Capitals 3, Devil 4 (SO)

Lou Lamoriello has been the general manager of the New Jersey Devils since 1987 and in the twenty-plus seasons he’s had to shape the organization a visit from the Devils has generally meant one thing: a low-scoring, defensive-minded game. But on Saturday night the Devils deviated from their typical strategy, taking the Capitals own game to them, notching thirty-seven shots and weathering eight Capitals powerplays en route to a 4-3 shootout win in a game that featured a fair amount of wide open play and teams trading scoring chances.

The major problems for the Capitals were twofold last night. One was relatively straightforward: the Capitals powerplay only converted one of eight chances. In fact, on at least two of the man advantages the Capitals didn’t even get a shot off. But the Caps have one of the best collections of skilled players in the NHL and the powerplay has still converted 18.5% of its chances this season, even after last night. Even the league’s best have a bad night every now and then.

The bigger concern is that the Capitals once again started slowly despite Bruce Boudreau’s emphasis on a quick start during the team’s preparation for the game. Obviously the team’s start against New Jersey wasn’t as dire as the ones against Pittsburgh, Chicago, or Atlanta, where the team was outscored by a combined total of 8-2 and outshot by a total of 31-23. But the Capitals were outshot by 14-9, including 11-3 at one point, and tied the period. Going into the intermission with the score level isn’t necessarily a bad thing but through five games, the Capitals still have yet to win a first period. As adept as the team has become at coming back under Boudreau, it’s not feasible to expect to win every game having to do so. Plus, comebacks take a lot out of team and come March, April, and the playoffs the Capitals are still going to want to have something left in the tank.

Caps Blue Line 3 Stars
(1) Alexander Semin – 2 goals, +1
(2) Mike Green – 1 goal, 3 shots, 2 shot blocks, 34:05 of ice time
(3) Brent Johnson

Quick Hits

• Alexander Semin’s $4.2 million salary is really starting to look like a bargain, isn’t it?
• Alexander Ovechkin is still really pressing.
• Nicklas Backstrom had his best game of the season thus far, skating the way he did in the post-Hanlon portion of last season.  It might be because he’s getting in better shape: Al Koken said that Backstrom showed up about twenty pounds heavier this season, probably not a shock to many Capitals fans, but still interesting given that he’s actually listed at twenty pounds lighter than he was last year.
• If I told you I would offer you fifty dollars if you correctly guess whether John Erskine would wind up with more puck-over-the-glass delay of game penalties or points, which would you choose?

New Jersey Devils at Washington Capitals
Saturday, October 18th, 2008, 7:00 PM
Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
TV: CSN

About the Opponent

New Jersey Devils: 3-1-0, 6 points, 2nd in the Atlantic Division, 5th in the Eastern Conference

Team Leaders
Goals: tie - Zach Parise and Patrik Elias (2)
Assists: Brian Gionta (2)
Points: Zach Parise (3)
Plus/Minus: Colin White (+4)
Penalty Minutes: tie - Colin White and Jamie Langenbrunner (8)
Fights: tie - David Clarkson and Michael Rupp (1)

Random Devils Statistic
Through their first four games the Devils have scored just six goals. Their 1.5 goals per game average is currently the worst in the NHL.

Keys to the Game

Washington
(1) Stay out of the box. The Capitals have been shorthanded twenty-four times this season, tied for fifth most in the NHL and the team’s 70.8% penalty kill success rate is twenty-fifth in the league.
(2) Start fast. In the Capitals four games this season they’ve scored first only once, they’ve given up the first three goals in each of their other games, and they’ve been outscored 8-2 in the first period. You can’t play like that and keep winning games, especially against a team like the Devils.

New Jersey
Work the trap and slow the game down. Despite their advantage in goal, the last thing the Devils want is to get in a run-and-gun game where the teams are trading chances. Plus a slow, boring game will negate the effect of what should be a sellout crowd.

Players to Watch

Washington
Alexander Ovechkin - he’s due for his 2008-09 breakout game and I have a feeling it will come tonight.

New Jersey
Zach Parise - the University of North Dakota product is the Devils best all around offensive player in terms of scoring ability, playmaking skill, and consistency and is one of the most difficult to contain. If anyone’s going to give the Capitals trouble, it’s likely to be Parise.
Brian Gionta - Gionta’s biggest asset is his speed and facing a defense that’s like to include Milan Jurcina and John Erskine, that could be trouble for the Capitals.

With two of their three new acquisitions in the lineup, the Capitals look to gain some ground in the standings against Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils. New lines are an inevitability when a team makes personnel changes and here’s what the Capitals are expected to come out with, according to Tarik El-Bashir:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Kozlov
Semin-Fedorov-Laich
Fleischmann-Gordon-Fehr
Brashear-Steckel-Bradley/Laing

Very solid job on the part of Bruce Boudreau. My initial reaction was that there’s not a clear shutdown/checking line with these lines, which is always the first thing I look for since I’m a big married to the idea. However, these top three lines can all score and are all sound defensively as all have good two-way centers (plus Alex Ovechkin and Brooks Laich are very good defensive players as well). Despite how good the lines look right now, my guess would be that when Matt Cooke arrives Eric Fehr will be a scratch, Tomas Fleischmann will be moved up to the second line and Laich will move to the third line, creating a checking line with Cooke and Gordon. Or maybe I just really like the idea of having a checking line.

Washington Capitals at New Jersey Devils
Friday, February 29th, 7:00 PM
Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey
TV: CSN
Last Meeting: 2/25/08, Caps lose 2-1 in overtime

About the Opponent

37-21-6, 80 points, 1st in the Atlantic Division, 1st in the Eastern Conference

Team Leaders
Goals: Zach Parise (25)
Assists: Zach Parise (30)
Points: Zach Parise (55)
Plus/Minus: Paul Martin (+20)
Penalty Minutes: David Clarkson (153)
Fights: David Clarkson (17)

Random Devils Fact
Martin Brodeur’s 48 wins in 2006-07 set a single-season record.

Random Devils Statistic
Total number of professional hockey games played by Devil’s general manager Lou Lamoriello: 0.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Smart decisions. The Devils generate most of their offense on the counter attack and powerplay. If the Capitals can avoid turning the puck over and taking dumb penalties it will go a long way towards snuffing out New Jersey’s attack.

New Jersey
Puck possession. The Capitals defense still isn’t great, but their forwards are smart and explosive. The best way to keep the Capitals off the board will be to keep the puck in their zone.

Players to Watch

Washington
Steve Eminger. Nah, not really, I just wanted to come up with the most random guy I could think of to raise some eyebrows, because every Caps fan knows the players to watch tonight are Sergei Fedorov and Cristobal Huet.

Devils
Zach Parise - Parise is a prototypical post-lockout player in that he doesn’t have great size but does have great skill and skating ability; he’s the prototypical Devils player because he’s smart, good defensively and plays for the team. Plus he leads the team in goals, assists and points so…he’s probably a guy the Caps should keep an eye on.

Around the (Inter)net
The Hurricanes lost last night; the Capitals now have three games in had and are five points back meaning that they can get the division lead back by winning each of the games in hand. Perhaps the Capitals biggest challenger for feel-good story of the year, Darwin Head…Kozlig again talks retirement…The Capitals get a A- from Yahoo! and an 8.5 from ESPN for their deadline moves.

Capitals 1, Devils 2 (OT)

Marty Brodeur is really good at hockey.

All photos AP/Getty by way of Yahoo!

Capitals 3, Devils 2

Before I get into the game recap, I’d like to look at what was the most exciting part of the night (other than the final buzzer) for me: Quintin Laing’s first NHL goal.

For those who may not know, Laing is 28 years old and prior to joining the Caps this year had played three NHL games, all in the 2003-04 season with Chicago. Laing has been playing professionally since 2000 in places like Jackson, Mississippi, Norfolk and Hershey. He’s blocked nine shots in his first four games with the Caps, twice blocking four. He grinds, he works, he hits, he gives up the body and now, at age 28 and after more than six full seasons in the pros, he is an NHL goal scorer. The fact that his goal was the game winner makes it even sweeter.

Just three days after being beaten by a goal in Newark, and called out by their coach, the Capitals returned the favor on home ice behind goals by Nicklas Backstrom, Jeff Schultz and Laing.

The Capitals were solid in the first, dominant in the second and came out looking like crap in the third. While there are no excuses for coming out as disorganized as the Capitals did in that period, it looks worse than it was because of the fact that Olaf Kolzig let in a goal he simply shouldn’t have. It was a decent play by David Clarkson to win the puck behind the net, pull down the Capitals defenseman (either Schultz or Shaone Morrisonn) without being noticed by the officials and put the puck on net, but Kolzig has to have that puck. Period.

I think it’s worth noting what helped the Caps get back on track: a great shift by Bradley, Laing and David Steckel. That’s exactly what you want your third/fourth/checking line to do - go out and create momentum for your team and keep the puck away from the opposition when they seem like they’ve got things going.

Next up: Rangers, in D.C., on Friday.

DMG’s 3 Stars
(1) Quintin Laing - 1 goal (the game winner), +1
(2) Nicklas Backstrom - 1 goal, +1
(3) John Erskine - 2 assists

Quick Hits

• Man, does Nicklas Backstrom ever have some poise with the puck in front of the net.
• Milan Jurcina had six hits; Schultz had three for the second game in a row (Ovechkin had five; Brash had three)
• Whether or not the play at the end of the first should have been reviewed to see whether the Caps should have had a goal is debatable, and that debate took away from something important on the play: Tomas Fleischmann going hard to the front of the net and digging around. Look like Fleischmann may be realizing that, despite his successes in the AHL, he isn’t skilled enough to get by on skill alone at the NHL level.
• Is it wrong that as soon as Craig Laughlin said “to me, that’s not a kick”, suggesting the Devils goal would stand I thought ‘Oh, good, this is getting waived off’? Seriously, Laughlin has be awful this year at predicting when goals would be called off/allowed to stand. But then this is also the same guy who tonight said “getting that shot [from the point] through is a skill and the Caps’ young defensemen have been able to do it all season long”.
• Tough guy, that David Clarkson. Wouldn’t go with Brashear off the draw early in their shifts about five minutes into the third but had no problem shoving Brash in the back after the whistle at the end of the shift.
• Brian Pothier was scratched again - no surprise with how this lineup played against Atlanta a few days ago.
• With his goal tonight Jeff Schultz leads the team with a 27.2 shooting percentage. Just sayin’…

Capitals 2, Devils 3

The frustrating thing for fans (and for the team as well, I’m sure) is that other than their momentary lapses (Pothier’s pass, Green’s penalties) and bad breaks (Ovechkin having his shot off the post go out; Travis Zajac’s goal) the Capitals played well, and if the Devils don’t have Martin Brodeur in net, I’m not sure so they win that game. Considering the Capitals were missing their captain (Clark), their number one center (Nylander) and their best defensive forward (Gordon), they played very well for most of the game.

Regular readers know you’re not going to make it through very many of my write-ups (for this season at least) without a mention of the bad luck the Capitals have faced and here it is: The Devils third goal, scored by Zajac is the latest example of horrible luck for the Caps: guys getting tied up; mixed up down low and the puck comes both right in front of the wide-open net and right onto the offensive player’s stick. That’s only happened against the Capitals this year; it doesn’t happen for them.

The unfortunate reality, I think, is that this just isn’t that Capitals year. They can’t get bounces, can’t get calls, can’t even get the ice to freeze at Verizon Center and have been dealing with injuries to key players since training camp. The bad news is that it may be time to accept the team’s fate of another year out of the playoffs, another lottery pick and another season of crowds of 13,000 at the Verizon Center for Caps games.

The good news is that I don’t think all that much has changed from the start of the season to now really. Were it not for injuries, bad luck and timely mistakes the Capitals could easily be in the playoff race. Alexander Ovechkin is still one of the best players in the game, Alexander Semin is still capable of scoring forty goals in a season, Clark and Matt Pettinger are still solid two way players, Gordon and Dave Steckel are still good shutdown forwards, Mike Green is going to be an all-star caliber player before too long, Tom Poti can log a lot of important minutes, if someone else can step up to play with Shaone Morrisonn the Capitals will have a very good shutdown defensive pairing and Boudreau seems to be doing an excellent job coaching the team thus far. Add that to the fact Karl Alzner, Chris Bourque and (very likely) a very high draft pick (Steve Stamkos?) will be ready to compete for roster spots and Jaromir Jagr will be off the books for the Caps and things still look pretty bright for next season.

Maybe it seems silly to be talking about next season three weeks before Christmas and maybe in some ways it’s premature. After all, I’m not quite ready to call it quits on the 07-08 campaign yet (but I am very close). The point I was making is just that, although the Capitals have been very disappointing this year, most of the cause of the preseason excitement is still going to be around next year. This organization still has a wealth of young, talented players and that’s not going to change. The Capitals will be a force in the Eastern Conference before too long.

As for the present: the Capitals are now 9-17-2, a full ten points out of a playoff spot and in need of a serious run, a Devils-esque (nine in a row) run in fact. If they’re going to there’s no better time to start than Saturday night: playing at home coming off a tough loss and facing the Thrasher who . . . you know, suck.

Quick Hits

• Eleven minutes into the first period shots were 4-1, Capitals. Five shots. In eleven minutes. For both teams combined. That’s Devils hockey for ya, folks.
• The Caps were dominated in the physical game. Period.
• That said, the Devils were lucky the refs were fairly lenient. There were about a half dozen potential interference minors, none of which were called.
• Thank you, Alexander Semin, for reminding us just how good you can be.
• I was surprised to see Langenbrunner back on the ice after he went hard into the boards - from how he was favoring his right arm I was sure it was broken.
• Joe Motzko had a really nice play in the first where he cleared what would have been a sure goal out of the crease and into the corner. Great awareness.
• Credit where credit’s due: David Clarkson did a great job frustrating Ovechkin in the offensive zone.
• At one point one of the Devils announcers said Jeff Schultz “low-bridged” David Clarkson. I’m pretty sure that for Jeff Schultz to “low-bridge” anyone they’d have to be about nine feet tall. Plus, Schultz actually stood him up.