored 2 goals and had 1 assist. He played a good game.
• Simeon Varlamov, second star of the game (that's 2 stars in his two starts), looked strong in net again, particularly when he robbed Keith Tkachuk on a breakaway late in the 3rd to keep the game at 4-2. Varlamov, now reassigned to Hershey, stopped 61 of 64 shots in his 2 wins for a .953 save percentage. The fans, myself included, are in love with this kid and his shifty eyes that track the puck and stalk skaters. I can't wait to see him in net on a full-time basis for the Caps.
• Alex Ovechkin's shot 13 seconds into the power play that started the 3rd blasted past the goaltender and put the Caps up 4-2. He had 5 hits, most on the team again and got the third star of the game.
• The grinders were all +1. Boyd Gordon, often underappreciated for his defensive forward play, played an awesome game last night with a 57% faceoff win and he assisted on Kozlov's first goal. David Steckel played much better than he has been, but his faceoff % was only 31% (yikes).
• Tomas Fleischmann made his career record 11th goal in December, hmmm not bad at all. He was wide open waiting for Eric Fehr and Steckel to get it to him and they did.
• Milan Jurinca, also had a good +1 game with 6 blocked shots and 3 hits while using his body to throw some Blues around, and Karl Alzner was the only +2 player for the Caps. These two are playing terrific defense together.
• The rocking and packed phone booth for a Thursday night game against a West Coast team. Washingtonians are beginning to appreciate the team that's winning in this town. To all of you new hockey fans, welcome aboard to the greatest game around.

The lowlights:

• Atrocious playing on the power play. The Caps couldn't keep the puck in the offensive zone. They played much better on the power play with the Hershey call ups because they were keeping it simple. Hmm, maybe time to go back to that game play.
• Caps playing too cute again. They should have controlled this game and they didn't.
• Michael Nylander...where in the world did your game go to? He's frustrating on the ice and I want to keep yelling "shoot the puck" into his ear while he's circling around aimlessly. He had 3 giveaways, a team high for the game.
• The injury to Semin. He is guilty of playing too cute a lot, particularly with Ovie, but this team is far better off with him than without him.
• The Caps need to stop playing down to their level of competition. The Blues are beat up badly and sit in last place in the Western conference. Consistently good teams, see the Detroit Red Wings, attack weaker teams because winning two points in this league on any given night is tough.
• Varlamov made a rookie mistake in the 3rd by playing the puck outside the trapezoid which resulted in a late 3rd period play. It happens, but luckily the Caps overcame it.

The Caps visit the Broad Street Bullies tomorrow for an afternoon game. There's never been a lot of love lost between the Caps and Philadelphia Flyers so it should be an intense game.

Let's go Caps!

Varlamov gets 1st star in his first win over the Habs

The rookie netminder Simeon Varlamov earned the first star of the game for his stellar performance in Montreal against the Canadiens making 32 stops on 33 shots to make sure the Caps won this 2-1 game.  Not the easiest place to make your debut for sure, but Varlamov appeared calm and survived 8 power play attempts, including a 4 minute high sticking penalty on Alex Ovechkin.  The Caps defense helped him out which is nice.  Regardless, that's an impressive performance for a raw talent, but still developing goalie who's only played 13 games in the AHL and 1 preseason game for the Caps on the smaller North American ice sheet.  

I had to watch this game on my laptop as I was out of town so it was tough for me to fully appreciate Varlamov's performance on such a small screen.  But, I'm thrilled for him and excited to be a Caps fan knowing he's most likely the future goalie and will be for a long time. 

The other amazing news from last night is that Michael Nylander actually scored a goal.  I couldn't believe he actually shot the puck, but he was standing right in front of the night so, thank you, Michael.  It was the game winning goal.

The bad news Sergei Fedorov and Tyler Sloan left the game with injuries.  Nicklas Backstrom also left but with a migraine as reported by Tarik today in the Washington Post.

Since it was impossible for me to discern the highlights and lowlights by watching the game on a laptop, I'll skip that for this post.

Caps play at the New York Islanders on Tuesday.  It'll be nice if they can put together two road wins in a row.

Let's go Caps!