Capitals 2, Rangers 1

It wasn’t all that long ago that Jose Theodore was pulled in favor of a noticeably ill Brent Johnson after giving up three goals on five shots to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. It was the eighth time in nine appearances Theodore had given up at least three goals, and with Johnson playing well it seemed Theodore was destined to be relegated to a backup role - not to mention to be labeled one of the offseason’s biggest busts.

If Johnson hadn’t been sick that evening Theodore probably wouldn’t have found his way back into the net, but Caps fans should be glad he did. Since then Theodore has played 280 minutes and conceded only seven goals, stopping 116 of the 123 shots he’s faced, putting up a 1.50 goals against average and a .943 save percentage, numbers reminiscent of the netminder’s 2001-02 Hart Trophy season. Obviously Theodore’s hot streak isn’t going to continue for the rest of the season but what he has done is show what he is capable of and in the process made goaltending look much less like the vulnerability many feared it would be on opening night. With Karl Alzner’s recall and Milan Jurcina’s subsequent resurgent play the defense has also been substantially upgraded, which begs the question, ‘Does this team have any major weakness, and if not, what’s to stop them from being a legitimate Stanley Cup contender?’

Quick Hits

• It’s good that Chris Clark is showing the tenacity and attitude that made him a captain and fan favorite…but getting KO’d by Wade Redden still has to be embarrassing.
• Speaking of fights, after seeing Alexander Semin without his pads on you’d have an awfully hard time convincing me he’s within fifteen pounds of the 205 he’s listed at - even if he actually is 6′2”.  Nice bling though.
• Speaking of Semin, it may have been my imagination but he looked a little less willing to get hit in his first game back from injury.  Given how he’s played in the past, that might not be a bad thing.
• Eric Fehr looks like he’s about 90% of the way towards being a twenty-goal, fifty-point power forward.  His 2009-10 could be analogous to Tomas Fleischmann’s 2008-09.
• Did Craig Laughlin really say the Capitals were “arguably” the best team in D.C.?  Just to recap, the Nationals have the first pick in next June’s draft, the Wizards are 6-25, the United were 11-15-4 last season, and the Redskins finished at .500.  If there’s an argument that the Caps aren’t the best team is town, I’d love to hear it.
• Speaking of Laughlin, has anyone else noticed that he thinks 80% of goals go in through the “seven hole”?
• A quick lesson in “careful what you wish for”: Saved By Zero may be gone but those NetStar-1 ads where the guy distorts his face while imitated are race car are definitely worse.
• How good is Alexander Ovechkin?  He had a goal, nine shots, and six hits and he didn’t really seem to be any better than most night.

Prior to last night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres the Capitals PR department had this little nugget for fans:

The Capitals close the book on a remarkable 2008 calendar year against Buffalo, a year that saw them post a 51-23-6 record to this point (trailing only San Jose, 117 points, and Boston, 110, with 108 points). Among the team’s other notable achievements in 2008:

• Won the Southeast Division championship last season and has a 10-point lead in the division this year
• Posted a 31-6-3 home record at Verizon Center with 14 sellouts
• Alex Ovechkin has scored 60 goals in 2008 (10 more than any other player), posted 113 points (second only to Evgeni Malkin, 124), won four major NHL awards, received the Key to the City of Washington, D.C., signed a new 13-year contract, played in the NHL All-Star Game, led Russia to a gold medal at the World Championship, won NHL First Star of the Month three times and launched his own designer clothing line
• Bruce Boudreau was named NHL coach of the year and was selected for induction in the AHL Hall of Fame

Long term fans benefit for having stuck with the team through the lean years. Casual D.C. sports fans benefit from having at least one team in the city they don’t have to be ashamed of. And of course the players and Coach Boudreau get to go out in front of a packed house almost every night and play some of the most exciting hockey in the NHL.

But quietly there have to be two men sitting back and smiling, watching their plan come to fruition after years of adversity: Ted Leonsis and George McPhee.

For McPhee it’s the payoff after years of being second guessed on everything from the decision to trade Peter Bondra for a second round pick and a little-known AHL center named Brooks Laich, selecting Nicklas Backstrom over Phil Kessel, and the decision to give career minor league coach Bruce Boudreau a chance in the big leagues rather than rushing out to find a coach with NHL experience. For Leonsis it’s the reward to the decision to stand behind McPhee and scouting director Ross Mahoney in the face of oftentimes cruel or profane outbursts from diehards, threats of allegiances retracted from soon-to-be-former season-ticket holders, the nights of half-full arenas and the accompanying unenviable balance sheets, and the smug voices that insisted hockey was dead in Washington and the team should either be contracted or moved to a “real hockey city”.  For both it’s proof that patience is a virtue and that resistance to the urge to overpay for a significant free agent or make a trade for a player with more name recognition was the right decision. 

The pragmatism to not only develop a long term plan, but to keep with it even during the team’s most significant struggles, is paying off in ways that the critics, many of whom could not see several seasons down road, would never have imagined. The so called “Capitals model” has produced not only an organization capable of sustainably fielding competitive NHL teams, but has a model for teams around the league for any team trying to find in the midst of dismal season.

The rebuild has worked. Despite that, both McPhee and Leonsis will always have their critics. The difference is that now they don’t have to answer them. The wins, the trophies, the standings, the thousands of eyes from around the league, and the 18,000 strong who show in up in red and make as much noise as humanly possible are doing that for them every night there’s professional hockey in Washington.

Living well, or in this case playing well, is the best revenge.

After a two day break in which Washington hockey fans were left to revel in the early Christmas gift of a 5-4 comeback win over the Rangers, the Capitals are back home to take on another foe from New York, albeit it one that, at 16-13-5 thus far in 2008-09, doesn’t quite have the same pedigree as the 22-12-3 Rangers. Right?

Not quite. The Sabres are 5-2-2 in their last nine while the Rangers have won in regulation only twice since November 12th. A big reason for that might have to do with attitude. Whereas Rangers captain Chris Drury is apparently determined not to let a pesky little thing like blowing a 4-0 lead at home ruin his Christmas, Sabres forward Adam Mair said of his team’s consecutive overtime losses, “I just think it shows a lack of focus and a lack of willingness to shut the other team out and really take control of the game. I think that’s the killer instinct we’ve been looking for, the killer instinct we need to find.”  And if Capitals fans learned anything from the team’s 2007-08 run it should be that no one wants to face a team upset about their recent play and looking for a killer instinct.

Looking to stymie the development of said killer instinct will the now-usual suspects of Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Karl Alzner, a half dozen AHL players - and perhaps Simeon Varlamov, who was recalled to most likely take the place  Brent Johnson, who looked noticeably sick on Tuesday.

As a die-hard Capitals fan it’s awfully hard not to want to see more out of Varlamov. As a pragmatic, skeptical hockey fan…it’s hard not to want to see more out of Simeon Varlamov. It’s pretty likely that the Capitals are doing the best thing for the long term by keeping Varlamov in the AHL but he’s also looked better than Brent Johnson or Jose Theodore and put up better numbers than either of the verteran netminders, small sample size notwithstanding. Even if it is best to keep him at the AHL for this season, it does at least make sense to play him while he’s with the big club if he’s been the best goalie, doesn’t it?

Players to Watch

Washington
Alexander Ovechkin - Ovechkin was as dominant as a player can be in Tuesday night’s win, scoring two goals, taking thirteen shots, and carrying the team back from the four goal deficit. What’s he going to do for an encore?

Sabres
Chris Butler - Butler’s a 22 year old defenseman who hails from St. Louis. He’s played three games with the Sabres this season…and his +5 rating is tied for the team lead. Also of note: he’s listed at only 178 pounds.

Capitals 1, Flyers 7

25-6. 12-9. 4-9. 15-13. Those were the totals in shots, hits, giveaways, and faceoffs for the Capitals and Flyers in the first period of yesterday’s game, numbers that are indicative of just how one-sided a period it was.

Of course, domination in these statistics doesn’t really mean all that much if they aren’t converted into scoring chances. By not picking up at least a two goal lead and instead actually going into the first intermission down a goal, the Capitals gave the Flyers not only an opportunity to regroup, but an opportunity to realize that despite being (almost) completely dominated in the first period, they were in a position to win the game.

Say what you will about the Flyers, but there’s no doubt Philadelphia has a very talented hockey team with more than enough blue-collar work ethic, and there was not way they were going to let this one get away unless the Capitals responded quickly. The Caps, of course, could not do so and although this game wound up 7-1, it was all but decided when Jeff Carter scored to put the Flyers up 2-0.

Usually when a team goes down by six goals there’s plenty of blame to go around, but that’s not really the case today. The bangers banged, the fighters fought, and the skilled players pressured Antero Niittymaki and the Flyer defense. It might be tempting to point the finger at Brent Johnson’s unspectacular performance (three goals allowed on thirteen shots), which was magnified by Niittymaki’s brilliance (47 saves on 48 shots) at the other end, but it is awfully hard to blame the goalie when his team only scores once.

Ultimately there’s no complex series of reasons that the Capitals lost today. Niittymaki stole two points for his team and, well, sometimes it’s just not your day.

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Quick Hits

• Presumably yesterday’s game will end talk of Donald Brashear being unwilling to fight anymore. His two fighting majors give him seven for the season, which comes out to one every 4.57 games or .212 per game. That puts Brashear on pace for 17 fights this season. The last time Brashear had as many was 1998-99. If he’d be allowed to drop the gloves with Aaron Asham he’d be on pace for 20, a number that would have put him sixth in the league last season.
• I know Tom Poti was hurt for part of the game and I know the Capitals spent a lot of time on the powerplay, but asking Mike Green to play over 29 minutes while still coming back from a shoulder injury is too much.
• Sean Collins was the lone Capitals play with a positive plus-minus, at +1.
• People can say what they want about the Capitals missing out on the chance to draft Ryan Getzlaf.  Missing out on the chance to draft Mike Richards is a lot more painful.

Capitals 4, Blues 2

If you’re a Capitals fan at this point you’re probably hoping for one, just one, game where the team wins and no one gets hurt. That seemingly small request was apparently too much for the hockey gods yet again last night, as Mike Green and Alexander Semin were both unable to finish last night’s contest against the Blues. Green’s injury was a simple re-aggravation of the shoulder he injured in Anaheim. Semin’s injury…well, Semin’s injury probably warrants a little more discussion.

The hit that caused Semin’s injury - a moderate cross check from behind by David Backes - is itself less interesting than the response it produced from the Capitals: none beyond Backes being chest-bumped to the ice by Alexander Ovechkin.

I’m sure there was more than one Capitals fan calling for blood after Semin gingerly left the ice with what appeared to be a knee injury. I’m not one of them - Backes’ play should have been penalized, as the trip on Semin seconds earlier should have been, but it was far from the type of play that could warrant a suspension or even a major. With that said, it’s difficult to understand why the only Capital who reacted to the play was Ovechkin.

Caps Blue Line 3 Stars
(1) Viktor Kozlov - 2 goals, 1 assist, +1
(2) Simeon Varlamov
(3) Alexander Ovechkin - 1 goal, +1, 7 hits

Quick Hits

• What could Keith Tkachuk possibly have thought mouthing off to Donald Brashear would accomplish? I may not know all the nuances of the game at the NHL level, but I can tell you this: Brash ain’t afraid of Tkachuk.
• Michael Nylander had a terrible game, with several bad turnovers and an inexplicable decision to hold the puck for almost ten second and run out the clock in the second period.
• I feel like it must be a bad thing that the only time I notice Sean Collins is when he’s taking a penalty.
• Kozlov owes his first goal in part to Nicklas Backstrom.  Kozlov was able to carry the puck to the net so easily because Barret Jackman was more concerned with shoving Backstrom around than playing defense.
• I’ve been watching hockey since I was about seven and last night was the first time I could remember seeing two goalies with plain white masks in one game.

Two days after beating the second-worst team in the Eastern Conference, the Capitals return home to take on the worst team in the Western Conference although the Blues, with 27 points (12-15-3), would actually be 12th in the East.

The teams might be near opposite ends of the standings but the Capitals and Blues have one thing very much in common: injuries. The Blues injury situation is just as dire as Washington’s with goalie Manny Legace, defensemen Jay McKee and Eric Brewer, and forwards Andy McDonald, T.J. Oshie, Paul Kariya and D.J. King all expected to miss tonight’s game. The injuries have been taking their toll on the Blues: the team is point-less in its last four games and has been outscored 21-11 in that stretch.

Coupling the Blues recent struggling with the Capitals 12-1-1 home record seems like a recipe for success but given the Capitals unfortunate habit of playing down to their competition at times this season, the two points are far from guaranteed.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Start fast. The Blues have given up the first goal in six of their last eight games and they’re 2-5-1 in that span. That’s not a coincidence.

St. Louis
Play physically. The Capitals have far more skill than this injury-riddled Blues squad, so if St. Louis tries to play a fast paced, end-to-end game, they’re going to be in a lot of trouble. Using the physicality of guys like Barrett Jackman, Cam Janssen, Dan Hinote and B.J. Crombeen is going to give the Blues their best chance of pulling out a win.

Players to Watch

Washington
Milan Jurcina - Jurcina has benefited immensely from being paired with Karl Alzner and has four points (two goals and two assists) and a +4 rating in December.

St. Louis
Patrik Berglund - Berglund, selected 25th overall in the 2006 entry draft, is tied for the lead in goals among rookies with 10 and is third among rookies in points with 20. His +10 rating is easily the best on the team (T.J. Oshie is second at +2) and is the only positive rating for anyone on the team who’s played more than 14 games.

Capitals 4, Lightning 2

It wouldn’t be fair to speculate on exactly what would have constituted a successful return to Washington Olaf Kolzig but it’d be a pretty fair assumption that neither allowing goals on his first two shots nor letting in three in the first period played into his ideal scenario. But that’s exactly what happened as the Capitals took advantage of an obvious mismatch in skill and skating ability to jump out early on the Lightning.

Kolzig’s performance on the night, especially in the first period, was reminiscent of his play last season: while you can’t entirely fault him for any of the three goals the Capitals scored in the first period, there’s no way he should have let all three get by him. Meanwhile, at the other end of the ice, Brent Johnson turned in another stellar effort for the Capitals.

Johnson’s play of late hasn’t created a goaltending controversy simply because his play has been good enough that there shouldn’t be any doubt that he should be playing ahead of Jose Theodore. Johnson’s never been able to hold down a starting job at the NHL level and there’s definitely not any reason to name him the starter through thick and thing, but right now Johnson’s not only making the saves he has to make (which is all anyone expected the Capitals would need their netminder to do in order to be successful this season), he’s making a lot of quality stop to bail out him teammates and inspire confidence.

Caps Blue Line 3 Stars
(1) Brent Johnson
(2) Alexander Ovechkin - 1 goal, 1 assist, 4 hits, +2
(3) Tom Poti - 1 goal, +2

Quick Hits

• It’s nice when linemates have chemistry by Ovechkin and Alexander Semin might like each other a little too much: there’s no need to be that generous with the pass/shoot decisions, guys.
• The other former Caps wearing Bolts pajamas colors was Steve Eminger, who finished with an assist, three hits, and three blocked shots but was also a -3.
• Donald Brashear’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, on a high-sticking call of all things, showed a tremendous lapse in judgment for a36-year-old veteran wearing an ‘A’.
  
• Eric Fehr had a goal and four shots in his 10:14 of ice time.  I know I’m not the only one who wants to see what he could do with more.
• Don VanMassenhoven’s mustache look amazing in HD.  Joe Beninati’s brown suit/orange tie combination did not.
  

There’s plenty to talk about regarding the Southeast Division rival Tampa Ba Lightning: the 2008 draft’s number one overall selection, Steven Stamkos. Barry Melrose’s return to coaching. The myriad of offseason acquisitions. Ryan Malone’s transformation from a near thirty goal scorer to enforcer (sort of).  But the story for this nationally televised game will undoubtedly be Olaf Kolzig’s return to Washington, even more so because he is tentatively scheduled to start.

Kolzig hasn’t played all that much this season, but when he has played he has played well enough to post a 1-1-1 record and a .925 save percentage and, along with fellow netminder Mike Smith, has helped the Bolts to a respectable 5-4-4 start to the season, even as many of their offseason acquisitions including Malone (three points, -2), Gary Roberts (one point, -3), and Radim Vrbata (one point) have sputtered.

Kolzig will be joined in his return to the District by fellow former Capitals Matt Pettinger, who was claimed off re-entry waivers from Vancouver, and Steve Eminger, who was traded (along with Steve Downie and a fourth round draft pick) for Matt Carle, the central piece of the trade that sent Dan Boyle to San Jose, in a move that is not being greeted warmly by Lightning fans. Jeff Halpern (injury) and Jamie Heward (AHL), both of whom are currently under contract with the Lightning, will not be playing.

Although the Lightning have been assembled in a manner more consistent with a twelve year old with a PlayStation than an NHL franchise, they are still sporting a decent record and are in third in the Southeast - although the latter may have more to do with the sorry state of the division than the talent of Tampa’s club. The Capitals need to be aware of the fact that Tampa still has guys who can score and defensemen who can move the puck and avoid going to sleep on the Lightning.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Move the puck around low in the Tampa Bay zone. Tampa’s defense corps is young and inexperienced and Olaf Kolzig doesn’t move all that well these days. If the Capitals keep the puck down low, and keep their forwards buzzing around the net, it’s going to be very hard for the Bolts to keep them off the board.

Tampa Bay
Limit defensive mistakes. With the aforementioned group of young defensemen and the scoring skill the Lightning have, what could really do them are turnovers, bad clearing attempts, and bad positioning.

Players to Watch

Washington
Nicklas Backstrom - he’s looking better every game and now that he’s skating with both Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin he should start producing.

Tampa Bay
Evgeny Artyukhin - he’s a 6′5”, 254 pound forward. You can’t tell me you’re not intrigued.

Capitals 3, Rangers 1

If there was a theme from last night’s game for the Capitals it would probably be “you’ve got to be good to be lucky” as, for the first period at least, everything seemed to be going the Capitals way: Alexander Semin’s wrister gets stopped by Henrik Lundqvist but bounces off the glass behind the net and back out for Brooks Laich to tip in. Boyd Gordon loses the puck driving to the net but Tom Poti’s in the perfect position to tip it in as the net just barely stays on its pegs. And, of course, Alexander Semin scores a 190-foot goal off a spin move to seal the deal with six seconds left.

Caps Blue Line 3 Stars
(1) Brent Johnson
(2) Brooks Laich - 1 goal, 4 shots, 2 hits, +1
(3) Alexander Semin - 1 goal, 1 assist, +1

Quick Hits

• As soon as Tomas Fleischmann finds some measure of consistency, he could be a poor man’s Alexander Semin - and that ain’t bad for the second line.
• Speaking of Fleischmann, he was last night the focal point of one of the rarest moments in Capitals history.  At 9:10 of the second period Fleischmann hit an opposition player and the opposition player fell down.
• If John Erskine’s is worth $1.25 million a season, Tyler Sloan has to be worth at least $2 million.
• Brent Johnson’s pokecheck on Chris Drury’s penalty shot was impressive not only for the reflexes it took, but for the poise Johnson showed.
• Nicklas Backstrom continues to look better and better as he (presumably) gets into better shape.  In the first half dozen games of this season, there’s no way Backstrom catches the Rangers player on that shorthanded breakaway.
• The more I see him play, the more I’m convinced Aaron Voros is going to be the next Tomas Holmstrom.
• Sure, the Capitals won, they looked good, both goalies played great games, Semin scored a 190-foot goal.  That’s all well and good, but for me the highlight of the game was not having to hear “saved by zero” a single time.

Capitals 3, Hurricanes 2

At some point during his thirty-eight goal 2006-07 season, I started expecting Alexander Semin to score any time he had the puck within ten feet of the opponent’s goal or an open shot in the slot. His injury-plagued and somewhat disappointing 2007-08 campaign dampened that enthusiasm but with the way Semin’s been producing this season, he’s pretty much back to where he was in 06-07 in my book and, naturally, his two goals night against the Hurricanes didn’t hurt.

As much credit as Semin deserves, Alexander Ovechkin played a critical role in Semin’s second goal. Last season, Ovechkin made a habit of cutting across the middle and firing a shot on goal after he had gained the blue line, picking up a lot of goals in the process. This season defensemen have been more aware of this tendency and have been playing Ovechkin tighter once he starts moving towards the slot. What Ovechkin did so well on the play leading to Semin’s goal was to pass the puck rather than try and force a bad play some which Ovechkin, for all his talents, does too often.

Not to be lost in the celebration of the two Alexes is the performance Brent Johnson put in, stopping thirty-two of thirty-four Hurricanes shots and keep pace with Cam Ward. Even if that Tuomo Ruutu goal was pretty ugly.

Caps Blue Line 3 Stars
(1) Alexander Semin
(2) Alexander Ovechkin
(3) Brent Johnson

Quick Hits

• Bruce Boudreau must have had a talk with Mike Green following the team’s loss to Buffalo because Green’s played much better defense in the team’s last couple of games.
• Tomas Fleischmann continues to be an enigma and to have once again disappeared from the game.
• Ovechkin and John Erskine accounted for twelve of the Capitals twenty-one hits.