Wednesday, January 30, 2008

This Is A Problem

For the second game in a row against Washington, Cristobal Huet made 35 saves. Seven weeks ago he faced 37 shots, tonight it was exactly 35. Suffice to say, the guy has the Capitals' number (and we now know exactly what that number is.)

That said, the most significant number for the Caps right now is "3" -- that's how many points they are behind Carolina for the division lead and it's the number of points they are behind both the New York Islanders and Rangers for 8th place in the Eastern Conference.

The Capitals had plenty of chances to put at least one past Huet, who has improved to 6-2-0 in his career against the Caps. Of the 18 players dressed for Washington, 11 registered at least 2 shots on Huet, 7 of whom had at least 3 bounce off the brick wall -- yet nothing found the back of the net. Oh wait, Alexander Semin put one in well after a whistle, much to the ire of the Habs and their Bell Centre faithful.

At the opposite end, Brent Johnson was even busier as he stared down 40 shots and far too many odd-man rushes. The Canadiens had more than a couple steps on the Caps through the neutral zone all night long. Their speedy transition game gave Washington fits and had Johnson not played as well as he did (i.e. if Olie was in goal) the score could have been much more lopsided.

Another area that the Capitals must improve upon is their penalty killing. Granted they were up against the league's second most prolific power play, but the two goals allowed on the PK marks the 4th time in their last 6 games that the Caps have allowed at least two power play scores in a game. It doesn't help that the Caps gave up a goal on a 2-on-0 rush while on a 5-on-3 man advantage (although the first penalty had just ended and the guy out of the box joined a breakaway.)

Everything considered, it was a sloppy effort all the way around for the Caps. Sure they had their chances, but the Habs had more -- and that's something Bruce Boudreau is certain to address. The passing needs to be crisper, the defensemen need to be more selective when jumping into the play, and the forwards have to get back quicker for the Caps to avoid another loss to this Montreal team on Thursday. Plus it wouldn't hurt if Huet pulls a muscle in the morning skate and has to sit.

Anything to avoid having to post that picture again.

A FEW NOTES FROM THE GAME:

• Mike Green seems lost without his partner, Shaone Morrisonn. Since Mo missed his first contest four games ago, Green has not registered a point and is a -4 while seeing his minutes decrease to the fewest over a three game stretch since Boudreau first took over.
• Nicklas Backstrom, who began the season with serious struggles in the faceoff circle, has made a huge turnaround. His 13 faceoff wins were five more than anyone else on either side. Over his last four games, his faceoff effectiveness is as follows: 63.2, 68.2, 58.3, and 65.0 percent.
• Milan Jurcina has put up back-to-back season highs in minutes played. After playing 24:39 against Toronto right before the break, he skated 24:51 in the loss to Montreal.
• John Erskine was perhaps the unluckiest Cap of the evening. He put two rolling pucks into the seats for a pair of delay of game penalties. The first one resulted in the Canadiens initial goal at a time when Johnson had been playing spectacularly.

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