With the trade deadline less than twenty-four hours away, talk around the NHL has (understandably) been focused on trades. The same is true in the nation’s capital where, for the first time in recent memory, the Capitals are not sellers at the deadline. But does that make them buyers?

Not necessarily. George McPhee has said that he may try and bolster the Capitals depth if he can acquire a player he thinks is worthwhile without giving up too much in the way of assets, be them players for future draft picks. While McPhee certainly has his supporters in this approach, there are more than a couple playoff-hungry Capitals fan who want to see McPhee make a big move to help lock up a playoff spot, and the names Brad Richards and Adam Foote are popping up way more than they should (which is to say, more than just in passing).

To understand my, and I suppose McPhee’s, aversion to making a big trade at the current deadline you have to look at the NHL’s general managers, the frameworks they use and what it takes to be successful versus what usually ends up with the GM getting the boot and a franchise in disrepair.

The best-run NHL organizations have one underlying factor: the interests of the general manager are aligned with the interests of the franchise in the long run. When this is the case a GM can make decisions with the long-term heath and competitiveness of the club in mind which, if the GM is decent at his job, means holding on to high draft picks and prospects while refraining from making unnecessary trades involving headline-grabbing names and overpaying for free agents. Provided such an organization is not hit by injuries and does a halfway decent job of drafting, it should remain competitive year in and year out, while still retaining a deep enough prospect pool that they can make a landscape-changing deal when they need it. Examples of such organizations in recent years include the Ottawa Senators, the Buffalo Sabres and the Montreal Canadiens.

The antithesis of these organizations are those that have general managers who are influenced by something other than the best interests of their team, be it a clamoring fan base, intense media scrutiny or an overbearing owner. These situations almost inevitably breed failure, as GMs continually look for the all-but-unattainable: a solution that will fix all their problems and in readily available (a combination of “fix-all” and “quick-fix”). The results are ugly as teams wind up mortgaging their future, oftentimes to get only marginally better. Caps fans don’t need to look at further than Southeast rival Atlanta and Caps Blue Line’s least favorite currently-employed GM, Don Waddell to find an example for how easily things can go awry for an organization in this situation. Another recent example would be John Ferguson Jr.’s tenure in Toronto.

General managers like Waddell and Ferguson only win as a happy accident and subsequently simply do not win consistently. Rather than being the ones who steer their teams to glory, these GMs are the ones who are taken advantage of by their more savvy peers. As an aside, Paul Holmgrin, in Philadelphia, has proven quite adept at this, taking advantage of David Poile and Craig Leopold’s initial drive to make noise in the playoffs and then to cut costs in Nashville, Waddell’s desperation to make the playoffs and keep his job and Kevin Lowe’s general insanity and embarrassment at not signing Ryan Smyth. Holmgrin was in turn able to spin (1) Peter Forsberg for Ryan Parent, Scottie Upshall, a 1st round pick and a 3rd round pick (2) Alexei Zhitnik for Braydon Coburn (3) Joni Pitkanen, Geoff Sanderson and a 3rd round pick for Jason Smith and Joffrey Lupul and (4) a 1st round pick for Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell.

Back to the matter at hand: this is why I think McPhee has the right approach. I’d rather the Capitals organization be talked about the way Buffalo or Ottawa has been in recent years, not the way Atlanta and Toronto are.

Capitals 5, Canadiens 4 (OT)

Know how many four-goal games is a lot to have? One. Know how many four goals games is really a lot to have? Two.

After being shutout 4-0, feeling that the Canadiens were out to embarrass them and being called out by Coach Bruce Boudreau, many Capitals fans hoped their team would come out aggressive in the first period and the Caps did not disappoint, flying out of the gate and dominating the hitting in the first period and taking it to their opponents in both ends, in front of the nets, along the boards in the neutral zone and in the open ice (I could watch Alex Ovechkin’s hit on Steve Begin a hundred times without getting tired of it). Donald Brashear was looking for a dance partner desperately and it was quite amusing as a Capitals fan to see the Canadiens visibly scared on the ice, essentially waiting for Brashear to leave them alone so they could shout back over their shoulders “You’re just a big bully, you bully!”

Unfortunately for Capitals fans the game did not turn into the kind of blowout it looked like it might become early on, as the hometown crowd say the resilient Canadiens stage a comeback from a 3-0 deficit that was capped by two Guillaume Latendresse markers, the last with 36 seconds left in regulation. As a Caps fan, let me say that giving up one goal in the final minutes of a period is frustrating. Giving up two is damn near heartbreaking, especially when one comes because your goalie leaves his five-hole open (again) and one came because your goalie failed to cover the puck despite there being no opposing players coming down on him.

As a whole the Capitals looked aggressive, fast, sharp and smart. Maybe it’s a case of rampant fan-ism but I think if Boudreau can get the team to play like this night in and night out they’re not only going to make the playoffs, they’re going to be a hell of challenge for any opposition in a seven game set.

Not a perfect night for the boys in the red, white and blue but a very good one. Even if Guillaume Latendresse’s two late goals ruined my “Ovechkin 3, Canadiens 2″ line.

DMG’s 3 Stars
(1) Alexander Ovechkin - 4 goals, 1 assist, +4, 6 shots, 5 hits
(2) Viktor Kozlov - 1 goal, 2 assists, +3, 5 shots
(3) Mike Green - 2 assists, +1, 6 shots, 27:02 of ice time

Quick Hits

• The line of David Steckel, Quintin Laing and Matt Bradley did a great job of mixing things up early on, especially in front of the Canadiens’ net. Not surprising though: Steckel is 6′5”, Bradley hits anything that moves and is a willing pugilist and Laing will sacrifice his body for the good of the team in a heartbeat.
• No matter what team it’s called on, every time there is a penalty for a puck over the glass by a non-goalie it makes me want to find Gary Bettman and punch him in the nose.
• I like Joe Beninanti a lot but he got the facts of Ilya Kovalchuk’s injury wrong: it wasn’t after the whistle, the only reason it was knee-on-knee was that Kovalchuck tried to dodge the hit and it wasn’t “borderline cheap” - the Thrashers’ commentators weren’t even sure it should have been a penalty.
• If Donald Brashear is going to get a rough penalty for pushing Latendresse in the back then Mike Komisarek should have gotten a penalty for getting in Ovechkin’s face after Ovechkin dumped Josh Gorges. But I guess that’s what the call a “reputation penalty” (that along with Alexander Semin’s hooking call) and I guess that’s what bad referees see.
• It was feast or famine in the faceoff circle for the Capitals: Boyd Gordon and David Steckel were at 71 and 64 percent, respectively while Nicklas Backstrom and Brooks Laich were at 42 and 38 percent (not quite as respectively).

Regular preview for the series here.

In the build-up to tonight’s game against the Canadiens much of the talk around the Capitals has centered around the team is unhappy with what they perceived as Montreal attempting to run up the score against them Tuesday night, perhaps most simply summarized by Viktor Kozlov’s statement, “They tried to embarrass us.”

This attitude has some Capitals fans watering at the mouth with visions of a fight-filled game tonight at Verizon Center and while that might be gratifying to some degree in itself, what the Capitals need to focus on is beating the Habs on the scoreboard, not in the fight department. The Capitals need to come away from this game with two points more than anything else and while I’d expect some hard hits and maybe a fight or two I think Bruce Boudreau is a good enough coach that he’ll keep the team focused on the task at hand.

One last note - apparently at some point there was concern that Alexei Kovalev’s thumb was broken, but he will play tonight.

Around the (Inter)net

James Mirtle has one of the best NHL blogs in the business (perhaps due to the fact that he actually is in the business, as a sports desk staffer for the Globe and Mail) and it’s especially good right now as he takes a look at how the game has changed in a series of articles. Part one is about how the distribution of penalty calls differs from the pre-lockout days and part two is about the NHL’s youth movement.

Elsewhere….Alex Ovechkin’s new contract is worth 124 million dollars or 8.857 million haircuts…JP takes a look at whether Olie Kolzig just needs to see more shots…Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk, who trails Ovechkin 39 to 38 in the NHL goal-scoring race, was injured in last night’s against the Penguins…Someone at the North Bay Nugget (?) is saying what I’ve been saying all along - let the All-Star Game be what it is…

Canadiens 4, Capitals 0

Everyone’s had those days where nothing seems to go right and last night was one for the Capitals. When in the first 21 minutes alone you’ve given up a goal that came when your team went shorthanded because of quite possibly the worst rule in the history of the NHL, given up two goals that came as a result of opposing players getting out of the box at just the right moment and hit the post the post twice in the other team’s end, it’s just not your night.

Unfortunately for the Capitals they ran into a particularly bad opponent to be up against when the breaks don’t go your way early as the Canadiens lived up to their reputation and stifled the Capitals’ attack after going ahead early. I don’t mean to suggest the Capitals deserved to win last night because they didn’t play particularly well. They did, however, play well enough that they should have had at least a chance to come back and win and didn’t deserve to be buried by the first intermission.

This game also underlined the importance Shaone Morrisonn to the Capitals as John Erskine, Morrisonn’s replacement alongside Mike Green, was -1 and took three unnecessarily penalties.  Morrisonn has been the most consistent Capital defender in his own end this season and no one is feeling his impact more than his defensive partner Green, who has had zero points and is a -4 in the games Morrisonn has missed after putting up 14 points and a +3 in the nine game before Morrisonn’s injury.

Washington Capitals at Montréal Canadiens
Monday, January 28th, 2008
Bell Centre in Montréal, Québec
Last Meeting: January 5th, 2007, Capitals win 5-4 in overtime

About the Opponent

Montréal Canadiens (26-15-8, 2nd in the Northeast Division, 2nd in the Eastern Conference)

Team Leaders
Goals: Alexei Kovalev (21)
Assists: Saku Koivu (27)
Points: Alexei Kovalev (45)
Plus/Minus: tie - Alexei Kovalev and Mike Komisarek (+11)
Penalty Minutes: Tom Kostopoulos (85)
Fights: Tom Kostopoulos (7)

Betcha Didn’t Know…
The Canadiens jersey has featured some variation on the current crest (the ‘H’ within the ‘C’) since 1916.

Random Canadiens Statistic
Not only is the Canadiens’ potent powerplay clicking at 23.9% and ranked second in the NHL, they have also allowed only one shorthanded goal against.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Score the first goal. For all that the Capitals have done well since Bruce Boudreau took over, they’re not scoring first nearly often enough and with how talented the Canadiens are defensively and the Bell Centre crowd behind them this would be an especially difficult game to come back in.

Montréal
Keep the pressure up. The Capitals are simply too talent on offensive to try and hold them off all game if the play is in the Canadiens end.

Players to Watch

Washington
Brent Johnson - Tarik is reporting that Johnson, who has shined since Boudreau took over, will start tomorrow. With another strong outing Johnson could make the Caps’ goaltending situation very interesting.

Montréal
Tomas Plekanec - everyone know about Saku Koivu and Alexei Kovalev, but Plekanec has been an important part of the Canadiens success this year and is second on the team in points (42) and tied for second in goals (16).

Round the (Inter)net:
Teemu Selanne is returning to the Ducks…unable to let any bit of significant NHL news pass without defending his title as the reigning bastion of negativity in the hockey world, Ross McKeon has already criticized him for for it…No need to panic, ESPN has found a way to cover Sidney Crosby even when he’s not one the ice - talk about his life off the ice!…E.J. Hradek likes Alex Ovechkin for MVP…My nominee for Best New Hockey Blog goes to: I am the best in the world at NHL ‘94.

Capitals 5, Canadiens 4 (OT)

Saturday’s matinée between the Canadiens and the Caps ended in a familiar fashion for each team with the Capitals picking up another come from behind win and the Habs continuing their struggles in the Bell Centre.

Expand/Collapse this Post

Washington Capitals at Montréal Canadiens
Saturday, January 5th, 12:30 PM
Bell Centre in Montréal, Québec

The Canadiens are actually a lot like the Capitals last opponent, the Boston Bruins: they’ve been successful by playing tight defense, have a deep blue line, a solid goalie and aren’t dependent on one player to score. And although they’re built in much the same way, they’re much better than the Bruins. But the Habs were also outshot by the Capitals 37-21 the last time the two teams played (12/20, in D.C.), so the karma should be on the Caps side. Plus the Habs haven’t been playing well on home ice so far this season.

It seems silly to keep saying it, but this is an important game. The Islanders, Bruins, Flyers, Maple Leafs, Panthers and Rangers are all in action tomorrow and all lead the Capitals by seven points or less. With a win tomorrow, and a little luck, the Caps could be in a great position to pull themselves into a playoff spot during their upcoming five-game homestand. With a loss, they’re likely to still be in a very deep hole.

Expand/Collapse this Post

Yet another article proclaiming Alexander Ovechkin is possibly headed on his way out, this one is from the Montreal Gazette and titled “Ovechkin joining Habs rare rumour that has legs”. Alright, so fans of Les Habitants can dream, can’t they? But the best part of this article is this:

All it will take is, oh, $120 million over 15 years and a slew of first-round picks.

Caps fans should hope so! Given that the Capitals can match any offer another team signs Ovechkin to, if Ovechkin were accept that offer sheet what he would be doing would be assuring that he would be in a Capitals uniform until he’s 37, at the cost of eight million dollars a year to the Capitals. Think the Caps would take that chance? I do. Of course, Ovechkin knows this (unlike oh so many stupid journalists) and unless he’s willing to commit to D.C. for that long, he won’t sign a 15-year offer sheet.

And I can’t help being offended by this:

Or the Canadiens can go another route: If the Capitals are reasonably certain they’re bound to lose Ovechkin, the Habs might be able to swing a multi-player deal, offering Washington any player on the roster not named Carey Price. The Canadiens get Ovechkin, while the Caps get a balanced lineup capable of winning hockey games.

and referring anyone to an earlier response I had to a similar proposal: No young talent? No depth on the team or in the farm system? Alexander Semin, Shaone Morrison, Boyd Gordon, Matt Pettinger, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, Jeff Schultz, Karl Alzner, Josh Godfrey, Semen Varlamov, Michael Neuvirth, Chris Bourque, Francois Bouchard, Sasha Pokulok. Yeah, the Capitals need more young talent.

Plus they’re 7-5-2 since Boudreau took over. Plus they’ve had a lot of injuries. Plus they just outshot the Canadiens 37-21, so I don’t know that’s the lineup the Caps will want to be pilfering if they’re trying to get better.

Really guys, you’re professional journalists. Is it so hard to do a little research?

Canadiens 5, Capitals 2

How do you outshoot a team 37-21, have more than a 50% advantage over them in scoring chances and still lose? The answer: difference in the quality of netminding. If not for Cristobal Huet’s performance last night the Canadiens, in all likelihood, don’t win that game.

The Canadiens didn’t have a high number of good scoring chances and when the Capitals defense was good it was very good. But when it was bad it was very bad. The Capitals held the Canadiens to only one shot in the first half of the first period (six for the period) and only three for the first nineteen minutes of the second (five in all in the period), but they also conceded the first two goals because they left men wide open in front of their own net.

As for Kolzig: it’s hard to fault a goaltender when their defense leave men wide open in front of the net or let screened shots get through, but it’s also hard to totally absolve a goalie who’s stopped only eight of eleven shots through two periods. The Canadiens first and third goals were stoppable - the first wasn’t a great shot, even though it was in close and the third was through a screen but also wasn’t a great shot. You certainly can’t blame Kolzig on either of those, but it would have been nice if he’d stopped one of them. The Canadiens second goal was one where Olie couldn’t have done much - if your defense is going to let the other team have that opportunity you don’t have much of a chance as a netminder. That said, Kozlig should have done something. He literally didn’t have any of the net covered. Not one. Single. Inch. In fact, Tomas Plekanec had to miss the net to hit Kolzig with the puck (by the way, Merry Christmas, Tomas. If you can’t even hit the net from four feet out with no one one you, you’d better believe it’s a gift when you score.)

The score might give the impression that this way the type of game the team was accustomed to playing under Hanlon. It wasn’t. The Capitals played well for the vast majority of the game, created chances for themselves in the offensive zone and held the Canadiens to 21 shots. This, along with Boudreau’s attitude, gives me faith the Capitals will come out strong next time.

Quick Hits

• Al Koken reported during the third period that Brian Pothier had broken his thumb and is week-to-week. Now’s your chance, Steve. Show us you shouldn’t have been sitting all this time.
• Interesting decision to Boudreau to play Ovechkin on the point with Pothier out and the team in need of goals. I like it.
• Ovechkin needs a new stickhandling move. He does the one he does, where he tries to put the puck through the opponent’s legs and go through them, very well. But he tries it every time he’s one-on-one with a defender. NHL advance scouts are going to pick up on that and NHL defenders are going to stop it when they know it’s coming. Ovie either needs to get a new move or start getting rid of the puck, because all he’s doing now is turning it over.
• Nicklas Backstrom’s goal was a very nice play. Taking a bouncing puck at putting in the net from that angle, with the backhand takes a lot of skill.
• If I were Coach Boudreau I would consider calling Viktor Kozlov into my office and ask him why he thinks it’s so funny that he can’t score goals.
• Did anyone else raise any eyebrow when Craig Lauglin said “this period’s just about over” when there was 8:30 remaining in the second? At that point (8:30) the period was 57.5% over. Does this mean the Capitals had “just about” as many points (70) as the Senators (112) and Red Wings (124) last year?
• While we’re on the subject of Laughlin, he apparently thought his comment that the “teams must think the ice time over over at nine o’clock” was the funniest thing he’s ever heard because he was giggling uncontrollably for a good ten seconds afterwards. What I thought was amusing was that Beninati’s comment that “we’d better get them some orange wedges” that came right after was much better than Laughlin’s.