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.

On Monday the Senators and Hurricanes completed a trade (an increasingly rare transaction in the post-lockout NHL), as the ‘Canes sent forward Cory Stillman and defenseman Mike Commodore to Ottawa for winger Patrick Eaves and defenseman Joe Corvo.

As the Capitals primarily threat in the Southeast Division, any move that affects the Hurricanes affects the Capitals as well. As a whole this trade is pretty fair as the Senators picked up a forward to help their offense beyond the dynamo line of Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza and another solid defender, while the Hurricanes get a more offensive inclined defenseman and a young winger. But this trade is more about the future than about the remainder of the 2007-08 season for the Hurricanes. While Stillman and Commodore are both unrestricted free agent this July, Eaves can still be held as a restricted free agent for another couple seasons and Corvo’s contract runs through the 2009-10 season.

All things considered this will probably end up being a fairly good trade for Carolina, but for the rest of this season the reality is they’ve given up a forward who was tied for second on the team in goals and was fourth in points and their best all around defenseman for a winger who will probably become a top six forward (but isn’t at this point) and a puck moving defenseman (who is nicknamed ‘Uh-oh’ for his defensive shortcomings and has some off-ice issues, to say the least). The ‘Canes aren’t exactly waiving the white flag, but with this move the Capitals should have a less difficult time winning the division.

Around the (Inter)net
The Caps recalled Sami Lepisto…Are the Islanders already training guys to become the Broad Street Bullies of the new millennium?…You know how they always say you hate to play against Sean Avery but you’d love to have him as a teammate? Apparently that’s not the case…Bruce Boudreau has Darren Eliot’s vote for Coach of the Year.

Capitals 4, Senators 2

The Capitals, behind a three-point night from Alexander Semin, a strong outing from Brent Johnson and a team total of 21 blocked shots*, swept the season series from the Eastern Conference leading Ottawa Senators and improved to 2-1 on their current homestand.

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Ottawa Senators at Washington Capitals
Tuesday, January 14th, 2008
Verizon Center in Washington D.C.
Last Meeting: 1/1/2008: Capitals win 6-3

The Capitals look to both get back over .500 on their current homestand and get back to the winning ways they’ve become accustomed to under Coach Bruce Boudreau against the Senators tonight. With a win the Capitals would complete an unexpected sweep of the season series against the Eastern Conference’s best team and while it might seem improbable, so have each of Caps’ wins against the Senators so far this season - while I wouldn’t necessarily expect the Capitals to win, I wouldn’t bet against them either.

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Capitals 6, Senators 3

After being surprisingly well outplayed for the first five minutes the Capitals swiftly mounted a comeback, taking a lead less than three minutes later and controlling the game for most of the remaining fifty-five minutes. Who’s the first place team and who’s the last place team again?

What the Capitals are showing is that they are a playoff caliber team. With this win they are 10-5-4 under Boudreau (a 104 point pace), have beaten Ottawa twice, tied Detroit and been competitive in every game they’ve played. The only questions at this point are whether they were in too deep a hole when Boudreau took over and whether or not they can stay healthy.

DMG’s 3 Stars
(1) Mike Green - 2 goals, 1 assist, +3
(2) Brooks Laich - 1 goal (game winner), 1 assist, +2
(3) Alexander Ovechkin - 2 assists, 5 hits, +1

Quotable

“You can tell they feel confident playing us. I mean, you see them playing tonight, you’d think they would be at the top of the standings.”

Quick Hits

• Throwing Ray Emery into an already physical, high-tempo, high-pressure game? I guess that’s what you’d call the “lesser of two evils”.
• Apparently Craig Laughlin either thinks Alexander Semin is a defenseman or thinks the average NHL team dresses only five defensemen. This may also be due to the fact that he apparently thinks NHL teams dress nineteen players for games.
• Pettinger’s apparently still snakebitten - he made a good read, took the puck to the net and got off a nice shot which was met by Martin Gerber’s only good save of the afternoon and was later stopped by Emery on what Craig Laughlin called the “save of the game”.
• Bad decision by Semin to go after Chris Phillips and negate the upcoming powerplay. Bad call by the referees as well. Each should have received two for roughing and Phillips should have received two more for boarding.
• When a guy like Brashear can protect players and lay heavy hits he’s doing his job, but when he’s able to get the other team to take penalties you can’t ask for anything more.
• When Hanlon did it I was critical of playing Brashear on the powerplay, however I think it was the right decision to put him out there for the last 23 seconds of the first after the Senators went down two men for a couple reasons, neither of which is that I love Coach Boudreau. One is that between the war of words coming from the Sens after last game (sore losers), the way the Senators were clearly frustrated with Brashear and Ray Emery’s temper it was possible that the Senators could take yet another stupid penalty going after Brash. The other is that with how frustrated the Ottawa players were getting it wouldn’t have been surprising to see rough stuff erupt at the buzzer without a guy like Brash on the ice.

All photos AP

As I mentioned before I’d gotten a bit lazy during the holiday season because, well, that’s what the holidays are all about. As part of my laziness I’d stopped writing gameday previews. Well, I’m trying to start the New Year off right (so far, so good) and with that in mind I’ve adopted a new format for gameday previews. As always, suggestions as to what sections aren’t really helpful or interesting, what it might be nice to add or layout suggestions are welcome. And awaaaaay we go!

Ottawa Senators at Washington Capitals
Tuesday January 1, 2008, 4:00 pm
Verizon Center in Washington D.C.

For all their struggles this year the Capitals have been able to handle the Senators, the Eastern Conference’s best team, notching a 4-1 victory on November 8th and a wild 8-6 win December 29th to close out 2007. It might seem too much to expect to think the Capitals can defeat the best in the East three times in a row but then, how implausible did it seem they would beat them in November? How plausible did it seem they would beat the Sens two games in a row? You can bet Coach Boudreau and the boys are expecting a win tomorrow afternoon and Caps fans should too.

About the Opponent

Ottawa Senators (25-9-4, 54 points, 1st in the Northeast Division, 1st in the Eastern Conference)

Team Leaders
Goals: Daniel Alfredsson (24)
Assists: Jason Spezza (35)
Points: Dany Heatley (52)
Penalty Minutes: Chris Neil (98)

Betcha Didn’t Know….
The modern-day Senators were founded by real estate developer Bruce Firestone, who suggested it to other executives at his company (Terrace Investments) after a game of shinny.

Random Senators Statistic:
During the 2004-05 season Brian McGrattan had 551 penalty minutes in 71 games for the Senators AHL affiliate in Binghamton, New York.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Stay out of the box. The Senators have so much firepower that it’s a challenge just to stop them 5-on-5, so the Capitals can’t afford to give them extra opportunities.

Ottawa
Outwork the Capitals. There’s no doubt Ottawa is the better team but the Capitals, especially after Boudreau took over, work in all three zones and play a full sixty minutes. The Senators will have to match that if they want to win. As Coach Boudreau said, “Hockey is a simple game. It come down to the will and the want. If you want it more than them, and you’re willing to pay the price more than them, you’re going to have success.”

Players to Watch

Washington
Olaf Kolzig - Kolzig has been struggling over the last several weeks and although he has looked better he hasn’t has that great game to let everyone know he’s back on track. With how much firepower the Senators have Kolzig can’t allow any softies and may have to make a big save or two for the Capitals to win.

Ottawa
Mike Fischer - He’s not going to put up another hat trick, but Fischer’s performance in this game could be the difference between a win and a loss for the Senators. If Fischer can build off last game’s outburst and be the catalyst for secondary scoring Senators fans and management hope he can the team becomes a lot harder to handle. A team with two scoring threat lines is always harder to handle than a team with only one - even if that one is Heatley, Spezza and Alfredsson.

Prediction:
Both teams button down and play tight defense after the 8-6 shootout north of border a few days ago, with the Capitals prevailing 3-2 in front of a large (and enthusiastic) New Year’s matinée crowd.

Capitals 8, Senators 6

On one hand the Capitals scored eight times against the best team in the Eastern Conference, held the Senators to just two shots (!) in the first period and dominated the play for much of the game. On the other hand they also let the Senators get a number of good scoring chances, gave up two short-handed goals and nearly squandered the three-goal lead they have going into the third. Incidentally, the officiating was terrible.

Offensively the Capitals eight goal output speaks for itself, but the question as to why this offensive outburst is relevant and I think it’s because of the way the top two lines are put together; that right now the Ovechkin/Backstrom/Kozlov and Fleischmann/Nylander/Semin combinations are ideal.

Obviously first line discussion begins with Ovechkin. Backstrom looks like a better center for him because he plays the type of game Ovechkin does (fast moving, looking to jump on opponent’s mistakes) better than Nylander, who is more inclined to play a puck-control game and wait for something to open up. Viktor Kozlov seems to play a better game and have more energy and confidence when he plays with Ovechkin and since Fleischmann and Semin don’t seem to be able to click with the Great Eight the Caps aren’t missing much by having those guys on line two. Plus, Semin and Nylander seem to work pretty well together as Nylander is content to hold the puck and wait for Semin to find a seam in the opposition’s defense. And once Semin gets the puck with a little time and space in the slot, look out.

Defensively the Capitals were all over the place, oftentimes dominant but also unsettlingly easy to break. That’s not to take anything away from the Senators - the plays by Fisher and Alfredsson to get shorthanded breakaways were great plays, as were Fischer’s deflections and Spezza’s slapshot (though Kolzig should have that one). It might be tempting for Caps fans to do some hand-wringing over it but I, for one, am not too concerned because these goals aren’t going to happen all that often. Kolzig has looked pretty solid the last few games and I think he’s done allowing really soft goals on a regular basis, Tom Poti’s not going to put one in his own net off his hand very often, the opposition isn’t generally going to get two goals off great deflections and the Caps have generally been solid enough defensively they won’t allow as many odd-man rushes as they did last night. The Caps had an off-night defensively against a very good offensive team. It happens to every team and until it happens at least in consecutive games I won’t worry about it.

Speaking of off-nights, the referees didn’t have their best night either (to say the least). They missed at least one too-many-men call for each team, missed Brashear getting Gerber behind the Sens net, called Fleischmann for hooking a Senators player but not a Senators player for hooking Fleischmann only a second earlier (which caused the turnover and led to the hook by Flash), got Morrisonn for interference but not the Senators playing for holding onto Morrisonn’s jersey on the way down (see picture) and let Kozlov get run into the boards, from behind, without the puck, after the whistle by Chris Phillips. The only consolation is that it didn’t seem to affect the outcome of the game - the Capitals were the better team and won.

The Caps picked up one point relative to the last playoff spot in the East and are now only five out.

DMG’s 3 Stars
(1) Alex Ovechkin - 4 goals, 1 assist, +2…who else could it be?
(2) Alex Semin - 1 goal, 2 assists
(3) Nicklas Backstrom - 1 goal, 2 assists, +1

Quick Hits

• Poti’s play to control the puck with his skates and make a quick pass to Ovechkin for Ovechkin’s second goal could easily became the overlooked play of the game.
• I mocked Chris Neil after his fight with Brashear but I have to hand it to the guy - apparently getting the crap kicked out of you is great way to fire up your team.
• The only Capitals player who wasn’t either positive or even in +/- was David Steckel.
• I’ve really been wanting to have Ovechkin have a big game so I could say that the fire eye’d boy gave ‘em all the slip. So…there’s my ultra-smooth way to include indie music in my writeup.

All photos AP

Capitals 4, Senators 1

The Capitals came into Ottawa Thursday night in last place in the Eastern Conference and beat the NHL-leading Senators (now 13-2-0) in a 4-1 game at Scotiabank Place.

Going into this game I don’t think anyone could have said they expected the Capitals to win, but I had a sneaking suspicion the team stood a better chance than most gave them. My logic? Everything has gone right for the Senators so far this season and nothing had gone right for the Capitals. Given that it just seemed like things were going to have to turn around a bit.

The struggling offense picked up four goals and in honor of a decent offensive output I’m going to break down each goal:

1. 12:10 in Period 2. Kozlov from Ovechkin; Morrisonn. You could tell Kozlov was relieved after his goal - the look on his face just said “finally“. By his reaction I immediately thought to myself ‘This could be the play that gets him back on track’.
2. 14:27 in Period 2. Backstrom from Kozlov; Nylander. Hats off to Backstrom for getting his first NHL goal. And speaking of reactions, how about his? First career NHL goal, out of midair, off the goalie’s back, to put his struggling team ahead 2-0 and he gets up and skates off the ice like nothing happened. This is the same kid who’s played with more poise than most veterans and who when asked if he’d seen the monuments in the D.C. responded “I came here to play hockey. I want to see the rink.” He’s going to be something special. He was at least a little happy about things though - I saw him crack a smile on the bench afterwards.
3. 17:55 in Period 2. Fleischmann from Kozlov. Flash’s goal was beautiful, as was the pass from Kozlov to set it up. What was interested was how the Sens broadcast highlighted Fleischmann’s play leading up to his goal. He came off the bench, streaked into the play and called for the puck. That’s a kind of confidence he simply didn’t have at the season’s outset.
4. 16:14 of Period 3. Ovechkin from Laich. In terms of this game it was just icing on the cake. But Ovechkin had only one point in the previous four games coming into tonight; hopefully this gets him going again.

It’s not like the game was a shootout though. The Caps held the potent (even without

Jason Spezza) Senators offense to just one goal on 28 shots. The Sens were also 0-5 on the powerplay. Kolzig was solid through the first two frames but really shined in the third period.

In the standings this is only two points but in the larger scheme of things it could be a lot more than that for the Capitals. The Caps were able to beat the best team in the NHL, on the road, without two of their top six forwards. And it isn’t like the Caps barely managed to squeeze out a victory - they outshot the Senators and were the better team (see quote below). What this does is serve as proof to the Capitals that they can beat anybody in the NHL, and the way things have gone this team needs that confidence boost.

The key now is going to be taking that confidence and the solid effort in this game and using it build momentum. The Caps may only be 6-9-1, but they’re also two points out of the eight spot in the East and four points out of the fifth spot. If the team is able to pick up momentum and go on a run, winning several games in a row, five out of six, seven out of nine or something like that they’ll be in a nice spot. Obviously in any case there’s a lot of hockey left in the 2007-08 season but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be nice to be sitting at a playoff spot after 25 or 30 games.

Next up? Tampa Bay (1-7 -0 on the road), Saturday night, in D.C.

The Senators’ television announcers were full of good points about the Capitals tonight:

• “I don’t think it’s fair to judge this team without their captain Chris Clark and Alexander Semin.”
• “You have to feel like this is a better team that their record indicates.”
• “If just one or two bounces go the Capitals way in close games this season, they’re looking a lot better.”

I wish some Capitals fans (particularly those calling for the heads of Hanlon and McPhee) could realize this. However I think my favorite Sens’ announcers quote was this:

The Capitals [fully] deserved the win. They were the better team tonight.

Quick Hits

• A number of the Caps younger players who I thought had looked shaky are looking better every game, particularly Schultz and Fleischmann. I’m willing to bet it has a lot to do with Glen Hanlon.
• Chris Bourque has looked real solid so far. He can obviously skate, looks like he has a good skill set, seems like a smart player and doesn’t shy away from contact. It’s not like he came out of nowhere though - he was picked 34th overall despite being only 5′6” or 5′7” before people realized just how much the game would change to make size less important after the lockout. I don’t know that he’s ready for full time NHL duty yet once Semin and Clark come back but he sure doesn’t seem far away.

• Anton Volchenkov left in the first with a leg injury after being hit by an Ovechkin shot. While it didn’t go in the net at least this time Ovechkin manged to injure someone on the other team.