Sunday Smorgasbord 12-30

• If Canada has its version of Larry Brooks, it's Bruce Garrioch. While Garrioch gets plenty of kudos from me for speaking the truth to the Buffaslugs crew about, Buffaslugs Owner Tom Golisano's hissy fit. I have to laugh about his "inside sources" telling him about the "insulting offer" the Caps apparently made to A.O.. First of all, the U.S. Intelligence Community could take a few lessons from General Manager George McPhee about keeping things under wraps. Simply put, only McPhee really knows what he is and is not doing (and some would argue that not even he knows that much). But if we were to believe Garrioch that A.O. was only offered an average salary of $7.5 million per season, that offer would allow the Caps to keep plenty of salary cap space open to acquire the increased talent A.O. is allegedly demanding. So who is insulting who here?
• Just two days after Maryland lost 21-14 to Oregon State in the Emerald Bowl, new offensive coordinator James Franklin hasn't wasting anytime getting to work as Wide Receivers coach Bryan Bossard has been ousted. Word on the street is that Bossard wasn't winning enough recruiting battles and the fundamentals of the Wide Receivers had not improved during the season which is why he is gone. The rumor mill has everybody including Former Terps Scott McBrien and Julian Gary joining the staff but what this really is all about is that Franklin has total control of the offense now and it also lends serious credibility that he's being groomed to take over for Ralph Friedgen when the Head Coach decides to step down.
• In case you didn't already know, voting ends on Wednesday for the NHL All-Star game and it looks like A.O. will not be voted into the starting lineup. At last check, he was fifth among forwards in the Eastern Conference. Though considering that the new uniforms were debuted in the All-Star game last year and the flop sweat issue did not crop up then; it tells you all you really need to know about the All-Star game. Hades, I don't even know when it is and I don't really care because I'm not going to bother to watch it anyway. However, I think it is time for the Caps, the Caps beat writers, the Caps radio and TV personalities, and us bloggers along with other Caps fans to start beating the drums for A.O. to win the Hart Trophy for Most Valuable Player in the NHL this season. At this point, A.O. has scored 30 of the 106 goals that the Caps have scored, but he's also has 18 assists so that means he's had a hand in over 45% of the Caps goals this season. But what has made A.O. an MVP candidate IMHO is the fact that he's now playing well at both ends of the ice and is putting up the offensive numbers of his career in spite of the fact that he's not had regular linemates at all this season. Throw in the obvious fact that the Caps would be totally lost without him and I wonder what else he has to do in order to win the Hart Trophy.
• Well, it was a classic "trap" or "ambush" scenario. Win a game at home against a team with nothing to play for and a bye week coming up and you get a playoff spot. And yet the Redskins came out and dominated the Dallas Cowgirls 27-6. Sure, the Skins faced a Dallas team with nothing to play for that was missing regular players. Sure the Cowgirls pulled Tony Romo in the second half. But that doesn't explain the one, that's one single solitary yard that the Cowgirls rushed for today with both of their regular running backs playing into the fourth quarter. That does not explain the 13-3 halftime lead against the starters that the Redskins ran up. And it does not bode well for the Cowgirls that the Skins now have the confidence that they can beat them should they meet again in two weeks.
• Though I do want to say this about the Skins-Cowgirls game; I finally saw a good use for the infamous pink jerseys as there was a guy in the lower level wearing a pink Tony Romo jersey and a long blond hair wig. That guy right there should have been fan of the game.
• Finally, this week the Caps are home for their traditional New Year's Day game on Tuesday when they host the Ottawa Senators at 4 pm. They then head out on the road for a game in Boston on Thursday night at 7 pm and then are in Montreal on Saturday for a 1 pm matinee. The Terp men host Savannah State on Wednesday night at 8 pm and then head out to face Charlotte on Saturday with a Noon tip off on ESPNU. (available in sports bars and sports books around the country) The Terp women start up ACC play when they head down to Wake Forest on Thursday night and then are home next Sunday to face Clemson. The Redskins make their second playoff appearance in two years on Saturday where they played their last playoff game, Seattle, when they face the Seahawks in the NFL Playoffs curtain jerker at 4:30 pm on NBC.
• As always, please send all comments, questions, criticisms, suggestions, corrections, and New Year's Eve Party Invitations to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.

Caps @ Senators 12-29-2007 Wrap Up

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Times.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com AP Wire

The Other Side:

Ottawa Citizen: not as much fun, professional conduct, beating it. Ottawa Sun: sleeping in, wake up call, odds and ends, bad soap opera, game recap.

Final Thoughts:

If there's a way to get yourself out of last place (save for the six goals allowed), it's hard to think of a better way to do it than scoring 8 goals. However, we've been down this road many times this season and the return bout in D.C. on Tuesday afternoon will once again show whether this is a real turnaround or if we'll continue to struggle.

39 down, 43 to go.

Caps @ Senators 12-29-2007 Post-Mortem

Well.... THAT was a real defensive struggle... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• In the last game of December, A.O. got his annual December Hat Trick on the road. Though this time he did it in regulation and let somebody else score along with him. A.O. is now at 246 points in his career with tonight's four goals and one assist. He's all alone in 25th on the Caps All-Time Scoring list and is 22 points behind Alan Haworth for 24th. (Though don't expect A.O. to be the NHL's first star of the night. Canadian Diving Team Captain, Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby had two assists tonight so A.O. will have to settle for NHL's Second Star)
• While he had only an assist, was a +2, and had 5 shots on goal, Viktor Kozlov had a good game tonight. His goal scoring drought continues but he played about as hard as I've seen him play recently. If he keeps it up, he'll break the goal scoring drought.
• Michael Nylander with two goals tonight but only a +1?
• Alexander Semin got things going tonight with an excellent strip behind the net to score the first goal and then two assists. I think this is more what Bruce Boudreau had in mind when he said Semin needs to score more consistently. While the goal was nice, his uncharacteristic passing of the puck to Nylander (one of Nylander's two goals) on a two-on-one for the sixth goal was a big play tonight.
• The eight goals tonight is a season high.

THE BAD:

• We needed all eight goals to win this game and that should never be the case. Though you wouldn't have thought that would need all eight goals after giving up just two shots on goal in the first period. I couldn't tell if Ottawa finally broke through or if we started to back off thinking the lead was safe.
• Most of the six goals allowed tonight you can't blame Olie Kolzig for (mostly every goal in the Mike Fisher Hat Trick) but every single player who faces Kolzig on a Penalty Shot or in the gimmick will deke their way to their backhand until Kolzig proves he can stop that move. Furthermore, the goal he gave up to Jason Spezza was the nightly "Wish I Had That One Back" goal. That goal gave Ottawa all kinds of life and made the third period more interesting than it should have been.
• David "Bolt Cutter" Steckel is the only Cap in the negative tonight with a -1. His linemates, Quintin Laing was even, and Matt "Omar" Bradley was a +1. To add insult to injury, he was 7-9 on faceoffs tonight which is supposed to be his strong suit.

THE UGLY:

• The Power Play was 2-for-6 tonight but allowed two shorthanded goals. Both shorthanded goals allowed are a direct result of the insistence of putting A.O. on the point AND playing the first Power Play Unit for a majority of the Power Play time. The first Power Play unit of A.O., Nicklas Backstrom, Semin, Nylander, and Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green played, 7:11, 7:20, 6:31, 6:17, and 6:42 respectively of 9:32 of Power Play time. The worst part is that we knew going into the game that Ottawa excelled at scoring shorthanded goals (they were tied for second in the league entering the game tonight) and yet the coaching staff made no adjustments until after the second shorty had been given up.
• While Ottawa's Power Play is surprisingly mediocre, the Caps still took too many penalties tonight, giving up six Power Play opportunities. Though some of the calls made by Dave Jackson and Chris Rooney were cheap.

A big key to winning tonight was that like last December's surprise of the Buffaslugs at the Phone Booth, the Caps scored early, often, and never let up. While there are people who like this kind of game; giving up six goals in a game where you score eight goals, never trail in the game, and were only tied for 61 seconds is not good. You can't do much of anything about fluky stuff and deflections are going to happen. But the Caps went into the third period tonight with a three goal lead and allowed 4 goals on 12 shots. We need better goaltending and defense than that. However, the offense bailed us out tonight and while it doesn't look like A.O. will start the All-Star game this year, he is making a strong case for the Hart Trophy because there's no doubt that without him, this team would be really lost.

It has been... A TWO POINT NIGHT!!!

Caps @ Senators 12-29-2007 Preview

Washington Capitals (14-24; 33 points) @ Ottawa Senators (25-12; 54 points):
Caps Game #39, Road Game #21, NHL Game #562

ScotiaBank Place, Kanata, Ontario, Canada. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic Plus. Radio: WWWT 1500-AM, 107.7 FM. Ottawa TV: None. Radio: TEAM 1200-AM. Canadian National TV: CBC. NHL Center Ice: Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic Plus feed.

Tonight the Caps begin to wrap up the season series with Ottawa by visiting the Canadian capitol city for the second and final time this season. The first visit yielded a surprise 4-1 Caps win that ended Ottawa's franchise record 8 game winning streak. The Senators hit a speed bump earlier this month but have straightened things back out and have won three in a row. Their most recent win was Thursday night on home ice against the Islanders by a score of 5-2. The Caps and Senators will meet twice more in Washington the next 17 days.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Times. Caps.com

Neutral Views:

NHL.com AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Ottawa Citizen: Emery ejected, focus on tonight, gameday. Ottawa Sun: sickened, Emery over, gameday. Senators.com.

What Do I Expect Tonight?:

The Senators clearly remember what happened the last time these two teams met; so tonight could get real ugly real quickly if the Caps are not ready to play. And even if the Caps are ready to play, it could still get real ugly real quickly. The Caps only hope is that the Ray Emery soap opera distracts the Senators to the point that the Caps can take advantage. But Emery is clearly the backup so don't count on that happening unless he kneecaps Martin Gerber in warmups. The good news is that only hardcore Caps and Senators fans will be watching this game tonight with the proceedings in the Joisey swamps tonight drawing 99.99999% of the attention of the sports world tonight.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 2
Senators 6
Winner by Spezza

(25-13 on the season)

Caps @ Penguin Scum 12-27-2007 Wrap Up

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Times.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: OT win, notebook. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: redemption, Malone out.

Final Thoughts:

Aren't you getting a little tired of wondering "just how is this team going to respond?"

38 down, 44 to go.

Caps @ Penguin Scum 12-27-2007 Post-Mortem

I told you it gets fluky against them... Boy do we have a Battle Damage Assessment tonight...

THE GOOD:

• Mr. Donald Brashear had himself a nice first period. Picking up a goal, having his obligatory fight/wrestling match with Georges Laraque, and hitting just about every defenseman on the Penguin Scum roster.
• Nicklas Backstrom had a fine game as well. His assist on Brian Pothier's goal was a thing of beauty.

THE BAD:

• Canadian Diving Team Captain Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby first star????? The game winning goal was more Olie Kolzig over committing than anything Cindy did. Good grief...
• In the third period, the Penguin Scum elevated their desperation level and the Caps didn't match the intensity. As a matter of fact, it looked as if the Caps were willing to just sit on the one goal lead but let things get opened up after having the Penguin Scum hemmed in their own zone in the second period and being booed off the ice by the home fans.

THE UGLY:

• The Power Play had only two chances tonight, but looked lost without A.O. in the third period. As a matter of fact, while the Caps took 7 shots on goal after A.O. left the game,
  "Plan B" Alexander Semin had more missed shots (3) than shots on goal (1) in that span.
• Not once, but twice pucks went off of Milan Jurcina's stick and into the Caps net. See what I mean by fluky?

Once again the beat writer from the dying medium scoops the Caps blogsphere and informs us that Brent Johnson is out for 2-4 weeks but that A.O. should play on Saturday night in Ottawa. The good news is that our offense will return for the next game. The bad news is that there's nobody to push Olie Kolzig for the next month. Though watching tonight's game, I am more convinced than ever that the Penguin Scum are NOT a better hockey team than we are, not by any stretch of the imagination. Even after A.O. went down, we still have enough offensive ability to put a team like the Penguin Scum away. But certain players just simply are not getting the job done for us and that is an issue that needs to be addressed. However of the "top six" forwards, only Semin and Tomas Fleischmann got shots on goal after A.O. left the game. Matt "Omar" Bradley had as many shots as those two combined in that span. But once again, here we are wondering why the Caps can't seem to bear down and get the wins that they need.

Caps vs. Ning 12-26-2007 Wrap Up/ Caps @ Penguin Scum 12-27-2007 Preview

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: Ning edged, tag removed. Times: victory to begin stretch, interim no more. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com AP Wire.

The Other Side:

St. Petersburg Times: no excuses, MacDonald returns, up next. Tampa Tribune: Ning comes up short, Lukowich returns.

Final Thoughts:

I didn't think there was much controversy over the game winning goal. I thought there might have been a high stick but it was pretty clear that the puck crossed the line before the net came off. Anyway, let's hope we can build some momentum here and don't need anymore pep talks. I have to think that Tortorella is starting to burn his team out.

37 down, 45 to go.


Washington Capitals (14-23; 32 points) @ Pittsburgh Penguin Scum (18-18; 38 points):
Caps Game #38, Road Game: #20, NHL Game #548

Mellon Arena, Pittsburgh, PA. 7:37 pm. Washington TV: Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WWWT 1500-AM, 107.7-FM. Pittsburgh TV: Fox SportsNet Pittsburgh. Radio: WXDX 105.9-FM. National TV: HD-NET. NHL Center Ice: Fox SportsNet Pittsburgh feed.

Tonight the Caps make their first trip to Pittsburgh this season to face the Penguin Scum for the second time this season. The first game back in October yielded a 2-1 win for the Penguin Scum who have since seen their dreams of a Stanley Cup run die a slow horrible death. The Penguin Scum have been inconsistent of late alternating wins and losses over their last six games. The Penguin Scum won their last game on Sunday, 4-2, at home against Boston.

What The Natives Are Saying:

Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Orpik returning, Eaton indefinitely out. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Eaton out, Canada honors Canadian Diving Team Captain, Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby, questions answered, Scouting the Caps.

What Do I Expect Tonight?:

It has been five years since the Caps have won a game in Pittsburgh and something fluky always seems to happen when we visit that dump in Pittsburgh. The Penguin Scum were flying high last year playing with all kinds of confidence in securing the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference last year and leading all kinds of pundits to predict a deep run into this year's playoffs and maybe even a Stanley Cup Championship. But the sophomore slump has hit certain players very hard, injuries are starting to mount, and the Penguin Scum have yet to regain the confidence that the Senators sapped out of them in their first round drubbing back in April. The Penguin Scum are ninth in the Eastern Conference right now by virtue of the tiebreaker but hardly look like a playoff team lettalone the team they were last year. And if you believe our Old Friend, Larry Brooks (which we don't BTW), the Penguin Scum locker room is on the verge of revolt which would be the second coach of that team fired in three seasons should they succeed this season. (And you thought Jagr was a coach killer...) So how this game is going to play out with the Penguin Scum's top defensive-defenseman/Sergei Gonchar hand-holder out indefinitely is anybodies guess. I'm not one to question history, regardless of whether or not Ty Conklin starts in goal for the Penguin Scum.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 1
Penguin Scum 2
Winner by Roberts

(24-13 on the season)

Caps vs. Ning 12-26-2007 Post-Mortem

Well, it got the job done... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• David "Ning Killer?" or "Bolt Cutter?" Steckel seems to be the secret weapon for us against the Ning. A goal and two assists tonight and all three goals this season have come against the Ning. Too bad we only have three more games against them this season and will have fewer meetings in the future against divisional opponents. (I think I'm going with "Bolt Cutter")
• The Caps were charged with one penalty tonight. Of course I saw about four or five other penalties we took that didn't get called but keeping the Ning off the Power Play tonight certainly helped.
• 32 shots on goal versus 20 allowed. You should win more games than you lose with that kind of ratio.

THE BAD:

• Though 14 blocked shots and 15 missed shots tonight.
• Both teams looked like they had a little too much egg nog over the Christmas break with their play to start the game tonight. It wasn't until the Ning scored that both teams woke up.
• All kinds of stickwork from Vincent Lecavalier went uncalled. I also noticed that the Ning were double teaming the forwards on the top two lines all night, but for whatever reason, we couldn't find the open man to get him the puck.

THE UGLY:

• The Power Play once again shines through going o for 4. Why is it that A.O. and Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green spend almost the entire two minutes at the point even when the second set of forwards come out? You mean to tell me we don't have anybody else who can play the point on the Power Play?
• While the Bolt Cutter had an offesnive outburst that earned him first star, the real first star for the Caps was Ning goaltender Karri Ramo. How we only scored three goals on him is amazing to me because of all the rebounds and loose pucks he was leaving out there. It is a testament to the fact that we weren't driving the net hard enough. Sorry Ning fans, that guy isn't the answer you're looking for in goal.
• Admittedly, I'd be willing to give Olie Kolzig the benefit of the doubt on the second goal he allowed to the Ning. However with the soft goal he gave up in the first period and his play of late, he isn't getting it. As a matter of fact, every shot the other team takes now is an adventure because you just aren't sure that Kolzig is going to stop it. I can only imagine what the Caps feel like.

This was the type of game that until a month ago now, we would have lost and lost badly. A slow start compounded by a soft early goal allowed would have led to the Caps getting run out of their own building. But instead they were able to win the NHL's Pillow Fight of The Night and beat the team with the worst road record. It's a start but I don't think we'll win many more games like this.

It has been... A TWO POINT NIGHT!!!

Caps vs. Ning 12-26-2007 Preview

Washington Capitals (13-23; 30 points) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (15-21; 33 points):
Caps Game #37, Home Game #18, NHL Game #539

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WWWT 1500-AM, 107.7-FM. Tampa TV: Sunshine Network. Radio: WDAE 620-AM. NHL Center Ice: Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic feed.

Tonight the Caps come back from the holiday break by hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Phone Booth for the fifth meeting meeting the two teams this season and for the third time at the Phone Booth. The season series is split right now at two games apiece with the games being split in both cities. The Ning are only three points ahead of the Caps largely because of the worst road record in the NHL. The Ning have only three wins on the road this season (one of them from their last trip to the Phone Booth) and have turned to rookie Karri Ramo in goal to try to bail the team out. He was in net for Tampa's most recent game, a 4-1 loss at home to Carolina on Saturday night but gave up only two goals (the other two were into an empty net). The Ning have lost four of their last five games.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Times. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

St. Petersburg Times. Tampa Tribune.

What Do I Expect Tonight?:

The doldrums of November-December hockey are going to slowly start to melt away as teams start to pick things up for the stretch run. Both teams come into tonight's game needing to get back into the hunt for the playoffs with the Caps sitting 8 points out while the Ning are 5 points away but sit at the bottom of the Eastern Conference making tonight's game the "NHL Pillow Fight of the Night." So this is a pretty big game for both teams as they both need to get going if they want to make the playoffs and throwing out the hot young rookie goaltender is usually a good move against the Caps. With three games in four nights in three different cities to wrap up the 2007 portion of the schedule, we'll get a good idea how the remainder of the Caps season will go. So far under Bruce Boudreau the Caps have responded well when backed against a wall but you have to wonder how much longer the team will hold out under the pressure created by their poor start.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 3
Ning 2
Winner by Semin

(23-13 on the season)

We Need A Real Leader

Two summers ago now, Dave Fay wrote in the Washington Times that the Caps needed a leader, a run-through-the-walls-won't-accept-losing-at-any-price type of player who should not only show the Caps how to win, but how to win in the playoffs. Dave Fay suggested Micheal Peca as that type of player and strongly encouraged the Caps to sign the then Free Agent (who instead went to Toronto and spent most of the year on IR, he's now in Columbus the last time I checked and has had about as much of an impact there as he did in Toronto).

I disagreed to Fay to a certain point. Before last season even started, I felt there was no way the Caps were going to make the playoffs. I believed that the "fearless leader" type could wait another year with little damage. I also objected to the idea of Michael Peca being that type of leader for this team. He's never won anything in his career and IMHO, is one of the most overrated players in the history of the game.

But as this season as gone on, Fay's call two years ago now for a leader becomes more and more true. No offense to Captain Chris Clark who took a puck in the mouth, finished his shift, and then had to be threatened by management because he wanted to return right away. But Captain Clark is not a fearless leader run-through-the-walls-won't-accept-losing-at-any-price type of player, at least not right now. He could become that type of guy but isn't there yet. The closest the Caps have to that is A.O., but A.O. is a superstar type of player and those types of player often have a hard time relating to the players who are not as supremely talented as they are. Besides, A.O. tends to try to do everything himself way too much instead of leading the rest of the team in that kind of charge. What I'm thinking is another Dale Hunter type of player. A guy who has enough talent to play in the NHL but isn't a superstar and just refuses to ever lose.

Of course, you can't discuss leadership on the Caps and not mention Olie Kolzig. Kolzig has by far the longest tenure of any player on the team (He's in his 16th season, take a guess as to who is second in tenure behind Olie? It's this guy who is in his 6th season with the team.) and has long been considered the "Unofficial Captain" of the team.

Yet even before Kolzig was dubbed "Unofficial Captain," national NHL Talking Heads alluded to leadership issues in the Washington Dressing Room. Guys like Bill Clementhead and Mullet Melrose would often flat out say that there were leadership problems on the Caps and this was before Jagr was ever added to the Caps volatile locker room which clearly didn't help matters.

Now in the defense of Kolzig, there's a reason why goaltenders are not allowed to be named team captain. First of all they can't conduct business between team and the officials on the ice, especially in games when they are the backup goaltender. It is also isn't a good idea because that's the only time they're ever on the bench, when they're the backup and not playing in the game. They can't "rally the troops" on the bench and then go out and set an example on their next shift, because they're hardly ever on the bench during a game in which they are playing. The goaltender has a single job which is to stop pucks. They aren't responsible for things like clearing the zone, finding the open space on the ice, and scoring goals.

However, this Caps season has already seen a coaching change. Bruce Boudreau took over for Glen Hanlon a little over a month ago now but can we honestly say that things have changed every much? The team has played roughly .500 hockey which is a bit of an improvement but not very much. Boudreau has brought an aggressive style back to the Caps and is a lot more willing to rip the players who are underperforming than Hanlon ever was. But so far a Boudreau tongue lashing has a positive effect on the team for only a week. That's great when the Caps have four home games and end up winning three of them but when there's only two games in the one week span, the results tend not to be as positive. Furthermore, by being a bit of a taskmaster Boudreau is going to wear out his welcome with the team quicker than any other type of coach. I really think that the Caps had tuned out Hanlon and that a change of voice is what was needed for the Caps.

But since Boudreau was hired, it has become apparent to me that the real problem is a lack of leadership from the players themselves. This has been a problem since end of Dale Hunter's captaincy and the only constant through this entire time is Olie Kolzig. Again, while goaltenders are not allowed to be named captain, Kolzig looks to me to be more of the problem with leadership than the cure. First of all Kolzig's apology to Hanlon after Hanlon was fired seemed kind of odd to me. But when you read what he said about Hanlon's dismissal don't you really wish you were in on that conversation? Then take his comments from this past Saturday:

"Numbers don't always tell the true story ... We're playing a system now where you don't get a lot of comfort shots, a lot of perimeter shots. You've got to be ready. We're not allowing teams to come right through, but when they do, it's on a breakdown or a power-play shot.

"We're more aggressive in the defensive zone; we're pressuring. But if one guy isn't doing his job, that leaves another guy wide open. That's what I'm facing. I've come to grips with that. My philosophy is to make the key save at the right time."

Now unless Tarik El-Bashir is taking Kolzig's comments out of context (and I don't think he is) Kolzig is basically saying, "yeah, I'm not coming up with the big saves as much as I used to, but my team mates are hanging me out to dry because of the new system our new coach has installed"

Now, who wants to count the number of players and coaches Kolzig just threw under the bus with that one? Now keep that in mind and go back and look at what he said when Hanlon was fired:

[It] has nothing to do with coaching, and has everything to do with individuals not listening and being on their own program.

While I'm in no place to argue otherwise, who's fault is that? What does it say about the leadership on the team when the players hold a meeting, discuss their mistakes, and then go right back out there and make the same mistakes again?

It's pretty clear to me that Kolzig isn't getting the job done as a leader. Maybe much like coaches in the NHL, the locker room leaders wear out their welcome as well and get tuned out by the rest of the team. Kolzig's play this season hasn't given him much credibility either. After flubbing a clearing attempt against the Buffaslugs that turned into a shorthanded layup, Kolzig gave up another soft goal later in the game. Kolzig played well in regulation in Detroit but was then beaten badly on the exact same move three times in a row in the gimmick.

Kolzig couldn't throw anybody under the bus for that one.

Now I am NOT saying that the Caps need to trade Kolzig. Kolzig's contract is up at the end of the season and he'll be a UFA. As a matter of fact, his next contract is going to stick with the Caps for its entire term unless Kolzig is traded or goes to another team. My plea to Henrik Lundqvist was part joke, part serious. The Caps have Michal Neuvirth and Simeon Varlamov in the pipeline who are highly regarded prospects but unproven at the NHL level. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch for the Caps to go out and get that fearless leader run-through-the-walls-won't-accept-losing-at-any-price type of player in the off season and nudge Kolzig into retirement this summer.

Everybody in these parts is (rightly) concerned about the contract negotiations between the Caps and A.O., but Kolzig is in a contract year himself and we've heard even less speculation about that one. While the blueline certainly needs to improve, goaltending is always the key to winning, especially come playoff time. Even with Kolzig, I don't think we have the goaltending we need to make a run in the playoffs. A.O.'s contract will get done on its own time and he'll remain with the Caps. Kolzig however, may be playing his last season in Washington.

Because folks, let's face facts here, this season is lost. The Caps are not making the playoffs this year. They would need Kolzig to play like he did ten years ago in the playoffs for them to even have a chance. Kolzig shows no signs of returning to that form and because his play is slipping, he won't be able to rally the rest of the team behind himself. That's why this team needs a real leader.

A perfect example of a young team being turned around by a leader is the Tampa Bay Lightning. Dave Andreychuk was a but good but hardly a great player. He came on board in Tampa in 2001-2002. In second season was named Captain and he got the Ning back into the playoffs and in his third, he helped them get their wired Stanley Cup. There are other examples out there, but this is only the most recent one.

And just exactly who could/should this leader be? That's a good question because I don't have the answer myself. As shown above, it doesn't need to be a household name, just somebody who refuses to let his team lose. We may already have that player in Captain Clark, but he's not having the chance to be that guy out of deference to Olie. But this is why guys like George McPhee are paid the big bucks that they are and I'm just some idiot blogger who has to pay his way into the Phone Booth. McPhee or whoever takes his place as General Manager, should the Caps decide to fire McPhee, are the ones who need find the leader that the Caps need and bring him to the Caps.

Sunday Smorgasbord 12-23

• After pulling out a big win in Minnesota, the Redskins have their fate in their hands when they host the Dallas Cowgirls next week in Landover. The past two weeks the Skins have faced teams that simply needed to win a game at home to lockup a playoff spot. Now the Redskins are that team playing at home that needs just one win to lockup a playoff spot. Throw in the fact that the Cowgirls have "nothing to play for" (save of course a knocking their arch rivals out of the playoffs on their own home field) and I can't think of a better recipe for a letdown. However I do want to say that despite the Redskins winning the game, the NFL should STILL release the indisputable video evidence that overturned Mike Sellers' touchdown run in the first quarter. NBC certainly did not provide indisputable video evidence and we saw last year in more than one college football game that instant replay can get the call horribly wrong. By my count, that reversal cost the Redskins 6 points because they lost a touchdown and an extra point. While that call put them into position for the safety, they later attempted and failed a 2 point conversion that they would have never attempted had they not scored the safety.
• Want to know why a school like Maryland will never be able to truly compete for a National Championship in Football while a school like F$U is almost always considered for the title chase? Last spring Maryland quarterback Josh Portis panicked when hit with a Pop Quiz in a class that he was unprepared for. He was caught cheating on the quiz and ended up being suspended for the entire season. Portis was competing with Jordan Steffy for the starting QB job and his suspension not only cost him a year of eligibility, it also left the Terps thin at the QB position and led to the elevation of Chris Turner, who is only a sophomore, after Steffy got injured at Rutgers. However at F$U at least 20 players are being suspended for four games for their involvement in a cheating scandal. One of those games will be F$U's upcoming bowl game and the other three games will be next season, likely early in the season during the cupcake portion of the schedule. While this is better than making the players clean up Doak Campbell Stadium after home games, the disparity in punishment between schools in the same conference should be a cause for concern. Portis was forced to miss an entire season (which has ended up being 13 games) while most F$U players will miss less than a quarter of that. Portis acted alone in his cheating yet the F$U scandal involves athletes in other sports and athletic department employees. So the question begs, where is the NCAA on this? I remember a number of years ago now when a Maryland coach gave a recruit $$$$$ to buy an X-Box for Christmas. The coach was fired, the recruit was let go (despite his brother being on the team), and Maryland was slapped with a department-wide probation by the NCAA for self-reporting the violation. Who wants to bet that F$U (a football cash cow for the NCAA) will get less than a slap on the wrist? I'm not saying that F$U has the right idea when it comes to dealing with cheating; I think Maryland did the right thing with Portis, but the double-standards have to stop if the NCAA wants to have any kind of credibility.
• I'd like to send get well (but not too) soon wishes to Dookie Vitale who recently had vocal cord surgery and hopes to return to the air in early February. It shouldn't be a surprise that Vitale needed that kind of surgery but what is a surprise is that the surgery didn't take place at Dook. With any luck this will get Vitale to scale back his shtick which has become more and more grating as the years have worn on. Non-ACC fans have long grown tired of him and even ACC fans are getting fed up with him. Just who the World Wide Leader in Schlock will find to pair up with Mike Patrick for their Dook worshiping...er...broadcasts remains to be seen but at least for the time being, the quality will slightly improve.
• Sticking with the College theme, Rich Rodriquez is claiming shenanigans on West-By-God-Virginia as the excuse to why he left to take the Michigan job nobody else wanted. If this is true, then not only is West-By-God-Virginia going to have difficult time luring a prime head coach to Morgantown, but they'll never "get over the hump" as well. The school already admits convicted felons into the program but if they won't pony up (or at least accept from deep pocketed boosters) small amounts of $$$$$ to keep a native son and alum, what makes anybody think they'd do it for somebody else? As for Rodriquez himself, I can't say I was very impressed with the "National Championship contender" he brought to College Park back in September. I wasn't all surprised to seem them tank, choke, bomb, whatever you want to call it to Pitt at the end of the season. What made it all the more satisfying and HIGH-larious was that the officials in the game were outrageously biased in West-By-God-Virginia's favor because a win for West-By-God-Virginia would have automatically sent them to the BCS Championship. But the only reason why West-By-God-Virginia was ever considered a National Championship contender is because of Big Least Crybaby...er...Commissioner who has relentlessly lobbied for his pathetic football conference since the ACC expanded by taking Miami, Virginia Tech, and then Boston College out of the Big Least. How else do you explain jokes like West-By-God-Virginia, Rutgers, and a directional school, South Florida, entering the discussion for the National Title while the ACC still can't get a second at-large bid into the BCS lettalone into the National Title picture? However, now at Michigan, we'll find out very soon just how good Rodriquez really is. Something tells me, he won't be lasting too long up there playing with the real big boys.
• There's really nothing to say about the Maryland Men's Basketball team other than we're seeing the end of the Gary Williams era right now. After losing to American 67-59, I'm at a loss to think of what Gary can do to salvage not only this season, but his job. Despite guiding the program through the sanctions from the Bob Wade disaster...er...era, going to two Final Fours, winning an ACC Tournament Championship, one outright Regular Season Championship, and a couple of Regular Season Co-Championships; the "what have you done for me lately" crowd will sink him at the end of this season. The Maryland fan base has outrageously high standards as I remember hearing fans rip Gary and call for his head after a loss to Arizona early on in the 2001-2002 (which was the year Gary won the National Title BTW after making an appearance in the Final Four) that dropped our record to 1-1. Hades, I remember a fan calling for Ralph Friedgen's head at a Football Boosters Breakfast just one year after Fridge won the ACC title. Fridge has bought himself a little more time by re-hiring James Franklin to the staff to take the Offensive Coordinator's job from Fridge. Franklin had previously coached the Wide Receivers and was the recruiting coordinator at Maryland under Fridge.
• Finally this week, the Caps return the day after Christmas to play three games in four night in three different cities. The Caps will host Tampa Bay on Wednesday night before heading to Pittsburgh to face Canadian Diving Team Captain, Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby and the rest of the Penguin Scum on Thursday night. The Caps head up to Ottawa on Saturday night to visit the Senators on Hockey Night In Canada. The Tampa and Ottawa games are at 7, the Penguin Scum game starts at 7:30 pm. The Terp Men will try to get back on track by hosting Delaware on Friday now at 6 pm. That game's start time was moved up because the football team will play Oregon State on Friday night at 8:30 pm Eastern Time in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco on ESPN. The Terp women will host the Terrapin Classic Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with Richmond and UMBC joining them in the tournament at the Cable Box. The Redskins will host Dallas on Sunday in what is now a 4:15 pm kickoff on Fox.
• As always folks, please send all comments, questions, suggestions, corrections, criticisms, and Christmas Carols to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.

Caps @ Islanders 12-22-2007 Wrap Up

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Times.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Newsday: OT Win, blending in, TV assets. New York Post. Islanders.com.

Final Thoughts:

36 down, 46 to go.

Caps @ Islanders 12-22-2007 Preview

Washington Capitals (13-22; 29 points) @ New York Islanders (16-17; 34 points):
Caps Game #36, Road Game #19, NHL Game #519

Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic Plus. Radio: WWWT 1500-AM, 107.7-FM New York TV: Fox SportsNet New York. Radio: WBBR 1130-AM. NHL Center Ice: Fox Sportsnet New York feed.

Tonight the Caps play their last game before the Christmas break when the visit Long Island for the second and final time this season. This is the third overall meeting between the two teams this season with the visiting team winning each time. The Islanders sit alone in the bottom of the Atlantic Division but this is not the NHL's Pillow Fight Of The Night (the L.A.-Nashville game has that honor tonight) thanks to the Islanders' 4-2 come from behind win over the Penguin Scum in Pittsburgh last night.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Times. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Newsday.

What Do I Expect Tonight?:

Well for starters this game could be a low scoring affair as last night the Islanders scored three or more goals for the first time in 22 games this season. However with the return of John Erskine Bowles to the lineup in the place of the injured Brian Pothier, the Islanders may not have to wait another 22 games to score 3 or more goals. The Islanders boast a Top Ten Penalty Killing unit and Rick DiPietro is the biggest reason why the Islanders season hasn't gone totally to pot yet. The Caps cannot under any circumstance flub their chances on DiPietro like the did on Thursday night or they'll end up with the same result.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 3
Islanders 2
Winner by Ovechkin

(23-12 on the season, a looong winning streak came to an end on Thursday night...)


Editorial Note For The Dozens of Readers of This Blog:

As you may have noticed, Christmas is coming up soon. And because certain family members who live in the D.C. area have decided to travel for the holiday, I'll be getting together with those family members tonight. Therefore I doubt we'll be watching much of the hockey game so there will be no Post-Mortem later tonight.

Caps vs. Canadiens 12-20-2007 Wrap Up

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Times. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Montreal Gazette: How Montreal Got Their Grove Back, A.O. to Montreal.

Final Thoughts:

And as if last night's game wasn't enough to make you pull your hair out, reading about A.O. going to Montreal certainly will. But get used to it folks, until George McPhee and A.O. can get the contract worked out, you're going to be reading these kinds of things all over the place. There's nothing that can be done about it until the contract is signed and there's no point having some kind of meltdown about it either. The one problem with that pipe dream is that Montreal would have to include Carey Price in a multi-player trade to get A.O. out of Washington and another is that there is plenty of cap space available for the Caps to keep A.O., Alexander Semin, and Olie Kolzig so the Caps will have no trouble matching an offer sheet. However it is not the intention of Ted Leonsis to let A.O. go for any reason so please just look at these kinds of articles and just laugh at them. And once a deal gets worked out, you'll still see the shots being taken at D.C. and how A.O. doesn't belong here/D.C. does not deserve him. Yes it is a borderline crime that a talent such a A.O. plays home games in front of thousands of empty seats, is almost an afterthought in the local media, and gets mistaken for a tour guide on the streets of D.C.; but considering the way the NHL is run, it is only sweet justice.

35 down, 47 to go.

Caps vs. Canadiens 12-20-2007 Post-Mortem

I told you, it only lasts about a week... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• Before last Saturday's game in Tampa, Bruce Boudreau called out Alexander Semin by saying that Semin had to start scoring regularly if the Caps were going to start winning regularly. While goals in back-to-back games is hardly a sign of consistency, it should be noted that Semin has scored in the last two games and we've now lost two in a row.
• It's rather surprising that in light of a relatively crummy effort that the Caps were able to outshoot the Canadiens 37-21. Of course tonight was yet another prime example of the quality of shots being more important than the quantity. Cristobal Huet was #2 star instead of #1 because of the volume of saves he made and not the quality of saves he made tonight.

THE BAD:

• Once again I wish Brian Sutherby was still around... He would have been a perfect player to give Viktor Kozlov a night or two in the Press Box. Kozlov rang iron in the third which is the closest he's come to scoring in quite awhile but he completely flubbed two prime opportunities in the first period and just doesn't seem to be giving the effort out there that's needed.
• I hope Brian Pothier's fractured thumb is the reason why A.O. was skating as a defenseman in the third period 5-on-5. I'm seriously beginning to wonder if there are any plans for A.O. to play in goal one night because that's the direction we're headed right now. Hopefully Boudreau will replace Pothier's puck moving ability with Steve Eminger's and not with John Erskine Bowles' imitation of an I-95 signpost.

THE UGLY:

• And speaking of putting A.O. in goal, I don't think he can do any worse than Olie Kolzig did tonight. If Boudreau's accountability standard is to have any teeth, Kolzig needs to be benched not only Saturday night in New York but next Wednesday night against Tampa. Even if you don't want to blame Kolzig for any of the goals let in tonight, he still needs to sit because the first three Montreal goals came on just 8 shots by my count. Simply put, Kolzig is not getting the job done and he needs to be treated like the other players on the team who haven't/weren't getting the job done.
• I don't care that the Power Play unit got a goal tonight, they still looked pretty bad and their "Special" Teams partner, the Penalty Killing got ripped again, 2 for 4 in that department. My biggest problem with the Power Play tonight is that twice the first Power Play unit (who also gets the lion's share of time on the man advantage) took penalties to nullify the remaining Power Play time.

If you're wondering why Bruce Boudreau is still only the interim coach, tonight's game is a prime example why. The more I watch this team, the more I become convinced that Boudreau is Glen Hanlon with a mean streak. Hanlon at one point employed an aggressive forechecking system but backed off of it because it wasn't working out, but now there's more talent and an aggressive system should be easier to utilize. There's no doubt that the Caps had Montreal bottled up for good portions of the game, but they couldn't do anything with it. Whether or not Boudreau lays into the players again is beside the point, the problems with this team have only partially to do with coaching. The lack of true leadership looks to be the real problem and will need to be addressed before anybody can expect this team to contend for a playoff spot.

Caps vs. Canadiens 12-20-2007 Preview

Washington Capitals (13-21; 29 points) vs. Montreal Canadiens (16-17; 37 points):
Caps Game #35, Home Game #17, NHL Game #503

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WWWT 1500-AM, 107.7-FM. Montreal TV: None Radio: CJAD 800-am. Canadian National TV: RDS (French). NHL Center Ice: Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic feed.

Tonight the Caps are at home one last time before Christmas to welcome the Montreal Canadiens to the Phone Booth in the first meeting of the two teams this season. The Habs are taking the second best road record in the NHL on the road for the start of a six game road swing. Tonight starts a three games in four nights on the road stretch for Montreal which will end on Sunday night in Dallas. The Canadiens are coming off a 3-2 loss at home to Florida on Tuesday night and won two of their last three games on the road.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Times. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette.

What Do I Expect Tonight?:

The Caps claim to have come away from Monday night's game with all kinds of confidence so what will that translate into? Will the Caps continue to work hard or will they begin to get the idea that they're better than their record and try to coast? So far Bruce Boudreau tongue lashings last about a week so with a game tonight and Saturday on Long Island, I'd say it is a pretty good bet that the Caps will come out flat in one of those two games. This game could very much look like what we saw on Monday night. The Canadiens have the best Power Play and second best Penalty Killers in the NHL, so the more the Caps keep the game at 5 on 5, the better off they're likely to be. Getting out to an early lead would also be helpful to the Caps as Montreal has yet to win a game it was trailing after one period.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 3
Canadiens 2
Winner by Semin

(23-11 on the season)

30 For Simon

Another record.

Kinda pointless if you ask me because of the "personal leave of absence" Simon "agreed" to take from the Islanders as a result of his latest incident.

But the real question is, what's the over/under on how long it will take for him to be suspended again?

On a side note, in a sport where fighting is only marginally illegal and even looked upon as "noble" in certain quarters, doesn't it sound odd that there's something that the game finds objectionable? Couldn't have Simon been "put in his place" by his fellow players and been spared this suspension???

Caps @ Red Wings 12-17-2007 Wrap Up

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Times. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Detroit Free Press: Holmstrom returns, Caps get attention, Chelios speaks. Red Wings.com.

Final Thoughts:

Scary isn't it that the Red Wings didn't feel they played their best game yet still won? Also I think it is worth noting that before the season the Caps were only interested in victories that produced two points in the standings and not moral ones.

34 down, 48 to go.

Caps @ Red Wings 12-17-2007 Post-Mortem

New coach, same old results... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• If you've ever wondered why the Neutral Zone trap was invented, it was for situations such as this where one team is completely outclassed by another in terms of talent on the ice. It also helped that Detroit didn't seem to have much jump in their skates tonight too.
• Though since Bruce Boudreau took over, the Caps have become a more resilient team. After giving up the go-ahead goal to the Red Wings with under five minutes left, the Caps were able to get the tying goal on Alexander Semin's shot just over three minutes later. That more than anything else is what earned the point tonight.
• It looked to me as if Shaone Morrrissonnn and Milan Jurcina had strong games tonight with each coming up with goal saving plays.

THE BAD:

• The special teams tonight certainly were "special." While the Power Play was officially 2 for 7, you can hardly attribute A.O.'s Power Play Goal to anything the unit did other than Michael Nylander cleanly winning a faceoff. That means they went 1 for 6 and came up with the big goal that was needed to force overtime. However, on more than one occasion Detroit had dangerous shorthanded chances. The Penalty Killers were 2 for 4.
• Ed Olczyk was brutal doing color in the booth. His constant references to the 245 year-old Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios as the "elder skatesman" weren't pithy or cute at all and became just annoying after about the 500th time he said it.
• I Susan O'Malley has landed on her feet in Detroit. 19,483 out of 20,066 my left foot. I thought hockey fans were clamoring to see players like A.O. more often? Maybe the Hockeytown fans are waiting for his second appearance?

THE UGLY:

• Versus better hope that the FCC wasn't watching tonight or that none of the thousands of fans watching on TV bother calling in a complaint about Chelios' potty mouth letting an unmentionable word fly out over the air in the first period. As a matter of fact, it wasn't until the third period until I realized it was Chelios who let the expletive go and was miced up. Says a lot too about how raucous the crowd was at the Joe Louis Arena that Chelios's colorful language could be so easily picked up.
• I see through the AP early write up that Olie Kolzig was beaten on all three Red Wings shots by the exact same move. It's a shame that Olie fell apart like that at the end because he had a rather strong game.
• But of course Kolzig getting embarrassed like that meant that the game was decided by a gimmick.

At points in time tonight you almost got the feeling that the Red Wings were just toying with the Caps. That at any point they were going to turn it on and blow the Caps out of the building. It wasn't too much of a surprise when Tomas Holmstrom scored in the third period to stake the Red Wings to a 3-2 lead. When the game went to overtime, I had a feeling that the 4 on 4 play would give the Red Wings a big advantage and it did as the Caps were on their heels in the extra session. I can't fault the Caps effort too much tonight and I thought they overall played a pretty decent game 5 on 5. It was when the game got away from 5 on 5 that the Caps really struggled. But we'll take the point and move on because that's life in the NHL these days.

Opt Out Henrik

Yesterday our old friend Larry Brooks made a pretty convincing case for Henrik Lundqvist to opt out of New York. Larry seems to think that Lundqvist is worth around $9 million per season and who are we to argue with Larry Brooks?

So let's say that Henrik demands some $9 million+ in salary when he becomes an RFA on July 1st. Henrik would be smarter to take that kind of cash from a team other than the New York Rangers.

Why?

Well it's simple as Larry points out for us:

The cap is likely to increase by between seven and eight percent next season, to about $54.07M per club. But because of bonuses earned this season by Brendan Shanahan, Dan Girardi and Marc Staal, the Blueshirts likely will have about $2.5M less than that to spend.

As of now, the Rangers have approximately $19.74M committed for 2008-09 to four centers (Gomez, Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, Blair Betts); four wingers (Petr Prucha, Ryan Callahan, Ryan Hollweg, Colton Orr); and one defenseman (Staal)....

If Lundqvist gets $7.5M, the Rangers will have approximately $25M remaining with which to fill those seven slots. This, too: Glen Sather had better be prepared to pay Avery a bottom price of $4.2M per in order to keep him from going free next summer, and he'd better be willing to make that deal next month, too....

So let's say Avery gets his $4.2M. That will leave the Rangers with around $20M to spend.

So bottom line Henrik, by Larry's math, if you took $9 million from the Rangers the Rangers would have just $18.5 million left to spend on 12 players. Larry's $20 million figure comes from you taking a "hometown discount" of $7.5 million. But no matter how you cut it, the Rangers would turn into the Tampa Bay Lightning North with three players consuming over 40% of the salary cap.

You have to figure that unless he triggers his option year (not bloody likely), Jagr is gone. And while losing Jagr may turn out to be a net plus, it means the rest of the team has to be rebuilt because it was built right after the lockout around him. If Jagr comes back, there's no way they'll convince him to take a paycut that will decrease his cap number because his current cap number is already half of what he's currently making. (The Caps are subsidizing the other half of his salary.) That means there will be even less $$$$$ available to fill holes on the team should Jagr return.

Drury and Gomez are good players for certain, but they can't carry the entire team the way you do Henrik. Brendan Shanahan is old and can't lead a team either. It looks as if the Rangers have their hands tied and do you really want to be around that kind of team that is constantly in flux and tries to buy its way out of trouble? That didn't work before the salary cap and certainly won't work now.

Sure New York is the biggest media market in the U.S. and Madison Square Garden is one of the biggest NHL stages. But what kind of push from the league have you gotten by playing there in the first place? Yeah, you're on your way to your third Vezina Nomination but are you aware that a Rangers goaltender has only once won the Vezina Throphy since it was voted on by the NHL General Managers (that would be John Vanbiesbrouck in 1986) and twice in the entire history of the award (prior to 1982 it automatically went to the goaltender who allowed the fewest goals against in the regular season. In 1982 the Jennings Trophy was created for that and the Vezina was awarded by its current criteria)?

There's a team Henrik just a few hours south that has won two Vezina Trophies in it's history under the current criteria and has a former Vezina winner still playing for them. This team also boasts the best young goal scorer and the most exciting player in the game in it's lineup. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that this team could use a goaltender of your talents starting next year and here's the best thing; you could sign there for $9 million over the summer and there would still be room for additional talent to be added to the roster. They have almost $14 million of cap space right now and an average roster age of under 27 compared to New York's 27.6. This team won't spend itself into a box should things not work out and with a goaltender as good as you; could very easily find itself making a deep playoff run next year and for many years into the future.

Throw in a couple of former teammates (including a fellow countrymen), some of the best young talent in the league (one of whom is another fellow Swede), and it being an international city in its own right, and you really have nothing to lose by leaving New York. The pressure to succeed here isn't as great as it is in New York and some players actually like that. Besides, while you're the toast of guys like Larry Brooks right now, it is only a matter of time before they turn on you. Ask A-Rod if you don't believe me.

I certainly think you could do worse.

Don't be worried about your status as an RFA, Larry told us just two weeks ago:

Memo to Brian Burke and all those who would howl at the thought of rival teams "poaching" another club's marquee player: Ovechkin does not belong to the Caps. Through no desire of his own, he merely is playing for Washington under a three-year, entry-level capped lease that will expire at the end of this season. He never chose to play in DC so much as he chose to play in the NHL rather than remain in Russia after the lockout.

The same thing applies to you too Henrik. You're only playing with the Rangers because they drafted you. There's nothing that says you cannot offer to sell your services to the highest bidder and quite frankly, you have to because the General Managers in the NHL are improperly colluding to keep the salaries for goaltenders such as yourself artificially low. We know this because Larry complains all the time about Martin Brodeur not holding the Genius Manager Lou Lamoriello over a barrel.

So once the ball drops in Times Square, put some earplugs in and ignore all the overtures from the Rangers front office. They'll try to get you to sign a contract for less than you're really worth. But once July 1st comes around, you'll be able to set your own price and will have teams falling all over themselves trying to get you under contract. You can create a much better situation for yourself by getting out of Gotham and becoming another young player on another young up and coming team just a few hours to the south.

For you Caps fans wondering, the Caps currently have almost $14 million cap space left for this season alone. Larry envisions another $4 million increase over the summer so that gives the Caps $18 million in cap space going into the upcoming offseason. If A.O.'s cap number goes to $10 million, that's a $6.166 million increase over his cap number. Olie Kolzig would obviously be forced into retirement in order to make room for Lundqvist and the starting goaltender's cap number would increase to $9 million from $5.45 million taking up an additional $3.55 million of cap space. You could unadvisedly throw $3 million at Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green increasing his cap number by $2.15 million.

Those three contracts would add $11.866 million to the Caps salary cap figure. This doesn't even chew up all of the cushion the Caps currently have AND leaves plenty of $$$$$ left over for the Caps to give modest pay raises to the other RFA's and UFA'S currently on the roster (none of whom ares in line for a major raise though I wouldn't give Green much over $2 million myself). A key figure in this is Jagr's contract coming off the books because his $4 million+ payment is factored into the team's current salary structure. So Ted would only be really adding about $8 million in new salary for next season under this scenario.

What about Michal Neuvirth and Simeon Varlamov you ask? As the old saying goes, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" and IF the Caps get Lundqvist, that would be a perfect example of that. Remember Maxime Ouellet? The Caps could trade both to recoup the draft picks they would lose in compensation to the Rangers for taking Lunqvist or trade them to New York for Lundqvist straight up. Though I think they would be smart to hold onto one for the time being as an insurance policy.

I also know that Ted has said that they intend to stay close to the midpoint of the salary cap and salary floor. But if Larry Brooks can write things like this, so can I. Nothing like demonstrating absurdity by being absurd because this idea is certainly more doable than A.O. going to Broadway after this season. How the Rangers work that one out without blowing up their entire team is beyond me.

Caps @ Red Wings 12-17-2007 Preview

Washington Capitals (13-20; 28 points) @ Detroit Red Wings (23-9; 49 points):
Caps Game #34, Road Game #18, NHL Game #485

Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, MI. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: None. Radio: WWWT 1500-AM, 107.7-FM. Detroit TV: None. Radio: WXYT 1270-AM, 97.1-FM. U.S. National TV: Versus. Canada National TV: NHL Network, RDS (French).

Tonight the Caps head to the Motor City in what should be a packed house in Detroit to see the first ever appearance of the 2006 Calder Trophy Winner, A.O., in the Motor City. After all, we've been told how the fans have been clamoring for this. The Red Wings have won eight of their last ten with both losses coming in gimmicks. In their last game, the Wings posted a 5-2 win over Florida at home on Saturday night.

What The Natives Are Saying:

Times. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Detroit Free Press.

What Do I Expect Tonight?:

Simply put, the Caps tonight are in trouble. While they are clear of 30th in the NHL, they're still playing the top overall team in the NHL tonight on their home ice where they've lost only three times in 17 games with one of those losses coming in a gimmick. The last time the Caps were in Detroit, they pulled off a surprise 4-1 win on November 24th, 2003 but Alexander Semin is the only Cap playing tonight from that game four years ago. (Matt "Princess" Pettinger was on the roster but injured for that game, Boyd Gordon played in that game in 2003 but will miss tonight with an injury, and Olie Kolzig was backing up rookie Rastislav Stana that night.) Both of Detroit's special teams are in the top ten of the NHL and they've got one of the best offenses and defenses in the NHL. If there is a weakness, I can't find it. Bruce Boudreau is going to have to come up with some inventive tricks to pull this one out tonight or hope that the Wings are looking past the Caps with the 30th place Kings up next.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 2
Wings 5
Winner by Filppula

(22-11 on the season)

Sunday Smorgasbord 12-16

• Later tonight the Redskins will be taking on the New York Giants and shockingly enough, the Skins still have a shot at making the playoffs despite being 6-7. But the Skins MUST finish the season at 9-7 if they don't want to have to hope for all kinds of help to make the playoffs. However, with the injuries, blown leads, and the death of Sean Taylor this season; I don't think making the playoffs would be good for the Redskins. Should they make it, they'll be the second Wild Card in the NFC and have to play every single game on the road and will likely start in Seattle. Should they win that game they would end up in Dallas. Before the season I thought the Skins would be an 8-8 team and with luck could finish 10-6. All but two, maybe three, of the 7 losses are of the inexcusable kind which is really why I think making the playoffs would be an unjust reward for their season.
• D.C. United has shaken things up by trading Bobby Boswell to Houston for Goalkeeper Zack Wells. While this is certainly a shock and a disappointment to some, it is rather clear to me that United needed to do something to shake things up after a second consecutive Supporter's Shield season ended with a grand flameout in the playoffs. Last year D.C. responded by changing their Head Coach, so now it is only natural that the players take the hit. Who's next is anybodies guess but D.C. needs to build a team that can handle not only the long MLS schedule but the various international tournaments D.C. finds themselves in. It's been clear the last couple of seasons that D.C. ran out of gas late in the year and that more than anything else needs to be addressed.
• Clearly 25 games wasn't enough to get Chris Simon's attention as last night he tried to stomp on Jarkko Ruutu's foot. So now Simon faces another lengthy suspension and the NHL Front Office finds itself in a dilemma. The 25 games handed to Simon last year could serve as a baseline but it clearly wasn't enough. So what options does the NHL have now? If they end Simon's career the question will end be asked, why now? Why not sooner? Why did Simon have to take six suspensions before being thrown out of the NHL for good? What about a guy like Todd Bertuzzi? Simon's actions haven't ended anybodies career the way Bertuzzi's have but you're going to throw Simon out of the game and not Bertuzzi? And if Simon isn't thrown out of the NHL for good, it once again will illustrate that the NHL doesn't care about discipline. Furthermore, I don't even have to look, I know that the hand wringing crowd is wringing their hands saying "Chris Simon is a good guy, he made a mistake, this doesn't say anything about him as a person or about the game in general" but could somebody please tell me why the fighters are the ones giving the NHL a black eye over and over again? If fighting was removed from the game, players like Chris Simon would not be around to swing thier stick and stomping on opposing players. It would also mean that the hand wringing crowd could stop wringing their hands.
• I'm not surprised that it didn't take too long for somebody to try to take advantage of Philly's cease and desist order from the NHL. I watched the last part of the Flyers' 8-2 humiliation of the Penguin Scum on Tuesday night. I didn't see the whole game but I thought it was rather appropriate that as the Penguin Scum tried to goon things up with stupidity like Canadian Diving Team Captain, Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby and Geogres Laraque trying to take out Martin Biron and that the Flyers, for the most part, responded by scoring Power Play goal after Power Play goal going 4 for 11 and running the score up instead of trying to retaliate in kind. That is how you put an end to that kind of nonsense, beat them badly on the scoreboard because who looks worse coming out of the game? Philly head coach John Stevens even kept notorious hothead Ben Eager on the bench and continued to score as the Penguin Scum's frustration and goonery increased. And what kind of message did the Penguin Scum really send? They sent the message that they can be easily frustrated and picked apart on the Penalty Kill. Something tells me that wasn't the message they were trying to send with their actions.
• Back when I was a student at the University of Maryland, the fans couldn't wait for football season to end and Men's Basketball season to start. The arrival of Ralph Friedgen as Head Coach changed that as now Maryland fans for the most part ignore the Men's Basketball team until after the Bowl Game has been played. The football team will be playing in the Emerald Bowl on December 28th but that may not give Gary Williams enough cover after losing to the Ohio Bobcats on Wednesday night at the Cable Box. So what went wrong? Well Gary has a young team and the Mid-Majors are closing the gap in NCAA Division 1 basketball. But the Terps are still in the ACC and they don't start playing like it, it will be an even longer season than they think. As for Gary, despite winning a National Championship and making back-to-back Final Four appearances six years ago; I now have serious doubts that he can survive making a third NIT appearance in four years despite having a great recruiting class coming in next fall. The Maryland fans are very fickle and some have already turned on Friedgen despite pulling the Maryland football program out of the trash heap. The long knives have been out for Gary before and he's always been able to avoid them but he's eventually going to be caught by them. Gary could very well need an appearance in the Sweet Sixteen this year in order to save his job.
• Oh yeah, MLB finally came out with their much anticipated Mitchell Report and is anybody surprised by what was and wasn't found? While it is nice to see some players admit their guilt, you have to wonder about those who are still attempting to issue denials. A better question than "why are there no Red Sox in the report" is "why didn't anybody accuse Roger Clemens before Mitchell fingered him"? A certain anchor from a certain sports network on a certain message board a couple of years ago alluded to pitchers, not the power hitters, being the worst abusers of steroids in baseball. Much like Big Head BALCO Barry Bonds*, the transformation over the years of the Rocket wasn't even subtle but George Mitchell was the first to publicly accuse him of cheating. I don't think it is too much of a stretch to say that the media played as just a large of a role in covering up this scandal as the owners, players, and their union did. Personally, Clemens' denials are just as laughable as Big Head BALCO Barry Bonds*' and after the report, Clemens' career is just as over. But how history judges these guys will be the final verdict many of them receive.
• This week, the Caps are on the road facing the Red Wings tomorrow night on Versus, come home for a Thursday night game against Montreal, and then head out to Long Island for their last game before the Christmas break on Saturday night with all three games this week starting at 7 pm. The Terp men come back from Final Exams on Saturday afternoon when they host American at 4 pm while the women end their Exam hiatus with their annual three-day Terrapin Classic. They host Richmond and UMBC on Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm each day Richmond and UMBC play each other at the Cable Box on Friday. And the Redskins will finalize any potential playoff plans next Sunday when they travel to Minnesota to play the Vikings on Sunday night on NBC. The winner of the game will be all but assured the second and final NFC Wildcard berth.
• And while we haven't done a Sunday Smorgasbord in quite some time the smart and longtime readers of this blog already know that comments, criticisms, corrections, questions, suggestions, and Christmas gift ideas are always welcome at "capsnut" at gmail dot com.