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!
Showing posts with label shootout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shootout. Show all posts
20141218
20141020
Escaping the cat
The one thing I didn't understand, going into the Caps game against the Panthers, Saturday night, was why Holtby got the night off. There was a night off on either side, so it didn't seem necessary. Peters was fine, and I don't think it hurt them, but I was surprised.
I wrote that I was worried about a mental let-down facing Florida the other night. Well, they managed to avoid that fate; they heavily dominated possession for the first two periods. They only got one goal to show for it, but they forced a number of very good (or very lucky, in a couple cases) saves out of Montoya. And that's really the best you can ask; sometimes you just don't get the bounces.
And I should also mention that that was with the Cats holding a 127-7 advantage in seconds of power play time. So really nothing to complain about over that span.
Oh, and I should point out the goal itself; the Chimmer-Ward line doesn't tend to get pretty goals, but this one was. Ward worked the puck around the boards, behind the net, over to Fehr in the corner. The entire defense collapsed on that side, and Fehr found Chimmer just at the far side of the net, all alone. He had a perfect set-up for a one-timer, but faked it and brought it back to the other side for a completely open backhand. I joke about Chimmer being "Stonehands" from time to time, but that was really nice work.
And I should also point out that that line was on fire, all night, getting a lot of good chances. It might not've worked out, beyond that one tally, but that wasn't the fault of effort. Just excellent goaltending and a little bad luck.
In the third period, with Florida lengthening its lead in power play time, the game was tied up. It was a largely uneventful period, shot-wise, but on the power play, Boyes found the rebound of a Bergenheim shot, and slotted it home. Pretty sure Peters didn't know where the puck was, with all the bodies around him.
Anyway, that was enough to send the game into overtime, where both teams got some chances, but nobody was able to tally.
Which sent us back to the shootout again; I'm already getting tired of that. Twenty-five percent last season was quite enough; we don't need to "improve" on that, this year.
On the plus side, the results were much better, this time around. Kuzya, Backis, and OV all tallied, which Huberdeau getting the lone score for Florida. So, the result was good, even if the method of getting there was a little less than ideal.
Oh, and Backstrom failed to record a point in his 500th career game; disappointed for him, in that respect.
I wrote that I was worried about a mental let-down facing Florida the other night. Well, they managed to avoid that fate; they heavily dominated possession for the first two periods. They only got one goal to show for it, but they forced a number of very good (or very lucky, in a couple cases) saves out of Montoya. And that's really the best you can ask; sometimes you just don't get the bounces.
And I should also mention that that was with the Cats holding a 127-7 advantage in seconds of power play time. So really nothing to complain about over that span.
Oh, and I should point out the goal itself; the Chimmer-Ward line doesn't tend to get pretty goals, but this one was. Ward worked the puck around the boards, behind the net, over to Fehr in the corner. The entire defense collapsed on that side, and Fehr found Chimmer just at the far side of the net, all alone. He had a perfect set-up for a one-timer, but faked it and brought it back to the other side for a completely open backhand. I joke about Chimmer being "Stonehands" from time to time, but that was really nice work.
And I should also point out that that line was on fire, all night, getting a lot of good chances. It might not've worked out, beyond that one tally, but that wasn't the fault of effort. Just excellent goaltending and a little bad luck.
In the third period, with Florida lengthening its lead in power play time, the game was tied up. It was a largely uneventful period, shot-wise, but on the power play, Boyes found the rebound of a Bergenheim shot, and slotted it home. Pretty sure Peters didn't know where the puck was, with all the bodies around him.
Anyway, that was enough to send the game into overtime, where both teams got some chances, but nobody was able to tally.
Which sent us back to the shootout again; I'm already getting tired of that. Twenty-five percent last season was quite enough; we don't need to "improve" on that, this year.
On the plus side, the results were much better, this time around. Kuzya, Backis, and OV all tallied, which Huberdeau getting the lone score for Florida. So, the result was good, even if the method of getting there was a little less than ideal.
Oh, and Backstrom failed to record a point in his 500th career game; disappointed for him, in that respect.
20141015
Starting the season
Three games in, the Caps season can already be described as very up-and-down. The first period of the season, against Montreal, was one of the better ones I've seen them play in the last several years. In it, Burakovsky showed why he wasn't sent down (I was highly skeptical, at best, of this move, but he's looked very good so far).
The second period was discouraging, and you had to think the disallowed goal would give them some additional motivation, but the third period was really terrible.
They got really lucky with the second disallowed goal and with the other "goal" hitting the corner of the post (ironic that both of those were caused by Bourque (and f- that guy, anyway)), but still allowed a tying goal.
In the overtime, they actually looked quite good again (and with some interesting forward pairings. Ward and Chimmer was a bit interesting, but Kuzya (who'd been stapled to the bench for most of the game) and... Brouwer? were an odd choice. And it was a surprise to see Bura out, though he acquitted himself well), but not good enough to win the game.
The shootout seemed fairly desultory, with nobody doing anything terribly interesting, and it seemed pretty anticlimactic when Holtby allowed the final shot in. Overall, a disappointing game, but one showing promise.
The second game, against the Bruins, did not feel like a good one at all. But OV scored on the OV power play one-timer to give a lead. A few minutes later, Alzner made a great pinch to keep the puck in, Backs won possession, and immediately hit OV cutting toward the net. OV wristed the shot over Rask's shoulder to double the margin.
Possessionally, though, it was pretty terrible, and Holtby was called on to make a number of nice saves to preserve the lead.
The second period was more even, possessionally, although it felt like Boston had the better of it. But the second power play unit chipped in halfway through, with Bura in MarJo's position, passing to Kuzya in Backstrom's, passing straight across to Green in OV's position for the one-timer score. It should also be noted that Bura drew the penalty on this one.
The third period still went more Boston's way, possessionally, until the last five minutes or so, when they seemed to give up.
But Holtby continued to stand tall, especially being called on in PK situations, and kept the B's out of the net. By the end, Boston had given up, and Ward got his first of the season (from Carlson and Bura) to complete the shutout.
All in all, not the way I'd draw it up, but it's hard to be upset with the result.
The third game, last night, was back at home against the Sharks. The first period went about the way you'd expect, against a San Jose team that hadn't yet allowed a goal and got a little luck. That helped push Holtby out less than ten minutes in, as he allowed three goals on seven shots. Not his night.
Irwin had his first career multigoal game with the first two, and John Scott had his third career goal (in about 100 games, IIRC) for the third.
The Caps kept the Sharks out of the net the rest of the period, but I still waited well over an hour (maybe two) before turning the rest of the game on. And that was after long debate.
The team justified my faith less than three minutes in, with a nine-second power play. It was OV fooling the D, and passing to MarJo on the far doorstep for the tap-in, instead of taking his usual one-timer. A very nicely-played power play, as all five players touched the puck in those nine seconds.
Two and a half minutes later (does this sound familiar, perchance?), Pavelski scored to restore the three-goal margin.
Playing against type, the Caps scored back one, and one-and-a-half, minutes later (Green and OV with the honors) to make it a close game again. That was it for the scoring in the period, but the Caps continued to play hard and threaten.
Wingels extended the lead once more, only a minute and a half into the third, and it took the Caps a long time to come up with an answer. That answer finally came from OV, on the power play, but was not one of his normal one-timer slapshots. He go the puck in his normal position, and actually waited on something for a second or two. But his wrister found the top corner, near side.
The building really went crazy a minute later, when Brouwer got the defender to trip, coming down the left side, then floated to the middle, waited for Niemi to go down, and found the top-right corner for the tie.
A minor penalty on Backstrom with just over a minute left provided some additional drama, but they weathered that storm, even into the overtime. The Caps looked pretty good in the overtime, even getting the only shot on goal, but were unable to score, so things went into the shootout.
And let's just say that that did not go according to script, as all three Caps missed and Pavelski's score was the difference maker.
But really, it's hard to be upset with a shootout loss to the Sharks. Especially a game that started so poorly.
So the Caps finished the trio with four points, which would have been a pretty optimistic prediction at the beginning. They haven't looked great, or even consistently good, but they show a lot of promise. Bura is more than justifying the staff's decision to keep him on the big team; MarJo is improving on the boards. Fehr looks pretty good on the top line. The Chimmer-Laich-Ward line hasn't done much, but we know what they can do (they'll turn it around; they've had some good chances). Kuzya has looked good in pretty limited minutes (psst: he needs more ice time, and I think he'll get it).
O'Brien and Latta haven't looked bad. In fact, I'm in favor of keeping Latta in the line-up when Beagle's healthy.
The power play looks like it hasn't been tinkered with (much; OV's getting less ice time, but that's probably to the good), and is getting a lot of shots. No one has tried the "man on OV" yet; we'll see how things go when they do.
The penalty kill looks improved, though not as much as I'd hoped. They are still allowing too many shots, but it's a lot less than last year. Mostly, they need to work on clearing. They've failed on too many clearing chances already. That seems fluky; we'll hope that's true.
Given all the off-season turmoil, it's hard to be disappointed with where things stand.
The Devils are coming to town tomorrow, and they've been scoring this year. So that should be quite a challenge. The Panthers follow that, then it's time for a three game swing out north and west (Oilers, Flames, and Canucks, in order). We'll have a much better handle on where the team is at the end of that.
The second period was discouraging, and you had to think the disallowed goal would give them some additional motivation, but the third period was really terrible.
They got really lucky with the second disallowed goal and with the other "goal" hitting the corner of the post (ironic that both of those were caused by Bourque (and f- that guy, anyway)), but still allowed a tying goal.
In the overtime, they actually looked quite good again (and with some interesting forward pairings. Ward and Chimmer was a bit interesting, but Kuzya (who'd been stapled to the bench for most of the game) and... Brouwer? were an odd choice. And it was a surprise to see Bura out, though he acquitted himself well), but not good enough to win the game.
The shootout seemed fairly desultory, with nobody doing anything terribly interesting, and it seemed pretty anticlimactic when Holtby allowed the final shot in. Overall, a disappointing game, but one showing promise.
The second game, against the Bruins, did not feel like a good one at all. But OV scored on the OV power play one-timer to give a lead. A few minutes later, Alzner made a great pinch to keep the puck in, Backs won possession, and immediately hit OV cutting toward the net. OV wristed the shot over Rask's shoulder to double the margin.
Possessionally, though, it was pretty terrible, and Holtby was called on to make a number of nice saves to preserve the lead.
The second period was more even, possessionally, although it felt like Boston had the better of it. But the second power play unit chipped in halfway through, with Bura in MarJo's position, passing to Kuzya in Backstrom's, passing straight across to Green in OV's position for the one-timer score. It should also be noted that Bura drew the penalty on this one.
The third period still went more Boston's way, possessionally, until the last five minutes or so, when they seemed to give up.
But Holtby continued to stand tall, especially being called on in PK situations, and kept the B's out of the net. By the end, Boston had given up, and Ward got his first of the season (from Carlson and Bura) to complete the shutout.
All in all, not the way I'd draw it up, but it's hard to be upset with the result.
The third game, last night, was back at home against the Sharks. The first period went about the way you'd expect, against a San Jose team that hadn't yet allowed a goal and got a little luck. That helped push Holtby out less than ten minutes in, as he allowed three goals on seven shots. Not his night.
Irwin had his first career multigoal game with the first two, and John Scott had his third career goal (in about 100 games, IIRC) for the third.
The Caps kept the Sharks out of the net the rest of the period, but I still waited well over an hour (maybe two) before turning the rest of the game on. And that was after long debate.
The team justified my faith less than three minutes in, with a nine-second power play. It was OV fooling the D, and passing to MarJo on the far doorstep for the tap-in, instead of taking his usual one-timer. A very nicely-played power play, as all five players touched the puck in those nine seconds.
Two and a half minutes later (does this sound familiar, perchance?), Pavelski scored to restore the three-goal margin.
Playing against type, the Caps scored back one, and one-and-a-half, minutes later (Green and OV with the honors) to make it a close game again. That was it for the scoring in the period, but the Caps continued to play hard and threaten.
Wingels extended the lead once more, only a minute and a half into the third, and it took the Caps a long time to come up with an answer. That answer finally came from OV, on the power play, but was not one of his normal one-timer slapshots. He go the puck in his normal position, and actually waited on something for a second or two. But his wrister found the top corner, near side.
The building really went crazy a minute later, when Brouwer got the defender to trip, coming down the left side, then floated to the middle, waited for Niemi to go down, and found the top-right corner for the tie.
A minor penalty on Backstrom with just over a minute left provided some additional drama, but they weathered that storm, even into the overtime. The Caps looked pretty good in the overtime, even getting the only shot on goal, but were unable to score, so things went into the shootout.
And let's just say that that did not go according to script, as all three Caps missed and Pavelski's score was the difference maker.
But really, it's hard to be upset with a shootout loss to the Sharks. Especially a game that started so poorly.
So the Caps finished the trio with four points, which would have been a pretty optimistic prediction at the beginning. They haven't looked great, or even consistently good, but they show a lot of promise. Bura is more than justifying the staff's decision to keep him on the big team; MarJo is improving on the boards. Fehr looks pretty good on the top line. The Chimmer-Laich-Ward line hasn't done much, but we know what they can do (they'll turn it around; they've had some good chances). Kuzya has looked good in pretty limited minutes (psst: he needs more ice time, and I think he'll get it).
O'Brien and Latta haven't looked bad. In fact, I'm in favor of keeping Latta in the line-up when Beagle's healthy.
The power play looks like it hasn't been tinkered with (much; OV's getting less ice time, but that's probably to the good), and is getting a lot of shots. No one has tried the "man on OV" yet; we'll see how things go when they do.
The penalty kill looks improved, though not as much as I'd hoped. They are still allowing too many shots, but it's a lot less than last year. Mostly, they need to work on clearing. They've failed on too many clearing chances already. That seems fluky; we'll hope that's true.
Given all the off-season turmoil, it's hard to be disappointed with where things stand.
The Devils are coming to town tomorrow, and they've been scoring this year. So that should be quite a challenge. The Panthers follow that, then it's time for a three game swing out north and west (Oilers, Flames, and Canucks, in order). We'll have a much better handle on where the team is at the end of that.
20140407
End of an era
Well, I didn't watch the last two Caps games. The first, against the Devils, I missed because I was sick. The second I'd forgotten about until I heard the result (twenty or thirty minutes after it finished).
It looks like the Caps played respectably against the Devils; 5v5 close Fenwick was slightly in their favor. And OV scored at evens, which was a nice change from the previous month (it's almost like having Beagle centering OV wasn't a good idea, or something).
They did spend too much time killing penalties (almost ten minutes), as usual allowing too many shots against (15 attempted, 10 on net; it should be noted that that those are slightly better numbers than usual, though. Still too many, but a slight improvement).
The power play seems to've done merely ok, with ten attempted shots (five on net) over nearly five minutes.
Neither power play scored, however.
The 2-1 loss certainly can't be pinned on Halak, however. His .935 save percentage is certainly all you can ask of him (realistically, at least).
Going into that game, the Caps were down to only an 84% chance of making the playoffs, even winning out. So that loss eliminated their realistic chance of making the playoffs. Which is probably just as well, given how bad the team looks.
As for the Islanders game... They won, in the shootout, but there wasn't much to like there. Kuzya across net to MarJo back across to Kuzya was a nice goal. And OV did a nice job setting up Backstrom's goal. And Holtby did a nice job (stopping a short-handed breakaway, as well as one of the goals being one that looked stopped but trickled through). But possessionally, it was pretty bad (against a so-so team, possessionally). Basically, they got lucky to win, especially when you factor in the shootout (to be clear, however, they were lucky even to get to the shootout).
I've gotta admit, at this point I'd be just as happy if they lose the rest of them, just for the minor improvement in draft position (even though it's not expected to be a deep draft; but they could move up as many as five spots). If they could do it while playing hard, so much the better.
Anyway, next game is Tuesday in St Louis, where we will probably be put out of our misery of a season (after that, a Detroit overtime loss and a Columbus win would be enough to make it a mathematical certainty).
It looks like the Caps played respectably against the Devils; 5v5 close Fenwick was slightly in their favor. And OV scored at evens, which was a nice change from the previous month (it's almost like having Beagle centering OV wasn't a good idea, or something).
They did spend too much time killing penalties (almost ten minutes), as usual allowing too many shots against (15 attempted, 10 on net; it should be noted that that those are slightly better numbers than usual, though. Still too many, but a slight improvement).
The power play seems to've done merely ok, with ten attempted shots (five on net) over nearly five minutes.
Neither power play scored, however.
The 2-1 loss certainly can't be pinned on Halak, however. His .935 save percentage is certainly all you can ask of him (realistically, at least).
Going into that game, the Caps were down to only an 84% chance of making the playoffs, even winning out. So that loss eliminated their realistic chance of making the playoffs. Which is probably just as well, given how bad the team looks.
As for the Islanders game... They won, in the shootout, but there wasn't much to like there. Kuzya across net to MarJo back across to Kuzya was a nice goal. And OV did a nice job setting up Backstrom's goal. And Holtby did a nice job (stopping a short-handed breakaway, as well as one of the goals being one that looked stopped but trickled through). But possessionally, it was pretty bad (against a so-so team, possessionally). Basically, they got lucky to win, especially when you factor in the shootout (to be clear, however, they were lucky even to get to the shootout).
I've gotta admit, at this point I'd be just as happy if they lose the rest of them, just for the minor improvement in draft position (even though it's not expected to be a deep draft; but they could move up as many as five spots). If they could do it while playing hard, so much the better.
Anyway, next game is Tuesday in St Louis, where we will probably be put out of our misery of a season (after that, a Detroit overtime loss and a Columbus win would be enough to make it a mathematical certainty).
20140325
Choppy play leads to chopped result
I would have been happy with tonight's Caps result, if they hadn't started by jumping out to a two-goal lead. We had dinner, and I had to get the kids ready for, and into, bed almost immediately after that, and things went seriously downhill while I was away.
But let's start with those two goals. Both were within the first seven minutes, and both were on the power play. In fact, both were OV, despite neither being a typical OV goal. The first occurred when play had gotten scrambled, and OV was trying to hit Backstrom on a back-door cut. But Quick got enough in front of it to deflect it, but it went into the back of the defenseman in front of him, and into the back of the net. The second was also a broken play, as a so-so feed to Brouwer in the middle left him scrambling, but he managed to stretch out to pass it over to OV, who wristed it under Quick as Q was sliding across.
Gotta love a start like that. My daughter's reaction to the second score: Boo-yah.
And the Caps did a good job keeping the play mostly in the Kings end for the rest of the first period (basically except for the two minutes they were killing a penalty). Ward took an early tripping call in the second, however, and it eventually led to Richards bringing the Kings within a goal.
Although Washington was outplayed for most of the second (and there were some pretty terrible non-calls on LA in there. In one sequence, Brouwer had his stick grabbed away, then kicked away from him. He grabbed it as they went back to the other end, then had it grabbed again at the other end. Then, a second or so later, another Cap had their stick slashed away, then Nicky got hit hard after chipping the puck in. No calls on any of that; and that hit took Nick out for the rest of the game), they did manage to restore their margin when Penner pounced on a rebound in front with three minutes left.
But the Caps wouldn't be the Caps if a two-goal lead were safe. They were absolutely dominated through the third; the Kings doubled them up in Fenwick (and Corsi was probably even less even). And LA scored in the first, ninth, and thirteenth minutes (at least two of those were against Orlov and Wey; I didn't notice the third).
At that point, I largely gave up on the Caps. And when Carlson took a penalty to prevent an easy empty-net goal, I definitely did. But something bizarre happened when the Caps managed to take the ensuing faceoff down to the other end. Halak ran for the bench, and OV charged on, throwing the puck at the net while running through an attempted stick check by a forward (whose stick went flying almost from the blue line to behind the goal line).
Quick stopped the initial shot, but his leg pad (the top part that sticks up above his knee) stopped the puck going away from the net, and pushed it back under him. Kuzya skated in right then, and backhanded the puck into the net for the team's second last-minute, short-handed, game-tying goal of the season (Backstrom had the other).
You'd think that'd be enough drama, but the Caps still had forty-two seconds of penalty killing left in the period. It was a bit ugly, but they got the job done.
And, in fact, they got the job done in overtime as well, as they had to kill the last minute of that penalty. And from there, the rest of overtime was basically all Caps (there was one 2-on-1 that Green broke up nicely). They had several very good chances, including Dima ringing one off the right post, but didn't manage to get it across the line.
So they went to the shootout again. Kuz started off again, but had the puck hop over his stick before he could get the shot off. Then Kopitar scored. Then Fehr was stopped (it was close). And then Carter scored again to seal the game.
As I said earlier, I would have been very happy with the result if it didn't come out of the Caps giving up two two-goal advantages. Can't really be happy with that, no matter who the other team is.
Despite the four goals conceded, Halak actually had a very good game. Not only was he barraged, especially in the third period, but at least two of those goals came from undefended players less than ten feet from the net (that would be the two Wey/Orlov goals mentioned). He also faced several 2-on-1s and a lot of PK time. Nothing to complain about there.
The power play did pretty well. As mentioned, they scored twice early (and I think this marks the first time this season that the Caps lost with two PPGs, though I'm not positive about that). Overall numbers aren't that great, though, with only ten shots attempted (six on net) in just under six minutes (granted, two of those PPs were without Backstrom, and maybe that just shows how valuable he is on the power play).
The PK did not do terribly well. In just under six minutes, they allowed nineteen shot attempts (eight on net) and one goal. It could've easily been a lot worse, but that isn't great.
On a trivia note, Kuzya was the sixth Cap to get his first career goal this season, joining Latta, Brown, Carrick, Schmidt, and Wilson. Penner, Erat and Wellman also got their first goals as Caps this year.
Anyway, despite the leads blown, the Caps were incredibly lucky to escape with a point tonight. Fenwick at fives, close, was two:one in favor of LA, and that's a formula for getting crushed. Regularly. And they did get a little bit of help, finally, as Columbus and Detroit didn't go to overtime and Toronto continued their skid (have now lost seven of last eight). In fact, I hadn't realized it, but the Caps are now in a four-way tie with those teams for the two wild-card spots.
But the Caps, of course, lose the first tiebreaker against everyone, so they're still on the outside looking in.
And looking to keep them outside is Boston, coming to visit on Saturday. The Caps will need to play a lot better to win against them. I'm guessing that Holtby will get the start, but we'll see.
Go Caps!
But let's start with those two goals. Both were within the first seven minutes, and both were on the power play. In fact, both were OV, despite neither being a typical OV goal. The first occurred when play had gotten scrambled, and OV was trying to hit Backstrom on a back-door cut. But Quick got enough in front of it to deflect it, but it went into the back of the defenseman in front of him, and into the back of the net. The second was also a broken play, as a so-so feed to Brouwer in the middle left him scrambling, but he managed to stretch out to pass it over to OV, who wristed it under Quick as Q was sliding across.
Gotta love a start like that. My daughter's reaction to the second score: Boo-yah.
And the Caps did a good job keeping the play mostly in the Kings end for the rest of the first period (basically except for the two minutes they were killing a penalty). Ward took an early tripping call in the second, however, and it eventually led to Richards bringing the Kings within a goal.
Although Washington was outplayed for most of the second (and there were some pretty terrible non-calls on LA in there. In one sequence, Brouwer had his stick grabbed away, then kicked away from him. He grabbed it as they went back to the other end, then had it grabbed again at the other end. Then, a second or so later, another Cap had their stick slashed away, then Nicky got hit hard after chipping the puck in. No calls on any of that; and that hit took Nick out for the rest of the game), they did manage to restore their margin when Penner pounced on a rebound in front with three minutes left.
But the Caps wouldn't be the Caps if a two-goal lead were safe. They were absolutely dominated through the third; the Kings doubled them up in Fenwick (and Corsi was probably even less even). And LA scored in the first, ninth, and thirteenth minutes (at least two of those were against Orlov and Wey; I didn't notice the third).
At that point, I largely gave up on the Caps. And when Carlson took a penalty to prevent an easy empty-net goal, I definitely did. But something bizarre happened when the Caps managed to take the ensuing faceoff down to the other end. Halak ran for the bench, and OV charged on, throwing the puck at the net while running through an attempted stick check by a forward (whose stick went flying almost from the blue line to behind the goal line).
Quick stopped the initial shot, but his leg pad (the top part that sticks up above his knee) stopped the puck going away from the net, and pushed it back under him. Kuzya skated in right then, and backhanded the puck into the net for the team's second last-minute, short-handed, game-tying goal of the season (Backstrom had the other).
You'd think that'd be enough drama, but the Caps still had forty-two seconds of penalty killing left in the period. It was a bit ugly, but they got the job done.
And, in fact, they got the job done in overtime as well, as they had to kill the last minute of that penalty. And from there, the rest of overtime was basically all Caps (there was one 2-on-1 that Green broke up nicely). They had several very good chances, including Dima ringing one off the right post, but didn't manage to get it across the line.
So they went to the shootout again. Kuz started off again, but had the puck hop over his stick before he could get the shot off. Then Kopitar scored. Then Fehr was stopped (it was close). And then Carter scored again to seal the game.
As I said earlier, I would have been very happy with the result if it didn't come out of the Caps giving up two two-goal advantages. Can't really be happy with that, no matter who the other team is.
Despite the four goals conceded, Halak actually had a very good game. Not only was he barraged, especially in the third period, but at least two of those goals came from undefended players less than ten feet from the net (that would be the two Wey/Orlov goals mentioned). He also faced several 2-on-1s and a lot of PK time. Nothing to complain about there.
The power play did pretty well. As mentioned, they scored twice early (and I think this marks the first time this season that the Caps lost with two PPGs, though I'm not positive about that). Overall numbers aren't that great, though, with only ten shots attempted (six on net) in just under six minutes (granted, two of those PPs were without Backstrom, and maybe that just shows how valuable he is on the power play).
The PK did not do terribly well. In just under six minutes, they allowed nineteen shot attempts (eight on net) and one goal. It could've easily been a lot worse, but that isn't great.
On a trivia note, Kuzya was the sixth Cap to get his first career goal this season, joining Latta, Brown, Carrick, Schmidt, and Wilson. Penner, Erat and Wellman also got their first goals as Caps this year.
Anyway, despite the leads blown, the Caps were incredibly lucky to escape with a point tonight. Fenwick at fives, close, was two:one in favor of LA, and that's a formula for getting crushed. Regularly. And they did get a little bit of help, finally, as Columbus and Detroit didn't go to overtime and Toronto continued their skid (have now lost seven of last eight). In fact, I hadn't realized it, but the Caps are now in a four-way tie with those teams for the two wild-card spots.
But the Caps, of course, lose the first tiebreaker against everyone, so they're still on the outside looking in.
And looking to keep them outside is Boston, coming to visit on Saturday. The Caps will need to play a lot better to win against them. I'm guessing that Holtby will get the start, but we'll see.
Go Caps!
20140324
Game is a push in San Jose?
Well, not really. As I mentioned, I was not at all optimistic about the Caps' chances against the Sharks. In fact, the Caps hadn't won there since '93 (a couple of players in the game hadn't been born yet). But the Caps got one they definitely didn't deserve the other night.
The lines were basically the same as the game before, although Halak wasn't feeling great and didn't start (this was a last-minute decision; it was assumed after practice that he would be). That didn't worry me, although I wonder if it did, Coach Oates.
Washington started out quite strong, taking it to the Sharks, and finally getting a lucky goal from the third line in the twelfth minute. They were applying strong pressure, and a shot rebounded from Neimi to the same-side defenseman, who tried to clear it. But his shot rebounded, almost immediately, off his defensive partner's leg and over the shoulder of a stunned Niemi. After much debate, Fehr was credited with the goal.
Things continued to look pretty good for the Caps, until a last-minute flurry resulted in a San Jose goal with six seconds left, as Marleau got a rebound in front of the net and put it home.
The second period started out being almost all Sharks (greated aided by a pair of power plays). On one of those power plays, they did a very good job keeping San Jose from setting up in the zone, but the other was basically a shooting gallery. But Holt-beast was in full effect, and kept the game tied.
The second half of the period had the Caps catching up a bit. I'd like to say that they were helped by the two power plays they got during that time, but the truth is that they looked terrible. I think they got one shot on net on the two PPs combined. The one time they managed to get set up, a nice (lucky?) deflection of a cross-ice pass sent them out of the zone again. Other than that, it was continual rewinds as they dumped in and had it immediately cleared. San Jose even got a strong forecheck in on one of those power plays; that was just ugly.
The third period played basically even, with each team scoring one. Sheppard scored on an unassisted breakaway five minutes in (and Holtby definitely wanted that one back), and Brown scored on another fluky goal seven minutes later (with nice assistance from Wilson and Penner). Brown's goal was fluky because it deflected off two San Jose players before it went in. Niemi couldn't've been terribly pleased with the team in front of him.
OV's high sticking call with two minutes and change left provided quite a scare, but Holtby again looked like a wall.
Washington did a very nice job, comfortably outplaying the Sharks, when the game went into overtime, but they did not manage to score their fifth OT goal of the season.
So it went into the coin flip, where Couture started things off by getting stopped. Oates again started with his Russian enigma, and got the advantage when Kuzya put it past Niemi. Pavelski and Fehr continued, and were both stopped to make it very tight. Marleau put his second past Holtby after that, keeping the Sharks alive.
At that point, I tweeted:
Not a pretty game, although Holtby looked fabulous, especially with how he's been treated over the past several weeks. I wonder if the thirty-four saves are enough to get him another start tomorrow or Saturday. I hope so. Halak's been great, but Holtby's had similarly good stretches. Actually, thinking about it, I bet this gets Holtby the start against Boston, as he has only one regular season loss against the Bruins.
As I said, the Caps power play looked pretty terrible. They were reduced almost entirely to dump-ins, and they're just not a good dump and chase team. Well, not without Chimmer on the power play, they aren't. The end result was only eight shot attempts (actually, I'm amazed it was that many, although only three of them were on-net) in six minutes. That's massively off their normal pace, which is quite a credit to the penalty killing of the Sharks.
The PK got the job done, technically, although that's mostly a credit to Holtby. They allowed fourteen shot attempts in just over six minutes of power play time (actually, I'm not sure how they calculate that. There were three power plays, and none were ended prematurely. Only thing I can think of is a little bit of 6-on-5 on a delayed call being credited as power play time), with eleven of those shots being on net. Saying the Caps were lucky there is a massive understatement.
All in all, you just have to say that the Caps were incredibly lucky to win the game. Lucky not to give up an power play goals and lucky to score both of the times Niemi was beat.
Really, they just looked outclassed through most of the game. 5-on-5 close Fenwick was 55% in favor of the Sharks, and I'm actually surprised it was that close. It didn't feel like it, when I was watching.
But I'm not complaining. At this point in the season, as I've said, there are no more style points. It took an immense amount of luck, but the Caps managed five out of six points on the West Coast swing. That puts them into a position where it's believable that they might make the playoffs. The odds are still against it, but no longer overwhelmingly so.
If they can pull a pair of points out of the next two games, then I think they'll probably make it. Go pointless, and I'd bet against it pretty strongly.
Anyway, as alluded earlier, tomorrow is the next game, and it's at home against the Kings. Another very tough one. I'd like to hope that this marks the end of the OV/Beagle line, but practice this morning suggest no. Go Caps!
The lines were basically the same as the game before, although Halak wasn't feeling great and didn't start (this was a last-minute decision; it was assumed after practice that he would be). That didn't worry me, although I wonder if it did, Coach Oates.
Washington started out quite strong, taking it to the Sharks, and finally getting a lucky goal from the third line in the twelfth minute. They were applying strong pressure, and a shot rebounded from Neimi to the same-side defenseman, who tried to clear it. But his shot rebounded, almost immediately, off his defensive partner's leg and over the shoulder of a stunned Niemi. After much debate, Fehr was credited with the goal.
Things continued to look pretty good for the Caps, until a last-minute flurry resulted in a San Jose goal with six seconds left, as Marleau got a rebound in front of the net and put it home.
The second period started out being almost all Sharks (greated aided by a pair of power plays). On one of those power plays, they did a very good job keeping San Jose from setting up in the zone, but the other was basically a shooting gallery. But Holt-beast was in full effect, and kept the game tied.
The second half of the period had the Caps catching up a bit. I'd like to say that they were helped by the two power plays they got during that time, but the truth is that they looked terrible. I think they got one shot on net on the two PPs combined. The one time they managed to get set up, a nice (lucky?) deflection of a cross-ice pass sent them out of the zone again. Other than that, it was continual rewinds as they dumped in and had it immediately cleared. San Jose even got a strong forecheck in on one of those power plays; that was just ugly.
The third period played basically even, with each team scoring one. Sheppard scored on an unassisted breakaway five minutes in (and Holtby definitely wanted that one back), and Brown scored on another fluky goal seven minutes later (with nice assistance from Wilson and Penner). Brown's goal was fluky because it deflected off two San Jose players before it went in. Niemi couldn't've been terribly pleased with the team in front of him.
OV's high sticking call with two minutes and change left provided quite a scare, but Holtby again looked like a wall.
Washington did a very nice job, comfortably outplaying the Sharks, when the game went into overtime, but they did not manage to score their fifth OT goal of the season.
So it went into the coin flip, where Couture started things off by getting stopped. Oates again started with his Russian enigma, and got the advantage when Kuzya put it past Niemi. Pavelski and Fehr continued, and were both stopped to make it very tight. Marleau put his second past Holtby after that, keeping the Sharks alive.
At that point, I tweeted:
Ok. One shot to break twenty year losing streak
— AMusingFool (@AMusingFool) March 23, 2014
And Backstrom calmly skated in and beat Niemi for the win. And the crowd went wild. Well, the Caps fans who were still awake did, at least.Not a pretty game, although Holtby looked fabulous, especially with how he's been treated over the past several weeks. I wonder if the thirty-four saves are enough to get him another start tomorrow or Saturday. I hope so. Halak's been great, but Holtby's had similarly good stretches. Actually, thinking about it, I bet this gets Holtby the start against Boston, as he has only one regular season loss against the Bruins.
As I said, the Caps power play looked pretty terrible. They were reduced almost entirely to dump-ins, and they're just not a good dump and chase team. Well, not without Chimmer on the power play, they aren't. The end result was only eight shot attempts (actually, I'm amazed it was that many, although only three of them were on-net) in six minutes. That's massively off their normal pace, which is quite a credit to the penalty killing of the Sharks.
The PK got the job done, technically, although that's mostly a credit to Holtby. They allowed fourteen shot attempts in just over six minutes of power play time (actually, I'm not sure how they calculate that. There were three power plays, and none were ended prematurely. Only thing I can think of is a little bit of 6-on-5 on a delayed call being credited as power play time), with eleven of those shots being on net. Saying the Caps were lucky there is a massive understatement.
All in all, you just have to say that the Caps were incredibly lucky to win the game. Lucky not to give up an power play goals and lucky to score both of the times Niemi was beat.
Really, they just looked outclassed through most of the game. 5-on-5 close Fenwick was 55% in favor of the Sharks, and I'm actually surprised it was that close. It didn't feel like it, when I was watching.
But I'm not complaining. At this point in the season, as I've said, there are no more style points. It took an immense amount of luck, but the Caps managed five out of six points on the West Coast swing. That puts them into a position where it's believable that they might make the playoffs. The odds are still against it, but no longer overwhelmingly so.
If they can pull a pair of points out of the next two games, then I think they'll probably make it. Go pointless, and I'd bet against it pretty strongly.
Anyway, as alluded earlier, tomorrow is the next game, and it's at home against the Kings. Another very tough one. I'd like to hope that this marks the end of the OV/Beagle line, but practice this morning suggest no. Go Caps!
20140322
Deceptive Game
I watched last night's Caps game in LA live, for once (the one advantage of the game being so late), and ended up a bit deceived about it.
It felt, while I was watching it, that the Caps had much the worse of the play during the first (Kopitar's very nice goal fed by Gaborik didn't help that impression) period. In fact, they just felt (to me) like they were completely outclassed. Fenwick, however, says that they were actually ahead in possession for much of the period, only falling behind in the last couple minutes.
The second period felt like the Caps were ahead for most of it (though I should admit that I wasn't paying as close attention to this period, for various reasons), but Fenwick says they were badly outplayed starting with Backstrom's penalty, three minutes in.
Most importantly, though, they managed to keep the Kings from scoring for the entirety of the period. Unfortunately, Quick was up to stopping all of Washington's best chances (and they had some excellent ones) as well.
That pushed the game into the third period, when Washington finally managed to get their second power play. Unfortunately, they weren't able to do anything with it, as Quick managed to anticipate OV's shots as well as handle the shots from the other side and up top. Backstrom took his second penalty of the game seven minutes later, but despite a strong flurry, Washington stayed only a goal back.
But a few minutes after that, they did manage to even the score, as Backstrom hit Kuzya in the slot, and he skated around towards the back of the net. Just before going behind, though, he threw it out front to Ward, who stopped it with his skate and, when it got bounced back to him (off the defender's skate), slammed it past the down Quick. Another pure determination goal for Wardo, and his fourth consecutive game with a goal.
Unfortunately, the Caps weren't able to get anything else past Quick; including in the overtime, when they completely dominated. So the game ended up going to the shootout.
Interestingly, Quick's record is only one percentage point better than Halak's, but his win record is far, far better.
The shootout started out well, as Kuzya went first, and put it over Quick's shoulder. Halak then watched Kopitar lose control as he went first for LA. But it was all LA from there, as OV and Backstrom were stopped and Carter and Gaborik both scored.
A disappointing ending, to be sure, but for a team that spent much of the game looking like they didn't deserve to be on the same rink as the Kings, it was hard to be really upset.
Still, they had a chance to win their first game of the season without scoring at least three goals. So again, it's hard to be really happy.
Halak, as noted, did very well, stopping all but one of the twenty-eight shots he faced. Possessionally, the Caps did reasonably well at 46% 5v5 close. Even strength, close is probably even a little better, as they solidly dominated the overtime.
On the power play, the Caps did ok, with eleven shot attempts in four minutes (six on net). Nothing went in, but Quick was forced to make several excellent saves, so hard to be upset there.
On the flip side, the PK wasn't terribly good. They kept the Kings off the scoreboard, but allowed sixteen attempted shots (six on net) in six minutes. The six shots on net isn't bad, but they have very little control over whether shots are on-target or miss the net (six missed, which is a very high percentage). So it's hard to truly be happy with it, either.
One thing that struck me, finally, watching this game. I think the Caps do a pretty good job on the PK, once the puck is in the zone. But they don't do at all a good job keeping the puck out of the zone, and that's why they allow so many shots. So I'm still skeptical about the Caps chances, long-term, on the PK.
Anyway, next chance is today (this article has been in the editor for over a day) against the Sharks, at the Shark Tank. The Caps haven't won there since I was in undergrad, so I can't say as I'm terribly optimistic about their chances. But we'll see. Go Caps!
It felt, while I was watching it, that the Caps had much the worse of the play during the first (Kopitar's very nice goal fed by Gaborik didn't help that impression) period. In fact, they just felt (to me) like they were completely outclassed. Fenwick, however, says that they were actually ahead in possession for much of the period, only falling behind in the last couple minutes.
The second period felt like the Caps were ahead for most of it (though I should admit that I wasn't paying as close attention to this period, for various reasons), but Fenwick says they were badly outplayed starting with Backstrom's penalty, three minutes in.
Most importantly, though, they managed to keep the Kings from scoring for the entirety of the period. Unfortunately, Quick was up to stopping all of Washington's best chances (and they had some excellent ones) as well.
That pushed the game into the third period, when Washington finally managed to get their second power play. Unfortunately, they weren't able to do anything with it, as Quick managed to anticipate OV's shots as well as handle the shots from the other side and up top. Backstrom took his second penalty of the game seven minutes later, but despite a strong flurry, Washington stayed only a goal back.
But a few minutes after that, they did manage to even the score, as Backstrom hit Kuzya in the slot, and he skated around towards the back of the net. Just before going behind, though, he threw it out front to Ward, who stopped it with his skate and, when it got bounced back to him (off the defender's skate), slammed it past the down Quick. Another pure determination goal for Wardo, and his fourth consecutive game with a goal.
Unfortunately, the Caps weren't able to get anything else past Quick; including in the overtime, when they completely dominated. So the game ended up going to the shootout.
Interestingly, Quick's record is only one percentage point better than Halak's, but his win record is far, far better.
The shootout started out well, as Kuzya went first, and put it over Quick's shoulder. Halak then watched Kopitar lose control as he went first for LA. But it was all LA from there, as OV and Backstrom were stopped and Carter and Gaborik both scored.
A disappointing ending, to be sure, but for a team that spent much of the game looking like they didn't deserve to be on the same rink as the Kings, it was hard to be really upset.
Still, they had a chance to win their first game of the season without scoring at least three goals. So again, it's hard to be really happy.
Halak, as noted, did very well, stopping all but one of the twenty-eight shots he faced. Possessionally, the Caps did reasonably well at 46% 5v5 close. Even strength, close is probably even a little better, as they solidly dominated the overtime.
On the power play, the Caps did ok, with eleven shot attempts in four minutes (six on net). Nothing went in, but Quick was forced to make several excellent saves, so hard to be upset there.
On the flip side, the PK wasn't terribly good. They kept the Kings off the scoreboard, but allowed sixteen attempted shots (six on net) in six minutes. The six shots on net isn't bad, but they have very little control over whether shots are on-target or miss the net (six missed, which is a very high percentage). So it's hard to truly be happy with it, either.
One thing that struck me, finally, watching this game. I think the Caps do a pretty good job on the PK, once the puck is in the zone. But they don't do at all a good job keeping the puck out of the zone, and that's why they allow so many shots. So I'm still skeptical about the Caps chances, long-term, on the PK.
Anyway, next chance is today (this article has been in the editor for over a day) against the Sharks, at the Shark Tank. The Caps haven't won there since I was in undergrad, so I can't say as I'm terribly optimistic about their chances. But we'll see. Go Caps!
20140201
Red in the face
I wasn't able to watch last night's Caps game at the Joe until very late. And for much of the game, I was wishing I hadn't bothered.
Washington actually got the first shot, with OV trying a wraparound, of all things. And it was pretty even for the first seven minutes or so. But then Detroit got a power play, and just started pouring it on. By the end of the period, Neuvy probably felt like he was at the wrong end of a shooting gallery, as he had stopped twenty-two shots (IIRC, 12 of those shots were on the power play), and seen several more fly wide.
But he probably was feeling decent about that, since he'd stopped everything, and since Washington had cashed in on their lone power play of the period (on the only shot, I believe. And one of five shots in the period).
But that kind of discrepancy is going to catch up, and it did, as both Miller and DeKeyser scored in the second, despite the Caps only being two behind in Fenwick on the period (and only one behind in penalties).
The third period's final numbers were pretty close, but almost all of Washington's action was in their one power play (seven shots, I believe, and didn't score), whereas Detroit's was spread across the period. And three of Washington's remaining shots came in consecutive seconds, as Wellman got the puck in the slot, sliding across, and fired three times, putting the third into the net. That left only six unblocked attempts across the remaining 17:57 of the period. That isn't horrible, but it isn't good, either.
And two minutes (and a few seconds) after Wellman's goal, Detroit scored again to retake the lead to force the Caps into desperation mode. But they still didn't manage to muster much, until that penalty was called, six minutes and change later. And they still didn't manage to tie it up, despite that very impressive outburst.
But they pulled Neuvy a short while after, and managed to even the game with only seven seconds left. We thought OV had scored it, although Ward was eventually credited with a tip-in (seeing the replay, it was obvious there was a tip, but it was less than obvious that Wardo touched it, and he certainly didn't act like he had). In any event, it was quite a rollercoaster several minutes.
And the overtime? Well, more of what we'd been seeing, as Detroit dominated, but wasn't able to score.
So on to the "skills competition" (personally, I'd call it the coin flip). And the only real skills seen there were by the goalies, who each stopped the first six attempts (several of which, on each side, were really terrible; OV actually had his best attempt in quite a while, but it still didn't work) they faced. Then Eaves scored for Detroit, and Beagle came up. I gave up as soon as I saw who was taking it. And I was not surprised at all at the result. Has Oates not yet learned that Beagle is where scoring chances go to die?
After that shooting gallery of a first period, the PK did well (I'd count them as extremely lucky not to've given up a goal in the first, but deserved it the rest of the way).
The power play was pretty good; they only had two chances, and scored on one and had many chances in the second. In just over three minutes of power play time, they had more than half the shot attempts that Detroit had in ten minutes on the man advantage. Nothing to sneeze at, there.
And a lot could be written about Neuvy. Despite the three goals, he's the only reason they were even in the game at all. This game could have easily been a blow-out, with forty-five shots on net.
Anyway, a slightly disappointing, though well-deserved result of the game. And again, the Caps need to start winning a lot of games, really quickly, if they hope to make the playoffs.
The quest resumes tomorrow, again with Detroit, back at the phone booth. Go Caps!
Washington actually got the first shot, with OV trying a wraparound, of all things. And it was pretty even for the first seven minutes or so. But then Detroit got a power play, and just started pouring it on. By the end of the period, Neuvy probably felt like he was at the wrong end of a shooting gallery, as he had stopped twenty-two shots (IIRC, 12 of those shots were on the power play), and seen several more fly wide.
But he probably was feeling decent about that, since he'd stopped everything, and since Washington had cashed in on their lone power play of the period (on the only shot, I believe. And one of five shots in the period).
But that kind of discrepancy is going to catch up, and it did, as both Miller and DeKeyser scored in the second, despite the Caps only being two behind in Fenwick on the period (and only one behind in penalties).
The third period's final numbers were pretty close, but almost all of Washington's action was in their one power play (seven shots, I believe, and didn't score), whereas Detroit's was spread across the period. And three of Washington's remaining shots came in consecutive seconds, as Wellman got the puck in the slot, sliding across, and fired three times, putting the third into the net. That left only six unblocked attempts across the remaining 17:57 of the period. That isn't horrible, but it isn't good, either.
And two minutes (and a few seconds) after Wellman's goal, Detroit scored again to retake the lead to force the Caps into desperation mode. But they still didn't manage to muster much, until that penalty was called, six minutes and change later. And they still didn't manage to tie it up, despite that very impressive outburst.
But they pulled Neuvy a short while after, and managed to even the game with only seven seconds left. We thought OV had scored it, although Ward was eventually credited with a tip-in (seeing the replay, it was obvious there was a tip, but it was less than obvious that Wardo touched it, and he certainly didn't act like he had). In any event, it was quite a rollercoaster several minutes.
And the overtime? Well, more of what we'd been seeing, as Detroit dominated, but wasn't able to score.
So on to the "skills competition" (personally, I'd call it the coin flip). And the only real skills seen there were by the goalies, who each stopped the first six attempts (several of which, on each side, were really terrible; OV actually had his best attempt in quite a while, but it still didn't work) they faced. Then Eaves scored for Detroit, and Beagle came up. I gave up as soon as I saw who was taking it. And I was not surprised at all at the result. Has Oates not yet learned that Beagle is where scoring chances go to die?
After that shooting gallery of a first period, the PK did well (I'd count them as extremely lucky not to've given up a goal in the first, but deserved it the rest of the way).
The power play was pretty good; they only had two chances, and scored on one and had many chances in the second. In just over three minutes of power play time, they had more than half the shot attempts that Detroit had in ten minutes on the man advantage. Nothing to sneeze at, there.
And a lot could be written about Neuvy. Despite the three goals, he's the only reason they were even in the game at all. This game could have easily been a blow-out, with forty-five shots on net.
Anyway, a slightly disappointing, though well-deserved result of the game. And again, the Caps need to start winning a lot of games, really quickly, if they hope to make the playoffs.
The quest resumes tomorrow, again with Detroit, back at the phone booth. Go Caps!
20140116
Shark-bit
[again, written yesterday, but just posting today, unedited]
I was feeling pretty leery about last night's Caps/Sharks game. The Sharks are a top-three possession team, and have only lost once to the Caps in the last fourteen years. On the plus side, the Sharks have several injured players (Dustin Brown, Logan Couture, and Tomas Hertl, at least).
Not unexpectedly, Gru got the start in goal again, with the rest of the Caps lineup being the same as the last several games.
And things started out very well for the Caps; they were territorially dominant for the first seven minutes (or so) of the game, although I don't remember any great chances during that time. But things started evening up quickly after that, leading up to a Sharks goal on a very pretty deflection thirteen minutes in.
The Caps matched that nineteen minutes later as OV found the roof of the goal through a hole a hair larger than the puck, from a very sharp angle.
The Sharks thought that they'd taken a lead at the end of the second, but it turned out that time had expired while the puck was still in the crease. And the third period went by in a long blur of not much happening (although the only two minors called in the game were at the very beginning and very end of the period).
Having said all that, I was pretty happy with the game. The Caps out-shot and out-attempted the Sharks by a small but significant amount (roughly 53% of both shots and Fenwick for, both overall and 5v5 close. Of course, unlike Phoenix's game the other night, almost the entire game was played 5v5 close).
Anyway, all of that led to the game going into overtime. And unlike the Sabres game, the Caps were dominant in overtime. Like the Sabres game, though, they were still unable to score. So into the shootout they went. For only the fourteenth time this season.
And for the third shootout game in a row, the Caps were unable to put even one shot past an Olympic goaltender (this one, though, wasn't wearing any pants. I have no idea why). Which meant that Marleau's goal in the second round stood up, and sent the Caps to the showers with only one point.
There was very limited special teams, so all I'll really say is that the power play didn't have much zone time, but the PK didn't allow much either.
As far as individual players, Gru had a very good game, allowing only the one goal on twenty-seven shots on net. Fehr was also a force, with some strong defensive plays using his reach, and a couple of very good chances. Grabo was also excellent, creating good chances for Fehr and OV, as well as drawing the penalty for the Caps only power play. Speaking of OV, that shot was a sharpshooter's dream, although this was not an OV game.
That is to say, San Jose is a team that lives by playing along the boards. And the Caps basically beat the Sharks at their own game, with some very strong cycling. And the boards are not OV's game; he's just ok (compared to average NHL talent, not compared to his talents elsewhere on the ice) there.
MarJo showed how far he's come; last season, him along the boards was basically an automatic turnover. This season, he's been fairly strong; he even beat Jumbo Joe in a board battle at one point last night.
One thing that surprises me, looking back now; Ward is a very strong board player, and I didn't notice him being terribly off, or anything, last night. But his possession numbers were terrible (he, MarJo, and Chimmer were all under 40% Corsi For); I'm not sure how that happened.
That line, though, was heavily victimized; all the other forward lines were over 55% (next lowest forwards were Brouwer and Beagle at 58.8%, in fact). I guess I must have noticed one or two of their successes, and missed all their failures, because that's really terrible. Especially with how sheltered they were, in terms of starts (and, to a lesser degree, in terms of competition), they need to do better.
But like I said, I was pretty happy with the game, even with the shootout results. Like I've said before, games like this will lead to many wins and few losses.
Next up are the Penguins, tonight, in Pittsburgh. Oates more or less promised Gru wouldn't be playing again. I'd like to see Holtby, but if I were to bet money, I'd put it on Neuvy. Also, tonight's game is on NBCSN; hopefully, I'll remember to set the DVR. Go Caps!
I was feeling pretty leery about last night's Caps/Sharks game. The Sharks are a top-three possession team, and have only lost once to the Caps in the last fourteen years. On the plus side, the Sharks have several injured players (Dustin Brown, Logan Couture, and Tomas Hertl, at least).
Not unexpectedly, Gru got the start in goal again, with the rest of the Caps lineup being the same as the last several games.
And things started out very well for the Caps; they were territorially dominant for the first seven minutes (or so) of the game, although I don't remember any great chances during that time. But things started evening up quickly after that, leading up to a Sharks goal on a very pretty deflection thirteen minutes in.
The Caps matched that nineteen minutes later as OV found the roof of the goal through a hole a hair larger than the puck, from a very sharp angle.
The Sharks thought that they'd taken a lead at the end of the second, but it turned out that time had expired while the puck was still in the crease. And the third period went by in a long blur of not much happening (although the only two minors called in the game were at the very beginning and very end of the period).
Having said all that, I was pretty happy with the game. The Caps out-shot and out-attempted the Sharks by a small but significant amount (roughly 53% of both shots and Fenwick for, both overall and 5v5 close. Of course, unlike Phoenix's game the other night, almost the entire game was played 5v5 close).
Anyway, all of that led to the game going into overtime. And unlike the Sabres game, the Caps were dominant in overtime. Like the Sabres game, though, they were still unable to score. So into the shootout they went. For only the fourteenth time this season.
And for the third shootout game in a row, the Caps were unable to put even one shot past an Olympic goaltender (this one, though, wasn't wearing any pants. I have no idea why). Which meant that Marleau's goal in the second round stood up, and sent the Caps to the showers with only one point.
There was very limited special teams, so all I'll really say is that the power play didn't have much zone time, but the PK didn't allow much either.
As far as individual players, Gru had a very good game, allowing only the one goal on twenty-seven shots on net. Fehr was also a force, with some strong defensive plays using his reach, and a couple of very good chances. Grabo was also excellent, creating good chances for Fehr and OV, as well as drawing the penalty for the Caps only power play. Speaking of OV, that shot was a sharpshooter's dream, although this was not an OV game.
That is to say, San Jose is a team that lives by playing along the boards. And the Caps basically beat the Sharks at their own game, with some very strong cycling. And the boards are not OV's game; he's just ok (compared to average NHL talent, not compared to his talents elsewhere on the ice) there.
MarJo showed how far he's come; last season, him along the boards was basically an automatic turnover. This season, he's been fairly strong; he even beat Jumbo Joe in a board battle at one point last night.
One thing that surprises me, looking back now; Ward is a very strong board player, and I didn't notice him being terribly off, or anything, last night. But his possession numbers were terrible (he, MarJo, and Chimmer were all under 40% Corsi For); I'm not sure how that happened.
That line, though, was heavily victimized; all the other forward lines were over 55% (next lowest forwards were Brouwer and Beagle at 58.8%, in fact). I guess I must have noticed one or two of their successes, and missed all their failures, because that's really terrible. Especially with how sheltered they were, in terms of starts (and, to a lesser degree, in terms of competition), they need to do better.
But like I said, I was pretty happy with the game, even with the shootout results. Like I've said before, games like this will lead to many wins and few losses.
Next up are the Penguins, tonight, in Pittsburgh. Oates more or less promised Gru wouldn't be playing again. I'd like to see Holtby, but if I were to bet money, I'd put it on Neuvy. Also, tonight's game is on NBCSN; hopefully, I'll remember to set the DVR. Go Caps!
20140113
Die by the blade
I did manage to watch yesterday's game in its entirety (on DVR-delay, so I think I got through the whole thing in ninety minutes or so) after getting back from taking my daughter skating again.
From the beginning, we should note that the lines and defensive pairings were the same as the previous game (so the third pair was again Carrick and Erskine, and Laich and Brouwer were together on the top line). The only change was in goal, as Gru came back, leaving Holtby on the shelf. Good thing Holts isn't getting time to let the memories of that last outing fester in his mind. Oy.
With the 1-1 final score, and shootout decision, I'd like to say that it followed the same script as the last Sabres game, but it really didn't. The Caps did have the edge in 5v5 close Fenwick, but there was a lot of power play time. Or, rather, penalty kill time, as the Caps seemed to think that Buffalo needed an edge (well, to be fair, there were at least three penalties I thought should have been called on the Sabres). Brouwer, in particular, seemed to think that, as he got called for penalties on two shifts of three consecutive one late in the second.
In any event, the game went into overtime where the Caps couldn't even attempt a shot (despite having five men on the ice at one point in the middle). But they managed to hold off Buffalo, and got into the shootout. It only took the default three rounds this time, but the results were the same as the last time these goalies faced off in the shootout. That is, Miller stopped every shot, and Gru stopped all of them but the last.
Breaking down the pieces, the power play wasn't terribly good. They attempted five shots, and allowed two attempts against in their two minutes (so, yes, serious small-sample size warnings).
The PK not terribly good, allowing thirteen attempts (four on net) against in nine minutes, and only got two shot attempts on their own. The shots are pretty good, actually, but that's a lot of attempts. I wonder if they were lucky on shots missing the net. For the season, the Caps are allowing close to four attempts per power play, so maybe they actually did pretty well, compared to their results for the season.
I'm going to come back to that in a minute.
5v5, the Caps did pretty well again (almost exactly the same as against Toronto). Of course, five minutes of the game was played 4v4, and the Caps accomplished exactly nothing. And these last two games were against the two worst possession teams in the league. So it's hard to feel too positive.
And the number of penalties was certainly disturbing. I'm going to write another (non-Caps-focused) post in a few minutes about this, but they can't expect to win with large penalty disparities going in the wrong direction.
But to get back to the Caps, and penalty killing, the Caps have had the 7th most minutes, 4v5, in the league (259m). And in that time, they've managed the most shot attempts against (I wish I had the numbers for at the end of their run of... what was it? 50 penalties in a row successfully killed). That isn't good. They are eighth in the league in shot attempts for, which is ok, I guess.
Anyway, overall, I see a penalty kill in desperate need of an overhaul, and I don't see that happening. Oh, and per-player Corsi shows that Carrick and Erskine (on D) were black holes, as was the fourth line (on O). If only we had positive possession players to plug in, like, say, Oleksy, Schmidt, Erat, or Latta.
So, not looking greatly positive for the future, although at least there's some positive potential ahead.
And next up is San Jose and Pittsburgh, Tuesday and Wednesday. Nothing like a back-to-back against top teams (and I also feel obligated to point out that, last time the Caps played Pittsburgh, they were only one standings point behind. And now they need a telescope to see the leaders). Having said all that, Go Caps!
From the beginning, we should note that the lines and defensive pairings were the same as the previous game (so the third pair was again Carrick and Erskine, and Laich and Brouwer were together on the top line). The only change was in goal, as Gru came back, leaving Holtby on the shelf. Good thing Holts isn't getting time to let the memories of that last outing fester in his mind. Oy.
With the 1-1 final score, and shootout decision, I'd like to say that it followed the same script as the last Sabres game, but it really didn't. The Caps did have the edge in 5v5 close Fenwick, but there was a lot of power play time. Or, rather, penalty kill time, as the Caps seemed to think that Buffalo needed an edge (well, to be fair, there were at least three penalties I thought should have been called on the Sabres). Brouwer, in particular, seemed to think that, as he got called for penalties on two shifts of three consecutive one late in the second.
In any event, the game went into overtime where the Caps couldn't even attempt a shot (despite having five men on the ice at one point in the middle). But they managed to hold off Buffalo, and got into the shootout. It only took the default three rounds this time, but the results were the same as the last time these goalies faced off in the shootout. That is, Miller stopped every shot, and Gru stopped all of them but the last.
Breaking down the pieces, the power play wasn't terribly good. They attempted five shots, and allowed two attempts against in their two minutes (so, yes, serious small-sample size warnings).
The PK not terribly good, allowing thirteen attempts (four on net) against in nine minutes, and only got two shot attempts on their own. The shots are pretty good, actually, but that's a lot of attempts. I wonder if they were lucky on shots missing the net. For the season, the Caps are allowing close to four attempts per power play, so maybe they actually did pretty well, compared to their results for the season.
I'm going to come back to that in a minute.
5v5, the Caps did pretty well again (almost exactly the same as against Toronto). Of course, five minutes of the game was played 4v4, and the Caps accomplished exactly nothing. And these last two games were against the two worst possession teams in the league. So it's hard to feel too positive.
And the number of penalties was certainly disturbing. I'm going to write another (non-Caps-focused) post in a few minutes about this, but they can't expect to win with large penalty disparities going in the wrong direction.
But to get back to the Caps, and penalty killing, the Caps have had the 7th most minutes, 4v5, in the league (259m). And in that time, they've managed the most shot attempts against (I wish I had the numbers for at the end of their run of... what was it? 50 penalties in a row successfully killed). That isn't good. They are eighth in the league in shot attempts for, which is ok, I guess.
Anyway, overall, I see a penalty kill in desperate need of an overhaul, and I don't see that happening. Oh, and per-player Corsi shows that Carrick and Erskine (on D) were black holes, as was the fourth line (on O). If only we had positive possession players to plug in, like, say, Oleksy, Schmidt, Erat, or Latta.
So, not looking greatly positive for the future, although at least there's some positive potential ahead.
And next up is San Jose and Pittsburgh, Tuesday and Wednesday. Nothing like a back-to-back against top teams (and I also feel obligated to point out that, last time the Caps played Pittsburgh, they were only one standings point behind. And now they need a telescope to see the leaders). Having said all that, Go Caps!
20131231
Sabre-metrics
Oddly (well, maybe not, if we consider that it's against the Sabres), tonight's matchup between the Caps and Sabres was almost a mirror image of the Rangers game.
The Caps actually put up a dominating performance (70% Fenwick for (all situations)), and just peppered Miller with fifty shots. I'm pretty sure that's their best performance of the season.
Unfortunately, Miller was playing like someone who really wants to start for the US in the Olympics, and stopped forty-nine of those shots. It's true that they didn't get as many screened and deflection shots (or quick one-timers) as you would like, but they still "should" have scored more.
Gru was going again for the Caps, and the defense kept the shots against him down to seventeen (kudos for that; I suspect it was their best game of the season for that, as well).
And I should point out that there was about seven minutes of four-on-four in the game (two minutes of matching penalties and five minutes of overtime), and the Caps were even more dominating in those stretches.
Unfortunately, all of that was merely preamble to the shootout, which ended up going to the sixth round. For the first five rounds, Gru matched Miller by stopping everyone (including a great save where a shot rang off the iron, bounced off his leg, and was then caught before it could go into the net), but he was beaten in the sixth.
A bit of a frustrating game (since Miller looked so good), but actually the most encouraging one in almost three weeks. In fact, it was the first one to push the rolling ten-game average of fenwick close upwards since the 4-1 victory over the Rangers. Let's hope it isn't just a mirage.
Next chance to see is tomorrow in Ottawa. I'd expect that Holtby will get the nod, but we'll see. Go Caps!
The Caps actually put up a dominating performance (70% Fenwick for (all situations)), and just peppered Miller with fifty shots. I'm pretty sure that's their best performance of the season.
Unfortunately, Miller was playing like someone who really wants to start for the US in the Olympics, and stopped forty-nine of those shots. It's true that they didn't get as many screened and deflection shots (or quick one-timers) as you would like, but they still "should" have scored more.
Gru was going again for the Caps, and the defense kept the shots against him down to seventeen (kudos for that; I suspect it was their best game of the season for that, as well).
And I should point out that there was about seven minutes of four-on-four in the game (two minutes of matching penalties and five minutes of overtime), and the Caps were even more dominating in those stretches.
Unfortunately, all of that was merely preamble to the shootout, which ended up going to the sixth round. For the first five rounds, Gru matched Miller by stopping everyone (including a great save where a shot rang off the iron, bounced off his leg, and was then caught before it could go into the net), but he was beaten in the sixth.
A bit of a frustrating game (since Miller looked so good), but actually the most encouraging one in almost three weeks. In fact, it was the first one to push the rolling ten-game average of fenwick close upwards since the 4-1 victory over the Rangers. Let's hope it isn't just a mirage.
Next chance to see is tomorrow in Ottawa. I'd expect that Holtby will get the nod, but we'll see. Go Caps!
20131215
Skating on thin ice
I watched today's Caps/Flyers game in two chunks; the first period live, and the rest of the game after the kids were in bed. And it kind of felt like two different pieces (well, maybe even three).
I didn't have a good feel, though, before it even started. First, Erskine was finally back from injury. Well, that one is a little mixed. But the other part was that Grabo was down with "flu-like symptoms". And that put Beagle up to the second line, which is not good. Beagle is where scoring chances go to die (for both teams); that's not bad on the fourth line, but you really don't want it happening on the higher ones.
The first period, it felt like the Caps were doing very well, mostly keeping play at the Flyers' end of the ice. And I think they mostly were, although Fenwick disagrees on that. It felt like they kept play there, and just didn't manage to control the puck cleanly and get shots away. Maybe that's a delusion, but that's how it felt. Fenwick says that the Caps were never ahead, though.
But they were putting pressure on, and got a second power play halfway through the period. And on this one, they got some sustained zone time (for the only time on the power play, all game). And after working it around, Backstrom sent a puck across the goal (from OV's normal position) and it was deflected in. It was originally credited to MarJo (who was waiting at the far post), but changed (after the game) to be credited to OV (who was charging in from between the circles).
It looked like the Caps were going to escape the first with that lead, but Giroux scored one in the final minute from out in front to tie the game up.
From there, it was pretty solidly the Flyers' game until about halfway through the third period. It got so bad, that I almost turned it off when Voracek scored to make it 4-1 early in the third. My normal rule is to watch until a four-goal margin, but since this was the third period, I almost broke it. And I'm glad I didn't, although it took almost eight minutes more for me to feel like that was even marginally a good choice.
That's when Green sent a fairly innocuous-looking snap shot into the net, blocker-side-high, from the point.
Five minutes later, Dima got his first of the season off of a draw, where the defenseman, Grossman, nicely screened Mason. Because of the screen, Mason didn't see it until it was only a few feet in front of him, and in it went, glove-side high.
Things were getting more exciting and stressful into the final minute. Gru had been pulled already, but went back in for a center-ice faceoff after the puck deflected onto the bench. The Caps won the faceoff, and sent it in deep. Gru ran for the bench as Mason went behind the net to play the puck. Mason's attempted clear went right to Ward, who passed in to the center (attempting to hit either Green or Carlson at the point, I think) and hit OV almost in stride. OV sent a quick wrister into the side of the net before Mason could get completely set to complete the come-back.
Despite the excitement of that, the remaining forty-eight seconds were mostly spent trying to lock in the automatic standing point with getting to overtime, although the Caps did get one more good chance.
But it went into overtime, with the normal Caps (2013-14 edition) result: a shootout. But this one, thankfully, was much more merciful than Florida. It was resolved in the normal three rounds, with Fehr and Backstrom providing the scores and Gru stopping two.
Although Gru getting the start surprised me quite a bit (yes, he's been good, but doesn't have nearly the record of Holtby), and despite the third goal being pretty bad, Gru had a solid game. He had two really amazing saves against Philly's power play, and generally looked comfortable.
OV didn't seem all that great, but still managed a pair of goals and a bone-crunching hit early in the first. And that game-tying goal was his 399th; let's hope he can get his 400th in Philly on Tuesday.
Dima had a really good game again; he should really be ahead of Erskine.
Erskine, though, to his credit, looked pretty good. At least, the few times I noticed him (and I figure it's a good thing if I don't notice him) he was making the right play. Honestly, though, I think I'd feel better with Schmidt. Sad, but true.
Anyway, that was the good and bad of the game. Next is the Flyers again, in Philly, on Tuesday. Go Caps!
I didn't have a good feel, though, before it even started. First, Erskine was finally back from injury. Well, that one is a little mixed. But the other part was that Grabo was down with "flu-like symptoms". And that put Beagle up to the second line, which is not good. Beagle is where scoring chances go to die (for both teams); that's not bad on the fourth line, but you really don't want it happening on the higher ones.
The first period, it felt like the Caps were doing very well, mostly keeping play at the Flyers' end of the ice. And I think they mostly were, although Fenwick disagrees on that. It felt like they kept play there, and just didn't manage to control the puck cleanly and get shots away. Maybe that's a delusion, but that's how it felt. Fenwick says that the Caps were never ahead, though.
But they were putting pressure on, and got a second power play halfway through the period. And on this one, they got some sustained zone time (for the only time on the power play, all game). And after working it around, Backstrom sent a puck across the goal (from OV's normal position) and it was deflected in. It was originally credited to MarJo (who was waiting at the far post), but changed (after the game) to be credited to OV (who was charging in from between the circles).
It looked like the Caps were going to escape the first with that lead, but Giroux scored one in the final minute from out in front to tie the game up.
From there, it was pretty solidly the Flyers' game until about halfway through the third period. It got so bad, that I almost turned it off when Voracek scored to make it 4-1 early in the third. My normal rule is to watch until a four-goal margin, but since this was the third period, I almost broke it. And I'm glad I didn't, although it took almost eight minutes more for me to feel like that was even marginally a good choice.
That's when Green sent a fairly innocuous-looking snap shot into the net, blocker-side-high, from the point.
Five minutes later, Dima got his first of the season off of a draw, where the defenseman, Grossman, nicely screened Mason. Because of the screen, Mason didn't see it until it was only a few feet in front of him, and in it went, glove-side high.
Things were getting more exciting and stressful into the final minute. Gru had been pulled already, but went back in for a center-ice faceoff after the puck deflected onto the bench. The Caps won the faceoff, and sent it in deep. Gru ran for the bench as Mason went behind the net to play the puck. Mason's attempted clear went right to Ward, who passed in to the center (attempting to hit either Green or Carlson at the point, I think) and hit OV almost in stride. OV sent a quick wrister into the side of the net before Mason could get completely set to complete the come-back.
Despite the excitement of that, the remaining forty-eight seconds were mostly spent trying to lock in the automatic standing point with getting to overtime, although the Caps did get one more good chance.
But it went into overtime, with the normal Caps (2013-14 edition) result: a shootout. But this one, thankfully, was much more merciful than Florida. It was resolved in the normal three rounds, with Fehr and Backstrom providing the scores and Gru stopping two.
Although Gru getting the start surprised me quite a bit (yes, he's been good, but doesn't have nearly the record of Holtby), and despite the third goal being pretty bad, Gru had a solid game. He had two really amazing saves against Philly's power play, and generally looked comfortable.
OV didn't seem all that great, but still managed a pair of goals and a bone-crunching hit early in the first. And that game-tying goal was his 399th; let's hope he can get his 400th in Philly on Tuesday.
Dima had a really good game again; he should really be ahead of Erskine.
Erskine, though, to his credit, looked pretty good. At least, the few times I noticed him (and I figure it's a good thing if I don't notice him) he was making the right play. Honestly, though, I think I'd feel better with Schmidt. Sad, but true.
Anyway, that was the good and bad of the game. Next is the Flyers again, in Philly, on Tuesday. Go Caps!
20131214
Round and round and round and round and round...
Last night's Caps/Panthers tilt was definitely one of fits and starts. When it started, and they showed the goalie stats (Gru's save pct ten percent (not ten points, but actually ten percent) higher than Clemmenson's, I commented to my wife that the Caps ought to win by three, just based on that. Of course, I was forgetting how small the sample on Gru's stats is (mostly due to not noticing it being Gru until a moment later)).
Anyway, the game started out, and that seemed reasonable. Greenie had a goal disallowed when Erat tripped over Clemmenson's foot a second before the shot (although I think I watched it three times before I saw the contact, which says something about how disruptive it was). A minute later, the whistle was blown when the puck was on the ice behind Clem (OV tapped it in, not that it mattered).
Then it appeared things were going really well, as the Caps got a power play. But it was a pretty poor effort, as they were unable to maintain any zone time. And the next twenty minutes was pretty much all Florida, as they completely dominated possession. Actually, you could really say that the rest of the game was all Florida, as I don't think there was more than a shift or two for the rest of the game where the Caps really dominated.
Fortunately, Grubauer was killing it, and stopping just about everything. Despite shots being 16-7 in the first, the score was only one-nil. The second period was almost as bad, at 13-8, but thanks to some pretty wild penalties, the score ended up tied at two. And the third period didn't have a whole lot going on, as both teams were largely playing for the loser point (but still, shots were 9-6) and nobody managed to score.
That took it into overtime, which was end-to-end firewagon hockey (seven total shots on net), but again, no one was able to tickle the twine.
Which put the Caps back into a position with which they're very familiar: the shootout. It started out well for the Caps, as Fehr opened with a score, while Barkov was stopped. But then OV was also stopped. After that, the next five shooters scored. Then eleven (!) in a row were stopped before Kopecky won it for Florida.
All in all, a miserable game in which the Caps didn't deserve the standing point they got. It wasn't their worst of the season, by 5v5 Fenwick close, but it was probably their third worst (I can definitely think of two, anyway, although one of those was worse by less than a point).
And honestly, I'm a little surprised it was as close as it was. Gru had a fantastic game, and likely should have gotten the star of the game (thirty-nine stops). Dima might be the only skater for Washington to have had a good game (at least, he looked really good to me). Backstrom was also decent, as was Ward.
But the main point, of course, is that the Caps need to play more in the other end of the rink. They spent far, far too much time in their own D-zone, and had a lot of trouble clearing. Maybe those two good games really were just a mirage.
Things get a little tougher now, as a home-and-home against the Flyers in next. First, at home tomorrow at three. Go Caps!
Anyway, the game started out, and that seemed reasonable. Greenie had a goal disallowed when Erat tripped over Clemmenson's foot a second before the shot (although I think I watched it three times before I saw the contact, which says something about how disruptive it was). A minute later, the whistle was blown when the puck was on the ice behind Clem (OV tapped it in, not that it mattered).
Then it appeared things were going really well, as the Caps got a power play. But it was a pretty poor effort, as they were unable to maintain any zone time. And the next twenty minutes was pretty much all Florida, as they completely dominated possession. Actually, you could really say that the rest of the game was all Florida, as I don't think there was more than a shift or two for the rest of the game where the Caps really dominated.
Fortunately, Grubauer was killing it, and stopping just about everything. Despite shots being 16-7 in the first, the score was only one-nil. The second period was almost as bad, at 13-8, but thanks to some pretty wild penalties, the score ended up tied at two. And the third period didn't have a whole lot going on, as both teams were largely playing for the loser point (but still, shots were 9-6) and nobody managed to score.
That took it into overtime, which was end-to-end firewagon hockey (seven total shots on net), but again, no one was able to tickle the twine.
Which put the Caps back into a position with which they're very familiar: the shootout. It started out well for the Caps, as Fehr opened with a score, while Barkov was stopped. But then OV was also stopped. After that, the next five shooters scored. Then eleven (!) in a row were stopped before Kopecky won it for Florida.
All in all, a miserable game in which the Caps didn't deserve the standing point they got. It wasn't their worst of the season, by 5v5 Fenwick close, but it was probably their third worst (I can definitely think of two, anyway, although one of those was worse by less than a point).
And honestly, I'm a little surprised it was as close as it was. Gru had a fantastic game, and likely should have gotten the star of the game (thirty-nine stops). Dima might be the only skater for Washington to have had a good game (at least, he looked really good to me). Backstrom was also decent, as was Ward.
But the main point, of course, is that the Caps need to play more in the other end of the rink. They spent far, far too much time in their own D-zone, and had a lot of trouble clearing. Maybe those two good games really were just a mirage.
Things get a little tougher now, as a home-and-home against the Flyers in next. First, at home tomorrow at three. Go Caps!
20131211
Lightning-struck?
Last night's Caps game against the Lightning... wow. What to say about it?
Well, I was right that the Caps were able to give themselves a little cushion in second place.
But man, was that ugly. Let's start with the fact that there were two stretches of the game, of ten or more minutes each, where the Caps didn't even manage to attempt a shot.
And Green's first period? Missed lift check led to a double-minor high sticking. Missed poke check led to a tripping call. Lone man back on a 2-on-1, and played the shot instead of the pass. All of that led to three goals, and me turning the game off for a while. When I turned it back on (after putting the kids to bed), I found out that he turned things around by taking another high sticking penalty and a misconduct less than a minute later. Ouch.
Holtby got pulled after that third goal, although I don't think he really deserved it. One of those goals was through a double screen (he didn't see the shot coming, and I have no idea how the puck made it through the mass of bodies. Even after watching the replay). The third was Green's neglecting to defend the pass, leading to an easy score. The second was stoppable, but would have been a tough stop on a hard one-timer.
Once that penalty-box parade ended, the top line was finally able to play a bit, and scored off a face-off in the zone three minutes after that last Tampa score.
The second period mostly went Washington's way (though one could debate how much of that was due to the boarding major that sent Alzner to the dressing room for a short bit); they led in goals and shots.
They cut the lead to two towards the end of an early power play with some good puck movement. It quickly became apparent that Tampa's entire PK strategy was predicated around stopping OV, so the Caps kept trying to feed Brouwer in the slot. That didn't really work, but did eventually get a rebound to Backstrom while Bishop was down, and Nicky put it home.
The Caps kept trying to chip away, although Tampa got the next goal when Johnson intercepted a pass right around the blue line. They brought it back on a 3-on-2. I thought it'd been broken up when one of the passes got slowed a lot, but they were still able to put the shot on net and Johnson found himself undefended with the rebound.
Things weren't looking good, then, as play went back and forth with no sustained pressure for several minutes. And then Alzner was drilled from behind, and went head-first into the boards, leading to a major for boarding (I was glad to see, on the replay, that Panik stopped to apologize to Karl for it; he could have been seriously injured). That gave Washington the power play for the remainder of the period.
It did not take long to capitalize; they won the draw, worked it once around the zone, then MarJo caught OV making a back-door cut to the net for a goal in twelve seconds. The second goal took a bit longer, and probably required OV's man to lose his stick, but Green passed over to OV for his regular one-timer to tie the game back up at four. And make hats rain down on the ice.
Despite the power play lasting another minute and change in that period, and over a minute in the third, there were no more goals on it.
And the rest of the game, in fact, went without penalty (although there was a pretty egregious interference no-call at one point).
Offense in the third period, for the Caps, was basically a tale of two shifts (the first of which might have been two back-to-back). Unfortunately, there was over ten minutes without even an attempt at a shot in between. Fortunately, the second of those shifts (with about thirty seconds left) resulted in a goal.
That goal matched the one that the Lightning, with their steady pressure throughout the period, scored during that huge lull.
That goal was also OV's fourth of the game (and Nicky's fourth assist, to go with his one goal), so there were a few more hats thrown down.
That put the game into overtime again, which was basically firewagon hockey, as the puck went from end to end to end to end. The five minutes got ten shots from the two teams, and there were some very good chances. But no one was able to convert, and another one went into the shootout for the Caps.
I was initially very fearful of the shootout, with it being Gru's first (and especially remembering Holtby's first), but he looked very good. He did get beaten twice, but had a really nice poke check on St Louis, and generally seemed calm and in control.
And at the other end, Fehr, Grabo, and Brouwer all converted, which was enough to give the Caps the two points for which they were looking.
Again, it was a brutally ugly game (33.3% FF%, 5-on-5 close) at evens, but the goaltending and special teams were good enough to even it out. And it was probably Greenie's worst day at the office, ever. The penalty kill was so-so; the two goals allowed in five chances wasn't too good, but they did keep it down to only six shots (which still isn't great, but is an improvement in how they've been doing).
All in all, the only things to be pleased about were the play of OV and Backstrom (five goals and four assists between them) and the power play (especially OV getting those two PPGs, despite the entire defense being keyed to stop him, personally). This was not a formula for winning a game, but we'll be glad they pulled it out anyway.
Next up is Florida; definitely a prime chance to keep ahead of Carolina and New York. I'd like to make a joke here about Florida and loser points (based on their record last season), but the Caps are far worse, this season. Despite that, Go Caps!
Well, I was right that the Caps were able to give themselves a little cushion in second place.
But man, was that ugly. Let's start with the fact that there were two stretches of the game, of ten or more minutes each, where the Caps didn't even manage to attempt a shot.
And Green's first period? Missed lift check led to a double-minor high sticking. Missed poke check led to a tripping call. Lone man back on a 2-on-1, and played the shot instead of the pass. All of that led to three goals, and me turning the game off for a while. When I turned it back on (after putting the kids to bed), I found out that he turned things around by taking another high sticking penalty and a misconduct less than a minute later. Ouch.
Holtby got pulled after that third goal, although I don't think he really deserved it. One of those goals was through a double screen (he didn't see the shot coming, and I have no idea how the puck made it through the mass of bodies. Even after watching the replay). The third was Green's neglecting to defend the pass, leading to an easy score. The second was stoppable, but would have been a tough stop on a hard one-timer.
Once that penalty-box parade ended, the top line was finally able to play a bit, and scored off a face-off in the zone three minutes after that last Tampa score.
The second period mostly went Washington's way (though one could debate how much of that was due to the boarding major that sent Alzner to the dressing room for a short bit); they led in goals and shots.
They cut the lead to two towards the end of an early power play with some good puck movement. It quickly became apparent that Tampa's entire PK strategy was predicated around stopping OV, so the Caps kept trying to feed Brouwer in the slot. That didn't really work, but did eventually get a rebound to Backstrom while Bishop was down, and Nicky put it home.
The Caps kept trying to chip away, although Tampa got the next goal when Johnson intercepted a pass right around the blue line. They brought it back on a 3-on-2. I thought it'd been broken up when one of the passes got slowed a lot, but they were still able to put the shot on net and Johnson found himself undefended with the rebound.
Things weren't looking good, then, as play went back and forth with no sustained pressure for several minutes. And then Alzner was drilled from behind, and went head-first into the boards, leading to a major for boarding (I was glad to see, on the replay, that Panik stopped to apologize to Karl for it; he could have been seriously injured). That gave Washington the power play for the remainder of the period.
It did not take long to capitalize; they won the draw, worked it once around the zone, then MarJo caught OV making a back-door cut to the net for a goal in twelve seconds. The second goal took a bit longer, and probably required OV's man to lose his stick, but Green passed over to OV for his regular one-timer to tie the game back up at four. And make hats rain down on the ice.
Despite the power play lasting another minute and change in that period, and over a minute in the third, there were no more goals on it.
And the rest of the game, in fact, went without penalty (although there was a pretty egregious interference no-call at one point).
Offense in the third period, for the Caps, was basically a tale of two shifts (the first of which might have been two back-to-back). Unfortunately, there was over ten minutes without even an attempt at a shot in between. Fortunately, the second of those shifts (with about thirty seconds left) resulted in a goal.
That goal matched the one that the Lightning, with their steady pressure throughout the period, scored during that huge lull.
That goal was also OV's fourth of the game (and Nicky's fourth assist, to go with his one goal), so there were a few more hats thrown down.
That put the game into overtime again, which was basically firewagon hockey, as the puck went from end to end to end to end. The five minutes got ten shots from the two teams, and there were some very good chances. But no one was able to convert, and another one went into the shootout for the Caps.
I was initially very fearful of the shootout, with it being Gru's first (and especially remembering Holtby's first), but he looked very good. He did get beaten twice, but had a really nice poke check on St Louis, and generally seemed calm and in control.
And at the other end, Fehr, Grabo, and Brouwer all converted, which was enough to give the Caps the two points for which they were looking.
Again, it was a brutally ugly game (33.3% FF%, 5-on-5 close) at evens, but the goaltending and special teams were good enough to even it out. And it was probably Greenie's worst day at the office, ever. The penalty kill was so-so; the two goals allowed in five chances wasn't too good, but they did keep it down to only six shots (which still isn't great, but is an improvement in how they've been doing).
All in all, the only things to be pleased about were the play of OV and Backstrom (five goals and four assists between them) and the power play (especially OV getting those two PPGs, despite the entire defense being keyed to stop him, personally). This was not a formula for winning a game, but we'll be glad they pulled it out anyway.
Next up is Florida; definitely a prime chance to keep ahead of Carolina and New York. I'd like to make a joke here about Florida and loser points (based on their record last season), but the Caps are far worse, this season. Despite that, Go Caps!
20131118
Winging by
I can't say as I had good feelings about the Caps playing the Red Wings last Friday. I was expecting them to get outplayed, and they did (although it was actually very close).
But they did jump on the scoreboard early with a nice semi-breakaway by Laich (sprung by Oleksy).
Detroit did score the next three goals, although I will say, in the Caps defense, that two of the goals were extremely lucky. That is, Franzen scored from not too far out, despite Holtby being in perfect position; it was an impressive snipe of the short-side corner that didn't appear to be visible at all (which is not meant to take away from Franzen's skill, but just to point out that it was an extremely low-percentage shot). And one of the others (I think Franzen's second) was set up by a nice pass across the crease that went near (or through; it was hard to tell) several sticks and sets of legs to find Franzen uncovered on the back side for an easy tap-in.
All of which is a very long-winded way of saying that, despite being outplayed, it was a very narrow margin.
But, happily, OV got one back early in the third, and Latta got his first on a rebound (nice example of hard work paying off, that one), eight minutes later.
That was enough to send the game into overtime, where each team has only one goal on the season. And the overtime was a tale of two halves, with the Caps dominating the first half, and the second half just about all spent in the Caps zone.
Part of that was driven by penalties. The Caps got one a minute in, though it was cancelled out a minute and a quarter later when Backstrom got his stick between the legs of Lashoff when falling down (it didn't appear deliberate, but what can you do?). So quite a bit of the overtime was spent 4-on-3.
But the Caps didn't break (somehow), sending the game into the gimmick. Datsyuk came up first. I had mixed feelings about him; I've seen lots of videos of him doing some amazing things there, but don't think I've ever seen him live. So I was torn between wanting to see something amazing, and wanting the Caps to win.
Well, he didn't really even make a terribly good attempt, and Holtby had no problem with it. Grabo followed, and couldn't lift the puck over Howard's leg.
Holtby did not leave me feeling great when he poke-checked Franzen's attempt (his history on those isn't great), but he timed it perfectly to prevent even seeing a shot. OV was next, and... I think he did about the same as Grabo, except on the opposite side. DeKeyser came next for the Wings, for his first career shootout attempt (perhaps a reward for scoring the third goal, earlier in the night?), and had it poked away also.
That left Backstrom to go last. He looked like he was going wide for the shot, but then neatly slid it under Howard for the win (it was a subtle move; very sneaky).
Interestingly, the result left Backstrom's lifetime shootout percentage only .1% behind Datsyuk's. I wonder if it's just because he's less flashy that his success isn't noticed as much (including by me; I was talking to a friend after the game, and said something about OV having a better percentage, but he doesn't. And it isn't close).
Anyway, it wasn't a great game by the Caps, although perhaps a tad better than my expectations (and they won, which did exceed those expectations).
And one thing I didn't mention: the Caps again allowed way too many shots on the PK (credit much of that to Detroit's skill on the power play). There were nine shots in five attempts (with two successes).
And the Caps power play was pretty good, even though they failed to score in four chances. They also got nine shots in those attempts.
One interesting footnote. Detroit lost again in the shootout yesterday (to the Islanders), leaving them with five consecutive overtime/shootout losses (and six losses, overall). I wonder how many times a team has managed five consecutive OTLs.
Anyway, I'll post my thoughts on last night's Blues game separately.
But they did jump on the scoreboard early with a nice semi-breakaway by Laich (sprung by Oleksy).
Detroit did score the next three goals, although I will say, in the Caps defense, that two of the goals were extremely lucky. That is, Franzen scored from not too far out, despite Holtby being in perfect position; it was an impressive snipe of the short-side corner that didn't appear to be visible at all (which is not meant to take away from Franzen's skill, but just to point out that it was an extremely low-percentage shot). And one of the others (I think Franzen's second) was set up by a nice pass across the crease that went near (or through; it was hard to tell) several sticks and sets of legs to find Franzen uncovered on the back side for an easy tap-in.
All of which is a very long-winded way of saying that, despite being outplayed, it was a very narrow margin.
But, happily, OV got one back early in the third, and Latta got his first on a rebound (nice example of hard work paying off, that one), eight minutes later.
That was enough to send the game into overtime, where each team has only one goal on the season. And the overtime was a tale of two halves, with the Caps dominating the first half, and the second half just about all spent in the Caps zone.
Part of that was driven by penalties. The Caps got one a minute in, though it was cancelled out a minute and a quarter later when Backstrom got his stick between the legs of Lashoff when falling down (it didn't appear deliberate, but what can you do?). So quite a bit of the overtime was spent 4-on-3.
But the Caps didn't break (somehow), sending the game into the gimmick. Datsyuk came up first. I had mixed feelings about him; I've seen lots of videos of him doing some amazing things there, but don't think I've ever seen him live. So I was torn between wanting to see something amazing, and wanting the Caps to win.
Well, he didn't really even make a terribly good attempt, and Holtby had no problem with it. Grabo followed, and couldn't lift the puck over Howard's leg.
Holtby did not leave me feeling great when he poke-checked Franzen's attempt (his history on those isn't great), but he timed it perfectly to prevent even seeing a shot. OV was next, and... I think he did about the same as Grabo, except on the opposite side. DeKeyser came next for the Wings, for his first career shootout attempt (perhaps a reward for scoring the third goal, earlier in the night?), and had it poked away also.
That left Backstrom to go last. He looked like he was going wide for the shot, but then neatly slid it under Howard for the win (it was a subtle move; very sneaky).
Interestingly, the result left Backstrom's lifetime shootout percentage only .1% behind Datsyuk's. I wonder if it's just because he's less flashy that his success isn't noticed as much (including by me; I was talking to a friend after the game, and said something about OV having a better percentage, but he doesn't. And it isn't close).
Anyway, it wasn't a great game by the Caps, although perhaps a tad better than my expectations (and they won, which did exceed those expectations).
And one thing I didn't mention: the Caps again allowed way too many shots on the PK (credit much of that to Detroit's skill on the power play). There were nine shots in five attempts (with two successes).
And the Caps power play was pretty good, even though they failed to score in four chances. They also got nine shots in those attempts.
One interesting footnote. Detroit lost again in the shootout yesterday (to the Islanders), leaving them with five consecutive overtime/shootout losses (and six losses, overall). I wonder how many times a team has managed five consecutive OTLs.
Anyway, I'll post my thoughts on last night's Blues game separately.
20131112
Power play central
I didn't watch Friday's Caps/Yotes tilt, although it looks like the Caps played pretty well. It was a weird game, though, with four of six goals scored on the power play.
The lineup was basically the same as against Minnesota (I'm still wondering if Fehr's injured), although, with the back-to-back, Holtby was held back for Saturday's game.
Those four PPGs were scored on thirteen total power plays, with an even split on both opportunities and scores. Because of all that, less than half of the game was played at evens, close (although more than I would have guessed, especially with the Caps having a two goal lead for nearly an entire period).
Overall, it appears to've been a pretty good game for the Caps, although it's impossible to avoid it feeling like a missed opportunity, with the two very late goals allowed. Still, Corsi/Fenwick/shots were all heavily in the Caps favor during those twenty-six minutes of 5-on-5 close play, which is encouraging for the future.
One other bit of slight weirdness. Those two power play goals were scored by Brouwer and Carlson, the former getting a secondary assist by Neuvy. Have to figure Green (with the primary assist on that goal) did just about all of the work, there. Still, congrats to Neuvy for his first point of the season.
Anyway, those two late goals left another game going into overtime, where the Caps again failed to register a goal (despite another power play).
And this time, their run of shootout luck came to an end, as Neuvy failed to stop a shot, and the forwards failed to pot one.
I do wish I could have seen the game. Ah, well.
The lineup was basically the same as against Minnesota (I'm still wondering if Fehr's injured), although, with the back-to-back, Holtby was held back for Saturday's game.
Those four PPGs were scored on thirteen total power plays, with an even split on both opportunities and scores. Because of all that, less than half of the game was played at evens, close (although more than I would have guessed, especially with the Caps having a two goal lead for nearly an entire period).
Overall, it appears to've been a pretty good game for the Caps, although it's impossible to avoid it feeling like a missed opportunity, with the two very late goals allowed. Still, Corsi/Fenwick/shots were all heavily in the Caps favor during those twenty-six minutes of 5-on-5 close play, which is encouraging for the future.
One other bit of slight weirdness. Those two power play goals were scored by Brouwer and Carlson, the former getting a secondary assist by Neuvy. Have to figure Green (with the primary assist on that goal) did just about all of the work, there. Still, congrats to Neuvy for his first point of the season.
Anyway, those two late goals left another game going into overtime, where the Caps again failed to register a goal (despite another power play).
And this time, their run of shootout luck came to an end, as Neuvy failed to stop a shot, and the forwards failed to pot one.
I do wish I could have seen the game. Ah, well.
Wild game
I was able to watch last week's Caps game against the Wild, and it was the challenge that was expected. And I'm not sure if I'd call the challenge one that was met, despite the final result.
Anyway, it started out well enough, with the Caps looking pretty good, despite not getting shots. Then, the Wild got a power play. Although the Caps survived, there were a number of chances.
But they went back to it after the PK, and got their own power play chance a few minutes later. Only nineteen seconds in, Backstrom, next to the net, sent a beautiful (no-look?) pass across to OV in his normal spot. Surprising no one, OV buried it before Harding had a chance to get across to cover the net.
But Minnie was undeterred, and kept their steady attack up, eventually beating Holtby on their own power play late in the first. It felt like the Wild were basically in control for the rest of the game.
It helped that they added another goal (at evens) six minutes into the second, but my saying that isn't really based on the score. It just felt like they were the ones with all the offensive chances, although the Fenwick chart shows the Caps did manage to close the gap towards the end of the third.
There was a Wild attempt to push for a late goal to break the tie, but Washington withstood it to get a regulation point.
In overtime... well, neither team managed to get their first overtime goal, despite some good chances (and some odd line choices by Washington; Chimmer and Ward as a forward line were followed by Grabovski and Backstrom).
Again, it looked like Washington's shooters were outclassed by Minnesota's (without counting Parise; who was apparently hurt blocking a shot late in the game, and didn't appear), but Holtby didn't seem phased. Holtby held up his end of the bargain, stopping all three shooters, leaving Backstrom's lone goal as the winner.
It wasn't a terribly pretty game, although it looks like it was a bit more even than it felt, watching.
For tracking purposes, I'm going to post separate notes of the two weekend games, which I did not manage to watch at all (travelling).
Anyway, it started out well enough, with the Caps looking pretty good, despite not getting shots. Then, the Wild got a power play. Although the Caps survived, there were a number of chances.
But they went back to it after the PK, and got their own power play chance a few minutes later. Only nineteen seconds in, Backstrom, next to the net, sent a beautiful (no-look?) pass across to OV in his normal spot. Surprising no one, OV buried it before Harding had a chance to get across to cover the net.
But Minnie was undeterred, and kept their steady attack up, eventually beating Holtby on their own power play late in the first. It felt like the Wild were basically in control for the rest of the game.
It helped that they added another goal (at evens) six minutes into the second, but my saying that isn't really based on the score. It just felt like they were the ones with all the offensive chances, although the Fenwick chart shows the Caps did manage to close the gap towards the end of the third.
There was a Wild attempt to push for a late goal to break the tie, but Washington withstood it to get a regulation point.
In overtime... well, neither team managed to get their first overtime goal, despite some good chances (and some odd line choices by Washington; Chimmer and Ward as a forward line were followed by Grabovski and Backstrom).
Again, it looked like Washington's shooters were outclassed by Minnesota's (without counting Parise; who was apparently hurt blocking a shot late in the game, and didn't appear), but Holtby didn't seem phased. Holtby held up his end of the bargain, stopping all three shooters, leaving Backstrom's lone goal as the winner.
It wasn't a terribly pretty game, although it looks like it was a bit more even than it felt, watching.
For tracking purposes, I'm going to post separate notes of the two weekend games, which I did not manage to watch at all (travelling).
20131104
Cat-astrophe averted
I watched the Caps game Saturday night, almost live. I must admit, though, that I was paying a lot less attention than I usually do.
The lineup was the same as on Friday, with OV still out, which was disappointing, if not surprising.
What I did notice, while watching, was that the Panthers were generally doing better. What makes the stats look better (for the Caps), is that the Cats spent a lot more time on the power play, and the Caps blocked a lot more shots (23-11, which is actually closer than I thought). What those mean are that many (twelve) of the Cats shots don't show up in '5-on-5 even' analysis, and that the blocked shots don't show up in Fenwick.
The result of that is that the Fenwick, 5-on-5 evens number was slightly in the Caps favor (52.5% for Caps), but Corsi was wildly negative (41.7% for Caps). And all-situations analysis doesn't work in the Caps favor, for either Fenwick or Corsi. Not promising.
But the problem with looking too narrowly at that is that the Cats were on the power play so much because the Caps were mostly chasing them. And if blocked shots are that uneven, it means that the team doing all the blocking is spending way too much time defending.
So, the end result, the win, was good to see (even if it took a shootout, thanks to a nice goal from Campbell and Flash with a couple minutes left).
And I'm almost glad to see that, thanks to that late goal, the 35-ish straight penalty kills streak was broken. I always thought that was pretty fragile, and it is quite a tribute to both Holtby and Neuvy that it happened, but I felt like it was masking some serious weakness in the Penalty Kill. I hope that more attention gets paid to the shots they're allowing. It's still too many.
Unsurprisingly, without OV, the power play did look less powerful, although Fehr did do a credible job of taking OV's position there. But the play seemed a bit less cohesive. Again, no big surprise there.
Ok, what were the good parts? Well, I'd like to say something about playing from ahead, instead of behind, because that's definitely preferable. But that was mostly due to superior goaltending (really, Neuvy had a fantastic game, with several "how did he do that?" saves, and careful reading of above shows he saved eleven of twelve penalty kill shots, which is also great), not due to superior skater performance. What was good was that a) they didn't let up and give up a goal right after scoring and b) they responded to Florida's first goal with their own goal. And Latta and Schmidt both looked good.
But it still feels like they're spending too much time chasing the other team; they need to start being the ones driving play.
I'd like to make an excuse of OV being gone leading to driving play happening less, but the last two games have been half of the team's games on the season with positive 5-on-5 close Fenwick differential. So OV coming back isn't going to do it, all by itself.
I think a lineup shakeup is needed, particularly among the forwards. And the defensemen need to play better, both offensively and defensively, in their own end. And that includes the three at the top of the lineup; I don't think any of the three of them are playing to their abilities. I think the bottom three there have been about as good as one could realistically hope.
But I still don't understand the line combinations, outside of the top line. Well, the "third" line has looked very good, so I wouldn't mess with that. But I think Laich and Brouwer need to be separated (unless you're going to make it a straight checking line, which would be a waste of Erat's talents), and would like to see Fehr moved out of center (Latta looks perfectly serviceable as a checking line center).
Anyway, I think the whole thing's a bit of a mess, and I hope that part of it is that Oates is running experiments to figure out optimal lines.
And, of course, part of the driver with this was the shuffling done to keep Wilson up at the beginning of the season. Backstrom, Grabo, Perreault, and Latta/Beagle would have been one heck of a center group. And that was sacrificed in favor of giving $1.3M Wilson seven minutes a night? Well, water under the bridge, I guess, but seeing Perreault getting a point a game, and killing it in Fenwick, continues to be irritating.
Ah well, need to stop sounding like a broken record, and hope things improve. Next chance is tomorrow night against the Islanders. One odd tidbit for that one; neither team has yet scored an overtime goal, so bet on a shootout if they get to overtime. At least the Caps have superior goaltending; go Caps!
The lineup was the same as on Friday, with OV still out, which was disappointing, if not surprising.
What I did notice, while watching, was that the Panthers were generally doing better. What makes the stats look better (for the Caps), is that the Cats spent a lot more time on the power play, and the Caps blocked a lot more shots (23-11, which is actually closer than I thought). What those mean are that many (twelve) of the Cats shots don't show up in '5-on-5 even' analysis, and that the blocked shots don't show up in Fenwick.
The result of that is that the Fenwick, 5-on-5 evens number was slightly in the Caps favor (52.5% for Caps), but Corsi was wildly negative (41.7% for Caps). And all-situations analysis doesn't work in the Caps favor, for either Fenwick or Corsi. Not promising.
But the problem with looking too narrowly at that is that the Cats were on the power play so much because the Caps were mostly chasing them. And if blocked shots are that uneven, it means that the team doing all the blocking is spending way too much time defending.
So, the end result, the win, was good to see (even if it took a shootout, thanks to a nice goal from Campbell and Flash with a couple minutes left).
And I'm almost glad to see that, thanks to that late goal, the 35-ish straight penalty kills streak was broken. I always thought that was pretty fragile, and it is quite a tribute to both Holtby and Neuvy that it happened, but I felt like it was masking some serious weakness in the Penalty Kill. I hope that more attention gets paid to the shots they're allowing. It's still too many.
Unsurprisingly, without OV, the power play did look less powerful, although Fehr did do a credible job of taking OV's position there. But the play seemed a bit less cohesive. Again, no big surprise there.
Ok, what were the good parts? Well, I'd like to say something about playing from ahead, instead of behind, because that's definitely preferable. But that was mostly due to superior goaltending (really, Neuvy had a fantastic game, with several "how did he do that?" saves, and careful reading of above shows he saved eleven of twelve penalty kill shots, which is also great), not due to superior skater performance. What was good was that a) they didn't let up and give up a goal right after scoring and b) they responded to Florida's first goal with their own goal. And Latta and Schmidt both looked good.
But it still feels like they're spending too much time chasing the other team; they need to start being the ones driving play.
I'd like to make an excuse of OV being gone leading to driving play happening less, but the last two games have been half of the team's games on the season with positive 5-on-5 close Fenwick differential. So OV coming back isn't going to do it, all by itself.
I think a lineup shakeup is needed, particularly among the forwards. And the defensemen need to play better, both offensively and defensively, in their own end. And that includes the three at the top of the lineup; I don't think any of the three of them are playing to their abilities. I think the bottom three there have been about as good as one could realistically hope.
But I still don't understand the line combinations, outside of the top line. Well, the "third" line has looked very good, so I wouldn't mess with that. But I think Laich and Brouwer need to be separated (unless you're going to make it a straight checking line, which would be a waste of Erat's talents), and would like to see Fehr moved out of center (Latta looks perfectly serviceable as a checking line center).
Anyway, I think the whole thing's a bit of a mess, and I hope that part of it is that Oates is running experiments to figure out optimal lines.
And, of course, part of the driver with this was the shuffling done to keep Wilson up at the beginning of the season. Backstrom, Grabo, Perreault, and Latta/Beagle would have been one heck of a center group. And that was sacrificed in favor of giving $1.3M Wilson seven minutes a night? Well, water under the bridge, I guess, but seeing Perreault getting a point a game, and killing it in Fenwick, continues to be irritating.
Ah well, need to stop sounding like a broken record, and hope things improve. Next chance is tomorrow night against the Islanders. One odd tidbit for that one; neither team has yet scored an overtime goal, so bet on a shootout if they get to overtime. At least the Caps have superior goaltending; go Caps!
20131025
Leavin', on a jet plane...
[Again, I wrote this a couple of days ago.]
I was able to watch last night's Caps/Jets game in toto, happily. Unfortunately, it looked much like the previous game.
One early change was that Erskine was back from injury, and pushed Urbom back into the press box. Otherwise, offensive lines and defensive pairs were the same.
The first period was fairly quiet, with a lot of back and forth. The Jets started pulling ahead halfway through, in possession, but were unable to break through. And the Caps caught back up close to the end. But they were unable to solve Pavelec, as well.
In the second period, all hell broke loose. The second line mounted a strong charge a couple minutes in, culminating in Grabo slotting home a rebound from an Erskine shot three minutes in. Things were looking fairly good from that, especially when, a few minutes later, the Caps got a power play. Things looked pretty good through the first three-quarters of a minute of that, but then a good defensive play led to a short-handed breakaway and a short-handed goal by Little. Washington got a little pressure, but no score, on the rest of the power play. And then things went south, with Clitsome scoring to give Winnipeg the lead.
Things went back and forth, with Winnipeg getting a number of breakaway opportunities, but no goals. Then MarJo sprung OV for a breakaway, and he backhanded it past Pavelec to tie things up. Things were really looking good when OV scored again, a couple minutes later, three seconds after a faceoff caused by his own near-miss shot. But Wheeler deflected in a fairly soft point shot by Kane in the final minute to knot things up again.
The third period was much like the second, with Washington getting more zone time (I think; that's certainly what it felt like) but Winnipeg getting a number of breakaways and odd-man rushes. But Brouwer and Little were the only ones to find the back of the net, and regulation ended in a tie.
Overtime started well for the Caps, with them getting quite a bit of zone time (although I certainly wondered about Backstrom and Brouwer being out together). But they didn't get any shots during that minute or so, and it was all Jets from there on out. But Holtby, happily, was up to the task.
Both coaches started the shootout with a pair of the goal scorers, but all of them were stopped. Then Ladd and Backstrom both score. Then the teams started digging a bit deeper, and Jokinen, Laich, Setoguchi, and Brouwer all scored. Finally, Kane was stopped by Holtby (in a play that looked remarkably similar to the attempts of Wheeler and Little), and Erat got a chance. They didn't even give his career shootout record, but he managed to go 5-hole on Pavelec to seal the win.
Several things struck me about all this. One, the Caps aren't very good, offensively, in the shootout. The two best Caps had career marks of 35%. Three of the Jets were better than that, and a fourth, I believe, was very close.
More generally, in the game, it was similar to the game before, with lots of defensemen pushing the play leading to a boatload of odd-man rushes the other way. This is not working; it needs to be abandoned, or the wings need to get a lot better at covering. It looked close enough for them to be able to learn against Columbus; it did not, against Winnipeg.
Perhaps related (or maybe not, I'm not sure), but the power play looked only ok. Part of that was not doing as well on the faceoffs. But they gave up several breakaways the other direction that led to Winnipeg having only one fewer short-handed shot (seven) than Washington did on the power play. And the same number of goals. Ugly.
Green was held out of the entire overtime, and the shootout. I suspect that either he was hurt by a hit late in the game (goodness, I hope not) or Oates decided he was a culprit in too many of those breakaways (I only tracked the cause of a couple of them. One by Oleksy trying to duplicate his success last game; that led to a 3-on-1 with Erskine defending. Somehow, Big John got the stop, but Wilson immediately got called for crosschecking, in trying to prevent rebound attempts. And the power play problems were definitely Green or Carlson (Green is more likely)). We'll have to see.
In terms of possession, it was not a good game. The Caps did well with the score tied (razor-thin edge), but poorly otherwise.
Kane's line was particularly good, showing a lot of speed and power (Byfuglien, backing them up, contributed to the latter). Little was also causing a lot of havok around Washington's back line.
Holtby, despite allowing four goals (on 47 shots), actually had a fantastic night. He stopped an amazing number of in-close shots, and looked good in the shootout. I'm actually surprised he didn't get one of the stars of the night.
I was able to watch last night's Caps/Jets game in toto, happily. Unfortunately, it looked much like the previous game.
One early change was that Erskine was back from injury, and pushed Urbom back into the press box. Otherwise, offensive lines and defensive pairs were the same.
The first period was fairly quiet, with a lot of back and forth. The Jets started pulling ahead halfway through, in possession, but were unable to break through. And the Caps caught back up close to the end. But they were unable to solve Pavelec, as well.
In the second period, all hell broke loose. The second line mounted a strong charge a couple minutes in, culminating in Grabo slotting home a rebound from an Erskine shot three minutes in. Things were looking fairly good from that, especially when, a few minutes later, the Caps got a power play. Things looked pretty good through the first three-quarters of a minute of that, but then a good defensive play led to a short-handed breakaway and a short-handed goal by Little. Washington got a little pressure, but no score, on the rest of the power play. And then things went south, with Clitsome scoring to give Winnipeg the lead.
Things went back and forth, with Winnipeg getting a number of breakaway opportunities, but no goals. Then MarJo sprung OV for a breakaway, and he backhanded it past Pavelec to tie things up. Things were really looking good when OV scored again, a couple minutes later, three seconds after a faceoff caused by his own near-miss shot. But Wheeler deflected in a fairly soft point shot by Kane in the final minute to knot things up again.
The third period was much like the second, with Washington getting more zone time (I think; that's certainly what it felt like) but Winnipeg getting a number of breakaways and odd-man rushes. But Brouwer and Little were the only ones to find the back of the net, and regulation ended in a tie.
Overtime started well for the Caps, with them getting quite a bit of zone time (although I certainly wondered about Backstrom and Brouwer being out together). But they didn't get any shots during that minute or so, and it was all Jets from there on out. But Holtby, happily, was up to the task.
Both coaches started the shootout with a pair of the goal scorers, but all of them were stopped. Then Ladd and Backstrom both score. Then the teams started digging a bit deeper, and Jokinen, Laich, Setoguchi, and Brouwer all scored. Finally, Kane was stopped by Holtby (in a play that looked remarkably similar to the attempts of Wheeler and Little), and Erat got a chance. They didn't even give his career shootout record, but he managed to go 5-hole on Pavelec to seal the win.
Several things struck me about all this. One, the Caps aren't very good, offensively, in the shootout. The two best Caps had career marks of 35%. Three of the Jets were better than that, and a fourth, I believe, was very close.
More generally, in the game, it was similar to the game before, with lots of defensemen pushing the play leading to a boatload of odd-man rushes the other way. This is not working; it needs to be abandoned, or the wings need to get a lot better at covering. It looked close enough for them to be able to learn against Columbus; it did not, against Winnipeg.
Perhaps related (or maybe not, I'm not sure), but the power play looked only ok. Part of that was not doing as well on the faceoffs. But they gave up several breakaways the other direction that led to Winnipeg having only one fewer short-handed shot (seven) than Washington did on the power play. And the same number of goals. Ugly.
Green was held out of the entire overtime, and the shootout. I suspect that either he was hurt by a hit late in the game (goodness, I hope not) or Oates decided he was a culprit in too many of those breakaways (I only tracked the cause of a couple of them. One by Oleksy trying to duplicate his success last game; that led to a 3-on-1 with Erskine defending. Somehow, Big John got the stop, but Wilson immediately got called for crosschecking, in trying to prevent rebound attempts. And the power play problems were definitely Green or Carlson (Green is more likely)). We'll have to see.
In terms of possession, it was not a good game. The Caps did well with the score tied (razor-thin edge), but poorly otherwise.
Kane's line was particularly good, showing a lot of speed and power (Byfuglien, backing them up, contributed to the latter). Little was also causing a lot of havok around Washington's back line.
Holtby, despite allowing four goals (on 47 shots), actually had a fantastic night. He stopped an amazing number of in-close shots, and looked good in the shootout. I'm actually surprised he didn't get one of the stars of the night.
20131004
Snatching victory...
I don't have a lot of time to write this, but I wanted to jot down a few notes about last night's Caps game, which I was finally able to watch tonight. I wasn't feeling great about it, as last night I turned it on a few seconds after the Flames opened the scoring.
And it didn't really go all that well after. The Flames scored more before seventeen minutes had been reached, and Hillen suffered a leg (probably knee) injury in there as well. Wilson responded to that with a few good punches and a nice takedown on the person delivering the hit that caused the injury (on replay it looked pretty clean, but in full speed I didn't think so). But Holtby was pulled after that third goal.
The Caps did get a few chances in there (OV was close a couple times), but nothing sustained. It really wasn't looking good by the end of the period. The only encouraging thing was that the shots were close (in fact, the Caps were up one, which surprised me quite a bit).
And things didn't look much better for a while in the second. Then Carrick got a hooking minor (weird call; looked like Carrick was the one being fouled). The PK did well this time (the third goal in the first was a PPG, so it hadn't started well), and at the expiration, MarJo got the puck and found Carrick at the other blue line. Carrick took it in on the breakaway and deked Ramo down, calmly depositing the puck behind him.
But, a minute and a half later, Neuvy misplayed the puck behind the net fairly badly, and gave up an open-net goal to restore Calgary's three-goal margin. And the play still wasn't looking too good for the home team, although they did have the occasional chance. Then Jones hit Carlson in the face with his stick to give the Caps the man advantage (and I'm impressed the refs saw this one. It was there, but was very quick).
The Caps won the faceoff, worked it around for a bit, then fed OV for the one-timer for a goal on the first shot (sadly, though, it was the Caps first shot since Carrick had scored).
The Caps got within one four minutes later with OV again finding the back of the net. Off an icing call, Backstrom won the faceoff over to MarJo, who dumped back to OV, who rocketed it into the net.
And the Caps looked great for the remaining four minutes or so of the period. Lots of chances, many of them very close. But none were converted, which took us into the third (other than the bench minor with thirteen seconds left).
The team was doing a good job killing that penalty for the first 59 seconds, then Erskine (with time) cleared it the length of the ice, and over the glass at the far end. How often does that happen? Well, for the Caps, this season, every game, apparently. To their credit, the team did a great job killing the two-man advantage. The remainder of the delay of game wasn't quite as smooth, but they got the job done.
The Caps drew two more penalties, and the second of those provided the tying score. OV wristed it into a defender laying in front of him, the puck bounced around some skates to Grabo, who calmly passed over to Backstrom, who settled it and wristed it between the defender's legs, and past Ramo.
Things didn't look too good after that, but they managed to get into overtime with the tie. The overtime felt pretty heavily Calgary's way, but shots were equal. In fact, they were equal for the entire game, which surprised me. The Caps really didn't seem to have equal control of the play, other than five or six minutes at the end of the second. Although score effects would, normally, help equalize quite a bit. I'm sure it wasn't nearly even when the score was close.
Anyway, they managed to drag it out into the shootout, where Grabo and OV both deked forehand, then scored on the backhand. And Neuvy stopped Baertschi and Hudler to cement the win.
It wasn't pretty (though you've got to figure that being short a defender didn't help with that), but they got the job done. It was actually less encouraging than the Chicago loss, but the result was better.
Holtby definitely had a bad game. Neuvy, outside of that one puck-handling misadventure, looked very good. Erskine did not; he mostly looked pretty terrible (though I'm surprised to see he was even on the night). MarJo was, quietly, very good. In addition to his beautiful helper for Carrick, he had assists on both of OV's goals. And OV was a force; the two goals, nine more shots, second assist on Backstrom's goal, and the shootout winner. The only weakness was taking his second slashing minor, but at least he had company going to the box, this time.
And Grabo looked great. He had a number of nice passes, and was regularly threatening. Fehr's line, I noticed several times looking good, although I suspect I'm forgetting several (maybe many) not-so-good plays. Erat and Wilson looked pretty good; unfortunately, Beagle was centering them. They managed to get a few pretty good chances despite him. But again, I suspect I'm forgetting a number of not-so-good times.
Anyway, hard to know what to make of the game. It was a win, which was nice, but it was a butt-ugly one. Not to mention feeling a bit like the old Cardiac Caps. And I never liked that feeling. Still, we'll take it. Dallas is tomorrow night; we'll get to see Eakin again. Hopefully, the game will go a bit better.
And it didn't really go all that well after. The Flames scored more before seventeen minutes had been reached, and Hillen suffered a leg (probably knee) injury in there as well. Wilson responded to that with a few good punches and a nice takedown on the person delivering the hit that caused the injury (on replay it looked pretty clean, but in full speed I didn't think so). But Holtby was pulled after that third goal.
The Caps did get a few chances in there (OV was close a couple times), but nothing sustained. It really wasn't looking good by the end of the period. The only encouraging thing was that the shots were close (in fact, the Caps were up one, which surprised me quite a bit).
And things didn't look much better for a while in the second. Then Carrick got a hooking minor (weird call; looked like Carrick was the one being fouled). The PK did well this time (the third goal in the first was a PPG, so it hadn't started well), and at the expiration, MarJo got the puck and found Carrick at the other blue line. Carrick took it in on the breakaway and deked Ramo down, calmly depositing the puck behind him.
But, a minute and a half later, Neuvy misplayed the puck behind the net fairly badly, and gave up an open-net goal to restore Calgary's three-goal margin. And the play still wasn't looking too good for the home team, although they did have the occasional chance. Then Jones hit Carlson in the face with his stick to give the Caps the man advantage (and I'm impressed the refs saw this one. It was there, but was very quick).
The Caps won the faceoff, worked it around for a bit, then fed OV for the one-timer for a goal on the first shot (sadly, though, it was the Caps first shot since Carrick had scored).
The Caps got within one four minutes later with OV again finding the back of the net. Off an icing call, Backstrom won the faceoff over to MarJo, who dumped back to OV, who rocketed it into the net.
And the Caps looked great for the remaining four minutes or so of the period. Lots of chances, many of them very close. But none were converted, which took us into the third (other than the bench minor with thirteen seconds left).
The team was doing a good job killing that penalty for the first 59 seconds, then Erskine (with time) cleared it the length of the ice, and over the glass at the far end. How often does that happen? Well, for the Caps, this season, every game, apparently. To their credit, the team did a great job killing the two-man advantage. The remainder of the delay of game wasn't quite as smooth, but they got the job done.
The Caps drew two more penalties, and the second of those provided the tying score. OV wristed it into a defender laying in front of him, the puck bounced around some skates to Grabo, who calmly passed over to Backstrom, who settled it and wristed it between the defender's legs, and past Ramo.
Things didn't look too good after that, but they managed to get into overtime with the tie. The overtime felt pretty heavily Calgary's way, but shots were equal. In fact, they were equal for the entire game, which surprised me. The Caps really didn't seem to have equal control of the play, other than five or six minutes at the end of the second. Although score effects would, normally, help equalize quite a bit. I'm sure it wasn't nearly even when the score was close.
Anyway, they managed to drag it out into the shootout, where Grabo and OV both deked forehand, then scored on the backhand. And Neuvy stopped Baertschi and Hudler to cement the win.
It wasn't pretty (though you've got to figure that being short a defender didn't help with that), but they got the job done. It was actually less encouraging than the Chicago loss, but the result was better.
Holtby definitely had a bad game. Neuvy, outside of that one puck-handling misadventure, looked very good. Erskine did not; he mostly looked pretty terrible (though I'm surprised to see he was even on the night). MarJo was, quietly, very good. In addition to his beautiful helper for Carrick, he had assists on both of OV's goals. And OV was a force; the two goals, nine more shots, second assist on Backstrom's goal, and the shootout winner. The only weakness was taking his second slashing minor, but at least he had company going to the box, this time.
And Grabo looked great. He had a number of nice passes, and was regularly threatening. Fehr's line, I noticed several times looking good, although I suspect I'm forgetting several (maybe many) not-so-good plays. Erat and Wilson looked pretty good; unfortunately, Beagle was centering them. They managed to get a few pretty good chances despite him. But again, I suspect I'm forgetting a number of not-so-good times.
Anyway, hard to know what to make of the game. It was a win, which was nice, but it was a butt-ugly one. Not to mention feeling a bit like the old Cardiac Caps. And I never liked that feeling. Still, we'll take it. Dallas is tomorrow night; we'll get to see Eakin again. Hopefully, the game will go a bit better.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)