I wasn't able to watch Saturday's Stanley Cup game, due to not feeling well, but just wanted to mention how impressively close the series is. Blackhawks have a one-game lead, obviously. They also have only a one goal lead, on the series. Shots are tied. No team has had even a two-goal lead at any point.
It's a shame that someone needs to lose.
Showing posts with label nhl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nhl. Show all posts
20150615
20150514
Another debacular finish
I watched last night's Caps game fully in mind of the Caps long (and terrible) history of finishing series' where they lead by two games. It was certainly exciting when OV scored early, to give the Caps the lead.
On that one, and beautiful MarJo backhand found OV alone in the high slot. OV's shot actually found Lundqvist leaning the right way, covering the angle, but also found the top corner. No way in hell was that shot getting blocked.
From there, it was good to see the Caps not turtle down into a defensive shell, but they still gave up a late goal to tie the game up (yeah, I just elided more than two-thirds of the game). That pushed the game into overtime, where the Caps looked very good (several seriously dominant shifts that forced some really good saves, but didn't find the back of the net).
But then they iced it and lost the resulting draw. The puck went back to the point for a long shot, whose rebound went right to an uncovered Stepan for an easy goal. Such an anticlimactic way to end.
Such a familiar ending for the Caps.
Only two positives, here. One, I think the Caps will be better next year (especially if Trotz finds it in him to trust Bura more). And two, at least they didn't go further into OT. Another quadruple OT loss would have had me losing my mind.
I'm now going to try to forget about the Caps for the next several months.
On that one, and beautiful MarJo backhand found OV alone in the high slot. OV's shot actually found Lundqvist leaning the right way, covering the angle, but also found the top corner. No way in hell was that shot getting blocked.
From there, it was good to see the Caps not turtle down into a defensive shell, but they still gave up a late goal to tie the game up (yeah, I just elided more than two-thirds of the game). That pushed the game into overtime, where the Caps looked very good (several seriously dominant shifts that forced some really good saves, but didn't find the back of the net).
But then they iced it and lost the resulting draw. The puck went back to the point for a long shot, whose rebound went right to an uncovered Stepan for an easy goal. Such an anticlimactic way to end.
Such a familiar ending for the Caps.
Only two positives, here. One, I think the Caps will be better next year (especially if Trotz finds it in him to trust Bura more). And two, at least they didn't go further into OT. Another quadruple OT loss would have had me losing my mind.
I'm now going to try to forget about the Caps for the next several months.
20150507
Holt-beast
I don't have a whole lot to say about the last two Caps games. They've been pretty badly outplayed, and Holtby has basically won both games for them. Great that he's able to do that, but it's not a strategy to bank on.
The one really good thing is, with Burra scoring twice last night, maybe he won't get sent back down when Fehr's healthy. Maybe he'll even get moved up alongside Kuzya? That's crazy talk!
Speaking of Kuzya, he's probably a bit overconfident. He's been trying to do too much the last couple games, and it's resulted in a lot of turnovers.
Beagle's goal probably keeps him from being benched, when that happens, too, and that's less fortunate. Beag's been killing it on the dot, which is great, but he's mostly a liability outside of that. Winning the face-off doesn't help if you can't keep possession.
Anyway, the top line has been mostly invisible the last couple games; a few threats, but nothing consistent. We'll take it, as long as we're winning, but it's worrisome.
Niskanen and Alzner... I'm not sure what they're doing, but it's not working. They're just getting killed.
Green? He's actually been fantastic, but hasn't been getting enough ice time (hurt, maybe?).
Still, the Caps now have a 3-1 lead in the series. As any long-suffering Caps fan can tell you, that's a long ways from victory, but it's certainly an enviable position. It's a certainty that the Rangers will come out flying, tomorrow night. The Caps had better be ready for that.
Go Caps!
The one really good thing is, with Burra scoring twice last night, maybe he won't get sent back down when Fehr's healthy. Maybe he'll even get moved up alongside Kuzya? That's crazy talk!
Speaking of Kuzya, he's probably a bit overconfident. He's been trying to do too much the last couple games, and it's resulted in a lot of turnovers.
Beagle's goal probably keeps him from being benched, when that happens, too, and that's less fortunate. Beag's been killing it on the dot, which is great, but he's mostly a liability outside of that. Winning the face-off doesn't help if you can't keep possession.
Anyway, the top line has been mostly invisible the last couple games; a few threats, but nothing consistent. We'll take it, as long as we're winning, but it's worrisome.
Niskanen and Alzner... I'm not sure what they're doing, but it's not working. They're just getting killed.
Green? He's actually been fantastic, but hasn't been getting enough ice time (hurt, maybe?).
Still, the Caps now have a 3-1 lead in the series. As any long-suffering Caps fan can tell you, that's a long ways from victory, but it's certainly an enviable position. It's a certainty that the Rangers will come out flying, tomorrow night. The Caps had better be ready for that.
Go Caps!
20150423
Caps even series
As I mentioned yesterday, I did watch the game two days ago. I thought it was a pretty uneven effort, with OV's goal being a very lucky one (deflection behind the back just going under the crossbar? Ridiculous).
Once again, the Caps were outplayed pretty solidly, and only a great game by Holtby kept them in it long enough to get to overtime.
Fehr was out, as expected. Glencross was also scratched, which surprised me quite a bit. I was glad to see Bura on the ice. It wasn't one of his best games, but he looked good when he was there. He certainly was far from the worst forward on the ice for the Caps.
Wilson was on a mission to be a one-man wrecking crew. He got called for two penalties, but one of them seemed ludicrous, while the other seemed merely a bad call. I think he might have been the only Cap who was matching the hitting of the Islanders (it amazes me that the Islanders are both winning the possession battle, and winning the hitting battle. That's damned near impossible to do).
I did think OV got away with one with an early hit to the back of one of the Islanders, but given that I'd already seen the Isles do the same thing twice without a call left me feeling rather less than gracious about it.
Anyway, the Caps need to work on their breakout. It wasn't nearly as bad as in games one and three, but it wasn't good. Not nearly enough tape-to-tape passes, and way too many forced ones. I can't say that that was particularly on any one defender, either; it was all over the place. Some of that's on the Islanders excellent forecheck, of course, but the Caps need to improve. Maybe getting hit so much is making them tentative; I'm not sure.
Ward has continued to be quietly excellent at both ends of the ice. I'm still not sold on having him on the top line, but he's done very well there in a strictly complementary role.
MarJo hasn't really been rewarded for the effort, but he's also had an excellent series. I will say that I noticed him quite a bit less in this game than in the previous ones, though.
Anyway, the important part is that the Caps did get the deciding goal in overtime (nice shot, Backs) and can head back home with home ice advantage (such as it is). I hope they can just win the next two, though; I do not look forward to the possibility of another home game seven.
A big roadblock just got put in their way, though, as Grabovsky is healthy again. I can only hope that other players on their team decide that that's an excuse for them to take it easy, though, because otherwise the Caps are likely to lose the next two (which would still avoid game seven, I guess). Much as I love Grabbo, and wish him well, generally, I'm not keen on having him suiting up against the Caps.
Go Caps!
Once again, the Caps were outplayed pretty solidly, and only a great game by Holtby kept them in it long enough to get to overtime.
Fehr was out, as expected. Glencross was also scratched, which surprised me quite a bit. I was glad to see Bura on the ice. It wasn't one of his best games, but he looked good when he was there. He certainly was far from the worst forward on the ice for the Caps.
Wilson was on a mission to be a one-man wrecking crew. He got called for two penalties, but one of them seemed ludicrous, while the other seemed merely a bad call. I think he might have been the only Cap who was matching the hitting of the Islanders (it amazes me that the Islanders are both winning the possession battle, and winning the hitting battle. That's damned near impossible to do).
I did think OV got away with one with an early hit to the back of one of the Islanders, but given that I'd already seen the Isles do the same thing twice without a call left me feeling rather less than gracious about it.
Anyway, the Caps need to work on their breakout. It wasn't nearly as bad as in games one and three, but it wasn't good. Not nearly enough tape-to-tape passes, and way too many forced ones. I can't say that that was particularly on any one defender, either; it was all over the place. Some of that's on the Islanders excellent forecheck, of course, but the Caps need to improve. Maybe getting hit so much is making them tentative; I'm not sure.
Ward has continued to be quietly excellent at both ends of the ice. I'm still not sold on having him on the top line, but he's done very well there in a strictly complementary role.
MarJo hasn't really been rewarded for the effort, but he's also had an excellent series. I will say that I noticed him quite a bit less in this game than in the previous ones, though.
Anyway, the important part is that the Caps did get the deciding goal in overtime (nice shot, Backs) and can head back home with home ice advantage (such as it is). I hope they can just win the next two, though; I do not look forward to the possibility of another home game seven.
A big roadblock just got put in their way, though, as Grabovsky is healthy again. I can only hope that other players on their team decide that that's an excuse for them to take it easy, though, because otherwise the Caps are likely to lose the next two (which would still avoid game seven, I guess). Much as I love Grabbo, and wish him well, generally, I'm not keen on having him suiting up against the Caps.
Go Caps!
20150420
Poop sandwich
I did manage to catch yesterday's Caps game, and man, was it miserable. I was hoping that their domination in game two showed that they'd learned something that could carry over, but such was not to be.
They got off to a slow start, and never really turned it on until the third period. They just couldn't connect passes out of the defensive zone, so they were playing most of the game in their own end. And that's a recipe for getting your ass handed to you.
Holtby, however, was in full-on beast mode, and he kept them in the game (somehow). He only let one through, and even that one was deflection from in close that also tipped off the underside of his arm. Can't blame him for that one.
Still, they should have been down by several, but were only down one in the beginning of the third. It took them a few minutes to get going, then, after which they had an amazing ten minutes or so, where they were even more dominant than the Islanders had been up to that point. And he won't get much credit for it, but Ward was a particular thorn in the Islanders side, repeatedly outduelling Islanders defensemen on the forecheck or in keeping the cycle going.
That push finally led to a goal with six minutes and a few seconds left in the period, and things were looking pretty good. But the Islanders woke up, or the Caps just stopped trying, because there was basically zero momentum carry-over after that goal. They went almost back to where they'd been for the first two periods, leaving Holtby to save them again and again.
Which he did, at least into the overtime. But the overtime only lasted fifteen seconds, as New York won the opening face-off and shot the puck in on Holtby was past the red line. Holtby snagged it, then passed it off to the defender, who turned it over immediately. That led to a flurry, with the second rebound being tipped just over Braden's leg and into the net. Can't blame Holtby for that one either (other than that he should have just frozen the puck, obviously).
Anyway, it was a terrible game that the Caps in no way deserved to win, and which they were mighty lucky to get into overtime. The one bit of encouragement is that, despite being badly outplayed, they still had a chance to win.
The bad news is that they needed Holtby to basically be perfect. He's one hell of a goaltender, but that's a lot to ask. Also, Fehr was injured (probably right shoulder, which is particularly bad news for him, given his history of shoulder issues) and might not be back (no, I haven't heard anything). MarJo was also hurt, though he did return.
I must admit to feeling very pessimistic about the Caps' chances, going forward. They've now been manhandled twice, and if they hadn't returned the favor in Game 2, I'd think they had no chance of winning. As it is, I'm still skeptical. The breakout, in games one and three, has just been atrocious, and that's the building block of all offense.
I don't know.
I guess we can find out tomorrow on CSN. Go Caps!
They got off to a slow start, and never really turned it on until the third period. They just couldn't connect passes out of the defensive zone, so they were playing most of the game in their own end. And that's a recipe for getting your ass handed to you.
Holtby, however, was in full-on beast mode, and he kept them in the game (somehow). He only let one through, and even that one was deflection from in close that also tipped off the underside of his arm. Can't blame him for that one.
Still, they should have been down by several, but were only down one in the beginning of the third. It took them a few minutes to get going, then, after which they had an amazing ten minutes or so, where they were even more dominant than the Islanders had been up to that point. And he won't get much credit for it, but Ward was a particular thorn in the Islanders side, repeatedly outduelling Islanders defensemen on the forecheck or in keeping the cycle going.
That push finally led to a goal with six minutes and a few seconds left in the period, and things were looking pretty good. But the Islanders woke up, or the Caps just stopped trying, because there was basically zero momentum carry-over after that goal. They went almost back to where they'd been for the first two periods, leaving Holtby to save them again and again.
Which he did, at least into the overtime. But the overtime only lasted fifteen seconds, as New York won the opening face-off and shot the puck in on Holtby was past the red line. Holtby snagged it, then passed it off to the defender, who turned it over immediately. That led to a flurry, with the second rebound being tipped just over Braden's leg and into the net. Can't blame Holtby for that one either (other than that he should have just frozen the puck, obviously).
Anyway, it was a terrible game that the Caps in no way deserved to win, and which they were mighty lucky to get into overtime. The one bit of encouragement is that, despite being badly outplayed, they still had a chance to win.
The bad news is that they needed Holtby to basically be perfect. He's one hell of a goaltender, but that's a lot to ask. Also, Fehr was injured (probably right shoulder, which is particularly bad news for him, given his history of shoulder issues) and might not be back (no, I haven't heard anything). MarJo was also hurt, though he did return.
I must admit to feeling very pessimistic about the Caps' chances, going forward. They've now been manhandled twice, and if they hadn't returned the favor in Game 2, I'd think they had no chance of winning. As it is, I'm still skeptical. The breakout, in games one and three, has just been atrocious, and that's the building block of all offense.
I don't know.
I guess we can find out tomorrow on CSN. Go Caps!
20150417
Red-rockin'
I missed most of tonight's game; DVR didn't record, and I have no idea why. And we went out to dinner. Got them to put NHL Network on a TV there, so saw a tiny bit of coverage near beginning. But Caps were down 2-0 by the time we left, and I was definitely not feeling good about things.
Forgot to check on DVR upon arriving home, so when I finally turned it on (after getting kids in bed), there were only a few minutes left, and Caps were up 4-3. Spent a couple of shifts just playing defense (looked like a PK, except with five men on ice), then OV came on and jump-started offense. Had a nice shift-and-a-bit in the offensive zone before finally clearing in and missing the glass.
From there, they did a nice job killing off the remaining time.
The biggest news of the game was that Gru was in net; Holtby was apparently too sick to go. Hope he feels better by Sunday. But Gru's not bad, and held down the fort well enough, I guess.
The other thing that my twitter feed informed me of is that the Caps were completely dominant through two periods on shot attempts. No way the game should have been as close as it was, it seems. I'll need to watch highlights. Either Isles got some really lucky bounces, or Gru did much worse than I'd expect from him.
Still, the important thing is that they won. They're still not in a good position, as NY still has home ice advantage for the series, but if the dominant play came as a result of strategic changes, then they're in great shape. If not, well, at least it doesn't look hopeless.
And remember, Sunday's game is at 1230, and is on NBC (not a fan of Doc, so not thrilled with that, but we're stuck with it).
Oh, and if you're tracking such things, Riley Barber left Miami and signed his ELC. Looking forward to seeing him in red next year, although he'll be spending most of the year in Hershey, I imagine.
Go Caps! (and if you're not on a ketogenic diet, remember Papa John's code CAPS50 for tomorrow.)
Forgot to check on DVR upon arriving home, so when I finally turned it on (after getting kids in bed), there were only a few minutes left, and Caps were up 4-3. Spent a couple of shifts just playing defense (looked like a PK, except with five men on ice), then OV came on and jump-started offense. Had a nice shift-and-a-bit in the offensive zone before finally clearing in and missing the glass.
From there, they did a nice job killing off the remaining time.
The biggest news of the game was that Gru was in net; Holtby was apparently too sick to go. Hope he feels better by Sunday. But Gru's not bad, and held down the fort well enough, I guess.
The other thing that my twitter feed informed me of is that the Caps were completely dominant through two periods on shot attempts. No way the game should have been as close as it was, it seems. I'll need to watch highlights. Either Isles got some really lucky bounces, or Gru did much worse than I'd expect from him.
Still, the important thing is that they won. They're still not in a good position, as NY still has home ice advantage for the series, but if the dominant play came as a result of strategic changes, then they're in great shape. If not, well, at least it doesn't look hopeless.
And remember, Sunday's game is at 1230, and is on NBC (not a fan of Doc, so not thrilled with that, but we're stuck with it).
Oh, and if you're tracking such things, Riley Barber left Miami and signed his ELC. Looking forward to seeing him in red next year, although he'll be spending most of the year in Hershey, I imagine.
Go Caps! (and if you're not on a ketogenic diet, remember Papa John's code CAPS50 for tomorrow.)
20150416
Not a good start
I don't have a lot to say about last night's Caps game, but I do have a few thoughts.
One, the shot totals would seem to indicate that the game was much more even than it felt like.
Two, I think the shot totals are misleading; now looking, and the Isles had many more missed shots.
Three, the power play needs to adapt a bit to NY's aggressiveness.
Four, tape-to-tape passes are critical. It did get better as the game went on, but there were way too many giveaways. The Isles are too good to be giving them the puck for free.
Five, there is no world in which Beagle should be playing over Bura. No excuse for that. Heck, I'd rather have Galiev up there over Beagle. Possibly over Chimmer, too.
Six, the Caps miss Wilson's ability to draw (even matching) penalties.
Seven, MarJo had a hell of a game.
Eight, OV didn't seem like he was accomplishing much (outside of hitting), but his Corsi and Fenwick numbers were very good. And his 11 shot attempts were also quite good. Not sure what was going on, there.
Nine, the young Islanders having very little playoff experience didn't seem to hurt them in any way. They got a little bit lucky, but they still solidly outplayed the Caps.
This is well short of the time to panic, but things definitely do not look good. Hopefully, Barry can come up with some effective counters to the Islanders' tactics (Bruce never managing that was the biggest reason for the Caps not doing well in the playoffs under him. And why I don't expect him to make it out of the second round (maybe not even first) this year).
One, the shot totals would seem to indicate that the game was much more even than it felt like.
Two, I think the shot totals are misleading; now looking, and the Isles had many more missed shots.
Three, the power play needs to adapt a bit to NY's aggressiveness.
Four, tape-to-tape passes are critical. It did get better as the game went on, but there were way too many giveaways. The Isles are too good to be giving them the puck for free.
Five, there is no world in which Beagle should be playing over Bura. No excuse for that. Heck, I'd rather have Galiev up there over Beagle. Possibly over Chimmer, too.
Six, the Caps miss Wilson's ability to draw (even matching) penalties.
Seven, MarJo had a hell of a game.
Eight, OV didn't seem like he was accomplishing much (outside of hitting), but his Corsi and Fenwick numbers were very good. And his 11 shot attempts were also quite good. Not sure what was going on, there.
Nine, the young Islanders having very little playoff experience didn't seem to hurt them in any way. They got a little bit lucky, but they still solidly outplayed the Caps.
This is well short of the time to panic, but things definitely do not look good. Hopefully, Barry can come up with some effective counters to the Islanders' tactics (Bruce never managing that was the biggest reason for the Caps not doing well in the playoffs under him. And why I don't expect him to make it out of the second round (maybe not even first) this year).
20150410
Marching into the postseason
I haven't been talking about the Caps at all, lately, although I've watched almost every game. The only one I missed since my last update was the game against the Rangers (and I did watch the rest of the game vs the Bruins the other day). With the ass-kicking that appears to have been, I'm very sorry about it.
With one game left, they're in second place in the division. With the Islanders having just won tonight, they could swap positions tomorrow, but the only effect that will have is on home ice for their series.
Third place in the Atlantic Division, along with the two wild cards, is impressively up in the air, though. Right now Detroit has that third-place spot, but they could be knocked down by Ottawa. Conversely, Boston could knock Ottawa out entirely out of the playoffs.
It's also possible that a Boston win could knock Pittsburgh out; wouldn't that be a shame. That's really funny, in a way. At the beginning of the season, both of those teams were considered front-runners to win the conference. And now they're fighting for the playoff scraps. Couldn't happen to two nicer teams.
Most of the top of the conference is set, although Tampa could pass Montreal on tie-breakers for first in the Atlantic.
Anyway, not too important. A couple notes on the Caps.
First, it's good to see that they've found some secondary scoring the last few games.
Second, congratulations to Galiev for making it all the way up. He's had a bit of a rough road. He killed it in junior, with St John. But he crashed and burned in his first appearance in the AHL. He got sent down to the ECHL, and he wasn't exactly killing it when he got there, either.
His second pro season started in the ECHL, and he wasn't great, but was good enough to go back up to Hershey. He was ok there, last year, and stayed with Hershey this year. And this year, he's been killing it in Hershey. I don't know that he'll get more reward for his efforts than his appearance with the Caps against Boston, the other night, but you could definitely see he wasn't taking anything for granted. Congrats to him for turning it around.
Third, the Caps look pretty good, especially on the defensive end. Trotz does a good job of keeping the defenders involved offensively, and that's fun to watch.
Fourth, the recent line shuffling has been a bit weird. Ward isn't a bad complement to OV, but I'm not sure about Kuzya centering them (unrelated, but K's assist to MarJo vs Boston was incredibly sweet). Separating OV and Nicky didn't work well for a while, but Nicky's finally getting scoring help from his new linemates. Also, I do like how Nicky and OV get reunited for offensive zone faceoffs frequently to try to set up the instant goal.
Fifth, I wish it hadn't taken an injury, but I'm glad to see Bura back up. I still can't see any reason for him getting sent down; he needs to stay.
Sixth, I hope Wilson is back soon, although I even more hope that he isn't rushed if he isn't ready. I do like the way he draws penalties (even if he's had some mystifying matching penalties, lately); the Caps could definitely use that.
Seventh, we took the family to see the Nashville game the other day. We had the clubhouse deal, which wasn't bad. Get there early, though, to do that. We didn't end up getting to our seats until just before the end of the first period, when the Caps were already down by three and Holtby was on the bench. The rest of the game was quite good (getting goals in the first 21 seconds of both remaining periods was pretty amazing), but that wasn't cool.
Having said all that, I'm not too much caring about the results of tomorrow's finale against the Rangers. Basically, I just hope no one is injured. If they get home ice against the Isles, great. If not? Well, the Caps might be the worst playoff home team in the league, so no great loss.
I'm definitely looking forward to the playoffs; I think they'll make some noise. Go Caps!
With one game left, they're in second place in the division. With the Islanders having just won tonight, they could swap positions tomorrow, but the only effect that will have is on home ice for their series.
Third place in the Atlantic Division, along with the two wild cards, is impressively up in the air, though. Right now Detroit has that third-place spot, but they could be knocked down by Ottawa. Conversely, Boston could knock Ottawa out entirely out of the playoffs.
It's also possible that a Boston win could knock Pittsburgh out; wouldn't that be a shame. That's really funny, in a way. At the beginning of the season, both of those teams were considered front-runners to win the conference. And now they're fighting for the playoff scraps. Couldn't happen to two nicer teams.
Most of the top of the conference is set, although Tampa could pass Montreal on tie-breakers for first in the Atlantic.
Anyway, not too important. A couple notes on the Caps.
First, it's good to see that they've found some secondary scoring the last few games.
Second, congratulations to Galiev for making it all the way up. He's had a bit of a rough road. He killed it in junior, with St John. But he crashed and burned in his first appearance in the AHL. He got sent down to the ECHL, and he wasn't exactly killing it when he got there, either.
His second pro season started in the ECHL, and he wasn't great, but was good enough to go back up to Hershey. He was ok there, last year, and stayed with Hershey this year. And this year, he's been killing it in Hershey. I don't know that he'll get more reward for his efforts than his appearance with the Caps against Boston, the other night, but you could definitely see he wasn't taking anything for granted. Congrats to him for turning it around.
Third, the Caps look pretty good, especially on the defensive end. Trotz does a good job of keeping the defenders involved offensively, and that's fun to watch.
Fourth, the recent line shuffling has been a bit weird. Ward isn't a bad complement to OV, but I'm not sure about Kuzya centering them (unrelated, but K's assist to MarJo vs Boston was incredibly sweet). Separating OV and Nicky didn't work well for a while, but Nicky's finally getting scoring help from his new linemates. Also, I do like how Nicky and OV get reunited for offensive zone faceoffs frequently to try to set up the instant goal.
Fifth, I wish it hadn't taken an injury, but I'm glad to see Bura back up. I still can't see any reason for him getting sent down; he needs to stay.
Sixth, I hope Wilson is back soon, although I even more hope that he isn't rushed if he isn't ready. I do like the way he draws penalties (even if he's had some mystifying matching penalties, lately); the Caps could definitely use that.
Seventh, we took the family to see the Nashville game the other day. We had the clubhouse deal, which wasn't bad. Get there early, though, to do that. We didn't end up getting to our seats until just before the end of the first period, when the Caps were already down by three and Holtby was on the bench. The rest of the game was quite good (getting goals in the first 21 seconds of both remaining periods was pretty amazing), but that wasn't cool.
Having said all that, I'm not too much caring about the results of tomorrow's finale against the Rangers. Basically, I just hope no one is injured. If they get home ice against the Isles, great. If not? Well, the Caps might be the worst playoff home team in the league, so no great loss.
I'm definitely looking forward to the playoffs; I think they'll make some noise. Go Caps!
20150312
Short Caps update
I missed the Buffalo game entirely, the other night. I didn't watch it live, because my kids were watching something, and didn't watch it the next day as another game (Philly vs NJ, of all things) came on the same channel, and recorded over it. Now I remember why I'd set that channel to save two recordings, instead of one.
Then, last night, I forgot to check the channel beforehand (I should have been thinking that it'd be on NBCSN, being on Wednesday night), and didn't set it to record. The good thing was that the game started at 2000, instead of the normal 1900, so I didn't miss nearly as much. But I did still miss the first period and a chunk of the second while getting the kids ready for bed.
I knew, beforehand, that there were some injuries (I've been close to keeping up on twitter, lately). So I knew the defense was a bit of a mess (Orpik and Green were both out. Hopefully not for long), with Schmidt (glad to see him back from injury) and Schilling on the back line.
Bura also got sent down, again, for reasons that mystify me. I suspect the proximate cause is to get him playing time when Trotz wants to sit him, but I don't understand why Barry doesn't want him on the ice. He's not a perfect player (geeze, he's 19, what do you expect?), but he's pretty damned good. More to the point, he improves the team when he's there.
My suspicion is that Trotz is getting a biased (in the technical sense; I forget what this particular bias is called) view of Bura, where he sees the mistakes and downplays all the good stuff. Net, he's heavily positive, but it's certainly true that he makes some mistakes.
Anyway, the rest of the second period went about as badly as possible, given that the Caps didn't give up any goals (they were already down 2-1 when I turned it on). I don't have a count from that point forward, but they only had four shots on net for the whole period. That's not a record, but it's really terrible. Not surprisingly, two questionable power plays (I don't understand how the hit that Glencross responded to wasn't a penalty for being a hit to the head, which would have made it matching penalties. And I didn't see anything wrong with the hit that sent OV to the box, either) didn't help with that. But even without those, they were spending way too much time in their own zone.
Still, being down only one, the third opened with a bit of hope. And the Caps really took it to the Rangers, keeping them hemmed in. Particular kudos on that to Schmidt for one unbelievable shift, early on, where he kept it in three or four times in a row.
Unfortunately, the only goal in the period came when Carlson and Schmidt both messed up (Carlson's pass was errant and slow, and Schmidt came forward too much to try to get it), leading to a two-man breakaway with Kreider and St Louis. No surprise when MSL buried that one for the two-goal advantage.
That came with a bit over two minutes left, but basically left the Caps hosed. They continued pressing, and took Holtby out right away, but it wasn't enough, and the Rangers skated away with the win and a tie for the President's Cup (four-way tie; how weird is that. All four division leaders are tied with 91 points). And it's only technically a tie, too, as the Rangers have 1-3 games in hand against each of the others, as well as the best goal differential. Nashville has the best Fenwick differential of the four, though (by a lot, compared to the Rangers. Amazingly, the Rangers are barely positive in Fenwick +/-).
Disappointing game, but no real reason to be particularly discouraged. Frankly, Talbot had an amazing game to keep the Caps behind. They'll do better.
Then, last night, I forgot to check the channel beforehand (I should have been thinking that it'd be on NBCSN, being on Wednesday night), and didn't set it to record. The good thing was that the game started at 2000, instead of the normal 1900, so I didn't miss nearly as much. But I did still miss the first period and a chunk of the second while getting the kids ready for bed.
I knew, beforehand, that there were some injuries (I've been close to keeping up on twitter, lately). So I knew the defense was a bit of a mess (Orpik and Green were both out. Hopefully not for long), with Schmidt (glad to see him back from injury) and Schilling on the back line.
Bura also got sent down, again, for reasons that mystify me. I suspect the proximate cause is to get him playing time when Trotz wants to sit him, but I don't understand why Barry doesn't want him on the ice. He's not a perfect player (geeze, he's 19, what do you expect?), but he's pretty damned good. More to the point, he improves the team when he's there.
My suspicion is that Trotz is getting a biased (in the technical sense; I forget what this particular bias is called) view of Bura, where he sees the mistakes and downplays all the good stuff. Net, he's heavily positive, but it's certainly true that he makes some mistakes.
Anyway, the rest of the second period went about as badly as possible, given that the Caps didn't give up any goals (they were already down 2-1 when I turned it on). I don't have a count from that point forward, but they only had four shots on net for the whole period. That's not a record, but it's really terrible. Not surprisingly, two questionable power plays (I don't understand how the hit that Glencross responded to wasn't a penalty for being a hit to the head, which would have made it matching penalties. And I didn't see anything wrong with the hit that sent OV to the box, either) didn't help with that. But even without those, they were spending way too much time in their own zone.
Still, being down only one, the third opened with a bit of hope. And the Caps really took it to the Rangers, keeping them hemmed in. Particular kudos on that to Schmidt for one unbelievable shift, early on, where he kept it in three or four times in a row.
Unfortunately, the only goal in the period came when Carlson and Schmidt both messed up (Carlson's pass was errant and slow, and Schmidt came forward too much to try to get it), leading to a two-man breakaway with Kreider and St Louis. No surprise when MSL buried that one for the two-goal advantage.
That came with a bit over two minutes left, but basically left the Caps hosed. They continued pressing, and took Holtby out right away, but it wasn't enough, and the Rangers skated away with the win and a tie for the President's Cup (four-way tie; how weird is that. All four division leaders are tied with 91 points). And it's only technically a tie, too, as the Rangers have 1-3 games in hand against each of the others, as well as the best goal differential. Nashville has the best Fenwick differential of the four, though (by a lot, compared to the Rangers. Amazingly, the Rangers are barely positive in Fenwick +/-).
Disappointing game, but no real reason to be particularly discouraged. Frankly, Talbot had an amazing game to keep the Caps behind. They'll do better.
20150304
Caps (roller) coaster
So, I've watched all the games since my last post (including the final two periods against Philly). And boy, has it been a mixed bag.
The last two against Philly weren't too bad; not great, but not nearly as bad as the first.
The attempt at the season sweep against Pittsburgh was not good. They looked unready in the first, and incapable through the second and third. Malkin just being outright dominant did not help matters. He missed a couple of the earlier meetings with the Pens, but I can't remember if he missed them all. Regardless, he was easily the best player on the ice for that one.
The Carolina game... Man, the Caps again just looked unready for the first period. I remember, a few years ago, repeatedly complaining that the Caps let themselves fall behind, then played like demons to win or tie. By the time I'd watched this game, I was feeling like they were back in that mode.
And then cam Toronto and Columbus, and the difference in those two games, versus the three previous, was night-and-day. Really, both were dominant games.
Scoring-wise, I guess most of the difference was secondary (or tertiary) scoring, because OV and Backstrom have continued their torrid points pace, and are now tied for the league points record (by themselves, after last night; before that, it was a four-way tie). But the bigger difference is in possession numbers. The three losses came with abysmal possession numbers.
I don't know where they're going from here, but it certainly looks a lot more encouraging than it did a couple days ago.
One factor in there is that two trades were made. Gleason was brought in to round out the top six on defense. I'm not thrilled with it, but he was cheap and will probably end up getting Green more minutes.
The other leaves me a bit less sanguine. Glencross was brought in from Calgary, and is costing a second and a third pick in this year's draft. I'm not terribly happy with his numbers, especially the drop in his possession numbers (and goals) this year and last. The plan seems to be to put him on the second line with Brouwer and Kuzya. I guess the pair of breakaways that the line got, last night, is encouraging, even if neither resulted in a goal.
Glencross has generally been used in a shut-down capacity, and that's part of why I'm not thrilled. There's just no room for him on the first or third line, and those are the lines that face the toughest opposition. Anyway, I think that was too much to pay for a so-so rental player, but not horribly so.
I hope he ends up contributing. Next up will be Minnesota, on Thursday; hopefully the good numbers will continue (and maybe Dubnyk can have an off-day). Go Caps!
The last two against Philly weren't too bad; not great, but not nearly as bad as the first.
The attempt at the season sweep against Pittsburgh was not good. They looked unready in the first, and incapable through the second and third. Malkin just being outright dominant did not help matters. He missed a couple of the earlier meetings with the Pens, but I can't remember if he missed them all. Regardless, he was easily the best player on the ice for that one.
The Carolina game... Man, the Caps again just looked unready for the first period. I remember, a few years ago, repeatedly complaining that the Caps let themselves fall behind, then played like demons to win or tie. By the time I'd watched this game, I was feeling like they were back in that mode.
And then cam Toronto and Columbus, and the difference in those two games, versus the three previous, was night-and-day. Really, both were dominant games.
Scoring-wise, I guess most of the difference was secondary (or tertiary) scoring, because OV and Backstrom have continued their torrid points pace, and are now tied for the league points record (by themselves, after last night; before that, it was a four-way tie). But the bigger difference is in possession numbers. The three losses came with abysmal possession numbers.
I don't know where they're going from here, but it certainly looks a lot more encouraging than it did a couple days ago.
One factor in there is that two trades were made. Gleason was brought in to round out the top six on defense. I'm not thrilled with it, but he was cheap and will probably end up getting Green more minutes.
The other leaves me a bit less sanguine. Glencross was brought in from Calgary, and is costing a second and a third pick in this year's draft. I'm not terribly happy with his numbers, especially the drop in his possession numbers (and goals) this year and last. The plan seems to be to put him on the second line with Brouwer and Kuzya. I guess the pair of breakaways that the line got, last night, is encouraging, even if neither resulted in a goal.
Glencross has generally been used in a shut-down capacity, and that's part of why I'm not thrilled. There's just no room for him on the first or third line, and those are the lines that face the toughest opposition. Anyway, I think that was too much to pay for a so-so rental player, but not horribly so.
I hope he ends up contributing. Next up will be Minnesota, on Thursday; hopefully the good numbers will continue (and maybe Dubnyk can have an off-day). Go Caps!
20150225
Challenges (also) met
I feel like I should also catch up, at least a little bit, with the Caps. Other than the second and third periods of last night's game which, as I mentioned, I haven't seen, I've watched all the games since my last post about them.
And it's hard to argue that they haven't been doing well. A game off, here and there (and hopefully last night was no worse than that), but mostly very solid. It's impossible to be anything but thrilled with the West Coast swing. It took some lucky bounces (especially against San Jose), but three wins and one loss is better than we had any right to expect.
And then there was that Winnipeg game. I was sorry to hear that Matty P was injured, so we couldn't see him, but was otherwise thrilled with the game. Five to one, with the one goal against deflecting off of Alzner's stick when he went down to block the shot, then deflecting off his skate boot, then up and over Holtby. And how can you not love 6:15 of continuous power play time in the second period (and none of those were iffy penalties, either.
Admittedly, Winnipeg looked pretty bad (their organization wasn't), but it was cool to see the Caps completely dominate.
It wasn't nearly as smooth, but the Caps handled themselves well against the Conference-leading (man, it seems strange to say that) Islanders. The last-minute goal forcing overtime was a bit of a blow to the Caps' chances of catching the Islanders, but at least they won in the shoot-out.
Generally speaking, I've been happy with what the Caps have been doing. OV has just been killing it; he's looked more dangerous than he had in quite a while. He's been back-checking, which is a welcome change. He's also been blocking the occasional shot, but despite that leading to the occasional rush the other way, I think I'd prefer he didn't (the team would be too badly hurt if he got injured).
Saint Nick has also been killing it. Not only has he kept setting up OV at a torrid rate, but he's scored quite a few of his own to take the league lead in points. Awesome. And he and OV are both rapidly approaching Pivonka for the team lead in career assists.
One of my two big bones of contention with team management, though, has to do with the third spot on that line. I'm not a big fan of switching out Bura and Wilson on that spot, although I don't think that's a terrible way to operate (well, as long as Bura stays in the line-up when he isn't on the top line). But putting Beagle there is just awful; really, I understand what he brings to the table (back-up face-offs, battling on the boards, a little forechecking), and he isn't a terrible player, but the only situation justifying him being on the top line is a whole rash of injuries. Seriously, any of MarJo, Fehr, Brouwer, Ward, or the two above would be a better choice. I certainly understand why Fehr and Ward don't get consideration there, but Brouwer and Wilson are both unconditionally better than Beagle in the strategic situation where you might think of putting Beagle there.
I was quite fine with seeing MarJo up on the top line, and I think there's plenty of reason to think that's basically optimal (considering that line only). But Bura needs to be in the line-up.
We haven't reached a situation where Trotz' mismanagement of Bura approaches what Oates did with Erat, but it's heading in that direction. And Bura's very young; some recent quotes by him lead me to believe that he's having confidence issues that entirely stem from Trotz yanking him around. I think Trotz' perspective is he doesn't want any fancy play from Bura in the defensive zone, but he's got to realize that the rare problem is more than offset by the excellent results most of the time. Creative players need to be allowed to be creative.
It's the same philosophy that makes it so (relatively) easy for teams to come back in the waning minutes of a game. Not productive.
Anyway, my other major bone of contention has to do with Holtby. I have mostly been ok with his handling, but I was very disturbed when he was allowed to play against the Flyers, the other day, in the second half of a back-to-back. Yes, I know there were a couple days off afterwards, but the kid shouldn't be playing 70 games. Yes, he's looked good (actually, he's looked fantastic), but I want him to continue to look good for years to come, not just this season. Perhaps even more importantly, I don't want him to be mentally fatigued when the play-offs arrive. Give the kid some rest.
I'm glad he didn't play both halves of the prior two back-to-backs, at least.
On the back end, things have been pretty darned good. Carlson and Green have both cleared thirty assists, which is very cool. Hillen's played more than I would prefer, although I guess with both Orlov and Schmidt unavailable, that's not terrible. Schilling looked fine when he played, the other day.
The one other thing I've been thinking about lately also gets back to Beagle. He's been getting quite a bit of attention from the announcers, especially on NBC. It makes me wonder if there's a perception that Beagle, thanks to his uncharacteristically high shooting percentage, is worth a significant amount in trade. I hope McLellan is exploring that possibility, because trading high would be fantastic, especially if it would help land someone like, say, Weircoch.
Update: I just checked the numbers on Schilling and Oleksy (who played a game or two in there). Both were more sheltered (and Hillen) positionally, but less so, competition-wise, and both did much better. In small samples, of course. I'd probably play Schilling over the other two, at this point, until Orlov or Schmidt becomes available. And I'd definitely play either of them over Hillen, once they're options.
And it's hard to argue that they haven't been doing well. A game off, here and there (and hopefully last night was no worse than that), but mostly very solid. It's impossible to be anything but thrilled with the West Coast swing. It took some lucky bounces (especially against San Jose), but three wins and one loss is better than we had any right to expect.
And then there was that Winnipeg game. I was sorry to hear that Matty P was injured, so we couldn't see him, but was otherwise thrilled with the game. Five to one, with the one goal against deflecting off of Alzner's stick when he went down to block the shot, then deflecting off his skate boot, then up and over Holtby. And how can you not love 6:15 of continuous power play time in the second period (and none of those were iffy penalties, either.
Admittedly, Winnipeg looked pretty bad (their organization wasn't), but it was cool to see the Caps completely dominate.
It wasn't nearly as smooth, but the Caps handled themselves well against the Conference-leading (man, it seems strange to say that) Islanders. The last-minute goal forcing overtime was a bit of a blow to the Caps' chances of catching the Islanders, but at least they won in the shoot-out.
Generally speaking, I've been happy with what the Caps have been doing. OV has just been killing it; he's looked more dangerous than he had in quite a while. He's been back-checking, which is a welcome change. He's also been blocking the occasional shot, but despite that leading to the occasional rush the other way, I think I'd prefer he didn't (the team would be too badly hurt if he got injured).
Saint Nick has also been killing it. Not only has he kept setting up OV at a torrid rate, but he's scored quite a few of his own to take the league lead in points. Awesome. And he and OV are both rapidly approaching Pivonka for the team lead in career assists.
One of my two big bones of contention with team management, though, has to do with the third spot on that line. I'm not a big fan of switching out Bura and Wilson on that spot, although I don't think that's a terrible way to operate (well, as long as Bura stays in the line-up when he isn't on the top line). But putting Beagle there is just awful; really, I understand what he brings to the table (back-up face-offs, battling on the boards, a little forechecking), and he isn't a terrible player, but the only situation justifying him being on the top line is a whole rash of injuries. Seriously, any of MarJo, Fehr, Brouwer, Ward, or the two above would be a better choice. I certainly understand why Fehr and Ward don't get consideration there, but Brouwer and Wilson are both unconditionally better than Beagle in the strategic situation where you might think of putting Beagle there.
I was quite fine with seeing MarJo up on the top line, and I think there's plenty of reason to think that's basically optimal (considering that line only). But Bura needs to be in the line-up.
We haven't reached a situation where Trotz' mismanagement of Bura approaches what Oates did with Erat, but it's heading in that direction. And Bura's very young; some recent quotes by him lead me to believe that he's having confidence issues that entirely stem from Trotz yanking him around. I think Trotz' perspective is he doesn't want any fancy play from Bura in the defensive zone, but he's got to realize that the rare problem is more than offset by the excellent results most of the time. Creative players need to be allowed to be creative.
It's the same philosophy that makes it so (relatively) easy for teams to come back in the waning minutes of a game. Not productive.
Anyway, my other major bone of contention has to do with Holtby. I have mostly been ok with his handling, but I was very disturbed when he was allowed to play against the Flyers, the other day, in the second half of a back-to-back. Yes, I know there were a couple days off afterwards, but the kid shouldn't be playing 70 games. Yes, he's looked good (actually, he's looked fantastic), but I want him to continue to look good for years to come, not just this season. Perhaps even more importantly, I don't want him to be mentally fatigued when the play-offs arrive. Give the kid some rest.
I'm glad he didn't play both halves of the prior two back-to-backs, at least.
On the back end, things have been pretty darned good. Carlson and Green have both cleared thirty assists, which is very cool. Hillen's played more than I would prefer, although I guess with both Orlov and Schmidt unavailable, that's not terrible. Schilling looked fine when he played, the other day.
The one other thing I've been thinking about lately also gets back to Beagle. He's been getting quite a bit of attention from the announcers, especially on NBC. It makes me wonder if there's a perception that Beagle, thanks to his uncharacteristically high shooting percentage, is worth a significant amount in trade. I hope McLellan is exploring that possibility, because trading high would be fantastic, especially if it would help land someone like, say, Weircoch.
Update: I just checked the numbers on Schilling and Oleksy (who played a game or two in there). Both were more sheltered (and Hillen) positionally, but less so, competition-wise, and both did much better. In small samples, of course. I'd probably play Schilling over the other two, at this point, until Orlov or Schmidt becomes available. And I'd definitely play either of them over Hillen, once they're options.
20150120
At a loss
I'm not sure what all I want to say about them, but I thought I should say something about the performance of the Caps.
The Caps have played five games since I last talked about them, the results being three wins followed by three losses (all games decided in regulation).
The Caps did not do especially well against the Red Wings, but got lucky with an early goal by Brouwer on the power play. The Capitals got some backhanded help, too, when Howard injured himself on that play. They scored twice more in the second on Mrazek, getting a little more luck.
Ericsson got one back just before the end of the second, but the Caps were able to hold it together without further scoring through the third.
In all, outplayed but they did have some strong plays that carried them through.
The Avalanche were next, and the Caps did well against them. Beagle got the only goal of the first (I think it was a rebound of a Chimera shot), despite the Caps generally not doing great through that period.
In the second and third, though, the Caps turned it on and played very strongly. Their only goal was an OV power play marker, but they only allowed one goal, by Tanguay on the power play, to go with it. So Holtby outplayed Varly, though Varly did have a bit more work. Both, however, were called on to make some pretty tough saves.
The Flyers game, as I think I alluded to in another post, I missed entirely. Verdammt changes in channels. But the Caps did reasonably well, getting an early goal an holding on to make that good enough.
Next were the Preds, with Trotz making his first return to Nashville since coming to Washington. And it was quite a mixed bag. They didn't do well through the first, with Seth Jones scoring the only goal on a wrister off a face-off.
Neal got a lucky bounce off a skate to give the Preds a two-goal advantage, early in the second. Then OV struck twice, both one-timers from his normal spot. The first looked like his normal power play goal, except that Alzner fed the pass instead of Green, Carlson, or Niskanen. The second was a one-timer from his normal spot on the power play, except that the feed came out of the corner, via Brouwer (and it looked like a broken play, except that I've never seen Brouwer make a no-look pass like that one, so I'm not sure).
When MarJo scored, early in the third on the power play (nice determination on a stuff play; took him three tries), it looked like the Caps were going to cruise home. Then Ekholm scored on the power play with 4 1/2 left, then Neal made alucky pretty steal of a cross-ice, D-to-D, saucer pass and beat Holtby with a minute and a half left.
The Caps tried to tie it up again late, but weren't really able to control the puck in the offensive zone.
Finally, the Caps faced the Stars in a wild one that I turned off after the first period (they were looking pretty terrible up to that point). They went down three-love, then tied it up early in the third, then surrendered two more, sixteen seconds apart, then got a late one to make it close again.
But that was the end of the scoring, and the Caps came home empty-handed.
I'm looking at the Corsi numbers now, and my feelings seem largely borne out. The Caps did not do well, 5-on-5 close in Detroit (horrible, actually), nor great in Dallas (though closer than I'd've guessed), but were dominant in Nashville (which is a surprise; I didn't think they did poorly, but not nearly that well), Philadelphia, and Colorado. The lowest of those latter three was 55.4%, which is very good.
As far as players, the offensive lines haven't changed much (other than the occasional musical chair at top-line left wing. Bura's mostly been there, but several others are getting a shift or two a game). OV and Backstrom are largely keeping the team afloat, killing it despite tough opposition. Kuzya, MarJo, and Brouwer are doing pretty well, with MarJo getting most of the line's goals (who'd'a thunk it?). And Fehr, Laich, and Ward continue to be a pretty decent shut-down line.
Wilson's been in that spot on the top line occasionally, but has mostly been on the fourth line. Color me surprised, but he's still drawing penalties while there, so that's fantastic. And while the line hasn't generated a lot of offense, they've done a good job keeping play in the offensive end of the ice. If that's all that line does, I'd still call it a successful line (since it's the fourth). And they have scored a few.
Beagle's been playing. While I'm not thrilled with that, the results have not been bad. As I said, that line has looked pretty decent.
Defensively, I believe Schmidt came back for one game (and I was hoping that was a sign that Trotz had realized Schmidt is the better player), but then got sent down, and then injured (and is out for several more weeks). So Hillen has been getting a lot of playing time. He's actually looked pretty good when I've noticed him, but his numbers are still pretty bad, despite heavy sheltering.
Alzner's looking better, offensively, but I'm a little concerned that his Corsi numbers aren't great. I wonder if he's giving up something on the back end when he's getting more involved in the offense. Nothing I can put my finger on, but I do wonder.
Niskanen's Corsi numbers have improved since I last looked, though he does seem to have gotten quite a few penalties. I hope that's just an aberation, because this team definitely needs to stay out of the box.
On the goalie front, Peters finally played in the Dallas game, and was even down in the AHL for a bit. So I'm not encouraged about Trotz keeping Holtby in good shape, despite the results over the span. My one hope is that Korn is keeping a close eye on Holtby, and has been sure Holtby was in good shape. Still, I'm worried about him being burnt out; he's too good to be wasted for a nothing stretch in the middle of the season.
Overall, despite how the Nashville game ended, it's hard to be upset, or even disappointed, with the overall results.
Let's hope the good feelings continue tonight, against Edmonton (who have, I believe, despite being around the bottom of the league overall, beaten the Caps the last several times they've played). Go Caps!
The Caps have played five games since I last talked about them, the results being three wins followed by three losses (all games decided in regulation).
The Caps did not do especially well against the Red Wings, but got lucky with an early goal by Brouwer on the power play. The Capitals got some backhanded help, too, when Howard injured himself on that play. They scored twice more in the second on Mrazek, getting a little more luck.
Ericsson got one back just before the end of the second, but the Caps were able to hold it together without further scoring through the third.
In all, outplayed but they did have some strong plays that carried them through.
The Avalanche were next, and the Caps did well against them. Beagle got the only goal of the first (I think it was a rebound of a Chimera shot), despite the Caps generally not doing great through that period.
In the second and third, though, the Caps turned it on and played very strongly. Their only goal was an OV power play marker, but they only allowed one goal, by Tanguay on the power play, to go with it. So Holtby outplayed Varly, though Varly did have a bit more work. Both, however, were called on to make some pretty tough saves.
The Flyers game, as I think I alluded to in another post, I missed entirely. Verdammt changes in channels. But the Caps did reasonably well, getting an early goal an holding on to make that good enough.
Next were the Preds, with Trotz making his first return to Nashville since coming to Washington. And it was quite a mixed bag. They didn't do well through the first, with Seth Jones scoring the only goal on a wrister off a face-off.
Neal got a lucky bounce off a skate to give the Preds a two-goal advantage, early in the second. Then OV struck twice, both one-timers from his normal spot. The first looked like his normal power play goal, except that Alzner fed the pass instead of Green, Carlson, or Niskanen. The second was a one-timer from his normal spot on the power play, except that the feed came out of the corner, via Brouwer (and it looked like a broken play, except that I've never seen Brouwer make a no-look pass like that one, so I'm not sure).
When MarJo scored, early in the third on the power play (nice determination on a stuff play; took him three tries), it looked like the Caps were going to cruise home. Then Ekholm scored on the power play with 4 1/2 left, then Neal made a
The Caps tried to tie it up again late, but weren't really able to control the puck in the offensive zone.
Finally, the Caps faced the Stars in a wild one that I turned off after the first period (they were looking pretty terrible up to that point). They went down three-love, then tied it up early in the third, then surrendered two more, sixteen seconds apart, then got a late one to make it close again.
But that was the end of the scoring, and the Caps came home empty-handed.
I'm looking at the Corsi numbers now, and my feelings seem largely borne out. The Caps did not do well, 5-on-5 close in Detroit (horrible, actually), nor great in Dallas (though closer than I'd've guessed), but were dominant in Nashville (which is a surprise; I didn't think they did poorly, but not nearly that well), Philadelphia, and Colorado. The lowest of those latter three was 55.4%, which is very good.
As far as players, the offensive lines haven't changed much (other than the occasional musical chair at top-line left wing. Bura's mostly been there, but several others are getting a shift or two a game). OV and Backstrom are largely keeping the team afloat, killing it despite tough opposition. Kuzya, MarJo, and Brouwer are doing pretty well, with MarJo getting most of the line's goals (who'd'a thunk it?). And Fehr, Laich, and Ward continue to be a pretty decent shut-down line.
Wilson's been in that spot on the top line occasionally, but has mostly been on the fourth line. Color me surprised, but he's still drawing penalties while there, so that's fantastic. And while the line hasn't generated a lot of offense, they've done a good job keeping play in the offensive end of the ice. If that's all that line does, I'd still call it a successful line (since it's the fourth). And they have scored a few.
Beagle's been playing. While I'm not thrilled with that, the results have not been bad. As I said, that line has looked pretty decent.
Defensively, I believe Schmidt came back for one game (and I was hoping that was a sign that Trotz had realized Schmidt is the better player), but then got sent down, and then injured (and is out for several more weeks). So Hillen has been getting a lot of playing time. He's actually looked pretty good when I've noticed him, but his numbers are still pretty bad, despite heavy sheltering.
Alzner's looking better, offensively, but I'm a little concerned that his Corsi numbers aren't great. I wonder if he's giving up something on the back end when he's getting more involved in the offense. Nothing I can put my finger on, but I do wonder.
Niskanen's Corsi numbers have improved since I last looked, though he does seem to have gotten quite a few penalties. I hope that's just an aberation, because this team definitely needs to stay out of the box.
On the goalie front, Peters finally played in the Dallas game, and was even down in the AHL for a bit. So I'm not encouraged about Trotz keeping Holtby in good shape, despite the results over the span. My one hope is that Korn is keeping a close eye on Holtby, and has been sure Holtby was in good shape. Still, I'm worried about him being burnt out; he's too good to be wasted for a nothing stretch in the middle of the season.
Overall, despite how the Nashville game ended, it's hard to be upset, or even disappointed, with the overall results.
Let's hope the good feelings continue tonight, against Edmonton (who have, I believe, despite being around the bottom of the league overall, beaten the Caps the last several times they've played). Go Caps!
20150108
Caps progress
I'm really not feeling too much like trying to play catch-up on all the games that I haven't written about (though I watched all of them except the Penguins game. And yes, I'm still not sure how I missed that one. And with the shutout win, I was very disappointed), so I'll go with some more general thoughts about current situation and recent past.
The biggest of those is the recent (not entirely unexpected) resurgence of Braden Holtby. He's been amazing lately, outright stealing a couple of games, and coming close to a couple of others. The downside, though, is that Trotz has lost confidence in Peters and won't play him. Holtby is already up to twenty games now, and that's already too many.
Yes, I know he's still over fifty games from the (league) record, but pushing that didn't work all that well for the '96 Blues. There's also the issue that it tends to burn out goalies, and this is the bigger problem. On a game by game basis, putting Holtby in is, unquestionably, the right decision. But cumulatively, it becomes disastrous.
Usually, it's something that happens with desperate coaches, but there's no reason to think that Trotz should be desperate. So Barry, give Holtby a rest regularly. It'll be good for both of you, even if it does lose a few games in the short term. Really, it wouldn't be more than a few. Holtby's long-term health is worth a hell of a lot more than that. And Peters might surprise you, too (he's due for at least a little bit of positive regression to the mean).
Fehr and Alzner are both showing a bit of scoring touch (relative to their position, of course); let's hope that continues with both.
MarJo is having a very good year. I was thinking about it when he scored his second last night, but couldn't remember him scoring multiples before. Can't believe I forgot the game where he and OV each scored a pair.
Bura needs more ice time. He's just killing it when he's out there, with his goal the other night just being the exclamation point on that. I don't know what he did to get into Barry's dog house, but he needs to be on the ice. I don't think the top line is the best place for him (his original 2C was better, I think), but it isn't a terrible place, either.
Kuzya seems to be coming into form as a good center. His faceoffs are pretty terrible, but I'm not that sold on that being a huge liability. I think I'd prefer to see Bura dropped down to 2C, Kuzya as 3C (whether with Laich and Ward or Chimmer and Ward), and move Fehr back up to the top line, where he was knocking it out of the park earlier in the season.
Fehr's a decent center, and surely better in the faceoff dot than either Bura or Kuzya, but his defensive prowess (mostly, getting his stick into passing lanes, which he's become excellent at) would really bolster the top line.
Laich has been pretty effective, but I still wouldn't mind seeing him dropped to fourth line in favor of Chimmer. That's not a slight on Laich, just a recognition of Chimmer and Ward's chemistry. Or maybe put Laich between Chimmer and Ward as a shutdown line again, dropping Kuzya down.
Then scratch Beagle, put Latta back in, and make the fourth line a soft-minutes scoring line, rather than a shutdown one.
And, for God's sake, stop putting Beagle on the top line. It has never worked, and there's no reason to think it will. At least now, it's gotten to be a rarity, but it still happens from time to time.
Wilson, I'm not sure how to handle. He's lost his main value since being moved down, which was his ability to draw penalties. But I'm not saying that it was a mistake to move him down; I don't think it was. But I'm not sure where his best value is. Maybe he'd do well in that fourth-line scoring line I postulated.
On the defensive side, I've been pretty pleased with how things have gone. Carlson and Orpik are doing a good job eating up the tough assignments without getting crushed possessionally. Alzner and Niskanen are doing a decent job with the not-quite-so-tough assignments, and Green and Schmidt are cleaning up in the easy time.
Except that Schmidt has been scratched a lot lately, and Hillen has been getting killed, possessionally. With more offensize zone starts. And easier competition. The only thing I've heard that makes any sense at all is that it might be related to Schmidt's waiver status (as in, he's waiver-exempt unless he plays a few more games).
If it's related to Hillen's extra assist in half the number of games, then i'm going to say that Trotz has a blind spot regarding one or both of those two. Because that's not the way to bet, if you're trying to figure out which is the better player.
And man, I thought it might have something to do with goal scoring (as Hillen has a higher PDO than Schmidt), but the goal-scoring is even more skewed towards Schmidt than are Fenwick or Corsi. So color me befuddled.
In any event, what can be said is that the team is going along pretty well. Their standings point pace is higher than it's been since Boudreau was at the helm, and they haven't had a really bad game since they played the Rangers a couple weeks ago. And the only seriously worrisome sign is Holtby's workload. And that'll be far more worrisome if Holtby plays the back end of the back-to-back tonight. We'll see.
Go Caps!
The biggest of those is the recent (not entirely unexpected) resurgence of Braden Holtby. He's been amazing lately, outright stealing a couple of games, and coming close to a couple of others. The downside, though, is that Trotz has lost confidence in Peters and won't play him. Holtby is already up to twenty games now, and that's already too many.
Yes, I know he's still over fifty games from the (league) record, but pushing that didn't work all that well for the '96 Blues. There's also the issue that it tends to burn out goalies, and this is the bigger problem. On a game by game basis, putting Holtby in is, unquestionably, the right decision. But cumulatively, it becomes disastrous.
Usually, it's something that happens with desperate coaches, but there's no reason to think that Trotz should be desperate. So Barry, give Holtby a rest regularly. It'll be good for both of you, even if it does lose a few games in the short term. Really, it wouldn't be more than a few. Holtby's long-term health is worth a hell of a lot more than that. And Peters might surprise you, too (he's due for at least a little bit of positive regression to the mean).
Fehr and Alzner are both showing a bit of scoring touch (relative to their position, of course); let's hope that continues with both.
MarJo is having a very good year. I was thinking about it when he scored his second last night, but couldn't remember him scoring multiples before. Can't believe I forgot the game where he and OV each scored a pair.
Bura needs more ice time. He's just killing it when he's out there, with his goal the other night just being the exclamation point on that. I don't know what he did to get into Barry's dog house, but he needs to be on the ice. I don't think the top line is the best place for him (his original 2C was better, I think), but it isn't a terrible place, either.
Kuzya seems to be coming into form as a good center. His faceoffs are pretty terrible, but I'm not that sold on that being a huge liability. I think I'd prefer to see Bura dropped down to 2C, Kuzya as 3C (whether with Laich and Ward or Chimmer and Ward), and move Fehr back up to the top line, where he was knocking it out of the park earlier in the season.
Fehr's a decent center, and surely better in the faceoff dot than either Bura or Kuzya, but his defensive prowess (mostly, getting his stick into passing lanes, which he's become excellent at) would really bolster the top line.
Laich has been pretty effective, but I still wouldn't mind seeing him dropped to fourth line in favor of Chimmer. That's not a slight on Laich, just a recognition of Chimmer and Ward's chemistry. Or maybe put Laich between Chimmer and Ward as a shutdown line again, dropping Kuzya down.
Then scratch Beagle, put Latta back in, and make the fourth line a soft-minutes scoring line, rather than a shutdown one.
And, for God's sake, stop putting Beagle on the top line. It has never worked, and there's no reason to think it will. At least now, it's gotten to be a rarity, but it still happens from time to time.
Wilson, I'm not sure how to handle. He's lost his main value since being moved down, which was his ability to draw penalties. But I'm not saying that it was a mistake to move him down; I don't think it was. But I'm not sure where his best value is. Maybe he'd do well in that fourth-line scoring line I postulated.
On the defensive side, I've been pretty pleased with how things have gone. Carlson and Orpik are doing a good job eating up the tough assignments without getting crushed possessionally. Alzner and Niskanen are doing a decent job with the not-quite-so-tough assignments, and Green and Schmidt are cleaning up in the easy time.
Except that Schmidt has been scratched a lot lately, and Hillen has been getting killed, possessionally. With more offensize zone starts. And easier competition. The only thing I've heard that makes any sense at all is that it might be related to Schmidt's waiver status (as in, he's waiver-exempt unless he plays a few more games).
If it's related to Hillen's extra assist in half the number of games, then i'm going to say that Trotz has a blind spot regarding one or both of those two. Because that's not the way to bet, if you're trying to figure out which is the better player.
And man, I thought it might have something to do with goal scoring (as Hillen has a higher PDO than Schmidt), but the goal-scoring is even more skewed towards Schmidt than are Fenwick or Corsi. So color me befuddled.
In any event, what can be said is that the team is going along pretty well. Their standings point pace is higher than it's been since Boudreau was at the helm, and they haven't had a really bad game since they played the Rangers a couple weeks ago. And the only seriously worrisome sign is Holtby's workload. And that'll be far more worrisome if Holtby plays the back end of the back-to-back tonight. We'll see.
Go Caps!
20141219
Streak-busting
The Caps went into last night's game looking to avenge being on the losing end of the longest shootout game in league history. Again.
Meanwhile, Columbus had finally gotten most of their players healthy, and were riding a seven game winning streak, and a four-game overtime winning streak (tied for the longest in league history).
Well, the first period played out about as you'd expect, with a very hungry team and one that might be a tiny bit complacent. The result? The Caps took a 2-0 lead on the back of a 15-5 shot lead (with Columbus leading in blocked shots by 7, so it was even more unbalanced than that appears). It is true that part of that edge came from both power plays being in the Caps' favor, but they were plenty dominant at even strength as well. In fact, Ward's and Chimmer's goals were both at even strength.
That period certainly left me feeling a bit complacent, and contemplating going to sleep early, but I didn't.
And Columbus didn't either, coming out firing in the second. Nine minutes in, they scored on the power play on a nice passing play giving Jack Johnson a slam-dunk of a goal. Three minutes later, Foligno tied it, also on the power play, and then all hell broke loose.
First, Wilson was manhandled by Dalton Prout (never seen that happen before), then Boll and Latta went at it two seconds later. Half a minute later, the penalty boxes filled up as Brouwer and Tyutin exchanged a few niceties, resulting in roughing minors for each. Almost a minute later, Carlson was hit hard, and responded by going after the first Blue Jacket he could reach. A bit of a dive there, I think, but Carlson also went off for roughing (yeah, it was mighty crowded in the box at that point).
The Caps did kill the penalty successfully (finally), but Brouwer decided he wasn't done, as he and Chaput fought only a minute after that (it didn't go terribly well for Brouwer, but he wasn't hurt). Chaput got the extra call for instigation on that, but the Caps weren't able to convert.
That finally got us to the end of a period that saw the Jackets outshoot the Caps, 15-9, and left the score knotted up.
The third started very poorly for the Caps, with Foligno scoring on the rebound of Morin's shot from a sharp angle.
It took a bit over six minutes for the Caps to answer that, and the answer came in the surprising form of Karl Alzner. He found a busted clear in the high slot, skated out to the left, and shot back across the goal, sneaking it in off the inside of Bob's arm.
That left things very tense, and they got more so for the Caps, when, eight minutes later, Chaput got his first NHL goal off a rebound near the net. He put it over the sprawled Holtby to give Columbus the lead with only a few minutes left.
A minute and a half later, Green got the puck in his end, and did his old "one-man breakout" routine when he saw Columbus changing. He took it all the way into the zone, cut across to the opposite side, then threw it back across the rink where he perfectly hit Troy Brouwer, who was making a back-door cut to the open net. I really wish Green would do that sort of thing more often; it's a lot of fun to watch.
The last three minutes passed in anxious waiting for something to happen, but things were quiet.
That sent the game into overtime again, where Columbus' record is far better than Washington's.
But things worked out well. Half a minute in, Green got it back in his own end and saw a lot of open ice in front of him. He took it all the way up, staying on the same side, and threw it to the front just before he passed behind the net. Fehr was charging in, there, and put a one-timer between Bob's legs for the win.
It was quite an exclamation point for a roller coast of a game.
The win leaves the Caps in third place in the division, and hanging on to the edge of playoff position.
Next up, the road trip continues in New Jersey, Saturday evening. Go Caps!
Meanwhile, Columbus had finally gotten most of their players healthy, and were riding a seven game winning streak, and a four-game overtime winning streak (tied for the longest in league history).
Well, the first period played out about as you'd expect, with a very hungry team and one that might be a tiny bit complacent. The result? The Caps took a 2-0 lead on the back of a 15-5 shot lead (with Columbus leading in blocked shots by 7, so it was even more unbalanced than that appears). It is true that part of that edge came from both power plays being in the Caps' favor, but they were plenty dominant at even strength as well. In fact, Ward's and Chimmer's goals were both at even strength.
That period certainly left me feeling a bit complacent, and contemplating going to sleep early, but I didn't.
And Columbus didn't either, coming out firing in the second. Nine minutes in, they scored on the power play on a nice passing play giving Jack Johnson a slam-dunk of a goal. Three minutes later, Foligno tied it, also on the power play, and then all hell broke loose.
First, Wilson was manhandled by Dalton Prout (never seen that happen before), then Boll and Latta went at it two seconds later. Half a minute later, the penalty boxes filled up as Brouwer and Tyutin exchanged a few niceties, resulting in roughing minors for each. Almost a minute later, Carlson was hit hard, and responded by going after the first Blue Jacket he could reach. A bit of a dive there, I think, but Carlson also went off for roughing (yeah, it was mighty crowded in the box at that point).
The Caps did kill the penalty successfully (finally), but Brouwer decided he wasn't done, as he and Chaput fought only a minute after that (it didn't go terribly well for Brouwer, but he wasn't hurt). Chaput got the extra call for instigation on that, but the Caps weren't able to convert.
That finally got us to the end of a period that saw the Jackets outshoot the Caps, 15-9, and left the score knotted up.
The third started very poorly for the Caps, with Foligno scoring on the rebound of Morin's shot from a sharp angle.
It took a bit over six minutes for the Caps to answer that, and the answer came in the surprising form of Karl Alzner. He found a busted clear in the high slot, skated out to the left, and shot back across the goal, sneaking it in off the inside of Bob's arm.
That left things very tense, and they got more so for the Caps, when, eight minutes later, Chaput got his first NHL goal off a rebound near the net. He put it over the sprawled Holtby to give Columbus the lead with only a few minutes left.
A minute and a half later, Green got the puck in his end, and did his old "one-man breakout" routine when he saw Columbus changing. He took it all the way into the zone, cut across to the opposite side, then threw it back across the rink where he perfectly hit Troy Brouwer, who was making a back-door cut to the open net. I really wish Green would do that sort of thing more often; it's a lot of fun to watch.
The last three minutes passed in anxious waiting for something to happen, but things were quiet.
That sent the game into overtime again, where Columbus' record is far better than Washington's.
But things worked out well. Half a minute in, Green got it back in his own end and saw a lot of open ice in front of him. He took it all the way up, staying on the same side, and threw it to the front just before he passed behind the net. Fehr was charging in, there, and put a one-timer between Bob's legs for the win.
It was quite an exclamation point for a roller coast of a game.
The win leaves the Caps in third place in the division, and hanging on to the edge of playoff position.
Next up, the road trip continues in New Jersey, Saturday evening. Go Caps!
20141218
Shooting out the lights
I wasn't able to watch Tuesday's Caps/Panthers match-up, that night. I wasn't able to start it before the kids were in bed, and then crashed right after putting them in bed. Ugh.
But that's why we have DVRs, so I watched it last night. And man, was that a game.
Until it started, I didn't realize how closely matched the teams were likely to be. I assumed the Caps were way ahead of the Panthers in the standings (just based on past history). Well, if so, then one point is the definition of "way ahead".
It didn't start especially well for the Caps. Through the first half of the first period, they weren't allowing a bunch of shots, but also weren't taking them. And they spent entirely too much time in their own end. It was a game featuring a heavily-clogged neutral zone and a lot of hitting.
The Caps weathered the storm after bending a bit on a rough forecheck, though, and by the end of the first, things had evened out a bit. The Caps were ahead on shots (9-6), though I was guessing they were also ahead on blocks. Not so, after checking: Florida was ahead there, 9-2. For those who want to figure full Corsi or Fenwick, missed shots were even, at five a side (WSH CF% 64, FF% 56. Great numbers!).
The second period also didn't start great, with Florida getting an early power play, but the Caps killed it off (painfully; three shots plus one blocked). The Caps got a chance back a minute later when Wilson drew a hooking call on Flash. They weren't able to really get set up, though, and got only two shots off (both by OV).
A few minutes later, the Caps got another chance when Backstrom drew a hooking call. This time, they quickly cashed in. Brouwer's first shot was blocked, and went out to OV. Sasha put it back to Troy, whose second shot was blocked as well, but Brouwer got another shot immediately with the puck right next to the blocking defenseman, and this one not only got through, but went over Luongo and into the top of the net.
It looked like the rest of the period would be played at evens, but Orpik was called for slashing with 2:06 left, forcing an end-of-period kill with a regular PKer in the box. Despite that, it went well, with a successful kill, allowing only three attempts (one wide, two blocked) against.
For the period, shots were even at ten (even at seven, at evens), WSH CF% 46, FF% 48. At evens, 46% and 47%. Not disastrous, but not good.
The third period had a ridiculous amount of cloggage and hitting (hits for the game were 50-48, in favor of Florida), with no penalties or scoring. Play was heavily in favor of Florida, though, with shots 11-3 in their favor. Yuck.
Going to full Corsi or Fenwick doesn't really make things look better for the Caps, either. WSH CF% 27, FF% 29. Wretched numbers. Truly wretched.
The only thing that made it look better was that, at one point, Laich appeared to score. But it was ruled to be kicked in (though I feel like pointing out that it was not a dangerous kick, being sideways by a trailing foot), so it was disallowed. And man, was that a pig-pile in front of the net when it happened. I think there were seven or eight players inside, or next to, the crease.
So, it went into overtime, where the Caps looked a little better. Shots were even, with Washington having the only missed shot (and there were no blocked shots, by either team. Very weird. Makes me wonder how much the percentage generally goes down at 4-on-4).
Overall, WSH ES CF% 49, FF% 46. Definitely a "needs improvement" rating on both of those.
And that's when the game really got interesting. It didn't seem like much when all three shooters, by both teams, were held scoreless. It didn't even seem like much when the fourth shooter from each team scored (OV and Jokinen). It started to seem a little weird when the next two shooters from each team were held out.
And quite a bit weird when the next two from each team scored (Ward and Carlson vs Mackenzie and Bergenheim).
Then things turned downright bizarre as the next five from each team all failed. Surely, someone wants to win, right?
Orpik and Olsen both did, so they cancelled each other out.
Alzner completed the list of options for Trotz, and was kept away. Mitchell (ironic, picking the captain last), similarly.
Backstrom and OV went next, and were each denied (OV beat Lu, but put it over the net). Jokinen was stopped in his second attempt, but Bjugstad ended it with a snap-shot that Holtby couldn't follow.
Yeah, twenty rounds. The Caps have now been involved in both of the longest shoot-outs in league history. I say they should have given the goalies a chance (at least the back-ups) before starting through the line-up again.
I'm not a fan of the shoot-out (I think it's a terrible "solution" to the problem of preventing ties, and playing for ties), but that was an interesting one.
The one thing I can't figure out is how Holtby didn't end up one of the stars of the game. For that matter, why wasn't Luongo first star?
Next up is the rubber match against Columbus, tonight at seven. Go Caps!
But that's why we have DVRs, so I watched it last night. And man, was that a game.
Until it started, I didn't realize how closely matched the teams were likely to be. I assumed the Caps were way ahead of the Panthers in the standings (just based on past history). Well, if so, then one point is the definition of "way ahead".
It didn't start especially well for the Caps. Through the first half of the first period, they weren't allowing a bunch of shots, but also weren't taking them. And they spent entirely too much time in their own end. It was a game featuring a heavily-clogged neutral zone and a lot of hitting.
The Caps weathered the storm after bending a bit on a rough forecheck, though, and by the end of the first, things had evened out a bit. The Caps were ahead on shots (9-6), though I was guessing they were also ahead on blocks. Not so, after checking: Florida was ahead there, 9-2. For those who want to figure full Corsi or Fenwick, missed shots were even, at five a side (WSH CF% 64, FF% 56. Great numbers!).
The second period also didn't start great, with Florida getting an early power play, but the Caps killed it off (painfully; three shots plus one blocked). The Caps got a chance back a minute later when Wilson drew a hooking call on Flash. They weren't able to really get set up, though, and got only two shots off (both by OV).
A few minutes later, the Caps got another chance when Backstrom drew a hooking call. This time, they quickly cashed in. Brouwer's first shot was blocked, and went out to OV. Sasha put it back to Troy, whose second shot was blocked as well, but Brouwer got another shot immediately with the puck right next to the blocking defenseman, and this one not only got through, but went over Luongo and into the top of the net.
It looked like the rest of the period would be played at evens, but Orpik was called for slashing with 2:06 left, forcing an end-of-period kill with a regular PKer in the box. Despite that, it went well, with a successful kill, allowing only three attempts (one wide, two blocked) against.
For the period, shots were even at ten (even at seven, at evens), WSH CF% 46, FF% 48. At evens, 46% and 47%. Not disastrous, but not good.
The third period had a ridiculous amount of cloggage and hitting (hits for the game were 50-48, in favor of Florida), with no penalties or scoring. Play was heavily in favor of Florida, though, with shots 11-3 in their favor. Yuck.
Going to full Corsi or Fenwick doesn't really make things look better for the Caps, either. WSH CF% 27, FF% 29. Wretched numbers. Truly wretched.
The only thing that made it look better was that, at one point, Laich appeared to score. But it was ruled to be kicked in (though I feel like pointing out that it was not a dangerous kick, being sideways by a trailing foot), so it was disallowed. And man, was that a pig-pile in front of the net when it happened. I think there were seven or eight players inside, or next to, the crease.
So, it went into overtime, where the Caps looked a little better. Shots were even, with Washington having the only missed shot (and there were no blocked shots, by either team. Very weird. Makes me wonder how much the percentage generally goes down at 4-on-4).
Overall, WSH ES CF% 49, FF% 46. Definitely a "needs improvement" rating on both of those.
And that's when the game really got interesting. It didn't seem like much when all three shooters, by both teams, were held scoreless. It didn't even seem like much when the fourth shooter from each team scored (OV and Jokinen). It started to seem a little weird when the next two shooters from each team were held out.
And quite a bit weird when the next two from each team scored (Ward and Carlson vs Mackenzie and Bergenheim).
Then things turned downright bizarre as the next five from each team all failed. Surely, someone wants to win, right?
Orpik and Olsen both did, so they cancelled each other out.
Alzner completed the list of options for Trotz, and was kept away. Mitchell (ironic, picking the captain last), similarly.
Backstrom and OV went next, and were each denied (OV beat Lu, but put it over the net). Jokinen was stopped in his second attempt, but Bjugstad ended it with a snap-shot that Holtby couldn't follow.
Yeah, twenty rounds. The Caps have now been involved in both of the longest shoot-outs in league history. I say they should have given the goalies a chance (at least the back-ups) before starting through the line-up again.
I'm not a fan of the shoot-out (I think it's a terrible "solution" to the problem of preventing ties, and playing for ties), but that was an interesting one.
The one thing I can't figure out is how Holtby didn't end up one of the stars of the game. For that matter, why wasn't Luongo first star?
Next up is the rubber match against Columbus, tonight at seven. Go Caps!
20141216
Backstrom bolts Lightning
The first period started out very well for the Caps, if, perhaps, like an extension of the prior game. Bishop was definitely on, and was called on to make a number of good saves.
Tampa didn't get many chances, though one of those found the back of the net, when Stamkos put in a pass from behind the net. But Callahan was called for incidental contact with Holtby (he did remove Holtby from the net, unquestionably), getting the goal (and shot, which would have been their first) called back.
I'd like to say that the relative times on the power play had a lot to do with the massive shot imbalance in the period (12-2 Caps). But I'm not sure it did, since a) the Caps got, I believe, only one shot on those power plays and b) Tampa got a couple of short-handed chances, though I can't remember if those chances resulted in shots on net.
Regardless, it all felt very familiar.
The second period did not get going well at all. First, Green was called on an iffy slash a couple minutes in. No goal allowed, but they did get several shots on net (and, probably, several more blocked). Then, Green got called again, this time for hooking, a couple minutes later. That led to a scrum in which OV found himself called for roughing.
It was the Caps first time on the season, being down two men, and it wasn't fun. But they managed to kill off the whole penalty without damage (with one incredible save by Holtby assisted by Orpik blocking the swing of a shot with his skate. With his back turned), and then proceeeded to take it to Tampa.
It took a couple minutes for that to bear fruit, but Backstrom picked up the rebound of Schmidt's shot from the point, and backhanded it under the crossbar for the lead. Eight minutes later, Wilson's initial shot was stopped, but OV knocked it from under Bishop before the whistle blew, and Backstrom picked up the trash and stuffed it into the net to double the lead.
Early in the third, the top line got a 3-on-2, with Backstrom carrying into the zone and handing off to OV. He continued his rush down the middle, while OV went down the wing, when OV passed back to him. Backstrom fought off the backchecker (by turning sideways to the net), and managed to throw the puck all the way to the edge of the goal on OV's side. Bishop was already down, and covering the near side of the net by the time Backstrom let it go.
And it looked, for quite a while, like that's where the game would effectively end, with Backstrom getting his first regular-season hat trick and owning the scoresheet. I came within a hair's breadth of turning the game off with five or six minutes left.
But Tampa fought back, scoring with 4:21 left and again with 2:31 left, both with Bishop on the bench.
That led to a tense couple of minutes, until Fehr intercepted a pass across the middle at Tampa's blue line, and calmly shoved it into the net to ice the victory.
Despite giving up three goals, Bishop played a hell of a game and probably didn't deserve to lose. But the Caps certainly deserved the win, and it was good to see them bring it home.
Next up for Washington is a date with Florida in Sunrise, at sunset tonight. Go Caps!
Tampa didn't get many chances, though one of those found the back of the net, when Stamkos put in a pass from behind the net. But Callahan was called for incidental contact with Holtby (he did remove Holtby from the net, unquestionably), getting the goal (and shot, which would have been their first) called back.
I'd like to say that the relative times on the power play had a lot to do with the massive shot imbalance in the period (12-2 Caps). But I'm not sure it did, since a) the Caps got, I believe, only one shot on those power plays and b) Tampa got a couple of short-handed chances, though I can't remember if those chances resulted in shots on net.
Regardless, it all felt very familiar.
The second period did not get going well at all. First, Green was called on an iffy slash a couple minutes in. No goal allowed, but they did get several shots on net (and, probably, several more blocked). Then, Green got called again, this time for hooking, a couple minutes later. That led to a scrum in which OV found himself called for roughing.
It was the Caps first time on the season, being down two men, and it wasn't fun. But they managed to kill off the whole penalty without damage (with one incredible save by Holtby assisted by Orpik blocking the swing of a shot with his skate. With his back turned), and then proceeeded to take it to Tampa.
It took a couple minutes for that to bear fruit, but Backstrom picked up the rebound of Schmidt's shot from the point, and backhanded it under the crossbar for the lead. Eight minutes later, Wilson's initial shot was stopped, but OV knocked it from under Bishop before the whistle blew, and Backstrom picked up the trash and stuffed it into the net to double the lead.
Early in the third, the top line got a 3-on-2, with Backstrom carrying into the zone and handing off to OV. He continued his rush down the middle, while OV went down the wing, when OV passed back to him. Backstrom fought off the backchecker (by turning sideways to the net), and managed to throw the puck all the way to the edge of the goal on OV's side. Bishop was already down, and covering the near side of the net by the time Backstrom let it go.
And it looked, for quite a while, like that's where the game would effectively end, with Backstrom getting his first regular-season hat trick and owning the scoresheet. I came within a hair's breadth of turning the game off with five or six minutes left.
But Tampa fought back, scoring with 4:21 left and again with 2:31 left, both with Bishop on the bench.
That led to a tense couple of minutes, until Fehr intercepted a pass across the middle at Tampa's blue line, and calmly shoved it into the net to ice the victory.
Despite giving up three goals, Bishop played a hell of a game and probably didn't deserve to lose. But the Caps certainly deserved the win, and it was good to see them bring it home.
Next up for Washington is a date with Florida in Sunrise, at sunset tonight. Go Caps!
Shooting into a wall
I didn't get a chance to turn last night's Caps game on until nine o'clock or so, but I was able to watch the entire thing. And I was mostly glad I did. It felt a lot like the Buffalo Sabres game the other week. That is, completely dominant performance by the Caps skaters, spoiled by a magnificent effort by the opposing goaltender.
Seriously, stopping 90% of power play shots is quite a good performance; Bob stopped seventeen of eighteen. And yeah, eighteen power play shots on goal is a ridiculously high number; kudos to the Caps on that.
And kudos to Wilson for being quite the magnet for penalties of late. He drew three in this game, and several more in the last several games. If he can keep drawing them like that, then he can stay on the top line forever, in my book.
To get into more specifics, the one power play shot that got through Bob came in the fourth minute, as Fehr deflected Carlson's wrister from the slot over Bob's arm.
It took twelve minutes for Columbus to answer, and it was only on their second or third shot, but Foligno was able to waltz in from the point and deflect the puck off the near post and and in. Terrible defense by the forwards, there, giving him so much time and space. And a beautiful shot by him; Holtby probably should have had it, but he didn't leave a whole lot of room for shooting.
Despite more than doubling up the Jackets on shots in the first, the period ended
The second period looked like it would be much more even, with Columbus keeping Washington from getting a shot on goal for the first eight minutes. But they only got a couple shots of their own in that time, and then they committed several penalties. Although the Caps didn't score in the period, they still ended up with fifteen shots (to the Jackets' four, so it was less even than the first period).
So the game went into the third tied at one. Almost halfway through, Brouwer got his first in a while on a beautiful deflection of Niskanen's pass to the side of the net. I really wish the Caps would try more plays like this, as Bob had no chance on it.
Unfortunately, it took Columbus only a minute and a half to answer (does this sound familiar, if somewhat less so than last year?), as Connauton's point shot trickled through, between Holtby's glove-arm and body. He had a great game, but that's definitely one Holtby would want back.
Over the last nine minutes, nobody was able to find the back of the net, so off we went to overtime, again. Laich and Beagle did get a very nice chance, early on, but Beagle couldn't lift his shot over Bob's outstretched leg. Shortly thereafter, the Caps got whistled for a penalty that was guaranteed to last until the end of overtime. With twenty seconds left, Foligno's one-timer from the half-wall went over Holtby's shoulder, glove-side, putting the nail in the coffin.
Hard to be upset with the performance, overall, but the result was certainly disappointing. I'll talk about it separately, but the game after was Saturday with the home rematch against Tampa.
Seriously, stopping 90% of power play shots is quite a good performance; Bob stopped seventeen of eighteen. And yeah, eighteen power play shots on goal is a ridiculously high number; kudos to the Caps on that.
And kudos to Wilson for being quite the magnet for penalties of late. He drew three in this game, and several more in the last several games. If he can keep drawing them like that, then he can stay on the top line forever, in my book.
To get into more specifics, the one power play shot that got through Bob came in the fourth minute, as Fehr deflected Carlson's wrister from the slot over Bob's arm.
It took twelve minutes for Columbus to answer, and it was only on their second or third shot, but Foligno was able to waltz in from the point and deflect the puck off the near post and and in. Terrible defense by the forwards, there, giving him so much time and space. And a beautiful shot by him; Holtby probably should have had it, but he didn't leave a whole lot of room for shooting.
Despite more than doubling up the Jackets on shots in the first, the period ended
The second period looked like it would be much more even, with Columbus keeping Washington from getting a shot on goal for the first eight minutes. But they only got a couple shots of their own in that time, and then they committed several penalties. Although the Caps didn't score in the period, they still ended up with fifteen shots (to the Jackets' four, so it was less even than the first period).
So the game went into the third tied at one. Almost halfway through, Brouwer got his first in a while on a beautiful deflection of Niskanen's pass to the side of the net. I really wish the Caps would try more plays like this, as Bob had no chance on it.
Unfortunately, it took Columbus only a minute and a half to answer (does this sound familiar, if somewhat less so than last year?), as Connauton's point shot trickled through, between Holtby's glove-arm and body. He had a great game, but that's definitely one Holtby would want back.
Over the last nine minutes, nobody was able to find the back of the net, so off we went to overtime, again. Laich and Beagle did get a very nice chance, early on, but Beagle couldn't lift his shot over Bob's outstretched leg. Shortly thereafter, the Caps got whistled for a penalty that was guaranteed to last until the end of overtime. With twenty seconds left, Foligno's one-timer from the half-wall went over Holtby's shoulder, glove-side, putting the nail in the coffin.
Hard to be upset with the performance, overall, but the result was certainly disappointing. I'll talk about it separately, but the game after was Saturday with the home rematch against Tampa.
20141210
Caps update
It might appear that I've forgotten about the Caps lately, but that's far from true. I've watched almost all of every game (I missed a little bit of the Toronto game, I think, and definitely all of the Vancouver game).
And the team's play seems rather uneven. It might seem a bit ungenerous to say something like that after the fantastic effort against Tampa, last night, but it's true. Possessionally, they've been very up and down.
As mentioned, the game against Tampa was great. And most of the Jersey game was similarly (though not quite as) good. Carolina wasn't quite as good either, but was pretty good.
Vancouver wasn't bad, from what I could see, except that the PK died instead of killing.
Toronto was decent, but some terrible luck (at least at the beginning; it did get worse as the game went on. Also, I remember now; I turned it off when they went down 4-1 in the middle of the second). And how often do you see both goalies pulled in the same game?
The two games against the Islanders were mixed; the first wasn't good at all (and I think I missed the first period of that one with DVR problems), but the second was a dominant one.
The game against Buffalo was extremely good, but Enroth stood on his head, and they couldn't solve him.
Colorado, my memories are very vague. I think they didn't play terribly well, but won with a bit of luck.
My memories of the Arizona game are even more vague (though I remember the Erat embellishment call). I believe they did pretty well, given the penalty imbalance and the shots being so close.
And I believe they just had their asses handed to them by St Louis. It was the second half of a back-to-back, and they played like it. And Peters looked pretty bad in net, to boot (at least, after the first. I vaguely recall him having a very good first period).
Geeze, I didn't realize it'd been so many games since my last write-up.
After writing all those down, though, I think the team's been doing better than I gave them credit for, up above. There were a couple stinkers, but they played well to very well in most of them.
Holtby's been coming back to where we expect to see him (outside of the Toronto game, of course).
Peters has been... not good. I have to figure the team is trying to figure out a way to replace him. Play-wise, calling Gru up would be better for the team, but it wouldn't be so good for Gru's development.
MarJo has been shooting a lot more, and getting rewarded for that effort. Brouwer's been pretty decent, though singularly unable to find the net.
Chimmer's been up and down, with a couple very good games, and a number of bad to terrible ones. And has also been unable to find the net. I guess that's why he's been dropped to the fourth line, but I'm still not sure that I agree with it.
Backstrom has remained Backstrom, throughout. OV hasn't been scoring a lot (last night's double aside), but has still been very effective. I do like that he's been playing the walls this year, rather than always looking for a soft spot to take a shot. Wilson... last night's excellent effort aside, I don't see him as really helping that line.
Kuzya's been quite good when he's gotten ice time. I have no idea why he hasn't gotten more. Similarly, I have no idea what's happened to Bura; why he's been a healthy scratch lately.
Ward's been pretty quiet, of late. He definitely doesn't do as well without Chimmer. Fehr has looked excellent; I'd like to see him move back up to the top line. With him, that was a completely dominant top line.
Laich has surprised me since he's returned; he's looked very good. Tenacious and skilled. I'd be very down with putting him, Ward, and Chimmer back together as a shut-down line.
Beagle has managed two pretty goals of late (impressive on multiple levels), but I'm still not sold on him. I don't question his effort, or that he's making the most of his talents, but he seems like a pretty marginal player for the NHL My suspicion is that he's playing as much as he is purely for his face-off abilities. In any event, thank goodness Trotz didn't keep him on the top line; that was a terrible combination.
Latta is also marginal, but I'd rather have him instead of Beagle.
Carlson and Orpik are doing a pretty good job of handling the other team's top lines. They aren't dominating, but they aren't getting killed, either. And there's a lot of value in that.
Niskanen and Alzner have been very good in a more sheltered role. Alzner's been interesting to watch, for me. He's been pinching in and generally attacking a lot more. And it was great to see him open the scoring against the Devils, the other night.
Niskanen can't replace Green on the power play, but he's not half-bad. I was amused at how low he got, playing the point, when he scored last night. He was taking a point shot from just inside the left face-off circle.
Green... I hope he's healthy enough to return. There was some talk that he would, against Tampa, but he ended up not even traveling with the team. In any event, he's been fabulous when he's been healthy, and I love that the D is deep enough to give him the easier assignments.
Schmidt has generally looked very good. Not as good lately, with Hillen instead of Green, of course, but still quite good. I've been amazed at how he's been able to match up to some pretty big forwards, lately. He's taken the body against several of them, and held his own. I guess his skating is a big part of that.
And speaking of Hillen; well, he's been adequate. I'll be glad when he's not on the ice again, but he hasn't been a disaster. And really, that's about the best you can hope for, from a seventh/eighth defenseman.
On the plus side, the team hasn't gotten desperate enough to put Erskine on the ice (of course, he's also been injured for quire a while. Neck surgery from something going wrong in practice, IIRC). Let's hope that's the way things stay.
I'd very much like to see Orlov back. He's a damned sight better than Hillen, and it'd be an interesting call to choose between him and Schmidt. Get well soon, Dima (and yes, I know you're already at the long end of your projected time out from your injury).
All of which leaves us looking to the future. I'm still not sure what I'd like to see, as far as lines, if everyone were available. I'm hoping both Green and Orlov will be back soon. And I hope Peters regresses back towards where we want to see him.
In any event, tomorrow night the team will be hosting the Blue Jackets. I don't know what the state of their team is, if they've recovered from all/most of the injuries they suffered earlier in the season. With the Caps playing them twice in the next week and change, though, I hope not.
And the team's play seems rather uneven. It might seem a bit ungenerous to say something like that after the fantastic effort against Tampa, last night, but it's true. Possessionally, they've been very up and down.
As mentioned, the game against Tampa was great. And most of the Jersey game was similarly (though not quite as) good. Carolina wasn't quite as good either, but was pretty good.
Vancouver wasn't bad, from what I could see, except that the PK died instead of killing.
Toronto was decent, but some terrible luck (at least at the beginning; it did get worse as the game went on. Also, I remember now; I turned it off when they went down 4-1 in the middle of the second). And how often do you see both goalies pulled in the same game?
The two games against the Islanders were mixed; the first wasn't good at all (and I think I missed the first period of that one with DVR problems), but the second was a dominant one.
The game against Buffalo was extremely good, but Enroth stood on his head, and they couldn't solve him.
Colorado, my memories are very vague. I think they didn't play terribly well, but won with a bit of luck.
My memories of the Arizona game are even more vague (though I remember the Erat embellishment call). I believe they did pretty well, given the penalty imbalance and the shots being so close.
And I believe they just had their asses handed to them by St Louis. It was the second half of a back-to-back, and they played like it. And Peters looked pretty bad in net, to boot (at least, after the first. I vaguely recall him having a very good first period).
Geeze, I didn't realize it'd been so many games since my last write-up.
After writing all those down, though, I think the team's been doing better than I gave them credit for, up above. There were a couple stinkers, but they played well to very well in most of them.
Holtby's been coming back to where we expect to see him (outside of the Toronto game, of course).
Peters has been... not good. I have to figure the team is trying to figure out a way to replace him. Play-wise, calling Gru up would be better for the team, but it wouldn't be so good for Gru's development.
MarJo has been shooting a lot more, and getting rewarded for that effort. Brouwer's been pretty decent, though singularly unable to find the net.
Chimmer's been up and down, with a couple very good games, and a number of bad to terrible ones. And has also been unable to find the net. I guess that's why he's been dropped to the fourth line, but I'm still not sure that I agree with it.
Backstrom has remained Backstrom, throughout. OV hasn't been scoring a lot (last night's double aside), but has still been very effective. I do like that he's been playing the walls this year, rather than always looking for a soft spot to take a shot. Wilson... last night's excellent effort aside, I don't see him as really helping that line.
Kuzya's been quite good when he's gotten ice time. I have no idea why he hasn't gotten more. Similarly, I have no idea what's happened to Bura; why he's been a healthy scratch lately.
Ward's been pretty quiet, of late. He definitely doesn't do as well without Chimmer. Fehr has looked excellent; I'd like to see him move back up to the top line. With him, that was a completely dominant top line.
Laich has surprised me since he's returned; he's looked very good. Tenacious and skilled. I'd be very down with putting him, Ward, and Chimmer back together as a shut-down line.
Beagle has managed two pretty goals of late (impressive on multiple levels), but I'm still not sold on him. I don't question his effort, or that he's making the most of his talents, but he seems like a pretty marginal player for the NHL My suspicion is that he's playing as much as he is purely for his face-off abilities. In any event, thank goodness Trotz didn't keep him on the top line; that was a terrible combination.
Latta is also marginal, but I'd rather have him instead of Beagle.
Carlson and Orpik are doing a pretty good job of handling the other team's top lines. They aren't dominating, but they aren't getting killed, either. And there's a lot of value in that.
Niskanen and Alzner have been very good in a more sheltered role. Alzner's been interesting to watch, for me. He's been pinching in and generally attacking a lot more. And it was great to see him open the scoring against the Devils, the other night.
Niskanen can't replace Green on the power play, but he's not half-bad. I was amused at how low he got, playing the point, when he scored last night. He was taking a point shot from just inside the left face-off circle.
Green... I hope he's healthy enough to return. There was some talk that he would, against Tampa, but he ended up not even traveling with the team. In any event, he's been fabulous when he's been healthy, and I love that the D is deep enough to give him the easier assignments.
Schmidt has generally looked very good. Not as good lately, with Hillen instead of Green, of course, but still quite good. I've been amazed at how he's been able to match up to some pretty big forwards, lately. He's taken the body against several of them, and held his own. I guess his skating is a big part of that.
And speaking of Hillen; well, he's been adequate. I'll be glad when he's not on the ice again, but he hasn't been a disaster. And really, that's about the best you can hope for, from a seventh/eighth defenseman.
On the plus side, the team hasn't gotten desperate enough to put Erskine on the ice (of course, he's also been injured for quire a while. Neck surgery from something going wrong in practice, IIRC). Let's hope that's the way things stay.
I'd very much like to see Orlov back. He's a damned sight better than Hillen, and it'd be an interesting call to choose between him and Schmidt. Get well soon, Dima (and yes, I know you're already at the long end of your projected time out from your injury).
All of which leaves us looking to the future. I'm still not sure what I'd like to see, as far as lines, if everyone were available. I'm hoping both Green and Orlov will be back soon. And I hope Peters regresses back towards where we want to see him.
In any event, tomorrow night the team will be hosting the Blue Jackets. I don't know what the state of their team is, if they've recovered from all/most of the injuries they suffered earlier in the season. With the Caps playing them twice in the next week and change, though, I hope not.
20141117
Bad bounce finishes homestand with loss
I just realized I haven't written about Friday's game with the Devils yet, hence the out-of-order posting.
It was a typical Devils game, with lots of clogging, close defensive play, and few good scoring chances. It was also Schneider's seventeenth straight game shouldering the load of the crossbar.
You'd think that'd mean Schneider was tired. Well, if so, he didn't show it. He had one hell of a night, stopping everything the Caps could get through to him (the defense blocked 19).
Holtby had as good a night in stopping the puck. Unfortunately, in the middle of the third period, he corralled the puck behind the net, then failed to get it past Camalleri in the corner, who fired it on a one-timer, into the open net.
So Holtby literally stopped every shot thrown at him, and still lost the team the game. Hockey's a weird game, sometimes.
Because despite the Caps big advantage in shots, that was the only goal in the entire game. Such an anticlimactic way for a tense, defensive struggle to end.
The Caps did well, overall, though. It's hard to get too upset about outplaying an opponent through almost an entire game, and one small mistake losing it.
But make no mistake, the Caps do need to improve. They're still at seventeen points through seventeen games, and that isn't going to get them a sniff of the playoffs.
Their dominant possession numbers should get them there, though. I just wish they were doing a better job of converting those possession numbers into wins. It should follow, so I'm not hugely worried, but it hasn't yet, so I am (a little).
Next up will be Arizona, tomorrow night. Go Caps!
It was a typical Devils game, with lots of clogging, close defensive play, and few good scoring chances. It was also Schneider's seventeenth straight game shouldering the load of the crossbar.
You'd think that'd mean Schneider was tired. Well, if so, he didn't show it. He had one hell of a night, stopping everything the Caps could get through to him (the defense blocked 19).
Holtby had as good a night in stopping the puck. Unfortunately, in the middle of the third period, he corralled the puck behind the net, then failed to get it past Camalleri in the corner, who fired it on a one-timer, into the open net.
So Holtby literally stopped every shot thrown at him, and still lost the team the game. Hockey's a weird game, sometimes.
Because despite the Caps big advantage in shots, that was the only goal in the entire game. Such an anticlimactic way for a tense, defensive struggle to end.
The Caps did well, overall, though. It's hard to get too upset about outplaying an opponent through almost an entire game, and one small mistake losing it.
But make no mistake, the Caps do need to improve. They're still at seventeen points through seventeen games, and that isn't going to get them a sniff of the playoffs.
Their dominant possession numbers should get them there, though. I just wish they were doing a better job of converting those possession numbers into wins. It should follow, so I'm not hugely worried, but it hasn't yet, so I am (a little).
Next up will be Arizona, tomorrow night. Go Caps!
The Caps were blue, too
I didn't watch Saturday's Caps game until yesterday, and almost wish I hadn't bothered. I think it was the first game this season where they never felt competitive.
I thought it was odd to have Peters in net (so far, he's been in for the second half of every back-to-back), although he did more than respectably.
The Caps were just blown out of the water for the first ten-fifteen minutes of the game. The Blues only scored one goal, but that was thanks to Peters and some puck luck. It felt like that entire span was spent in the Caps defensive zone. The shots were only like 12-5, but it felt worse than that. The Blues getting the only power play didn't help that either, although the Caps killed that penalty with only one shot allowed.
The ending bits of the first period felt better, although the shot numbers were really getting closer, so it might have just been in my head that it was better.
The second period certainly started out better, culminating in Ward's goal in the seventh minute that trickled through Elliot's arms and pads. But that was pretty much the high point. There were a few good shifts that didn't result in goals, but it was still fairly well controlled by the Blues (and again, the Blues were helped by getting the only power play). And six minutes after Ward's goal, St Louis re-established their lead.
The Caps held them off, including keeping them shotless in that power play, but still went into the second break down a goal.
And the third opened very quickly, with Peters mishandling the puck behind the net leading to a nice pass (from Berglund, who took the puck from Peters, and probably could have finished himself. But he took no chances) to a finish into the empty net by Backes.
That was enough for me. I usually wait for a larger margin before turning a game off, but I was fairly disgusted with what I'd seen. And I was right; the only remaining score came from Berglund with three minutes and change left.
I'm guessing the Caps got the day off yesterday, and got a bag skate this morning. They just looked outplayed and outclassed six ways to Sunday. I hope we won't be seeing more play like that, because that would make for a very depressing season.
I thought it was odd to have Peters in net (so far, he's been in for the second half of every back-to-back), although he did more than respectably.
The Caps were just blown out of the water for the first ten-fifteen minutes of the game. The Blues only scored one goal, but that was thanks to Peters and some puck luck. It felt like that entire span was spent in the Caps defensive zone. The shots were only like 12-5, but it felt worse than that. The Blues getting the only power play didn't help that either, although the Caps killed that penalty with only one shot allowed.
The ending bits of the first period felt better, although the shot numbers were really getting closer, so it might have just been in my head that it was better.
The second period certainly started out better, culminating in Ward's goal in the seventh minute that trickled through Elliot's arms and pads. But that was pretty much the high point. There were a few good shifts that didn't result in goals, but it was still fairly well controlled by the Blues (and again, the Blues were helped by getting the only power play). And six minutes after Ward's goal, St Louis re-established their lead.
The Caps held them off, including keeping them shotless in that power play, but still went into the second break down a goal.
And the third opened very quickly, with Peters mishandling the puck behind the net leading to a nice pass (from Berglund, who took the puck from Peters, and probably could have finished himself. But he took no chances) to a finish into the empty net by Backes.
That was enough for me. I usually wait for a larger margin before turning a game off, but I was fairly disgusted with what I'd seen. And I was right; the only remaining score came from Berglund with three minutes and change left.
I'm guessing the Caps got the day off yesterday, and got a bag skate this morning. They just looked outplayed and outclassed six ways to Sunday. I hope we won't be seeing more play like that, because that would make for a very depressing season.
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