Caps survive shootout to get 2 points against Philly

The Caps beat the Flyers in a shootout, a rare enough occurrence over the past 3 years (7-17 record), but they're 2-2 this year.  Jose Theodore saved the day on this one stopping Flyers Simon Gagne, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter.  Viktor Kozlov's pretty back and forth with the puck and the shot that went past Marty Biron sealed the win.  

I had a reader wondering if it's difficult for me to give kudos to Theodore since I didn't like him when he played in Colorado and didn't want him on the Caps (not that GMGM had any choice at the time). The answer to that is no.  I want him to be successful because he's a Cap now and if he's solid the Caps have a much better chance at winning when he's in net, particularly, in front of a still developing blue-line.

The Caps still seem to make Marty Biron look like a perennial Vezina winner.  And, they certainly didn't own that game by a long shot.  The Flyers give them trouble for whatever reason and I hate that.

The highlights:

• 1st star Jose Theodore received a standing ovation for standing on his head and blocking Sbisa Luca's shot.  He survived another intense barrage of shots in the first and survived some strong chances during the Flyers 4 power power plays. It was his best game as a Cap.
• 2nd star Viktor Kozlov had an assist on the Backstrom goal and was money on the shootout like he frequently is.
• The Nicklas Backstrom goal off the back of the net swing around pass by Alexander Semin 15 seconds into the power play rocked.  The Caps do better when they lead first.
• Milan Jurcina looks so much better this season than last.  It's fun to watch him throw his body around.  Last night, I enjoyed watching his 3 hits and 2 takeaways in 21:05 while he chased people down and out muscled them.  Great game Milan.
• Shaone Morrisonn had one of his better game this season, too.  He played angry and I liked that, particularly, when he pushed Scott Hartnell out of the crease.  He was credited with 3 hits.
• Karl Alzner continued his smart play, except for one - see below in lowlights, clearing Flyers out of the crease.  He had 1 hit, 1 takeaway but 2 giveaways in 21:59 of play.
• Chris Clark continue to agitate until Alex Ovechkin almost took his head off trying to hit Jeff Carter.  Ovie, geez, please don't kill your captain. 
• The Caps are 18-1-1 at home. 

The lowlights:

• Marty Biron stood on his head under a hailstorm of shots from the line of Eric Fehr, Chris Clark and David Steckel.  Fehr needs to pot one in and soon. 
• I love Alex Ovechkin and feel privileged to watch him night in and night out, but he's horrible on the shootout and missed again last night.  I'm not sure why Coach Boudreau continues to put him in as a shooter.
• Michael Nylander couldn't get a Semin rebound over the sliding defenseman Ossi Vaanenen.  Nylander, 3 giveaways, also got an untimely hooking penalty that gave Brandon Coburn the opportunity to tie the score early in the 3rd period and Karl Alzner missed his coverage on that play.
• Jeff Schultz  played even hockey but had 3 giveaways and seemed incapable, at times, of keeping the puck in the offensive zone.  Although I did see him clear the puck out of the zone on the power play.

A rare visit to the phone booth by the Columbus Blue Jackets is set for Friday.  I'm looking forward to it, but was hoping to see Rick Nash and he's apparently day-to-day.  He kills my EA hockey team so I'd like to see him person.  

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!

Caps hang on to beat Ducks 6-4

The Washington Capitals came out storming last night against the Anaheim Ducks and quickly went up 3-0 on two power play goals (Tomas Fleischmann on a redirect from Mike Green and Mike Green from Michael Nylander) and 1 even strength goal (Nicklas Backstrom from Viktor Kozlov) by 7:13 in the first period. The Caps power play has struggled terribly this season, but scoring on 3 of 8 last night raised their effectiveness to 19.5% and 12th in the league. The Caps ran out backup netminder Jonas Hiller after those 3 goals and faced Jean-Sebastian Giguere for the rest of the game.

Then, the Ducks scored the next two goals to make it 3-2 by the end of the first. Caps came back in the 2nd period early on another power play goal by Alex Ovechkin and added an even strength goal by Matt Bradley to end the 2nd.

Between the goals in the 2nd period, Donald Brashear and George Parros threw down the gloves and went at it. Parros, a 6'5 28-year old enforcer wrapped up Brash's left arm so he got in several good hits but Brashear came back and pounded Parros for a few.

David Steckel added to the Caps goal total about halfway through the 3rd to make it 6-2, but Anaheim didn't give up and scored 27 seconds after Steckel and added another one at the 12:00 mark. The Caps held on though and got the all important two points out of this brutal road trip where they play 4 games in 6 nights.

The highlights:

• Ovie had a 4 point night with 3 secondary assists on the first 3 goals and his power play goal in the 2nd.
• Backstrom's goal in the first came from a beautiful dodging around defenders pass by Viktor Kozlov. The top line of Ovie, Backie and Kozlov played well together last night. In fact, Ovie got the first star of the game and Kozlov the third.
• The Caps focused on getting the puck out of their zone and did it more effectively, particularly, in the first period, than I've seen in a while. In Coach Boudreau's pregame remarks to the press he emphasized that he wanted the Caps to keep the puck out of their zone during the first five minutes of the game. They did and went up 3-0. Gee, shocking...it really helps to win games when you spend less time in your defense zone!

The lowlights:

• Mike Green made the play that caused the Duck's first goal. Then, on a typical end-to-end rush by Green with his head down, he got slammed into the end boards by Chris Pronger and left the game with a shoulder injury. Don't know whether or not he'll play tonight, but the injury bug is getting serious for the Caps. It's made more difficult by not having any cap space to bring up guys from Herhsey to fill in. The Caps desperately need cap space which is probably why the Michael Nylander trade rumors are all over various hockey news sources.
• The defense and netminding, in general, is still a challenge for the Caps. Anytime a team lets in four goals it's not a good night in the defensive zone. I don't see why people continue to praise Jeff Schultz's development. He's young, and I get that he's still developing, but he drives me crazy right now. He was on the ice for 3 of the 4 Anaheim goals and, to be fair, so was Tom Poti. The shocking defensive stat of the night...Milan Jurcina wasn't on the ice for any of Anaheim's goal.
• Jose Theodore constantly makes me nervous in net. Granted, the defense struggles in front on him, but I'm just not impressed. A quarter of the way into the season and he has yet to establish himself as the #1 netminder for the Caps.

The Caps face the Los Angeles Kings tonight. The Kings are in 13th place in the West so this should be an easier game than last night's. But, it's the Caps and you can never take anything for granted with this team. Plus, I have no idea who is going to play on the blueline if Mike Green can't. Shaone Morrisonn may end up playing but that doesn't make me feel any better about the defense.

Let's go Caps!

Caps love by the media

Caps rarely get any attention from the media, but this year, after a 3-0 start, there's been some positive media:

• Here's a good article from the AP on the Cap's playoff hopes.
• Another good one from The Hockey News on Kozlov.

Enjoy.

Caps battle the NY Rangers tomorrow night. They just lost a tough one to the Islanders so I expect a tough game.

Let's go Caps!