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Friday, November 30, 2007

Caps Outplay Carolina; Lose on Bad Breaks, Calls

A change of leadership has not produced a change of luck for this Capitals team. Losers of their third straight game, Washington also lost the three goal reviews.

The first review, on a goal where the puck went in off Alex Ovechkin's skate, appeared to be the correct call as he did make a kicking motion. The second review, of Carolina's third goal, should have been as clear cut as the first review. It was quite apparent that Rod Brind'Amour's stick was above the cross bar when he deflected the puck past Olie Kolzig, giving the Hurricanes a two goal lead.

It appeared the Capitals trimmed the margin to one at the buzzer ending the second period, but upon further review it was ruled the puck went in a split second after the horn sounded. My question on the review: Unless the NHL had the shot us viewers did not have at home, where is the split-screen overhead view of the goal with the clock in the corner. It seems this should be a standard for all 30 NHL rinks to get an accurate call on such instances.

Despite still being down two goals going into the final frame, the Caps' resiliency paid off beginning the third by getting their disallowed goal back, cutting the lead to 3-2, on the same power play as the disallowed goal to end the second. All three of Carolina's goals to this point came on lucky bounces, and the luckiest of all extended their lead back to two.

Rod Brind'Amour threw the puck from behind the goal line toward the goal mouth where three Capitals and zero Hurricanes awaited. The puck bounced in off Alex Ovechkin's stick, the fourth puck of the night to go in off OV. Too bad only two counted for Washington on the scoreboard. In spite of this, he remained the best player on the ice for either side yet again -- and yet again to no avail.

The officiating, aside from at least one blown goal review, left much to be desired. With Washington on the power play late in the third period and trailing by one goal, Mike Green was hooked from behind while fending off Chad LaRose. Attempting to recover, Mike Green's stick hit LaRose in the chops. The refs whistled Greenie for the only penalty, negated the man advantage and forcing Washington to kill yet another penalty while trying to net the tying goal.

After the kill, Washington kept the pressure on in the Carolina end, but the Cam Ward with help from his collapsing defense held on to push the Capitals below .500 under Bruce Boudreau.

A few notes from the game:

  • Washington outshot Carolina 34-19; Carolina out-bounced Washington 4-0.
  • The 19 shots allowed marks the second time this season the Capitals have allowed under 20 shots. Before this year the last time the Capitals had ONE game where they allowed fewer than 20 was in October 2005, more than 150 games ago.
  • The Capitals seemed to get in the way of everything Carolina tried to do, blocking a season-high 21 shots (13 in the first period alone) and making 11 takeaways.
  • Quintin Laing, playing in his fourth career NHL game and first in four years, played an exceptional defensive game. He led the Capitals in blocked shots with four and was second among forwards in penalty kill ice time.
  • Even with a multi-point game tonight, Michael Nylander has not been a plus player since the Capitals win over Ottawa 11 games ago.
  • Jeff Schultz was a -3 on the night and failed to cover his man on Carolina's first goal. Three Capitals watched in a line formation as Eric Staal played a bouncing puck. Staal shot the puck across the goal mouth, hitting teammate Cory Stillman in the chest. The puck dropped to the ice and Stillman fired it home. Schultz was the THIRD Capital away from Staal as all three were watching the puck. Schultz should have been looking for a man to tie up, i.e. Stillman, but did not.
  • It would be nice to see Michael Nylander become more consistent on faceoffs. His win on a power play draw two and a half minutes into the game gave Ovechkin the opportunity to one-time the past Cam Ward. He won only 31% on the night, however. For the season he has won over 70% four times -- but he has also lost over 70% four times.


Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Caps Finish Half Way to Their Much Needed Win

Winning tonight's game on home ice was critical for this shaken Capitals squad. However, they came out of the gate playing very sloppy hockey and took two penalities in the first five minutes of action. That's a mistake against any team, let a lone against the 5th ranked power play which converts at over 23%, and Florida made Washington pay.

Once the mistakes diminished, the game turned into a wonderful goaltending duel, if nothing else, between Olie Kolzig and Thomas Vokoun. Chris Clark tied the game when he capitalized on Jurcina-esque breakout pass from the ordinarily steady Steve Montador. He threw straight up the middle of the ice right to Clarkie standing on the blue line by himself. He fired a long slapper that Vokoun might want to have back.

For the most part the game was rather uneventful -- both teams had occasionally chances but the netminders had the answer for all of them as Vokoun stopped 32 of 33 and Olie knocked away 28 of 29.

A win tonight would have been a huge momentum swing for this team. They were trying to defeat a team they should be better than, but who has had the Caps number for a few years now, both with and post-Luongo. The paltry mark of 2-9-0-1 in HOME games against the Panthers is abysmal (but still not as embarrassing as that panther scream on every faceoff down in sunny FLA.)

While they came up short of their main goal, they have managed to earn 5 points out of a possible 8 in the four games Bruce Boudreau has coached. Four those who may be wondering how a pace like will affect our playoff chances, here's how: Continuing along at the 5 point per 4 game pace, the Caps will accumulate 71 over their remainging 57 games, pushing them to 89 points for the season. That is only three out of the projected 92 need for the eight seed in the East. As this suggests, it is far from imopssible to make the second season.

Although the game was one of the least entertaining you will watch all season, it did culminate in the first shootout of the Caps' winter. We finally found something Viktor Kozlov can do effectively. We heard the numbers (52%), tonight we saw the move -- a very quick deke and shot through the five hole before Vokoun was ready. This play aside, Semin still junked up the ice, Nylander was ineffective (though not as bad as the last game,) and the bad guys scored more in the shootout than the good guys did.

A few notes from the game:

  • Alex Ovechkin, who was inconspicuous for most the evening, had his nine game point streak come to an end shortly after an article was written about him in the New York Post by Larry Brooks, stating Ovechkin deserved better than the tepid hockey atmosphere of Our Nation's Capitol.
  • Tom Poti's very solid play has continued and he is being rewarded with ice time. He has played nearly 62 minutes of the last two games.
  • Thomas Fleischmann sat out of the lineup for the second time this season.
  • Both Chris Clark and Alexander Semin left the game late. The injuries are not said to be serious, but I wouldn't be surprised if Semin misses more time with that bum ankle
LISTEN TO POST GAME INTERVIEWS


Monday, November 26, 2007

Capitals Hit a Wall Named Miller

The Washington Capitals turned in a strong effort tonight, but costly turnovers and excellent goaltending resulted in the first loss of the new regime. Ryan Miller stopped 30 of 31 shots in Buffalo's 3-1 victory of the Caps.

Michael Nylander had his worst game of the season tonight. Buffalo's second and third goals were directly the result of Nylander turnovers. On the first, rather than clearing the puck to the boards, he tried to settle a bouncing puck down in the slot. The Sabres' Daniel Paille made a beautiful strip and Jochen Hecht redirected the Paille pass for his second goal of the game.

The Sabres' third goal of the night came off Nylander's poor drop pass to a pinching defense. This set up a two-on-one break that Buffalo made no mistake about. Nyles had a chance to redeem himself late in the third, but couldn't pot a puck that was on the goal line.

Washington did have its share of chances, but Ryan Miller had the answer for all but one, a beautiful individual effort by Alex Ovechkin. Speaking of Alex, the other one returned to the lineup tonight. Unfortunately, Alexander Semin looked terrible.

I don't know if he is rusty or if his ankle is bothering him enough to impair his game so drastically, but Washington ought to consider letting him heal to 100 percent before writing his name on the lineup card again. Every pass he made was off target, and the dipsy-dos we've become so accustomed to are nonexistent.

On a positive note, Washington ramped up their play as the game progressed, showing resiliency after trailing for the first time since the coaching change. Despite giving up the eventual game winner and an insurance goal on ugly giveaways less than four minutes apart, we did not see the Capitals lose interest like they have in recent games in which they fell behind.

Although Washington walked away with a loss, Caps fans should be encouraged by the consistent effort that was put forth.

A few notes from the game:

  • Steve Eminger made his second appearance of the season, but the pairing of Eminger and John Erskine looked overmatched.  Their poor man coverage down low resulted in Buffalo's first tally.
  • The fourth line of Donald Brashear, Matt Bradley, and Nicklas Backstrom appear to be developing their cycle game, but we didn't see much of them together in the third.
  • Olie Kolzig made a brilliant diving save, perhaps his best on the year, late in the third to keep the game within reach. It came on a horrible backcheck after a Caps power play ended where they used four forwards for the first time under Boudreau. Look for him to go back to the two d-man power play.
  • Washington made a huge turnaround on faceoffs from the previous game, winning 61 percent after losing 59 percent two nights ago.
  • Viktor Kozlov remains an enigma. His stickhandling through traffic can amaze at times, but he seldom finishes the play.
Listen to Bruce Boudreau speak about his first career loss.