I think I put out thirty or forty tweets during last night's Habs/Rangers game. It was tied at one when I turned it on, with Montreal having scored early on a power play, and the Rangers tying it up (very shortly before I turned it on, I think) on a pretty weak goal later.
And it was all Canadiens for quite a while after that. Plekanec scored on a wickedly deceptive wrister between two defenders very shortly after I turned it on. That actually closed out the scoring in the first, but there were a number of good chances (one or two for the Rangers, and several for the Habs).
In the second, it seemed to all go Montreal's way. Pacioretty scored off a very nice feed from Gallagher, putting it between Hank's legs and over his stick. Then Bourque scored his first of the night when he found himself five or ten feet from the net with a lot of time and he found the top of the net.
That got the King pulled (and came close to getting me to turn the game off), which somehow sparked the Rangers to come back with three goals of their own over the next seven minutes and change. One was a lucky deflection off a defender, and the other two were not-good save attempts by Tokarski.
Montreal didn't lose heart, however, scoring to re-take the lead only a minute later as Bourque got his second. Despite the Rangers taking a penalty a couple minutes later, that ended the scoring in the second.
The third period was almost all Canadiens, as Tokarski was able to stop the few chances the Rangers got (and a couple of them were amazingly close). Really, the biggest bright spot for New York was that they got more shots in defending a major penalty than the Habs did.
Montreal did get two more goals of their own, though, which was more than enough to seal the game. I'm still trying to figure out why Talbot was on the bench, leading to an empty net goal, with more than four minutes left. I'd looked away before that, alas.
Anyway, that did it for the game, giving Montreal another gasp of life, which comes tomorrow in New York. We'll see if they can do it again; I'm not holding my breath. I think they got all their lucky bounces last night. But who knows?
Showing posts with label lundqvist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lundqvist. Show all posts
20140528
20131210
Home on the Rangers
I alluded, in my last post, to this being a good game, and it was.
The lines were the same as against the Preds, although the D swapped Oleksy back in for Wey (though Wey was scratched, rather than being sent down. Perhaps a sign of satisfaction at his play against Nashville?). There was also a little bit of rest for Holtby. Since Neuvy is still hurt (I didn't mention it earlier, but he hurt himself stepping onto the ice in the last game against Montreal), Grubauer got his first career start.
One surprise (for me) came early, when they gave Lundqvist's career stats against Washington (regular season edition). His save percentage was only .907; not bad, of course, but less than his career numbers. I wonder if his postseason numbers are better?
Anyway, things got off to a slow start. Actually, it was slow for both teams, with neither able to sustain any pressure and very few good chances. The first period ended scoreless, with seven shots on each side. Both teams had long stretches with no shots attempted, and the Caps managed to go the first half of the period without an unblocked shot.
But it ended without any damage, and without Gru needing to look like superman, and with the Caps holding a slight edge in Fenwick.
The second period, though, as it has much of the season, treated the Caps very well. Chimmer opened the scoring two and a half minutes in by beating the Rangers defenders to a loose puck in the crease and sliding it into the goal. The fourth line followed that up with a long-range goal from Oleksy (good call, giving him a sweater) only twenty-five seconds later, and the team basically cruised from there.
Grabo scored on a penalty shot just before the end of the period, rifling a very short-range slapshot into the roof of the net that had Richter upset about his own performance. Worth noting, too, that the breakaway that led to the penalty call was a nice sendaway by Brouwer, when he intercepted a pass near the top of the defensive zone. Also worth noting that this was a rare instance of a penalty shot on a delayed penalty, as the Caps kept possession after the call for half a minute or so. Nice, all the way around.
I can't really tell much about the third period; with a three-goal lead, I wasn't paying a lot of attention. Schmidt scored again, and Pouliot scored a minute later, with both goals close to the end of the game.
Overall, it was a very well-played game, with the Caps playing with the edge in Fenwick for most of the game, and soundly winning. It was a very surprising result, playing on the road in the second of back-to-back games (though, to be fair, it was the second of a back-to-back for NY as well).
Penalties were even on the game, with no power play goals from either team (although there was some significant luck there, for the Caps, as they allowed eight shots on the two power plays). Special teams did factor in a little bit, though, as Grabo's breakaway came on 4-on-4 play.
All in all, the only negative were those PK shots; that's definitely too many, although I suppose they did get one really good scoring chance of their own, during one of those penalties.
Next game is tonight against the Stamkos-less Lightning; a good chance to get a little more breathing room in second place. Go Caps!
The lines were the same as against the Preds, although the D swapped Oleksy back in for Wey (though Wey was scratched, rather than being sent down. Perhaps a sign of satisfaction at his play against Nashville?). There was also a little bit of rest for Holtby. Since Neuvy is still hurt (I didn't mention it earlier, but he hurt himself stepping onto the ice in the last game against Montreal), Grubauer got his first career start.
One surprise (for me) came early, when they gave Lundqvist's career stats against Washington (regular season edition). His save percentage was only .907; not bad, of course, but less than his career numbers. I wonder if his postseason numbers are better?
Anyway, things got off to a slow start. Actually, it was slow for both teams, with neither able to sustain any pressure and very few good chances. The first period ended scoreless, with seven shots on each side. Both teams had long stretches with no shots attempted, and the Caps managed to go the first half of the period without an unblocked shot.
But it ended without any damage, and without Gru needing to look like superman, and with the Caps holding a slight edge in Fenwick.
The second period, though, as it has much of the season, treated the Caps very well. Chimmer opened the scoring two and a half minutes in by beating the Rangers defenders to a loose puck in the crease and sliding it into the goal. The fourth line followed that up with a long-range goal from Oleksy (good call, giving him a sweater) only twenty-five seconds later, and the team basically cruised from there.
Grabo scored on a penalty shot just before the end of the period, rifling a very short-range slapshot into the roof of the net that had Richter upset about his own performance. Worth noting, too, that the breakaway that led to the penalty call was a nice sendaway by Brouwer, when he intercepted a pass near the top of the defensive zone. Also worth noting that this was a rare instance of a penalty shot on a delayed penalty, as the Caps kept possession after the call for half a minute or so. Nice, all the way around.
I can't really tell much about the third period; with a three-goal lead, I wasn't paying a lot of attention. Schmidt scored again, and Pouliot scored a minute later, with both goals close to the end of the game.
Overall, it was a very well-played game, with the Caps playing with the edge in Fenwick for most of the game, and soundly winning. It was a very surprising result, playing on the road in the second of back-to-back games (though, to be fair, it was the second of a back-to-back for NY as well).
Penalties were even on the game, with no power play goals from either team (although there was some significant luck there, for the Caps, as they allowed eight shots on the two power plays). Special teams did factor in a little bit, though, as Grabo's breakaway came on 4-on-4 play.
All in all, the only negative were those PK shots; that's definitely too many, although I suppose they did get one really good scoring chance of their own, during one of those penalties.
Next game is tonight against the Stamkos-less Lightning; a good chance to get a little more breathing room in second place. Go Caps!
20130513
Depressing end
My wife surprised me this afternoon by letting me know she'd found me a ticket to the Caps game this evening. Despite my earlier misgivings, I was still quite excited about the prospect.
I had never been to a Game Seven before, and that was fairly exciting. And the last time I saw a Caps-Rangers playoff game, live, it was Game Four in 1994, when the Caps won 4-2 to stave off elimination.
I was certainly hoping for a similar result tonight, and the Caps came out on fire. They were putting together a fantastic game (despite some nearly-criminal no-calls) when a Caps attack was stopped by Lundqvist and a jail-break went the other way, ending up as a 4-on-2. Kreider dropped to Asham just inside the blue line, and his shot went to the top corner.
That was the only goal of the first period, but the Caps had solidly dominated. Not only were shots 13-9, but blocks were 13-1. The only thing that kept me from feeling confident that they were get back into it was the officiating (not only was Holtby run twice, but Callahan leveled Chimmer with a hit well after the whistle and Perreault was tripped right in front of the net. And those are the ones I remember. I remember yelling more than that, but I forget the details).
The second period actually did start with the tail end of the one power play the Caps got before the game was decided, but they didn't get anything out of it. The Caps actually kept playing well for a while, but three minutes in, Erskine ended up as the only one back against a 2-on-1. That didn't end in immediate disaster, as the shot went off the post, but the defense never got set up, and Pyatt was left alone on the edge of the crease to clean up a rebound of a Dorsett shot.
Two minutes later, at the end of some significant zone time, a Del Zotto shot from the point went off of Brouwer's skate, off of Holtby's stick, and off the top of his shin pad, then into the net. The hole the puck slipped through, there, wasn't even big enough to see. Really bad luck.
The Caps actually looked pretty good for the rest of the period (except Holtby, who had a couple of other very near misses that he normally just gobbles up), but were unable to put the puck past Hank, despite some fantastic chances.
They were up 26-17 on shots, even better when factoring in blocks, but were losing three-nil anyway.
The only bit of encouragement was that we saw that Boston had come back from 4-1 down to tie Toronto in regulation.
But then, almost right off the opening face-off, Erskine decides to try to beat Callahan one-on-one and loses, giving up a clean breakaway. Why did he get a two-year extension with a 30% raise, again?
In any event, Callahan, excellent shootout man that is, converted the breakaway to basically put the game away. Thirteen seconds in. Fastest goal I've ever seen that wasn't scored by the team winning the opening faceoff.
Six and a half minutes later, Zuccarello put the final nail in the coffin when Green went over to the other side to make a nice poke check on Brassard, but then never got back to that side. Brassard retrieved the puck and threw it over to that side, leaving Zuccarello alone against Holtby. Zucky deked Holtby nicely and put it into the net.
From that point, it was basically just a shit-show that I stuck around for, for no real reason. Hoping they could at least break the shutout, I suppose. A ton of people left after the fifth goal. I did text my wife 'Game over', but stayed anyway.
Easily the most depressing playoff game I've ever gone to. Maybe most depressing game, actually, although I'm less certain about that. I'd like to say that Lundqvist stole this game for New York, but the defense was thoroughly craptastic. And I haven't even mentioned the odd-man break from the first period that resulted from the defenseman pinching, and no forward went back to cover the point.
Well, let the offseason begin, I suppose. The team will certainly have plenty to think about, starting with answering the question of what to do with Ribeiro. I must admit to having very mixed feelings about him, and I'm honestly not even sure what to hope for.
Update: I forgot to mention that the officiating did seem fine after the first period, for what that's worth.
I had never been to a Game Seven before, and that was fairly exciting. And the last time I saw a Caps-Rangers playoff game, live, it was Game Four in 1994, when the Caps won 4-2 to stave off elimination.
I was certainly hoping for a similar result tonight, and the Caps came out on fire. They were putting together a fantastic game (despite some nearly-criminal no-calls) when a Caps attack was stopped by Lundqvist and a jail-break went the other way, ending up as a 4-on-2. Kreider dropped to Asham just inside the blue line, and his shot went to the top corner.
That was the only goal of the first period, but the Caps had solidly dominated. Not only were shots 13-9, but blocks were 13-1. The only thing that kept me from feeling confident that they were get back into it was the officiating (not only was Holtby run twice, but Callahan leveled Chimmer with a hit well after the whistle and Perreault was tripped right in front of the net. And those are the ones I remember. I remember yelling more than that, but I forget the details).
The second period actually did start with the tail end of the one power play the Caps got before the game was decided, but they didn't get anything out of it. The Caps actually kept playing well for a while, but three minutes in, Erskine ended up as the only one back against a 2-on-1. That didn't end in immediate disaster, as the shot went off the post, but the defense never got set up, and Pyatt was left alone on the edge of the crease to clean up a rebound of a Dorsett shot.
Two minutes later, at the end of some significant zone time, a Del Zotto shot from the point went off of Brouwer's skate, off of Holtby's stick, and off the top of his shin pad, then into the net. The hole the puck slipped through, there, wasn't even big enough to see. Really bad luck.
The Caps actually looked pretty good for the rest of the period (except Holtby, who had a couple of other very near misses that he normally just gobbles up), but were unable to put the puck past Hank, despite some fantastic chances.
They were up 26-17 on shots, even better when factoring in blocks, but were losing three-nil anyway.
The only bit of encouragement was that we saw that Boston had come back from 4-1 down to tie Toronto in regulation.
But then, almost right off the opening face-off, Erskine decides to try to beat Callahan one-on-one and loses, giving up a clean breakaway. Why did he get a two-year extension with a 30% raise, again?
In any event, Callahan, excellent shootout man that is, converted the breakaway to basically put the game away. Thirteen seconds in. Fastest goal I've ever seen that wasn't scored by the team winning the opening faceoff.
Six and a half minutes later, Zuccarello put the final nail in the coffin when Green went over to the other side to make a nice poke check on Brassard, but then never got back to that side. Brassard retrieved the puck and threw it over to that side, leaving Zuccarello alone against Holtby. Zucky deked Holtby nicely and put it into the net.
From that point, it was basically just a shit-show that I stuck around for, for no real reason. Hoping they could at least break the shutout, I suppose. A ton of people left after the fifth goal. I did text my wife 'Game over', but stayed anyway.
Easily the most depressing playoff game I've ever gone to. Maybe most depressing game, actually, although I'm less certain about that. I'd like to say that Lundqvist stole this game for New York, but the defense was thoroughly craptastic. And I haven't even mentioned the odd-man break from the first period that resulted from the defenseman pinching, and no forward went back to cover the point.
Well, let the offseason begin, I suppose. The team will certainly have plenty to think about, starting with answering the question of what to do with Ribeiro. I must admit to having very mixed feelings about him, and I'm honestly not even sure what to hope for.
Update: I forgot to mention that the officiating did seem fine after the first period, for what that's worth.
20130507
Penalties poop on party
Well, there was certainly reason not to be terribly optimistic about last night's game. I deliberately didn't talk about Caps earlier post-season failures the other day (so I was annoyed about the write-up from yesterday's Post). But it's true that they've never won a Game 3 after winning games one and two in a seven-game series (they did sweep the Flyers in the opening round in '84).
But they came out really trying to take the game to the Rangers (a little surprising, actually; I'd expected the Rangers to be the ones coming out that way). OV's early roughing penalty was certainly a surprise (thought the call would be borderline for regular season, let alone in the playoffs) which blunted the Caps attack a bit. But they killed it ok, and opened the scoring a minute later when Backstrom tipped in Carlson's shot from the point. Was definitely flying high at that point.
But a couple more penalties (one of which led to a goal exactly two minutes later; initially credited as PPG, later changed to even strength), brought me down to earth. The goal was a bit of a soft one; Boyle snuck it by short-side. Disappointing.
The second period was largely decided by the three consecutive penalties the Caps took. They only allowed one goal, but almost all of the Rangers shots were on the power play. It was a nice shot by Brassard in the slot that beat Holtby. At even strength, though, the Caps were dominant, and tied the game when Green skated in from the point and wristed a shot into the top corner.
The third period did not go at all well. The Rangers scored twice as the defense decided to watch play in the corner and allow players to skate unmolested very close to the goal. Between those two, Beagle did manage to tip Hillen's shot from the point past Lundqvist.
The Caps put up a heck of an attempt to tie the game up in the last couple of minutes, although all they really got out of it were a lot of shots blocked by the Rangers. It was a disappointing end, but it was good to see that the Caps never looked like they were either taking the Rangers for granted (was especially concerned about this at the beginning) or giving up on the game.
Disappointing result, but a very good game nonetheless. Shots were almost even, with the Rangers blocking twice as many. The Caps were heavily positive in both Fenwick and Corsi. Erskine, who I actually thought looked decent, was the only one on the team negative in Corsi. He, Carlson, and MarJo were the only ones negative in Fenwick. Alzner was a beast, at +11 Fenwick of the team's +16.
OV had a pretty good game, and gave MarJo a couple of incredible set-ups that he couldn't convert.
As I said, a disappointing result, but play like this (especially without the six penalties) will lead to a lot of victories. So, encouraging, overall. Next assessment tomorrow evening at 1930. Fingers definitely crossed.
But they came out really trying to take the game to the Rangers (a little surprising, actually; I'd expected the Rangers to be the ones coming out that way). OV's early roughing penalty was certainly a surprise (thought the call would be borderline for regular season, let alone in the playoffs) which blunted the Caps attack a bit. But they killed it ok, and opened the scoring a minute later when Backstrom tipped in Carlson's shot from the point. Was definitely flying high at that point.
But a couple more penalties (one of which led to a goal exactly two minutes later; initially credited as PPG, later changed to even strength), brought me down to earth. The goal was a bit of a soft one; Boyle snuck it by short-side. Disappointing.
The second period was largely decided by the three consecutive penalties the Caps took. They only allowed one goal, but almost all of the Rangers shots were on the power play. It was a nice shot by Brassard in the slot that beat Holtby. At even strength, though, the Caps were dominant, and tied the game when Green skated in from the point and wristed a shot into the top corner.
The third period did not go at all well. The Rangers scored twice as the defense decided to watch play in the corner and allow players to skate unmolested very close to the goal. Between those two, Beagle did manage to tip Hillen's shot from the point past Lundqvist.
The Caps put up a heck of an attempt to tie the game up in the last couple of minutes, although all they really got out of it were a lot of shots blocked by the Rangers. It was a disappointing end, but it was good to see that the Caps never looked like they were either taking the Rangers for granted (was especially concerned about this at the beginning) or giving up on the game.
Disappointing result, but a very good game nonetheless. Shots were almost even, with the Rangers blocking twice as many. The Caps were heavily positive in both Fenwick and Corsi. Erskine, who I actually thought looked decent, was the only one on the team negative in Corsi. He, Carlson, and MarJo were the only ones negative in Fenwick. Alzner was a beast, at +11 Fenwick of the team's +16.
OV had a pretty good game, and gave MarJo a couple of incredible set-ups that he couldn't convert.
As I said, a disappointing result, but play like this (especially without the six penalties) will lead to a lot of victories. So, encouraging, overall. Next assessment tomorrow evening at 1930. Fingers definitely crossed.
20130324
Away on the Range
As I mentioned, the Caps went into tonight's game against the Rangers needing a win to have even a hope of a shot at the playoffs. Unfortunately, due to a (still unexplained) DVR problem, I missed the first half hour (real time) of the game. I also ended up missing about seven minutes of the third period, due to the same problem (very irritating).
The Caps were up 2-0 when I turned the game on, which was certainly a nice surprise. Unfortunately, less than a minute after I turned it on, Asham was on a 2-on-1 break and shot it past Holtby's shoulder and into the top corner to cut the margin in half.
The Caps were not looking great, and three minutes later, Chimmer took a bad interference penalty to give the Rangers a good chance to tie the game. Half a minute later, Alzner got called on a really weak (at best) slashing penalty to give NY a long 5-on-3. It took only seven seconds for the puck to be worked all the way around the outside, and to be put in the net.
Just as a side note, Holtby really should have saved both of those goals. The second one was particularly bad.
But that's water under the bridge. The Caps held it together for the rest of the power play, and went into the period break tied.
The Caps were doubling up the Rangers on shots at that point, although scoring chances were even.
The second period was a whole lot of nothing, really. The Rangers outplayed the Caps pretty siginificantly (commensurate with the 9-4 shot advantage), although the Caps did get a couple of very good chances (one or two of those shots came in the waning seconds, plus Alzner put one off the crossbar earlier).
The third period was basically identical to the second, again without any actual scoring.
That put the game into overtime. I thought the Caps did decently, there, although shots were 5-1 against, so it must have been a bit worse than it seemed. But Holtby still held solid, putting the Caps into their first shootout of the season (and, of course, Wolski was again scratched. Would have been nice to have a shootout tensai on the ice).
The Rangers elected to go first, sending Nash in against Holtby. Nash was given a show in why Holtby is a good stickhandler, as a well-placed poke-check sent the puck back towards center ice. Lundqvist remembered his scouting report on Hendricks, not biting on the initial move and then giving nothing.
Callahan came in on Holtby, drifted right and shot left, missing the net. OV went next, hieing a bit left, then cut back right in front of Hank and slid the puck under him. Stepan went next for NY (and odd choice, given his career 11% success rate), and he managed to sneak it past Holtby when Holtby got his leg in the way, but not quite square, and the puck went off his leg and into the top of the net.
I'd forgotten that Ribs was supposed to be a good shootout guy, and did not get a pointed reminder on his attempt. He just did not put much of a move in, and shot it right into Lundqvist. Disappointing.
But Holtby made up for it by stopping Richards, leaving Backstrom with the chance to win it by beating his countryman (again, I suppose, since he had the first goal of the night). And he did it without getting very fancy; he just put a wrister right under Hank's glove for the win.
The Jets also won today, beating Tampa Bay, so the Caps are still five points behind them and two behind the Rangers. I'm really getting a bad feeling that the Caps are going to finish the season ninth while Ribeiro walks. That would be... not good.
Although it was great to see the Caps putting things together, I would feel much better if they had lost the last three games instead of winning. Up next are the Islanders on Tuesday; another must-win game as they're tied with the Caps.
Update: I forgot to mention that Fehr suffered some sort of upper body injury. I hope (more for his sake than for the team's) that it isn't anything serious. On the plus side, it will hopefully get Wolski on the ice for a bit.
The Caps were up 2-0 when I turned the game on, which was certainly a nice surprise. Unfortunately, less than a minute after I turned it on, Asham was on a 2-on-1 break and shot it past Holtby's shoulder and into the top corner to cut the margin in half.
The Caps were not looking great, and three minutes later, Chimmer took a bad interference penalty to give the Rangers a good chance to tie the game. Half a minute later, Alzner got called on a really weak (at best) slashing penalty to give NY a long 5-on-3. It took only seven seconds for the puck to be worked all the way around the outside, and to be put in the net.
Just as a side note, Holtby really should have saved both of those goals. The second one was particularly bad.
But that's water under the bridge. The Caps held it together for the rest of the power play, and went into the period break tied.
The Caps were doubling up the Rangers on shots at that point, although scoring chances were even.
The second period was a whole lot of nothing, really. The Rangers outplayed the Caps pretty siginificantly (commensurate with the 9-4 shot advantage), although the Caps did get a couple of very good chances (one or two of those shots came in the waning seconds, plus Alzner put one off the crossbar earlier).
The third period was basically identical to the second, again without any actual scoring.
That put the game into overtime. I thought the Caps did decently, there, although shots were 5-1 against, so it must have been a bit worse than it seemed. But Holtby still held solid, putting the Caps into their first shootout of the season (and, of course, Wolski was again scratched. Would have been nice to have a shootout tensai on the ice).
The Rangers elected to go first, sending Nash in against Holtby. Nash was given a show in why Holtby is a good stickhandler, as a well-placed poke-check sent the puck back towards center ice. Lundqvist remembered his scouting report on Hendricks, not biting on the initial move and then giving nothing.
Callahan came in on Holtby, drifted right and shot left, missing the net. OV went next, hieing a bit left, then cut back right in front of Hank and slid the puck under him. Stepan went next for NY (and odd choice, given his career 11% success rate), and he managed to sneak it past Holtby when Holtby got his leg in the way, but not quite square, and the puck went off his leg and into the top of the net.
I'd forgotten that Ribs was supposed to be a good shootout guy, and did not get a pointed reminder on his attempt. He just did not put much of a move in, and shot it right into Lundqvist. Disappointing.
But Holtby made up for it by stopping Richards, leaving Backstrom with the chance to win it by beating his countryman (again, I suppose, since he had the first goal of the night). And he did it without getting very fancy; he just put a wrister right under Hank's glove for the win.
The Jets also won today, beating Tampa Bay, so the Caps are still five points behind them and two behind the Rangers. I'm really getting a bad feeling that the Caps are going to finish the season ninth while Ribeiro walks. That would be... not good.
Although it was great to see the Caps putting things together, I would feel much better if they had lost the last three games instead of winning. Up next are the Islanders on Tuesday; another must-win game as they're tied with the Caps.
Update: I forgot to mention that Fehr suffered some sort of upper body injury. I hope (more for his sake than for the team's) that it isn't anything serious. On the plus side, it will hopefully get Wolski on the ice for a bit.
20120509
Just six more seconds
I didn't really want to talk about the Caps-Rangers game the other night, but I feel that I must. It started very much as a mirror image of the game before. The Rangers came out very strong, and completely dominated the first period. Shots were 17-4, but, thankfully for the Caps, only one found the back of the net.
The second period was much more even (although shots still noticeably favored New York). But bounces went the Caps way, and the only goal came from Laich, when he found a deadened pass from OV in the slot, and put it past Lundqvist. That happened about midway through the period, and things see-sawed quite a bit afterwards.
Things started to really go the Caps way in the third, though, when the power play put together a really good sequence of shots, culminating in Carlson's point blast finding the top corner of the net. That happened four minutes in, and my first thought was, "Don't be content to play defense the rest of the game".
And they weren't. They continued to play quite well through the period, generating some very good chances. But things went south pretty seriously with twenty-two seconds left, when Ward got hit with a high-sticking call (four minute variety). The PK managed to hold on, 6-on-4, for sixteen seconds, but Holtby couldn't get his glove on top of a puck in front of him, and Richards poked it under him and into the net (but the blame shouldn't all go to Holtby; the defense failed to tie up Richards as well).
Unsurprisingly, that tying goal with six seconds left pushed the game into overtime. And, of course, the second half of Ward's penalty was still in effect. It took New York just over a minute and a half to find the net again. This time, it was a fairly innocuous-looking point shot from Staal that made its way into the net.
It was an incredibly disappointing result, especially when it was so close to going into the win column. And let's be clear; it was a phenomenal game by Holtby. The Caps can't be disappointed with his play. The skaters just allowed the Rangers too much time in the offensive zone. Eighteen shots (the Caps total for the game) just isn't enough, if you want to win.
Now the Caps have a very tough, uphill slog to try to win the series. Tonight, they face their first elimination game of the series. The only good thing about it is that at least it's a home game (not that that's been a panacea for them in the playoffs, but it was close to it in the regular season).
Let's hope they can bring the win, and be able to play again on Saturday.
The second period was much more even (although shots still noticeably favored New York). But bounces went the Caps way, and the only goal came from Laich, when he found a deadened pass from OV in the slot, and put it past Lundqvist. That happened about midway through the period, and things see-sawed quite a bit afterwards.
Things started to really go the Caps way in the third, though, when the power play put together a really good sequence of shots, culminating in Carlson's point blast finding the top corner of the net. That happened four minutes in, and my first thought was, "Don't be content to play defense the rest of the game".
And they weren't. They continued to play quite well through the period, generating some very good chances. But things went south pretty seriously with twenty-two seconds left, when Ward got hit with a high-sticking call (four minute variety). The PK managed to hold on, 6-on-4, for sixteen seconds, but Holtby couldn't get his glove on top of a puck in front of him, and Richards poked it under him and into the net (but the blame shouldn't all go to Holtby; the defense failed to tie up Richards as well).
Unsurprisingly, that tying goal with six seconds left pushed the game into overtime. And, of course, the second half of Ward's penalty was still in effect. It took New York just over a minute and a half to find the net again. This time, it was a fairly innocuous-looking point shot from Staal that made its way into the net.
It was an incredibly disappointing result, especially when it was so close to going into the win column. And let's be clear; it was a phenomenal game by Holtby. The Caps can't be disappointed with his play. The skaters just allowed the Rangers too much time in the offensive zone. Eighteen shots (the Caps total for the game) just isn't enough, if you want to win.
Now the Caps have a very tough, uphill slog to try to win the series. Tonight, they face their first elimination game of the series. The only good thing about it is that at least it's a home game (not that that's been a panacea for them in the playoffs, but it was close to it in the regular season).
Let's hope they can bring the win, and be able to play again on Saturday.
20120430
Series Begun
Well, tonight's game was certainly much more to my liking. As expected, the game started out pretty slow, with the two teams feeling each other out. There was more shooting, and less shot blocking.
It took a while, but the Caps got on the board first. The Rangers turned over the puck on an attempted keep-in that went to Ward. He, Knuble, and Aucoin ran up ice, 3-on-2, culminating in a very pretty tic-tac-toe passing play to Knuble at the mouth of the goal. Lundqvist never had a chance on it, nor did the defenders.
It took almost five more minutes of back-and-forth for another goal to be scored. Chimmer raced into the zone when Lundqvist was handling it behind the net, got the puck, and threw it in front of the net. Hendy was there, and tried to score shooting backwards between his legs. He got it past the defender, and mostly past Lundqvist, but Lundy managed to bat it a bit sideways after it was past him. But Chimmer came back to clean up the garbage, putting it into the net.
It wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a pretty goal, but oh, how it made me happy. That was really the first time I felt like the Caps were going to win.
They gave back a goal with forty-three seconds left in the period, as Shultz tried to defend two guys without help. Unsurprisingly, they got it past Shultz and Holtby.
It was not the first really terrible giveaway in the period (actually, Green and Hamr had several really terrible giveaways in the game; not sure how many were in that period, but I think the two of them had the majority of the Caps giveaways for the game), but, thankfully, was the only one that led to a goal. The one good thing is that the Caps ended up with only four giveaways on the game, so they were very good tonight, by that metric.
The Caps also managed to keep play moving between the two ends of the ice, and generated very good chances when they did get to the other end. The power play was also very good; converting on one chance, but generating a lot of shots and zone time.
Anyway, the Caps went into the first break up a goal, and held onto the same score all the way through the second period. I was starting to wonder if we'd be treated to another scoreless period in the third, but the Rangers tied things up at the seven minute mark. Knuble had just gone into the box for a high-sticking call (which I was a little miffed at, because 1, it was obviously accidental, and 2, the Rangers got away with a high stick only half a minute earlier). The Rangers kept the puck in the zone the entire time from call to score, getting the goal after working the puck around efficiently and then getting the puck deflected from in front of the goal.
As I alluded earlier, the Caps got their one-goal margin restored several minutes later on the power play. Backstrom won the faceoff, following the call, cleanly back to OV. OV skated to the middle of the ice, allowing Brouwer to set up a screen, then wristed it into the top of the net.
From there, play went back and forth, but nobody else managed to find the back of the net, so the Caps skated off with the close victory.
So, a visiting team has won; therefore, the series has definitely started. Let's hope the Caps can defend the phone booth better than they did in the opening round.
Overall, this was one of the Caps better efforts of the playoffs, with good chances, tight defense, and a lot more attention to keeping possession of the puck.
I'm still a bit mystified by Hunter's ice time decisions. OV got thirteen and a half minutes; the only players with less were Knuble, Aucoin, Ward, Chimera, and Semin.
The good part of that is that I think OV is showing more defensive effort the last couple of games. The bad part is that the players with game-breaking potential aren't being given as much time as the grinders.
Beagle's a great story, and all, and I certainly admire his effort, but he should not be the forward leading in ice time.
I guess I shouldn't complain too much (it worked), but I can't see how this works out well for the team, long-term.
Well, we'll see Wednesday, when the teams return to DC, I suppose.
It took a while, but the Caps got on the board first. The Rangers turned over the puck on an attempted keep-in that went to Ward. He, Knuble, and Aucoin ran up ice, 3-on-2, culminating in a very pretty tic-tac-toe passing play to Knuble at the mouth of the goal. Lundqvist never had a chance on it, nor did the defenders.
It took almost five more minutes of back-and-forth for another goal to be scored. Chimmer raced into the zone when Lundqvist was handling it behind the net, got the puck, and threw it in front of the net. Hendy was there, and tried to score shooting backwards between his legs. He got it past the defender, and mostly past Lundqvist, but Lundy managed to bat it a bit sideways after it was past him. But Chimmer came back to clean up the garbage, putting it into the net.
It wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a pretty goal, but oh, how it made me happy. That was really the first time I felt like the Caps were going to win.
They gave back a goal with forty-three seconds left in the period, as Shultz tried to defend two guys without help. Unsurprisingly, they got it past Shultz and Holtby.
It was not the first really terrible giveaway in the period (actually, Green and Hamr had several really terrible giveaways in the game; not sure how many were in that period, but I think the two of them had the majority of the Caps giveaways for the game), but, thankfully, was the only one that led to a goal. The one good thing is that the Caps ended up with only four giveaways on the game, so they were very good tonight, by that metric.
The Caps also managed to keep play moving between the two ends of the ice, and generated very good chances when they did get to the other end. The power play was also very good; converting on one chance, but generating a lot of shots and zone time.
Anyway, the Caps went into the first break up a goal, and held onto the same score all the way through the second period. I was starting to wonder if we'd be treated to another scoreless period in the third, but the Rangers tied things up at the seven minute mark. Knuble had just gone into the box for a high-sticking call (which I was a little miffed at, because 1, it was obviously accidental, and 2, the Rangers got away with a high stick only half a minute earlier). The Rangers kept the puck in the zone the entire time from call to score, getting the goal after working the puck around efficiently and then getting the puck deflected from in front of the goal.
As I alluded earlier, the Caps got their one-goal margin restored several minutes later on the power play. Backstrom won the faceoff, following the call, cleanly back to OV. OV skated to the middle of the ice, allowing Brouwer to set up a screen, then wristed it into the top of the net.
From there, play went back and forth, but nobody else managed to find the back of the net, so the Caps skated off with the close victory.
So, a visiting team has won; therefore, the series has definitely started. Let's hope the Caps can defend the phone booth better than they did in the opening round.
Overall, this was one of the Caps better efforts of the playoffs, with good chances, tight defense, and a lot more attention to keeping possession of the puck.
I'm still a bit mystified by Hunter's ice time decisions. OV got thirteen and a half minutes; the only players with less were Knuble, Aucoin, Ward, Chimera, and Semin.
The good part of that is that I think OV is showing more defensive effort the last couple of games. The bad part is that the players with game-breaking potential aren't being given as much time as the grinders.
Beagle's a great story, and all, and I certainly admire his effort, but he should not be the forward leading in ice time.
I guess I shouldn't complain too much (it worked), but I can't see how this works out well for the team, long-term.
Well, we'll see Wednesday, when the teams return to DC, I suppose.
On Broadway
[I wrote this earlier today, well before the game started.]
I don't have a whole lot to say about the Caps/Rangers tilt the other night. I watched it, starting shortly after it ended, as I was at a technology conference earlier in the day. One thing that hit me was that there was a remarkably small amount of action for a game that was moving a lot.
Some of that shouldn't be a surprise, I suppose. These were the top two teams in shot-blocking in the first round, I believe. So each team blocking about as many shots as they put on net shouldn't be as surprising as it normally would be. And I think that does a decent job of explaining why there were so few shots, overall.
It is good that the Caps were not outshot (for once) in the game. They were dead even at even strength, with the Caps holding a decent lead in power play shots. But Holtby did not have a good game, and the defense left him out to dry on Richards' goal in the third. And Lundqvist led his team, as he's done all season.
End result, it was a fairly long day for the Caps.
It didn't seem like the Caps spent nearly enough time in the Rangers' zone, although shots were even, as noted. I guess the Caps just did a better job of generating shots when they were there.
Overall, though, the 3-1 score in NYC tells us just that this series hasn't started yet. And it better get started tonight.
I don't have a whole lot to say about the Caps/Rangers tilt the other night. I watched it, starting shortly after it ended, as I was at a technology conference earlier in the day. One thing that hit me was that there was a remarkably small amount of action for a game that was moving a lot.
Some of that shouldn't be a surprise, I suppose. These were the top two teams in shot-blocking in the first round, I believe. So each team blocking about as many shots as they put on net shouldn't be as surprising as it normally would be. And I think that does a decent job of explaining why there were so few shots, overall.
It is good that the Caps were not outshot (for once) in the game. They were dead even at even strength, with the Caps holding a decent lead in power play shots. But Holtby did not have a good game, and the defense left him out to dry on Richards' goal in the third. And Lundqvist led his team, as he's done all season.
End result, it was a fairly long day for the Caps.
It didn't seem like the Caps spent nearly enough time in the Rangers' zone, although shots were even, as noted. I guess the Caps just did a better job of generating shots when they were there.
Overall, though, the 3-1 score in NYC tells us just that this series hasn't started yet. And it better get started tonight.
20110413
Starting the Real Season
The real hockey season started tonight, with the Caps facing off against the Rangers, who limped into the playoffs when the Hurricanes lost their last game.
One vs eight. Should be a breeze, right? Well, last year certainly showed that that isn't necessarily the case.
I was still feeling pretty good about this one, though, despite the Caps two terrible games against the Rags earlier this year. Callahan being out was certainly part of that.
I must admit to some disagreement about putting Neuvy in net, though. No slam on him, but I'd have felt better with Varly playing. The last several games, especially, did not alleviate that (except for the last one); Neuvy looked a bit shaky for significant parts of those game.
But the game started ok, with the Caps dominating possession and getting good opportunities, but failing to beat Lundqvist. And when things did break down a bit, Neuvy was looking very good.
So the first two periods went by without any scoring. But the Rags got on the board first, with a one-timer in the slot by Gilroy off a pass from behind the net finding the bottom corner. The Rangers seemed to do a good job keeping the Caps out of good scoring opportunities for a while after that, getting me quite annoyed. But with a bit under seven minutes left, Semin and OV both went to one side of the net and managed to cram the puck under Lundqvist just before the whistle blew. OV got credit for putting it in, and the game was tied.
And then, half a minute later, all hell broke loose as my recording ended precipitously (this was largely the fault of the Caps game bumping the scheduled Wiz game). But it ended pretty well, as I flipped over the CSN, and found the game still going on, with two minutes or so remaining in OT. The timing was phenomenal, as Arnott intercepted a weak clearing attempt on the next shift and found Semin between the circles. Semin sent a laser of a one-timer to the top-left corner, beating Lundqvist stick side. That was sweet.
So I'm feeling good about the team's ability to bring this home in five, assuming they avoid complacency (and that Lundqvist doesn't get into a zone similar to what Halak did last year). But the complacency part is very real; the Caps are the more talented team, but not so much so as to be able to breeze by. Hopefully, Arnott's presence and the memory of those two earlier blow-outs will prevent that.
Oh, and I should mention that our hopes were answered by the return of Green to the line-up, finally. And he looked good, so even better. I'm not at all sure I understand him being paired with Erskine, given that he's worked very well with both Hannan and Schultz. I hope the big gaffe they had that led to a very good Rangers scoring chance will be enough to put the kibosh on that experiment, but we'll see. Regardless, very good to see him on the ice. Now if we could just get Poti or Wideman back, we'd have one hell of a top-to-bottom defensive corps.
One vs eight. Should be a breeze, right? Well, last year certainly showed that that isn't necessarily the case.
I was still feeling pretty good about this one, though, despite the Caps two terrible games against the Rags earlier this year. Callahan being out was certainly part of that.
I must admit to some disagreement about putting Neuvy in net, though. No slam on him, but I'd have felt better with Varly playing. The last several games, especially, did not alleviate that (except for the last one); Neuvy looked a bit shaky for significant parts of those game.
But the game started ok, with the Caps dominating possession and getting good opportunities, but failing to beat Lundqvist. And when things did break down a bit, Neuvy was looking very good.
So the first two periods went by without any scoring. But the Rags got on the board first, with a one-timer in the slot by Gilroy off a pass from behind the net finding the bottom corner. The Rangers seemed to do a good job keeping the Caps out of good scoring opportunities for a while after that, getting me quite annoyed. But with a bit under seven minutes left, Semin and OV both went to one side of the net and managed to cram the puck under Lundqvist just before the whistle blew. OV got credit for putting it in, and the game was tied.
And then, half a minute later, all hell broke loose as my recording ended precipitously (this was largely the fault of the Caps game bumping the scheduled Wiz game). But it ended pretty well, as I flipped over the CSN, and found the game still going on, with two minutes or so remaining in OT. The timing was phenomenal, as Arnott intercepted a weak clearing attempt on the next shift and found Semin between the circles. Semin sent a laser of a one-timer to the top-left corner, beating Lundqvist stick side. That was sweet.
So I'm feeling good about the team's ability to bring this home in five, assuming they avoid complacency (and that Lundqvist doesn't get into a zone similar to what Halak did last year). But the complacency part is very real; the Caps are the more talented team, but not so much so as to be able to breeze by. Hopefully, Arnott's presence and the memory of those two earlier blow-outs will prevent that.
Oh, and I should mention that our hopes were answered by the return of Green to the line-up, finally. And he looked good, so even better. I'm not at all sure I understand him being paired with Erskine, given that he's worked very well with both Hannan and Schultz. I hope the big gaffe they had that led to a very good Rangers scoring chance will be enough to put the kibosh on that experiment, but we'll see. Regardless, very good to see him on the ice. Now if we could just get Poti or Wideman back, we'd have one hell of a top-to-bottom defensive corps.
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