Washington Capitals' Fury Unleashed

For the Love of the Game...

2010-09-21T21:28:00.000-04:00

Late last week, the NHL fleshed out the details on the new ban on hits to the head. It's totally reactionary, obviously, but it addresses a problem that isn't exactly new, and while it still leaves some interpretation up to the ref, I believe it's a step in the right direction.

What I think everyone wants from the NHL is a commitment to protecting their players, not unlike what people expect from the NFL, which is by popular sports in North America standards, just as rough, if not rougher than hockey (albeit much slower). The NFL receives criticism from all directions for different things they do with the rulebook, among other things. However, where the NFL really truly succeeds is they make sure their investments, the players, are as safe as they could possibly be. The NHL has failed their players on that front, up until the implementation of this new rule.

Last year we saw hits that ranged from boneheaded to completely senseless, and completely disregarding someone else's livelihood, that really had absolutely no place in hockey. While Marc Savard isn't typically a person I'd feel sympathetic towards, he is still feeling the effects of post-concussion syndrome, and that alone should be enough to make banning these hits from the league completely.

The NHL released this video to put some emphasis on what they deem a shot to the head..

And I really want to say "it's about time." However, it is still leaving the enforcement of this rule up to refs who have a hard time calling tripping properly, so I guess only time will tell.

This pretty much sums up the 4th game of the series...

2010-04-22T01:50:00.000-04:00

Yes, we most certainly did get to diva Carey Price tonight. First he shot a puck at Jeff Schultz and then took a swipe at Nick Backstrom from the bench, which is of course, pictured above. For real though, Caps won 6-3, they were the better team tonight and were rewarded. I don't think the refs really came into play, of course, any penalties called on the Habs were just stupid penalties that they took themselves.

I gotta believe the Caps are in the Habs heads right now. Habs are down 3-1 going back to Washington, where the Caps had an impressive 24-10-7 at the Verizon Center throughout the regular season. Yeah, yeah, I know, regular season doesn't count in the post-season, whatever.

Montreal is making a big stink about Ovechkin snowing one of the Canadiens' little kid flag bearers on his way to the bench. Ovi apparently had mistaken the kid for Brian Gionta, and that was the reason for the snowing, but for real, why do they put kids in front of the Caps door to the bench anyway? I don't care if it's what they normally do, it's stupid. Just like booing the American National Anthem. I really hope the VC applauds VERY loud for "O Canada" on Friday, and then I hope the Caps send the midgets home.

I have all the respect in the world for the second most decorated sports franchise, but I can't wait for the Rogue, Blanc, et Bleu to say Au Revoir to the playoffs. Writing this entry has made me hungry for some poutine. Out.

My Take on Alexander Ovechkin Being Suspended for 2 Games...

2010-03-16T18:35:00.000-04:00

WHO CARES?

It's not as if the Capitals now have to deal with trying to clinch a playoff spot without their best player in the line up. As a matter of a fact, if the NHL forces the Caps to forfeit every game for the rest of the year, they're still in the playoffs, and they'd be a top 3 seed, at that, this much is a guarantee, folks. We can argue at length about why Ovechkin should have been suspended, or why he shouldn't be suspended, but the fact of the matter is, IT DOESN'T MATTER. The suspension has already happened, Colin Campbell's decision still stands, and yes, his non-decision on Matt Cooke and Steve Downie still stand as well. I can't be bothered with whether or not a hit is suspension worthy, especially when the clowns in the NHL offices can't be bothered with laying out clear framework on what's clean, and what's dirty. That's all I have to say on that. Now can we all just shut up and play some hockey?

Finally breaking out of my post-Olympic funk, much like Ovechkin.

2010-03-10T17:10:00.000-05:00

Ah, it's been a while, I'm sorry for not writing here, I was busy, erhm, nevermind, enough about me, let's get to the Caps.

I want to start by recapping a bit of what's happened over the past week or so, not just in Caps stuff, but the hockey world at large. The Capitals have a few new faces, and one you might already recognize (though you won't see that face until he recovers from hernia surgery [so stupid, I know]). Anywho, Scott Walker, Eric Belanger (yes! thank god!) and Joe Corvo are the trade deadline additions, you know that already, unless you've been under a rock, and Milan Jurcina is a Capital all over again, slightly less excited about that than I am about the other three. Brian Pothier is gone, Oskar Osala is no longer with the organization, and we parted with a few draft picks to acquire what we currently have. All in all, the deadline was active, and I failed by not even acknowledging it here until today, but it is what it is. I'm as consistent as the NHL is.

Speaking of consistency, I want to address it, because I think it's important to mention it, and I can't in good conscience not act like it's significant. Matt Cooke didn't get suspended for his head hunting hit on Marc Savard, which left Savard somewhere in next week, and he needed to be stretchered off the ice. I'm not a fan of these hits at all, I said it when Mike Green was suspended, after I had time to watch it, that in fact, Green deserved to be suspended - injury or no injury. My opinion on these hits aren't skewed by the inherent homerism that most people look at these hits with, it's simple, hit someone in the head with your elbow, or even shoulder, it doesn't matter, you deserve to be penalized for it. You won't hear me justify these hits, even if it's a Capitals player, it's inexcusable. The league dropped the ball again. They said "..because we didn't suspend Richards, we're not going to suspend Cooke." Just then, logical thinking minds exploded everywhere. If you don't see how inherently wrong it is, I have nothing to say to you, and I probably don't really want to talk hockey with you either. The league did decide though, that Cooke's hit will be suspension-worthy in the 2010-11 season. Stupid, I know.

Anyway, moving forward from that stupidity, the Caps have been hot since coming back from the Olympic break, getting goal scoring from all lines, which is a nice thing to see, finally. Scott Walker tallied two in his first game with the Caps, and Belanger had a goal the following game. The Caps are in an interesting position, we have a surplus of pretty much everything, forwards, and d-men. Semyon Varlamov has been shaky since returning from the ~~Olympics~~ injury, I'm hoping he can get it sorted out sooner rather than later. Jose Theodore posted his first shutout of the year against the New York Rangers this weekend, which is awesome. The Caps won three straight coming out of the break, and then dropped one on Monday, in a game they should have won against the Dallas Stars. But, the old saying goes you can't win 'em all.

They're playing the Carolina Hurricanes tonight in DC, and will be seeing Brian Pothier for the first time since he was traded, Scott Walker and Joe Corvo will also see the former team for the first time, as well. Cheering against Brian Pothier isn't going to be hard, because I never really cheered for him as a Cap, either, but hey, I guess we all have our preferences. I'm predicting Caps win 5-3 tonight. What's your prediction like?

Caps Lose Another One in Canada.

2010-02-11T23:01:00.000-05:00

What is it about the Great White North that forces the Capitals to play awfully?

The Capitals lost another game, for the second night in a row, tonight, against the Ottawa Senators, and it was a tough one to watch.

Alexander Semin recorded his first hat trick this season, and the third consecutive hat trick by a Caps player in as many games. Seriously though, who cares unless you win the game? Yeah, didn't think so.

Watching this game was kind of like a car-wreck in slow motion. It's very difficult to commend much of anyone on their play. Semyon Varlamov included in that statement, Bruce Boudreau said "he didn't look like he was ready to play" I have to agree with BB there.

The player of the game, between both sides, in my opinion was Anton Volchenkov. Guy is a freak, he blocked like 80,000 shots tonight, and was paired against the Caps top line for most of the night.

The Capitals phoned in another awful game defensively, and the only thing we can really learn from this game is how NOT to play hockey. You can't let a team score 6 goals against you, it's completely unacceptable and it's an awful way to try and win a hockey game.

Finally, the Capitals can practice a bit tomorrow, hopefully they can get back to basics and just play good defensively. Ugly loss.

Game Day #61 Washington Capitals @ Ottawa Senators

2010-02-11T15:09:00.001-05:00

Semyon Varlamov is making his return to the Washington line up tonight.

The Capitals will look to avoid losing back to back games for the first time in over a month, against a tough opponent tonight.

The Ottawa Senators are looking better than I think anyone expected them to this year. For a team that's never been short on talent, they've seemed to struggle since their Cup run with having a true team dynamic. That's not the case this year. While the Capitals were en route to 14, the Sens had won 12 straight, and they've been enjoying some great goaltending since their goalie coach was changed.

Jason Spezza's return to the line up has been pretty crucial to the Sens as well, he's scored 10 goals in as many games.

The big story for this game, is the return of Washington Capitals' netminder Semyon Varlamov, as he makes his first start tonight in what feels like all season (although it hasn't been). Varly has been suffering with knee issues and groin issues, and there's no doubt in my mind the boys are happy to see him back.

I don't think the return of Varly should spell the end for Jose Theodore, who has been very good on all accounts this year. Should Varly be used as a motivating factor behind Theo? Absolutely. However, I think Theo should be the number one goaltender for the Caps, but that's just one man's opinion, your may differ.

I'm sure all eyes are going to be on Jeff Schultz as the witch hunt is apparently back on. Karl Alzner was assigned to the Hershey Bears to clear space for the returning Semyon Varlamov. Bruce Boudreau said Neuvi is alright, he just tweaked something last night, but he was doubtful to start tonight, and was listed as day to day. So, too, was Tom Poti, who knows what's wrong there, but Potes is listed day to day as well.

The team played last night like a team at the end of a long winning streak. I really hope we see some more jump in their step tonight. They don't get to practice again until tomorrow, and didn't practice today, so we'll see what tonight brings.

Let's go Caps.

The Streak is Over.

2010-02-10T23:07:00.001-05:00

The Washington Capitals ended their winning streak at 14 as they dropped the game in overtime to the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre tonight.

All I have to say is thank God it wasn't decided in a shootout!

The Capitals stuck with their normal motif of being outworked for two periods and then coming out with all guns blazing in the third, and as the saying goes, if you go to the well too many times, you might end up with dysentery. Apparently Jeff Schultz felt some of those symptoms late in overtime when he completely blew his coverage which ended up becoming the game winner. I'm not going to turn on Schultz and say he's useless, it's time to trade him, like many in my Twitter feed are saying, everyone has a momentary lapse in concentration, Shaone Morrisonn has had an entire season of them, yet no one has him on the trading block.

What I really want to focus on right now is how all of the mistakes the Caps made tonight, are the same mistakes they've made for the last few games, Sunday's epic included. They need to come out working hard from the first period, every single game, end of story. This streak hasn't taught them that at all, but maybe this loss will.

The no goal call on Alexander Ovechkin, was it bush league? Yes. Should the league have to answer to it? Of course, they need to set a precedent for what happens in situations like that, so all 30 teams understand the rule. If you missed it, Alexander Ovechkin used his wrecking ball, and as Pierre McGuire of TSN said, "inhuman, Android-like" hitting ability to basically go through Hal Gill who in turn fell on Carey Price and the puck crossed the goal line. From my experience, that would be a goal, because of the fact that even if they call charging or interference on that play (which interference is out, the puck was at Gill's feet) Ovechkin never touched the puck before it went in. A delayed penalty does not erase an own goal, which the puck went in off of Gill, therefore it was an own goal. Do I think this should discredit Montreal's win tonight? Absolutely not. They came out from the first period and they wanted to win more than the Caps did, and well, they did.

Aside from the third period, this game shouldn't have even been close, to be honest. Montreal was winning all the battles on the side boards and getting to every loose puck, I have nothing but high marks for the way Montreal attacked the Capitals tonight.

These things are of course easier to say when your team has a huge lead over the rest of the Eastern Conference. In a way I'm glad this streak came to an end, because now Bruce Boudreau can address some issues the team has been having lately. Wins in the regular season are great, don't get me wrong, but if you can't turn those into wins in the post-season, then you were chasing the best record in the regular season for nothing.

The playoffs are two months away, the issues within the team aren't as bad as they were last year. Not by a long shot, but they can still be crippling in April when every other team has stepped their game up. There are points in games where it looks like half the team is asleep (read: the entire first period). I'm not upset the streak is over, 14 games in a row is impressive, especially when your closest competitor in the East can't seem to buy a win lately. I'm okay with having the 3rd longest winning streak in NHL history if it means that the team can tighten up and play better moving forward.

On a positive note tonight, Brooks Laich recorded his first hat trick of the season, all of the goals he scored were classically workman-like for Mr. Laich. Laich's hat trick is the second Capitals hat trick of the year, after being held to no hat tricks up until Sunday, two different Caps players have recorded hat tricks in consecutive games.

It is what it is, Caps suit up tomorrow in Kanata, Ontario to face the Ottawa Senators, hopefully Bruce can get his licks in on the team tonight and tomorrow, if they skate, of course. Back to work, boys, there's still a lot of hockey left to play.

Let's go Caps.

Game Day #60 - Washington Capitals @ Montreal Canadiens

2010-02-10T14:49:00.001-05:00

Montreal, Quebec, a city so rich with hockey history, echoes through the streets speak only of hockey, and they have a hall of fame in their building that's probably better than the actual hockey hall of fame.

The retired jerseys in that building read like a who's who of hockey's hallowed past. Jacques Plante, Guy Lafleur, Jean Beliveau, Howie Morenz, and who could forget Maurice "Rocket" Richard. The man who's namesake is emblazoned on a trophy which Alexander Ovechkin has won two years in a row.

No, we're not in Kansas anymore, Montreal is THE hockey city. Detroit may call itself "Hockeytown" but no other place on the planet does hockey the way Montreal does. No other place on the planet do people care about hockey the way those in Montreal do. Yes, folks, this IS Canada's hockey team, despite other team's that try to stake that claim. 24 Stanley Cups. 24. Do you know what that sounds like to a Caps fan? Or any other fan? The Habs have more championships in their sport than any other team aside from the New York Yankees.

The Caps arrived in Quebec ahead of the blizzard we're getting in the mid-Atlantic region, and in the wake of news that Habs' GM Bob Gainey had stepped down from his post, and appointed assistant GM, Pierre Gauthier as his replacement.

What to expect from this Habs hockey club? Well, it's hard to say they've been having a hard time, they've posted a record of 5-3-2 in their last 10, but I'm fully expecting them to come out hard. Here's a team who's GM stepped down, they're going to want to prove themselves to the world, starting tonight.

I'm sure the probables are Jose Theodore, I don't see Semyon Varlamov getting a start tonight, and it'll probably be Jaroslav Halak in net for the Rouge, Blanc, and Bleu. Halak has played about as well as Theo recently, and the Habs have played tight with the Caps all year, it should be a good game, you know the Caps numbers so I'm not going to go on about that. The Caps are looking for their 15th straight, we also have a huge target on our backs because of that win streak. I'd expect the Habs to come out with certainly more fervor than they did against the Penguins over the weekend.

It has all the makings of a good game, a team trying to keep their streak going against a team that would like to do nothing more than end that streak. But that's the story line every night recently, isn't it?

Slow News Day In Capitals World.

2010-02-09T16:48:00.000-05:00

The only rumblings from DC have been that of the oncoming snopocalypse, hasn't been much news on the Caps, they've had two days off, they headed to Montreal just in time to miss the snow that is going to hit the mid-Atlantic tonight/tomorrow.

Former Soviet Union star Alexander Yakushev stated in an interview he doesn't feel Ovechkin is any better than other Russian player right now. He actually said Ilya Kovalchuk is a team player, apparently he hadn't watched his horribly selfish play in Atlanta. I think Ovechkin is, much like Crosby, being criticized for things he did when he was younger. Ovechkin apparently does not shoot every single time he touches the puck, I mean, he does after all have more assists than goals this year, in the same way Crosby doesn't whine on every shift any more. Did both players live up to the public's image at one point? Yes. However, Ovechkin has been miles ahead in team play this year, just his 5th year in the NHL, than Ilya Kovalchuk has in 8 years. So I have to respectfully disagree with Yakushev.

He did make good points, stating Pavel Bure is one of the greatest Russian players ever and he was never seen in the eyes of Lord Stanley, however Sergei Brylin, who wasn't as good as Bure won three Cups.

I'm sorry for the lack of any real substance, this is the best I can do on a slow news day.

I wanted to bring up that the Capitals are finally being looked at as the top of the league by every major news outlets' power rankings. I'm surprised ESPN especially was able to place the Capitals over the Blackhawks or Sharks, it must have been difficult for them. Then it struck me, I don't care about what any of them say, because I know they should currently be above every other team in the league.

If I find anything interesting, I'll make it up to you, I promise.

Now THAT Was a Hockey Game!

2010-02-07T15:44:00.002-05:00

The unflappable Washington Capitals are still on track after 5-4 overtime thriller, and I mean, THRILLER, over the rival Pittsburgh Penguins.

This game was quite possibly, the best hockey game I've ever watched. It came down to the Penguins lack of discipline and the Capitals #1 ranked powerplay in the overtime frame that decided the game winner. My, oh my were the hockey gods smiling down on the District of Columbia, as fans made it through what must have been 1,000 feet of snow to support their hometown team. Their only winning hometown team. The team Mike Wise says no one cares about. Well, I have to say, the 18,277 people in the sold out crowd at the Phonebooth seemed to care, they cared a whole lot. Night in and night out, the fans that have attended the games at the Verizon Center this year have been the 7th man on the ice for the Washington Capitals.

This is the NHL's classic pitch of David and Goliath, this is Gordie Howe and Rocket Richard, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky, this is the closest thing the NHL has had to a Magic Johnson and Larry Byrd match up, all for a new generation, of rabid, blood thirsty, dedicated fans. Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby are the two best players in the game, and both Ovechkin and Crosby lived up to their billing. Say what you will about Crosby's tendency to whine, he is the ONLY player in the game that you can legitimately make a case for when comparing to Ovi. Ovechkin managed to scored a hat trick and had the primary assist on the game winning goal, scored by Mr. Mike Knuble, Crosby had 2 goals, and both players were extremely noticeable on the ice.

The same can't be said for Alexander Semin, who seems to be struggling to get back into that groove he was in a few games ago. Semin will heat up again, just like he always does, and we'll go back to being wowed by the moved he can pull off in traffic soon enough.

The other big secondary guy, Sid's right hand man, Evgeni Malkin had a great game, he had 2 primary assists on the day.

The Penguins came out firing, as we all expected they would. They wanted to take a 2-0 lead into the locker room to try and take the raucous Verizon Center crowd out of the game, but you can't break the fans' will. Alex Ovechkin came out like a man possessed in the 2nd period and was able to score on a breakaway on Penguins' goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury, who, despite the score, looked pretty solid in net, especially compared to his performance in Montreal just not even 24 hours earlier. So, too, can be said for Capitals netminder, Jose Theodore, the Penguins offense was pressing throughout various points of the game, but Theodore never wavered. He was able to keep his team within striking distance all game long, weathering onslaught, after onslaught.

Ovechkin is the prime example of a player that really feeds off the crowd's emotion, the louder the fans are, the better Ovi plays, it's the spinach to Ovi's Popeye, if you will. He's a player that was built for these games, and man, did he ever shine. He netted the Capitals' first hat trick of the season. Imagine that, the most explosive offense in the league, has one hat trick.

The officiating left a lot to be desired, Craig Adams should have taken a seat for boarding Ovi in the first, and Jeff Schultz shouldn't have had to sit for Matt Cooke's stick breaking under his own weight. The slashing call was a blown call, so was the Adams call. Luckily the Schultz call didn't result in any powerplay goals. The officiating will NEVER be the way it should be in these games. It's not because either side is paying off refs, either, it's because of the sheer intensity of the game, if they made every single call, the game would NEVER advance. The refs need to manage these games like a balancing act at times. People watching the Capitals and Penguins play are expecting the game to be fast moving, physical, and with a slight hint of general hatred towards each other. Calling too many penalties sucks the momentum out of the game, and let's face it, the closer the game can be played like an arcade hockey game, the more satisfied people will be. They do have a tendency of making stupid calls, or blatant non-calls, but it's all a part of the game, players understand it, fans should, too.

NBC's coverage, I can't make excuses for. They're the worst in the business, and that's saying a lot, since Versus is pretty awful, too.

I'm not going to let things like that skew how amazing this game actually was. This is what hockey is all about, the two best teams, win loss record be damned, the Penguins are the defending Stanley Cup champions and they play up to their billing. There was never a point in this game where it felt like either team was out of it. After Ovechkin scored the first goal for the Capitals in the second, the Penguins struck back with two strikes to put them up 4-1, but the Capitals really never quit until the game is over. They scored the next 4 goals to win the game.

That winning streak? It's at 14, the Capitals are 17-1 with Alexander Ovechkin wearing the "C." Is there a connection? I say most certainly, yes. The Capitals made the face of the organization the captain, and all of a sudden, they're unstoppable. You cannot contain the Capitals offense, it's impossible to hold them down, even the game against the Rangers, it proved no lead is a safe lead when it comes to the Washington Capitals. They're playing some of the most cardiac, exciting hockey I've ever had the pleasure of watching. When you throw the Penguins in the mix, that excitement rises to playoff levels. Thus far, the Capitals are leading the 4 game season series 2-0. The first win came on the road, this win at home. The Capitals have defeated Pittsburgh twice during this 14 game winning streak.

Brooks Orpik is almost impossible for me to respect, though. So is Craig Adams, and Matt Cooke for that matter. Mike Rupp, however, played a great game, oh, and I forgot Chris Kunitz is still detestable.

I cannot begin to express how awesome that game was, words can't describe it. Here are your highlights, courtesy of NHL.com and NBC.

Lucky Number 13.

2010-02-06T00:58:00.000-05:00

The Washington Capitals technically scored six goals Friday night to defeat the Atlanta Thrashers 5-2.

I say technically because one of those two Atlanta goals were scored by Alexander Semin. I'm not going to hold it against him too much, though.

Michal Neuvirth is the real start of the game, stopping 43 out of 45 shots. One of which he didn't save was the Semin play, and man, it was something you have to see with your own eyes, so I'll let the video do the talking.

Speechless. Absolutely speechless. But the guy has been doing his part to help the team out, and a guy who would normally sit in the corner and sulk about it, looked up at Neuvi and just laughed. I like to see Semin having fun, he's always too seriously.

That was the first one I wanted to show you, now, Alex Ovechkin took the league lead in goals tonight, he has 39 goals. Man, oh man, was it a cannon.

Nicklas Backstrom is currently continuing his campaign to be the greatest playmaking center in the game, hands down. He did come down with a migraine, which led him off the ice, luckily, he's expected to play Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, it's those birds that can't fly but can jump really high only jumping isn't going to do anything to help them get to DC to play us. They would definitely love to be the team to end this winning streak, since well, it's the Penguins, and Sidney Crosby gets mad when Ovi succeeds. If you want to call me a homer and say I'm one sided in pretty much everything, well, that's fair, since this is a homer run blog and being impartial isn't really a goal I've been striving for. So why yes, I will probably say the Capitals this year are the greatest team to lace up skates, and yes, I will talk about how Sidney Crosby is coddled. No care ever.

Moving forward, the Capitals need a solid team effort to beat a very good Penguins team, not as good as last year's Cup team, but still a very good team, nonetheless. Penguins play tomorrow against the Habs, here's to hoping the Habs can take them to the edge and back. They have a two game winning streak going into tomorrow's game and one would think if they can make quick work of the team in Rogue, Blanc, and Bleu, they'll come into the Verizon Center firing right out of the gate. Or they can do what they did last time we played them, I'd prefer the latter. Let's go Caps.

Game Day #58 - Atlanta Thrashers @ Washington Capitals

2010-02-05T16:10:00.001-05:00

Two Russians... oh wait, no, nevermind.

Then again, Slava Kozlov is Russian, oh nevermind.

For the first time in 8 years, the Caps are going to be facing a Kovalchuk-less Thrashers team that may be a little disillusioned with the handling of the teams start winger. Or not.

Here's the pitch I'm going with: A bunch of guys you would never hear mentioned along side the likes of Alex Ovechkin or Semin or Backstrom or Green, trying to derail a hot team that has all of those elite talents on their team. Atlanta has been hot and cold all season long, and they're coming off two straight losses to Nashville and Tampa Bay, and they're looking to break their skid against a team that's white hot. Oh, and they'll be trying to do so without Ilya Kovalchuk, the franchise's leading scorer and biggest defensive liability.

What should we expect from the Thrash tonight? Probably more of a team game than we've ever seen them play, this is going to be a tough game. A really tough game. We're going for a baker's dozen tonight against a team that probably had a spark lit under them. Colby Armstrong has said in the past "our line plays hockey the way we were taught to play hockey, the way you're supposed to play hockey," in hindsight, he was probably digging at Kovy.

There's plenty of talent throughout the Thrashers line up, but no marquee names, which can work to their benefit, especially since they'll be going into games as an underdog for the rest of the year. When you're an underdog, you usually perform better since no one is really expecting much from you. Post-Kovalchuk, I'm expecting Evander Kane and other young guns to start thriving.

Alright, enough of my opinions and whatnot, let's get to the numbers, that may or may not be affected by the departure of the selfish Russian. Atlanta has 56 points in the standings right now, that's good for 4th in the Southeast Division, though, since they're a bubble team, they can just as easily be second in the Southeast. They have, for the most part, played closer to a second place team than a fourth place team. With Washington's ugly win in New York last night, the Capitals improve to 84 points in the standings - yeah, almost 30 points ahead of the Thrashers.

Last time we played them, it was 8-1. That was in Atlanta. Atlanta averages about 2.94 goals per game, whereas your Washington Capitals average 3.86 games per game. The Caps also have the better of the Thrashers when it comes to defense, 2.86 goals against per game compared to 3.13 goals against for the Thrashers. Actually, looking at those numbers, this game has the makings of a blowout victory. It's hard to automatically assume that since the cancer was removed, that the Thrashers will automatically be placed in remission. As bad of an analogy as that may be, the Kovalchuk saga has undoubtedly had an effect on the chemistry in the locker room. Now that fake Captain Kovy, who only wanted to play for Atlanta, but $101 million wasn't enough, is gone, you can't automatically assume other players are going to step up and take over. It needs to be a team effort though, this franchise has relied on one guy for way too long.

Do I think the Thrash are going to struggle with their identity a bit? Yes, but I don't think it'll stop them from coming out just as hard as the Rangers came out last night. I'm hoping the Capitals got all the faily defense out of them last night, because they sure can use it tonight.

Probables are Michal Neuvirth, who was just recalled from Hershey, and Ondreaj Pavalec. Neuvy (or Neuvi? Neuva-Ring?) has posted a W-L of 8-4-0 with a GAA of 2.75 and a save percentage of .911. In his last three starts he hasn't lost a game for the Caps, well, not many starting goaltenders for the Caps have lost recently. Ondreaj Pavalec has a GAA of 3.43, and a save percentage of .903. Based on goaltending, I'm going with the Caps here.

We probably won't see Johnny Oduya or that other guy Atlanta received. Most media attention is probably going to be Kovalchuk playing his first game as a Devil, against Frankenphaneuf and the Leafs.

In other Caps related news, according to Russian Machine Never Breaks who found an article about Nicklas Backstrom resigning soon for 10 years (maybe), I got a little happy about that. Nicky's one of my favorite Caps and I'm glad he's going to (or at least planning to) be here for a really long time.

A Dozen Wins For the Caps, Ovi joins the 500 club.

2010-02-04T22:13:00.003-05:00

Not quite the best game they've played all year, but a win is a win. The Capitals were able to edge out the New York Rangers on Thursday night by a score of 6-5 for the guys in red.

This game apparently had each team alerted to the fact that defense was optional, and the Caps road PK, which isn't particularly good, ended up on the short end of the Rangers bad powerplay, which seemed to be clicking away tonight.

As I've already said, neither team played fantastic defense, which is dually noted by the fact that there were 11 goals scored in this game. The Rangers averaged I think the number is 2.82 goals per game? Well, consider tonight an anomaly. Over this stretch I've talked about Theo stealing games for the Caps, tonight, the offense stole the game for Jose. And I'm by no means saying it was entirely his fault, the Capitals gave away too many powerplays and made too many defensive mistakes in front of him.

Alex Ovechkin made the 500 club tonight, and became just the 9th player in NHL history to achieve this in five NHL seasons. That's the big story, in my opinion.

I can't really put together a long entry because that would mean I would have to relive it, and this game was nightmarish. Hopefully there's a better effort tomorrow against the Thrashers, who just recently dumped Kovalchuk on the Devils as a rental, at best. Thrash received Johnny Oduya, Nicklas Bergfors, Patrice Cormier, and maybe a first rounder? Either way, I don't really care, it more or less takes the Thrashers out of the playoffs entirely and I'm not sure how Kovy is going to fit in New Jersey.

Final thought on this game, the Rangers brought it tonight, and the Capitals weaseled a win, it doesn't feel good to celebrate it because of what it took to win this game.

Anyway, your goal scorers for tonight's game

GOAL SCORERS
WSH: B. Gordon (16:40 - 1st) , M. Knuble (04:41 - 2nd) , A. Ovechkin (PPG, 07:16 - 2nd) , A. Ovechkin (19:51 - 2nd) , T. Poti (PPG, 00:59 - 3rd) , N. Backstrom (PPG, 05:34 - 3rd)
NYR: R. Callahan (PPG, 08:58 - 1st) , V. Prospal (16:50 - 1st) , O. Jokinen (PPG, 12:19 - 2nd) , V. Prospal (PPG, 12:59 - 2nd) , B. Dubinsky (PPG, 18:48 - 2nd)

An Open Letter to Ilya Kovalchuk

2010-02-04T16:38:00.000-05:00

Ilya Kovalchuk reportedly turned down a deal from the Atlanta Thrashers for $12M a year for 10 years, totaling $101M for that span. The Phoenix Coyotes were bought by the league for $140M. Can you honestly even wrap your head around how much money that is?

My captain, your captain, makes $9M a year, and his deal was one of the biggest in the history of the NHL, especially under the salary cap era. Captain Ovechkin has amassed 497 points in 4 and a half seasons with the Washington Capitals. In 7 and a half years, Ilya Kovalchuk has scored 442. Not exactly equal, by my guesstimate.

Alexander Ovechkin is on pace as it stands right now, can very well break Wayne Gretzky's all-time point total.

No such discussions for Ilya Kovalchuk.

You can make the argument that the Atlanta Thrashers don't have a comparable line up to the Washington Capitals. Up until the coaching change in Washington, we were awful. There were two last place finishes in the WORST DIVISION IN THE LEAGUE when Ovechkin came to Washington. Ovechkin still put together two 90+ point seasons in 05-06, and 06-07. Alexander Ovechkin, by all intents and purposes, turned the District into quite a focal point for the rest of the league. We're recognized now. You see red sweaters in almost every arena in the league.

Tell me again, why would Kovalchuk be worth more than Ovechkin? Is it the fact that he consistently draws 2000 people to Thrasher games (half of which, are actually fans of the visiting team)? Washington may have taken a while to blossom, but it has proven it can support a hockey club. Atlanta, even with Ilya Kovalchuk, is hardly able to support a hockey team.

By the numbers, everything points to Alex Ovechkin being worth more than Kovy, and maybe any other player in the league. The draw of fans Ovechkin possesses is rivaled only by Sidney Crosby, and his point production is the league's best. So Ilya, what exactly do you have that Ovi doesn't? Perhaps it's the fact that you've yet to make a dent into Ovechkin's playoff totals? Seeing as how you've played in 4 playoff games, and were only able to muster up 2 points (2!), I can see you're just one playoff series away from matching the 30 points Ovechkin has thus far.

The bottom line is when you're asked "who is the greatest active hockey player in the world?" Your answer will go one of two ways, you're either Team Ovechkin, or Team Crosby. There's no Team Kovalchuk. Will the loss of Kovy inevitably mean hockey in Atlanta is no more? My guess leans towards yes, but it would just be an accelerated result, because hockey in Atlanta is bound to fold, with or without Kovalchuk.

Game Day #57 - Washington Capitals @ New York Rangers

2010-02-04T14:00:00.070-05:00

The rematch between round 1 of last year's playoffs, part 3.

Every time the Capitals play the Rangers I think of John Tortorella's melt down and subsequent suspension during the playoffs last year. Well done, Verizon Center, well done, indeed.

So it's this guy..

Booooooo. Hiss.

Against this guy...

Crowd erupts in cheers.

Anywho, if you want to look at which guy has had the better of well, the entire league this year, you don't have to look any further than their records. Coach John Tortorella has led his Blueshirts to a mediocre record of 25-25-7, it's good for, well 10th in the Eastern Conference. Whereas Coach Bruce Boudreau, has led his team to an NHL leading 38-12-6. There's 25 points separating the two teams in the standings. Washington has scored 74 more goals this season compared to the Rangers, and they've given up 6 less. The Rangers defense has won them a few games this year, most notably, Henrik Lundqvist, without that guy the Rangers would be in the basement.

I can go through all the numbers, but the Capitals have been playing better this season than the Rangers on pretty much every level. Goal scoring has come at a premium this year for the Rangers, especially on Garden ice. The team is historically a very good team at home, but this year lack of enthusiasm for fans to do anything but, well, boo them, has their record at 12-13-4, the Rangers actually have a better road record than home record this year.

The big story line is the Rangers just recently acquired infamous non-team guy, Olli Jokinen, to try and help out with their goal scoring problems. It didn't work on Tuesday night, where the Rangers were held to one goal for the 11th time this season. Even worse, the Rangers have been shut out 5 times this season. The Capitals? The most potent offense in the league has only been held to one goal twice all season. Shutouts? Yeah, they've only been shutout once. The Rangers are a fragile team right now, and after the Capitals ousted the Rangers in the playoffs last year, the crowd will certainly be more into it than they usually are. Bottom line is the Rangers are going to go out looking for scalps tonight. Marian Gaborik is a guy the Capitals defense NEEDS to neutralize, and throw a body or two on Olli Jokinen, who I'm almost positive will be moved from the first line to like, the third by the end of the game.

Defense, defense, defense, these are the most important things to remember against the Rangers, Lundqvist will keep it close for the entire game, and you never know when their offense is suddenly going to wake up. The Rangers are pretty bad in the third period. I've watched them a bit this season, being in NY, dating a girl that's a Rangers fan (a fed-up one, at that), we've had the tendency of turning it up in the third. That can work in our favor. So, too, can the fact that we aggressively forecheck all game long, I watched the Rangers play the Penguins and the Pens were able to render the Rangers' passing useless due to their forechecking.

It's assumed Hank will face Theo, who's been having some of the best performances - maybe of his career - recently. Hank is still beatable high glove, though it's not automatic like it was last year. He's having the best season of his career, despite the win loss record. He has a 2.39 GAA and a .920 save percentage, and that's on an okay team. If he was on an elite team, his numbers would be absolutely frightening. Henrik was sick during the tail end of the road trip, so it's assumed he'll be nice and rested, although I don't know if he really has ever benefited from rest. He's the kind of guy that needs to start every game to stay in a rhythm, so we'll see how he's feeling tonight.

The last time the Capitals played the Rangers was on November 17th, at MSG. The Capitals beat the Gabo- I mean Rangers 4-2, Marian Gaborik was the only Ranger to score in that game. That last meeting was Ovi's first game back from his injury, which now seems like a distant memory.

Oh yeah, Capitals are 6-1-1 in it's last 8 against the Rangers.

The Capitals do need to improve over their last two games. They came out flat against the Lightning on Sunday, and still managed a win, and they stole the win against the Bruins by relying on Jose Theodore. They need a good team effort against the Rangers tonight, and if they can jump out of the gate quickly, I would say we should be in good shape.

Caps Snap Shots - Your Capitals Links.

2010-02-04T10:00:00.004-05:00

Caps Snap Shots is a daily conglomeration of Capitals related links you may find interesting, without further ado, here are your links for February 4, in the year of our lord, 2010:

Vogs previews tonight's clash on broadway. [Washington Caps Website]
John Buccigross of ESPN breaks down Ovechkin's chances of breaking The Great One's all time goals mark of 894. [ESPN]
The Hershey Bears official site has a somewhat more detailed breakdown of last night's game against Norfolk [HBH]
Tarik El-Bashir has an article about how confident our boys are nowadays. [The Post]
Capitals wives are collecting money on Sunday for Haiti, yes, that's against the Penguins. [Washington Caps Website]
Alex Ovetjkin has some comparisons between Sid the Kid and the Gr8 8. [Alex Ovetjkin]
Meghan at The Hockey Chronicles gives her two cents on NBC's faily nature. [THC]
Falls Church News-Press has some words on the current state of the Washington Capitals [FCNP]
Hockey's Future has an update on our college hockey prospects. [HF]
Apparently we're in the market for Tomas Kaberle? This is a trade rumor I don't hate, and the case they make is intriguing. [BleacherReport]

File this under in case you missed it:

Vogs and Stretch have the latest edition of the Capitals Report [Caps Report]
On Frozen Blog has a nice little history lesson on well, all things pertaining to the Caps of 2010, better late than never on my part. [OFB]
Mr. Leonsis basks in the glory of the Caps 11 game winning streak. [Ted's Take]

Bear Report: Jason Bacashihua, Andrew Joudrey Come Up Big For Hershey

2010-02-03T22:40:00.002-05:00

It was a night where seemingly nothing was going Hershey's way when the Bears visited Norfolk, VA to play the Norfolk Admirals.

Not through a lack of effort, Hershey fell behind the Admirals through the first two periods of the game, and it seemed as though Norfolk had all but put it in the bag until a late third period marker and the second of the night by Andrew Joudrey, to tie the game up and force an overtime period.

Within the first six seconds of overtime, it seemed Hershey was ready to put a bow on it when Matthieu Perreault had the best look at Dustin Tokarski the Bears had all night long. But it would be the last good chance the Bears would have for the remainder of the OT frame.

In the dying minutes, no, seconds of the overtime Jason Bacashihua came up big with several beautiful saves all in a matter of what could have been only 30 seconds.

Bacashihua would end up getting the better of Dustin Tokarski as Chris Bourque with the puck on his stick put one right past Tokarski to give the Bears a 3-2 win in the shootout.

The Admirals played this game admirably, they played a tight checking game and didn't allow the Bears too many great opportunities to score. As you might recall, the Admirals were the only team the Bears lost to in the month of January, which broke up Hershey's 12 game winning streak. If not for that loss to Norfolk, Hershey would currently be on a 22 game winning streak, but alas. Hershey IS in the middle of a 9 game winning streak though, and they look to make it 10 against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Last time the Bears played the baby Pens, they treated them to a nice 8-6 loss.

Some other notes on the game:

The win tonight is just the 3rd out of Hershey's 38 wins to come in overtime or a shootout.
The Bears are now 20 points clear in the standings of the Albany River Rats, the biggest lead they've had all season.
The Bears .796 winning percentage is the best in the AHL, second to the Bears is the Hamilton Bulldogs, at .696
Along with their insane winning percentage, Hershey has already amassed 78 points on the year, again second to the Bears are the Bulldogs, and they have 71 points.
The Bears have 214 goals for, 100 goals clear of the 114 goals against.
Andrew Gordon, Alexandre Giroux, and Keith Aucoin failed to register a point in what seems like all season long.
This team is utter domination. Hands down, best franchise in the AHL, in case you were wondering. Even on nights they probably shouldn't win, they find a way to win, much like their big brother.

Oh, How Sweet It Is.

2010-02-03T17:50:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning to the realization that the Washington Capitals are the best team in the league right now. I know ESPN's power rankings next week will undoubtedly still have the Sharks as the #1 team, but I'm not one to really bother with the way that obviously biased organization is run.

The games left for this week include the Rangers, which I watched them last night with newly acquired Olli Jokinen and Brendan Prust. I'm not really impressed with what I saw, though the Caps still need to be cautious.

The Thrashers and the Penguins are the other teams we see this week.

Speaking of the Penguins, Sean Leahy (@sean_leahy) over at Puck Daddy brought this gem to the attention of the hockey world..

There's several things wrong with this image. Number one, it's a Capitals logo that hasn't been used since 2007. Number two, is it necessary to say that the Sunday Game of the Week is on Sunday? 12M? I have no idea what time that actually is.

If NBC wants to know why the most hockey fans don't take their coverage seriously, they only need to refer to the above image. The "nothin' but Crosby" thing is driven home by the fact that the Penguins have been in all but one of the Games of the Week. Even Penguins fans are annoyed with constantly being on NBC.

The point of this posting isn't necessarily to harp on how awful NBC is, that's just a side point. The main reason for this posting is to say how awesome it felt to wake up this morning and know the Caps are number one. I'm really uninterested in where Kovalchuk lands, because regardless, I still think our Cup chances remain unaffected. The Washington Capitals should be a miles ahead favorite to win the Cup this year, hands down, end of story.

11 Wins in a Row. Caps Win 4-1

2010-02-02T23:49:00.000-05:00

We're the number one team in the league now. Waiting on results of the Wings/Sharks game, who are currently tied at 2.

Enough about that, he's a few points I want to just throw out there about tonight's 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins.

Jose Theodore was the best player on both sides. His movement was pretty much perfect, and if he is tendered a contract by the Capitals next year, games like this will be the reason why. Jose made 41 saves on 42 shots and seemed to be a catalyst to why the Bruins looked absolutely miserable later on in the game.
Alex Semin didn't show up tonight. He did get an assist, but he was more noticeable for his penalty taking abilities than his scoring abilities. Hopefully this was just a hiccup.
Tom Poti is silently doing a magnificent job this year. Poti had 2 assists, one on the Knuble goal, the other on the Laich goal.
Nicklas Backstrom must be averaging about a point per game this year. You cannot keep that kid off the scoresheet, ever.
Marco Sturm was awarded a penalty shot, even though he DID get his shot off. To recant a chant from the playoffs last year "refs, you suck!" He missed the net completely, but I'd have to believe Jose would've stopped him anyway.
Mike Knuble has score 9 goals in his last 10. Anyone still doubting why he was signed? Add to the fact he's been a part of some Cup battles, and he's going to be extremely valuable to our playoff run this year.
Boyd Gordon is no longer the longest goalless streak holder for the Caps. He scored what turned out to be the deflating third goal. Tom Poti now holds the longest streak, he's at 8 games without a goal.
Ovi scored his 36th goal of the season, now one goal behind league leaders Sidney Crosby and Patrick Marleau. Kapitan is only 3 points away from 500 career points.
Did I mention Jose Theodore looked awesome tonight? Yeah.

So the Capitals have made it 11 straight, they look to make it 12 straight in New York, against a Ranger team that still isn't lighting the lamp, but they're seemingly giving up more powerplay chances. This game is scoreless, hopefully it goes into a nice, long shootout to soften Hank up, or even if we can get a shot at Chad Johnson (not happening). I do hope we use the day off to get back into the game, because efforts like the one tonight won't win you a whole lot.

Game Day #56 - Washington Capitals @ Boston Bruins

2010-02-02T15:41:00.000-05:00

The Capitals most impressive win of the season, at least in terms of a complete team win, came on the season opener, a 4-1 win over the boys from Beantown, tonight they head into Boston looking for their 11th straight win.

True, the Capitals are playing the best hockey in the league right now, and Boston is struggling to win games, they've lost 7 straight, 6 of which came on home ice. The Capitals need to make sure not to play down to the Bruins, because they still can win games, they've just had a really hard time doing it in 2010. The B's haven't been so mighty this year, thanks to the injury bug, but they haven't been using it as an excuse for poor play, after all, every team has to deal with injury. Since the calendar changed, the Bruins have only been able to muster up 3 wins over a span of 14 games, with only one of those wins coming against a top tier team, the San Jose Sharks. A game which Tiim Thomas ultimately had to be the best player and win it in the shootout.

The Bruins whole scheme is based around defense, and they're going to need a lot of it. The Capitals are the top scoring team in the league, and have especially flexed those offensive muscles over the last ten. What the Bruins haven't struggled with, is peppering opposing goal tenders with shots, Jose Theodore will have to bring his A game tonight, however, Jose has looked VERY sharp in net recently. He's 8-1 for the month of January and he hasn't lost in his last 7 starts. Over this span he's posted a GAA of 2.28 and a save percentage of .930, this is the best streak Theo has had since 2001-2002, when he won the Hart with the Montreal Canadiens.

I can't find anything to clue me in on who the starting goal tender will be for Boston, but what I will say, if it's Vezina winner from last year, Tim Thomas, he hasn't looked particularly great this year. Tuuka Rask on the other hand, when he's not throwing milk crates, has looked good. Thomas got the start against the Capitals last time we went to the TD Bank Garden, he lost the game 4-1, if I have to guess, I'd expect Rask to start over Thomas. Either way, I don't know if we should really expect to score a whole bunch against them, unless we play this game exactly the way we did at the beginning of the season.

This is a team the Capitals can and should beat tonight, and these are the games you need to win, add to the fact that this game is part of a long winning streak, I think as long as the team can stay in the game mentally, we should be in good shape tonight.

Someone Gave Alan May a Day Pass on a Non-Game Day.

2010-02-02T01:20:00.000-05:00

"I thought it was created by TSN up in Canada and their announcers, sitting there on a Friday night. The only angles they showed of the Mike Green hit were very poor angles that looked like it was a bad hit, and when you go in super-slow motion, it makes it look worse all the time. And I thought the Mike Green hit, no one even noticed it the other night. And they made a big deal, and he winds up getting three games out of it." -Alan May on the subject of the Capitals' goaltending situation

Yeah, apparently, someone went and let Alan May out of his cage to speak on Mike Wise's show on 106.7 The Fan, in DC, but that's not all he said in the interview..

"And it's been going on for a few years now. The style of hockey they play is no different than the style of hockey that the Vancouver Canucks play, but the Vancouver Canucks are top of the pedestal, and they treat the Caps as though they're frauds. I think they've got one of the best coaches in the league, and to win a hockey game, you've got to score more goals than the opposition."

I'm not necessarily angry that he voiced this opinion, Capitals fans have a tendency of believing the league is out for them. How many Capitals fans have said on more than one occasion, and not necessarily joking around, that the NHL handed the Penguins a cup last year just to spite us? I didn't even watch the SCF last year and that was my first response. It's not even that bad calls in the Penguins favor are what knocked us out of the playoffs in game 7 last year. To be honest, we knocked ourselves out when we played down to the New York Rangers, a team that just stumbled into the playoffs, we let them go up on us by three games and we had to fight a war to come back. We also let the Penguins win three straight games against us in the Semi-Finals. The NHL didn't beat the Capitals last year, the Capitals beat the Capitals, and when the game was on the line, game 7 of that series, we didn't play, they did, they won, that's how a team advances in the playoffs.

Does it seem like Don Cherry has something negative to say on every Coaches' Corner about how the Capitals shouldn't run the score up against the lowly Leafs? Or how Alex Ovechkin celebrates too much? Or how Mike Green deserves to be slammed head first into the boards? Yes. All of these things seem to be a topic he wants to address first and foremost. Of course Don Cherry makes sure to address these things, THE CAPITALS ARE THE TEAM TO BEAT RIGHT NOW. Don Cherry talking about his lovable loser Leafs are still awful doesn't make for must see TV. What DOES make for must see TV is some old nationalist who has lost touch with reality talking about how we need to move all US teams south of the Mason-Dixon line up to Canada. While we're at it, let's make sure we let our Canadian fans know that Alex Ovechkin doesn't play hockey the correct way, which is largely boring and homogenized. Oh, and Mike Green is an awful defenseman because, you know, his +/- only looks like that because he's on the ice when goals are scored for the Caps instead of being on the ice when goals are scored against the Caps. I may have missed the point of hockey entirely, all this time, I thought the point was to outscore the opposition? No? Oh that's right, we're dealing with a league that gives sympathy points to teams that lose in OT, my bad.

Didn't the Canadian media gush about Jose Theodore a few years ago? You know, when he was with the Habs? Why all of a sudden is he a complete embarrassment to goaltending and shouldn't be playing hockey anymore? Jose has been arguably more solid than Cristobal Huet has been all season. The Blackhawks apparently don't have a goaltending issue. Jose has a better save percentage than Huet does. A big factor that you can't run from when dealing with goalies is do they give their team a good chance to win? Meaning, can they hold the other team off to less goals than your offense can score? In the Capitals case, the answer is absolutely, yes. In the Hawks case, it's sometimes yes, sometimes no, depending on how Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg are feeling that night. The fact of the matter is, 99% of the time, the Capitals goaltending needs to be good, not great, for the Capitals to win games, teams still want to win right? You can look at the opposite end of the spectrum, there are teams with possible Vezina trophy finalists that struggle to win. The Caps are far from struggling to win games. Oh, that other 1%? If you watched the game against Detroit, you will know why I didn't make it 100% of the time, because Jose robbed that game for us.

Were May's comments really warranted? I have to lean a little towards yes. The above reasonings are why, but do I think it's going to have a ton of negative repercussion? Absolutely. Do I honestly care what the media says about the team? No. With the Capitals what you see on the ice, is what you get. There are media circuses in every other market, from who's sleeping with who's wife, to players who would rather be frat boys, to talking about exgirlfriends, to the disaster that is the Montreal Canadiens. If it's only on-ice stuff they have to talk about, then good. The team is playing hard every single night and winning as many games as they can - for us - the fans. Sure, there's bound to be bumps in the road, questionable hits may happen from time to time.. should Mike Green have been suspended? Yes, he should have. Should the Caps have to wear a scarlet letter (pun intended) and be labeled a dirty team? No. Incidents happen. I could make a case that Sidney Crosby should have been suspended for his mugging of Boris Valabik last year, that was a calculated, premeditated attack, yet it went undiscussed. Ovechkin doesn't intentionally knee people, he skates hard, and if you've ever tried to square someone up while skating, you sort of have to put one leg in front of the other. The way the Capitals play is fast and it's aggressive, but it's by no means dirty. There's a lot of phantom "floating picks" that people talk about when it comes to the Capitals, if you're stationary, you're allowed to hold your position on the ice and hit people. That's also not considered "floating." I'm just hoping this media attention doesn't make the boys change the way they play, because there's nothing wrong with it.

Nicklas Backstrom Named Third Star of the Week, Alex Ovechkin First Star of the Month.. Plus Olympic Stuff.

2010-02-01T13:26:00.002-05:00

Your favorite Swedish playmaking center was named the third star of the week, posting 7 points, 2 goals and 5 assists, and a rating of +6 on the week. Meanwhile Alex Ovechkin was rightfully named the first star of the month, and he hasn't even had a game on NBC yet. Take that, Sidney. I don't even need to go through the fact that the team has only lost one game since Ovi was named captain, and that they've posted the best numbers offensively during his tenure as captain. Ovi netted 9 goals in January, along with 17 assists, and had a rating of +16, the Capitals have gone 13-2-0 for the month of January, as I mentioned earlier, only one of those losses came after January 5th, which was the day Ovi was named Kapitan.

Also, on the Bears front, Keith Aucoin was named the number one star of the month of January, in 14 games, Coiner potted 12 goals and 23 helpers for an astonishing 35 points for the month of January. During that span he posted a rating of +11, and averaged an amazing 2.50 points per game.

Also, the Russian team released what numbers players would be wearing for the Olympics, Ovechkin is wearing his normal #8, while Alexander Semin is wearing Ovi's old Dynamo Moscow number, #32. Former Capitals Viktor Kozlov and Sergei Fedorov will also be donning some different numbers on their sweaters as well. As you may remember, Kozzy wore #25 when he was with the Caps, in the Olympics he'll be wearing #52, Feds on the other hand, had worn the ubiquitous #91, a number which I've always associated with Feds above all other players, from his time with the Red Wings on, he'll be wearing #29, so there's a good chance I'm going to forget he's even playing at some point during the Olympics. Oh, and a side fact, since the original source material is in Russian, it had to be translated to English, Sergei Potter is wearing #55, I'm assuming Gonchar translates to Potter.

The Canadian national team released their numbers as well, but since they snubbed one of our guys, I'm going to snub them back.

Nicky is going to be wearing his normal #19 for team Sweden, Ovi's biggest threat in the Hart race, Hank Sedin is donning #20 instead of his usual #33, brother Daniel is still wearing #22. Pretty much everyone else's number on Sweden is unchanged, actually.

Russia is the favorite to win the gold with Canada and Sweden following on their heels. With all the bravado coming from the Canadian media, I hope there's a fate far worse than silver in their future, oh, and the snubbing of the best Canadian offensive d-man in the league. Now of course, betting on the Olympics is illegal, as in, even if you were in Vegas they won't take your bet, because of well, people take the games pretty passionately to begin with, wouldn't want to bring money into the equation as well.

The Caps Make It A Perfect Ten.

2010-02-01T00:53:00.000-05:00

There they are, your current kings of the Eastern Conference, the Washington Capitals. I want you to focus on a few aspects of this, first, notice the amount of points they have, yeah, it says 80. 80 points, and this is the fastest Capitals team to 80 points. Next, the home record, an impressive 21-3-3, that's good for the best home record in the East, and third in the league overall, the road record is good for fifth in the league. The Capitals have scored 214 goals this season while holding the opposition to 149, and for all the defensive and goaltending problems the Caps allegedly have, according to the media, they're still above the Stanley Cup champion Penguins. Oh, did I mention they outscore the opposition to a goal differential of 65? The Sharks are the next best team in that category, they've outscored the opposition by a differential of 51. Also, they're 2nd place in the league, trailing the Sharks by just one measly point. If you want to go by winning percentage, they're at a pretty staggering .672 on the season. Oh, that is of course, only if you're looking for their winning percentage in the last ten, which you can refer to the column on your far right, it's currently at 1.00. Going into the Olympic break, would it be safe to say your favorite team to wear red is in good positioning to make the playoffs? Well, that'd be an understatement. The analysts still saying team defense and goaltending is an issue in Washington are officially looking like fools at this point in the season. There still has only been ONE game in the past 10 games where the opposition has scored more than 3 goals against them. Just looking at their closest competition in the East, the New Jersey Devils, who have struggled to win against teams recently, and then looking at who the Capitals have to face in the next few games, we SHOULD keep our first place spot in the East.

The immediate future holds the Bruins and Rangers, both teams have had an extremely hard time winning games recently. Then, beyond that, the on again, off again, Atlanta Thrashers, who have a record of 5-3-2 over the last ten games and just lost a game on Saturday against the Predators. So there's a few teams this week that actually have to prove a lot, and the Rangers will undoubtedly be looking to prove themselves, seeing as how Olli Jokinen (a trade involving Higgins and Kotalik, which I'm not convinced will change anything for either the Rangers, or the Flames) will be a Ranger by the time we see them on Thursday, and the Bruins have lost 6 straight home games for the first time since 1942, I believe was the exact time period, the Capitals will no doubt, be looking to add to respective streaks when the Caps roll into Boston on Tuesday. As for the Rangers, they've struggled against aggressive forechecking teams, and especially struggled against high powered offenses, so they'll really be tested on Thursday when the league's number one offense visits Broadway, so barring an explosive night from Marian Gaborik, or an absolutely suffocating individual effort from Henrik Lundqvist, we should be in good shape on Thursday. Looking ahead to Friday against the Thrashers, the Capitals have not lost a game against the Thrash since March 16th, 2009, and the last time the two met was a Hershey Bears-style romping to the tune of 8-1, in one of the Capitals most concentrated displays of pure offense all season. The last game of the upcoming week is up against Pittsburgh, it's the 12:00 game which is featured on NBC as the game of the week. The Capitals played the Pens a few weeks back and beat them 6-3 at Mellon, this next game is at Verizon, hopefully the Capitals can go into Sunday red hot, with both guns blazing. If they continue playing the way they have, a big concern is going to be focus, when you win so many games consecutively, it's easy to lose focus on winning, because you start going into the game with the mindset that you can beat anyone. For a Capitals team which has played down to other teams earlier this season, it could spell for disaster, but as of right now, they don't seem to have any signs of letting up. Keep rocking the red, I'll post back with typical post game info, maybe some more in depth pre-game info, starters, any interesting info I find throughout the week.

Also, from Capitalols..

The Hershey Bears Are So Dominant..

2010-01-31T16:01:00.000-05:00

Our Caps-in-training continue to be the most downright dominant team in the American Hockey League, defeating the Albany River Rats to the tune of 8-3. It's the Bears 4th straight game scoring 8 goals, starting by beating the Manitoba Moose on Friday and Saturday of last weekend by scores of 8-3 and 8-2, and then beating the baby Penguins on this past Friday night 8-6. Speaking of streaks, the Bears haven't lost at the Giant Center in 15 straight games, and the win last night extends their current winning streak to 7 in a row. The Bears Radio Network named Alexandre Giroux, Keith Aucoin, and Chris Bourque as the three stars of the game, that trio combined for 5 goals on the night, with Giroux and Aucoin with two a piece and Bourque with a single goal. In addition to the goals, Giroux had 2 assists, Aucoin had an assist and Bourque tallied 4 helpers on the evening. In the past 15 games, Giroux and Aucoin have not been held off the scoreboard, and in that time frame, they combine for 65 points between the two of them. Their next game is tonight, at the Giant Center against the Binghamton Sens, the two teams last met on 1/3, and the Bears downed them 5-3

B-E-A-R-S BEARS BEARS BEARS!

I wanted to also write a pre-game up about the Caps game vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight, but I was in bed and my body wasn't allowing me to get to a computer. Game has already started, it's scoreless after one.

The Wheel of Justice Strikes Again.

2010-01-30T15:26:00.000-05:00

Colin Campbell is one of the dumbest people in hockey history.

So the ruling on that elbow that Mike Green laid on Michael Frolik is a 3 game suspension. How the hit where Frolik got up and skated for the rest of his shift warrants a suspension, and the hit where David Booth is just figuring out where he is didn't, well, I don't know. I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that the league has it out for us, actually, no I won't. The Capitals, unlike so many other teams, benefit from being the deepest team in the league, and while we'll all miss Green quarterbacking the powerplay along with Ovi, I think we'll live. Greener will lose $81,606.21 because of the incident.

9 In A Row!!!!!

2010-01-30T04:08:00.000-05:00

For those of you who are friends with me on Twitter and/or Facebook probably know, the Capitals have in fact, won 9 games straight. The last time the Capitals had won nine games in a row, I'll put it into perspective, it was in the 83-84 season, let me list some things that were going on at the time:

Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Jeff Schultz, Mike Green, Eric Fehr, Semyon Varlamov, and Michal Neuvirth hadn't even been born.
The Islanders dynasty was coming to an end and the Edmonton Oilers dynasty was just beginning.
The Washington Capitals were still in the Patrick Division, which they eventually left when it became the Atlantic Division, how Pittsburgh is in that division when the Capitals can make it to the Atlantic Ocean in less than 10 hours is perplexing to me, but neither here nor there.
Wayne Gretzky led the NHL in points - 205 on that season, actually.
At the time, the NHL only had 21 teams.
This was the first season since 1942-43, which the NHL introduced a 5-minute overtime period to decide a tie game, at the time if you lost in overtime, you received no points whatsoever.
Ronald Reagan was president of the US, his first term.
Michael Jackson had won a record setting eight Grammy awards that year.
The Soviet Union boycotted the Summer Olympics.
The space shuttle, Discovery made it's maiden voyage.
Band Aid released "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

The Capitals will look to make it 10 in a row against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, which was actually the last team to beat them before this run started. Green is expected to play on Sunday, according to Bruce Boudreau, after big hit from Dmitry Kulikov, which had Kulikov's knee hit Greener's thigh, suffered a charley horse, luckily, he's okay. The Caps did win a pretty ugly game, despite the 4-1 goal differential. Mike Green was also a source of controversy, since he "deliberately elbowed Frolik" I don't usually agree with Pens fans or Canadian analysts, and this, oddly, is no different. It was a reaction, hockey is a game based on reaction, get over it.

In other news, the Hershey Bears topped the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 8-6 on Friday, in a game that shouldn't have even been that close. The Bears are now on a six game winning streak, and any Bears fan will tell you, there's little reason to believe this year's Bears WON'T repeat and win the Calder Cup again. It seems like after every loss the Bears suffer, they start another ridiculous winning streak the next game out. It's just nice to know the Capitals are that deep that even their minor league teams are that dominant over opponents.

Calling All Reds.

2010-01-29T16:20:00.000-05:00

The Washington Capitals are in the midst of the longest winning streak since 1989, it's an exciting time to be a fan of this team right now. From Ovechkin to Matt Bradley, they're the red-clad warriors that take to the ice every night and do whatever they need to in order to win games for themselves, their organization, and I would like to think, most importantly, us, the fans.

Tonight they face the very team that set off this winning streak, the Florida Panthers. The last time the two teams faced off was January 13th, at the BankAtlantic Center, which the Capitals forced to overtime on the strength of a third period marker by your favorite Swede, Nicklas Backstrom. Brooks Laich had taken a late tripping call in overtime and it looked like it was all but over, the Capitals were going to drop their second straight to a team based in Florida, a place that has maybe seen 3 inches of snow in it's history, and hardly knew what ice was before the NHL threw franchises down there. Alas, no powerplay goal would be given up on the ensuing powerplay, and the game would be going to shootout. No one scored until round 4 of the shootout, it was Stephen Weiss, who was then answered by Brendan Morrison. In round 5, Michael Frolik scored, Brooks Laich answered back with a goal on the next attempt. Corey Stillman led off the 6th round and was stopped by Jose Theodore, who had replaced Michal Neuvirth earlier in the night. After that save was made, Flash, or Tomas Fleischmann for those of you who didn't already know, had the puck on his stick, and was about to send Caps nation into a frenzy, one that we're still in the middle of almost a month later.

Since this game, the Capitals have won 8 straight games. There has only been ONE game in that stretch where the Caps scored fewer than 4 goals, which was a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings. The explosiveness of the offense has been well-documented throughout this stretch. Detroit thought they had that game in the bag, Brian Rafalski added a goal at 11:07 in the third period to put the Wings up 2-1, just then at 13:15, on the powerplay, Nicklas Backstrom scores to tie it up, then just seconds later, Dave Steckel scored his 4th of the year at 14:01, to end the Red Wings hopes of getting a win in Washington. This streak we're in the middle of, has seen our Capitals go 9-1-0 in their last 10 games. Since Ovechkin has been captain, the Capitals have won 11 of their last 12. You probably know all these numbers already if you're a Capitals fan, so I won't bore you with that. At home, the Capitals have outscored the opposition 35-13 in the last 7 games, that's a pretty ridiculous differential, if you ask me.

Doug Weight probably said it best after the Caps routed the Islanders 7-2 on Long Island earlier this week, "this Capitals team is the deepest team I've seen since the 90s Detroit Red Wings." Now I paraphrased a bit, but that was the general idea. This is a team that's built for the type of cup run the 90s Red Wings had, as well. Will the first piece of real hardware be collected this year? They're an overwhelming favorite in the east right now. I haven't seen much of this problematic defense everyone seems to harp on, since the 5-4 shootout win against the Panthers, the Caps have not allowed a team to score more than 3 goals against them. Wednesday's 5-1 victory over the Ducks was a game which veteran goaltender Jose Theodore had been sidelined and Michal Neuvirth was the starting goaltender. I don't think the Ducks had as many clear chances as they would have liked, and the defense was a pretty large part of that.

I can tell you, the next few months are going to be a fun ride for those of us who really enjoy District hockey. Is it April yet?

About Me

2010-01-29T01:18:00.000-05:00

Shaun is a 24 year old Capitals fan from New York, hockey is my favorite sport and some of my favorite Caps include Alex Ovechkin, Brooks Laich, and Nicklas Backstrom, though I also have a spot for Matt Bradley and Tomas Fleischmann. When I'm not writing about the Caps here, I'm probably tweeting about hockey, or writing over at Short Handed Blog. You can follow my Twitter account here, that would also be the best place to find out when I post new entries, etc. I have a pretty intense homer bias towards the Caps, though I think I have a tendency to be pretty balanced and I'll admit when something stupid happens. My stance on questionable hits is pretty open and clear, if it looks like it was an awful hit, it probably was, suspend people for headshots, regardless of intent or not. I like to see big hits, I think we all do, but I hate to see guys stretchered off the ice, as well.

The finger pointing between the Penguins and Flyers fans really entertains me, which brings me to another point. I HATE the Penguins and Flyers. If you didn't see that coming, I guess you've never really talked to a Capitals fan before. Whatever on that though.

This blog was mainly started so I can gush about the accomplishments of my personal favorite hockey team and not have to worry about sounding bias, seeing as how this blog only deals with the Capitals and some Hershey Bears, it should be out and on the table as far as where my allegiance lies. Yeah, cool. That's all I've got for now, enjoy the blog.