In an effort to keep Caps fans up to date on what’s happening with the organization’s prospects, I’m going to do my best to get a prospects update going at the end of every month. There’s no guarantee it’s going to happen; as you can see there are a lot of names on the list, and not all of them are easy to find information on.

For the first update, I’ve divided the prospects into two categories, the 2008 draftees and all others, since I thought there would be a decent chance people would be most interested in seeing how the team’s newest members are doing.

2008 Draft Selections

Joel Broda (Center, Moose Jaw Warriors, WHL)– Broda’s off to a nice start with the Warriors with fifteen points in thirteen games played. What’s even more impressive is that nine of those points are goals.

Greg Burke (Left Wing, Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, USHL) – Burke has left the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs with whom he played last year for Cedar Rapids of the United States Hockey League. Not surprisingly, Burke isn’t putting up huge numbers (one goal in four games) as he adjusts to the bigger, faster league.

John Carlson (Defense, London Knights, OHL) – after impressing coaches, scouts, media, and fans in camp, Carlson is with Dale Hunter’s London Knights where he’s off to a fast start with two goals, seven assists, and a +6 rating in nine games. As good as Carlson’s been, it’s unlikely he’ll be in Washington in the 2009-10 season, especially now that John Erskine’s signed through 2011.

Stefan Della Rovere (Left Wing, Barrie Colts, OHL) – the good news just keeps rolling in about Della Rovere: he’s the captain of the Colts, he’s matched last year’s total just fourteen games (compared with sixty-eight last year), and he’s averaging 1.36 points per game. It’s too early to say with certainty yet, but it looks like the Capitals may have quite the steal in Della Rovere, who was selected 204th overall.

Anton Gustafsson (Center, Bofors IK, HockeyAllsvenskan) – after missing most of the Capitals’ preseason camps with a back injury, Gustafsson traveled back to Sweden to play in the HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden’s second-highest professional hockey league. According to eliteprospects.com, Gustafsson has played in five games with Boforks and has yet to register a point.

Braden Holtby (Goalie, Saskatoon Blades, WHL) – Holtby looks to be settling in for another season as Saskatoon’s workhorse – his 839 minutes played are the most the Western League so far this season. The workload doesn’t seem to be having too much of an effect on Holtby’s performance though: he’s fifth in the league in save percentage and fourth in goals against average amongst goalies with ten or more games played.

Dmitri Kugryshev (Right Wing, Quebec Remparts, QMJHL) – Kugryshev has come to the Quebec League for the 2008-09 season to get adjusted to the North American style of play. So far he seems to be faring just fine, with eight goals, four assists, and a +4 rating in 11 games.

Eric Mestery (Defense, Tri-City Americans, WHL) – the nature of Mestery’s game is such that it would be difficult to measure his performance in statistics alone. So, although we know Mestery has five assists in thirteen games for the Americans (and an unsightly -5 rating) it’s difficult to really gauge his performance.

Other Prospects

Karl Alzner (Defense, Hershey Bears) – many Capitals fans are cursing the salary cap while simultaneously pining for Alzner to be recalled to the Capitals to replace John Erskine, Milan Jurcina, or (this season at least) Shaone Morrisonn on the blue line. Alzner’s done nothing to temper that enthusiasm with five points (one goal, four assists) and a +7 rating in his first nine games for Hershey this season. Unless he’s injured, Alzner will play for the Capitals this season. The only question is when.

Francois Bouchard (Right Wing, Hershey Bears, AHL) – Bouchard, a second round draft pick, finished up his junior career nicely, with ninety-two points in sixty-eight games (thirty-six goals, fifty-six assists) for Baie-Comeau Drakkar in the QMJHL before a brief stint with Hershey. This season Bouchard seems to be settling in nicely and has two goals and an assist in six games for the Bears.

Chris Bourque (Right Wing/Left Wing, Hershey Bears, AHL) – Bourque is a victim of numbers more than anything else – he’s legitimately NHL-ready, the first guy to be recalled when injuries hit, and is tearing up the AHL (four goals, seven assists, +4 in seven games) but the Capitals are only carrying twenty-two players to reduce their cap number as much as possible. Bourque’s going to be the NHL as soon as the cap allows it. For 2008-09 Bourque will be a late season call-up at the very least; next season he’ll likely be skating a regular shift with the Capitals.

Joe Finley (Defense, North Dakota Fighting Sioux, WCHA) – Finley decided to return to the University of North Dakota for his season year rather than turn pro for the 2008-09 season. With the college hockey season just underway and Finley battling an undisclosed injury, the big defenseman has made it into just two games for the Fighting Sioux this year, and has one assist.

Josh Godfrey (Defense, South Carolina Stingrays, ECHL) – hopes were high for Godfrey after a solid camp with the Capitals but he had trouble cracking the lineup in Hershey, where he started the season. Godfrey only played in two games for the Bears, notching one assist and nineteen penalties minutes (seventeen of which were for instigating a fight with Radek Smolenak) before being sent to South Carolina. Godfrey’s only played one game, in which he had an assist, with the Stingrays.

Andrew Gordon (Right Wing, Hershey Bears, AHL) - one of last season’s most pleasant surprises, Gordon is again playing well for the Bears and has scored five goals in nine games for Hershey, while also adding four assists. It’d be nice to see what Gordon could do at the NHL level but it’s unlikely he’s going to be recalled this season, as the Capitals are having trouble finding ice time even for players who are ahead of Gordon on the depth chart. It’s also worth noting that Gordon is not actually listed on the Capitals website as one of their prospects, so it may be the case that Gordon is actually contracted to Hershey, not Washington

Sami Lepisto (Defense, Hershey Bears, AHL) – if I can borrow a cliché for a moment, Lepisto’s problem is that he has been consistently inconsistent. One shift he looks ready to be an NHL regular; the next he looks completely overwhelmed. Lepsito continues to produce in the AHL (one goal, five assists, +6 in nine games) and it’s unlikely Capitals fans have seen the last of him in Washington.

Michal Neuvirth (Goalie, Oshawa General, OHL) – the Capitals originally intended to loan Neuvirth out another AHL team in order to get him AHL playing time while letting fellow prospects Daren Machesney and Simeon Varlamov split time in Hershey. The team apparently had trouble doing so and Neuvirth has bounced around this season, first from the pressbox in Hershey, down to South Carolina for a game, then to the Czech Republic where he was supposed to play with Trinec Ocelari HC. That’s the last I’ve heard on Neuvirth, although hockeydb.com has him as “no longer on the active roster” of Trinec Ocelari.

Oskar Osala (Left Wing, Hershey Bears, AHL) – like Finley, Osala is creating excitement amongst Capitals fans because he’s one of a dying breed – a true power forward. Osala’s been putting his 6’4’’, 220 pound frame to good use in Hershey where he has five goals and an assist in nine games for the Bears. Osala’s still rough around the edges, especially in the skating department, and it’s unlikely he would see time with the Capitals this season. He does have a shot at the 2009-10 roster, however.

Mathieu Perreault (Center, Hershey Bears) – if Osala and Finley represent dying breeds of players, Perreault is the new prototype for the NHL. Generously listed at 5’8’’, 166 pounds, Perreault is a great skater and stickhandler with solid offensive instincts. Given Washington’s depth at center and Perreault’s slight frame, he should spend all of this season in Hershey. However, the future is still bright for Perreault who could be a replacement for aging centers Sergei Fedorov and Michael Nylander down the road.

Sasha Pokulok (Defense, South Carolina Stingrays, ECHL) – my support for Pokulok has bordered on wishful thinking for years and although I’m not quite ready to give up on him entirely, I am starting to have serious doubts that Pokulok has any sort of future in this organization. On the one hand Pokulok is still only twenty-two, he’s 6’5’’ and 230 pounds, people still praise his talent, and although he’s playing in the East Coast League, this could be a reflection of the organizational depth, and his +5 rating does lead the Stingrays. On the other hand, Pokulok is still a former first round draft pick who, three years after being drafted, hasn’t been able to stick at the AHL level. It’s still possible Pokulok could become a decent sixth or seventh defenseman in the NHL, but it’s starting to look more like the Capitals have given up on him and will let him go after this season.

Keith Seabrook (Defense, Calgary Hitmen, WHL) – Seabrook is starting the season strong from an offensive standpoint with two goals and ten assists in sixteen games for the Hitmen. He continues to struggle with defense, the biggest knock on him: his -5 rating is the worst on the team.

Simeon Varlamov (Goalie, Hershey Bears, AHL) – the good news is that Varlamov is in North America and playing in the Capitals organization. The bad news is that he’s only appeared in two games for the Bears this season, has stopped only eighty-six percent of his shots and is allowing 3.36 goals per sixty minutes. Still, twenty is very young for goaltender and Varlamov should be fine. 2010 is likely the earliest Caps fans can expect to see Varlamov in Washington.

Kyle Wilson (Center, Hershey Bears, AHL) - Wilson’s play in the AHL continues to be strong: he had sixty-one points in eighty games last year and has six assists (though no goals) in his first nine games with Hershey this season.

Per the University of North Dakota’s website:

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – University of North Dakota director of athletics Brian Faison announced today that the NHL Network will carry the broadcast of tomorrow night’s Fighting Sioux men’s hockey game against the University of Wisconsin. Additionally, the NHL Network will carry the Nov. 28 broadcast of UND’s home game against Cornell.

The broadcasts, already scheduled to air on the Fighting Sioux Sports Network, are a production of WDAZ-TV and will feature UND play-by-play announcer Pat Sweeney and color analyst Jim Scanlan.

For Capitals fans, this could be an opportunity to watch prospect Joe Finley in live action. Finley, picked 27th overall in the 2005 draft, is a big, physical stay-at-home defenseman with a mean streak: the kind that are in short supply in the NHL, but every team would love to have.  Unfortunately Finley’s be hurt and missed the Sioux’s last game.  If he does play, he’ll be wearing jersey number 2 in tonight’s game.  If not, be sure to make a note of the November 28th game and save the date.

One of the better moves in recent NHL history was a decision to change the league’s scheduling system to allow each team to play each other team at least once every season. Of course, that decision doesn’t do much good if no one outside the arena can watch the game because Versus has an exclusive game featuring Philadelphia (2-3-3) and Atlanta (2-4-2). The number of Capitals fans who will get the opportunity to see the Nashville Predators tomorrow night is capped at 18,277, and I know I’m not the only one who’s disappointed at that fact. The Predators are one of the most interesting teams in the NHL. Left for dead in 2007-08, after being dismantled so they could be sold, the team qualified for the playoffs in the Western Conference on the backs of underrated veterans like Jason Arnott and J.P. Dumont, youngsters like Alexander Radulov, Ryan Suter, and Shea Weber, and journeymen like Dan Ellis and Vernon Fiddler.  At 4-4-0, the Predators haven’t start off this season as well, but they have so many talented young players and veterans who have to been seen to be appreciated that it’s a shame most Capitals fans won’t get the chance to do so.

For the Capitals, the story of game so far is Alexander Ovechkin, who will be missing this game and perhaps another to travel to Russia and visit with his ailing grandfather. From a personal standpoint, I’m sure I’m not alone is wishing Ovechkin the best and hoping he takes his time to deal with his family matters before returning the grind of the NHL. From a hockey standpoint it will be interesting to see how Ovechkin’s absence from the lineup affects the way the Capitals play, especially how Alexander Semin will react to being the primary target for the opposition’s best defensive players.

Nashville Predators at Washington Capitals
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008, 7:00 PM
Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
TV: none

About the Opponent

Nashville Predators: 4-4-0, 8 points, 4th in the Central Division, 10th in the Western Conference

Team Leaders
Goals: Martin Erat (4)
Assists: J.P. Dumont (7)
Points: tie - J.P. Dumont and Shea Weber (9)
Plus/Minus: Joel Ward (+4)
Penalty Minutes: tie Dan Hamhuis and Jordan Tootoo (17)
Fights: Greg de Vries (2)

Keys to the Game

Washington
Use your size. Although the Capitals aren’t exactly the most reliable team when it comes to listing their players heights and weights, it’s worth noting that the lightest any active player is listed at for the Capitals is 195, while the Predators have seven non-goalies listed at less than 195. The Predators also only have two players listed at more than 215 and only seven listed at more than 205; the Capitals have seven players listed at 215 or more and fourteen listed at 205 or more. If the Capitals use that size, they can make it a long and rough night on the road for Nashville.

Nashville
Keep Alexander Semin under wraps. Without Alex Ovechkin in the lineup, Semin is by far the Capitals most potent offensive threat. If the Predators can keep him off the scoresheet entirely, the Capitals will have a very hard time winning this game.

Players to Watch

Washington
Tomas Fleischmann - Fleischmann had a very good game against the Stars (which, of course, made me look kind of stupid). You still have to wonder which version of Flash is going to show up: the version that scored two goals against Dallas and notched a goal and an assist against Pittsburgh, or the one who has one assist and is a -4 in the team’s other six games.

Eric Fehr - Ovechkin’s absence means that Fehr might just get a sweater. Fehr, of course, hasn’t played much this season, dressing in only three games and has seen less ice than anyone else on the team when he has played, both in terms of minutes played and shifts per game. Despite this, Fehr does have two assists on the season. Personally, I think Fehr deserves to see more ice time and it will be interesting to see if he can take this opportunity to make a case for himself.

Nashville
Shea Weber - Mike Green received an awful lot more attention for scoring eighteen goals at age twenty-two than Weber did for scoring seventeen at age twenty-one. That’s not to say that Green didn’t deserve the accolades he got, but just to point out that Weber may just be the best young defenseman the average hockey fan has never heard of. The scary part? Weber might just be better defensively than he is offensively.

I’m not the only Capitals fan who could watch this all day, right?

Coming of a pair of 2-1, blown-lead losses, the Capitals are in Dallas for the Super Saturday, looking to salvage something from their road trip. Their opponent Saturday evening will be another team having a similar go of it in the young season. Despite reaching the Western Conference Finals last year and adding several talented players, the Stars have only seven points in the eight games they’ve played so far this season. Like the Capitals, the Stars are underperforming on special teams: their powerplay has only converted 15.8% of its chances (19th in the NHL), while the shorthanded unit has only killed 76.9% of its chances (24th in the league), which become a big problem when you’ve been shorthanded more often than all but three other teams.

But the biggest problem for the Stars has been goaltending. The team’s .846 save percentage is last amongst NHL teams and starter Marty Turco has had only one game where he’s been better than his career mark of .912, compared with three games where he stopped fewer than eighty percent of shots. That doesn’t mean the Capitals are in for an easy night though. An established goaltender can still be a difference-maker even when he’s been slumping, something Miikka Kiprusoff proved on Tuesday in Calgary.

Washington Capitals at Dallas Stars
Saturday, October 25th, 2008, 8:00 PM
American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas
TV: CSN

About the Opponent

Dallas Stars: 3-4-1, 7 points, 2nd in the Pacific Division, 9th in the Eastern Conference

Team Leaders
Goals: Fabian Brunnstrom (4)
Assists: Mike Ribeiro (8)
Points: Mike Ribeiro (9)
Plus/Minus: four way tie (+1)
Penalty Minutes: Sean Avery (19)
Fights: B.J. Crombeen (3)

Keys to the Game

Washington
Get the fundamentals right. Careless mistakes have been the Capitals biggest problem so far this year. If they fix those, the rest will follow.

Dallas
Pressure the Capitals in all three zones. A number of players on the Capitals are pressing and trying to do too much in the offensive and neutral zones. In their own end, the Capitals have made costly mistakes when they’re forced to face an aggressive forecheck. Obviously if the Stars can get the Capitals to make mistakes in their own end and prevent Washington from getting its offense going, they’re chances of winning are pretty good.

Players to Watch

Washington
Tomas Fleischmann - I watch Fleischmann intently every game. Because I’m still trying to figure out why he gets so much ice time when Eric Fehr is relegated to fourth line duty or to the press box.

Dallas
Fabian Brunnstrom - Brunnstrom was one of the more interesting stories of the offseason. The twenty-three year old Swede went undrafted and was playing in low level leagues in Sweden until last season, when he made his Swedish Elite League debut and garnered attention from NHL teams. A healthy scratch the first two games of the season, Brunnstrom became just the third player in NHL history to record a hat trick in his first NHL game.

Sean Avery - Just about every hockey fan loves to hate Avery. If he does anything of note, there’s a pretty good chance it will be unsportsmanlike and/or stupid…and that makes for great entertainment.

By now you may have seen that the Capitals have re-signed defenseman John Erskine. What you may not have seen is that Erskine was inked to a two year deal worth a total of $2.5 million dollars.

I respect John Erskine a great deal. He’s a great team player, he always hustles, he gives up the body to block shots, and he’s more than willing to drop the gloves (and not half bad at it). But he’s also a painfuly slow skater and a poor puckhandler who, at twenty-eight, isn’t likely to get all that much better. He also takes far more penalties than anyone else on the Capitals: with thirty-six minors in fifty-six games last year, Erskine was taking .71 minor penalties per game. The next more frequently offer was Alexander Semin who picked .34 minor penalties per game, meaning Erskine was send to the box for minor penalties more than twice as often as anyone else on the team.  Some of those may have been roughing penalties due to his style of play but I’d be willing to bet the vast majority were holding, hooking, tripping, or puck-over-the-glass.

Aside from Erskine’s shortcomings as a defenseman (more on that can be found here), there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of need at the defense position for the Capitals. Mike Green and Tom Poti are signed through next year. The team controls, to varying degrees, the status of Jeff Schultz, Shaone Morrisonn, and Milan Jurcina, all of whom are, despite their struggles at times, better options than Erskine. Meanwhile the team expects blue-chip prospect Karl Alzner to be in Washington by season’s end, and fellow Hershey Bear Sami Lepisto is also playing well.

But the biggest problem with this contract isn’t the depth the Capitals have or that they want to have Erskine back - after all, you can never have too many defensemen and Erskine is good enough to be at least a seventh or eight defenseman in the NHL. The problem is that the contract is completely irreconcilable with what it would take to keep Erskine if he were to hit the free agent market. If the Capitals decided the wanted to re-sign Erskine next summer, fine. But I have a hard time believing any other NHL team is going to shell out $1.25 million a year for a guy who should only get in when someone else is hurt. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but it still seems like the Capitals have paid Erskine at least fifty percent more than he could have gotten somewhere else.

There is one, and only one, possible rationale I can think of for this signing: that the team plans to move Erskine to the wing and have him play the role of enforcer in coming seasons. It might sound crazy, but then Donald Brashear will be thirty-seven at the start of next season and if there’s anyone slower than Erskine on the team, it’s him. The Capitals don’t have any NHL-calibre enforcers in their minor league system - Grant McNeill’s the only enforcer in Hershey and he’s spent most of his career in the ECHL.

The idea of moving a defenseman to forward and into an enforcer role is not uncommon: Paul Bissonnette, Patrick Kaleta, Wade Brookbank, Wade Belak, and Eric Godard are all examples of players who successfully made the transition from rugged defenseman to winger-enforcer, as is former Capital Stephen Peat, although each of these players did it at a younger age than Erskine.

Would a move to wing work for Erskine? My guess would be that it would, and not just because I’ve often found myself thinking that Erskine could have carved out a nice career for himself if a coach had decided to move him to wing as a twenty-one year old. On the wing Erskine would have to opportunity to play his game, hitting opponents without having to worry as much about whether or not he’s drawing himself out of position and getting into scraps without forcing his team to alter the defensive rotation. He wouldn’t be an every game player, but he could still be a valuable one by playing a role similar to the one played by Aaron Downy for the Detroit Red Wings last season.

That said, on a final note, I’d like to point out that Erskine as an enforcer playing the wing, still probably isn’t worth $1.25 million a year. But my goal here was to provide a possible explanation for the logic of the Capitals’ front office, not to try and defend the decision.

Capitals 1, Coyotes 2

Same song, different verse.

Skill has never been an adequate replacement for sound fundamentals at the NHL level.  That’s not going to change for this season’s Washington Capitals and the sooner the team starts playing with that attitude, the sooner they’ll start winning games. Until then, the team is going to continue to have games like last night’s, where the Coyotes scored one goal off of a turnover by Tyler Sloan and another after Milan Jurcina let a Phoenix player skate by him at the blue line while Shaone Morrisonn failed to cover the slot. What’s worrisome as a Capitals fan is that those two plays weren’t the only such lapses; the Capitals failed to clear the zone and cover the high-scoring areas on a regular basis, and had Jose Theodore not been good in the first two periods, the Coyotes could have easily had four or five goals.

The Capitals could learn a thing or two from their opponents last night: the Coyotes came out willing to protect their net, dig in the corners, outwork their opponents, and play sound, smart hockey. That’s why it was Phoenix, not the more skilled Washington, who came away with the two points.

Caps Blue Line 3 Stars
(1) Jose Theodore
(2) Brooks Laich - 1 goal
(3) Alexander Semin - 1 assist

Quick Hits

• I don’t care what anyone else says, the highlight of the game to me was obviously the kid who stuck his tongue out at Jeff Schultz after Olli Jokinen was sent to the box for tripping.
• So…how about that ad on the boards that just read “Coldplay”?
• I thought the officiating was terrible.  To call those two weak penalties on Sergei Fedorov in the first and then not call Ed Jovanovski for hauling down Alexander Semin from behind and then hitting him instead of playing the puck? If that’s not inconsistency, I don’t know what is.
• The officiating last night was also endemic of another problem in the NHL today:as the game goes on, the refs put their whistles away.  That there were six judgment-call penalties in the first two periods and none in the third doesn’t necessarily mean the refs screwed up, but it certainly gives a nice piece of evidence if you want to argue that.
• You have to wonder what kind of game Wayne Gretzky was expecting when he decided he needed Danial Carcillo, Todd Fedoruk, and Brian McGrattan in the lineup.  In a combined 649 NHL games the three have 42 goals, 110 points, and 1,628 penalty minutes.
• Speaking of McGrattan, he seemed hellbent on trying to get Donald Brashear to drop the gloves with him early in the game, probably because it’s the only way for McGrattan to justify his NHL existence.  McGrattan, who was playing in his first game of the year, hasn’t scored an NHL goal since April 3rd, 2006 and averaged just 2:52 of ice time in the 38 games he saw action in for the Senators last season.
• Anyone who has NHL Center Ice is aware of the myriad of bad announcers out there, led by the duo of J.P. Dellacamera and Darren Elliot in Atlanta, but the FSN Arizona team of Dave Strader and Daren Pang is one of the best in the business.
• The Capitals were outhit 23-15.
• The Capitals were -1 in the giveaway/takeaway battle (six giveaways, five takeaways), while the Coyotes were +9 (three giveaways, twelve takeaways).

Washington Capitals at Phoenix Coyotes
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008, 10:00 PM
Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona
TV: CSN

About the Opponent

Phoenix Coyotes: 2-3-0, 4 points, 4th in the Pacific Division, 14th in the Western Conference

Team Leaders
Goals: Shane Doan (4)
Assists: Olli Jokinen (5)
Points: Olli Jokinen (6)
Plus/Minus: Steve Reinprecht (+3)
Penalty Minutes: Daniel Winnik (27)
Fights: Kurt Sauer (2)

Keys to the Game

Washington
Play smart. In Calgary the Capitals took ten minor penalties, gave the Flames seven powerplays, and only allowed goals off of bad mistakes by their defensemen…and still outshot the Flames and managed to stay within a goal. The Capitals are good enough that unless they shoot themselves in the foot they should beat a team like the Coyotes.

Coyotes
Keep the puck in the Capitals end. Putting the puck deep on Washington serves two important purposes: it forces the team’s defense, which isn’t great at puckhandling, to pick up the puck and move it and it keeps the Caps skilled players out of the Coyotes zone.

Players to Watch

Washington
Alex Ovechkin - The last time he was in Phoenix, the world got “The Goal”. Maybe that memory will jump start Ovechkin’s game. Capitals fans should hope so - Ovechkin has only scored in one of the team’s six games this season.

Coyotes
Peter Mueller - Mueller very quietly had a very impressive year for the Coyotes last year, putting up twenty-two goals as a nineteen year old.

Capitals 1, Flames 2

Very few people would dispute that the Washington Capitals are a more skilled team than the Calgary Flames. However, as the Capitals seem to be learning the hard way, it takes more than just skill and flair to consistently win games in the NHL.

The story of the night for the Capitals was mistakes, one after the other. Sure the Capitals made some very nice passing plays and generated some exciting scoring chances but that wasn’t enough to cover their myriad of errors: a blown nine minute powerplay, a Shaone Morrisonn clearing attempt that was picked off the put home for the first Flames goal, Mike Green getting caught behind the Flames net and giving the Flames an odd man rush…while the Capitals were shorthanded.

And then of course, there were the penalties.

In total the Capitals took ten minor penalties and gave the Flames seven powerplays, including three five-on-threes. What’s even worse is that so many of the penalties were preventable: Michael Nylander’s offensive zone holding penalty while the Capitals were on what would have been a nine minute powerplay, Shaone Morrisonn’s careless high-sticking minor, John Erskine’s unnecessary cross check with four seconds remaining in the first period, Sergei Fedorov’s holding the stick penalty, David Steckel’s brain cramp throwing the stick penalty, and Chris Clark’s slashing penalty were all avoidable. Skill can make up for an awful lot, but it’s not going to make up for that level of carelessness, or laziness, or lack of focus, or whatever else you want to call it.

Caps Blue Line 3 Stars
(1) Jose Theodore
(2) Sergei Fedorov – 1 goal, +1
(3) Jeff Schultz – 1 assist, +1, 3 blocked shots

Quick Hits

• I like the idea of Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin on the penalty kill, but Tomas Fleischmann?  He’s a mediocre defensive player and doesn’t have the explosive offensive ability a player needs to be a real threat shorthanded.
• Only one Capitals player (Sergei Fedorov) won more than half of their faceoffs.
• Jose Theodore looks like he may have come around.  Now if Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom could do the same, the Caps would really be in business.
• After failing to convert on the nine minute powerplay and going 0-for-5 on the night, it might be time to start worrying about the powerplay a little.

Washington Capitals at Calgary Flames
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008, 9:30 PM
Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta
TV: CSN
Last Meeting: March 12th, 2008: Capitals win 3-2

About the Opponent

Calgary Flames: 1-3-1, 5th in the Northwest Division, 14th in the Western Conference

Team Leaders
Goals: Todd Bertuzzi (5)
Assists: Daymond Langkow (5)
Points: Daymond Langkow (6)
Plus/Minus: tie - Daymond Langkow and Andre Roy (+1)
Penalty Minutes: Brandon Prust (22)
Fights: tie - Jarome Iginla and Brandon Prust (2)

Random Flames Statistic
Todd Bertuzzi, who has five goals so far this season, is the only Flames player to have scored more than once.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Take the physical play in stride. Calgary been a very physical team for a number of years and while the Capitals won’t be intimidated by the physical play there are a number of players on the team who might retaliate and either put the Capitals shorthanded or negate a Caps powerplay.

Calgary
Find some scoring. Of Calgary’s top seven scorers from 2007-08, three (Owen Nolan, Kristian Huselius, Alex Tanguay) are no longer with the team and the remaining four (Jarome Iginla, Dion Phaneuf, Daymond Langkow, Matthew Lombardi) have combined for only two goals through the team’s first five games.

Players to Watch

Washington
Milan Jurcina - Against a physical team like Calgary defensive defensemen are going to play an important role and Jurcina is one of the three the Capitals will be dressing for certain, the other two being John Erskine and Jeff Schultz.  The difference is that with Schultz and Erskine you know what you’re getting: Erskine’s going to hustle, block shots, and play tough and Schultz is going to play a very sound game and leave Caps fans wishing he’d use his big frame more.  Jurcina, on the other hand, is unpredictable.  When he plays well he combines the best of Erskine’s and Schultz’s games; when he plays poorly he’s the worst defenseman on the ice.  Which version of Jurcina shows up could go a long way in determining the outcome of this game.

Calgary
Miikka Kiprusoff - Calgary has relied heavily on Kiprusoff since he was acquired from San Jose in 2003, but the all-star goalie has struggled so far this year and is sporting an unsightly .851 save percentage and 4.37 goals against average.