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.

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

Capitals 4, Lightning 1

Well, the Red Out didn’t seem to be quite as prominent last night as it was on the first against Carolina, but the Capitals pulled out a win against a frustrated Tampa Bay team and put themselves, for tonight at least, in the Eastern Conference’s eight spot.

Even with the two points going to the Capitals, much of the discussion about this game will center on Brooks Laich’s disallowed goal in the first period. I’m sure it will be discussed in detail elsewhere, but I’ll just say that it was simply a bad call - if the referees were going to rule that Tomas Fleischmann had interfered on the play, he should have received an interference minor. To waive off the goal but not call Fleischmann for a penalty is exactly the kind of indecisive need-to-please-everyone attitude that referees need to avoid.

DMG’s 3 Stars
(1) Cristobal Huet - 18 saves on 19 shots (.947 save %)
(2) Alex Ovechkin - 2 goals, 5 shots, 3 hits, +1, 2 blocked shots
(3) Viktor Kozlov - 2 assists, +1, 7 shots

Quick Hits

• As an American hockey fan, it bothers me that John Tortorella is going to coach the U.S. in the World Championships, and his team’s pathetic display at the end of last night’s game didn’t do much to enamor me to him.
• Speaking of which,like any sane Caps fan I love Bruce Boudreau, but he made a big mistake not having Donald Brashear on the ice after Doug Janik’s roughing penalty on Fleischmann.
• If not for a combination of Kari Ramo and the Caps missing by inches, it could have been 5-1 by the end of the first.
• Got to love Matt Cooke because even when he’s not scoring he makes his presence felt, and he had 6 hits last night.
• On the Lightning side, 5 of their 15 hits were from defenseman Matt Smaby.
  

Capitals 4, Lightning 3 (OT)

DMG’s 3 Stars
(1) Tomas Fleischmann - game winning overtime goal, +1
(2) Sergei Fedorov - 2 assists, +1
(3) Brooks Laich - 1 goal (shorthanded), 1 assist, +1

All photos AP/Getty by way of Yahoo!

Washington Capitals at Tampa Bay Lightning
Thursday, March 27th, 2008, 7:30 PM
St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa Bay, Florida
TV: CSN
Last Meeting: 2/16/08, Caps win 3-2

About the Opponent

Tampa Bay Lightning: 30-38-8, 68 points, 5th in the Southeast Division, 15th in the Eastern Conference

Team Leaders
Goals: Vincent Lecavalier (40)
Assists: Martin St. Louis (56)
Points: Vincent Lecavalier (89)
Plus/Minus: Michel Ouellet (+12)
Penalty Minutes: Shane O’Brien (154)
Fights: Andre Roy (12)

Keys to the Game

Washington
Avoid mistakes. The Capitals are a far better team that Tampa Bay and one with much more to play for. They ought to significantly outplay the Lightning and the only way that won’t be reflected on the scoreboard is if the Caps give the Lightning chances to get back in the game with turnovers, soft goals, bad penalties or the like.

Lightning
Slow down the game. Just as an inferior basketball team can keep themselves in the game by running down the shot clock and limiting possessions, an inferior hockey team can keep themselves in the game by mucking up play in the neutral zone and avoiding trading chances at each end.

Players to Watch

Washington
Alex Ovechkin - not exactly a bold prediction but Ovechkin’s had three goals, 2 assists and 20 shots in the two games since the Caps collapse in Chicago and seemed poised to will his team into the postseason.

Lightning
Jeff Halpern - the former Caps captain and 20 goal scorer has rediscovered his offensive touch since being traded to Tampa, where he has put up 15 points (7+8) in 13 games with the Lightning.

Capitals 3, Lightning 2

After losing in Florida and falling to Atlanta in a shootout, the Capitals were desperate to pull out a win in Tampa Bay to finish their swing through the Southeast and they were able to do so behind a resilient team effort and a rock-solid Olie Kolzig. Since there are a number of important issues to touch on from this game, so I’ve given each its own mini-section.

Olaf Kolzig. Clearly the game’s best player (and the difference between a win and a loss) with 39 saves on 41 shots (.951 save %), Kolzig played like he did when he was an all-star and a Vezina Trophy winner. Since going to the more-or-less 60/split in playing time with Brent Johnson, Kolzig’s play has vastly improved. It’s nice as a Caps fan to see that Olie still has some very good minutes left in him….even if there aren’t quite as many as we may have hoped.

Sami Lepisto’s NHL debut. He didn’t exactly set the world on fire in his first NHL game, but the 23-year-old Finn registered a shot, a hit, a blocked shot and some powerplay time. What struck me the most about Lepisto were his poise and calmness with the puck and his skating ability - attributes the Capitals are in dire need of along the blue line right now. Jeff Schultz, John Erskine and Milan Jurcina are all big bodies but they’re also all mediocre skaters and both Erskine and Jurcina are butchers with the puck. The Capitals defense is more balanced, and probably better overall, with Lepisto or Eminger in the lineup every night until Brian Pothier and/or Tom Poti return. Which brings me to…

John Erskine. Okay, I don’t have any objective analysis to prove anything but it seems to me that there is a very high correlation between the Capitals opponents’ getting quality scoring chances and Erskine being on the ice, which seemed to especially be true during last night’s game. I like Erskine’s attitude and style of play, but he is such a poor skater and is so bad with the puck that he is a liability against most NHL caliber forwards. While I think he’s an okay depth guy, I don’t think Erskine should be getting playing time ahead of any of the Capitals other current defensemen.

Secondary scoring. The Capitals scored three goals, which isn’t an offensive explosion by any means. But the fact that they potted three from players not named Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Viktor Kozlov or Mike Green was nice. It’s even better that Alexander Semin and Tomas Fleischmann each seem to be finding a groove offensively.

Horrible television announcers. I think that fans of teams in Southern locales are too often unfairly dismissed as ignorant about the game of hockey, but if there is any truth to this stereotype I’m pretty sure it’s a result of the guys doing the games on TV in these markets. In the past I’ve detailed the follies of the Atlanta Thrashers’ announcers and in the Capitals game on the other night against Florida the Panthers commentators were not too impressive either. But I think Bobby “The Chief” Taylor takes the cake with his comment during last night’s game. With about two minutes left their was a brief scrum that start in front of the Capitals net. Taylor blamed this on David Steckel, saying “What is that? I never understood that. If you’re going to fight, then fight, but if you’re not then just turn around and skate away. What is that? That’s a bunch of crap!” There are a lot of thing wrong with that assessment including (1) if you don’t know why that happens, you really probably don’t know much about hockey and (2) Steckel gave a pretty innocent little push on a Tampa player’s arm and the Tampa player then cross-checked him. But really that’s irrelevant. What really matters is that Taylor demonstrated a complete lack of maturity and professionalism and if the person who is supposed to provide insightful commentary on hockey is pouting like a twelve-year-old fan of the team, it’s no wonder that Southern hockey fans aren’t schooled in the game’s finer points.

DMG’s 3 Stars
(1) Olaf Kolzig - 39 saves on 41 shots (95.1 save %) and clearly the best player on either team
(2) Alexander Semin - 1 goal (game winner), 1 assists, +1, 6 shots,
(3) Tomas Fleischmann - 1 goal

Quotable

“He didn’t seemed fazed at all. He was making great plays and he played within himself.”

-Bruce Boudreau on Sami Lepisto

“Kolzig gets credit the whole game. He’s the difference.”

-Lightning coach John Tortorella

Quick Hits

• Another rough night on the faceoff dot for Viktor Kozlov - he won just two of nine draws.
• Someone should just tell Dave Steckel to imagine Lightning uniforms on every opponent. Steckel now has five NHL goals, four of which have come against Tampa Bay.
• On the official scoresheet the Capitals were outhit 27-19
• How nice was it to see how excited Semin was after his goal?
  

Around the (Inter)net
A New York Times intensive version today: the seven best trades the NYT could come up with and why the Southeast’s big time scorers aren’t on winning teams…now that he’s been fired, everyone cares what John Ferguson Jr. thinks of the Leafs…Celebrating the Top 10 U.S.-Born Fighters

All photos AP/Getty by way of Yahoo!

Washington Capitals at Tampa Bay Lightning
Saturday, February 16th, 2008, 7:30
St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida
TV: CSN
Last Meeting: 12/16/2007, Caps win 3-2

About the Opponent

Tampa Bay Lightning: 25-27-6, 56 points, 5th in the Southeast Division, 14th in the Eastern Conference.

Team Leaders
Goals: Vincent Lecavalier (32)
Assists: Martin St. Louis (49)
Points: Vincent Lecavalier (75)
Plus/Minus: tie - Vincent Lecavalier and Michel Ouellet (+5)
Penalty Minutes: Shane O’Brien (124)
Fights: Andre Roy (10)

Random Lightning Fact
Vincent Lecavalier was named captain of the Lightning on March 11, 2000 at the age of 19 years and 11 months. At the time he was the youngest captain in NHL history, surpassing Steve Yzerman who was named captain of the Red Wings when he was 21 years, 5 months.

Random Lightning Statistic
Center Brad Richards‘ -26 plus/minus rating is the worst in the NHL this season.

Keys to the Game

Washington
Secondary scoring. Yeah, it’s probably going to be that for a while.

Tampa Bay
Get physical. The Lightning are a team built more on speed and skill than grit and physicality but with the Capitals playing back-to-back road games, Tampa would benefit from griding it out as much as possible.

Players to Watch

Washington
Sami Lepisto - if he gets in the lineup it will be interesting to see what Lepisto can do…and if he can play well enough to get playing time away from John Erskine.

Tampa Bay
Vinny Prospal - Ever since their 2005 Cup run, people have talked about Tampa’s “Big Three” of Richards, St. Louis and Lecavalier, but Prospal is an offensive threat as well - and already has 26 goals and 54 points so far this season.

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Capitals 3, Lightning 2

It took overcoming a hot goaltender on a video-reviewed goal in the final minutes of the third, but when the final horn sounded Capitals fan were able to breathe a sigh of relief as their team came out on top in a game that at times looked like it could become yet another game in which the Capitals outplayed the opposition but were unable to pull out a win.

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