I don't have a whole lot to say about the last two Caps games. They've been pretty badly outplayed, and Holtby has basically won both games for them. Great that he's able to do that, but it's not a strategy to bank on.
The one really good thing is, with Burra scoring twice last night, maybe he won't get sent back down when Fehr's healthy. Maybe he'll even get moved up alongside Kuzya? That's crazy talk!
Speaking of Kuzya, he's probably a bit overconfident. He's been trying to do too much the last couple games, and it's resulted in a lot of turnovers.
Beagle's goal probably keeps him from being benched, when that happens, too, and that's less fortunate. Beag's been killing it on the dot, which is great, but he's mostly a liability outside of that. Winning the face-off doesn't help if you can't keep possession.
Anyway, the top line has been mostly invisible the last couple games; a few threats, but nothing consistent. We'll take it, as long as we're winning, but it's worrisome.
Niskanen and Alzner... I'm not sure what they're doing, but it's not working. They're just getting killed.
Green? He's actually been fantastic, but hasn't been getting enough ice time (hurt, maybe?).
Still, the Caps now have a 3-1 lead in the series. As any long-suffering Caps fan can tell you, that's a long ways from victory, but it's certainly an enviable position. It's a certainty that the Rangers will come out flying, tomorrow night. The Caps had better be ready for that.
Go Caps!
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
20150507
20150417
Red-rockin'
I missed most of tonight's game; DVR didn't record, and I have no idea why. And we went out to dinner. Got them to put NHL Network on a TV there, so saw a tiny bit of coverage near beginning. But Caps were down 2-0 by the time we left, and I was definitely not feeling good about things.
Forgot to check on DVR upon arriving home, so when I finally turned it on (after getting kids in bed), there were only a few minutes left, and Caps were up 4-3. Spent a couple of shifts just playing defense (looked like a PK, except with five men on ice), then OV came on and jump-started offense. Had a nice shift-and-a-bit in the offensive zone before finally clearing in and missing the glass.
From there, they did a nice job killing off the remaining time.
The biggest news of the game was that Gru was in net; Holtby was apparently too sick to go. Hope he feels better by Sunday. But Gru's not bad, and held down the fort well enough, I guess.
The other thing that my twitter feed informed me of is that the Caps were completely dominant through two periods on shot attempts. No way the game should have been as close as it was, it seems. I'll need to watch highlights. Either Isles got some really lucky bounces, or Gru did much worse than I'd expect from him.
Still, the important thing is that they won. They're still not in a good position, as NY still has home ice advantage for the series, but if the dominant play came as a result of strategic changes, then they're in great shape. If not, well, at least it doesn't look hopeless.
And remember, Sunday's game is at 1230, and is on NBC (not a fan of Doc, so not thrilled with that, but we're stuck with it).
Oh, and if you're tracking such things, Riley Barber left Miami and signed his ELC. Looking forward to seeing him in red next year, although he'll be spending most of the year in Hershey, I imagine.
Go Caps! (and if you're not on a ketogenic diet, remember Papa John's code CAPS50 for tomorrow.)
Forgot to check on DVR upon arriving home, so when I finally turned it on (after getting kids in bed), there were only a few minutes left, and Caps were up 4-3. Spent a couple of shifts just playing defense (looked like a PK, except with five men on ice), then OV came on and jump-started offense. Had a nice shift-and-a-bit in the offensive zone before finally clearing in and missing the glass.
From there, they did a nice job killing off the remaining time.
The biggest news of the game was that Gru was in net; Holtby was apparently too sick to go. Hope he feels better by Sunday. But Gru's not bad, and held down the fort well enough, I guess.
The other thing that my twitter feed informed me of is that the Caps were completely dominant through two periods on shot attempts. No way the game should have been as close as it was, it seems. I'll need to watch highlights. Either Isles got some really lucky bounces, or Gru did much worse than I'd expect from him.
Still, the important thing is that they won. They're still not in a good position, as NY still has home ice advantage for the series, but if the dominant play came as a result of strategic changes, then they're in great shape. If not, well, at least it doesn't look hopeless.
And remember, Sunday's game is at 1230, and is on NBC (not a fan of Doc, so not thrilled with that, but we're stuck with it).
Oh, and if you're tracking such things, Riley Barber left Miami and signed his ELC. Looking forward to seeing him in red next year, although he'll be spending most of the year in Hershey, I imagine.
Go Caps! (and if you're not on a ketogenic diet, remember Papa John's code CAPS50 for tomorrow.)
20150416
Not a good start
I don't have a lot to say about last night's Caps game, but I do have a few thoughts.
One, the shot totals would seem to indicate that the game was much more even than it felt like.
Two, I think the shot totals are misleading; now looking, and the Isles had many more missed shots.
Three, the power play needs to adapt a bit to NY's aggressiveness.
Four, tape-to-tape passes are critical. It did get better as the game went on, but there were way too many giveaways. The Isles are too good to be giving them the puck for free.
Five, there is no world in which Beagle should be playing over Bura. No excuse for that. Heck, I'd rather have Galiev up there over Beagle. Possibly over Chimmer, too.
Six, the Caps miss Wilson's ability to draw (even matching) penalties.
Seven, MarJo had a hell of a game.
Eight, OV didn't seem like he was accomplishing much (outside of hitting), but his Corsi and Fenwick numbers were very good. And his 11 shot attempts were also quite good. Not sure what was going on, there.
Nine, the young Islanders having very little playoff experience didn't seem to hurt them in any way. They got a little bit lucky, but they still solidly outplayed the Caps.
This is well short of the time to panic, but things definitely do not look good. Hopefully, Barry can come up with some effective counters to the Islanders' tactics (Bruce never managing that was the biggest reason for the Caps not doing well in the playoffs under him. And why I don't expect him to make it out of the second round (maybe not even first) this year).
One, the shot totals would seem to indicate that the game was much more even than it felt like.
Two, I think the shot totals are misleading; now looking, and the Isles had many more missed shots.
Three, the power play needs to adapt a bit to NY's aggressiveness.
Four, tape-to-tape passes are critical. It did get better as the game went on, but there were way too many giveaways. The Isles are too good to be giving them the puck for free.
Five, there is no world in which Beagle should be playing over Bura. No excuse for that. Heck, I'd rather have Galiev up there over Beagle. Possibly over Chimmer, too.
Six, the Caps miss Wilson's ability to draw (even matching) penalties.
Seven, MarJo had a hell of a game.
Eight, OV didn't seem like he was accomplishing much (outside of hitting), but his Corsi and Fenwick numbers were very good. And his 11 shot attempts were also quite good. Not sure what was going on, there.
Nine, the young Islanders having very little playoff experience didn't seem to hurt them in any way. They got a little bit lucky, but they still solidly outplayed the Caps.
This is well short of the time to panic, but things definitely do not look good. Hopefully, Barry can come up with some effective counters to the Islanders' tactics (Bruce never managing that was the biggest reason for the Caps not doing well in the playoffs under him. And why I don't expect him to make it out of the second round (maybe not even first) this year).
20141216
Backstrom bolts Lightning
The first period started out very well for the Caps, if, perhaps, like an extension of the prior game. Bishop was definitely on, and was called on to make a number of good saves.
Tampa didn't get many chances, though one of those found the back of the net, when Stamkos put in a pass from behind the net. But Callahan was called for incidental contact with Holtby (he did remove Holtby from the net, unquestionably), getting the goal (and shot, which would have been their first) called back.
I'd like to say that the relative times on the power play had a lot to do with the massive shot imbalance in the period (12-2 Caps). But I'm not sure it did, since a) the Caps got, I believe, only one shot on those power plays and b) Tampa got a couple of short-handed chances, though I can't remember if those chances resulted in shots on net.
Regardless, it all felt very familiar.
The second period did not get going well at all. First, Green was called on an iffy slash a couple minutes in. No goal allowed, but they did get several shots on net (and, probably, several more blocked). Then, Green got called again, this time for hooking, a couple minutes later. That led to a scrum in which OV found himself called for roughing.
It was the Caps first time on the season, being down two men, and it wasn't fun. But they managed to kill off the whole penalty without damage (with one incredible save by Holtby assisted by Orpik blocking the swing of a shot with his skate. With his back turned), and then proceeeded to take it to Tampa.
It took a couple minutes for that to bear fruit, but Backstrom picked up the rebound of Schmidt's shot from the point, and backhanded it under the crossbar for the lead. Eight minutes later, Wilson's initial shot was stopped, but OV knocked it from under Bishop before the whistle blew, and Backstrom picked up the trash and stuffed it into the net to double the lead.
Early in the third, the top line got a 3-on-2, with Backstrom carrying into the zone and handing off to OV. He continued his rush down the middle, while OV went down the wing, when OV passed back to him. Backstrom fought off the backchecker (by turning sideways to the net), and managed to throw the puck all the way to the edge of the goal on OV's side. Bishop was already down, and covering the near side of the net by the time Backstrom let it go.
And it looked, for quite a while, like that's where the game would effectively end, with Backstrom getting his first regular-season hat trick and owning the scoresheet. I came within a hair's breadth of turning the game off with five or six minutes left.
But Tampa fought back, scoring with 4:21 left and again with 2:31 left, both with Bishop on the bench.
That led to a tense couple of minutes, until Fehr intercepted a pass across the middle at Tampa's blue line, and calmly shoved it into the net to ice the victory.
Despite giving up three goals, Bishop played a hell of a game and probably didn't deserve to lose. But the Caps certainly deserved the win, and it was good to see them bring it home.
Next up for Washington is a date with Florida in Sunrise, at sunset tonight. Go Caps!
Tampa didn't get many chances, though one of those found the back of the net, when Stamkos put in a pass from behind the net. But Callahan was called for incidental contact with Holtby (he did remove Holtby from the net, unquestionably), getting the goal (and shot, which would have been their first) called back.
I'd like to say that the relative times on the power play had a lot to do with the massive shot imbalance in the period (12-2 Caps). But I'm not sure it did, since a) the Caps got, I believe, only one shot on those power plays and b) Tampa got a couple of short-handed chances, though I can't remember if those chances resulted in shots on net.
Regardless, it all felt very familiar.
The second period did not get going well at all. First, Green was called on an iffy slash a couple minutes in. No goal allowed, but they did get several shots on net (and, probably, several more blocked). Then, Green got called again, this time for hooking, a couple minutes later. That led to a scrum in which OV found himself called for roughing.
It was the Caps first time on the season, being down two men, and it wasn't fun. But they managed to kill off the whole penalty without damage (with one incredible save by Holtby assisted by Orpik blocking the swing of a shot with his skate. With his back turned), and then proceeeded to take it to Tampa.
It took a couple minutes for that to bear fruit, but Backstrom picked up the rebound of Schmidt's shot from the point, and backhanded it under the crossbar for the lead. Eight minutes later, Wilson's initial shot was stopped, but OV knocked it from under Bishop before the whistle blew, and Backstrom picked up the trash and stuffed it into the net to double the lead.
Early in the third, the top line got a 3-on-2, with Backstrom carrying into the zone and handing off to OV. He continued his rush down the middle, while OV went down the wing, when OV passed back to him. Backstrom fought off the backchecker (by turning sideways to the net), and managed to throw the puck all the way to the edge of the goal on OV's side. Bishop was already down, and covering the near side of the net by the time Backstrom let it go.
And it looked, for quite a while, like that's where the game would effectively end, with Backstrom getting his first regular-season hat trick and owning the scoresheet. I came within a hair's breadth of turning the game off with five or six minutes left.
But Tampa fought back, scoring with 4:21 left and again with 2:31 left, both with Bishop on the bench.
That led to a tense couple of minutes, until Fehr intercepted a pass across the middle at Tampa's blue line, and calmly shoved it into the net to ice the victory.
Despite giving up three goals, Bishop played a hell of a game and probably didn't deserve to lose. But the Caps certainly deserved the win, and it was good to see them bring it home.
Next up for Washington is a date with Florida in Sunrise, at sunset tonight. Go Caps!
Shooting into a wall
I didn't get a chance to turn last night's Caps game on until nine o'clock or so, but I was able to watch the entire thing. And I was mostly glad I did. It felt a lot like the Buffalo Sabres game the other week. That is, completely dominant performance by the Caps skaters, spoiled by a magnificent effort by the opposing goaltender.
Seriously, stopping 90% of power play shots is quite a good performance; Bob stopped seventeen of eighteen. And yeah, eighteen power play shots on goal is a ridiculously high number; kudos to the Caps on that.
And kudos to Wilson for being quite the magnet for penalties of late. He drew three in this game, and several more in the last several games. If he can keep drawing them like that, then he can stay on the top line forever, in my book.
To get into more specifics, the one power play shot that got through Bob came in the fourth minute, as Fehr deflected Carlson's wrister from the slot over Bob's arm.
It took twelve minutes for Columbus to answer, and it was only on their second or third shot, but Foligno was able to waltz in from the point and deflect the puck off the near post and and in. Terrible defense by the forwards, there, giving him so much time and space. And a beautiful shot by him; Holtby probably should have had it, but he didn't leave a whole lot of room for shooting.
Despite more than doubling up the Jackets on shots in the first, the period ended
The second period looked like it would be much more even, with Columbus keeping Washington from getting a shot on goal for the first eight minutes. But they only got a couple shots of their own in that time, and then they committed several penalties. Although the Caps didn't score in the period, they still ended up with fifteen shots (to the Jackets' four, so it was less even than the first period).
So the game went into the third tied at one. Almost halfway through, Brouwer got his first in a while on a beautiful deflection of Niskanen's pass to the side of the net. I really wish the Caps would try more plays like this, as Bob had no chance on it.
Unfortunately, it took Columbus only a minute and a half to answer (does this sound familiar, if somewhat less so than last year?), as Connauton's point shot trickled through, between Holtby's glove-arm and body. He had a great game, but that's definitely one Holtby would want back.
Over the last nine minutes, nobody was able to find the back of the net, so off we went to overtime, again. Laich and Beagle did get a very nice chance, early on, but Beagle couldn't lift his shot over Bob's outstretched leg. Shortly thereafter, the Caps got whistled for a penalty that was guaranteed to last until the end of overtime. With twenty seconds left, Foligno's one-timer from the half-wall went over Holtby's shoulder, glove-side, putting the nail in the coffin.
Hard to be upset with the performance, overall, but the result was certainly disappointing. I'll talk about it separately, but the game after was Saturday with the home rematch against Tampa.
Seriously, stopping 90% of power play shots is quite a good performance; Bob stopped seventeen of eighteen. And yeah, eighteen power play shots on goal is a ridiculously high number; kudos to the Caps on that.
And kudos to Wilson for being quite the magnet for penalties of late. He drew three in this game, and several more in the last several games. If he can keep drawing them like that, then he can stay on the top line forever, in my book.
To get into more specifics, the one power play shot that got through Bob came in the fourth minute, as Fehr deflected Carlson's wrister from the slot over Bob's arm.
It took twelve minutes for Columbus to answer, and it was only on their second or third shot, but Foligno was able to waltz in from the point and deflect the puck off the near post and and in. Terrible defense by the forwards, there, giving him so much time and space. And a beautiful shot by him; Holtby probably should have had it, but he didn't leave a whole lot of room for shooting.
Despite more than doubling up the Jackets on shots in the first, the period ended
The second period looked like it would be much more even, with Columbus keeping Washington from getting a shot on goal for the first eight minutes. But they only got a couple shots of their own in that time, and then they committed several penalties. Although the Caps didn't score in the period, they still ended up with fifteen shots (to the Jackets' four, so it was less even than the first period).
So the game went into the third tied at one. Almost halfway through, Brouwer got his first in a while on a beautiful deflection of Niskanen's pass to the side of the net. I really wish the Caps would try more plays like this, as Bob had no chance on it.
Unfortunately, it took Columbus only a minute and a half to answer (does this sound familiar, if somewhat less so than last year?), as Connauton's point shot trickled through, between Holtby's glove-arm and body. He had a great game, but that's definitely one Holtby would want back.
Over the last nine minutes, nobody was able to find the back of the net, so off we went to overtime, again. Laich and Beagle did get a very nice chance, early on, but Beagle couldn't lift his shot over Bob's outstretched leg. Shortly thereafter, the Caps got whistled for a penalty that was guaranteed to last until the end of overtime. With twenty seconds left, Foligno's one-timer from the half-wall went over Holtby's shoulder, glove-side, putting the nail in the coffin.
Hard to be upset with the performance, overall, but the result was certainly disappointing. I'll talk about it separately, but the game after was Saturday with the home rematch against Tampa.
20141117
Bad bounce finishes homestand with loss
I just realized I haven't written about Friday's game with the Devils yet, hence the out-of-order posting.
It was a typical Devils game, with lots of clogging, close defensive play, and few good scoring chances. It was also Schneider's seventeenth straight game shouldering the load of the crossbar.
You'd think that'd mean Schneider was tired. Well, if so, he didn't show it. He had one hell of a night, stopping everything the Caps could get through to him (the defense blocked 19).
Holtby had as good a night in stopping the puck. Unfortunately, in the middle of the third period, he corralled the puck behind the net, then failed to get it past Camalleri in the corner, who fired it on a one-timer, into the open net.
So Holtby literally stopped every shot thrown at him, and still lost the team the game. Hockey's a weird game, sometimes.
Because despite the Caps big advantage in shots, that was the only goal in the entire game. Such an anticlimactic way for a tense, defensive struggle to end.
The Caps did well, overall, though. It's hard to get too upset about outplaying an opponent through almost an entire game, and one small mistake losing it.
But make no mistake, the Caps do need to improve. They're still at seventeen points through seventeen games, and that isn't going to get them a sniff of the playoffs.
Their dominant possession numbers should get them there, though. I just wish they were doing a better job of converting those possession numbers into wins. It should follow, so I'm not hugely worried, but it hasn't yet, so I am (a little).
Next up will be Arizona, tomorrow night. Go Caps!
It was a typical Devils game, with lots of clogging, close defensive play, and few good scoring chances. It was also Schneider's seventeenth straight game shouldering the load of the crossbar.
You'd think that'd mean Schneider was tired. Well, if so, he didn't show it. He had one hell of a night, stopping everything the Caps could get through to him (the defense blocked 19).
Holtby had as good a night in stopping the puck. Unfortunately, in the middle of the third period, he corralled the puck behind the net, then failed to get it past Camalleri in the corner, who fired it on a one-timer, into the open net.
So Holtby literally stopped every shot thrown at him, and still lost the team the game. Hockey's a weird game, sometimes.
Because despite the Caps big advantage in shots, that was the only goal in the entire game. Such an anticlimactic way for a tense, defensive struggle to end.
The Caps did well, overall, though. It's hard to get too upset about outplaying an opponent through almost an entire game, and one small mistake losing it.
But make no mistake, the Caps do need to improve. They're still at seventeen points through seventeen games, and that isn't going to get them a sniff of the playoffs.
Their dominant possession numbers should get them there, though. I just wish they were doing a better job of converting those possession numbers into wins. It should follow, so I'm not hugely worried, but it hasn't yet, so I am (a little).
Next up will be Arizona, tomorrow night. Go Caps!
20141112
Columbus feeling blue from OV/MarJo double-team
I didn't watch all of the Caps game last night; I was putting the new wheels on my bike (finding that I didn't have enough vertical clearance for the 28mm tires meant I had to put the tires on twice, so it took considerably longer than it should have). Anyway, I had watched the first period live, but that delayed me until late enough that I was too tired to watch the third period on delay.
I didn't miss much, though. In fact, I wouldn't have missed much skipping the second period.
The game opened decisively, with MarJo putting the Caps on the board. The goal was a bit of a weird one; Brouwer had gotten the puck up top, in the middle, and threw it towards the goal, where MarJo was headed. The puck bounced around a bit between defenders and goalie, with MarJo swooping in, kicking it across the net to his stick, and calmly sliding the biscuit into the basket.
It took only six minutes for the Caps to strike again, this time on a 5-on-3 advantage (hey, another advantage of Trotz over Oates; the Caps can score 5-on-3). It was a normal OV PPG one-timer.
The Jackets cut the advantage in half two minutes later, when Atkinson took a one-timer shot off a clean face-off win, but the Caps still seemed fully in control.
And they asserted more of that control several minutes later when OV intercepted the puck in neutral (hey, he's playing defense now... how about that?), facing his own net. His second touch was a pass backwards to Backstrom cutting across the ice, who sent a one-touch back-pass to Beagle, charging up the other side. OV, meanwhile, has skated around behind Beagle and took the very nice drop pass (I don't take back any of what I've said about Beagle and scoring chances, but this was a beautiful drop pass) for a quick slap shot to the upper corner. Gorgeous play from start to finish. The Jackets never came close to recovering from the turnover.
So the period ended with the Caps ahead 3-1, and leading in shots 13-5 (and frankly, it felt less even than that). So there was definitely some temptation to head straight to bed after finishing with the bike.
But I did turn on the second, and though Columbus scored the only goal for the period, and even though play was much more even than in the first, it still didn't feel like Columbus had any chance of winning (especially not the way they've been brutalized by injuries). So I went to bed there.
Therefore, I missed Hartnell's breakaway (off a steal from a Beagle pass. Making up for the nice drop-pass earlier, I guess) that rang off the crossbar, and, with five minutes left, MarJo's insurance goal. He broke into the zone, dropped to Bura, kept skating around, and Bura hit him with a return pass as he was going behind the net. He carried it around and scored on a wraparound (looking much like one of a couple of goals he scored two seasons ago). Nice eyes by Bura to see it developing.
A couple of notes of interest. I've noticed the Caps, this season, have gone to a different configuration on a 5-on-3. They lay it out like a big X. OV and Green at the points, Brouwer at the apex, Backstrom on the goal-line, right, and Ward on the goal-line, left. I hadn't realized that was the configuration at the time, but this is what Ward scored one of his power-play goals on, several games ago. I had wondered how he got that pass in that position, and now we know. It's just a set position.
And to get back to MarJo a bit. It was hard not to see last season as a disappointment, even though most of his lack of scoring was due to an abysmally low (unsustainably so, especially accounting for where the shots were originating) shooting percentage. This season, he's shooting more, and scoring on a higher percentage. There was no reason to suspect he'd be tied for the team lead in goals at this point (nor is there any reason to expect him to sustain that position) in the season, but there was certainly room for a lot of optimism. Especially when he compared favorably, at the beginning of the season, to several eventual Hart Trophy winners at that age.
Anyway, he's looked fantastic so far, and not just on those goals. He also drew one of the penalties (the second, I believe) that led to the 5-on-3. And it's certainly fair to attribute some of his success to being centered by Bura (conversely, MarJo is a significant factor in Bura looking so good, as well).
All that said, next game is Friday against New Jersey. The Devils aren't nearly as hot as they were the last time the two faced off, but they're certainly not ones with whom to be trifled.
I didn't miss much, though. In fact, I wouldn't have missed much skipping the second period.
The game opened decisively, with MarJo putting the Caps on the board. The goal was a bit of a weird one; Brouwer had gotten the puck up top, in the middle, and threw it towards the goal, where MarJo was headed. The puck bounced around a bit between defenders and goalie, with MarJo swooping in, kicking it across the net to his stick, and calmly sliding the biscuit into the basket.
It took only six minutes for the Caps to strike again, this time on a 5-on-3 advantage (hey, another advantage of Trotz over Oates; the Caps can score 5-on-3). It was a normal OV PPG one-timer.
The Jackets cut the advantage in half two minutes later, when Atkinson took a one-timer shot off a clean face-off win, but the Caps still seemed fully in control.
And they asserted more of that control several minutes later when OV intercepted the puck in neutral (hey, he's playing defense now... how about that?), facing his own net. His second touch was a pass backwards to Backstrom cutting across the ice, who sent a one-touch back-pass to Beagle, charging up the other side. OV, meanwhile, has skated around behind Beagle and took the very nice drop pass (I don't take back any of what I've said about Beagle and scoring chances, but this was a beautiful drop pass) for a quick slap shot to the upper corner. Gorgeous play from start to finish. The Jackets never came close to recovering from the turnover.
So the period ended with the Caps ahead 3-1, and leading in shots 13-5 (and frankly, it felt less even than that). So there was definitely some temptation to head straight to bed after finishing with the bike.
But I did turn on the second, and though Columbus scored the only goal for the period, and even though play was much more even than in the first, it still didn't feel like Columbus had any chance of winning (especially not the way they've been brutalized by injuries). So I went to bed there.
Therefore, I missed Hartnell's breakaway (off a steal from a Beagle pass. Making up for the nice drop-pass earlier, I guess) that rang off the crossbar, and, with five minutes left, MarJo's insurance goal. He broke into the zone, dropped to Bura, kept skating around, and Bura hit him with a return pass as he was going behind the net. He carried it around and scored on a wraparound (looking much like one of a couple of goals he scored two seasons ago). Nice eyes by Bura to see it developing.
A couple of notes of interest. I've noticed the Caps, this season, have gone to a different configuration on a 5-on-3. They lay it out like a big X. OV and Green at the points, Brouwer at the apex, Backstrom on the goal-line, right, and Ward on the goal-line, left. I hadn't realized that was the configuration at the time, but this is what Ward scored one of his power-play goals on, several games ago. I had wondered how he got that pass in that position, and now we know. It's just a set position.
And to get back to MarJo a bit. It was hard not to see last season as a disappointment, even though most of his lack of scoring was due to an abysmally low (unsustainably so, especially accounting for where the shots were originating) shooting percentage. This season, he's shooting more, and scoring on a higher percentage. There was no reason to suspect he'd be tied for the team lead in goals at this point (nor is there any reason to expect him to sustain that position) in the season, but there was certainly room for a lot of optimism. Especially when he compared favorably, at the beginning of the season, to several eventual Hart Trophy winners at that age.
Anyway, he's looked fantastic so far, and not just on those goals. He also drew one of the penalties (the second, I believe) that led to the 5-on-3. And it's certainly fair to attribute some of his success to being centered by Bura (conversely, MarJo is a significant factor in Bura looking so good, as well).
All that said, next game is Friday against New Jersey. The Devils aren't nearly as hot as they were the last time the two faced off, but they're certainly not ones with whom to be trifled.
20141110
"The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind..."
I don't have a whole lot to say about the Caps win over the 'Canes on Saturday. I missed the '+' in the channel indication beforehand, and didn't get the game recorded (plus, I was really tired that night, and probably wouldn't have watched nearly all anyway). So I turned it on to see the Caps up 3-1. Being that tired, I was tempted to turn it off immediately, and the goal scored eleven seconds later did nothing to disabuse me of that notion.
But I held on long enough to see them cough up the rest of the lead, but turn up the intensity in overtime enough to win it.
The announcers kept saying that the Caps had dominated, earlier in the game, but they definitely weren't doing so when I was watching.
Still, hard to get upset at a win, even if it wasn't the clean one that it should've been.
Looking at the box score, does look like the Caps impressively dominated the first, did well in the second, went to sleep for much of the third, and then dominated the OT. And that's certainly in line with the Caps history over the OV era. Which is not a good thing.
What is a good thing is that they kept shots against below thirty again. If they can keep doing that, and stop taking periods off, then they'll be more than fine on the season.
Next up is Columbus, on Tuesday, who have been hammered by injuries. Hopefully the Caps can keep the win streak going.
But I held on long enough to see them cough up the rest of the lead, but turn up the intensity in overtime enough to win it.
The announcers kept saying that the Caps had dominated, earlier in the game, but they definitely weren't doing so when I was watching.
Still, hard to get upset at a win, even if it wasn't the clean one that it should've been.
Looking at the box score, does look like the Caps impressively dominated the first, did well in the second, went to sleep for much of the third, and then dominated the OT. And that's certainly in line with the Caps history over the OV era. Which is not a good thing.
What is a good thing is that they kept shots against below thirty again. If they can keep doing that, and stop taking periods off, then they'll be more than fine on the season.
Next up is Columbus, on Tuesday, who have been hammered by injuries. Hopefully the Caps can keep the win streak going.
20141105
Playing with fire
Last night's game against the Flames was a weird one to watch, for me. It kept feeling like the Caps were comfortably dominating, then I'd blink and Calgary would score.
Both teams got some really lucky scores. For Washington, there was MarJo's shot that deflected off a defender, hit the back wall, then got pushed into the goal by Hiller's leg pad when he tried to find it. Ward's goal went off both of Hiller's legs before going in. For the Flames, there was Giordano's backhand shot through a wall of defenders that slipped through Holtby's legs when he didn't see it coming. And there was MarJo's attempt to play the puck to the corner, from in front, that deflected off Brouwer's skate and over Holtby's shoulder. (MarJo, I guess, got karma coming and going.)
Through it all, Washington kept coming, getting edges in shots for all three periods, while Calgary was leading in blocked shots throughout.
I don't have numbers on missed shots, so I don't know exact numbers on Corsi or Fenwick, but the Caps did improve their full-season CF% and FF%.
Hiller certainly had a good game (other than that MarJo shot), to keep Calgary in the game. A number of the Caps looked very good; OV, Schmidt (and not just on the one play that got highlighted late), Alzner (who made several very good pinches). The fourth line also did well, although I still think Beagle should be off the line. He's where scoring chances go to die (for both teams, which can make him a useful player). Despite that, he looked pretty good, last night.
Wilson also had a good night, even if he failed to bury a gift-wrapped chance from OV or Backis. I loved it when he goaded Giordano into matching minors; too bad he couldn't arrange it to be majors.
Anyway, it felt like a good game, but the game ended when a nice passing play from Calgary, in OT, got behind Holtby. So the ending was quite disappointing. But I was pretty happy with the game, overall. I just hope results start matching process, soon.
Both teams got some really lucky scores. For Washington, there was MarJo's shot that deflected off a defender, hit the back wall, then got pushed into the goal by Hiller's leg pad when he tried to find it. Ward's goal went off both of Hiller's legs before going in. For the Flames, there was Giordano's backhand shot through a wall of defenders that slipped through Holtby's legs when he didn't see it coming. And there was MarJo's attempt to play the puck to the corner, from in front, that deflected off Brouwer's skate and over Holtby's shoulder. (MarJo, I guess, got karma coming and going.)
Through it all, Washington kept coming, getting edges in shots for all three periods, while Calgary was leading in blocked shots throughout.
I don't have numbers on missed shots, so I don't know exact numbers on Corsi or Fenwick, but the Caps did improve their full-season CF% and FF%.
Hiller certainly had a good game (other than that MarJo shot), to keep Calgary in the game. A number of the Caps looked very good; OV, Schmidt (and not just on the one play that got highlighted late), Alzner (who made several very good pinches). The fourth line also did well, although I still think Beagle should be off the line. He's where scoring chances go to die (for both teams, which can make him a useful player). Despite that, he looked pretty good, last night.
Wilson also had a good night, even if he failed to bury a gift-wrapped chance from OV or Backis. I loved it when he goaded Giordano into matching minors; too bad he couldn't arrange it to be majors.
Anyway, it felt like a good game, but the game ended when a nice passing play from Calgary, in OT, got behind Holtby. So the ending was quite disappointing. But I was pretty happy with the game, overall. I just hope results start matching process, soon.
20141020
Escaping the cat
The one thing I didn't understand, going into the Caps game against the Panthers, Saturday night, was why Holtby got the night off. There was a night off on either side, so it didn't seem necessary. Peters was fine, and I don't think it hurt them, but I was surprised.
I wrote that I was worried about a mental let-down facing Florida the other night. Well, they managed to avoid that fate; they heavily dominated possession for the first two periods. They only got one goal to show for it, but they forced a number of very good (or very lucky, in a couple cases) saves out of Montoya. And that's really the best you can ask; sometimes you just don't get the bounces.
And I should also mention that that was with the Cats holding a 127-7 advantage in seconds of power play time. So really nothing to complain about over that span.
Oh, and I should point out the goal itself; the Chimmer-Ward line doesn't tend to get pretty goals, but this one was. Ward worked the puck around the boards, behind the net, over to Fehr in the corner. The entire defense collapsed on that side, and Fehr found Chimmer just at the far side of the net, all alone. He had a perfect set-up for a one-timer, but faked it and brought it back to the other side for a completely open backhand. I joke about Chimmer being "Stonehands" from time to time, but that was really nice work.
And I should also point out that that line was on fire, all night, getting a lot of good chances. It might not've worked out, beyond that one tally, but that wasn't the fault of effort. Just excellent goaltending and a little bad luck.
In the third period, with Florida lengthening its lead in power play time, the game was tied up. It was a largely uneventful period, shot-wise, but on the power play, Boyes found the rebound of a Bergenheim shot, and slotted it home. Pretty sure Peters didn't know where the puck was, with all the bodies around him.
Anyway, that was enough to send the game into overtime, where both teams got some chances, but nobody was able to tally.
Which sent us back to the shootout again; I'm already getting tired of that. Twenty-five percent last season was quite enough; we don't need to "improve" on that, this year.
On the plus side, the results were much better, this time around. Kuzya, Backis, and OV all tallied, which Huberdeau getting the lone score for Florida. So, the result was good, even if the method of getting there was a little less than ideal.
Oh, and Backstrom failed to record a point in his 500th career game; disappointed for him, in that respect.
I wrote that I was worried about a mental let-down facing Florida the other night. Well, they managed to avoid that fate; they heavily dominated possession for the first two periods. They only got one goal to show for it, but they forced a number of very good (or very lucky, in a couple cases) saves out of Montoya. And that's really the best you can ask; sometimes you just don't get the bounces.
And I should also mention that that was with the Cats holding a 127-7 advantage in seconds of power play time. So really nothing to complain about over that span.
Oh, and I should point out the goal itself; the Chimmer-Ward line doesn't tend to get pretty goals, but this one was. Ward worked the puck around the boards, behind the net, over to Fehr in the corner. The entire defense collapsed on that side, and Fehr found Chimmer just at the far side of the net, all alone. He had a perfect set-up for a one-timer, but faked it and brought it back to the other side for a completely open backhand. I joke about Chimmer being "Stonehands" from time to time, but that was really nice work.
And I should also point out that that line was on fire, all night, getting a lot of good chances. It might not've worked out, beyond that one tally, but that wasn't the fault of effort. Just excellent goaltending and a little bad luck.
In the third period, with Florida lengthening its lead in power play time, the game was tied up. It was a largely uneventful period, shot-wise, but on the power play, Boyes found the rebound of a Bergenheim shot, and slotted it home. Pretty sure Peters didn't know where the puck was, with all the bodies around him.
Anyway, that was enough to send the game into overtime, where both teams got some chances, but nobody was able to tally.
Which sent us back to the shootout again; I'm already getting tired of that. Twenty-five percent last season was quite enough; we don't need to "improve" on that, this year.
On the plus side, the results were much better, this time around. Kuzya, Backis, and OV all tallied, which Huberdeau getting the lone score for Florida. So, the result was good, even if the method of getting there was a little less than ideal.
Oh, and Backstrom failed to record a point in his 500th career game; disappointed for him, in that respect.
20141017
Caps bedevil New Jersey
Last night's game was another with big between-period transitions. So big, that I wonder if mid-game transitions might be one of Trotz's strengths, as a coach.
The game started out really well, with a nice Brouwer rush down the right side, and OV cleaning up his rebound in pretty fashion, resulting in a goal only thirty-six seconds into the game. But the rest of the period was basically all New Jersey.
The only exception was a nice rush, again down the right side, by Chris Brown, but he capped it himself with a laser of a shot to the roof of the net. Quite unexpected from him (for me, at least).
The rest of the period, though, was New Jersey just attacking in waves. Tons of zone time, a lot of shots, and a couple of power plays. Plus two goals, both on point shots from rookie Severson.
Aside from those two shots (both heavily screened by OV as he attempted blocks), Holtby was unbelievably good. Seriously, he had at least three "I can't believe he got that" stops (two on Cammalleri, and one on Jagr from point-blank. The latter was at the tail-end of a gorgeous run of four straight one-touch passes across the zone by the Devils).
So, almost completely undeserved, the Caps took a tie into the intermission.
The second period was actually even more unbalanced than the first, but in the opposite direction, ending with the Caps leading in shots on goal. There was much less scoring, however, as only MarJo was able to find the netting. Good on him for firing the shot; last year he probably wouldn't have.
The third period also went the Caps way, although not by as much, shot-wise. But less than a minute in, Backstrom extended the lead by deflecting a Niskanen point shot to the near side of the net (it was headed across), and that was pretty much the end of the game seeming competitive.
Ward got on the scoreboard a couple minutes later, and his shot off the back boards, off the back of Schneider's skate, sent Corey to the bench. Clemmenson finished it respectably, although he was beaten by a seeing-eye wrister from Burakovsky five and a half minutes later.
That was it for the scoring, and I think the Caps were the only ones to threaten, thereafter, despite the Devils getting the only remaining power play.
The top line definitely deserves mention for kudos, as they were the three top shooters in the game, with thirteen shots between them.
The team, as a whole, deserves praise for keeping the shots against down (after the abysmal first period, especially). The team hasn't allowed more than thirty shots in a game yet, which is impressive. Maybe that investment in D is paying off.
The PK improved a little bit. I don't think they've yet managed to kill a penalty without allowing a shot, but they did drop below two shots per PK for the night. That's still not great, but it's definitely improvement.
The power play continues to look lethal, even when OV's getting a breather. That latter is especially impressive. The Devils actually kept OV from getting any great shots off, but the Caps responded to the pressure there by feeding the interior. They didn't get any goals off those attempts, but they did get a number of good chances. I feel good about it.
And Burakovsky continues to play beyond his years. He took Nick's spot on the power play for a bit, and looked very calm and controlled in doing it. Again, I was skeptical, but he's making a believer out of me (of course, a point a game will do that). The big question remaining with him is how he'll respond when things go less well. If he doesn't get discouraged, then he should stay at that position for the rest of the season.
Laich moved up to Bura's wing, with Fehr dropping back to center Ward and Chimmer. Those moves both worked well, with Laich getting a pair of assists, and the third line doing yeoman's work against the Devils top line.
Basically, there was nothing not to like about last night's game. And nothing really to dislike about how the season's gone, so far. The Caps opponents, so far, are 12-6-1 (10-4-1 in non-Caps games), so the Caps are getting it done against some pretty stiff competition.
The book on the Caps, though, for the entire OV era, is that they play to the level of their competition. So we'll have to see how they respond to Florida coming to town on Saturday (with the Panthers putting Montoya in goal, according to a reporter on Twitter). If they play hard, we'll know that Trotz has really instilled a new mentality in the team. If not... well, we'll try not to dwell on it.
The game started out really well, with a nice Brouwer rush down the right side, and OV cleaning up his rebound in pretty fashion, resulting in a goal only thirty-six seconds into the game. But the rest of the period was basically all New Jersey.
The only exception was a nice rush, again down the right side, by Chris Brown, but he capped it himself with a laser of a shot to the roof of the net. Quite unexpected from him (for me, at least).
The rest of the period, though, was New Jersey just attacking in waves. Tons of zone time, a lot of shots, and a couple of power plays. Plus two goals, both on point shots from rookie Severson.
Aside from those two shots (both heavily screened by OV as he attempted blocks), Holtby was unbelievably good. Seriously, he had at least three "I can't believe he got that" stops (two on Cammalleri, and one on Jagr from point-blank. The latter was at the tail-end of a gorgeous run of four straight one-touch passes across the zone by the Devils).
So, almost completely undeserved, the Caps took a tie into the intermission.
The second period was actually even more unbalanced than the first, but in the opposite direction, ending with the Caps leading in shots on goal. There was much less scoring, however, as only MarJo was able to find the netting. Good on him for firing the shot; last year he probably wouldn't have.
The third period also went the Caps way, although not by as much, shot-wise. But less than a minute in, Backstrom extended the lead by deflecting a Niskanen point shot to the near side of the net (it was headed across), and that was pretty much the end of the game seeming competitive.
Ward got on the scoreboard a couple minutes later, and his shot off the back boards, off the back of Schneider's skate, sent Corey to the bench. Clemmenson finished it respectably, although he was beaten by a seeing-eye wrister from Burakovsky five and a half minutes later.
That was it for the scoring, and I think the Caps were the only ones to threaten, thereafter, despite the Devils getting the only remaining power play.
The top line definitely deserves mention for kudos, as they were the three top shooters in the game, with thirteen shots between them.
The team, as a whole, deserves praise for keeping the shots against down (after the abysmal first period, especially). The team hasn't allowed more than thirty shots in a game yet, which is impressive. Maybe that investment in D is paying off.
The PK improved a little bit. I don't think they've yet managed to kill a penalty without allowing a shot, but they did drop below two shots per PK for the night. That's still not great, but it's definitely improvement.
The power play continues to look lethal, even when OV's getting a breather. That latter is especially impressive. The Devils actually kept OV from getting any great shots off, but the Caps responded to the pressure there by feeding the interior. They didn't get any goals off those attempts, but they did get a number of good chances. I feel good about it.
And Burakovsky continues to play beyond his years. He took Nick's spot on the power play for a bit, and looked very calm and controlled in doing it. Again, I was skeptical, but he's making a believer out of me (of course, a point a game will do that). The big question remaining with him is how he'll respond when things go less well. If he doesn't get discouraged, then he should stay at that position for the rest of the season.
Laich moved up to Bura's wing, with Fehr dropping back to center Ward and Chimmer. Those moves both worked well, with Laich getting a pair of assists, and the third line doing yeoman's work against the Devils top line.
Basically, there was nothing not to like about last night's game. And nothing really to dislike about how the season's gone, so far. The Caps opponents, so far, are 12-6-1 (10-4-1 in non-Caps games), so the Caps are getting it done against some pretty stiff competition.
The book on the Caps, though, for the entire OV era, is that they play to the level of their competition. So we'll have to see how they respond to Florida coming to town on Saturday (with the Panthers putting Montoya in goal, according to a reporter on Twitter). If they play hard, we'll know that Trotz has really instilled a new mentality in the team. If not... well, we'll try not to dwell on it.
20140402
It's over
I was going to write about the last Caps games against Boston and Nashville, but after that tire fire of a game tonight against Dallas, I give up.
They actually started out pretty well, getting a number of good chances through the first eight minutes or so of the game. Then the Caps got a power play. On the power play, they quickly gave up TWO (!) breakaways, and lost the power play when Carlson hooked Garbutt to keep him from getting the shot off. All that only took about thirty seconds.
Things didn't seriously go south, though, until Dallas scored on a nice tip-in by Tyler Seguin, and the rout began. It took a while for Dallas to score a second goal, but that was all on Halak. The Caps just lost any ability to pressure Dallas, and generally looked lost.
I was going to say they looked lost in the defensive zone, but they looked lost in the neutral zone, too. And they didn't keep the puck in the offensive zone long enough to come to any sort of judgement there. More importantly, Dallas did a very nice job transitioning from D to O whenever the Caps gave up the puck, and got several breakaways.
There was the two-man clean breakaway on which Whitney scored. There was another breakaway almost right away. It was stopped, but did lead to a goal when, after a shot from the point, Erskine and Brouillette both took the same man, leaving Jeffrey alone at the side of the net, where he beat Halak (a nice overhead shot of the CF). Those two goals were on the same shift. By the fourth line. I almost turned it off right then, and wish I had.
In any event, Oates had had enough, and pulled Halak. I hope it was to send a message to the rest of the team, because it certainly wasn't Halak's fault they were down three. Hasek in his prime would have been hard-pressed to do better with that (so-called) defense in front of him.
Anyway, how much did it inspire the team? They gave up two more odd-man rushes in the next minute (yeah, Holtby looked good, too).
But it took until the last five or six minutes of the second for the Caps to even start catching up possessionally. To their credit, though, they did continue to catch up (helped by several penalties), and even managed to finish the game tied in Fenwick. Close, 5v5 Fenwick, however, was not tied. It was not even close.
And, midway through the third, Jeffrey scored again on a nice tic-tac-toe passing play. Again, fourth line. And Jeffrey, it should be noted, had just scored his first two goals of the season.
Anyway, that was enough for me. I turned it off, and missed the Caps taking their first five goal deficit of the season. Good times.
So, in the biggest games of the season, the Caps came out flat against the Bruins and got stomped. Then they played so-so against a Nashville team with no particular motivation, and were lucky to get into overtime. Then they played a hungry (and fast, it should be noted) Dallas team and just got curb-stomped. Too bad it's too late to try for lottery position.
I don't know where this team goes from here. Oates has to go. He did a very nice job getting OV back on track (and a decent job helping a few other players), but his system sucks raw eggs. It looked like the Caps were starting to get it at the end of last season, but that now appears to have been an illusion. They are not improving, and might even be getting worse.
His line combos are baffling, and he shows no sign of recognizing that some of the combos he's apparently liked are just horrible. That was Laich and Brouwer early in the season, and Beagle and OV recently. JP from Japer's Rink tweeted a couple of charts yesterday that showed that Beagle is the absolute worst player to pair with OV, both in shots generated and in shots allowed. And not by a small amount, in either case.
Oates seems to have no recognition of which defensemen are getting the job done, and which aren't. Hint: Erskine isn't, and has been an almost unmitigated disaster this season. And, McPhee, nice $2M extension there. Schmidt and Oleksy were both doing pretty well, but have been buried in Hershey for much of the season. Carrick has talent, but isn't ready for the NHL, but was allowed to stay for thirty games.
The penalty kill has basically been a disaster all season. They show almost no ability to stop the other team from getting set up in the offensive zone, and, as a result, allow roughly two shot attempts per minute. The only reason it looks somewhat respectable is because the goalies have saved 90% of the shots, which is not a sustainable formula.
And Oates' management of the goalie situations have been execrable. Holtby is far too good a goalie to be allowed to sit as much as he has since Halak arrived. And how about that three-goalie carousel in the middle of the season, with Holtby, Neuvy, and Gru? That was genius, right?
McPhee needs to go as well. He's had one good coaching hire over his career, the talent pipeline is nearly bare. His desperation trade for Erat, late last season, was a complete disaster (not helped by the fact that Oates seemed to have no idea how to use Erat's considerable talents). His agreeing to dump Perreault for a bag of pucks at the beginning of the season was mystifying. Yes, we've gotten to see Wilson more, and he definitely shows talent, but Perreault would have helped the team a ton more, this season. Especially when Grabo was injured, but even before that the difference would have been large.
Perreault: 691 minutes, 52.3% fenwick for, forty points, and I would bet many more penalties drawn than the fifteen for which he's been called
Wilson: 572 minutes, 46.1% fenwick for, ten points, and we really don't want to talk about the PIMs
And I've ignored, of course, that center is a much more valuable position than wing.
Moving on... I don't know about the players. Erskine should be waived, for sure. Even if they only reclaim half of his cap hit and have to play him in Hershey, that's better than playing him in Washington.
Grabo needs to be re-signed, stat! Penner should be re-signed almost as fast. I don't think either should be given more than three year deals, though.
I'm slightly ambivalent, because I don't think Laich's been healthy all season (so I'm not sure how much of his poor play is age, and how much injury), but I'm leaning toward saying he should be let go (maybe via compliance buy-out).
Halak should be allowed to walk. He's pretty good, but unless his contract demands are far less than I expect, he won't be worth it. In fact, I wouldn't want him to stick around for more than one year under any circumstances (well, unless he'd take about a third of what I expect he'll get, I suppose), and I can't see him agreeing to a one year deal. Call up Gru next year, and save the money. The drop in performance will be negligible, at best.
Beyond that, I'm low on ideas. Volpatti certainly isn't helping the team, but as a league-minimum player on the fourth line, he's not hurting it either.
Beagle hasn't helped the team much this season, although much of the onus on that goes on Oates, for playing him way over his head. Beagle's a decent checker, penalty killer, and face-off guy. Use him like that, and he won't be hurting the team at his salary. As top line center, he's the punchline of a really terrible joke.
Brouwer? There've certainly been times, this season, when I would've been glad to see him jettisoned (especially when he was constantly paired with Laich), but he's not a bad player. Can't decide if he's really worth that salary, but maybe he is. Certainly wouldn't mind seeing him replaced with someone who drives play, though that would almost certainly require trading Troy.
MarJo has improved a lot this season, I think. He hasn't taken advantage of his speed quite as much, but he's much stronger on the puck, to the point that he's moderately useful in a grinding, cycling game.
Schmidt can certainly be called up; he'll help the team.
All of which really leaves me wondering where the room is to improve the team. There really is a lot of talent there, and they've terribly underperformed that talent level. Maybe big changes at the top, combined with one or two small tweaks in the lineup, will result in significantly improved results. We can hope, anyway.
FWIW, next game is Friday in New Jersey. I can't decide if I'll bother to watch.
They actually started out pretty well, getting a number of good chances through the first eight minutes or so of the game. Then the Caps got a power play. On the power play, they quickly gave up TWO (!) breakaways, and lost the power play when Carlson hooked Garbutt to keep him from getting the shot off. All that only took about thirty seconds.
Things didn't seriously go south, though, until Dallas scored on a nice tip-in by Tyler Seguin, and the rout began. It took a while for Dallas to score a second goal, but that was all on Halak. The Caps just lost any ability to pressure Dallas, and generally looked lost.
I was going to say they looked lost in the defensive zone, but they looked lost in the neutral zone, too. And they didn't keep the puck in the offensive zone long enough to come to any sort of judgement there. More importantly, Dallas did a very nice job transitioning from D to O whenever the Caps gave up the puck, and got several breakaways.
There was the two-man clean breakaway on which Whitney scored. There was another breakaway almost right away. It was stopped, but did lead to a goal when, after a shot from the point, Erskine and Brouillette both took the same man, leaving Jeffrey alone at the side of the net, where he beat Halak (a nice overhead shot of the CF). Those two goals were on the same shift. By the fourth line. I almost turned it off right then, and wish I had.
In any event, Oates had had enough, and pulled Halak. I hope it was to send a message to the rest of the team, because it certainly wasn't Halak's fault they were down three. Hasek in his prime would have been hard-pressed to do better with that (so-called) defense in front of him.
Anyway, how much did it inspire the team? They gave up two more odd-man rushes in the next minute (yeah, Holtby looked good, too).
But it took until the last five or six minutes of the second for the Caps to even start catching up possessionally. To their credit, though, they did continue to catch up (helped by several penalties), and even managed to finish the game tied in Fenwick. Close, 5v5 Fenwick, however, was not tied. It was not even close.
And, midway through the third, Jeffrey scored again on a nice tic-tac-toe passing play. Again, fourth line. And Jeffrey, it should be noted, had just scored his first two goals of the season.
Anyway, that was enough for me. I turned it off, and missed the Caps taking their first five goal deficit of the season. Good times.
So, in the biggest games of the season, the Caps came out flat against the Bruins and got stomped. Then they played so-so against a Nashville team with no particular motivation, and were lucky to get into overtime. Then they played a hungry (and fast, it should be noted) Dallas team and just got curb-stomped. Too bad it's too late to try for lottery position.
I don't know where this team goes from here. Oates has to go. He did a very nice job getting OV back on track (and a decent job helping a few other players), but his system sucks raw eggs. It looked like the Caps were starting to get it at the end of last season, but that now appears to have been an illusion. They are not improving, and might even be getting worse.
His line combos are baffling, and he shows no sign of recognizing that some of the combos he's apparently liked are just horrible. That was Laich and Brouwer early in the season, and Beagle and OV recently. JP from Japer's Rink tweeted a couple of charts yesterday that showed that Beagle is the absolute worst player to pair with OV, both in shots generated and in shots allowed. And not by a small amount, in either case.
Oates seems to have no recognition of which defensemen are getting the job done, and which aren't. Hint: Erskine isn't, and has been an almost unmitigated disaster this season. And, McPhee, nice $2M extension there. Schmidt and Oleksy were both doing pretty well, but have been buried in Hershey for much of the season. Carrick has talent, but isn't ready for the NHL, but was allowed to stay for thirty games.
The penalty kill has basically been a disaster all season. They show almost no ability to stop the other team from getting set up in the offensive zone, and, as a result, allow roughly two shot attempts per minute. The only reason it looks somewhat respectable is because the goalies have saved 90% of the shots, which is not a sustainable formula.
And Oates' management of the goalie situations have been execrable. Holtby is far too good a goalie to be allowed to sit as much as he has since Halak arrived. And how about that three-goalie carousel in the middle of the season, with Holtby, Neuvy, and Gru? That was genius, right?
McPhee needs to go as well. He's had one good coaching hire over his career, the talent pipeline is nearly bare. His desperation trade for Erat, late last season, was a complete disaster (not helped by the fact that Oates seemed to have no idea how to use Erat's considerable talents). His agreeing to dump Perreault for a bag of pucks at the beginning of the season was mystifying. Yes, we've gotten to see Wilson more, and he definitely shows talent, but Perreault would have helped the team a ton more, this season. Especially when Grabo was injured, but even before that the difference would have been large.
Perreault: 691 minutes, 52.3% fenwick for, forty points, and I would bet many more penalties drawn than the fifteen for which he's been called
Wilson: 572 minutes, 46.1% fenwick for, ten points, and we really don't want to talk about the PIMs
And I've ignored, of course, that center is a much more valuable position than wing.
Moving on... I don't know about the players. Erskine should be waived, for sure. Even if they only reclaim half of his cap hit and have to play him in Hershey, that's better than playing him in Washington.
Grabo needs to be re-signed, stat! Penner should be re-signed almost as fast. I don't think either should be given more than three year deals, though.
I'm slightly ambivalent, because I don't think Laich's been healthy all season (so I'm not sure how much of his poor play is age, and how much injury), but I'm leaning toward saying he should be let go (maybe via compliance buy-out).
Halak should be allowed to walk. He's pretty good, but unless his contract demands are far less than I expect, he won't be worth it. In fact, I wouldn't want him to stick around for more than one year under any circumstances (well, unless he'd take about a third of what I expect he'll get, I suppose), and I can't see him agreeing to a one year deal. Call up Gru next year, and save the money. The drop in performance will be negligible, at best.
Beyond that, I'm low on ideas. Volpatti certainly isn't helping the team, but as a league-minimum player on the fourth line, he's not hurting it either.
Beagle hasn't helped the team much this season, although much of the onus on that goes on Oates, for playing him way over his head. Beagle's a decent checker, penalty killer, and face-off guy. Use him like that, and he won't be hurting the team at his salary. As top line center, he's the punchline of a really terrible joke.
Brouwer? There've certainly been times, this season, when I would've been glad to see him jettisoned (especially when he was constantly paired with Laich), but he's not a bad player. Can't decide if he's really worth that salary, but maybe he is. Certainly wouldn't mind seeing him replaced with someone who drives play, though that would almost certainly require trading Troy.
MarJo has improved a lot this season, I think. He hasn't taken advantage of his speed quite as much, but he's much stronger on the puck, to the point that he's moderately useful in a grinding, cycling game.
Schmidt can certainly be called up; he'll help the team.
All of which really leaves me wondering where the room is to improve the team. There really is a lot of talent there, and they've terribly underperformed that talent level. Maybe big changes at the top, combined with one or two small tweaks in the lineup, will result in significantly improved results. We can hope, anyway.
FWIW, next game is Friday in New Jersey. I can't decide if I'll bother to watch.
20140325
Choppy play leads to chopped result
I would have been happy with tonight's Caps result, if they hadn't started by jumping out to a two-goal lead. We had dinner, and I had to get the kids ready for, and into, bed almost immediately after that, and things went seriously downhill while I was away.
But let's start with those two goals. Both were within the first seven minutes, and both were on the power play. In fact, both were OV, despite neither being a typical OV goal. The first occurred when play had gotten scrambled, and OV was trying to hit Backstrom on a back-door cut. But Quick got enough in front of it to deflect it, but it went into the back of the defenseman in front of him, and into the back of the net. The second was also a broken play, as a so-so feed to Brouwer in the middle left him scrambling, but he managed to stretch out to pass it over to OV, who wristed it under Quick as Q was sliding across.
Gotta love a start like that. My daughter's reaction to the second score: Boo-yah.
And the Caps did a good job keeping the play mostly in the Kings end for the rest of the first period (basically except for the two minutes they were killing a penalty). Ward took an early tripping call in the second, however, and it eventually led to Richards bringing the Kings within a goal.
Although Washington was outplayed for most of the second (and there were some pretty terrible non-calls on LA in there. In one sequence, Brouwer had his stick grabbed away, then kicked away from him. He grabbed it as they went back to the other end, then had it grabbed again at the other end. Then, a second or so later, another Cap had their stick slashed away, then Nicky got hit hard after chipping the puck in. No calls on any of that; and that hit took Nick out for the rest of the game), they did manage to restore their margin when Penner pounced on a rebound in front with three minutes left.
But the Caps wouldn't be the Caps if a two-goal lead were safe. They were absolutely dominated through the third; the Kings doubled them up in Fenwick (and Corsi was probably even less even). And LA scored in the first, ninth, and thirteenth minutes (at least two of those were against Orlov and Wey; I didn't notice the third).
At that point, I largely gave up on the Caps. And when Carlson took a penalty to prevent an easy empty-net goal, I definitely did. But something bizarre happened when the Caps managed to take the ensuing faceoff down to the other end. Halak ran for the bench, and OV charged on, throwing the puck at the net while running through an attempted stick check by a forward (whose stick went flying almost from the blue line to behind the goal line).
Quick stopped the initial shot, but his leg pad (the top part that sticks up above his knee) stopped the puck going away from the net, and pushed it back under him. Kuzya skated in right then, and backhanded the puck into the net for the team's second last-minute, short-handed, game-tying goal of the season (Backstrom had the other).
You'd think that'd be enough drama, but the Caps still had forty-two seconds of penalty killing left in the period. It was a bit ugly, but they got the job done.
And, in fact, they got the job done in overtime as well, as they had to kill the last minute of that penalty. And from there, the rest of overtime was basically all Caps (there was one 2-on-1 that Green broke up nicely). They had several very good chances, including Dima ringing one off the right post, but didn't manage to get it across the line.
So they went to the shootout again. Kuz started off again, but had the puck hop over his stick before he could get the shot off. Then Kopitar scored. Then Fehr was stopped (it was close). And then Carter scored again to seal the game.
As I said earlier, I would have been very happy with the result if it didn't come out of the Caps giving up two two-goal advantages. Can't really be happy with that, no matter who the other team is.
Despite the four goals conceded, Halak actually had a very good game. Not only was he barraged, especially in the third period, but at least two of those goals came from undefended players less than ten feet from the net (that would be the two Wey/Orlov goals mentioned). He also faced several 2-on-1s and a lot of PK time. Nothing to complain about there.
The power play did pretty well. As mentioned, they scored twice early (and I think this marks the first time this season that the Caps lost with two PPGs, though I'm not positive about that). Overall numbers aren't that great, though, with only ten shots attempted (six on net) in just under six minutes (granted, two of those PPs were without Backstrom, and maybe that just shows how valuable he is on the power play).
The PK did not do terribly well. In just under six minutes, they allowed nineteen shot attempts (eight on net) and one goal. It could've easily been a lot worse, but that isn't great.
On a trivia note, Kuzya was the sixth Cap to get his first career goal this season, joining Latta, Brown, Carrick, Schmidt, and Wilson. Penner, Erat and Wellman also got their first goals as Caps this year.
Anyway, despite the leads blown, the Caps were incredibly lucky to escape with a point tonight. Fenwick at fives, close, was two:one in favor of LA, and that's a formula for getting crushed. Regularly. And they did get a little bit of help, finally, as Columbus and Detroit didn't go to overtime and Toronto continued their skid (have now lost seven of last eight). In fact, I hadn't realized it, but the Caps are now in a four-way tie with those teams for the two wild-card spots.
But the Caps, of course, lose the first tiebreaker against everyone, so they're still on the outside looking in.
And looking to keep them outside is Boston, coming to visit on Saturday. The Caps will need to play a lot better to win against them. I'm guessing that Holtby will get the start, but we'll see.
Go Caps!
But let's start with those two goals. Both were within the first seven minutes, and both were on the power play. In fact, both were OV, despite neither being a typical OV goal. The first occurred when play had gotten scrambled, and OV was trying to hit Backstrom on a back-door cut. But Quick got enough in front of it to deflect it, but it went into the back of the defenseman in front of him, and into the back of the net. The second was also a broken play, as a so-so feed to Brouwer in the middle left him scrambling, but he managed to stretch out to pass it over to OV, who wristed it under Quick as Q was sliding across.
Gotta love a start like that. My daughter's reaction to the second score: Boo-yah.
And the Caps did a good job keeping the play mostly in the Kings end for the rest of the first period (basically except for the two minutes they were killing a penalty). Ward took an early tripping call in the second, however, and it eventually led to Richards bringing the Kings within a goal.
Although Washington was outplayed for most of the second (and there were some pretty terrible non-calls on LA in there. In one sequence, Brouwer had his stick grabbed away, then kicked away from him. He grabbed it as they went back to the other end, then had it grabbed again at the other end. Then, a second or so later, another Cap had their stick slashed away, then Nicky got hit hard after chipping the puck in. No calls on any of that; and that hit took Nick out for the rest of the game), they did manage to restore their margin when Penner pounced on a rebound in front with three minutes left.
But the Caps wouldn't be the Caps if a two-goal lead were safe. They were absolutely dominated through the third; the Kings doubled them up in Fenwick (and Corsi was probably even less even). And LA scored in the first, ninth, and thirteenth minutes (at least two of those were against Orlov and Wey; I didn't notice the third).
At that point, I largely gave up on the Caps. And when Carlson took a penalty to prevent an easy empty-net goal, I definitely did. But something bizarre happened when the Caps managed to take the ensuing faceoff down to the other end. Halak ran for the bench, and OV charged on, throwing the puck at the net while running through an attempted stick check by a forward (whose stick went flying almost from the blue line to behind the goal line).
Quick stopped the initial shot, but his leg pad (the top part that sticks up above his knee) stopped the puck going away from the net, and pushed it back under him. Kuzya skated in right then, and backhanded the puck into the net for the team's second last-minute, short-handed, game-tying goal of the season (Backstrom had the other).
You'd think that'd be enough drama, but the Caps still had forty-two seconds of penalty killing left in the period. It was a bit ugly, but they got the job done.
And, in fact, they got the job done in overtime as well, as they had to kill the last minute of that penalty. And from there, the rest of overtime was basically all Caps (there was one 2-on-1 that Green broke up nicely). They had several very good chances, including Dima ringing one off the right post, but didn't manage to get it across the line.
So they went to the shootout again. Kuz started off again, but had the puck hop over his stick before he could get the shot off. Then Kopitar scored. Then Fehr was stopped (it was close). And then Carter scored again to seal the game.
As I said earlier, I would have been very happy with the result if it didn't come out of the Caps giving up two two-goal advantages. Can't really be happy with that, no matter who the other team is.
Despite the four goals conceded, Halak actually had a very good game. Not only was he barraged, especially in the third period, but at least two of those goals came from undefended players less than ten feet from the net (that would be the two Wey/Orlov goals mentioned). He also faced several 2-on-1s and a lot of PK time. Nothing to complain about there.
The power play did pretty well. As mentioned, they scored twice early (and I think this marks the first time this season that the Caps lost with two PPGs, though I'm not positive about that). Overall numbers aren't that great, though, with only ten shots attempted (six on net) in just under six minutes (granted, two of those PPs were without Backstrom, and maybe that just shows how valuable he is on the power play).
The PK did not do terribly well. In just under six minutes, they allowed nineteen shot attempts (eight on net) and one goal. It could've easily been a lot worse, but that isn't great.
On a trivia note, Kuzya was the sixth Cap to get his first career goal this season, joining Latta, Brown, Carrick, Schmidt, and Wilson. Penner, Erat and Wellman also got their first goals as Caps this year.
Anyway, despite the leads blown, the Caps were incredibly lucky to escape with a point tonight. Fenwick at fives, close, was two:one in favor of LA, and that's a formula for getting crushed. Regularly. And they did get a little bit of help, finally, as Columbus and Detroit didn't go to overtime and Toronto continued their skid (have now lost seven of last eight). In fact, I hadn't realized it, but the Caps are now in a four-way tie with those teams for the two wild-card spots.
But the Caps, of course, lose the first tiebreaker against everyone, so they're still on the outside looking in.
And looking to keep them outside is Boston, coming to visit on Saturday. The Caps will need to play a lot better to win against them. I'm guessing that Holtby will get the start, but we'll see.
Go Caps!
20140324
Home again?
I thought it was pretty bad when Duke (to say nothing of NC State) was able to play in Raleigh in the men's tournament, as that's damn near a home game. But I didn't realize, until this evening (we tuned in for the end of the Duke women's game) that the women actually got to play at Cameron. Is that typical? Because, if so, that's really strongly favoring the "power" schools.
20140318
Strong start leads to ekeing out victory
Before the Sunday tilt with the Maple Leafs, I was certainly feeling like this was the Caps best chance to pick up some easy points, as the Leafs are a terrible team, possessionally. But a team PDO of 102 will certainly mask a lot of deficiencies and lead to a lot of points in the standings. So I was definitely feeling like the Leafs record is not terribly indicative of their overall talent.
And the first period certainly seemed to bear that out. The Leafs only managed four unblocked shots, which did give them one goal. But Washington had eighteen, which led to three goals of their own and a nice lead (especially as Toronto's goal was scored well after Washington's third).
Those Washington goals came from Brouwer and Ward on the power play (Ward's goal had the second power play unit on ice to start the power play, for unknown reasons, but which featured a really pretty setup from Penner, parking himself in front of the goalie). Chimmer had the other one (the second, for those keeping score at home), and his skate tapped in a shot from Ward that beat Reimer between the pads.
The first fifteen minutes of the second period was about the mirror image of the first, as the Leafs had sixteen unblocked shots to the Caps two (three power plays helped in that cause). Happily, Halak was up to that challenge, and stopped all but one. That led to a lot of time for the Leafs to try to get a tying goal, but play was largely in the Caps favor. In fact, the Leafs weren't able to pull Reimer until very close to the end (last 30 seconds or so), because the Caps kept the puck down at the other end.
It was good to see, especially as Brouwer finally managed to ice the game with an empty netter that slid in with a screen from Backstrom (who generously didn't touch the puck on the way) with four seconds left.
Overall, a good game, with Halak doing an excellent job holding off Toronto's big push in the second. Ward and Brouwer also each hit twenty goals on the season. And 5v5 close Fenwick was almost 57/43, which is great.
The power play looked decent, with two goals in four chances. But that came on only seven shot attempts (five on net) in five and a half minutes, which isn't terribly good.
The PK got the job done again, holding Toronto off the board in their three chances. But that was with fourteen attempts (eight on net) in six minutes. That's not a sustainable way to kill penalties. Very lucky there.
Other than that, the broadcast did have a couple of interesting notes. May and Locker were sharing coloring duties, which was pretty good. What I found interesting, though, were the three different age cracks May got in on Locker. Anyway, it also had me wondering if they're looking at replacing Locker; I can't say as I would mind, if so.
The other interesting part was talking about how many of the players (all but three, although I forget the three) use skates with a quick-release mechanism on the blades, to make changing blades about a six second operation. That can certainly be helpful, but I wonder if it helps explain the several instances I've seen, this season, of players losing a skate blade. I particularly remember watching Oleksy struggle over to the bench when he lost his blade back at the end of October.
Anyway, it was a good game, especially to see the players working hard all night. I still don't understand why Beagle and OV are frequently together on a line, as it seems frightfully ineffective. I also don't understand why Holtby is in Oates' dog-house again (still?). All signs point to him being an excellent (read: above league-average starter), and I hope his confidence has been unaffected by being sat so many times. I'm not even convinced that Halak is better than Holtby, let alone enough better to justify this kind of workload distribution.
Anyway, now comes the real gauntlet for the season, with four games against California teams followed by a final game against the Bruins. They need to win at least three of those games to have even a tiny shot at the playoffs, and that's a tall order, given what we know of the teams. First up, the Ducks, tonight. Go Caps!
And the first period certainly seemed to bear that out. The Leafs only managed four unblocked shots, which did give them one goal. But Washington had eighteen, which led to three goals of their own and a nice lead (especially as Toronto's goal was scored well after Washington's third).
Those Washington goals came from Brouwer and Ward on the power play (Ward's goal had the second power play unit on ice to start the power play, for unknown reasons, but which featured a really pretty setup from Penner, parking himself in front of the goalie). Chimmer had the other one (the second, for those keeping score at home), and his skate tapped in a shot from Ward that beat Reimer between the pads.
The first fifteen minutes of the second period was about the mirror image of the first, as the Leafs had sixteen unblocked shots to the Caps two (three power plays helped in that cause). Happily, Halak was up to that challenge, and stopped all but one. That led to a lot of time for the Leafs to try to get a tying goal, but play was largely in the Caps favor. In fact, the Leafs weren't able to pull Reimer until very close to the end (last 30 seconds or so), because the Caps kept the puck down at the other end.
It was good to see, especially as Brouwer finally managed to ice the game with an empty netter that slid in with a screen from Backstrom (who generously didn't touch the puck on the way) with four seconds left.
Overall, a good game, with Halak doing an excellent job holding off Toronto's big push in the second. Ward and Brouwer also each hit twenty goals on the season. And 5v5 close Fenwick was almost 57/43, which is great.
The power play looked decent, with two goals in four chances. But that came on only seven shot attempts (five on net) in five and a half minutes, which isn't terribly good.
The PK got the job done again, holding Toronto off the board in their three chances. But that was with fourteen attempts (eight on net) in six minutes. That's not a sustainable way to kill penalties. Very lucky there.
Other than that, the broadcast did have a couple of interesting notes. May and Locker were sharing coloring duties, which was pretty good. What I found interesting, though, were the three different age cracks May got in on Locker. Anyway, it also had me wondering if they're looking at replacing Locker; I can't say as I would mind, if so.
The other interesting part was talking about how many of the players (all but three, although I forget the three) use skates with a quick-release mechanism on the blades, to make changing blades about a six second operation. That can certainly be helpful, but I wonder if it helps explain the several instances I've seen, this season, of players losing a skate blade. I particularly remember watching Oleksy struggle over to the bench when he lost his blade back at the end of October.
Anyway, it was a good game, especially to see the players working hard all night. I still don't understand why Beagle and OV are frequently together on a line, as it seems frightfully ineffective. I also don't understand why Holtby is in Oates' dog-house again (still?). All signs point to him being an excellent (read: above league-average starter), and I hope his confidence has been unaffected by being sat so many times. I'm not even convinced that Halak is better than Holtby, let alone enough better to justify this kind of workload distribution.
Anyway, now comes the real gauntlet for the season, with four games against California teams followed by a final game against the Bruins. They need to win at least three of those games to have even a tiny shot at the playoffs, and that's a tall order, given what we know of the teams. First up, the Ducks, tonight. Go Caps!
Just Kuz; that's why
Friday's Caps/Nucks game was not exactly a model of decorum and tranquility. Nor a model of a modern major general. In fact, it really wasn't a terribly good model of much of anything.
I guess it was a pretty close game, for most of its length. The Caps opened the scoring, with the third line pocketing one thanks to some good, persistent work in front of the net from Wardo. Fehr did a good job throwing it towards him, and Ward knocked it down then pushed it into the net from between the skates of his defender.
The Caps were a little slow, as it took them three and a half minutes (instead of the usual two and a half) to give up a goal, as Beagle and OV collided in the defensive zone, giving up the puck to the forecheck. A quick pass found Schroeder uncovered in the slot for a quick wrister past Halak.
The rest of the period was pretty even, but with nobody putting the squat cyclinder in the net.
It took eight and a half minutes (remarkably similar timing to Washington's first goal, now that I think about it), but Washington retook the lead on an OV power play goal from the OV spot (only thing different there was the second assist coming from Kuzya, playing Backstrom's position).
Four minutes later, Kuzya had a really pretty assist to Wilson (who displayed excellent hands to corral the puck quickly and get the shot off). That finished off the scoring in the second, with Vancouver quickly catching up on shots.
And that's where the third went, too, as Washington had almost no sustained possession against the 'Nuck-leheads, and Halak faced a barrage. That barrage did net a pair of goals, but Washington (in the form of Game Over Green, from Kuzya) got one back less than three minutes after the second one to provide the final victory margin.
Overall, shots looked horribly unbalanced (41-21 in favor of Vancouver), but most of the difference came with the game not "close". So the Caps actually looked pretty good, possessionally, up 59-41 in 5v5 close Fenwick. But I wonder if they should have done better when they were up. I'm minded to think so, because that's an awfully big full-game gap.
Because of that huge gap, Halak ended up having a very good game. The first and second goals would have required hella good saves, although I suspect Jaro would've wanted the third one back. Still, that's a very good game.
The power play was pretty good, with one goal in two chances, and attempting nine shots (five on net) in their three and a half minutes. Nothing to be disappointed in, there.
The PK was... not as good. They did keep Vancouver from scoring, but that was allowing eighteen attempts (eight on net) in six minutes. Those are not good rates. It worked out, but that was a lot of luck.
Overall, hard to be upset with how things played out (other than, perhaps, bafflement at Beagle and OV being on the same line with any regularity). Well, it'd be nice if the Caps would stop giving up leads so frequently, but that's really the only major issue.
I'll cover the Sunday Maple Leafs game separately.
I guess it was a pretty close game, for most of its length. The Caps opened the scoring, with the third line pocketing one thanks to some good, persistent work in front of the net from Wardo. Fehr did a good job throwing it towards him, and Ward knocked it down then pushed it into the net from between the skates of his defender.
The Caps were a little slow, as it took them three and a half minutes (instead of the usual two and a half) to give up a goal, as Beagle and OV collided in the defensive zone, giving up the puck to the forecheck. A quick pass found Schroeder uncovered in the slot for a quick wrister past Halak.
The rest of the period was pretty even, but with nobody putting the squat cyclinder in the net.
It took eight and a half minutes (remarkably similar timing to Washington's first goal, now that I think about it), but Washington retook the lead on an OV power play goal from the OV spot (only thing different there was the second assist coming from Kuzya, playing Backstrom's position).
Four minutes later, Kuzya had a really pretty assist to Wilson (who displayed excellent hands to corral the puck quickly and get the shot off). That finished off the scoring in the second, with Vancouver quickly catching up on shots.
And that's where the third went, too, as Washington had almost no sustained possession against the 'Nuck-leheads, and Halak faced a barrage. That barrage did net a pair of goals, but Washington (in the form of Game Over Green, from Kuzya) got one back less than three minutes after the second one to provide the final victory margin.
Overall, shots looked horribly unbalanced (41-21 in favor of Vancouver), but most of the difference came with the game not "close". So the Caps actually looked pretty good, possessionally, up 59-41 in 5v5 close Fenwick. But I wonder if they should have done better when they were up. I'm minded to think so, because that's an awfully big full-game gap.
Because of that huge gap, Halak ended up having a very good game. The first and second goals would have required hella good saves, although I suspect Jaro would've wanted the third one back. Still, that's a very good game.
The power play was pretty good, with one goal in two chances, and attempting nine shots (five on net) in their three and a half minutes. Nothing to be disappointed in, there.
The PK was... not as good. They did keep Vancouver from scoring, but that was allowing eighteen attempts (eight on net) in six minutes. Those are not good rates. It worked out, but that was a lot of luck.
Overall, hard to be upset with how things played out (other than, perhaps, bafflement at Beagle and OV being on the same line with any regularity). Well, it'd be nice if the Caps would stop giving up leads so frequently, but that's really the only major issue.
I'll cover the Sunday Maple Leafs game separately.
20140310
Lucky in Glove?
I wasn't able to watch Saturday's Caps/Yotes game; we were having friends over to watch the Duke/Carolina game (my wife went to Duke). I tried to avoid finding out what happened; I ignored the TV that had the game on when I went to pick up food. I did watch five or so minutes of the beginning while waiting for people to come downstairs for the basketball game (and the Caps looked pretty good). When I saw a hockey score on the chyron during the basketball game, I resolutely ignored it. But towards the end of the game, I happened to look down right as the Caps score came up.
Knowing the result, I haven't yet gotten myself to watch the whole game.
There was certainly some scary stuff in the lead-up to the game. Beforehand, the Caps needed about a 106-pt pace for the remaining games to hope to make the playoffs. I also saw the lines, and the centers were (in order, top to bottom): Backstrom, Beagle, Fehr, and Stoa. After Nicky, that's a scary bunch, and not for the opposition (Beagle, 2C? Really?).
Also, Kuznetsov finally signed with the Caps, but wasn't available for the game (no practicing, I would guess, although I didn't hear a reason given).
So I was shocked when the Caps looked pretty good for those few minutes. And I was similarly shocked when I found out they had won, 3-2.
So how did they do it? Well, they did outplay Phoenix for the first ten minutes or so. Then, they flat-lined for the rest of the period (yes, zero (!) fenwick events), and were still outplayed for most of the rest of the game. But Halak stood strong (never thought I'd be happy to say that), and only allowed two goals, and it looks like the Coyotes went to sleep in the middle of the third.
In that bed-a-bye time, Alzner and Laich (Huh? and huh?, respectively) scored, with Brouwer picking up a power play tally a few minutes later for the decider. The three scorers had five shots, between them, although Alzner and Brouwer were one and two in CF% on the team (Chimmer, Ward, and Hillen were the bottom three).
So, overall? Well, we'll take the result, unlikely as it was.
Next up are the Penguins, home and home, tonight at the phone booth. Let's hope Kuzya (fourth line, to start) shines, and Caps abuse the Pens bottom two lines, because that's what it'll take for them to win. Go Caps!
Knowing the result, I haven't yet gotten myself to watch the whole game.
There was certainly some scary stuff in the lead-up to the game. Beforehand, the Caps needed about a 106-pt pace for the remaining games to hope to make the playoffs. I also saw the lines, and the centers were (in order, top to bottom): Backstrom, Beagle, Fehr, and Stoa. After Nicky, that's a scary bunch, and not for the opposition (Beagle, 2C? Really?).
Also, Kuznetsov finally signed with the Caps, but wasn't available for the game (no practicing, I would guess, although I didn't hear a reason given).
So I was shocked when the Caps looked pretty good for those few minutes. And I was similarly shocked when I found out they had won, 3-2.
So how did they do it? Well, they did outplay Phoenix for the first ten minutes or so. Then, they flat-lined for the rest of the period (yes, zero (!) fenwick events), and were still outplayed for most of the rest of the game. But Halak stood strong (never thought I'd be happy to say that), and only allowed two goals, and it looks like the Coyotes went to sleep in the middle of the third.
In that bed-a-bye time, Alzner and Laich (Huh? and huh?, respectively) scored, with Brouwer picking up a power play tally a few minutes later for the decider. The three scorers had five shots, between them, although Alzner and Brouwer were one and two in CF% on the team (Chimmer, Ward, and Hillen were the bottom three).
So, overall? Well, we'll take the result, unlikely as it was.
Next up are the Penguins, home and home, tonight at the phone booth. Let's hope Kuzya (fourth line, to start) shines, and Caps abuse the Pens bottom two lines, because that's what it'll take for them to win. Go Caps!
20140303
Caps early up, ended late
All of this finally brings us to today's game against the Flyers. As I mentioned, I would have missed this one if it hadn't been for watching the Bruins game this morning. As it was, I did miss almost eleven around nine minutes (though, happily, did get the recording started just in time to catch a replay of Dima's goal from the seventh minute).
Looking back, it seems to've taken Washington about five minutes to get started, offensively, but they took off like a rocket when they did. That resulted in the Orlov slapshot from the point that put the Caps up by a goal, six minutes in. And they kept pressing, although the next goal came with Philly on the power play, as Giroux' slapshot from the circle beat Holtby (although I've got to say that calling Wilson for roughing when he ran into Mason was a little weird. Especially when Wilson was trying to stop, and had just been pushed off balance by a Flyer).
Regardless, the Caps got a power play back half a minute later. They didn't, technically, score on that power play, although MarJo tipped Chimmer's pass from the corner into the net within a second or two of the penalty expiring.
Play went back and forth for the rest of the period, with Washington generally having the advantage, but nobody found the net.
In the second, Philly definitely had the better of the play for the first half, but Holtby stood strong, and kept the score line intact. Nine minutes in, Downie took a high-sticking double-minor, giving the Caps an extended power play. They started out fairly well on that, until Laich took a slashing call, negating the advantage. Nobody really had much advantage for the first part of that, but then Washington starting getting some shots. And then Laich's minor expired, and everyone apparently said, "We've got this now" and relaxed so much that Cooter was able to steal the puck in Washington's end and surprise Holtby with a pass out front to a charging Hall for a short-handed goal. OV, in particular, was terribly complicit in this exchange.
It only took a minute for Washington to re-establish it's edge, though, as Green carried in down the side, threw it to the front of the net, where Wardo was fighting with a defender. Ward managed a nifty behind-the-back pass across the net to Beagle, who put it past a shocked (and completely out of position) Mason.
It took three minutes, but the next shot on goal was a Dima shot from the point that slid under the legs of a prone Chimmer (good job noticing and getting those legs up, big guy!) and into the net, giving Washington their fourth two-goal lead of the post-Olympic season.
And it took a while (thanks to some incredible plays by Holtby), but this one, too, dissolved. The tying goal came with just over a minute left in the game, on a tip-in from right in front of Braden.
Dima apparently decided to make up for his excellent play up to that point by taking a five-minute major for charging just before the ten-minute mark of the period. That only led, directly, to one goal, but the team was flailing a lot after that (Erskine taking a minor during that major, even when it was part of off-setting minors, did not help either).
With that, it was certainly not a big surprise when Philly played better in the OT, and eventually got the deciding goal when Vinny Lecavalier got on his horse and slid it past Holtby.
Despite the five goals on thirty-six shots, Holtby had an excellent game behind some occasionally-terrible defense. He made several stops (three or four) on guys who were completely behind the defense, and there was nothing he could do on three of the goals.
The power play was, to put it bluntly, not good. It's certainly impossible to say it's good when it allows more goals than it scores, especially when that shortie came due to lack of effort. They did attempt sixteen shots in nine minutes, which is not terrible (my rule of thumb for good play is two attempts per minute), but man...
In any event, the PK was also not good. Twenty shot attempts against in under six and a half minutes (eleven on net), with two goals; that's definitely not getting it done.
It's hard to be upset with five points in three games (something the Caps will have to manage another time or two in the remainder of the season), but it's hard to be happy with giving up three two-goal leads in those games also. And while net 5-on-5 close Fenwick was slightly better than 50%, it was only by a hair. That doesn't bode terribly well.
I'm still skeptical about the team making the playoffs (let alone doing damage when there), but I guess they largely did what they needed to do.
And at least they won't be mortgaging the farm on a rental of Miller, who got traded to the Blues over the weekend.
We'll see, I guess. Next up is another game against Philly on Wednesday, this time in Philadelphia. I suspect the Caps won't be feeling the "Brotherly Love". Go Caps!
Looking back, it seems to've taken Washington about five minutes to get started, offensively, but they took off like a rocket when they did. That resulted in the Orlov slapshot from the point that put the Caps up by a goal, six minutes in. And they kept pressing, although the next goal came with Philly on the power play, as Giroux' slapshot from the circle beat Holtby (although I've got to say that calling Wilson for roughing when he ran into Mason was a little weird. Especially when Wilson was trying to stop, and had just been pushed off balance by a Flyer).
Regardless, the Caps got a power play back half a minute later. They didn't, technically, score on that power play, although MarJo tipped Chimmer's pass from the corner into the net within a second or two of the penalty expiring.
Play went back and forth for the rest of the period, with Washington generally having the advantage, but nobody found the net.
In the second, Philly definitely had the better of the play for the first half, but Holtby stood strong, and kept the score line intact. Nine minutes in, Downie took a high-sticking double-minor, giving the Caps an extended power play. They started out fairly well on that, until Laich took a slashing call, negating the advantage. Nobody really had much advantage for the first part of that, but then Washington starting getting some shots. And then Laich's minor expired, and everyone apparently said, "We've got this now" and relaxed so much that Cooter was able to steal the puck in Washington's end and surprise Holtby with a pass out front to a charging Hall for a short-handed goal. OV, in particular, was terribly complicit in this exchange.
It only took a minute for Washington to re-establish it's edge, though, as Green carried in down the side, threw it to the front of the net, where Wardo was fighting with a defender. Ward managed a nifty behind-the-back pass across the net to Beagle, who put it past a shocked (and completely out of position) Mason.
It took three minutes, but the next shot on goal was a Dima shot from the point that slid under the legs of a prone Chimmer (good job noticing and getting those legs up, big guy!) and into the net, giving Washington their fourth two-goal lead of the post-Olympic season.
And it took a while (thanks to some incredible plays by Holtby), but this one, too, dissolved. The tying goal came with just over a minute left in the game, on a tip-in from right in front of Braden.
Dima apparently decided to make up for his excellent play up to that point by taking a five-minute major for charging just before the ten-minute mark of the period. That only led, directly, to one goal, but the team was flailing a lot after that (Erskine taking a minor during that major, even when it was part of off-setting minors, did not help either).
With that, it was certainly not a big surprise when Philly played better in the OT, and eventually got the deciding goal when Vinny Lecavalier got on his horse and slid it past Holtby.
Despite the five goals on thirty-six shots, Holtby had an excellent game behind some occasionally-terrible defense. He made several stops (three or four) on guys who were completely behind the defense, and there was nothing he could do on three of the goals.
The power play was, to put it bluntly, not good. It's certainly impossible to say it's good when it allows more goals than it scores, especially when that shortie came due to lack of effort. They did attempt sixteen shots in nine minutes, which is not terrible (my rule of thumb for good play is two attempts per minute), but man...
In any event, the PK was also not good. Twenty shot attempts against in under six and a half minutes (eleven on net), with two goals; that's definitely not getting it done.
It's hard to be upset with five points in three games (something the Caps will have to manage another time or two in the remainder of the season), but it's hard to be happy with giving up three two-goal leads in those games also. And while net 5-on-5 close Fenwick was slightly better than 50%, it was only by a hair. That doesn't bode terribly well.
I'm still skeptical about the team making the playoffs (let alone doing damage when there), but I guess they largely did what they needed to do.
And at least they won't be mortgaging the farm on a rental of Miller, who got traded to the Blues over the weekend.
We'll see, I guess. Next up is another game against Philly on Wednesday, this time in Philadelphia. I suspect the Caps won't be feeling the "Brotherly Love". Go Caps!
20140211
Devilish challenge
I actually forgot about the Devils game entirely on Saturday, but it was on the normal channel, so I was able to watch it yesterday evening after getting back from the hospital.
The lineup was the same as the Jets game right before, right down to Holtby starting in net again. On the other side, Schneider seems to have grabbed the starter's mantle from Brodeur with his excellent play, and he got the start.
And it was a frustrating game to watch (not helped by being frequently distracted by the kids). Outside of a brief flurry of chances around five or six minutes in (on the power play), they were solidly dominated all the way through the second intermission.
But Holtby brought his A game, and stopped everything thrown at him.
For the first ten minutes of the third, the Caps finally started catching up in possession, and had some excellent shifts. After that, possession was more even, although the Caps finally broke through and scored in the eleventh minute, with a Brouillette slapshot from the point finally getting past Schneider.
From there, the game was very tense, with both teams getting chances, but both goalminders standing tall. With two and a half minutes left, I was starting to think that the Caps might finally win a game without scoring three goals (it was pointed out to me, late last week, that they hadn't managed that. h/t to @Peerless, I think). But Schneider was pulled right after that, and a rough - but effective - breakout led to Erat finally scoring on the empty net (I think he kept the puck, too, which surprised me a little. First as a Cap, maybe?).
And then, almost forty seconds later, Brouwer fought hard along the boards near the red line, and got a shot off that slipped into the goal for a second empty netter.
Holtby was up to the remaining challenges as well, and got his tenth career shutout just over a minute later (despite Jersey finishing that on the power play).
The power play was not good at all. The first power play wasn't too bad, but they had only two more shots over the remaining three times on the advantage. Overall, they had nine shot attempts for (and two against), with five of those on net. A lot of credit for that goes to the NJ PK, but that isn't likely to get the job done.
On the other side, the Devils had a bit less than five minutes with the advantage, getting ten shot attempts (four on-net). Again, that isn't going to get the job done if Holtby doesn't have an awesome game.
Holtby was fantastic, and seems to be back to where he was (they seem to have given up on the experiment of having him try to play deeper in the net). I don't remember any truly spectacular saves, but he was just always where he needed to be. Awesome to see.
Overall, though, this was another not-great game for the Caps. We'll take the points without complaining, of course, but it's not boding well. The last two games were both ~46% FF 5-on-5, close. That's not going to get it done, either, unless Holtby remains near-flawless. I'd love to see that, but hope it won't be necessary (and it ain't the way to bet, regardless).
So the Caps go into the Olympic break tied for fourth in the division (ninth in Conference), with the toughest schedule in the league for March. Somehow, despite that brutal schedule, they need to make up ground on at least one team in front of them, while also getting separation from both of the teams with whom they're currently tied (because they sure ain't getting any tiebreakers). The only thing leading to any optimism at all is that they do have a better goal differential than three of the teams ahead of them (although maybe that counts shootout "goals"), but that's pretty weak tea.
But we'll see; maybe OV will win Olympic gold, leading into twenty-five goals down the stretch to drag the team, kicking and screaming, into the playoffs. And maybe Schmidt will get called up to solidify the third line (though there's really nothing to complain about with Brouillette's results so far. Hard to argue with a point-a-game defenseman), and Green and Grabo both return from injury at 100%. And Wellman could stay up, allowing Beagle to be scratched a lot.
Hey, we can hope. Go Caps!
The lineup was the same as the Jets game right before, right down to Holtby starting in net again. On the other side, Schneider seems to have grabbed the starter's mantle from Brodeur with his excellent play, and he got the start.
And it was a frustrating game to watch (not helped by being frequently distracted by the kids). Outside of a brief flurry of chances around five or six minutes in (on the power play), they were solidly dominated all the way through the second intermission.
But Holtby brought his A game, and stopped everything thrown at him.
For the first ten minutes of the third, the Caps finally started catching up in possession, and had some excellent shifts. After that, possession was more even, although the Caps finally broke through and scored in the eleventh minute, with a Brouillette slapshot from the point finally getting past Schneider.
From there, the game was very tense, with both teams getting chances, but both goalminders standing tall. With two and a half minutes left, I was starting to think that the Caps might finally win a game without scoring three goals (it was pointed out to me, late last week, that they hadn't managed that. h/t to @Peerless, I think). But Schneider was pulled right after that, and a rough - but effective - breakout led to Erat finally scoring on the empty net (I think he kept the puck, too, which surprised me a little. First as a Cap, maybe?).
And then, almost forty seconds later, Brouwer fought hard along the boards near the red line, and got a shot off that slipped into the goal for a second empty netter.
Holtby was up to the remaining challenges as well, and got his tenth career shutout just over a minute later (despite Jersey finishing that on the power play).
The power play was not good at all. The first power play wasn't too bad, but they had only two more shots over the remaining three times on the advantage. Overall, they had nine shot attempts for (and two against), with five of those on net. A lot of credit for that goes to the NJ PK, but that isn't likely to get the job done.
On the other side, the Devils had a bit less than five minutes with the advantage, getting ten shot attempts (four on-net). Again, that isn't going to get the job done if Holtby doesn't have an awesome game.
Holtby was fantastic, and seems to be back to where he was (they seem to have given up on the experiment of having him try to play deeper in the net). I don't remember any truly spectacular saves, but he was just always where he needed to be. Awesome to see.
Overall, though, this was another not-great game for the Caps. We'll take the points without complaining, of course, but it's not boding well. The last two games were both ~46% FF 5-on-5, close. That's not going to get it done, either, unless Holtby remains near-flawless. I'd love to see that, but hope it won't be necessary (and it ain't the way to bet, regardless).
So the Caps go into the Olympic break tied for fourth in the division (ninth in Conference), with the toughest schedule in the league for March. Somehow, despite that brutal schedule, they need to make up ground on at least one team in front of them, while also getting separation from both of the teams with whom they're currently tied (because they sure ain't getting any tiebreakers). The only thing leading to any optimism at all is that they do have a better goal differential than three of the teams ahead of them (although maybe that counts shootout "goals"), but that's pretty weak tea.
But we'll see; maybe OV will win Olympic gold, leading into twenty-five goals down the stretch to drag the team, kicking and screaming, into the playoffs. And maybe Schmidt will get called up to solidify the third line (though there's really nothing to complain about with Brouillette's results so far. Hard to argue with a point-a-game defenseman), and Green and Grabo both return from injury at 100%. And Wellman could stay up, allowing Beagle to be scratched a lot.
Hey, we can hope. Go Caps!
Sweat of the Brouw
I've been having trouble watching Caps games, lately, with my dad having health problems. But I was able to watch the Caps/Jets game the other day only a couple of hours after initial puck-drop.
It was a game with some definite surprises beforehand. A slight surprise was that Holtby was in net, but the big surprises were at the blue-line. Green and Erskine were both out (still don't know why for Erskine, although Green's injury is a concussion), and Strachan was sent back down, so Wey and Brouillette were called up to be the third pairing. This was a bit concerning, as Wey was underwhelming in his previous game, and Brouillette was getting his first NHL action (after four years mostly spent in the AHL).
I'm not sure why Wey and Brouillette were called up, rather than Oleksy and Schmidt, but it did work out ok.
In fact, the game started out pretty well for the Caps, with play more often in their offensive end. And the MarJo, Wellman, and Brouwer line had a couple of good shifts, culminating in a Brouwer goal (helped by Pavelec playing with a broken stick) five minutes in. Things were significantly downhill after that, and for quite a while. Eight minutes later, Little deflected a Ladd shot past Holtby, and Byfuglien scored six minutes into the second.
But Holtby was huge, and kept the Caps in the game until the end of the second. At that point, they were actually getting outplayed so badly that I was tempted to turn the game off. And that's despite Washington getting three of the four power plays up to that point.
But the Caps woke up a bit in the third. After a small flurry a couple minutes in, they solidly dominated the rest of the way. And that paid off with a Wey->Brouillette->Wilson (?!?) goal in the fourth minute (Wey played across to Brouillette, who shot wide, with the rebound going to Wilson as he skated into the slot). OV added his fortieth four minutes later, when he backhanded in a rebound of a Backstrom shot (itself a rebound of an Alzner shot).
And Brouwer finished out the scoring eight minutes later when he got on a 2-on-1 with MarJo, and MarJo passed to Brouwer so Troy could backhand it over Pavelec from only a few feet out. Interestingly on this one, Carrick had the second assist as he passed ahead to them, and Laich was on the ice by the time the goal was scored (unknown what happened to Wellman being with the other two).
The two goals led to Brouwer getting first star of the game, despite a Corsi For under 30% (5-on-5). MarJo was at the same level. Bad process, good results.
On the flip side, Wey and Brouillette were both a hair over 50%, so that was encouraging. And there was a funny note there, as that goal they both got assists on was the first NHL point for each. Speculation was rampant that they'd be cutting the puck in half, and giving each of them part. Haven't heard anything since on what was done.
The power play for the game was only ok, with eight shots (thirteen attempted) over their eight minutes with the advantage. That's not bad, but a bit less than I'd like to see. They also had two shots against, which is definitely more than I'd prefer.
The PK was not terribly good, with three shots against (and one blocked) in only two minutes. They kept the puck out of the net, but wouldn't do so if they kept allowing that shot rate against for much longer.
But the better part was that they stayed out of the box, and only gave up those two minutes.
And Holtby was again excellent, with only those two goals on thirty-six shots. Granted, worse than he did over two or three games against Winnipeg last year, but nothing to sneeze at.
Overall, a not-terribly-good game for the Caps, but at least Holtby stole one for them.
I'll write about the Devils game separately.
It was a game with some definite surprises beforehand. A slight surprise was that Holtby was in net, but the big surprises were at the blue-line. Green and Erskine were both out (still don't know why for Erskine, although Green's injury is a concussion), and Strachan was sent back down, so Wey and Brouillette were called up to be the third pairing. This was a bit concerning, as Wey was underwhelming in his previous game, and Brouillette was getting his first NHL action (after four years mostly spent in the AHL).
I'm not sure why Wey and Brouillette were called up, rather than Oleksy and Schmidt, but it did work out ok.
In fact, the game started out pretty well for the Caps, with play more often in their offensive end. And the MarJo, Wellman, and Brouwer line had a couple of good shifts, culminating in a Brouwer goal (helped by Pavelec playing with a broken stick) five minutes in. Things were significantly downhill after that, and for quite a while. Eight minutes later, Little deflected a Ladd shot past Holtby, and Byfuglien scored six minutes into the second.
But Holtby was huge, and kept the Caps in the game until the end of the second. At that point, they were actually getting outplayed so badly that I was tempted to turn the game off. And that's despite Washington getting three of the four power plays up to that point.
But the Caps woke up a bit in the third. After a small flurry a couple minutes in, they solidly dominated the rest of the way. And that paid off with a Wey->Brouillette->Wilson (?!?) goal in the fourth minute (Wey played across to Brouillette, who shot wide, with the rebound going to Wilson as he skated into the slot). OV added his fortieth four minutes later, when he backhanded in a rebound of a Backstrom shot (itself a rebound of an Alzner shot).
And Brouwer finished out the scoring eight minutes later when he got on a 2-on-1 with MarJo, and MarJo passed to Brouwer so Troy could backhand it over Pavelec from only a few feet out. Interestingly on this one, Carrick had the second assist as he passed ahead to them, and Laich was on the ice by the time the goal was scored (unknown what happened to Wellman being with the other two).
The two goals led to Brouwer getting first star of the game, despite a Corsi For under 30% (5-on-5). MarJo was at the same level. Bad process, good results.
On the flip side, Wey and Brouillette were both a hair over 50%, so that was encouraging. And there was a funny note there, as that goal they both got assists on was the first NHL point for each. Speculation was rampant that they'd be cutting the puck in half, and giving each of them part. Haven't heard anything since on what was done.
The power play for the game was only ok, with eight shots (thirteen attempted) over their eight minutes with the advantage. That's not bad, but a bit less than I'd like to see. They also had two shots against, which is definitely more than I'd prefer.
The PK was not terribly good, with three shots against (and one blocked) in only two minutes. They kept the puck out of the net, but wouldn't do so if they kept allowing that shot rate against for much longer.
But the better part was that they stayed out of the box, and only gave up those two minutes.
And Holtby was again excellent, with only those two goals on thirty-six shots. Granted, worse than he did over two or three games against Winnipeg last year, but nothing to sneeze at.
Overall, a not-terribly-good game for the Caps, but at least Holtby stole one for them.
I'll write about the Devils game separately.
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