Early season trends

After watching the Washington Nationals bow out of the first round of MLB playoffs again, hockey moved up a notch in grabbing my attention, but just barely. It’s hard to get excited about hockey this early in the season, but time to notice some early season trends.

Coach Barry Trotz is focused on getting his team to play a faster game and he is making sure his star players, a la Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and T.J. Oshie do not play the same amount of minutes as they have in years past as written in the Washington Post. Ovie is 31 and has played an intense and hard hitting hockey game since he entered the league in 2005. The Caps finally surrounded him with better teammates, particularly, in the General Manager Brian MacLellan era, but the generational goal scorer of our time still does not have his name on a Cup and the window to do that is getting smaller so reducing ice time is a good move.

The early season surprise award goes to Marcus Johansson. 11 games into this season with his 6G and 5A, he has a bit over 25% of his point production from last year when he played 74 games and generated 46 points. Maybe Trotz’s focus on playing a quicker game fits MoJo’s speed. Let’s hope this trend continues.

T. J. Oshie continues to impress with his devotion to playing tough hockey. He gives 150% effort every night. His 6G, 1A, and +6 season is not bad and the determination he puts into scoring those points is what makes him a joy to watch. It is good to see the top line back together as Ovie, Oshie, and Backstrom make things happen on the ice. Ovie continues to rack up points, at 7G and 4A, undress defensemen, and score power play goals by using the same shot he has used to torch goalies for 11-years. That never gets old to watch.

There are plenty of other positive trends for future posts, but there are also concerning signs with this team even if it is just November. Vezina winning goalie, Braden Holtby, is not in his groove. A puck flies past him and he barely moves when it seems like he should have seen the shot. Holtby seems like the Vezina winner in some periods of some games, but, at other times, he is making stupid plays and seems out of it. Getting Holtby into his groove is critical for this team’s success.

The Caps losing focus during the game is another concerning trend. They play a good first period, then slack off in the second period and get burned. They go up 2-0 or 3-0 and let the Jets tie the game before stealing it away from them with a Jay Beagle goal with 34 seconds left or an Ovie overtime game winner. The Caps do not need to make it difficult on themselves.

But, lots more hockey to be played.

Let’s go Caps!

Marcus Johansson is showing playoff promise and Holtby is a beast

It is nice to see that Marcus Johansson is showing playoff promise. is HisHis 0G-2A-2P and plus-1 game performance in game 1 against the Philadelphia Flyers included some good board battles and continued gritty play. That is encouraging.

The number one star of the game was Braden Holtby. The holtbeast kept the Caps in the game when the Flyers owned the first period and had 3 power plays. The Caps rallied in the 2^nd and 3^rd period and took care of business. John Carlson and Jay Beagle provided the goals.

Holtby is again in beast mode as the Caps lead 1-0 in game 2 at the end of the first period, but the Caps had to survive a 5 on 3 penalty kill. John Carlson put the puck in the net on the power play with Marcus Johansson and T.J. Oshie screening Steve Mason. Caps survived the Flyers pressure, but need more offense in the second.

My favorite move of the night, so far, is Alex Ovechkin putting Brayden Schenn into his bench after he hit Karl Alzner on a hit into the boards as time ran out.

Let’s go Caps!

Marcus Johansson’s success at playing center

Playing with line mates Jason Chimera and Tom Wilson, Marcus Johansson’s success at playing center on the third line is a sign of a good fit. The player fans love to hate is turning in a tremendous season, particularly, after finding his stride in between the 35-year old speedster, Chimera, and the aggressive style of Tom Wilson. That line is producing. Chimera has speed and toughness, Wilson has grit, they both win board battles, and Johansson has speed to set up plays and make his own.

The interesting part of Johansson’s season happened in November after the New York Rangers game. He got suspended for two games for an illegal hit on defenseman Thomas Hickey. It was not intentional on his part, but the suspension still surprised for a player not known for toughness.

Johansson never seemed like the right fit playing opposite of Alex Ovechkin with Nicklas Backstrom. The two of them needed someone like T.J. Oshie to be the battler and energy guy on their line and that is not the type of player Johansson is. He, on the other hand, needed some board battlers and speed players so he could make plays instead of killing scoring chances when Ovie dished to him. Coach Barry Trotz continues to mix up the lines when they get stale, so these lines change.

Johansson moved to third line center when Jay Beagle went on long-term injured reserve to have wrist surgery at the end of December. The third line gelled, giving Trotz lots of offensive power in the top 9 forward and the ability to easily roll four lines.

Johansson’s played with more energy all season. He gets Trotz’s system now and is flourishing in it more. He is playing the game the right way, too, by hustling, forechecking, going to the net, setting up screens, and getting garbage goals, too. It will be great for the Caps if he keeps it up during the playoffs. Johansson’s 4 points in 14 games or 2 points in 7 games during 2012-2013 is not enough. Maybe keeping him as the third line center with Chimera and Wilson will fix that.

Let’s go Caps!

Trotz Appears to Inspire Marcus Johansson

Early signs are in that Washington Caps Coach Barry Trotz appears to inspire Marcus Johansson because he's producing more results this season than he ever has. He's 54th in the league in points, with 12 in 15 games this season, versus 121st last season. If Trotz can inspire Johansson to live up to his 1st round, 26th overall draft position expectations, the Caps will be better off. He's never played more confidently and it's great to watch him shoot more and get rewarded for it.

There were high expectations for Johansson when he was drafted. He was a fast and smooth skating player from the Swedish Elite League, a perfect finesse player in the eyes of former General Manager George McPhee, but not what the Caps needed. They had too much finesse and not enough grit.

The coaching merry-go-round from Bruce Boudreau to Dale Hunter to Adam Oates to Barry Trotz also hindered Johansson's development. None of them got through to him about how to compete in the playoffs or win board battles. Johansson's 11-points in 30 playoff games provides proof of that. But, this season offers hope that Trotz may be able to make Johansson the hockey player he was projected to be.

Let's hope that happens and he learns how to play in the playoffs, assuming the Caps make it. Tough call to make at this point.

Let's go Caps!

Wow, that was impressive Caps

The Caps took their "A" game to the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks with a hard working, up tempo 3-2 win in overtime on a beautiful game winning goal by Mike Knuble.  Knuble stood in front of the goalie and moved the puck and his stick from one side to the other before twisting around and lifting it past the goalie's pad. That play illustrated how important veterans are to hockey teams as they progress through the playoffs.  He may have lost a step this year, but I'll take his experience and patience any day to mix in with the Caps younger players.

Marcus Johansson made the smart move to send the puck to Mike Knuble's waiting stick instead of trying to shove it into the net.  The young Swede is going to be an impressive hockey player in this league.  He's played well on the top line in the absence of injured Nicklas Backstrom.

The entire Caps team played a smart hockey game today.  It was one of their very few complete games of the season where they played the full sixty minutes and everyone was out there hustling.  It was a blast to watch.

The difference in this team with the addition of trade deadline acquisitions Jason Arnott and Dennis Wideman supported by the earlier season pick up of Scott Hannan is night and day.  This team has won their last 8 games, with 7 of those being one goal games and many of them being come from behind after giving up the first goal in the first period.  The younger players are clearly benefiting from veteran leadership, something they've needed for a long time.  So, I'll tip my hat to GMGM for once.  He made some good trades this year.  Still, nothing counts until the playoffs.

Braden Holtby played well enough in net again to get the win although, at times, his inexperience showed.  He won the first star of the week on nhl.com so congrats Holtby. More on the goalies in my next post...

Caps begin a rough six game road trip tomorrow in Montreal.

Let's go Caps!