Hockey catch-up

Haven't been posting too much lately; too much other stuff going on. But I'll try to catch up a bit now.

The Caps game in Boston the other night was quite a good one. The Caps played much better than they did in the first game. They still didn't look likely to take the series, but much better, overall. And the result was very similar.

They played scoreless through the first period, with shots basically even. Both teams had chances, but I can't remember about relative quantity.

In the second period, things went in both directions for Washington. Boston had five more shots, but the men in white had the only goal. The third period was the mirror image of that, with Washington having five more shots, but the Bruins getting the only goal.

And that left us in a very familiar place, both for this seriesi and for the Caps, historically: overtime. Washington was outplayed in overtime, but not by a large margin. But nobody scored, so we went to another one. This one, thankfully, did not last nearly as long, with Backstrom potting the winning goal three minutes in.

And that meant that the series had officially started, because the home team had lost one. So all Washington needed to do was defend their turf, and they'd go through.

But this is the Caps, and we had last night's game. This one, I was actually able to attend in person (thanks, dear). I had planned on taking lots of photographs, but found that I really wanted to watch the game, instead. So I put the camera away pretty early, and had lots of fun yelling and screaming.

And the Caps did give us something to scream about. Sasha minor got the Caps on the board with a power play goal sixteen minutes in. That put the Caps head to end the first, which was a nice feeling.

The second really got off with a bang, though, with Peverley equalizing thirty-five seconds in, and OV re-establishing that lead thirteen seconds later. After that, things went much slower for the rest of the period, but Paille re-evened things nine minutes in. So things went into the second intermission in the very familiar spot of being tied.

I felt like the Caps were playing much better; in particular, Boston wasn't spending nearly as much time in the Washington zone. So I was hopeful things would go the way of the men in red.

But it was not to be. In fact, I blame the next goal almost entirely on Hunter. It happened only a minute into the period, with Rolston getting it past Holtby. The reason I blame it on the coach is that, just before, there had been two offensive zone faceoffs, neither of which featured Chara on the ice. So who do you play? Apparently, you play Beagle's line.

And when Boston gets a shot that Holtby catches? And Chara comes on the ice? That, it seems, is when you play OV's line. Unsurprisingly, they were penned in, and allowed a goal in fairly short order. *sigh*

That, of course, put Boston ahead, which remained the case for the next thirteen minutes. Finally, Backstrom found Laich on a ridiculously long stretch pass. Laich suckered Thomas out of his net by keeping the puck way in front of himself, and then calmly depositied the biscuit in the basket. So we're back to a tie, with not a whole lot of time left.

Sadly, that was as good as it got for Washington; Chara scored a 4-on-4 goal with two minutes left to close out the scoring.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the game. The Caps weren't showing that they were completely outclassed if Holtby failed to save 97% of the shots he faced. That said, the personnel decisions were a bit strange, and there were a couple of serious breakdowns (one of the second period goals was scored by a player all alone five feet from the goal).

But now Washington is down again, and will have to win again in Boston to take the series. Let's hope they can at least win the game tomorrow night at the phone booth.

Re-bolt-ing

So how did tonight's game go against the Lightning, who are trailing the Caps in the standings?

Answer: not well. The first period went reasonably well, with the Bolts ahead on shots, but the Caps ahead on chances. The downside: the Bolts converted on one of their chances. The Caps? Not so much.

Things went downhill quickly after that, especially for Hendricks. Early in the second, the Caps had the offense going pretty well in the offensive zone, when Hendricks got the puck at the point, in the middle, and went to pass it over to a defenseman at the wall, just to keep the puck moving. Well, he didn't lift it, and Stamkos poked it to center ice, where he had a clean breakaway. As you'd more or less expect, he converted that for his 40th goal of the season.

And yeah, as things have been going for quite a while now; allow two? You lose.

Perreault and Laich did combine on a nice bang-bang play to bring the margin back within one, but it was all Tampa, the rest of the way. The Caps taking two dumb penalties in the third (and not getting the calls when the Lightning appeared to have returned the favor), did not help any.

So, all hope is not lost, but things are not looking good, going forward. The Panthers stay two points ahead, and get a game in hand.

Now the Caps get a day off, then get to face Carolina in Raleigh, on Monday. Let's hope they play a lot more like they did last night than they played tonight.

Eye of the Tiger

The Caps looked really good tonight, opening the scoring only thirteen seconds in, and controlling play almost from end to end. Even when they were mostly just sitting back and defending (much of the third period), they still looked calm and methodical about it. It was a very good performance, highlighted by scoring at even strength (twice; Perreault and OV), on the power play (OV), and short-handed (Chimmer).

To top it all off, TVo stopped all 42 shots that made it to the net.

But maybe I'm just getting excited at puck luck. Now that I look, the Caps had 14 giveaways, and that's about ten too many. Also, the shot total was only 24. That's also too low; getting four goals on that many is quite a bit of luck. Still, that shot total was probably skewed a fair bit by the Caps large lead in the third, when they had only six shots (coming with some sustained offensive pressure, and one or two rushes (OV was trying hard for the hat trick)). But they mostly spent the third defending.

So I'm not sure whether to be too happy about this one. On the plus side, the special teams were very good, with nothing allowed on the PK (obviously), and scoring on the only PP opportunity. On the minus side, they need more shots, more power play opportunities, and fewer giveaways.

Still, it's nice to be back in the division lead, even if it won't last for very long (which it very well might not, given the upcoming schedule).

In any event, we won't have to wait very long, with Winnipeg coming to town Thursday. We'll see if any momentum was generated by this game.

Ah, and in a side note, Laich did play, if sparingly. So I guess it really was just a day-to-day thing. Hopefully, he'll be able to keep playing.

And I really need to not wait so long to write up games; I completely forgot about the two penalty shots in the Montreal game until I was watching tonight's game. I have no idea how that slipped my mind.

Bedeviled Anew

I didn't get a chance to write about the Caps game against the Devils from the other night.

It was not a very fun game to watch, as the Caps were badly outplayed in the first (though, thanks to Neuvy, escaped with no score) and completely dominated in the second (and lucky to end down by only three goals). How bad was it? They got their first sustained pressure of the game in the last minute of the second period (and yes, that includes the three power plays. I think NJ got more chances on those power plays than Washington did. And more offensive zone time. Sad). And I'm glad they did, because if they hadn't, I probably wouldn't have watched the third, at all.

And I'm glad I did watch the third, as they outplayed the Devils handily, getting nine shots against only four allowed. And, wonder of wonders, three of those nine found the back of the net. That was enough to guarantee a standings point.

And the Caps continued to outplay the Devils in the overtime, but were unable to bury any of their shots, so they went to the shootout for the second time against the Devils this season. And, unfortunately, the result was the same as last time, with the Devils scoring twice on the shootout (and Neuvy was beaten by the third, as well, but Parise put the puck over the net) while the Caps failed to record a shootout goal.

So the Caps had their second loss of the season after going into overtime (both on the shootout, and both to New Jersey), but, as badly as they were outplayed through two, it almost felt like a victory. Not a satisfying one, though.

And Chimmer continued his annus mirabilis, getting two of the three goals, with Laich getting the third (they were not playing together for most of the game, though, so we can't make a comment about it being their line being awesome).

All in all, we're left with a bit of a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of feeling, as the Nashville game felt like progress, and this one felt like regress.

I'm definitely hoping for a much better showing tomorrow night in Buffalo, though; I can't take much more of this suckage. I keep telling myself that the end result will make the pain worth it, but it's hard to be sure of that, with the way things are going.

Playing for First

The Caps ran into the Red Wings tonight; the only two undefeated teams left. Things weren't looking too good initially; the Wings came out roaring and controlling the play. But the Caps managed to tread water until Bertuzzi hit Carlson going back for the icing touch-up. That boarding penalty put the Caps on the power play, and Greenie managed to pot one twenty-one seconds later.

It was, I think, the best the power play has looked all year; they were moving and passing crisply, and got Detroit thrashing quickly.

Detroit didn't seem too discouraged yet, but a minute later Knuble forced a turnover on a nice forecheck. He passed it over to Semin overlapping around him, who passed it on to MarJo overlapping even further. And from only a couple of feet from the goal line, MarJo buried it in the far side of the net. The team continued the nice play through the end of the period, almost converting on another power play.

Green got his second, again on the power play, about five minutes into the period. That was about where things started going off the rails for the Caps. Detroit largely took over possession again, helped greatly by four Caps penalties that resulted in two 5-on-3 advantages. They scored with five seconds left on the first of those 5-on-3s, and things were not looking so good. The Caps managed to keep Detroit off the scoresheet for the rest of the period, but it was touch-and-go with a large assist from Vokoun (who I think we should call TVo). The period was closed out with some nice pressure from the fourth line, culminating when Hendricks' shot from the point trickled between Conklin's pads and Matty P was there to push it over before Conklin had a chance to see that he'd missed it. Very nice anticipation from Perreault, there.

Unsurprisingly, the third opened with Detroit pushing hard, again, and looking very good. But Greenie intercepted an attempted breakaway pass, and threw it across ice, off the boards, to Laich who charged down the outside. He got a stride on the defender and tossed it across the crease to Ward, who was making a beautiful backdoor cut and pushed it into the net to break things really wide-open. From there, it was basically all Caps, with insurance goals from Perreault (who got a gift when the puck squirted out of a face-off scrum to him with no defender on him; but he finished it beautifully) and Backstrom (on a beautiful deflection while charging towards the net).

So, what was good? The power play was excellent, potting two on four chances. The penalty kill was very good, breaking only on a 5-on-3 (I'd be less pleased if that was against a lesser power play, but Detroit's is always good). TVo, as mentioned, was fabulous; although I'd feel a lot better if he was getting less work (though maybe it just feels familiar to him). There were no big defensive breakdowns again (thank goodness, too, because Detroit definitely would have made them pay, if so). And, as you'd expect with that many goals scored, contributions came from up and down the lineup.

The third and fourth lines both looked great again; I didn't expect it to work too well, but Perreault again looked great on the fourth. He keeps it up, and he'll definitely be playing every night. (And hopefully this will be the last time he gets a long break in the middle of a period, with many penalties in a short span.)

And the ability to just keep rolling the lines kept the Caps fresher than the Wings, which might well have been part of all those goals at the end. (Being a younger team also helps with that.) And I'm loving all the goals with traffic; that's something that the Caps have never really been good at (the exceptions being the couple of years with Ciccarelli, and the year after that with Druce (who seemed to learn it from Ciccarelli).

And what wasn't so good? As mentioned, Detroit controlled possession for long stretches of this game. That happens with any regularity, and the Caps won't be winning games. In particular, no offense to TVo, but he can't be expected to be this good for any length of time. Nobody is that good. And the defense seems to occasionally have trouble with strong forechecks.

But that's about the limit of negativity. There wasn't a whole lot the team could have done better. And it was especially satisfying to do it to Detroit (well, the Penguins would have been even better, but only a little bit).

So now, the team has a couple of days off, then is off on a West Coast swing starting with Edmonton on Thursday. It'll provide a bit of insight into whether Boudreau's coaching has gotten better if they can avoid a let-down (not to mention that Edmonton has some really good, young talent that would love to take advantage of such a let-down).

Update: I just noticed that, after breaking out the beat-down stick on Philadelphia and Detroit (damn, that still amazes me), the Caps now have a really nice goal differential. Let's keep this up!

Finally, one to be proud of

The Caps really wanted this one; they came out firing, and determined to take it to the Panthers. And they did. They maintained pressure steadily through the period; I was surprised when they finished the period with so few shots. But they did manage to take a 1-0 lead when MarJo slipped it through the pads of his friend, Markstrom, on the power play.

As has generally been the case this season, the third line led the way, shutting down Florida's top line and getting chances of their own. In fact, they started a beautiful sequence towards the end of the period where the Caps kept the puck in the offensive zone for a minute and a half or two minutes. I can't remember if they managed one or two shift changes while keeping it in; but it was a thing of beauty.

Florida, perhaps encouraged by being down by only one, despite being solidly outplayed, came out flying to start the second. I was worried that the team was going to just mail it in the rest of the game, as the Cats kept the pressure up pretty steadily for five minutes or so. But the Caps rocked back from their heels, and started throwing their own punches (metaphorically), playing steadily for the rest of the period.

And in the third, they got things going quickly, with Semin putting one just over Markstrom's arm, hitting the inside edge of the post on the way into the net. That was less than two minutes in, and pretty much set the tone. Despite Florida being pretty desperate, the Caps continued to outplay them for the rest of the period, limiting Florida's chances while generating a number of their own.

And with a minute left, Chimmer put the last nail in the coffin, backhanding one into the empty net from the red line. Hands of stone? I've certainly said it before, but this line is making the most of his talents, and I'm loving to see it. I don't think he'll continue to lead the team in goals for long, but that's ok. If they continue to solidly shut down the other team's top line, I don't care if he doesn't score another goal this season. And if he does continue to score, well, that's just some very tasty gravy.

And to revisit some of my earlier comments, I was concerned that we might be paying too much for Ward, based on one really good playoffs, but I'm loving his game. He works hard, he's a beast on the boards, and he plays smart. I wouldn't call it pretty, but I'm already tempted to get a jersey (though I think I'll stick with my original plan to get an Alzner one, instead). Of course, the season is still young enough for "small sample size" to be a reasonable concern, but I'm not basing it on a few big events, just lots of little ones. So hopefully that isn't the case.

Other than that, Carlson and Alzner continue to be awesome. One thing that was a bit weird was that Alzner was the one getting shots off tonight, but that certainly isn't a major thing.

OV wasn't looking too good for most of the game. In fact, through the first two periods (I think that's when it changed), he seemed disinterested when not on the attack. As in, he would immediately start coasting as soon as the puck turned over, even if it was close to him. He looked much better in the third, so maybe he got a good talking to about his effort. And hopefully, it will carry over to future games.

MarJo looked pretty good, although he didn't get nearly as many chances as I expected. And I was disappointed when, in the middle of the first, he got a clean run down the outside of the offensive zone, but didn't go for the wraparound. I forget what he did do, but I remember that it didn't work.

Perreault looked pretty good, although he didn't get much ice time, either (the least on the team by quite a bit). I wish he'd get more chances; as I said, he looked good when he was out there.

Hamr didn't look all that great when he was out there. He had some nice blocks of shots, but he was kind of all over the zone when playing defense. He's the only Caps defender I saw playing above the circles in the D-zone. Hopefully, he only did it the one time I noticed, because if he's been doing that, then we know why he's been on the ice for so many goals against. He also took a pretty foolish penalty trying to stop a rush when there were already others back.

Finally, let's get to the man of the night, Mr Clean-sheet Vokoun. He looked great stopping shots; he scared me a couple of times with his stick-work (I thought he was going to lose the stick one time he stuck it out), but was fabulous when facing shots. He was even ready to stop a weird bounce off the end-boards that led to a sudden, close-in shot. So I'm glad to see him get the shutout; hopefully the first of many.

And let's also give a shout-out to Markstrom, who got his first NHL start tonight. He lost, but only allowed two goals on thirty-one shots (some of which were really tough). He should be proud of the performance, as should Panthers fans.

So now we wait for the first game of the season with the Flyers, on Thursday. They're only one point behind the Caps in the standings, and probably deserve their record more than the Caps do. So it should be a pretty tight game, likely going into overtime again. But not if the Caps play like they did tonight. Time will tell.

Greased Lightnin'

This was a really frustrating game to watch. The Caps were absolutely dominating this game, from start to finish. They were keeping the play in the offensive zone, the checking line was bottling up Stamkos and St Louis (and scoring), MarJo was flying, and yet the score kept being tied.

The first goal allowed was a total fluke, as the puck was thrown to the front of the net from the corner, it bounced off the back of Green's leg, and into the top of the net. Definitely getting things off on the wrong foot for Vokoun, making his team debut. The second was a bad play by Vokoun on a shot from about the same spot that went in off of him. Then the defense forgot to mark someone right between the circles. Then there was a pretty nice deflection where Vokoun was utterly screened. Finally, Tampa got another one with around seven minutes left from about the same spot in the corner (same end of the ice, too, for what that's worth).

Really, the Caps should have won this game by at least three; it was that lopsided. But the complete fluke, along with the bad (regulation) game by Vokoun, sent the game into overtime at five apiece.

To review the Caps, the Chimmer-Laich-Ward line was freakin' awesome again. They kept the Stamkos/St Louis line off the scoreboard and mostly in their own end, and even tossed in a pair of goals (both by Chimmer. What are the odds?). I'm definitely loving that line, and hope Boudreau doesn't start feeling the need to toy with it. They don't try to do anything fancy (one goal was off a deflection from Laich's power move to the net, the other off a strong forecheck led to a juicy turnover), but they're working hard and just dominating play.

MarJo had a great game, getting a very nice goal (on his second shift, I think) and an assist, as well as drawing two penalties. He keeps playing like that, and he ain't never getting sent down again. And, with him driving, the second line looked very good. And Brouwer got a goal deflecting a shot from Sarge, so that was good to see.

With MarJo back in, Perreault was dropped down to the fourth line, along with Hendricks and Halpern (hmm... Haliceault line?), and they mostly looked good as well. They assisted on Wideman's goal, and I believe they weren't on for any against, and that's what you're looking to get out of a fourth line. Matty P looked a bit out of his element (that is, he looked like he was having to think about where he was supposed to go more than usual), but actually did a good job. Was glad to see it, because I wasn't sure how good a fit that was for him.

Overall, the top line was actually the weakest one for the team. I hope that doesn't happen too often, because they shouldn't ever be the drag on the team. I wonder if they were just trying to hard to throw their bodies around, because they did have some very nice hits, but...

And I forgot to call out Backstrom for his excellent game the other night. He still looked pretty good tonight, but the line just wasn't getting it done. Some of that was bad luck; they did have some very nice chances that they couldn't quite convert. But they just weren't driving play like I'm used to them doing. Or maybe I'm just getting hung up on their lack of finishing tonight; I certainly hope so. But they definitely weren't at the top of their game.

Anyway, overtime was a bit of a mess, with MarJo doing a nice job drawing his second penalty (which, incidentally, should have been his third; a high stick he took was missed). The power play didn't look great, as it allowed a chance the other way, and a possible second one was called on account of a hooking penalty. The penalty kill was decent, although Vokoun was excellent on the ensuing penalty (and the penalty after, as they got called for too many men right as the first penalty was expiring).

So we ended up with a shootout. Hendricks started, and I figured his trick was about at the end of it's life, but it worked again as he left Roloson undressed. OV followed, doing the wide left move that is, I think, his strongest approach. But he couldn't quite keep the puck from rolling when he went backhand, and put it into the side of the net. Semin went last, after Vokoun stopped both intervening Tampa shots (a bit contemptuously on the second, I thought). And he just screamed straight down at the net, only veering a little bit after he got Roli to half-heartedly try a poke check (he was going fast enough that the poke never actually came, but Roli had changed his grip for the attempt, which left almost the entire side of the net empty).

So the Caps take the second game on the gimmick. I'm liking their four points, so far, but wishing they weren't giving the opposition points, especially with both game inside the division.

So, once again, we see a lot (actually, a LOT) of potential, but some really uneven play as well. I gotta think, with the way Boudreau usually treats his goalies, that we're now going to be seeing Neuvy against Pittsburgh on Thursday.

And I really hope the top line can put it together. While the rest of the team bailed them out tonight, the team just ain't going to go far without eighty or ninety goals out of that top line.

Oh, and special teams... I actually thought the power play looked better tonight, even though they didn't convert at all. They were doing a much better job moving around, and pulling the defense out of shape (except for that last power play, in overtime), and that's what's going to lead to goals.

The PK was excellent. They allowed a bit more zone time on the first penalty, than I would prefer, but were killing it in the second. And they did a good job hanging in against a tough power play in the overtime. So I'm pretty pleased with that.

So, two down, eighty to go. And Pittsburgh is on tap.

Green-Winning Goal

Finally finished watching the opener on a bit of a delay. A very uneven game, all the way around. The defense looked pretty good, but it had several very large breakdowns leading to someone all by themself on Neuvy's left with no defender in sight. I suppose there's a small caveat that all of those breakdowns occurred with Carolina having a man advantage (three power plays and once with the goalie pulled).

But, while it's easier to have that sort of breakdown with an extra person to keep track of, it's even more important to not let it happen, as evidenced by the three goals allowed on those four plays (and the fourth was inches away).

So, three goals allowed, but Neuvy can't be faulted with any of them. He played a very solid game. Nothing spectacular, but he was in position and didn't allow any soft goals.

We've already covered most of the defensive side, but I wanted to note that Carlson had quite an up-and-down game. He took both of the penalties that led to Staal goals on the power play (two of those breakdowns), but, in between, he had a really sweet break-out pass to spring Semin in alone for a tying goal. Green looked very good (apart from being part of the breakdown on the first Staal goal), and finished with the overtime goal.

On the forward side, I liked the line selection. I'm not sure I wouldn't rather see Brouwer with OV and Backster, but that's a minor quibble (especially since Knuble looked very good on that wing). The very expensive third line (Chimmer, Ward, Laich) looked very good, wearing down the top line by making them work hard in their own end. The second line did pretty well; as mentioned, Semin had the Caps first goal and mostly played well (he did take a bad penalty at the end of regulation, however). Perreault also looked very good on that line, with several excellent chances (and even one or two good back-checking plays). The fourth line pretty quietly did their job as well.

Laich also had a nice goal off a missed shot by OV (although it took a 5-on-3 to get it).

Chimmer surprised me with a goal where Ward's pass sprung him behind the D, and he potted it over Boucher. I was less surprised to see, on the replay, that his shot went off the shaft of his stick. We'll certainly take it, though. And if he can consistently get chances like that, I certainly won't complain about his lack of finishing ability. (Still confused about the contract extension, though.)

Special teams? The PK did not look very good, for the most part. Two goals surrendered, which is bad enough, but also got pinned down for a minute and a half on one power play (though they managed not to surrender a goal on that possession, somehow).

The power play had two goals, but still did not look all that great, overall. The results were good, but the methodology wasn't. They still need to move around more (although I think they did improve on that a little bit); both goals were somewhat fluky. The first, as I mentioned, was a missed shot off the boards that bounced right to Brooks (nice hands by him, though); the second was a shot from the point that trickled through.

Anyway, as I said, an uneven game, but, happily, we'll take the win. I'll feel a lot better when the D starts meshing better, although the talent is certainly there.

Oh yes, and I should mention that Beagle, who I did not think should be playing (would have preferred MarJo on the third, with Chimmer bumped back to the fourth), still had a pretty decent game. In particular, he had a couple of nice forechecking plays, so we'll look for that to continue.

Plus, we'll hope that OV's thumb isn't in too bad a shape after the slash he took to get the 5-on-3.

So, overall, definitely some things to work on, but a good result.

Over Before It Began

Or at least it seems that way. The Caps dropped another one tonight. The Caps have generally outplayed the Lightning pretty significantly in all three games. They blew it a couple of times in the second game with bad line changes (I think this is yet another example of Boudreau getting out-coached) that led to Lightning goals. And again, tonight, they outplayed the Lightning through two periods.

But they laid one of their worst goose-eggs of the season in the third period, allowing two more goals and a multitude of scoring chances while getting almost no chances of their own. If Neuvy hadn't played very well, they would have allowed two more goals, in fact. It was just butt-ugly.

Unfortunately, the memory of that has just about obliterated my memories of the excellent first two periods. OV was a beast through there, generating chances for himself and others. MarJo played very well also, and looked especially good on the PK. And again, Neuvy played very well.

But the end result is that their backs are hard up against the wall, and they need to win four in a row to advance (which would make them only the fourth team in NHL history to do so, I believe). I see no reason to believe they have it in them; Tampa just seems to want it much more. I do think the Caps will come out with a will, and win tomorrow night (a blowout wouldn't even surprise me) and maybe one more after that, but I think they're done. It's a very disappointing way to see them go; I really thought they'd handle the Bolts.

Boudreau made some good adjustments against the Lightning earlier in the season, but has not been able to handle Boucher's counter-adjustments. I don't know where we go from here.

In fact, despite his record in the regular season (really, it's a fabulous record; there's no question) I've got to wonder if Gabby has reached the limits of that of which he's capable. He made some good adjustments to his system this season, but I'm wondering if the results aren't as much due to better personnel as to those tactical changes.

McPhee... I've been pretty hard on him in the past (probably not in print) largely due to not drafting well until about five years ago. But he's learned, and drafted well recently (other than the Gustafsson debacle), and did a very good job with in-season trades this year. I'm not sure that we even want to bring back Arnott or Sturm, although I'm happy that Wideman will stick around for another year.

I do really like the look of the defense for next year. I hope we'll hold onto Hannan, although he'll have to take a pay cut to make that work. The rest of the corps is set, and solid. That's something on which to build.

Up front, there are a lot more question marks. I was skeptical of the idea of re-signing Knuble, but that ship has sailed. And, I suppose, at the salary agreed, it wasn't a bad deal.

I think we have to let one of Bradley or Hendricks go; Hendricsk being signed already kind of settles that issue, despite his post-season disappearing act. But the big question, as last year, is what to do down the middle. MarJo stays, obviously; the only question is whether he's 2C or 3C. Can he handle 2C? I'm not sure; give him another year, and I'm sure the answer's yes. But next year?

If the answer is yes, then it becomes pretty simple: slot him at 2C, and hand 3C to Matty P. Hopefully, with another offseason to bulk up (and maybe some improved effort, especially on back-checking) he can handle it. He's looked brilliant at times, but needs to look it far more often. And there is one more issue with this configuration; they're terrible on the dot, meaning that Nicky gets far more D-zone draws than we would like leading to far fewer scoring chances for him and OV.

But if the answer of MarJo at 2C is no, then you're pretty well stuck with a trade or free-agent signing. I hope Richards is out of the question, but I'm not sure who else you consider. I guess at that point you could think about bringing Arnott back for one more season, although I'm not sure that isn't a matter of "the Devil you know, rather than the one you don't".

There's also the question of Brooks Laich. You want to bring him back, but can that happen for a low enough salary to be feasible? I guess you could play at making him 3C, but I'm not sold on that idea.

I dunno... Time to stop this mental roster-bation, I think. Let's first see if we can win a game or two first. If not, then I can give this some more thought, and look up some of the available options.

MPD Caps

Another bi(actually tri-)partite night for the Caps. They played great through the first ten or so minutes of the game, getting ahead ten shots to one over that span. And then they basically stopped keeping the puck in the offensive zone for more than one shot for most of the rest of the game.

They also gave up too many odd-man breaks. At one point, they gave up a 2-on-1, which Alzner broke up nicely. I had just finished commenting to my wife how good he is at dealing with odd-man breaks, when I turned back to the TV to see that they had given up another 2-on-1, which Moulson converted. *sigh*

I will say, though, with three new faces, my expectations were not all that high. After how long it took Hannan to get accustomed to the Caps system, I didn't have a particularly good feeling about ingesting three new faces. Of course, two of those three had great chances in that first ten minutes, with neither converting. Story of the season, I suppose, for the Caps.

But the Caps managed to hang around, getting some stellar goaltending from Neuvy. But it took them fifty-nine minutes and twelve seconds to finally get the puck across the line. Fortunately, that 2-on-1 was the only goal that the Islanders managed, so that last-minute goal was enough to send it into overtime.

And in overtime, OV made quite a power inside-out move to get past the defense to get off a backhander from in close to end the game. His ninth, I believe, career overtime goal (incidentally, why does it seem like everyone spells out OTGWG when someone gets an overtime goal? Is there some way that an overtime goal can fail to be a game-winner?).

I do find it odd that Wideman was, by far, the TOI leader on the team. I thought they mostly wanted him for his power-play contributions, but while he did tie (with OV) for the PP TOI lead, he also led the team in SH TOI (though only one second more than Hannan). Just seems weird to me. But I guess it worked out.

Arnott had a pretty good game, with the assist on Laich's last gasp goal, although his faceoffs better improve. But I'm really not too worried about that. In fact, if we hadn't traded Steckel to get him, I probably wouldn't have even looked.

There's definitely a lot to be encouraged about, but also a lot remains to be seen. Hopefully, Varly has missed his last game of the season. Also hopefully, Green comes back soon, although I do applaud the team not rushing him back. His long-term health should be a priority. And hopefully the team shooting percentage will get back to league average, at least; the Caps are only one off the league "lead" in being shut out, and were 48 seconds away from falling into a tie there.

I must admit, I'm not optimistic about the team come playoff time, although the new acquisitions have helped that a little bit.

Pen Pow

I think the Caps played their most complete game of the year earlier today. It wasn't a blow-out, but I thought Fleury actually had a fantastic game to keep it from becoming one.

The Caps mostly kept the play in the Pens zone, got a lot of chances, and didn't allow much coming back the other way. Neuvy got his second shut-out of the year, stopping all 22 shots he faced.

The penalty kill not only killed both penalties the Pens got, but MarJo potted one with a backhander past the defender, and over Fleury's shoulder with five seconds left in the first of those penalty's.

Actually, though, I rather disagreed with Hendricks getting that penalty. He was skating by the net, was pulled off balance by the defender, and fell (with some additional help from that selfsame defender) onto Fleury, which negated a goal that went in a second or two later.

Getting back to MarJo, his apparent improvement on the dot didn't appear today. The Penguins didn't have anyone win more than 38% of their faceoffs, yet MarJo didn't have a better percentage than the two who won that often.

I must have only noticed Matty P on the dot the one time he lost; he had a great day there, winning four to go with that loser. He was also helping his line keep buzzing quite a bit, especially in the first period, and had the secondary assist on Laich's goal that opened the scoring.

Knuble finished the scoring with an empty-netter in the last minute.

The only bad parts were the slapshot that Green took to the head in the second period (he didn't return), and the blow that OV took to the knee from Cooke. If Cooke doesn't get suspended for that knee-on-knee hit, I will be very upset. OV did jump up and try to go after Cooke, which bodes well for his status, but I'm still a bit concerned. Hopefully, neither of them will miss any time.

Let's hope the good momentum and mojo will carry over into Tuesday's game against the Sharks. And maybe we'll see Semin back? (No, I haven't heard anything to indicate that that's likely; I'm just hoping.)

Heading Home on a High Note

I don't have too much to say about the game the other night in Minnesota. It was kind of a 'meh' type of game to me. The effort was reasonably good (though not great), but nothing really stood out in it to me. They were certainly out-played, perhaps even out-coached. Maybe I was just too tired when I watched it to notice anything more specific.

Last night's game, though, was very interesting. I didn't get to watch it until today (due to the multiple viewings of 'How to Train Your Dragon' that I mentioned).

Man, that was a tale of two games. How badly were the Caps outplayed at the beginning? Well, it took them only 44 seconds to allow the first goal. Their first power play was probably the worst effort I've ever seen; it allowed two 2-on-1 breakaways, and even allowed the Flames to set up in the offensive zone. The only positive was that they still managed to get a scoring chance, somehow. How bad was the ensuing penalty kill? Well, it didn't surrender a goal (I'm still not sure how), but it took about 1:55 to finally clear the zone. Ouch. It was looking so bad, that I almost turned the game off in frustration. In the first period.

Thankfully, only a couple of minutes later (and after Hendricks stirred things up a bit by picking a fight with Tim Jackman, who's much larger than Hendricks. I think that might have woken the team up), the Caps got another chance on the power play and converted after only 22 seconds. So they went into the first intermission down by only a goal, despite being absolutely man-handled for most of the period.

In the second period, I think the Calgary audience thought they'd been transplanted to Indonesia, with a tsunami and a volcano hitting them almost simultaneously. Suddenly, everything clicked, and they dropped a six-spot including OV getting two goals twelve seconds apart (both on the power play). It also included what was pretty much an own-goal, as Sarich tried to get the puck away from out front of the net, and Bradley deflected it (accidentally, I'm sure) into the side of the net. Steckel also finished off the barrage with a shortie (on a penalty shot, no less), after Kiprusoff had been benched for Karlsson. And all of that came on only 14 shots (which is, to be sure, a nice total for a period, but a heck of a lot less than you'd expect for six goals).

The third period didn't have a whole lot going on. The Flames played a bit riskier, and the Caps were happy to take it away from them, but there were no more goals.

Green got out of his scoring funk for the season with a goal (and a pretty one, at that, hitting Kiprusoff's water bottle) and two assists. His assists on that goal came from Semin, who had a goal and another assist as well, and Backstrom, who had a goal and two more assists. It might have been the first time I've ever seen a defensement get behind the other team's defense.

The lines were a bit funky; Semin was moved up to the top line (man, that's a lot of firepower), Flash was moved to the wing with Laich at center (an improvement, I think), and Knuble was on the second line (I somehow failed to notice through the entire game who was centering that line, but it wasn't MarJo or MattyPo, both of whom were scratched). DJ King got a jersey for the night, but didn't really do much beyond take a (non-call) stick to the face early in the first. Fehr was scratched, which I didn't really understand too much. And Fahey got a jersey, which worried me, but he comported himself pretty well on the evening.

Kudos also to Neuvy, who once again kept the game from getting out of hand early on.

So now the Caps come back home, where they'll be facing the Maple Leafs on Wednesday and Bruins on Friday. Hopefully, the home cookin' will keep the offense alive.