I wasn't able to watch last night's Caps game until the kids were in bed, which probably means I started it in the first half of the third period. But the important part is that I was able to watch the entire game without interruption (and mostly without commercials, yay).
And it started out looking pretty good, with the Caps generating some good pressure, until Grabo got called for a high sticking penalty. It was a bit of a weird call, though, as his stick came up and hit Tavares as he was going down from being tripped by Tavares.
In any event, the PK unit went to work, but not very well. Five shots were allowed on the ensuing power play, and a goal was scored less than a second after the penalty had expired. The one good part was that Holtby looked very good on the power play; he made several routine stops and one or two very good ones.
Anyway, the Caps showed no signs of a letdown after that, working hard for the rest of the period, even though they weren't able to solve Nabokov.
Going into the second, both teams had close to half their total goals on the season in the second period (the Isles were at half, and the Caps weren't far off), so it was expected that scoring would pick up a bit. And it did not disappoint; the first goal came only three minutes in, with Carlson succeeding on a risky keep-in at the blue line. He pushed it past the forward trying to get by him with the puck, then fired a laser of a shot into the far side of the net.
The Caps pressure continued, and they were rewarded with a power play a minute and a half later. OV potted one on a fairly weak wrister (odd, for him; he rarely shoots at less than full power) off the ensuing faceoff, and things were looking great. But the team had another letdown, as they allowed Okposo to score only seventeen seconds later (the Okposo/Tavares/Vanek line was buzzing all night, even if this was their only score; they caused a lot of problems for the Caps, and had nineteen shot attempts between them).
It was pretty much all Caps from there on out, though. The Caps scored again (MarJo, on a rebound in the crease) two minutes later, and again a minute and a half after that (Urbom on a top-corner snipe from the point off a nice pass from Wilson, who was on his ass a few feet from the goal). And they didn't let up; they kept pressuring, although it took a penalty on newly-acquired Tomas Vanek for the Caps to get on the board again.
Vanek was called for interference with about three minutes left in the period, and it took all of nineteen seconds for the power play to strike again, with OV potting a really nice feed from next to the goal, by MarJo. (Credit that one partially to the Islanders defenseman who failed to cut off that passing lane, although it was a good job by MarJo to see it.)
That finished out the scoring for the period, although not for the game. The other thing that made me happy about this game was that the Caps didn't collapse back into a shell, even with a three-goal lead. Not even when the Islanders tried to make things quite chippy (there were a lot of penalties handed out in the last two minutes of the game). And in Washington's one power play in the third, they managed to get another score, as OV fed Wilson for a tip-in about fifteen seconds into the power play.
It really wasn't much of a goal, but it was a nice reward to Wilson for a very strong game (even discounting the goal and assist, he looked very dangerous all game), although his playing time was still only ten minutes. Congrats to Wilson for converting, and getting his first points of the season; we're looking for more of that. :)
For the rest of the team... Well, OV had a great game (the two goals and an assist were merely the punctuation marks); he was mostly playing with Backstrom and Erat, and those two gave him several one-on-one chances over the course of the game. I really liked watching that line.
MarJo had a good game, and not just on that goal. His line had quite a bit of zone time, and a few good chances. His line was still the weakest, but it wasn't a sinkhole. As long as they can maintain that status, this is looking like a really good lineup.
Grabo's line looked very good again, with a number of good chances, and very good possession.
And the fourth line looked pretty good too. As I said, Wilson looked very good, and the others weren't stopping him from doing things.
On the defensive side, the top defenders looked like top defenders. Schmidt continued his excellent play, although he did make two small mistakes (one was an ill-advised point-to-point pass, and I forget the other). And the third pairing looked pretty good as well.
What I couldn't figure out was why Fehr was a healthy scratch. That is, if they weren't lying about him being healthy. Because if he was healthy, I can't figure it; he's been playing well.
Dima was also a healthy scratch. Hard to fault that one, though; no obvious pick of whom he would replace. Urbom, I guess, would be most likely, but he looked decent enough all night. But I'd like to see more of Dima; he was certainly exciting (in a good way) two seasons ago.
The one thing that didn't thrill me, and that I should mention is that there was some serious line-shuffling going on, primarily in the top two lines, over the course of the game (especially in the second period). I'm not sure I understand that, but it's hard to argue with results.
As I said, I liked the top line, and hope it continues. The second line seems decent, although I'd move Fehr to MarJo's left (since he seems to be the only player Oates will play on his off-hand wing) and send Laich down to the fourth.
I wouldn't mess with the third, and would be left with a fourth of Laich, Latta, and Wilson, which would make a heck of a checking line. And could be trusted for more than seven minutes a game.
The power play was, again, very good. In fact, four of the goals were PPGs. On the six opportunities, the Caps got eight shots in only three minutes and forty seconds. No way to argue with that.
In fact, even though the Caps had one more power play opportunity, they had six minutes and twenty seconds less power play time. Pretty good.
The penalty kill was five for five, but allowed another thirteen shots (not counting the shot that scored right at the end of the first power play). They actually looked really, really good on one penalty (the "holding the stick" penalty that Chimmer took, early in the third), but generally allowed way too much zone time for the Islanders. I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but expecting a .980 save percentage to continue when down a man is highly unrealistic.
The one goal in forty opportunities is certainly nice, but they're there mostly due to luck, not skill. Something has to be done to improve the PK. I'm not sure what needs to be done (getting better at holding the blue line, maybe?), but something certainly does. I hope someone on the coaching staff is thinking about that.
Getting away from that, one last thing to talk about, which is possession. Despite being way down in power play time, and despite being way ahead for about half the game, the Caps still came out of the game with good possession numbers. All-situation Fenwick, they were up one. 5-on-5 close Fenwick (twenty-one and a half minutes, roughly, and it was Corsi and shots, as well) was over 60% in the Caps favor. Really, there was nothing not to like in last night's game.
Minnesota is coming to town Thursday, though, and they're a very strong possession team. That'll be a good test of whether last night was really a sign of significant improvement, or just a mirage. Also, look out for that first period. Minnesota has a hair over a third of their goals in the first, while Washington has less than a fifth of theirs. Also, if it goes to overtime, neither team has an overtime goal on the season. Go Caps!
Showing posts with label marcus johansson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marcus johansson. Show all posts
20131106
20131021
Putting it together
I wasn't able to watch the Caps/Blue Jackets game until it was close to over. Fortunately, the DVR didn't hose me up, and I didn't get any hints before I got the recording started.
I was aware of the line shakeup that happened before the game. So I knew Erat was up to the second (replacing Grabo, rather than Laich, which confused me), Grabo went down to the third, Fehr went down to the fourth. I still don't think they're icing their best team, but it's a step in the right direction (I'd like to see a second of Erat-Grabovski-Brouwer (or maybe even E-G-Wilson), with a Chimmer-Laich-Ward third and Volpatti-Fehr-Wilson/Brouwer fourth. That'd make the third line the checking one, and the fourth a cycling/scoring/energy line). Anyway, my hope is that Oates is still experimenting. If he doesn't consider this a work-in-progress, then I'm going to be a bit disturbed.
Let me just take a minute to talk about Wilson vs Brouwer on the second. Brouwer's a slightly better hitter and shooter (I think; neither is cut and dried), but otherwise inferior to Wilson. I'll have another point in a few paragraphs. But I think Wilson is already better at positioning and overall possession. For sure, neither one is going to be driving the play (this year; Wilson, obviously, still has upside down the line).
Getting to the game, it was interesting. Oates had obviously talked to the defensemen about being more aggressive going on offense. This was apparent as, within the first couple of minutes, Alzner was up on a break and Green tried to break into the O-zone 1-on-4. Interestingly, Alzner's charge worked out better than Green's, in that it did lead to a decent scoring chance.
While the breakout actually looked better in this scenario, it did lead to quite a few chances going the other way, over the course of the game. So, I'll call it a qualified improvement. Meaning, when the wings get better at covering the back end, I'll call this a win. Or maybe it was just a one-game change focused on Columbus. I guess we'll have to see on that.
The other thing I found interesting, strategically, were the power play adjustments. Columbus was playing to keep containment on Ward/Brouwer-Backstrom-MarJo, stretching to prevent the Backstrom->Green pass. It really looked, at least for the first three power plays, that the only thing that could stop the Caps, despite that, was Brouwer (who took a dumb penalty to cancel one of the man-up opportunities. Another facet where Wilson is probably already superior to Brouwer. Especially considering that it was the second time this season). Trouble getting the puck to OV didn't stop them. OV still had some very good chances; the first time the puck got there, he got two good whacks at it. The second, he buried (and this one did go through Green).
Despite those chances, on the fourth power play, the Caps swapped OV and Green. That wasn't horrible, but I'm not a fan of the arrangement. I'd really prefer to see OV shooting from closer. Perhaps it was just an attempt to throw off the Blue Jackets' defense. In which case, ok, but I hope it doesn't become a regular thing (especially for a power play still clicking at one-in-three).
The other main thing to point out was that Holtby's excellent game did a lot to cover up those holes the defensive aggressiveness opened. The Caps did do a pretty good job at keeping play at the correct end of the ice. The downside was that when the Jackets got to the Caps zone, they got very good opportunities. Really, this was a game that could have gone south in an awful hurry with less-than-stellar goaltending.
The numbers look reasonably good, though, for the Caps. With the score tied, at evens (ie: through the first, and the first minute and a half of the second), the Caps were heavily ahead. That first Caps goal, scored on the power play, did not indicate further tilting of the ice, though. In fact, for the next (almost) six minutes, the Jackets had a heavy edge in Corsi and Fenwick (+8 and +9, respectively).
But Erat's line (despite Laich being the center, it was very obvious that Erat was the driver) continued to play very well, and broke through at 7:43 of the second, with a heaping helping of Oleksy curl-and-drag. Oleksy's drive to the net pulled almost the entire defense to his side of the net, leaving Laich open for a tap-in when Oleksy passed across to him.
The rest of the game was played pretty close, possessionally, with the Caps having a one event edge in Corsi and the Jackets having a one even edge in Fenwick (both calculated at five aside). But Brouwer got his second goal (nicely set up by Erat), and OV got that power play to put the exclamation point on the game.
Columbus did claw one goal back with five minutes left, and did force quite a few more good saves from Holtby, but the outcome had long-since stopped being in doubt.
I'd call it Washington's best game of the season, and it's really got me licking my chops at the thought of Erat and Grabovski on the same line, but there's definitely still some holes.
I'm fine with the aggressive defense, but the wings have got to do a better job covering that (Alzner had a second charge, later in the game, that took him all the way behind the net, and nobody covered the point before he got back there. That's no way to win games). Holtby's mighty good, but he can't be relied on for .971 save percentage (nobody can).
In the bigger picture, the Caps said that Wilson will stay up for the season. I'm definitely not a fan of that decision, as long as Wilson keeps getting only six-nine minutes (he got almost nine Saturday, which is 1-2 more than I thought he'd gotten). If he starts getting 11-13 minutes, then maybe it's not a terrible idea. But burning a year of his ELC for so little play is just terrible asset management.
Oh, and I called out Erat and Holtby for excellent play already. Schmidt continued to look good as well; I only saw one miscue by him on the night. And MarJo is definitely looking better this year. It isn't an automatic turnover when gets to the boards. He also doubled his shot count for the season! Volpatti also looked decent, I thought (yeah, my expectations were pretty low, that I feel like mentioning that).
OV had a pretty decent game (which is to say, an inferior game by his standards); he was good, but not dominating. Oh, and his line's first two shifts were... not good. And Carlson worried me when he took a penalty in the first. He gets, by far, the most PK time on the team, so I was a bit concerned with him in the box. Happily, they handled it well.
In fact, I need to give kudos to the PK team. In one of the opportunities, they managed to go over a minute before the Jackets got set up (two chances to play "four corners" in one PK. It was very, very encouraging to see that they got them, and even more so that they took them).
We'll see where things go, but there were definitely some good signs. Five on five play still needs to improve, but it looks like it's headed in the right direction.
I was aware of the line shakeup that happened before the game. So I knew Erat was up to the second (replacing Grabo, rather than Laich, which confused me), Grabo went down to the third, Fehr went down to the fourth. I still don't think they're icing their best team, but it's a step in the right direction (I'd like to see a second of Erat-Grabovski-Brouwer (or maybe even E-G-Wilson), with a Chimmer-Laich-Ward third and Volpatti-Fehr-Wilson/Brouwer fourth. That'd make the third line the checking one, and the fourth a cycling/scoring/energy line). Anyway, my hope is that Oates is still experimenting. If he doesn't consider this a work-in-progress, then I'm going to be a bit disturbed.
Let me just take a minute to talk about Wilson vs Brouwer on the second. Brouwer's a slightly better hitter and shooter (I think; neither is cut and dried), but otherwise inferior to Wilson. I'll have another point in a few paragraphs. But I think Wilson is already better at positioning and overall possession. For sure, neither one is going to be driving the play (this year; Wilson, obviously, still has upside down the line).
Getting to the game, it was interesting. Oates had obviously talked to the defensemen about being more aggressive going on offense. This was apparent as, within the first couple of minutes, Alzner was up on a break and Green tried to break into the O-zone 1-on-4. Interestingly, Alzner's charge worked out better than Green's, in that it did lead to a decent scoring chance.
While the breakout actually looked better in this scenario, it did lead to quite a few chances going the other way, over the course of the game. So, I'll call it a qualified improvement. Meaning, when the wings get better at covering the back end, I'll call this a win. Or maybe it was just a one-game change focused on Columbus. I guess we'll have to see on that.
The other thing I found interesting, strategically, were the power play adjustments. Columbus was playing to keep containment on Ward/Brouwer-Backstrom-MarJo, stretching to prevent the Backstrom->Green pass. It really looked, at least for the first three power plays, that the only thing that could stop the Caps, despite that, was Brouwer (who took a dumb penalty to cancel one of the man-up opportunities. Another facet where Wilson is probably already superior to Brouwer. Especially considering that it was the second time this season). Trouble getting the puck to OV didn't stop them. OV still had some very good chances; the first time the puck got there, he got two good whacks at it. The second, he buried (and this one did go through Green).
Despite those chances, on the fourth power play, the Caps swapped OV and Green. That wasn't horrible, but I'm not a fan of the arrangement. I'd really prefer to see OV shooting from closer. Perhaps it was just an attempt to throw off the Blue Jackets' defense. In which case, ok, but I hope it doesn't become a regular thing (especially for a power play still clicking at one-in-three).
The other main thing to point out was that Holtby's excellent game did a lot to cover up those holes the defensive aggressiveness opened. The Caps did do a pretty good job at keeping play at the correct end of the ice. The downside was that when the Jackets got to the Caps zone, they got very good opportunities. Really, this was a game that could have gone south in an awful hurry with less-than-stellar goaltending.
The numbers look reasonably good, though, for the Caps. With the score tied, at evens (ie: through the first, and the first minute and a half of the second), the Caps were heavily ahead. That first Caps goal, scored on the power play, did not indicate further tilting of the ice, though. In fact, for the next (almost) six minutes, the Jackets had a heavy edge in Corsi and Fenwick (+8 and +9, respectively).
But Erat's line (despite Laich being the center, it was very obvious that Erat was the driver) continued to play very well, and broke through at 7:43 of the second, with a heaping helping of Oleksy curl-and-drag. Oleksy's drive to the net pulled almost the entire defense to his side of the net, leaving Laich open for a tap-in when Oleksy passed across to him.
The rest of the game was played pretty close, possessionally, with the Caps having a one event edge in Corsi and the Jackets having a one even edge in Fenwick (both calculated at five aside). But Brouwer got his second goal (nicely set up by Erat), and OV got that power play to put the exclamation point on the game.
Columbus did claw one goal back with five minutes left, and did force quite a few more good saves from Holtby, but the outcome had long-since stopped being in doubt.
I'd call it Washington's best game of the season, and it's really got me licking my chops at the thought of Erat and Grabovski on the same line, but there's definitely still some holes.
I'm fine with the aggressive defense, but the wings have got to do a better job covering that (Alzner had a second charge, later in the game, that took him all the way behind the net, and nobody covered the point before he got back there. That's no way to win games). Holtby's mighty good, but he can't be relied on for .971 save percentage (nobody can).
In the bigger picture, the Caps said that Wilson will stay up for the season. I'm definitely not a fan of that decision, as long as Wilson keeps getting only six-nine minutes (he got almost nine Saturday, which is 1-2 more than I thought he'd gotten). If he starts getting 11-13 minutes, then maybe it's not a terrible idea. But burning a year of his ELC for so little play is just terrible asset management.
Oh, and I called out Erat and Holtby for excellent play already. Schmidt continued to look good as well; I only saw one miscue by him on the night. And MarJo is definitely looking better this year. It isn't an automatic turnover when gets to the boards. He also doubled his shot count for the season! Volpatti also looked decent, I thought (yeah, my expectations were pretty low, that I feel like mentioning that).
OV had a pretty decent game (which is to say, an inferior game by his standards); he was good, but not dominating. Oh, and his line's first two shifts were... not good. And Carlson worried me when he took a penalty in the first. He gets, by far, the most PK time on the team, so I was a bit concerned with him in the box. Happily, they handled it well.
In fact, I need to give kudos to the PK team. In one of the opportunities, they managed to go over a minute before the Jackets got set up (two chances to play "four corners" in one PK. It was very, very encouraging to see that they got them, and even more so that they took them).
We'll see where things go, but there were definitely some good signs. Five on five play still needs to improve, but it looks like it's headed in the right direction.
20131004
Snatching victory...
I don't have a lot of time to write this, but I wanted to jot down a few notes about last night's Caps game, which I was finally able to watch tonight. I wasn't feeling great about it, as last night I turned it on a few seconds after the Flames opened the scoring.
And it didn't really go all that well after. The Flames scored more before seventeen minutes had been reached, and Hillen suffered a leg (probably knee) injury in there as well. Wilson responded to that with a few good punches and a nice takedown on the person delivering the hit that caused the injury (on replay it looked pretty clean, but in full speed I didn't think so). But Holtby was pulled after that third goal.
The Caps did get a few chances in there (OV was close a couple times), but nothing sustained. It really wasn't looking good by the end of the period. The only encouraging thing was that the shots were close (in fact, the Caps were up one, which surprised me quite a bit).
And things didn't look much better for a while in the second. Then Carrick got a hooking minor (weird call; looked like Carrick was the one being fouled). The PK did well this time (the third goal in the first was a PPG, so it hadn't started well), and at the expiration, MarJo got the puck and found Carrick at the other blue line. Carrick took it in on the breakaway and deked Ramo down, calmly depositing the puck behind him.
But, a minute and a half later, Neuvy misplayed the puck behind the net fairly badly, and gave up an open-net goal to restore Calgary's three-goal margin. And the play still wasn't looking too good for the home team, although they did have the occasional chance. Then Jones hit Carlson in the face with his stick to give the Caps the man advantage (and I'm impressed the refs saw this one. It was there, but was very quick).
The Caps won the faceoff, worked it around for a bit, then fed OV for the one-timer for a goal on the first shot (sadly, though, it was the Caps first shot since Carrick had scored).
The Caps got within one four minutes later with OV again finding the back of the net. Off an icing call, Backstrom won the faceoff over to MarJo, who dumped back to OV, who rocketed it into the net.
And the Caps looked great for the remaining four minutes or so of the period. Lots of chances, many of them very close. But none were converted, which took us into the third (other than the bench minor with thirteen seconds left).
The team was doing a good job killing that penalty for the first 59 seconds, then Erskine (with time) cleared it the length of the ice, and over the glass at the far end. How often does that happen? Well, for the Caps, this season, every game, apparently. To their credit, the team did a great job killing the two-man advantage. The remainder of the delay of game wasn't quite as smooth, but they got the job done.
The Caps drew two more penalties, and the second of those provided the tying score. OV wristed it into a defender laying in front of him, the puck bounced around some skates to Grabo, who calmly passed over to Backstrom, who settled it and wristed it between the defender's legs, and past Ramo.
Things didn't look too good after that, but they managed to get into overtime with the tie. The overtime felt pretty heavily Calgary's way, but shots were equal. In fact, they were equal for the entire game, which surprised me. The Caps really didn't seem to have equal control of the play, other than five or six minutes at the end of the second. Although score effects would, normally, help equalize quite a bit. I'm sure it wasn't nearly even when the score was close.
Anyway, they managed to drag it out into the shootout, where Grabo and OV both deked forehand, then scored on the backhand. And Neuvy stopped Baertschi and Hudler to cement the win.
It wasn't pretty (though you've got to figure that being short a defender didn't help with that), but they got the job done. It was actually less encouraging than the Chicago loss, but the result was better.
Holtby definitely had a bad game. Neuvy, outside of that one puck-handling misadventure, looked very good. Erskine did not; he mostly looked pretty terrible (though I'm surprised to see he was even on the night). MarJo was, quietly, very good. In addition to his beautiful helper for Carrick, he had assists on both of OV's goals. And OV was a force; the two goals, nine more shots, second assist on Backstrom's goal, and the shootout winner. The only weakness was taking his second slashing minor, but at least he had company going to the box, this time.
And Grabo looked great. He had a number of nice passes, and was regularly threatening. Fehr's line, I noticed several times looking good, although I suspect I'm forgetting several (maybe many) not-so-good plays. Erat and Wilson looked pretty good; unfortunately, Beagle was centering them. They managed to get a few pretty good chances despite him. But again, I suspect I'm forgetting a number of not-so-good times.
Anyway, hard to know what to make of the game. It was a win, which was nice, but it was a butt-ugly one. Not to mention feeling a bit like the old Cardiac Caps. And I never liked that feeling. Still, we'll take it. Dallas is tomorrow night; we'll get to see Eakin again. Hopefully, the game will go a bit better.
And it didn't really go all that well after. The Flames scored more before seventeen minutes had been reached, and Hillen suffered a leg (probably knee) injury in there as well. Wilson responded to that with a few good punches and a nice takedown on the person delivering the hit that caused the injury (on replay it looked pretty clean, but in full speed I didn't think so). But Holtby was pulled after that third goal.
The Caps did get a few chances in there (OV was close a couple times), but nothing sustained. It really wasn't looking good by the end of the period. The only encouraging thing was that the shots were close (in fact, the Caps were up one, which surprised me quite a bit).
And things didn't look much better for a while in the second. Then Carrick got a hooking minor (weird call; looked like Carrick was the one being fouled). The PK did well this time (the third goal in the first was a PPG, so it hadn't started well), and at the expiration, MarJo got the puck and found Carrick at the other blue line. Carrick took it in on the breakaway and deked Ramo down, calmly depositing the puck behind him.
But, a minute and a half later, Neuvy misplayed the puck behind the net fairly badly, and gave up an open-net goal to restore Calgary's three-goal margin. And the play still wasn't looking too good for the home team, although they did have the occasional chance. Then Jones hit Carlson in the face with his stick to give the Caps the man advantage (and I'm impressed the refs saw this one. It was there, but was very quick).
The Caps won the faceoff, worked it around for a bit, then fed OV for the one-timer for a goal on the first shot (sadly, though, it was the Caps first shot since Carrick had scored).
The Caps got within one four minutes later with OV again finding the back of the net. Off an icing call, Backstrom won the faceoff over to MarJo, who dumped back to OV, who rocketed it into the net.
And the Caps looked great for the remaining four minutes or so of the period. Lots of chances, many of them very close. But none were converted, which took us into the third (other than the bench minor with thirteen seconds left).
The team was doing a good job killing that penalty for the first 59 seconds, then Erskine (with time) cleared it the length of the ice, and over the glass at the far end. How often does that happen? Well, for the Caps, this season, every game, apparently. To their credit, the team did a great job killing the two-man advantage. The remainder of the delay of game wasn't quite as smooth, but they got the job done.
The Caps drew two more penalties, and the second of those provided the tying score. OV wristed it into a defender laying in front of him, the puck bounced around some skates to Grabo, who calmly passed over to Backstrom, who settled it and wristed it between the defender's legs, and past Ramo.
Things didn't look too good after that, but they managed to get into overtime with the tie. The overtime felt pretty heavily Calgary's way, but shots were equal. In fact, they were equal for the entire game, which surprised me. The Caps really didn't seem to have equal control of the play, other than five or six minutes at the end of the second. Although score effects would, normally, help equalize quite a bit. I'm sure it wasn't nearly even when the score was close.
Anyway, they managed to drag it out into the shootout, where Grabo and OV both deked forehand, then scored on the backhand. And Neuvy stopped Baertschi and Hudler to cement the win.
It wasn't pretty (though you've got to figure that being short a defender didn't help with that), but they got the job done. It was actually less encouraging than the Chicago loss, but the result was better.
Holtby definitely had a bad game. Neuvy, outside of that one puck-handling misadventure, looked very good. Erskine did not; he mostly looked pretty terrible (though I'm surprised to see he was even on the night). MarJo was, quietly, very good. In addition to his beautiful helper for Carrick, he had assists on both of OV's goals. And OV was a force; the two goals, nine more shots, second assist on Backstrom's goal, and the shootout winner. The only weakness was taking his second slashing minor, but at least he had company going to the box, this time.
And Grabo looked great. He had a number of nice passes, and was regularly threatening. Fehr's line, I noticed several times looking good, although I suspect I'm forgetting several (maybe many) not-so-good plays. Erat and Wilson looked pretty good; unfortunately, Beagle was centering them. They managed to get a few pretty good chances despite him. But again, I suspect I'm forgetting a number of not-so-good times.
Anyway, hard to know what to make of the game. It was a win, which was nice, but it was a butt-ugly one. Not to mention feeling a bit like the old Cardiac Caps. And I never liked that feeling. Still, we'll take it. Dallas is tomorrow night; we'll get to see Eakin again. Hopefully, the game will go a bit better.
20130910
Lineup (for now) Complete
Well, I read in the paper yesterday that MarJo has finally been signed by the Caps. Yay.
And the cap hit isn't bad, at $2M/yr. That's about where I was expecting things to go (give or take a couple hundred thousand); he just didn't have any leverage, even though that's probably slightly below what he deserves, based on his play.
I'm glad to see it, although with only $700k cap space left, I'm not sure what the Caps will be able to do for the rest of the season.
That is, they're in pretty decent shape, but could really use another defenseman to push Erskine down to the third pairing, and don't have the money.
There's also the possibility of Kuznetsov coming over after the Olympics. I don't think there's any money for that, either.
But, in the grand scheme of things, these aren't terrible problems to have. Maybe McPhee can convince the Toronto brass that they need another heavy-weight knuckle-chucker. Honestly, with his contract, I'd be happy to see him traded for a bag of pucks (sorry, John. I don't think you're a bad player, but you're heavily overpaid for what you bring to the table).
And there's also the thought of Wilson. Not sure how things work if he comes up after the OHL season ends, but they definitely can't afford the cap hit to bring him up to start the season. Again, not a terrible problem to have.
I think the Caps are in great shape if Dima can work his way back up to the Show, although last season is certainly worrisome in that regard. But his showing two seasons ago certainly leaves room to hope. But if he can't, they're going to be pretty exposed defensively. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
Oh, and it was definitely weird to find out about a roster move in the paper. Definitely wouldn't have happened on a weekday.
Update: Heard yesterday that Kuznetsov has another shoulder injury, though should be back soon enough to still compete in Olympics (assuming it doesn't keep him from making the team, of course).
And the cap hit isn't bad, at $2M/yr. That's about where I was expecting things to go (give or take a couple hundred thousand); he just didn't have any leverage, even though that's probably slightly below what he deserves, based on his play.
I'm glad to see it, although with only $700k cap space left, I'm not sure what the Caps will be able to do for the rest of the season.
That is, they're in pretty decent shape, but could really use another defenseman to push Erskine down to the third pairing, and don't have the money.
There's also the possibility of Kuznetsov coming over after the Olympics. I don't think there's any money for that, either.
But, in the grand scheme of things, these aren't terrible problems to have. Maybe McPhee can convince the Toronto brass that they need another heavy-weight knuckle-chucker. Honestly, with his contract, I'd be happy to see him traded for a bag of pucks (sorry, John. I don't think you're a bad player, but you're heavily overpaid for what you bring to the table).
And there's also the thought of Wilson. Not sure how things work if he comes up after the OHL season ends, but they definitely can't afford the cap hit to bring him up to start the season. Again, not a terrible problem to have.
I think the Caps are in great shape if Dima can work his way back up to the Show, although last season is certainly worrisome in that regard. But his showing two seasons ago certainly leaves room to hope. But if he can't, they're going to be pretty exposed defensively. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
Oh, and it was definitely weird to find out about a roster move in the paper. Definitely wouldn't have happened on a weekday.
Update: Heard yesterday that Kuznetsov has another shoulder injury, though should be back soon enough to still compete in Olympics (assuming it doesn't keep him from making the team, of course).
20130428
Treading water
I can't say as I went into last night's Caps game with high expectations, or anything. And the first two shifts did nothing to raise them, as most of both shifts were spent playing defense. But then Perreault's line came out and moved play in the the right direction, so it felt a little better.
It was back and forth for a bit, then the Caps started to get the better of the play.
But nobody could find the net for the rest of the period (both goalies were excellent).
In the second period, things went far more Ottawa's way. There weren't a whole lot of shots, but the Senators had a comfortable margin of them. And one of those Borealic shots went off of Karlsson's stick, and was deflected past Neuwirth by Silfverberg.
The third period was almost all Neuwirth, as the Caps were completely dominated (to the tune of 23-4 in shots, likely with a healthy helping of blocked shots as well, although I don't have the breakdown on those). The only reason it wasn't completely Neuvy was that MarJo sprung OV behind the defense (helped by a bit of a misplay by the defender who had a chance to cut off the pass), and OV put it behind Anderson to tie the game up.
That was as good as it got for the Caps. As I implied, Neuvy held the fort enough to keep Ottawa from extending or retaking the lead, and it went into overtime. Ribeiro didn't help matters by taking two bad penalties in the third (one of which carried over into the OT). In the overtime session, the Caps couldn't finish killing that penalty, and hence, never even got a shot off.
As I said, my expectations on the night weren't high, so I can't say as they really disappointed me, but I certainly had hopes of more. Mostly, I'm just hoping it was a bit of a blip, because twenty shots a game just isn't going to get it done.
But the game didn't have any real meaning for the Caps, so it's hard to read anything into it. I just ended up hoping that Saturday's Boston game would go better.
It was back and forth for a bit, then the Caps started to get the better of the play.
But nobody could find the net for the rest of the period (both goalies were excellent).
In the second period, things went far more Ottawa's way. There weren't a whole lot of shots, but the Senators had a comfortable margin of them. And one of those Borealic shots went off of Karlsson's stick, and was deflected past Neuwirth by Silfverberg.
The third period was almost all Neuwirth, as the Caps were completely dominated (to the tune of 23-4 in shots, likely with a healthy helping of blocked shots as well, although I don't have the breakdown on those). The only reason it wasn't completely Neuvy was that MarJo sprung OV behind the defense (helped by a bit of a misplay by the defender who had a chance to cut off the pass), and OV put it behind Anderson to tie the game up.
That was as good as it got for the Caps. As I implied, Neuvy held the fort enough to keep Ottawa from extending or retaking the lead, and it went into overtime. Ribeiro didn't help matters by taking two bad penalties in the third (one of which carried over into the OT). In the overtime session, the Caps couldn't finish killing that penalty, and hence, never even got a shot off.
As I said, my expectations on the night weren't high, so I can't say as they really disappointed me, but I certainly had hopes of more. Mostly, I'm just hoping it was a bit of a blip, because twenty shots a game just isn't going to get it done.
But the game didn't have any real meaning for the Caps, so it's hard to read anything into it. I just ended up hoping that Saturday's Boston game would go better.
20130317
Cutting through opposition
I only watched the first period of tonight's game against the Sabres. It started awfully well, as the Caps won the draw, dumped it in the zone, got the Sabres to ice it, won the resulting face-off, and scored within twenty seconds. The goal was OV's 702nd point, with Backstrom and MarJo both managing assists. The rest of the period continued to go well for the Caps, although that was the only goal scored. The Sabres got a couple of good chances, but most of the play was within the Sabres zone.
Well, that's what it felt like, watching it. Now that I look at the boxscore, shots were even at five (a startlingly low number, frankly) for the period.
And things seem to have broken open in the second. The Caps scored three more (allowing two), despite being outshot 17-10. Weird period, it seems. The Caps got both of the power plays, but only one of the goals was scored then (Brouwer, from Ribeiro and Backstrom). And Chimmer finally got off the schneid, getting help from Brouwer and Ribeiro. The third Caps goal came from MarJo (Perreault and Ward); I like that line, btw. Wonder if we'll see more of it.
The third period did have the Caps with the edge (shots 10-8), although goals were split at one apiece. The Caps goal was a pretty one by Perreault, who took it in the D zone in the middle, did a short give-and-go with Ward getting over the blue line, then had a beautiful deke to lose the defender. Meanwhile, Chimmer came to a stop at the edge of the crease on the far side (from Ward), then got bumped into Miller, giving Matty a lot of net to shoot into. A very nice, whole-line score, even if Chimmer didn't get any credit on the score sheet.
Not too much else to say; Hillen finally returned from the injury he suffered at the beginning of the season and played quite a few minutes. Four blocked shots and a penalty were his main contributions. I suppose it beats having to call up another Hershey defender.
Poti was back from his undisclosed upper body injury, and managed to be -1 despite only playing 8 minutes in the win. OV had four more shots and three hits to go with his goal. MarJo had three more shots, in addition to his goal and assist.
Incidentally, it's been rumored that part of the reason he was playing so poorly in the beginning of the season is that he might have suffered another concussion when he and OV ran into each other in practice at the beginning of the season. Not sure what needs to be done, but something sure does. In any event, if he can stop being a black hole, possession-wise, he might start helping the team. I don't really think there's any longer a chance of him taking over at 2C, but he might still make a decent second-line winger.
Perreault obviously had a good game with the goal and assist. Why was he scratched the last couple of games, again? And why was Wolski still there?
This team is definitely still a work in progress. I still think they need to trade Ribeiro, and hope for a high draft pick to try to pick things up quickly next season (and really look for progress the year after, when Forsberg and Kuznetsov will be on the team). Next game Tuesday in Pittsburgh. Let's hope it doesn't end in embarassment.
Update: It has come to my attention that I missed Hillen being present in the Bruins game the other day, so this was not his first game back. Sorry about that.
20120419
Striking it even
Tonight was a pretty lousy night for the Caps' skaters. They spent way too much time in their own end of the ice, and didn't get nearly enough pucks directed at Tim Thomas.
Despite that, they did manage to get a pair of goals. The first, by MarJo, came on a 2-on-1 with him and Laich in the second minute. The second came on the power play, with Semin putting it into the far, upper corner from the left half wall came in the penultimate minute of the middle period.
Other than that, it was pretty butt-ugly. They gave up several odd-man rushes, on one of which, Peverley scored (MarJo broke up another with a phenomenal back-check). Scoring chances were 6-3 in the first, and 7-6 in the second. Shots, overall, were 45-21.
One of the few things that did go well for them was that they stayed out of the penalty box, giving the Bruins only one chance with the man advantage.
Other than that, though, it was the Braden Holtby show. He was an absolute wall, only giving up that one Peverley tally (which was, actually, not a good effort by him. We'll forgive him).
So the ultimate result was the Caps evening the series at a pair apiece. It's not encouraging for the Caps future, but it's a great present.
Two important notes related to Monday's game. One was the Perreault only played four minutes the entire game. This again speaks to Hunter's bad personnel management. If you don't trust him enough to play more minutes, put someone else in the lineup. Oh, and you should trust him more. What's this team's biggest weakness? Puck possession. Where does Perreault rate? Number three (Aucoin is a hair better in far fewer games, and Collins was better (or, more likely, luckier) in his two games).
And the second was that Backstrom failed to keep his cool when he saw OV tripped, and had a stick thrust into his face (by Peverley, I believe. Who was, according to Shanahan, maintaining a defensive posture. Not sure how you are purely being defensive when you've got your stick right up in someone's face, but the NHL thinks it's possible). He retaliated, getting a game misconduct (this was as time expired for the game), which was later expanded into a one game suspension. So he didn't play tonight at all, which certainly didn't help matters.
Also, Erskine played tonight, instead of Shultz, and wasn't too bad. He had some really good hits, and didn't get too out of position, that I can recall. I'd still rather have Dima or Shultz instead of him, but he wasn't a disaster.
In any event, Holtby assured the Caps of one more home game for the season, and the team heads back to Boston for game five on Saturday. Let's hope they can bring home another win. Preferably without being outplayed as badly as they were tonight.
Despite that, they did manage to get a pair of goals. The first, by MarJo, came on a 2-on-1 with him and Laich in the second minute. The second came on the power play, with Semin putting it into the far, upper corner from the left half wall came in the penultimate minute of the middle period.
Other than that, it was pretty butt-ugly. They gave up several odd-man rushes, on one of which, Peverley scored (MarJo broke up another with a phenomenal back-check). Scoring chances were 6-3 in the first, and 7-6 in the second. Shots, overall, were 45-21.
One of the few things that did go well for them was that they stayed out of the penalty box, giving the Bruins only one chance with the man advantage.
Other than that, though, it was the Braden Holtby show. He was an absolute wall, only giving up that one Peverley tally (which was, actually, not a good effort by him. We'll forgive him).
So the ultimate result was the Caps evening the series at a pair apiece. It's not encouraging for the Caps future, but it's a great present.
Two important notes related to Monday's game. One was the Perreault only played four minutes the entire game. This again speaks to Hunter's bad personnel management. If you don't trust him enough to play more minutes, put someone else in the lineup. Oh, and you should trust him more. What's this team's biggest weakness? Puck possession. Where does Perreault rate? Number three (Aucoin is a hair better in far fewer games, and Collins was better (or, more likely, luckier) in his two games).
And the second was that Backstrom failed to keep his cool when he saw OV tripped, and had a stick thrust into his face (by Peverley, I believe. Who was, according to Shanahan, maintaining a defensive posture. Not sure how you are purely being defensive when you've got your stick right up in someone's face, but the NHL thinks it's possible). He retaliated, getting a game misconduct (this was as time expired for the game), which was later expanded into a one game suspension. So he didn't play tonight at all, which certainly didn't help matters.
Also, Erskine played tonight, instead of Shultz, and wasn't too bad. He had some really good hits, and didn't get too out of position, that I can recall. I'd still rather have Dima or Shultz instead of him, but he wasn't a disaster.
In any event, Holtby assured the Caps of one more home game for the season, and the team heads back to Boston for game five on Saturday. Let's hope they can bring home another win. Preferably without being outplayed as badly as they were tonight.
20120406
Rope-a-Dope
I must admit to very mixed feelings about last night's Caps game against the Panthers. Things got off to a good start for me, as I turned the game on (it was supposed to be on a different channel, so I could just start the DVR without seeing what had happened, but my wife was also recording something, so it had to end up on the channel for one of them) just as the Caps scored the opening goal, six minutes in. Beagle actually got the goal off a rebound of a Brouwer shot.
I went back to watch what had happened before that, but it was nice to know that they were getting on the board first. The rest of the first was dominated by the Panthers, as scoring chances ended up 3-2 Cats (shots 10-8). But it wasn't huge domination, and the Caps kept the puck out of their net, so things weren't looking too bad.
The second period was much more mixed. The vast majority of the period was spent in the Caps end, but the Caps did manage to do good things when they got it into Florida's zone. I can't say as I was real happy about the way it played out, but I was certainly happy about the results, which was that the Caps scored two more than Florida (OV had a really nice drop-and-follow with MarJo, scoring on the rebound of MarJo's shot, and Laich found the top corner from the high slot two minutes later. Samuelsson had an even nicer shot to bring the margin back down when he was left entirely alone on the wing with four minutes to go).
What was kind of funny was that all four goalies played in this period. The bad part was that Holtby came in when Neuvy got hurt (Sturm fell on his knee; I'm not feeling good about his chances of playing again this season). The funny part was when Clemmenson came in for Theodore after the third goal. What made that funny was that he was only in for a minute and a half, getting a nice save in that time.
The other interesting part of the period was that the period being played mostly in Washington's end only resulted in an 11-10 shot lead for Florida, and Washington was actually ahead (6-4) on scoring chances. I'm really not liking that as a strategy, but I'm happy that it worked this time.
The third period was made much more tense when Jovo-cop scored on a fluky deflection off a defenseman's stick forty-two seconds after the opening face-off. Despite that, Washington seemed largely content to play defense for the period. In fact, their only sustained pressure without a power play being involved came in the ninth to tenth minutes, when Perreault's line got its only shift of the period.
The Caps did manage a goal later; they got a power play (weirdly, on a pretty innocuous high stick after several really blatant trips and interferences went uncalled) with three minutes left. They didn't score on the power play, technically, but Semin backhanded the puck to the roof of the net from in close only four seconds after the penalty expired.
And that was basically the end of the game. It lasted another minute, but Washington was able to keep Florida from getting set up in the zone, so it wasn't as exciting (thankfully) as it could have been.
The one big improvement in the third period was that there were only four giveaways. That's still a higher number than I'd like to see in a period, but compared to the 18(!) through the first two periods, it was significantly better.
Overall, I was happy with the result; it, combined with Buffalo's loss, guarantees the Caps a playoff spot (and guarantees one for Florida, come to that). So Saturday's game will only determine whether or not the Caps can manage to pass Florida for the division title (and playing the first round at home), or Ottawa for seventh place.
As I mentioned, Neuvy went down with an apparent knee injury. I haven't heard anything official, and I'm not a doctor, but while I hope he'll be back soon, I don't think that's terribly likely. So this could easily end up being a costly victory, especially if TVo remains unable to play. Holtby's current playoff record does not exactly inspire confidence. Plus, Neuvy had stopped everything before he got hurt.
And I'm getting more and more annoyed with Hunter's choices about who plays and who sits. I don't like the idea of having one line playing only one shift in a period, doubly so when that line is effective when on the ice. And this makes two games in a row (at least) where Beagle has gotten more ice time than Semin. Yes, Beagle's been a lot more effective than I would have guessed, but let's not get delusional about where this story ends. There's a reason that, even after last night's goals, Semin has five times as many goals as Beagle. And why is Ward on nacho duty, when he's leading the team in +/-? Yes, that's not the be-all and end-all of stats, but it's a pretty decent stat for comparing players within a team. And the degree to which it is misleading works in Ward's favor, because he generally faces the toughest competition when he is out there. And what did Halpern do to end up off the ice? Is he injured? Because his play certainly didn't seem sub-par before he got yanked away from playing duties.
Anyway, at least the Caps are in (well, I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing, for the team in the long-run. It might convince management that nothing is wrong with this team, and that definitely isn't the case) the playoffs. And they do have one more game to try to improve their seeding (while I'm pretty indifferent to 7th vs 8th, 3rd would definitely be nice).
And that last game is against the Rangers, which, barring a shift in seeding, will be a preview of the first round. Go Caps!
I went back to watch what had happened before that, but it was nice to know that they were getting on the board first. The rest of the first was dominated by the Panthers, as scoring chances ended up 3-2 Cats (shots 10-8). But it wasn't huge domination, and the Caps kept the puck out of their net, so things weren't looking too bad.
The second period was much more mixed. The vast majority of the period was spent in the Caps end, but the Caps did manage to do good things when they got it into Florida's zone. I can't say as I was real happy about the way it played out, but I was certainly happy about the results, which was that the Caps scored two more than Florida (OV had a really nice drop-and-follow with MarJo, scoring on the rebound of MarJo's shot, and Laich found the top corner from the high slot two minutes later. Samuelsson had an even nicer shot to bring the margin back down when he was left entirely alone on the wing with four minutes to go).
What was kind of funny was that all four goalies played in this period. The bad part was that Holtby came in when Neuvy got hurt (Sturm fell on his knee; I'm not feeling good about his chances of playing again this season). The funny part was when Clemmenson came in for Theodore after the third goal. What made that funny was that he was only in for a minute and a half, getting a nice save in that time.
The other interesting part of the period was that the period being played mostly in Washington's end only resulted in an 11-10 shot lead for Florida, and Washington was actually ahead (6-4) on scoring chances. I'm really not liking that as a strategy, but I'm happy that it worked this time.
The third period was made much more tense when Jovo-cop scored on a fluky deflection off a defenseman's stick forty-two seconds after the opening face-off. Despite that, Washington seemed largely content to play defense for the period. In fact, their only sustained pressure without a power play being involved came in the ninth to tenth minutes, when Perreault's line got its only shift of the period.
The Caps did manage a goal later; they got a power play (weirdly, on a pretty innocuous high stick after several really blatant trips and interferences went uncalled) with three minutes left. They didn't score on the power play, technically, but Semin backhanded the puck to the roof of the net from in close only four seconds after the penalty expired.
And that was basically the end of the game. It lasted another minute, but Washington was able to keep Florida from getting set up in the zone, so it wasn't as exciting (thankfully) as it could have been.
The one big improvement in the third period was that there were only four giveaways. That's still a higher number than I'd like to see in a period, but compared to the 18(!) through the first two periods, it was significantly better.
Overall, I was happy with the result; it, combined with Buffalo's loss, guarantees the Caps a playoff spot (and guarantees one for Florida, come to that). So Saturday's game will only determine whether or not the Caps can manage to pass Florida for the division title (and playing the first round at home), or Ottawa for seventh place.
As I mentioned, Neuvy went down with an apparent knee injury. I haven't heard anything official, and I'm not a doctor, but while I hope he'll be back soon, I don't think that's terribly likely. So this could easily end up being a costly victory, especially if TVo remains unable to play. Holtby's current playoff record does not exactly inspire confidence. Plus, Neuvy had stopped everything before he got hurt.
And I'm getting more and more annoyed with Hunter's choices about who plays and who sits. I don't like the idea of having one line playing only one shift in a period, doubly so when that line is effective when on the ice. And this makes two games in a row (at least) where Beagle has gotten more ice time than Semin. Yes, Beagle's been a lot more effective than I would have guessed, but let's not get delusional about where this story ends. There's a reason that, even after last night's goals, Semin has five times as many goals as Beagle. And why is Ward on nacho duty, when he's leading the team in +/-? Yes, that's not the be-all and end-all of stats, but it's a pretty decent stat for comparing players within a team. And the degree to which it is misleading works in Ward's favor, because he generally faces the toughest competition when he is out there. And what did Halpern do to end up off the ice? Is he injured? Because his play certainly didn't seem sub-par before he got yanked away from playing duties.
Anyway, at least the Caps are in (well, I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing, for the team in the long-run. It might convince management that nothing is wrong with this team, and that definitely isn't the case) the playoffs. And they do have one more game to try to improve their seeding (while I'm pretty indifferent to 7th vs 8th, 3rd would definitely be nice).
And that last game is against the Rangers, which, barring a shift in seeding, will be a preview of the first round. Go Caps!
20120403
Deja vu all over again
[I wrote most of this yesterday, just didn't post it because I wasn't able to check my facts until today.]
It almost felt like deja vu, watching the last two games. The scoring arc in both was identical, with the Caps taking 2-0 leads, getting tied up at two, then winning via the gimmick.
But the games were very different, outside of that. In the Boston game, the Caps were badly outplayed in the first period (I'm not sure how much of that was driven by Chimmer's major, though that was obviously a significant factor), and relied on excellent goaltending by TVo (and Neuvy, after TVo left upon aggravating his injury) to keep in the game. In fact, the Caps only got two shots (neither of which looked especially threatening) and one scoring chance in the period. Like I said, it was pretty bad.
The second period was almost dead even, in both shots and scoring chances, and had a remarkably small number of each. And that led to the score being deadlocked at nothing.
The first half of the third period looked like the second period never ended, with no scoring and very few shots. But then the Caps finally got things started, with Wideman putting one over Thomas' shoulder (from OV and MarJo. MarJo made a great play on the boards to keep the puck and get it to Wides). Two minutes later, they got another from MarJo, with OV assisting on the 2-on-1. MarJo was trying so hard to get that shot off hard that he snapped his stick in the process, but it still went in. So things were looking great heading down to the wire.
But the Bruins added quite a bit of pressure, and finally broke through with about three minutes left, scoring on a deflection. And then, two minutes later, they tied it up on a fairly fluky goal (deflected off Alzner, IIRC (the replay on nhl.com is hard to tell). Not one of Alzner's better plays, because he also had the pass that Boston picked off to get possession of the puck). That goal occurred with just over a minute left, and that was the end of the scoring.
Five minutes of overtime went by with the Caps holding on (and Neuvy playing great), so things went to the gimmick.
I'd like to say that Hendricks got into Thomas' head by getting Thomas sprawling on the first fake, before calmly depositing it into the net. Certainly, Thomas very angrily tried to smack the puck over to the side of the rink afterwards. But he had no trouble with OV's five-hole attempt afterward. Semin went next, and just streaked down from center, towards his left, and put a backhand shot into the corner to give the Caps the win. Not much of a fake, just a perfectly-placed shot. Since Neuvy had stopped the first, and allowed the next two, it went to another round, with Neuvy stopping Peverley. Laich then finished it off with a backhand to the roof, also.
As I said, the Canadiens game played out a little differently. This time, the Caps took a very early lead (from Matty P, aided and abetted by Semin), and added to it twelve minutes later, with Beagle tipping in a pass from Hendricks. From there, the Caps just basically held on for dear life. They gave up one goal late in the first, as Pacioretty took advantage of Wideman's lack of footspeed.
They were pretty heavily outplayed in the second, a large factor of which was the impressive Montreal power play (only scoring at 10% lately, but looked nearly unstoppable against Washington. They had five shots in their first two opportunities (Washington took four PP opps to get that many), and five more in their third). The Caps were very lucky (well, that and Neuvy played extremely well) to not allow several more goals. But they escaped the period with only one goal allowed (a beautiful run down the wing by Plekanecs, leaving the third period to be played all even.
And nobody managed to score in that third period, as I alluded earlier, so the game went to overtime. And then to the shootout.
Things didn't seem like they were going to be starting out that great, as Budaj didn't budge at all on Hendricks fake (it was not as good as Hendy's usual. He usually has a lot of stick flex, but almost none, that time). But Hendy still managed to get it past him top-shelf. Again, OV was stoned. And again, Semin put it in, somehow. Since Washington went first, and Neuvy kept both Desharnais and Pacioretty out of the net, that was it for the win.
One thing I did find kind of funny, in an ironic way, was that Perreault was named the player of the game, but didn't even play in the overtime. I suspect that's the norm (him not playing in overtime), but I'd never noticed before. It doesn't seem like a great choice; the additional space created by playing 4-on-4 would seem to suit his game better than most.
The big news of the game actually came before the game started, as Backstrom finally returned from his concussion. And he had a pretty good game, despite not factoring into any of the scoring. He looked about the same as usual, really. It wouldn't surprise me if he was a little more tired than usual at the end, but he played nineteen minutes. And he was able to avoid any big hits, so that was good.
The other big news came after the game (or at least I didn't hear it until afterwards), when Buffalo lost to Toronto. So the Caps control their own destiny now, and even have a small chance to take the division, if Florida poops the bed. I'm feeling more optimistic, but still cautious.
Next up is Tampa. [cutting this off here, as the rest was out of date already.]
It almost felt like deja vu, watching the last two games. The scoring arc in both was identical, with the Caps taking 2-0 leads, getting tied up at two, then winning via the gimmick.
But the games were very different, outside of that. In the Boston game, the Caps were badly outplayed in the first period (I'm not sure how much of that was driven by Chimmer's major, though that was obviously a significant factor), and relied on excellent goaltending by TVo (and Neuvy, after TVo left upon aggravating his injury) to keep in the game. In fact, the Caps only got two shots (neither of which looked especially threatening) and one scoring chance in the period. Like I said, it was pretty bad.
The second period was almost dead even, in both shots and scoring chances, and had a remarkably small number of each. And that led to the score being deadlocked at nothing.
The first half of the third period looked like the second period never ended, with no scoring and very few shots. But then the Caps finally got things started, with Wideman putting one over Thomas' shoulder (from OV and MarJo. MarJo made a great play on the boards to keep the puck and get it to Wides). Two minutes later, they got another from MarJo, with OV assisting on the 2-on-1. MarJo was trying so hard to get that shot off hard that he snapped his stick in the process, but it still went in. So things were looking great heading down to the wire.
But the Bruins added quite a bit of pressure, and finally broke through with about three minutes left, scoring on a deflection. And then, two minutes later, they tied it up on a fairly fluky goal (deflected off Alzner, IIRC (the replay on nhl.com is hard to tell). Not one of Alzner's better plays, because he also had the pass that Boston picked off to get possession of the puck). That goal occurred with just over a minute left, and that was the end of the scoring.
Five minutes of overtime went by with the Caps holding on (and Neuvy playing great), so things went to the gimmick.
I'd like to say that Hendricks got into Thomas' head by getting Thomas sprawling on the first fake, before calmly depositing it into the net. Certainly, Thomas very angrily tried to smack the puck over to the side of the rink afterwards. But he had no trouble with OV's five-hole attempt afterward. Semin went next, and just streaked down from center, towards his left, and put a backhand shot into the corner to give the Caps the win. Not much of a fake, just a perfectly-placed shot. Since Neuvy had stopped the first, and allowed the next two, it went to another round, with Neuvy stopping Peverley. Laich then finished it off with a backhand to the roof, also.
As I said, the Canadiens game played out a little differently. This time, the Caps took a very early lead (from Matty P, aided and abetted by Semin), and added to it twelve minutes later, with Beagle tipping in a pass from Hendricks. From there, the Caps just basically held on for dear life. They gave up one goal late in the first, as Pacioretty took advantage of Wideman's lack of footspeed.
They were pretty heavily outplayed in the second, a large factor of which was the impressive Montreal power play (only scoring at 10% lately, but looked nearly unstoppable against Washington. They had five shots in their first two opportunities (Washington took four PP opps to get that many), and five more in their third). The Caps were very lucky (well, that and Neuvy played extremely well) to not allow several more goals. But they escaped the period with only one goal allowed (a beautiful run down the wing by Plekanecs, leaving the third period to be played all even.
And nobody managed to score in that third period, as I alluded earlier, so the game went to overtime. And then to the shootout.
Things didn't seem like they were going to be starting out that great, as Budaj didn't budge at all on Hendricks fake (it was not as good as Hendy's usual. He usually has a lot of stick flex, but almost none, that time). But Hendy still managed to get it past him top-shelf. Again, OV was stoned. And again, Semin put it in, somehow. Since Washington went first, and Neuvy kept both Desharnais and Pacioretty out of the net, that was it for the win.
One thing I did find kind of funny, in an ironic way, was that Perreault was named the player of the game, but didn't even play in the overtime. I suspect that's the norm (him not playing in overtime), but I'd never noticed before. It doesn't seem like a great choice; the additional space created by playing 4-on-4 would seem to suit his game better than most.
The big news of the game actually came before the game started, as Backstrom finally returned from his concussion. And he had a pretty good game, despite not factoring into any of the scoring. He looked about the same as usual, really. It wouldn't surprise me if he was a little more tired than usual at the end, but he played nineteen minutes. And he was able to avoid any big hits, so that was good.
The other big news came after the game (or at least I didn't hear it until afterwards), when Buffalo lost to Toronto. So the Caps control their own destiny now, and even have a small chance to take the division, if Florida poops the bed. I'm feeling more optimistic, but still cautious.
Next up is Tampa. [cutting this off here, as the rest was out of date already.]
20120118
On the Forum-check
Well, a game that looked pretty good, superficially, for the Caps tonight. They got great netminding from Neuvirth, no doubt. And 3-0 feels a lot better when you're not on the zero end of things.
But most of the same thing continued. Very few shots (fewer than last night, actually), too many giveaways (it didn't feel like it, but there were even more than last night), way too many penalties (though a couple were kind of... curious, but I'll come back to that). The one mitigating factor was that at least scoring chances were in their favor through two (11-9).
But, basically, we saw almost the same performance except that a couple of shots went in.
Ok, that's not entirely true, the passing was crisper, and more accurate. The penalty killing was also a lot more effective, though that could be as much due to Montreal's deficiencies as to the Caps efficiencies. The power play also managed to convert one opportunity (though it took most of a four-minute advantage). But it was still mostly the same as we've seen recently, and that's not a good thing.
The lineup was not entirely the same tonight. Perreault came back into the lineup, scoring a goal despite playing only eight shifts (two of which were very short; nhl.com doesn't even list him as having played, despite crediting him with the goal). Erskine was also back, as expected. Not so expected was that he never dished out any punishment on Bourque.
In fact, the only "punishment" dished out was to Hendricks, who fought Bourque very early on, but didn't do much.
MarJo had a very eventful night. He had the second goal on a close-in shot to the top shelf, took a stick to the face that led to the aforementioned four-minute power play, and suffered through a knee-on-knee collision with about 2:30 remaining in the game. Let's hope it isn't a serious injury. Heck, any injury that takes him away, even just for a very short time, will be very debilitating for the team. They'd end up having to play Laich on the top line, Halpern on the checking line, with Eakin and Perreault, I guess, taking the remaining two positions. That is not a line down the middle that would inspire fear into the opposition.
Boy, I hadn't thought about it before. That's just scary. Let's not think about it, and hope MarJo's ok.
I mentioned some curious penalty calls. To elaborate, two of the third-period calls (plus several non-calls) were a bit... questionable. Erskine got quite the whammy of a call on a hit on Darche. He ran into Darche, gliding, standing up, and got a minor for elbowing and a double-minor for high sticking. His elbow did hit Darche, probably in the head, but it was against his body at impact. It came up on his follow-through, but that should not be a penalty (as I understand the rules). It's almost impossible to avoid doing that.
Some I'm a little confused about the elbowing call. The high sticking part I can't figure out at all. I watched the replay on it eight or ten times, and I can't see contact with the stick at all. Before, during, or after the hit. So I'm utterly baffled by that part of the call. Here's the video.
The other curious call was on OV for delay of game. It looked pretty clearly, to me, like it hit the glass on the way out, but that's not the way it was called. (That makes two games in a row for strange penalties on OV. His crosscheck against the Islanders involved him hitting someone with his hands together on the stick. How that could possibly be a crosscheck is beyond me. Didn't think to save the video on it, though.)
Anyway, that's about it for tonight's game. Let's hope we see the team playing even better Friday in Carolina. Like the Islanders game last night, this is one the Caps should win. Let's hope things don't go the way they did in that one.
But most of the same thing continued. Very few shots (fewer than last night, actually), too many giveaways (it didn't feel like it, but there were even more than last night), way too many penalties (though a couple were kind of... curious, but I'll come back to that). The one mitigating factor was that at least scoring chances were in their favor through two (11-9).
But, basically, we saw almost the same performance except that a couple of shots went in.
Ok, that's not entirely true, the passing was crisper, and more accurate. The penalty killing was also a lot more effective, though that could be as much due to Montreal's deficiencies as to the Caps efficiencies. The power play also managed to convert one opportunity (though it took most of a four-minute advantage). But it was still mostly the same as we've seen recently, and that's not a good thing.
The lineup was not entirely the same tonight. Perreault came back into the lineup, scoring a goal despite playing only eight shifts (two of which were very short; nhl.com doesn't even list him as having played, despite crediting him with the goal). Erskine was also back, as expected. Not so expected was that he never dished out any punishment on Bourque.
In fact, the only "punishment" dished out was to Hendricks, who fought Bourque very early on, but didn't do much.
MarJo had a very eventful night. He had the second goal on a close-in shot to the top shelf, took a stick to the face that led to the aforementioned four-minute power play, and suffered through a knee-on-knee collision with about 2:30 remaining in the game. Let's hope it isn't a serious injury. Heck, any injury that takes him away, even just for a very short time, will be very debilitating for the team. They'd end up having to play Laich on the top line, Halpern on the checking line, with Eakin and Perreault, I guess, taking the remaining two positions. That is not a line down the middle that would inspire fear into the opposition.
Boy, I hadn't thought about it before. That's just scary. Let's not think about it, and hope MarJo's ok.
I mentioned some curious penalty calls. To elaborate, two of the third-period calls (plus several non-calls) were a bit... questionable. Erskine got quite the whammy of a call on a hit on Darche. He ran into Darche, gliding, standing up, and got a minor for elbowing and a double-minor for high sticking. His elbow did hit Darche, probably in the head, but it was against his body at impact. It came up on his follow-through, but that should not be a penalty (as I understand the rules). It's almost impossible to avoid doing that.
Some I'm a little confused about the elbowing call. The high sticking part I can't figure out at all. I watched the replay on it eight or ten times, and I can't see contact with the stick at all. Before, during, or after the hit. So I'm utterly baffled by that part of the call. Here's the video.
The other curious call was on OV for delay of game. It looked pretty clearly, to me, like it hit the glass on the way out, but that's not the way it was called. (That makes two games in a row for strange penalties on OV. His crosscheck against the Islanders involved him hitting someone with his hands together on the stick. How that could possibly be a crosscheck is beyond me. Didn't think to save the video on it, though.)
Anyway, that's about it for tonight's game. Let's hope we see the team playing even better Friday in Carolina. Like the Islanders game last night, this is one the Caps should win. Let's hope things don't go the way they did in that one.
20120108
In the shark tank
I didn't go into last night's game against San Jose with a great feeling; not only was there the long string of losses and a tie in San Jose, but Backstrom was declared unavailable because of that elbow to the head.
Things started out pretty well though. They played a pretty much mistake-free game for the first period, and managed to tilt the ice in their own favor (though not heavily; like 12-8 on shots). The period ended scoreless, however, so they didn't get much out of that excellent play.
In the second, things stayed pretty quiet for five minutes. But then Demers put in a fluky shot from the point (it deflected off a defender (OV, I think), off the back boards, off of both of TVo's legs, and slid into the net). The Caps responded well, though, helped by a very obvious goaltender interference call a minute later. The Caps won the faceoff, and put on a pretty passing display with WIdeman putting the puck in the net half a minute after the call.
Things continued to look pretty good for the rest of the period (though slightly in San Jose's favor), but then Wideman missed on a lift check and hit one of the Sharks in the face. They looked like they were going to escape the period despite that, but San Jose managed to put one past TVo with eight seconds left. Ugh. Suddenly, things weren't looking so good.
I didn't realize it until a little bit into the third, but things were actually looking even worse than I thought. Green only took three shifts in the second, and never returned for the third. Ugh. Ugh.
They got things off to a good start in the third, with the checking line potting a goal forty-five seconds in (Ward got it, from Wideman and Chimmer). But things quickly went downhill, as the Sharks' top line put one in on a defensive breakdown (Alzner lost his man) only sixteen seconds later. The rest of the game wasn't terrible, but it sure wasn't good, either, as they ended up allowing two more goals (one and empty-netter), and had very little sustained pressure (MarJo's line had one awesome shift, which I believe was in the third, with basically the entire shift in the offensive zone).
Overall, I'd rate it as a decent game. They came out strong, and played really well for almost two periods before surrendering. The power play looked good in its lone opportunity. The PK was so-so, with one allowed on two chances.
The team was definitely missing Backstrom (and, for half the game, Green). While I hope neither is rushed back before they're ready, I do hope they're ready soon. We'll keep our fingers crossed. One good thing is that both Shultz and Erskine are with the team, and can step in for Green in LA (Geeze, I hope it's nothing serious; but it wasn't anything really obvious, and I only remember him getting hit once. Maybe he aggravated his groin pull. Of course, if so, that'll keep him out for a while).
Anyway, tomorrow night's game is in LA. Let's hope we can learn something from Columbus' win there last night or the night before.
Things started out pretty well though. They played a pretty much mistake-free game for the first period, and managed to tilt the ice in their own favor (though not heavily; like 12-8 on shots). The period ended scoreless, however, so they didn't get much out of that excellent play.
In the second, things stayed pretty quiet for five minutes. But then Demers put in a fluky shot from the point (it deflected off a defender (OV, I think), off the back boards, off of both of TVo's legs, and slid into the net). The Caps responded well, though, helped by a very obvious goaltender interference call a minute later. The Caps won the faceoff, and put on a pretty passing display with WIdeman putting the puck in the net half a minute after the call.
Things continued to look pretty good for the rest of the period (though slightly in San Jose's favor), but then Wideman missed on a lift check and hit one of the Sharks in the face. They looked like they were going to escape the period despite that, but San Jose managed to put one past TVo with eight seconds left. Ugh. Suddenly, things weren't looking so good.
I didn't realize it until a little bit into the third, but things were actually looking even worse than I thought. Green only took three shifts in the second, and never returned for the third. Ugh. Ugh.
They got things off to a good start in the third, with the checking line potting a goal forty-five seconds in (Ward got it, from Wideman and Chimmer). But things quickly went downhill, as the Sharks' top line put one in on a defensive breakdown (Alzner lost his man) only sixteen seconds later. The rest of the game wasn't terrible, but it sure wasn't good, either, as they ended up allowing two more goals (one and empty-netter), and had very little sustained pressure (MarJo's line had one awesome shift, which I believe was in the third, with basically the entire shift in the offensive zone).
Overall, I'd rate it as a decent game. They came out strong, and played really well for almost two periods before surrendering. The power play looked good in its lone opportunity. The PK was so-so, with one allowed on two chances.
The team was definitely missing Backstrom (and, for half the game, Green). While I hope neither is rushed back before they're ready, I do hope they're ready soon. We'll keep our fingers crossed. One good thing is that both Shultz and Erskine are with the team, and can step in for Green in LA (Geeze, I hope it's nothing serious; but it wasn't anything really obvious, and I only remember him getting hit once. Maybe he aggravated his groin pull. Of course, if so, that'll keep him out for a while).
Anyway, tomorrow night's game is in LA. Let's hope we can learn something from Columbus' win there last night or the night before.
20120105
Flame on!
I watched the Caps/Flames game the other night, but I almost feel like I didn't. I was only half-watching the first half of the game (needed to keep the kids out of trouble), and don't remember a whole lot from the second half.
I did see all of the goals live, which was something.
It was really nice to see the team come out and take an early lead, and then extend it. In fact, the Caps dominated the first period pretty well, with an 8-4 shots lead and a 4-1 scoring chance lead. The second period was slightly in favor of Calgary, with them having a 9-8 shots deficit, but a 6-3 scoring chance lead. But the Caps had taken a 1-0 lead in the first on a pretty power play goal by OV from MarJo, and stretched that margin in the second with a not-so-pretty power play goal from Brouwer stuffing in the rebound on an OV shot and a nice play with Backstrom passing from behind the net to WIdeman in front for the score. The latter play was actually created by MarJo, too, by him taking both defensemen out of the play on the initial rush.
I'm starting to feel less good about the Caps play, overall, though, as it feels like they're giving up too many shots. They're blocking something like half of the shots they're seeing, so it looks better, but I have my doubts about how sustainable that is as a winning strategy. Yes, it worked great for Montreal in the playoffs a couple of seasons ago, but that felt a lot more like a fluke than anything sustainable. Hopefully, I'm worried about nothing.
The power play was pretty good, scoring on two of their three opportunities, but that was only on four shots, so it wasn't quite as good as it looked.
The penalty kill was very solid, stopping all four chances, and giving up only three shots.
TVo, through the night, was looking very good. The one goal he allowed was on a good play by Calgary (maybe helped by a blown coverage by one of the forwards (Ward was closest, although I'm not sure if that was his man)), so we won't hold that one against him. He also had some very, very good stops on Calgary's one or two breakaways.
And OV, again, looked like OV from a couple of years ago. It's a lot of fun to watch. And Backstrom has remained quietly dominant.
Backster did take an elbow to the head in the third, and only played two more shifts the rest of the way. Hopefully, that's just a migraine and not a concussion. The latter would be a serious blow to the team, and apparently tests yesterday were inconclusive. We're keeping our fingers crossed. On the plus side, Rene Bourque, who delivered that blow, got a five-game suspension. Let's hope that dissuades him from trying to scramble the brains of other players.
In any event, the team's about to embark on a pretty rough stretch, with days off today and tomorrow, but then five games in nine days. And those five start with San Jose, in the Tank, where the Caps haven't won since 1993. Ouch. It isn't a lot of games, but still, ouch.
I did see all of the goals live, which was something.
It was really nice to see the team come out and take an early lead, and then extend it. In fact, the Caps dominated the first period pretty well, with an 8-4 shots lead and a 4-1 scoring chance lead. The second period was slightly in favor of Calgary, with them having a 9-8 shots deficit, but a 6-3 scoring chance lead. But the Caps had taken a 1-0 lead in the first on a pretty power play goal by OV from MarJo, and stretched that margin in the second with a not-so-pretty power play goal from Brouwer stuffing in the rebound on an OV shot and a nice play with Backstrom passing from behind the net to WIdeman in front for the score. The latter play was actually created by MarJo, too, by him taking both defensemen out of the play on the initial rush.
I'm starting to feel less good about the Caps play, overall, though, as it feels like they're giving up too many shots. They're blocking something like half of the shots they're seeing, so it looks better, but I have my doubts about how sustainable that is as a winning strategy. Yes, it worked great for Montreal in the playoffs a couple of seasons ago, but that felt a lot more like a fluke than anything sustainable. Hopefully, I'm worried about nothing.
The power play was pretty good, scoring on two of their three opportunities, but that was only on four shots, so it wasn't quite as good as it looked.
The penalty kill was very solid, stopping all four chances, and giving up only three shots.
TVo, through the night, was looking very good. The one goal he allowed was on a good play by Calgary (maybe helped by a blown coverage by one of the forwards (Ward was closest, although I'm not sure if that was his man)), so we won't hold that one against him. He also had some very, very good stops on Calgary's one or two breakaways.
And OV, again, looked like OV from a couple of years ago. It's a lot of fun to watch. And Backstrom has remained quietly dominant.
Backster did take an elbow to the head in the third, and only played two more shifts the rest of the way. Hopefully, that's just a migraine and not a concussion. The latter would be a serious blow to the team, and apparently tests yesterday were inconclusive. We're keeping our fingers crossed. On the plus side, Rene Bourque, who delivered that blow, got a five-game suspension. Let's hope that dissuades him from trying to scramble the brains of other players.
In any event, the team's about to embark on a pretty rough stretch, with days off today and tomorrow, but then five games in nine days. And those five start with San Jose, in the Tank, where the Caps haven't won since 1993. Ouch. It isn't a lot of games, but still, ouch.
20111112
Win one, lose one
I was at a bar last night with some friends to watch the Caps game. And we kind of did that, but I must admit that I didn't get much out of it. (Which is ok, the main goal was to talk with friends, one of whom hasn't lived in the area in quite a few years.)
The paper made a big deal out of Semin being benched for much (all?) of the third period, and not playing much of the second either. I think the goal, there, is a good one. Show that everyone, including Semin, is being held accountable, although I'm skeptical of whether it'll actually accomplish anything vis a vis Sasha. But maybe it says something to the rest of the team important enough to overlook that.
In any event, the team seemed to be doing well, and the returns were certainly good. I was shocked (though in a good way, of course), when Chimmer buried that breakaway, shorthanded. And I was amused to see Marjo get another goal from so close to the net. I'm loving that, but it's definitely not what I was expecting from him.
Tonight, I was able to watch pretty close to all of the game. I did miss them saying, at the beginning, that Green (well, he was expected, after last night) and Erskine (didn't hear what happened to him) were out, so I was a bit confused at Laich being on the blue line.
Brouwer's goal was very nice (in fact, thinking about it, maybe he should have gotten a chance in the shootout), and Chimmer did a nice job of vulturing Carlson's goal. I kid; it was well-played. It was nice to see the Caps come out of the first with a lead, for once, and without surrendering a goal, which was even nicer.
But the Caps looked terrible for most of the second period. They did have one really, really nice shift, that ended when MarJo drew a tripping penalty behind the net. I can't remember if they actually got any shots out of that shift, but I loved watching them keep it in the offensive zone for so long. But that was pretty much the only bright spot of the period. They had only two shots, which is terrible. And that's also how many goals they allowed, which is also pretty bad.
A lot of credit certainly goes to the Devils, who played an excellent period, but the Caps just didn't seem to want it nearly as bad as NJ.
In the third period, down another defender with Hamrlik in the dressing room, the Caps actually played better, and generated some chances. Not as many as I would have liked, but more than the second. And they looked much better while doing it, as well. Plus, they didn't give NJ nearly as many chances. Oh, and the top line was especially buzzing. I don't think I'd want to keep Ward up there (I'd rather keep him on the shut-down line), but he did look good there.
But nobody got on the board in the third, so we ended up with overtime. The Caps looked good for the first minute or so of overtime, but the Devils basically took over from there, getting almost all the chances from then on (helped by getting away with a lot of interference).
But again, nobody scored, so we went into the coin flip portion of the game. And that did not go so well, but it is what it is (which is to say, a terrible way to end a hockey game).
So, while the result was disappointing, in the larger picture the Caps did take three of four points in the home-and-home, and that is hard to really get upset about.
Time to start a road trip to Nashville (where I'm sure Ward will be happy to take on his old mates), Winnipeg, and Toronto. I guess we'll find out something more about all the blue-line injuries; and maybe we'll finally get a look at Orlov. We can hope, at least, although Collins is more likely, if they need someone from Hershey.
The paper made a big deal out of Semin being benched for much (all?) of the third period, and not playing much of the second either. I think the goal, there, is a good one. Show that everyone, including Semin, is being held accountable, although I'm skeptical of whether it'll actually accomplish anything vis a vis Sasha. But maybe it says something to the rest of the team important enough to overlook that.
In any event, the team seemed to be doing well, and the returns were certainly good. I was shocked (though in a good way, of course), when Chimmer buried that breakaway, shorthanded. And I was amused to see Marjo get another goal from so close to the net. I'm loving that, but it's definitely not what I was expecting from him.
Tonight, I was able to watch pretty close to all of the game. I did miss them saying, at the beginning, that Green (well, he was expected, after last night) and Erskine (didn't hear what happened to him) were out, so I was a bit confused at Laich being on the blue line.
Brouwer's goal was very nice (in fact, thinking about it, maybe he should have gotten a chance in the shootout), and Chimmer did a nice job of vulturing Carlson's goal. I kid; it was well-played. It was nice to see the Caps come out of the first with a lead, for once, and without surrendering a goal, which was even nicer.
But the Caps looked terrible for most of the second period. They did have one really, really nice shift, that ended when MarJo drew a tripping penalty behind the net. I can't remember if they actually got any shots out of that shift, but I loved watching them keep it in the offensive zone for so long. But that was pretty much the only bright spot of the period. They had only two shots, which is terrible. And that's also how many goals they allowed, which is also pretty bad.
A lot of credit certainly goes to the Devils, who played an excellent period, but the Caps just didn't seem to want it nearly as bad as NJ.
In the third period, down another defender with Hamrlik in the dressing room, the Caps actually played better, and generated some chances. Not as many as I would have liked, but more than the second. And they looked much better while doing it, as well. Plus, they didn't give NJ nearly as many chances. Oh, and the top line was especially buzzing. I don't think I'd want to keep Ward up there (I'd rather keep him on the shut-down line), but he did look good there.
But nobody got on the board in the third, so we ended up with overtime. The Caps looked good for the first minute or so of overtime, but the Devils basically took over from there, getting almost all the chances from then on (helped by getting away with a lot of interference).
But again, nobody scored, so we went into the coin flip portion of the game. And that did not go so well, but it is what it is (which is to say, a terrible way to end a hockey game).
So, while the result was disappointing, in the larger picture the Caps did take three of four points in the home-and-home, and that is hard to really get upset about.
Time to start a road trip to Nashville (where I'm sure Ward will be happy to take on his old mates), Winnipeg, and Toronto. I guess we'll find out something more about all the blue-line injuries; and maybe we'll finally get a look at Orlov. We can hope, at least, although Collins is more likely, if they need someone from Hershey.
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