Bleatings From a Caps Nut

All Good Things...

2010-07-20T20:20:00.086-04:00

If one believes the time stamps on these posts (and in the beginning, we didn't quite know how to manipulate them) it was exactly four years ago at this time we published our first post kicking off this adventure. Call us sentimental but we can't think of a more perfect date and time to bring things to a close after four years and 1,428 postings.

Yep, that's right, we're calling it a quits here. Why? Well, if it hasn't too obvious, we just don't have the time or the temperament anymore to run this thing the way we feel we should.

When we started this blog four years ago, we didn't have much responsibility, especially at our day job, and needed something to help fill-in the time and direct our energy. Four years later we have actual responsibility in our career and not only do we want to keep it that way, we want more. So something had to give and while we did consider the idea of turning this into a group effort or maybe possibly petitioning to be a contributor to another group effort; we've demonstrated many times and in many forums that we just don't play well with others. Therefore it is time for us to hang it up.

And is there any sadness in this decision? No, not really. We're proud of what we've done here. Chronicling the insanity of Larry Brooks, taking stands against Ultimate Fighting on Ice along with blogger access to press boxes, and insulting Yinzers and Canadian Diving Team Captain, Secondary Assist Lowblow Cindy Crosby at every opportunity. Oh, and laughing at the denizens of Darwin's Waiting Room and their old daycare provider too was always a hoot. Furthermore, with the 15,487,920,325 (and counting) active Caps blogs out there, we feel that the field is well covered. Besides, we've seen the site traffic numbers, we know we won't be missed.

The one thing that does disappoint us is that after chronicling this team during the lean years when the team stunk to the high heavens and was really tough to watch; we're now getting out when the team is really, really good and a Stanley Cup is on the way. But that's just our lot in life and we can only play the hand that we're dealt. In some ways, we think we'll get to enjoy the Cup more because we well just be a fan and not somebody trying to divine some larger meaning in all of it to share with the rest of the world.

We'd like to thank all the folks who took the time to stop on by on anything that even remotely resembles a regular basis and all the other folks out there who threw links our way over the years, even if they were eventually deleted. We also would be very remiss if we didn't throw a shoutout of Thanks to Eric McErlain whom we've never met in any fashion yet gave us link after link on his Venerable Off Wing Opinion early on and helped us to build a following. We'd also like to Thank Steinbog for reaching out to us in the early days of this blog and for continuing to put up with us. If you want our opinion of where to look now with the extra five minutes of your time, spend it on Peerless Prognosticator, outside of TEB he's the only one we make a point to read on a regular basis mostly because he's kept his senses, remembered what a blog is supposed to be all about, and doesn't take himself or his craft way too seriously.

So that's it folks, it's been fun. We'll let Google decide when to take this thing down, and if you want to know what we really think about things as they come along in the future, check out our Facebook profile. It shouldn't be too hard to find. We accept any and all friend requests over there and when the mood moves us, we'll post our pithy thoughts over there. Farewell, so long, Godspeed, Alpha Michael Foxtrot, and all that jazz.

(Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, we did activate the comments this morning on purpose because we were closing this thing down.)

Sunday Smorgasbord 7-11

2010-07-11T21:30:00.003-04:00

Well, well, well... It looks as if the last time we spoke about the Albert Haynesworth situation, we spoke too soon... (So what else is new???) For a guy who had the cards on his side, he played them about as poorly as anybody ever could. To reiterate, had Hanyesworth shown up for training camp in the best shape of his life, he would have put Mike Shanahan in a no-win situation. Instead Haynesworth decided to skip the mandatory part of the off-season workouts and demand a trade at the same time. The biggest sign that Haynesworth has conceded the high ground here? The unloading on him by just about everybody not only in the Redskins organization but in pro football. The funny part is though, while the Redskins are certainly justified in their feelings towards Haynesworth, it dramatically lowers his value in any trade they try to make, though it is very debatable how much trade value he ever had in the first place. Either way, Haynesworth has played this situation about as poorly as he could and if he were smart, not only would he show up for training camp in the best shape of his life, but he would also refuse to speak to the press upon arriving and until he leaves the Redskins. But based on past performance, we don't think that will happen here.
And speaking of hard feelings, we give kudos to Cleveland Cavaliers Owner Tom Gilbert for basically saying what should have been said about the whole LeBron James Free Agency search. We don't think his championship guarantee is smart but we do agree that James' narcissistic actions were repulsive. However, James was not alone in this entire affair. The Worldwide Leader in Schlock is just a culpable in building this guy up and covering his every move in free agency, even when he wasn't doing anything to say nothing about devoting an entire evening to him. Sadly however, we think that this is just the beginning for this type of thing. These kinds of "announcements" and "recruiting trips" are common for High School Athletes choosing which college they will play for and attend. Some tried to use the fact that James never went to college and was never really recruited by colleges as a high schooler to equivocate his actions now as a pro. We aren't buying it because the next time something like this comes around, it will be considered a part of the business and few will bat an eyelash at it.
And effective this past Friday, the University of Maryland was relieved of Deborah Yow as it Director of Athletics. While Debbie's contributions to the Athletic Department cannot be dismissed or disputed, it was clear last year that when she lost her second major power play against one of her high-profile employees in a year that she was on her way out. The failure to oust Gary Williams and Ralph Friedgen tarnish an outstanding run at UMD for Debbie who has now returned home to North Carolina to take over the N.C. State Wolfpack Athletic Department. Debbie's legacy would have been cemented had she stepped down "looking for other challenges" after the Women's Basketball Team won the NCAA Title in 2006. However she hung on too long and is heading down to tobacco road with her tail between her legs. At least she doesn't need to invest in a new wardrobe.
Well the Free Agent Frenzy in the NHL came and went and some ugly contracts were handed out. The Caps stayed largely on the sidelines because there was no reason to hand out three-four year contracts that got a bunch of hearts in a twitter but rarely, if ever, accomplish anything. However, we do wonder why after the failure of the Michael Nylander and Brendan Morrrissonn contracts why many Caps fans automatically declare the 2010-2011 a complete and utter failure because the Caps haven't signed a free agent of note. Just to recap, last season the Caps won the Southeast Division by 38 points, that is six more points than the rest of the Division Champions combined. The Caps were first in the East by 18 points and the President's Trophy by 10 points. What this means is that there isn't much for this team to improve upon. And when you consider that the vast majority of free agents are rejects from other teams that nobody was willing to trade for, we really shake our heads at all the complaining. Was Marion Hossa and his one goal and three assists the reason why the Blackhawks won the Cup (he was a -4 in the last two games BTW)? With the Hershey Bears winning their third Calder Cup in the last four years, it is certainly time for some of the prospects down there to come to the NHL and show what they can do in the big leagues. A bevy of free agents will only get in the way of that happening.
And we'll dip into the old news file to comment on the Caps revoking Season Ticket Privileges to those who don't know how to act in public, especially when a camera is turned on them. If there was a way we could "dislike" a Facebook Group we would on this one over and over. Sorry but it does not matter how long somebody has been a fan, how much $$$$$ they spend for tickets, or how "diehard" of a fan they are; you have to conduct yourself in an appropriate manner or you run the risk of being told to stay away. We were just six years old when we went to our first professional sporting event and with the atmosphere at pro sporting events these days, we would be wary of taking a twelve year old to one. Too many fans take Homer Simpson's credo as gospel and think that the sporting event exists for them to have an avenue to perform their antics. Some are benign, some are bizarre, but too many are out of line and detract from the event that many people are going to see. The "moral equivalence" game attempted by some comparing Bruce Boudreau's rant and lack of public rebuke from the Caps is laughable on its face. If we really need to explain the difference between a paid employee of an organization and a paying customer, then you won't be persuaded by anything we have to say anyway. Finally the fact that Steinbog has never posted the full explanation, tells us that the Caps have wisely clammed up about this situation. We only hope that this is the start of cleaning up the environment at Caps games and hope some other franchises follow their lead.
And from the "unfinished business" file we clearly touched a nerve in Darwin's Waiting Room back in April when we called it like it was back in April when the Caps temporarily shut down their message boards. We feel as though Ms. Bumper deserved a reply and for whatever reason, the (Com)Post censors wouldn't let us post our reply on the thread. Because we know one of the goons in Darwin's Waiting Room chronicles every single thing we write, we know that this will reply will be seen. (BTW dude, you need a ~~wife~~...er... life) Well Bumper I’ll give you not only the courtesy of a reply but the last word. As a matter of fact, I won’t even bother to read your response, should you have one, but I will keep this short so that you and the rest of your playgroup can understand. First of all, I’m sure you can understand my floccinaucinihilipilification about how your boards were conveniently ready to go when the original boards went into meltdown because of the temper tantrums on all sides that took place. But does that really change anything that I said about the genesis of your boards? If the Caps hadn’t had enough of the activity you and your kind were conducting over there, would your boards be as operational as they are today? We both know the answer. BTW, you’ll never get the pleasure of rejecting me for membership mostly because I don’t care to sink into your depths. However I do find it find highly comical that you continue to blast the Caps for what they did last summer but have a pinned post “Please Stop Messing Up My Boards With Your Douchebaggery” all across your allegedly superior forums. It's not as easy to run one of those as you thought huh? Oh, and I see the porn has been moved behind a lock and key. So much for all that glorious freedom you all were looking for huh? And considering the streak of 50+ sellouts with 18,277 in attendance each time, just how in the world is a measly 826 members “most”???? Especially when that 826 includes people who need to cross multiple time zones to attend a game at the Phone Booth. Clearly you have no understanding of the definition of a word that doesn’t even appear on the SAT’s but please keep up the always attractive elitist attitude. Finally it goes without saying that I am not the only one who takes a very dim view of your place. Just because you allow “adult” language, “adult” pictures and all the emoticons you can fit into one post doesn’t make you more “mature” or even better than anybody else. Congratulations on your faster loading times. I’m sure “most” of the 826 really do care the rest of us couldn't care less.
With a ten game homestand heading into the All-Star break, the Nats had a chance to build some momentum but instead stumbled to a 5-5 record on the run and are now 11 games under .500. We have to admit, we were a bit surprised by the selection of Matt Capps to the NL All-Star team. Count us among those who think Stephen Strasburg didn't belong on the team but what about Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman? Either would have been a much stronger choice to represent the Nats because the Nats must have a player on the team. And even if Strasburg, Dunn, and/or Zimmerman were on the All-Star team, we aren't watching the thing anyway and we doubt that there are many Nats fans who will watch the All-Star game because Matt Capps is in it.
And luckily for soccer fans, the World Cup Final today featured a goal in the dying minutes of overtime giving Spain a 1-0 win over the Netherlands and avoiding yet another World Cup title decided by a Penalty Kick Shootout. Had today's final gone to PK's, it once again would have been a setback for soccer in the U.S. As for the U.S. team, we certainly can't blame goalkeeper Tim Howard for the U.S.'s disappointing loss in the second round but we do question whether or not he came up with any huge, game turning saves. We can't think of one and had he been able to come up with any, the U.S. may have had a different fate in South Africa.
This week, the Nats are off until Friday when they open up a ten game road trip with a three-game series in Florida against the Marlins. D.C. United hosts Seattle on Thursday night and the L.A. Galaxy on Sunday.
As always, please send all comments, criticisms, corrections, questions, suggestions, and the proper use of lentils in salads to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.

Sunday Smorgasbord 6-13

2010-06-13T21:22:00.000-04:00

Well, if there's big news we need to catch up on, it is the Redskins going out and acquiring Donovan McNabb for a pair of draft picks, including this year's second round pick. Put us in the unimpressed camp for a number of reasons. We've always thought that McNabb was slightly overrated as quarterback. He was able to dominate a down NFC East when the NFC as a whole was underwhelming. But while Bruce Allen and Mike Shanahan set about to rebuild the offensive line, Trent Williams is a nice start but unproven and only 1/5 of the solution, it doesn't matter who is playing quarterback for the Redskins because they won't have the proper protection from the offensive line. Jason Campbell was unfairly scapegoated though he won't get a chance to prove that out in the even bigger zoo in Oakland so we just have to watch McNabb getting driven into the ground in order to prove the point. Furthermore, even if McNabb is as good as advertised and able to overcome his bad offensive line, it doesn't change the fact that the Redskins are going to run a 3-4 defense with 4-3 personnel. Good coaches adapt their systems to their talent, not their talent to the system and that also says nothing of the broken-down retreads in the backfield with McNabb. Our official prediction, the Redskins will be lucky to finish 8-8 this season and anything better than that is wildly exceeding our expectations.
And speaking of wildly exceeding expectations, how about this Steven Strasburg kid? He certainly lived up to the hype on Tuesday night, a game we missed because real life intervened (and no, we're not complaining), and despite struggling with a crummy pitcher's mound today in Cleveland, is off to a 2-0 start in the Majors. So while the Nats themselves continue to exceed expectations, hovering around .500 despite a June Swoon, the question becomes, how much will the Nats rely upon Strasburg for the rest of the season? In an attempt to prevent injury and guard against burnout, everybody knows that he has a strict limit on the number of innings he is going to pitch this season so should the Nats end up contending for a playoff spot, he is not likely to be available to get the team over the hump. That more than anything else is why we think the idea of the Nats being buyers at the trade deadline is foolish. But at least we once again have a baseball team worth watching.
No we didn't forget about Albert Haynesworth in the first bullet. We just liked the exceeding expectations segue too much to pass it up. But as for Haynesworth, we agree that if you're going to pay somebody that amount of $$$$$ the least he can do is show up for the season in shape. However, if you're going to call team activities, "optional" then you cannot require that everybody takes part in them. Furthermore, we reject the notion that just because a guy is the highest paid player on the team, that he must be some sort of leader. Giving a guy $$$$$ doesn't make him a leader, it is his actions and, most importantly, his personality that gets people to follow him. But we digress, the ball is firmly in Haynesworth's court now. He MUST show up for training camp in the best shape of his life. If he doesn't then he's as good as gone. If he does, he presents a difficult dilemma for Shanahan in that Haynesworth showing up in fantastic shape without attending the mandatory optional workouts would undercut Shanahan's authority who is a noted taskmaster. But if Haynesworth shows up in shape and dominates, Shanahan has to cut off his own nose to spite his face to maintain his authority. That's the real dilemma to watch for here.
And once again the World Cup is upon us and in international soccer, more so than hockey, it really does come down to goaltending. There was no bigger example of that than yesterday as Tim Howard made a number of timely and big saves for the United States as Robert Green came up with the biggest gaffe ever at that level in a 1-1 tie. We don't think Green was or will be given enough credit for rebounding from his miscue to come up with a huge save on Jozy Altidore in the second half to preserve the single point for the Brits. But for the U.S., Tim Howard is going to be the key going forward for the United States as England's domination showed that the U.S. is still not at the level of the world powers. Howard will have to overcome his rib injury and play as well if not better than Brad Freidel did eight years ago for the U.S. to make any noise in South Africa.
While we're not going to comment on Tiger Wood's "extra curricular activities," we find it a little ridiculous the amount of criticism that he's taking for bowing out of tournaments early because of injury. Do people really need to have to them explained the difference between playing hurt when a major championship is on the line and when they're far behind in a run-of-the-mill tournament with no chance of ever catching up? This is a prime example of the problem with a 24/7 sports news cycle.
Ok, we'll admit we had a terrible year this year in picking the Stanley Cup Playoffs but once the finals were set we thought that Chicago would win the Cup in either four or five games. Again, it shows what we knew this year that it took six games. But for the Caps fans gnashing their teeth over "being passed" by a team that rebuilt after the Caps, know that the criminal salary cap mismanagement made this a real "do or die" year for the Blackhawks and that it is just about back to the drawing board for them. As for the Flyers, we happen to think that a series this close is probably the worst thing for them. They will now think like we did in 1998 that they're close, they just need a little push to get them over the hump. However, remember that the Flyers beat a New Jersey team that has been bounced in the first round for three years in a row now. They then beat a Bruins team that authored one of the greatest chokes of all-time. Finally, the Flyers faced a Montreal team who's magic had run out. The Flyers aren't close folks and a goaltender won't solve their problems.
With the NCAA Conferences once again realigning themselves, we find it interesting to say the least that the Big "Ten" is interested in Maryland. While we don't think that Maryland would be a good fit in the Big "Ten", or the SEC which has popped up recently, for a number of reasons, it would be in Maryland's best interest to make the move if one was offered. First of all, there is little doubt to us that this current run of realignment will leave the ACC in a diminished state, even if the ACC doesn't lose any schools. If the Big "Ten" is willing to share their TV revenue with Maryland, then Maryland needs to accept the gift because they would never see that kind of $$$$$ staying the in ACC. Like it or not, college athletics is now driven by $$$$$ (why else would the NCAA expand the Men's Basketball tournament?) and for a school like Maryland, which has had issues balancing their budgets, they should get in on the cash grab anyway they can.
Ok this week, the Nats continue inter-league play when they visit the Detroit Tigers for three games starting Tuesday night. They're back home at Nats Ark on Friday for a three game set against the Chicago White Sox with two of the three games on national TV. D.C. United will play what amounts to a road game at RFK when they host the El Salvadorian National Team in a charity fundraiser match on Saturday evening.
As always folks, please send all comments, criticisms, corrections, questions, suggestions, and ways to use bologna in sandwiches to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.

2009-2010 Caps Season Wrap-Up Part III The Forward Ranks

2010-06-05T17:38:00.000-04:00

All right, let's keep the train rolling...

Nicklas Backstrom: A+, He shattered his career highs in points and goals this season. Ok it was only his third NHL season but he established himself as a top level player in the NHL and handled things much better in the playoffs this season than he had in his first two. His Game 2 Hat Trick was a testament to that. The pressure is really on Backstrom now because he's now locked up for the next ten years and will be expected to perform at this level if not higher for all ten of them.

Eric Belanger: C+, The one deadline day acquisition that the Caps will at least attempt to keep. He had a hard time fitting in with the Caps after the trade primarily because he kept bouncing between the second and third lines but given his style of play, could be the center for a true third line checking unit should he stay in D.C. His arrival also helped to improve the Penalty Killing a little bit.

Matt "Omar" Bradley: B+, A career year for the 31 year old fourth liner who set career high marks in goals, assists, and points this season, besting his previous totals which all came in his rookie season. His ice time diminished after the trade deadline as the Caps picked up players much more willing to go to the front of the net than Omar is. He has one more year left on his contract and plenty of players in Hershey behind him on the depth chart making this upcoming season huge for him. He may not finish it here in D.C. if he doesn't build on the numbers he put this past season.

Jason Chimera: C+, Acquired in late December for the former team Captain Chris Clark along with Milan Jurcina, Chimera had trouble adjusting to Bruce Boudreau's style of play. However he did eventually catch on and could be a useful checking line winger because he just doesn't have a goal scoring touch.

Eric Fehr: B-, No other player is abused by Boudreau as much as Fehr. He posted career highs across the board this season despite constantly being yanked, sat down, and scratched for his defensive miscues. Fehr also got on the scoreboard in the playoffs this year, scoring three goals and an assist in the seven games after just scoring one goal in his previous 14 playoff appearances. Which of course means he'll be a healthy scratch for opening night... Fehr is an RFA and expect the Caps to make a move to protect his rights. If Fehr is smart he'll elect arbitration to force the Caps to keep him or move him. Either way, we hope he can continue to show his improvement as we think he'll be needed on the top lines at some point in the next couple of years. At age 24, he's nowhere near tapped out on his potential.

Tomas Fleischmann: C-, Fleischmann is easily the second biggest enigma on the team. Here's a guy whom Boudreau absolutely loves and is only 26 years old. He set career marks for goals, assists, points, and even finished as a plus player for the first time in his career this season. Yet when the chips are down and the pressure is on, he's nowhere to be found. 3 goals, 2 assists, and 5 points in 22 playoff games are a testament to that and even Boudreau had finally seen enough, scratching Fleischmann for Game 7. Fleischmann had just one assist in this year's playoffs and it came in Game 2. In an attempt to finally get him going, he was tried at center on the 2nd line but that experiment failed miserably after a promising start. Simply put, there's really nowhere this guy fits on this team. He posted some nice career numbers this year which should help him as an RFA but the Caps need to look into trading him now while he's got a high value and a somewhat reasonable salary going forward. He's great from November through February but the Caps really need somebody who can get it done in April, May, and June and Fleischmann can't.

Boyd Gordon: INCOMPLETE, Gordon's season was derailed by a bad back that he kept re-injuring. He never got into the flow of this season. A lost year for the guy who does well on the fourth line and Penalty Killing unit. At age 26 he's young and as an RFA the Caps really don't have to worry about losing him to another team right now.

Mike Knuble: B+, Brought in to camp out in front of the net to tip in shots and score off of rebounds, Knuble put up some fantastic numbers this season skating on the top line at age 37. He's got another year left on his contract and he could improve upon those numbers if he was placed on the top Power Play unit. He had only two goals in the playoffs though and one was shorthanded which was disappointing with all the shots the Caps were generating in the series. And because of his age, he won't be around much longer which begs the question, who is going to eventually take his place on the top line?

Brooks "and Dunn" Laich: B, Stop us if you've heard this before, but career highs for this guy too this season. Brooks found himself a home on the second line this season and maybe in a couple of years he could inherit Knuble's spot on the top line because he remains willing to go to the front of the net. After all, that's where he plays on the Power Play. His fortunes however rise and fall because of his linemates and not the other way around. Laich scored two goals in the playoffs including the lone tally in Game 7. However it is his tire-changing episode after the game that most people are going to remember.

Brendan Morrrissonn: C+, Brought in on a one-year deal to center the second line and revive his career, Morrrissonn gets mixed marks at doing both. There were parts of this season where he looked great and there were parts of the season where he looked awful. The deadline deals created a glut that did him no favors either but by that point his star was clearly fading in Boudreau's mind. The concern that cropped up during the season that his play could price him out of the Caps plans going forward was dashed (they tried Fleischmann in that role for crying out loud) and now the question that the Caps face is do they want to bring him back to center the second line again? Probably not but we'll see because he could be the best option out there right now for the Caps.

Captain A.O.: A-, He once again set a career high, in assists, this season and after being named team Captain; found a way to raise the level of his game. However a couple of injuries and suspensions took their toll on him as he came up short on the Ross and Richard Trophies. Furthermore, we happen to think that the suspensions will be used against him in the voting for the Hart and Pearson/Lindsay trophies as well completely shutting him out on hardware for the 2009-2010 season (unless you want to count the President's Trophy). Captain A.O. also led the team in points in the playoffs after a slow start to Game 1. Our advice to him going forward, is to first of all, ignore the critics who are likely to back down now that the Olympics are well within the rear view mirror. Secondly rediscover his joy in playing the game. That more than anything else is what has made him what he is today and endears him to fans. Trust us, the NHL pays a bigger price by branding him a thug and suspending him all the time than he does by playing hard. He's the best player in the league and it is because he plays the game so hard. If he stops doing that, he stops doing what makes him special.

Alexander "Slappy" Semin: B+, Ok folks, we need this explained to us here because we just don't get it. Slappy sets career highs for goals and points this season. He had the second fewest PIM's of his career, scored shorthanded for the first time in his career (twice!), and was a point-per-game producer in his first two trips to the playoffs. Yet because of a 2 assist effort in the first round this season and zero goals on 44 shots in 7 games, you want to run him out of town? That's just over six shots on goal per game in the first round folks. Slappy averaged just under 4 shots on goal per game in the regular season and he still has 24 points in 28 playoff games which is more than respectable. He agree, he's an enigma who is great when he is on and is as bad as anybody when he doesn't care. But you cannot blame his lack of goal scoring in the first round on a lack of effort or him just not caring enough. And don't forget, it was Slappy that broke up a shorthanded breakaway in Game 5 and did so without taking a penalty negating the Caps Power Play. If your wishes are granted and Slappy is dealt, who replaces his scoring on the second line? We know Fleischmann can't handle the load and Boudreau would have to be fired in order to give Fehr a shot who certainly can't score at the clip Slappy does. Slappy took a gamble and signed a one year contract so the Caps can't get him to sign another extension until January 1st, 2011. His next contract however could go down to the wire before getting done.

David "Bolt Cutter" Steckel: D+, Ah, finally a forward who didn't set career highs this season. Ok, his +4 was a career high but nothing to write home about. After his excellent play in the playoffs last year, we were really disappointed that he didn't build on that this season and once the roster got loaded up at the deadline, his ice time really dwindled and he was a non-factor in the playoffs this year. He's a faceoff specialist which earned him a three year extension which starts with the upcoming season. He could be on the way out though if he doesn't develop the other parts of his game with all the talent sitting in Hershey.

Scott Walker Texas Ranger: B-, Another deadline pickup who technically doesn't qualify but we'd thought we'd grade him too. He was brought in for depth and that's what he provided and maybe a little extra leadership in the lockerroom. We would have liked to seen more of him in the playoffs because he's a player willing to get in front of the net and get dirty. The Caps though have already decided to let him go and not bring him back for the 2010-2011 season and at age 35, he doesn't have much NHL time left anyway.

When you look at the gaudy offensive stats you have to grade it out at an A+ but when the offense came up dry in the playoffs, you just have to scratch your head. The Power Play unit operated at 25.2% in the regular season and went 1 for 33 in the first round for just 3%. For the record that isn't the worst of the first round, the Buffaslugs went 0-19. However leading the league in goals by 45 and Power Plays in by 3.4% and 11 goals doesn't mean everything is perfect and the offense doesn't need any tweaking. First of all, Bruce Boudreau has to develop, deploy, and trust a second Power Play unit. His top Power Play unit gets way too much of the man advantage and the second unit just doesn't get enough time to generate anything. Secondly, yes we still need a second line center. That's on General Manager George McPhee's list. Some fans think that "Mighy Mouse" Mathieu Perreault could fill that role but we're not convinced. Finally, while the job of the forwards is to score goals, they also have defensive responsibilities too. Too many forwards were blowing assignments and the zone leaving the blueline exposed this past season. That has to change if the Caps want to improve upon this season.

2009-2010 Caps Season Wrap-Up Part I I Defense and Goaltending

2010-06-05T13:03:00.000-04:00

FYI, a skater has to be on the NHL roster for half the regular season or 3 playoff games to qualify for this review. We're going to review all three goaltenders though.

Joe Scorvo: C, A deadline pick up who has already been told not to expect an offer from the Caps and won't be back next season. We're not surprised that he isn't being retained but we are disappointed by the decision. He could have been a quarterback on a second Power Play unit but was hardly ever given the chance. But at the end of the day, the Caps have a log jam on the blueline and a guy without a contract for next season is the easiest one to get rid of.

John "Coach's Pet" Erskine-Bowles: C-, If the deadline deals made by General Manager George McPhee did anything positive, it meant we didn't have to watch the Coach's Pet in the playoffs. Though to be fair, with plenty of health scratches this season and a much reduced role, Erskine-Bowles really shouldn't have that moniker anymore. He's got a contract for next season at $1.25 million and could be a candidate for a buyout, but we're not counting on it.

Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green: B+, One of two whipping boys for the Caps defense who is actually better than most people think, both in his all-round play and defensive capabilities. He's not a stud in his own zone and we doubt that he'll ever be, but he has two problems that need to be addressed pronto. #1, He tries to do too much in his own zone. That more than anything else gets him into trouble. If he stays within himself he's more than capable of getting the job done. It is when he tries to make the big play or steps out of his character that he gets into trouble in his own zone. #2. He simply doesn't handle pressure very well. It's clear that the criticism from the stands, press, and various brass gets to him and so he goes out and tries even harder to prove them all wrong. If he wants to improve and prove all of his detractors wrong, he needs to relax and let things come to him rather than trying to create everything on his own.

Shaone Morrrissonnn: C, Well, for a guy playing on a one-year deal hoping to hit the UFA jackpot, he came up short. We can easily see the Caps letting him go if any kind of bidding war for his services start but we don't think that's going to happen so the Caps aren't likely to move towards giving him an offer until after July 1st. His numbers this year were average for him and quite frankly, there is much about him that stands out. If the Caps can get an upgrade anywhere, he would be a guy left out in the cold.

Tom Poti: C+, We're beginning to understand why the New York fans hate this guy so much. For a guy with a reputation of being a smooth puck handler, Poti commits some of the ugliest turnovers you have ever seen. Yet Poti is considered one of the better players the Caps have in the defensive zone. But as the season wore on he made some huge and costly gaffes and then took a puck in the eye in Game 6 which ended his season. Poti will be next season's Brian Pothier, a veteran player at the end of his contract that McPhee dangles and trades at the deadline for additional depth. While his $3.5 million cap figure could make that harder than it was with Pothier and his $2.5 million, Poti likely has just one more season left in Washington.

Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz: A, The most favored whipping boy of Caps fans, Sarge finally started to put it all together this season. You don't lead the entire NHL in +/- by accident folks. Does Sarge need to work on his defensive game? Yes. Does he need to get better with the puck on his stick? Yes. Should he hit a little more? Yes, but that's never been his style so don't expect him to turn into the next Scott Stevens. Lost in all the complaining about Schultz is his young age. Folks, he's just 24 years old. If he was Erskine-Bowles' age, 29, we could understand the complaints, but Sarge is still developing and doing a decent job of learning on the fly in the NHL. The Caps would have loved to give him more time in the AHL but things just didn't work out that way. He's an RFA and should be back unless he can figure out a way to get a huge offer sheet or an arbitration jackpot. This is a guy we'd like to see on our blueline for a long time to come.

Tyler Sloan: C-, The poor man's Erskine-Bowles, he saw limited action during the season and in attempts to get him some ice time and maybe expand his role, Bruce Boudreau tried him as a forward. That experiment didn't last long either. He was inexplicably given a two-year extension during the season but not much of a raise with that extension so he only occupies a roster spot. However, that two-year extension may be what keeps him as the 7th defenseman ahead of Erskine-Bowles in 2010-2011.

"A Real American Hero" John Carlson: A-, He's just 20 years old. The Caps wanted him to spend the entire season in Hershey and gradually work his way into the NHL in 2010-2011. However, Carlson's play in Hershey and Washington just wouldn't let that happen. We will throw down the gauntlet right now and say that the 2010-2011 season is going to be tough on this kid as he should start the season in Washington. However, this kid is good and will steadily improve and should be an anchor on our blueline for years to come.

Karl "Malden" Alzner: INCOMPLETE, He doesn't fit the criterion for making the rundown here but we would be remiss if we didn't mention his season which was a disappointment. He was supposed to start the season in the NHL but salary cap issues and the fact that he could be sent to the AHL without having to clear waivers conspired against him. Then once he was called up, he didn't show much more than what he did last year and with the team on a roll all throughout the regular season, it was tough for him to find a spot in the lineup and as a result he ended up back in Hershey. He also got passed by Carlson on the depth chart and prospect rankings during this season. However he should start the season in Washington next year, but once again, finding him a place will be difficult if he doesn't show any improvement.

Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore: A-, You really have to feel for this guy not only on a personal level but on a professional level since he arrived in Washington. For a goaltender who posted 30 wins in the regular season for the fourth time in his career (and second consecutive season in Washington) he had an amazingly short leash from Boudreau. He also earned those 30 wins in just 47 appearances, 10 games less than he appeared in last year when he won 32 games and the fewest appearances in his four 30 win seasons. Yet his time in the Washington net is done unless he's willing to take a massive paycut at age 32. We don't think he will or should. Some will point to his playoff performance this year but he had just two games and probably the worst matchup for him, his hometown team and the one he broke into the league with opposing him. We happen to think that had the Caps played anybody else in the first round, Theodore would have been ok. We wish him nothing but the best going forward and hope he finds a team that will appreciate him.

Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov: INCOMPLETE, Clearly Boudreau's favored goaltender, he was getting plenty of time to get into form when his entire season was derailed with a knee injury that kept him on the shelf for two months. When any player misses the amount of time that The Saviour did, it ruins their entire season. However Boudreau gave him all the time in the world to get his game back on track after returning from the injury at the expense of a hot Theodore. Varlamov played well in the playoffs, but not well enough and just never got back into the groove that he was on before he got hurt in December. The concern with The Saviour is his fragility. He's a very good goaltender and at age 22, a really good chance to be a great goaltender for a long time. But he has to stay healthy in order for that to happen and if he can't do that, the Caps have to have somebody else on standby to take over. Luckily the goaltending prospect pool for the Caps is deep right now.

Michal "Bebe" Neuvirth: B-, The Caps play up Neuvirth's abilities to be on par with Varlamov, when as it stands right now, that isn't exactly the case. However, Neuvirth showed in his limited action this season that he can get the job done on the NHL level. And quite frankly, with Varlmov's injury issues, we're not too concerned with turning the starting job over to him should The Saviour end up missing another two month stretch of the season. He's another youngster in goal so the Caps should have him around for a long time. As a matter of fact, we wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see him eventually take the #1 goaltender job in D.C. should Boudreau give him the chance.

Overall, the Defense this year gets a C- from us this year. The overall numbers ranked middle-of-road compared to the rest of the league and there were not nearly as bad as many made them out to be. They were often overshadowed and often rescued by an offense that went berserk in the regular season so they didn't have to be that good. However, the biggest problem with the defense was the Penalty Killing which stunk to high heaven all season long. The unit finished 25th overall in the NHL but was near the bottom all season and under 80% the entire way. If the Caps can improve the penalty killing, it will go a long way to changing the minds of people who think that the Caps have huge issues in a goal and along the blueline.

2009-2010 Caps Season Wrap-Up Part I

2010-06-05T11:37:00.000-04:00

Well, the Lord certainly does work in mysterious ways... As disappointed as we were with the Caps untimely demise in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season, it turned out for us, and maybe the Caps too, to be a blessing in disguise. With everything that has gone on in our personal and professional lives since Game 7, we have a hard time wondering just how in the world we would have been able to keep up if the Caps had advanced further and further into this year's playoffs. And the time way has given us a chance for a little less emotional perspective on the season which is always good.

#1. If we learned nothing else about this team, it is that it peaked too soon this season. That and nobody in their right mind could predict what happened in the Eastern Conference Playoffs this season. The top 3 seeds all went out in the first round and seeds 7 and 8 faced off for the Conference Finals. That does not happen very often , so not only were the Caps not alone in the unmet expectations department, it was just a fluky playoff year. Maybe next year the Caps won't try to push so much out of the regular season.

#2. Bruce Boudreau is going to have to change his style. No we're not calling for a switch to the trap and a totally defensive oriented mindset. However the run-and-gun style he's installed is detracting from the defensive system he is trying to use. Maybe it is that maturity factor creeping in again, after all the oldest of the core players is just 26 years old. But Boudreau also has to stop playing favorites among certain players and punishing others when they have bad games/mistakes. The first round disaster was not Boudreau's fault alone but he bares a fair amount of responsibility with the way he manages the lineup.

#3. George McPhee's to-do list has grown. Part of Bourdeau's lineup issues stems from the fact that he's doing the best he can with what he has. The Caps have a superb top line, a second line that would be the top line on half of the teams in the NHL (in spite of the lack of a true second-line center) one that you could designate as 1-B. A third line that plays more like a second line and one of the better fourth lines in the NHL. But what this season and playoffs exposed was the lack of a true third-line checking unit. In addition to finding a center for the second line and a top-drawer, physical, stay-at-home-defenseman; McPhee needs to give Boudreau the proper tools to build a third line checking unit. This is something that the Caps have lacked since the Halpern-Konowalchuk-Dahlen unit was broken up.

Overall, there are still bright days ahead for this franchise. Yes, tweaks need to be made but a total and complete overhaul is not needed.

For The Record...

2010-05-16T13:23:00.001-04:00

San Jose in six.

Montreal in seven.

We're working on a Smorgasbord that we hope to have up later today.

Game 7 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-28-2010 Wrap Up

2010-04-29T05:57:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: upended, no shock, back in the lineup, just how good, all kinds of questions. Examiner. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com: Recap, spoiler, not happy, yet another bad call, moves paid off. AP Wire. Canadian Press. TSN.ca. CBC.ca. ESPN.com.

The Other Side:

Montreal Gazette: Penguin Scum next, playoff hockey, four wins, paid the price. Canadiens.com.

Final Thoughts:

We'll do our usual season-ending things in the coming days and weeks but we do want to note to Tracee Hamilton that Captain A.O. was complaining of fatigue and often skips the optional skates because of the intensity in which he plays with whenever he's on the ice whether it is a game or a practice. The team has often held him back for his own good. As for some of the other players who didn't get the job done in the first round, "truth day" will give us more insight as to what went wrong in Round I. But we want to say right now that San Jose East this is not. While there are reasons to worry going forward, there are also reasons to be optimistic and we'll get into those reasons why later.

Finally, since the NHL isn't taking a day off before starting the second round; Penguin Scum in six, Boston in six, Detroit in six, and Chicago in seven.

Game 7 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-28-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-04-28T23:09:00.000-04:00

Well, at least we still have their baseball team...

We can't say were all that surprised right now. We don't know what it is but there's just something about this franchise. If it isn't a hose job or a freak injury or a bad bounce or who knows what else, then this franchise just can't seem to get out of its own way. How else do you explain the blown playoff leads and the 2-7 record in Game 7, 2-6 at home? We knew the shoe was eventually going to drop on us, it always does. But congratulations folks, we're not only the first #1 seed to blow a 3-1 lead to a #8 seed but we gave Jacques Martin his first win ever in a Game 7.

The seed for the loss tonight was first planted back in late January-early February when the Caps went on that magical 14 game winning streak. Simply put, this team peaked way too soon folks. Remember all those lists of NHL teams with long winning streaks during the regular season? The most recent team to win the Cup was the Islanders from back in the 1980's. That wasn't a good sign for us as we racked up the wins that pulled us away in the Eastern Conference and President's Trophy race. That seed was then given a good fertilizing when it was Montreal who broke the 14 game winning streak. Interesting isn't how the team who put an end to our epic winning streak put an end to our season? Coincidence? We think not.

While the series was formally lost tonight, it was really lost last Friday when the Caps blew Game 5. The Caps, as usual in this series, fell behind 2-0 before starting to score. Despite cutting the deficit in half early in the second period, it was with about 5-6 minutes left that the Caps seemed to pull up. They realized that in order to win Game 5, they'd likely have to play Overtime for the fourth straight game at home and seventh time in the last ten home contests going back into the regular season. So the Caps figured, "hey, we've got two more chances, lets save it." Instead they gave Montreal life and the confidence that they could pull off the upset that they did.

And here's the thing about tonight that mystifies us. Of the Game 7's the Caps have played, this was by far their best performance. Even better than the 2 wins. That's not say that there were no mistakes made tonight. Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green takes a stupid penalty in the first period that leads to Montreal's first goal after the Caps had been dominating the first period. Green then decided to play the man instead of the puck late in the third and the Caps end up down 2-0 for the fourth time in the series as a result. The Caps for the most part stopped hitting after the first period too and we don't know why.

Silly us too thinking that because the Caps are now considered a "marquee team" that they would be given a little assistance onto the Second Round. Not once in this series did the Caps have to deal with either Bill McCreary or Paul Devorski. But we're glad to see that two years since Game 7 against the Flyers that the league is trying to do something about goaltender interference.

But before we wrap this up let's give credit to Jaroslav Halak and the Montreal Canadiens. Halak played another great game tonight and the team in front of him blocked almost as many shots, 41, as the Caps got on goal, 42. Montreal had blocked 26 shots heading into the third period. You do the math folks. However, we won't be the least bit surprised if the Penguin Scum shred him for 6 goals on 10 shots on Friday night. That's just how it is for the Washington Capitals.

Finally we know this is mostly wishful thinking, but we hope we don't have to hear from players, coaches, General Managers, and Owners about how disappointed they are. About how upset that they are that "the season ended way too soon." About how "we haven't achieved our goals and won't rest until we do." About how "we can't wait for next season." We've heard that two years in a row now and probably will hear it for a third. But until something is actually done about it, it is just empty talk.

Game 7 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-28-2010 Preview

2010-04-28T06:01:00.001-04:00

Series A: Washington Capitals (57-31; 121 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Montreal Canadiens (42-46; 88 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):
Caps Playoff Game #7, Home Playoff Game #4, NHL Playoff Game #117

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WJFK 106.7-FM. Montreal TV: None. Radio: CJAD 880-AM. U.S. National TV: Versus. Canadian National TV: TSN, RDS (French).

Tonight the Caps once again host Game 7 of a playoff series. This will be the 9th Game 7 in team history and the Caps have hosted all but 1 of them. However, the Caps have only won 2 of the previous 8 single elimination playoff games in franchise history with the two wins coming on home ice.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post: now the injuries hit, trying to avoid the Whammy. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com: Preview, under pressure, lineup change, longer than expected. AP Wire. Canadian Press. ESPN.com.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette: on a roll, what to do? Canadiens.com: 5 Keys, down to one.

What Do We Expect Tonight:

Well folks for the Caps to avoid elimination yet again there are a few things that they need to do; first of all, whoever Bruce Boudreau goes with in goal tonight is going to have to come out on top of their game from the start. The Caps can't fall behind even 1-0 lettalone 2-0 less than 10 minutes into the game like they have in Games 2, 5, and 6. As a matter of fact with Halak stopping just about everything right now, Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov or Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore are probably going to have to pitch a shutout for the Caps tonight. Secondly, the Caps need to put the glove on Mike Cammelleri. With the exception of Game 4, when he's scored a goal, the Canadiens have won. So stop him from scoring goals and the Caps can win. The Caps also need to get back to pounding the Canadiens all over the ice. They did that in Games 1-4 and built a 3-1 lead but stopped doing that in Games 5 and 6 and are 0-2. Get the puck in deep and get the forecheckers into the corners quickly and Montreal will turn the puck over. When it comes to Halak however, the Caps need to go for quality over quantity. Shots from beyond the faceoff circles especially need screens and the guys who are setting screens need to fight for the rebounds that come out. And when the puck isn't shot from distance, the Caps need to crash the crease and work the puck to the front of the net. Finally, let's admit something here, the Caps are one of the NHL's marquee teams. Aside from some of the worst acting you've ever seen, there's a reason why Montreal was finally whistled an unheard of three times in Game 6 for diving after flopping around all series. When the Caps are handed Power Plays tonight, they MUST take advantage of them. This doesn't necessarily mean that the Caps have to score right away and on every Power Play chance, but they must use the Power Play to get their offense going. The NHL needs the Caps in the second round and Hades, the third round to face the Penguin Scum because the NBC's contract is up next year. Will this all come to pass, we have our doubts because we've been down this road before and there's just something about this franchise.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 1
Canadiens 3
Winner by Gomez
(3-3 in the playoffs, 50-40 on the season with two perfect games)

Game 6 Caps @ Canadiens 4-26-2010 Wrap Up

2010-04-27T05:53:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: coming back home, stopped cold, shot chart. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com: Recap, game changer. AP Wire. Canadian Press. CBC.com. ESPN.com.

The Other Side:

Montreal Gazette: refusing to lose, busy night, starting to believe, big debut, more practice needed. Canadiens.com.

Final Thoughts:

We posted the shot chart above to drive home our point from last night about the Caps taking too many shots from distance. Only 14 of the 54 shots by our count came from in close and take a look at Joe Scorvo's shots. He had a team high 10 shots on goal which included three from the neutral zone. Again, we don't want to take anything away from Halak because he had an outstanding game, but the Caps have gotten away from the playoff style of hockey that they played early on in the series which is why we're now tied back up and heading into a Game 7. Hopefully if the Caps back to crashing the net and pounding the Canadiens all over the ice, especially on the forecheck, the Caps can win Game 7. But if they settle from shots from outside and don't do the dirty work that we've seen them do before, our spring will suddenly become a lot freer.

3 down, still 1 to go.

Game 6 Caps @ Canadiens 4-26-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-04-26T22:35:00.000-04:00

Not where anybody wanted to be... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Eric Fehr got a goal late. It was too little too late for this game but it broke up the shutout because as bad as it is to be going into a Game 7 under these circumstances, it would be 100 times worse if Jaroslav Halak had pitched a 54 save shutout at us tonight.
Montreal has been flopping like fish out of water all series long trying to draw penalties. Thankfully tonight Tim Peel and Dan O'Rourke were finally calling them out on it and whistled them three times for diving.

THE BAD:

With all due respect to Halak who played an amazing game tonight, Caps added to their own frustration by pumping more and more shots at Halak without screens, without players in front ready to pounce on rebounds, and from distance. Yes Halak robbed them stone cold on a number of occasions tonight but when the Caps did get players in front, the shots went wide. When the Caps did get rebounds, hardly anybody was fighting for them. Instead of taking the puck to the net and crashing the crease, the Caps were content to shoot from distance against a goaltender that was stopping everything. It shouldn't be any wonder that he posted some of the numbers that he did tonight.
If you're wondering why Tomas Fleischmann isn't scoring look at his botched chance. He had to make an extra move with the puck before shooting at a wide open net.

THE UGLY:

No way to sugarcoat it, Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov did not have a good game tonight. 3 goals allowed on 21 shots faced. Bruce Boudreau would have pulled Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore had he gotten down 2-0 for the second consecutive game less than 10 minutes in.
The Power Play is more than a problem, it is an albatross around our necks right now. 0 for 6 tonight and the coup de gras is the big fat 0 shots on goal during a 1:15 5 on 3 in the first period. The Caps badly needed a goal there to get back into the game but couldn't even muster a shot. 18 shots on goal otherwise but none of them mattered because none of them got into the net.
In addition to 54 shots on goal, 23 of them were blocked, and 17 missed everything. That's 94 shot attempts tonight and only one goal.

So you're thinking what we're thinking, "He can't do this two games in a row right?" Well, looking at his game log, yes he can because he has. After facing the magic number of 45 shots, where he's undefeated, Halak is 4-2 in his next outing including the 6-5 overtime loss in Game 2 of this series. Halak made 45+ saves in three consecutive games before yielding the one loss in the regular season. He then made 45+ saves twice in a row before beating the Penguin Scum with just 18 saves on 21 shots. So yes folks, be afraid. Be very afraid about Wednesday night because this version of the Caps has not come out with a sense of purpose in any of their previous three Game 7's.

Game 6 Caps @ Canadiens 4-26-2010 Preview

2010-04-26T06:14:00.000-04:00

Series A: Washington Capitals (57-30; 121 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Montreal Canadiens (41-46; 88 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):
Caps Playoff Game #6, Road Playoff Game #3, NHL Playoff Game #116

Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WJFK 106.7-FM. Montreal TV: None. Radio: CJAD 880-AM. U.S. National TV: Versus. Canadian National TV: TSN, RDS (French).

Tonight the Caps take their second crack at closing out their series with the Montreal Canadiens when they head back to Montreal for Game 6. This is the ninth time in franchise history that the Caps have had the chance to win a series in 6 games and the Caps have accomplished the task 5 times in their previous 8 opportunities. All-time the Caps are 10-9 in Game 6 with a 7-6 record on the road.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com: Preview, believers, house of horrors. AP Wire. Canadian Press: relaxing, improving. ESPN.com

Open Source Intelligence:

Canadiens.com.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

For some reason here recently the Caps seem to play better on the road in the playoffs than at home. Maybe it is because the Phone Booth Crowd gets so wound up that the players get lost in it themselves. Of course it would help if our opponents weren't allowed to send six skaters and a goaltender onto the ice for an extended period of time (Seriously, when is the NHL going to do something about its officiating crews? The guys who work the playoffs are supposed to be the best of the bunch.) but that's too much to ask. The Caps got caught a little flat footed on Friday night and we figure that won't happen again tonight because while the Caps didn't want to go back to Montreal, they certainly do want to go to a Game 7. It would also help the Caps to score first tonight, Montreal really packed things in on Friday night after going up 2-0 and Halak plays much better with a lead than he does with a tie or trailing in the game. Finally, while it would be nice to get the Power Play going tonight, we've already won 3 games in this series without it being much of a factor, we can probably get by without it being a factor tonight but the lineup changes from Bruce Boudreau will be crucial as typically new players in the Playoffs tend to inject more life into the lineup.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 4
Canadiens 2
Winner by Semin
(3-2 in the playoffs, 50-39 on the season with two perfect games)

Round I Daily Report 4-25-2010

2010-04-25T14:45:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Examiner.

The Neutral Observers:

AP Wire: powerless, he's a hockey player. Canadian Press: calmer approach, stop the streaking.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette: doing the job, tough work. Canadiens.com.

Today's Spin:

First of all, we hope that Bruce Boudreau goes against his own grain and benches Tomas Fleischmann as he really should. Fleischmann, like Alexander "Slappy" Semin, should be having a much better series than he is against a soft Montreal team. But unlike Slappy, Fleischmann isn't showing any signs of life and needs to sit. However, we wouldn't be surprised if Eric Fehr gets yanked instead. We know Fehr would have been demoted to South Carolina by now if he had been playing like Fleischmann has.

Finally, we finally found our oringinal post from where we first linked to an article from IllegalCurve.com about teams getting too much rest after the first round. Had the Caps won on Friday night, the would have had about six-seven days off before the start of the Round II on April 30th-May 1st. Philly will have at least the magic number of seven days off, maybe eight if we don't start until Saturday night regardless. However, because the Caps have to play tomorrow, the numbers now work in our favor. We understand what Bruce is talking about in having short series along the way but you have a short series in the second, third, or fourth rounds too; it doesn't have to be in the first round. And don't take this to mean that we want this series to go seven games, we want it to end tomorrow night. We just don't think it is such a bad thing that we have to go six games because Boston and Vancouver had short first round series last year and both crashed out in the second.

Game 5 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-23-2010 Wrap Up

2010-04-24T06:53:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: blown chance, reality check, individual honors. Examiner: missed opportunity, power outage. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com: Recap, nerves of steel. AP Wire. Canadian Press. CBC.ca. ESPN.com.

The Other Side:

Montreal Gazette: stayin' alive, great goaltending, successful juggling act, No, not this year pal, got away with one. Canadiens.com.

Final Thoughts:

3 down, 1 still to go.

Game 5 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-23-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-04-23T23:50:00.001-04:00

Some things never change... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

After giving up two early goals, Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov recovered with a solid performance to keep the game from getting further out of hand.
For the first time this season, the Caps Penalty Killers shutdown the Montreal Power Play. The Caps were 6 for 6 tonight.

THE BAD:

No way to sugar coat it, the Caps top line was on the ice for all three goals scored tonight. If we had won 3-0 or 2-1, that wouldn't be a problem, but it is a problem when we lose 2-1.
We're not sure how it happened, but taking a Too Many Men on the Ice penalty with just over a minute to go is not a good way to finish off a game.

THE UGLY:

The Caps Power Play failed big-time tonight. 0 for 5 with 11 shots on goal. We give Jaroslav Halak credit for making a big save on Alexander "Slappy" Semin in the third period. But there was precious little fighting for rebounds on the Power Play tonight which is a cause for concern going forward.
As usual with a loss, we didn't bother listening to the Post-Game Show on the radio because we didn't want to hear what was being said about Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green. We don't think Green's defending has been all that bad, it has been his puck handling as he seems to be once again succumbing to the pressure of the playoffs. Some of it isn't necessarily his fault as he had some bad bounces but as long as he's not blowing defensive assignments, we can live with his play. Other however are different story...

Well folks, we told you initially we just had a feeling that this would go a little longer than everybody thought. We aren't too upset about this loss tonight though. We remember reading last year that teams who wrap up their first round series in 4 or 5 games have a dismal record in the second round because the rest turns into rust with the long layoff. The Caps can still close out this series on Monday night in six games and the earliest they would have to face Philadelphia is Thursday but much more likely on Friday. So we're not too concerned about getting enough rest before facing the Flyers as long as the series ends on Monday night. But we are concerned that talk of yet another blown 3-1 lead is going to start before there is a Game 7. That is talk we don't need over the next two off days.

Game 5 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-23-2010 Preview

2010-04-23T06:06:00.000-04:00

Series A: Washington Capitals (57-29; 121 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Montreal Canadiens (40-46; 88 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):
Caps Playoff Game #5, Home Playoff Game #3, NHL Playoff Game #115

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WJFK 106.7-FM. Montreal TV: None. Radio: CJAD 880-AM. U.S. National TV: Versus. Canadian National TV: TSN, RDS (French).

Tonight, the Caps look to close out their series with the Montreal Canadiens and confirm a date in the second round with the Philadelphia Flyers. Game 5 has not been kind to the Capitals throughout the years. The Caps are 8-18 in the pivotal game and 5-11 on home ice. With a 3-1 lead and a chance to put an end to the series, the Caps are 2-6.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com: Preview, 5 Keys. stuck in a fog. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette: nothing else to lose, staying home, not what they expected, put up or shut up. Canadiens.com.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

This current incarnation of the Capitals has a chance for the first time to eliminate a team before Game 7 rolls around. And with we're brutally honest with ourselves, our performance in the three Game 7's for this bunch have been a little on the flat side. But looking at the end other side of the coin here, Montreal has to be at their wit's end. They've thrown everything that they can at the Caps and yet are still down 3-1. We don't expect the Canadiens to lay down and die tonight (though it would be nice) because if they were going to, they would have done so in Game 4. But should the Caps get rolling tonight and take a lead, it would be very advisable for the Caps to keep their heads up because Montreal could very well go the cheap-shot route knowing that there's nothing left for them to lose because in the last three games of this series they've lost their cool and have taken penalties that have put them further behind. So is there anything to make us think that they won't do the same thing tonight facing elimination? The biggest thing for the Caps tonight though is to demonstrate a killer instinct. Teams that are on the brink find a way to stave off elimination and it is the mark of a good team to overcome that and put them away. The Caps should know all about staving off elimination as they've done it seven times over the past three years. However, just like Game 4, we think it is going to come down to the Caps being just too good for Montreal to get past.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 4
Canadiens 3
Winner by Backstrom
(3-1 in the playoffs, 50-38 for the season with two perfect games)

Game 4 Caps @ Canadiens 4-21-2010 Wrap Up

2010-04-22T06:08:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: big plays, big lead, Red Menaces. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com: Recap, happy hard hatter, down in the dumps, getting shorty. AP Wire. Canadian Press. CBC.com. ESPN.com.

The Other Side:

Montreal Gazette: on the brink, no answer, can't have him yet, don't blame Carey. Canadiens.com.

Final Thoughts:

We'll give credit here where credit is due, the Canadiens played much better last night than we thought they would and they played well enough to win the game. However, even though last night's loss has to be rather devastating, we're no longer hearing any spin out of them about "being where they want to be," we don't expect them to roll over and die tomorrow night.

3 down, 1 to go.

Game 4 Caps @ Canadiens 4-21-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-04-21T22:43:00.000-04:00

Just too darn good... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Jason Chimera has been a thorn in the side of the Canadiens all series long and tonight he comes up with the Game-Winning-Goal.
Mike Knuble with the back-breaking shorthanded knoal tonight, the second one for the Caps in as many games. He added an empty-netter to help seal the deal late in the game for his second goal of the playoffs. It's good to get him going as the second round and a probable date with the Flyers loom.
The Power Play finally busted their slump, while Captain A.O.'s goal was off the rush and not off any set work, we'll take it and run. However, after getting setup in the offensive zone, the Power Play has to find a way to get more pucks to the net.
And speaking of Captain A.O., he and Nicklas Backstrom both rang up three points tonight. It's becoming clear that these two alone are more than Montreal can handle.
Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov had an outstanding game tonight making 36 saves, 20 in the second period alone.

THE BAD:

Tell us again why faceoff are so important? The Caps won 36 faceoffs and lost 29 but were outshot 39-38. Something doesn't add up.
Montreal scored yet another Power Play goal on us tonight, going 1 for 4. So far it doesn't look like our penalty killing is going to cost us in this series. But it is not over yet.
And while Alexander "Slappy" Semin lucked his way into an assist tonight for his first playoff point this year, we still don't think he's playing very well.

THE UGLY:

While the Caps had more Power Plays than Montreal, the officiating tonight was just awful. First Joe Scorvo takes a blind-side hit from Maxim Lapierre that none of them saw despite the NHL's newest "crackdown." Then Carey Price whacks Backstrom while Price was standing on the Montreal Bench after the last empty-net goal. We're pretty certain that NHL Suggestion Book prohibits such actions but we doubt that either Lapierre or Price will face any kind of supplementary discipline nor any further mention of their actions.

Well folks, we're almost there. We're one game away from getting about a week off before the second round begins and we can rest some players. While tonight's game was not the best effort the Caps can muster, we happen to think that our problem is not defense, but focus. There's no reason why other than losing focus that Montreal scored a third goal tonight. The Caps just stopped playing but Dominic Moore didn't. That was the biggest example of focus loss but there were other individual moments as well. But a win is a win and the Caps are rolling along and now come home looking to wrap this series up quickly.

Game 4 Caps @ Canadiens 4-21-2010 Preview

2010-04-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

Series A: Washington Capitals (56-29; 121 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Montreal Canadiens (40-45; 88 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):
Caps Playoff Game #4, Road Playoff Game #2, NHL Playoff Game #114

Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WJFK 106.7-FM. Montreal TV: None. Radio: CJAD 880-AM. Canadian National TV: TSN, RDS (French). NHL Center Ice: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic feed.

Tonight, the Caps, with a 2-1 lead, look to take total control of their first round series with the Montreal Canadiens in Game 4. The Caps are 14-15 All-Time in Game 4 with a 7-8 record on the road and an 8-6 record with a 2-1 lead in the series.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post: powering up, American Idol, best in the business. Examiner: simple strategy, keeping up abroad. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com: Preview, stealing the show, power outage. AP Wire. Canadian Press. ESPN.com.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette: red meat, really bad idea, digging up old news, more changes in goal. Canadiens.com: going hard, 5 New Keys.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

Well folks, we don't want to go too far in this but it is time for the Caps to get serious and go about putting away the Canadiens tonight. Yeah, yeah we know that they need two more wins, not one, to close out this series but we're not buying this "calm, cool, and collected" act from Montreal. They clearly blew a gasket on Monday night after the Caps got out to a 4-0 lead in the second period and they'll do it again if the Caps get out to any lead tonight. There's no reason why Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov shouldn't get the start tonight and instead of absorbing the Montreal pressure for the first period, the Caps should look to grab an early lead tonight. Carey Price is likely to be in net and he has shown that he can't handle the pressure of a playoff game in Montreal. If the Caps can get out to an early lead tonight, the crowd will do a 180 turn on really come down hard on the home team making their meltdown all the more complete.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 6
Canadiens 2
Winner by Backstrom
(2-1 in the playoffs, 49-38 for the year with two perfect games)

Game 3 Caps @. Canadiens 4-19-2010 Wrap Up

2010-04-20T05:56:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: second period blast, the sound of silence. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com: Recap, team effort, still not going there, keep composure. AP Wire. TSN.ca : Canadian Press, who's next? CBC.com. ESPN.com.

The Other Side:

Montreal Gazette: sitting ducks, fell apart, maintaining focus, against all odds.

Final Thoughts:

The key here for the Caps is not to get overconfident. Yes, they've got Montreal reeling but a bad performance in Game 4 makes this a longer series than many had wanted.

2 down, 2 to go.

Game 3 Caps @. Canadiens 4-19-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-04-19T22:29:00.000-04:00

So much for the Montreal Home Ice Advantage... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Brooks "and Dunn" Laich loses the face shield and picks up the game-winning-goal. The only one the Caps scored from distance tonight.
Boyd Gordon returns to the lineup and gets a shorthanded goal to start all the scoring by taking the puck to the net and whacking away at it with some help from Mike Knuble.
Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov came up with his best game since getting injured back in December. Now the goaltender controversy gets really interesting.
The Penalty Killers had some extra work tonight but ended up going a respectable 4 for 5 tonight.
Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green and Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz both played much better tonight that they did on Saturday. Pity that nobody will give either of them credit for it.

THE BAD:

Though the Penalty Killers weren't perfect, they did blow the shutout in the third period with some lackadaisical play. And the sad part is, it was the only time it happened during the game.
We're not surprised that Thomas Fleischmann has gone MIA, as a matter of fact we expected it and he as usual blew a prime chance tonight but Alexander "Slappy" Semin has to get on track. Eric Belanger proved that Brendan Morrrissonn wasn't the problem on that line.

THE UGLY:

Not counting the 3 second Power Play, the Caps were 0 for 6 on the Power Play tonight. Lots of nifty passing but only 5 shots on goal.
The Montreal fans classy as ever as the Frogs boo the Star Spangled Banner once again.

Well folks, the tide in this series has certainly turned. Had you paid much attention to the pundits, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Caps were down 2-0 again and yet after tonight they're up 2-1. Will the same wags who complained about the Caps defense and goaltending still chirp about it after tonight? Somehow we doubt it but we also know that they won't give the Caps defense and goaltending any credit either. Just 1 goal allowed, 27 shots on goal, and 16 shots blocked. Those are pretty good numbers against anybody in the NHL Playoffs. While Matt "Omar" Bradley's goal late in the third may be seen as running up the score, it helped to bring Carey Price down a notch after he had made 14 saves in the third period up until that point. The Caps are likely to face him instead of Jaroslav Halak in Game 4 on Wednesday night and they will need to beat him more than 2 times on 23 shots. The Caps haven't won this series yet, but they are clearly in control right now.

Game 3 Caps @. Canadiens 4-19-2010 Preview

2010-04-19T12:32:00.000-04:00

Series A: Washington Capitals (55-29; 121 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Montreal Canadiens (40-44; 88 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):
Caps Playoff Game #3, Road Playoff Game #1, NHL Playoff Game #113

Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WJFK 106.7-FM. Montreal TV: None. Radio: CJAD 880-AM. Canadian National TV: TSN, RDS (French). NHL Center Ice: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic feed.

Tonight, the Caps head to Montreal to play Game 3 of the series against the Canadiens. The Caps are 11-20 in Game 3 with an 8-10 record on the road. When the series is tied at 1-1, the Caps are 7-11.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post: two-headed monster, there can only be one. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com: preview, moving on. AP Wire. TSN.ca. ESPN.com.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette: not going there, possible return, so far so good. Canadiens.com.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

You gotta love the playoffs with all the extra head games going on. Captain A.O.'s comments about Jaroslav Halak does nothing else but shift the focus away from the Caps goaltending situation for a little bit. Who Bruce Boudreau goes with in goal tonight will scrutinized from here till the cows come home no matter what the outcome is but at the other end, Halak has allowed 8 goals on 84 shots in the two games so far Respectable numbers but after allowing 6 goals on 37 shots on Saturday night; there has to be creeping doubts about him too. But for the Caps, we think Boudreau is going to go with Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov tonight in part to protect Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore from the crowd in Montreal. The Saviour just hasn't been the same since his knee injury in December so the Caps are likely going to have to go all-offense, all the time in order to win the rest of this series. And if the Caps can continue to get in Halak's face physically and mentally as they did on Saturday night, they should be able to outgun Montreal. And if the Power Play gets going, this series will be lights out.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 5
Canadiens 3
Winner by Captain A.O.
(1-1 in the playoffs, 48-38 for the year with two perfect games)

Game 2 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-17-2010 Wrap Up

2010-04-18T13:13:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: big comeback, big game guy, energy guy. Examiner. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com recap, surprise win, A Real American Hero. AP Wire. Canadian Press. CBC.com. ESPN.com.

The Other Side:

Montreal Gazette: tied back up, liked the goaltending, leaning to the left. Canadiens.com.

Final Thoughts:

So Montreal is feeling ok heading home after blowing a three goal lead and a one goal lead late in the game? Why do we have a hard time believing that? Furthermore, why is it that if Captain A.O. isn't scoring goals the pundits believe he isn't playing?

1 down, 3 to go.

Game 2 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-17-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-04-17T23:33:00.000-04:00

Now it's on... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

The Caps may have to call up another defensemen for Games 3 and 4 in Montreal because we have a hard time believing that Canadian Customs is going to allow John Carlson into their country tomorrow. The Rookie notched his first playoff point and scored the game tying goal late in the third period. We have to think that Brian Burke should have had him in Vancouver.
Captain A.O. broke out of his slump tonight, 1 goal (assisted by Carlson), and three assists. 6 shots on goal (7 were blocked and 2 missed everything) and a monster 8 hits dished out.
Nicklas Backstrom with the game winning goal just 31 seconds into overtime to cap off the Hat Trick. His dish to Carlson wasn't too shabby either.

THE BAD:

The Power Play unit continues to struggle going 0 for 3 tonight.
We said in the series preview that taking more than two penalties was playing with fire and Montreal scored on their third Power Play chance. It almost cost us again.
Alexander "Slappy" Semin gets himself demoted to the third line. He hasn't been much of a factor in the first two games of this series.

THE UGLY:

Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz and his partner in crime Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green were on the ice for four of the five Montreal goals scored. Sarge ended up -1 and Green even because they were on the ice for so many of the Caps goals. They were the best defensive pair in the regular season and need to be the best defensive pair here in the playoffs.
And let the goaltender controversy begin yet again. Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore allowed two goals on two shots and Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov comes up with the win after making 19 saves on 22 shots. Neither goaltender came up with any big saves and Bruce Boudreau has a tough decision to make as to who he starts on Monday night in Montreal.

Well folks, you should know how much we despise fighting in hockey but we will admit that tonight's game turned when Tom Poti of all people had enough of Scott Gomez and got into a fight with him. The Caps were down 4-3 at the time but really got going and tied the game up while Gomez was in the box. Gomez was MIA last spring for the Rangers but he's been a problem for the Caps so far and getting him off the ice for five minutes was a huge boost to the Caps. Now the sleeping giant has been awakened and Montreal has to be very, very concerned. The Caps best players torched Jaroslav Halak tonight and there is clearly momentum in the Caps locker room right now. And even if Montreal had won this game, they still would be concerned because while the Caps go their offense going - and we should note the three goals scored from in close including Captain A.O.'s where he dug in front of Halak to poke it in - the Caps can and will play better defense. But for the next two days everybody is going to wonder who is going to take the net for the Caps in Montreal but the Canadiens cannot rule out a goaltender change of their own.

Game 2 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-17-2010 Preview

2010-04-17T08:53:00.001-04:00

Series A: Washington Capitals (54-29; 121 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Montreal Canadiens (40-43; 88 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):
Caps Playoff Game #2, Home Playoff Game #2, NHL Playoff Game #112

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WJFK 106.7-FM. Montreal TV: None. Radio: CJAD 880-AM. U.S. National TV: Versus. Canadian National TV: TSN, RDS (French). NHL Center Ice: None.

Tonight, the Caps look to even the score in their series with Montreal when they host Game 2. The Caps are 14-17 All-Time in Game 2, 9-8 on home ice, and 6-5 when trying to forge a tie in the series.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post: taking one for the team, reading too much into one game. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com: Preview, can only get better. AP Wire. CBC.com. ESPN.com.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette: more work to do, just take it easy, nothings changed, can he keep it up, feeling snubbed. Canadiens.com.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

We've said it before and we'll say it again, the Montreal Canadiens are not going to let Captain A.O. beat them. That doesn't mean Captain A.O. is going to go the entire series without a shot on goal or a single point, but that it isn't going to be as simple as him just turning it on and taking over the series. As for tonight's game, we think that Captain A.O. will figure out a way to be a bigger factor but if the Canadiens are going to devote three players to stopping him, maybe Bruce Boudreau should put Alexander "Slappy" Semin on the top line to take advantage of the open ice. No knock against Mike Knuble but Slappy just does better with the open ice. But the biggest thing we're looking for tonight from the Caps offensively is patience. For whatever reason in the second period and in overtime on Thursday night, the Caps got impatient in the offensive zone. Instead of retaining puck possession, the Caps would get across the blue line and fire a shot at the Montreal goal. Jaroslav Halak would make a routine save and Montreal was taking the puck back the other way. That allowed Montreal to hem us in our own zone for good stretches. The times that the Caps did show patience was when they would wait until getting to the top of the circles on the rush before taking a shot. If the Caps can posses the puck in the offensive zone more, they will continue to wear down this Montreal team.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 4
Canadiens 2
Winner by Semin
(0-1 in the playoffs, 47-38 for the year with two perfect games)

Game 1 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-15-2010 Wrap Up

2010-04-16T06:35:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: down 1-0, don't panic yet, another one bites the dust. Examiner. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com: recap, MIA. AP Wire. Canadian Press. CBC. ESPN.com.

The Other Side:

Montreal Gazette: up one, goalie saved them, seeing red.

Final Thoughts:

First of all, while we were happy with the quantity of shots taken by the Caps last night, the quality of shots needs to improve. 14 shots from in close is great, but more are needed and more rebounds need to be put back at Halak. Halak played well, but he didn't play great, we don't remember any big, highlight reel saves that he made last night. The Caps need to realize that and not let him get inside their heads. Not mention, that they wore out a much better goaltender last April. Secondly, we're not too concerned about Captain A.O. not getting a shot on goal. Could he have played better? Yeah, but make no mistake, the Canadiens are not going to let him beat them. He could have had a goal if he had driven to the net on Nicklas Backstrom's shot that Halak barely fought off in the second period. Montreal should be a little concerned because they may not be able to play a better game than they did last night while the Caps certainly can take things up another notch here.

Four still to go.

Game 1 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-15-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-04-15T23:59:00.000-04:00

What??? Did you think it would be easy??? Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Some will try to blame him but Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore played a good game tonight. He made 35 saves and came up with some big stops when the Caps needed them. All three goals allowed were not his fault.
The Penalty Killing unit was aggressive all night and for the most part, took the play to the Canadiens. They were credited with 8 shots on goal on their 4 advantages but the Caps did a great job of keeping them off balance.

THE BAD:

19 shots in the first period, only one goal.
After badly outshooting Montreal in the first period 19-7, the Caps were outshot the rest of the way 31-28.

THE UGLY:

That Captain A.O. didn't register a single shot on goal doesn't bother us as much his attempt to deliver a knock-out blow on Scott Gomez in the third period. Gomez simply side-stepped Captian A.O. and the defense started scrambling to recover, leading to Montreal's game tying goal. For those of you who love to yell "hit him" this is exactly why you need to pick your spots.
We thought that the game was inconsistently officiated early on but what annoys us is that during regulation time, a TV timeout cannot take place after an icing call. Yet in overtime Montreal, having already burned their timeout, was lucky enough to get a TV Timeout type timeout after icing the puck when the ice crew came onto the ice to clear ice shavings. Why that rule changes in OT is beyond us but it doesn't surprise us if it actually does. Nor would we be surprised if the refs just simply blew it. This is the NHL after all.

Coming home from work last night we heard Craig Custance of the Sporting News on WJFK. He expressed shock at Penguin Scum Head Coach Dan Bylsma saying that he didn't care about winning Game 1. Bylsma said he wanted to wear down Ottawa to win the series. Well, the Caps may not be employing the same tactics but they are certainly planting the seeds for it. Twice tonight Montreal turned the puck over in their own zone because they were afraid of an impending hit by a Caps forward. The Caps were getting the puck to the net tonight, 47 shots is proof positive of that, and they were getting players to the front of the net as well. Furthermore, the Caps defensmen were punishing the Montreal forwards. All of this will add up if the Caps keep at it and it will also pay off. The difference tonight was that the Caps Power Play was 0 for 4 while Montreal's was 1 for 4. And the one Power Play the Canadiens scored on came off of Nicklas Backstrom's selfish cross checking penalty. Backstrom had just gotten away with a brazen elbow and then followed it up with a stupid cross check. We've said it before and we'll say it again, we've got to stay out of the penalty box to win and we did not do that tonight.

Game 1 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-15-2010 Preview

2010-04-15T06:14:00.000-04:00

Series A: Washington Capitals (54-28; 121 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Montreal Canadiens (39-43; 88 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):
Caps Playoff Game #1, Home Playoff Game #1, NHL Playoff Game #111

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WJFK 106.7-FM. Montreal TV: None. Radio: CJAD 880-AM. U.S. National TV: Versus. Canadian National TV: TSN, RDS (French). NHL Center Ice: None.

Tonight the Caps start their quest for the Stanley Cup when they host the Montreal Canadiens for the first time ever in a playoff series. The Caps and Canadiens split the season series 2-2 against each other with each team picking up 5 points. The Caps are 20-11 All-time in Game 1 with a 13-5 record on home ice. Montreal comes into this game on a three game losing streak and losers of 7 of their last ten games.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post: game changing, in the crosshairs, not missing this one, looking ahead. Examiner: ready to go, get it done. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com. AP Wire: Preview, calm, cool, collected. ESPN.com.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette: total effort, clean slate, moving around, not too shabby, going down swinging, it's an even numbered year.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

Well folks, a journey begins with the first step and tonight is exactly that. If Bruce Boudreau is looking for extra motivation to get his team up for tonight, he needs to look no further than last night's scoreboard. Say what you want but at least three heavily favored teams lost last night and the biggest shock of them all was San Jose falling to the Colorado Avalanche. Many, ourselves included, thought that the Sharks would sweep that series. The Caps don't want to put any unnecessary pressure on themselves and winning tonight would prevent that and go a long way to putting to rest the ghosts from last season. A convincing win will start to break down the spirit of the Canadiens. But getting the 1-0 lead in the series tonight is all that matters.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 3
Canadiens 1
Winner by Steckel
(47-37 on the regular season with two perfect games)

Round I: Caps vs. Canadiens Series Preview

2010-04-14T21:00:00.000-04:00

Series A: Washington Capitals (54-28; 121 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Montreal Canadiens (39-43; 88 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to unchartered waters for the Washington Capitals Franchise. Never before in the history of this franchise have the Caps been so heavily favored entering the playoffs. Usually the Caps are at best considered a darkhorse contender. Never before in the history of the franchise have the Caps had expectations this high. Anything less than an appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals is going to be considered a bitter disappointment by the fans, the players, the coaches, the front office, and the press. However, never before in the history of the franchise have the Washington Capitals had a chance this good to win the Stanley Cup. The NHL likes to use the marketing line, "is this the year?" For the Caps, it has never been better and may not be this way again for a few years.

So the first question we must confront as we look at the Caps First Round Series against the Montreal Canadiens is, how will the Caps react to the increased expectations and a prime chance to finally win it all? Because let's face it, us long suffering Caps fans know that the history isn't good, there's a reason why Khornball coined the phrase "coking dogs." The last time the Caps had a chance this good was 1986 and yet Brian Murray figured out a way to lose to the New York Rangers in six games in the second round. But that year, the Caps didn't emerge as a favorite until the Rangers had knocked off the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round. The Flyer finished with the 2nd best record in the NHL and the Caps were 3rd overall just three points behind them and 29 points ahead of the Rangers. The Caps are 33 points better than the Canadiens this year, by far the largest advantage in points the Caps have had against a playoff opponent. And turning our attention to the current crop of Washington Capitals, they haven't handled high expectations well themselves. We can understand going the distance in the First Round against Philadelphia in 2008, but the Caps lack of maturity last year caused them to need all seven games to eliminate the Rangers. Aside from the alleged curse of the Presidents' Trophy, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned heading into this series.

The matchup for the Caps in the First Round this year isn't the greatest in the world. Of the four possible opponents the Caps could have faced heading into the final days of the season, we would have preferred Boston and Philadelphia before Montreal. The Bruins can't score to save their lives and the Caps would have exploited Philadelphia's goaltending. Also consider that there really isn't any kind of rivalry between the Caps and Canadiens. Yeah, Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore has his own ax to grind, but there just isn't any bad blood between these two teams. That isn't to say that this is a bad matchup for the Caps. The Caps were the best team in the league in 5-on-5 situations, Montreal, ranks 22nd, the worst of any team in the playoffs. This is good news for the Caps because in the playoffs there are supposed to be fewer penalties called. While that neuters the Caps top ranked Power Play, the first time in franchise history the Caps finished the season ranked #1 on the Power Play, it also saves the Caps Penalty Killers who have to face the runner-up Power Play unit in Montreal.

It can't be said enough though, the Caps need to stay out of the penalty box to win this series. While the Caps actually had the fewest Penalty Minutes this year 920, the previous record was 951 set in 1975-1976, the Penalty Killing was a liability all year long and the Caps all too frequently took bad penalties at bad times. Our defenders have a distinct size advantage over the Montreal forwards but in order for them to take advantage of that, they need to play 5-on-5 hockey as much as possible.

Secondly, the Caps need to manage their own expectations. The Caps are not going to start a 16 game winning streak tomorrow night, though it would be extremely cool if they did. The Caps are not going to win this series in just 1, 2, or even 3 games. The Caps need to win four games before losing four games to advance. But most of all, the Caps cannot get frustrated when things don't go their way and the going gets tough. If they stick to their system they will win this series.

Yes, Montreal struggled down the stretch, falling from the 6th seed to the 8th seed by losing seven of their last ten and last three in a row. But Montreal is in the playoffs and that does mean something because there are 14 other teams that would gladly trade places with them right now. If there is one thing Montreal has on their side it is that fear is a great motivator. Everybody knows that when the Caps are on, they're practically unbeatable and when they're on and motivated, they can easily embarrass people. Say what you want about the Canadiens, they don't want to be embarrassed, that's why they struggled against teams like Carolina and Toronto but played the Caps close all season long. They know that if they don't play well, the Caps will embarrass them. Goaltenders Jaroslav Halak or even Carey Price could find an obscene level of play and just shut the Caps high-powered offense down by themselves. And if the Caps can't stay out of the box, they will give Montreal more than enough chances to keep the series close and possibly win it.

However, we feel that we should mention that the Caps have something to prove themselves. For two years now the Caps have been criticized for not being willing to pay the price to win in the playoffs. While Montreal is not Philadelphia or the Rangers, if the Caps can make quick work of Montreal, they should answer some of those doubts. Montreal has the 5th best offense of the Eastern Conference Playoff teams and 26th overall which means that the Caps much maligned defense and goaltending don't have to be the greatest in the world to win this series or win it quickly. A quick series would also answer the lingering questions about their maturity. Going down 2-0 this year is going to get all of these questions and talk of curses at a fever pitch.

So how can the Caps just simply win this series? Well again, stay out of the penalty box. Anything more than two Power Plays allowed is asking for trouble, especially at home because the Canadiens had the best Power Play on the road this season. The fewer penalties the Caps have to kill, the better. Secondly, they need to take Montreal seriously. We know Montreal is going to take us seriously, we have to match that or we'll end up behind the 8-Ball again. Stick to the system and the Caps will prevail. Use our size to our advantage. Our defensemen aren't known for being big hitters but against a smaller crop of Montreal forwards, the Caps need to punish them in front of the net. Finally, maintain the focus on the goal of winning the Cup. This is only the first round so the Cup won't be won by beating Montreal. As a matter of fact, the odds are pretty good that many of the questions surrounding this team will remain even if the Caps pull off a sweep. However, the Caps can't let the crowds in D.C. and Montreal get to them and get caught up in the moment. We're still two months away from handing out the Stanley Cup.

So what's the bottom line, we think we're too good to lose this series. While the Caps should, they don't need to bring their A Game to win this series in quick fashion. We'd like to say Caps in five but recent history has us a little concerned so we'll play it safe and say Caps in six.

Round I Daily Report 4-14-2010

2010-04-14T05:58:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Examiner: chance at redemption, yak away.

The Neutral Observers:

ESPN.com: Series Preview, not going to miss much. AP Wire. TSN.ca: trash talk, toothless warning. CBC.com.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette: already nervous, underdogs.

Today's Spin:

It's just us, but we'd preferred that Bruce Boudreau had kept the head games regarding the starting goaltender going until warmups tomorrow night. But playing head games with the status of Nicklas Backstrom, the only player who played all 82 games this season, is fine with us. It may also serve Boudreau well to plant those seeds because Backstrom has not been able to handle top line duties in the playoffs so far in his brief career.

2010 NHL Playoffs Round I Western Conference

2010-04-13T21:56:00.001-04:00

Moving right along...

Series E: San Jose Sharks (51-31; 113 points; 1st Pacific Division, 1st Western Conference, 2nd Overall) vs. Colorado Avalanche (43-39; 95 points; 2nd Northwest Division, 8th Western Conference, 12th Overall):

This is the series of teams with low expectations. At the start of the season, nobody expected Colorado to actually be in the playoffs. Many thought they would be eliminated from playoff contention by Christmas because they were going to be so young. And now with the playoffs starting, nobody expects San Jose Sharks to have much success in the playoffs. San Jose has something to prove not only to themselves but to the rest of the league with this playoff series than many expect them to sweep. Colorado faded down the stretch but held on to the 8th seed and have more points than four of the eight Eastern Conference Playoff teams. However, the playoffs are not really a place for youthful exuberance which has gotten Colorado to this point, especially against teams with as much playoff experience as San Jose. San Jose should roll right on through Colorado. San Jose in four.

Series F: Chicago Blackhawks (52-30; 112 points; 1st Central Division, 2nd Western Conference, 3rd Overall) vs. Nashville Predators (47-35; 100 points; 3rd Central Division, 7th Western Conference, 10th Overall):

It gets repeated over and over that goaltending is key in any playoff series. And in this series Nashville has it and Chicago doesn’t. So Nashville should be favored and win this series easily despite being the 7th seed, but it often isn’t that simple. Chicago is much more potent on offense than Nashville. Predators General Manager David "Bud" Poile has never been one to build a solid offensive unit for his hockey teams. This series is not exactly like the New Jersey-Philadelphia matchup, mostly because the Chicago roster is not stocked up with goons, but very close to it. Chicago has the offensive ability to wear out the Nashville defensemen and goaltending. Blackhawks goaltender Antti Niemi just needs to not lose the series for his team. Chicago in seven.

Series G: Vancouver Canucks (49-23: 103 points; 1st Northwest Division, 3rd Western Conference, 6th Overall) vs. Los Angeles Kings (46-36; 101 points; 3rd Pacific Division, 6th Western Conference, 9th Overall):

Ok folks, we're not going to waste any time and just get it out of the way up front,Wiskey Tango Foxtrot is the deal with Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo? He won the Olympic Gold Medal for Canada and answered some questions about himself, but since then he has raised some others. Most notably, why did he excel on the international stage but continues to struggle on the NHL stage? The L.A. Kings haven’t been in the playoffs in awhile but does have some players with plenty of playoff experience on their roster. However there are too many key players for the Kings who do not have any playoff experience and experience is as key to a long playoff run as goaltending. Vancouver however is very banged up on their blueline right now and that puts the spotlight back onto Luongo. Can he hold everything down or play at least as well as he did during the Olympics? We’re not very comfortable with this but we’re going with the more experienced team here. Vancouver in seven.

Series H: Phoenix Coyotes (50-32; 107 points; 2nd Pacific Division, 4th Western Conference, 4th Overall) vs. Detroit Red Wings (44-38; 102 points; 2nd Central Division, 5th Western Conference, 7th Overall):

In another "no-duh" moment; the Phoenix Coyotes are the story of the year in the NHL, so we won't bother to rehash it here. Because of their status, many pundits think it is too bad that they get Detroit in the first round. However, this season, we clearly saw that Detroit has gotten old, and not in a good way, despite letting Chris Chelios go. A lot of hockey has been played by Detroit players over the past three years and this season with the Olympics. Some of the Red Wings have been injured for most of the season and, believe it or not, that does take its toll on a player come playoff time They aren't rested as much as they are rusted. Phoenix though hasn’t won a playoff series since moving to the desert in 1996. Both teams have good goaltenders though Jimmy Howard for Detroit is completely untested in the playoffs and Ilya Bryzgalov hasn't played in a playoff game since 2007. Phoenix also led the league in gimmick wins and thankfully, there are no gimmicks in the playoffs. Like everybody else, we think the great story for Phoenix will come to an end, but not without a fight. Detroit in seven.

2010 NHL Playoffs Round I Eastern Conference

2010-04-13T21:20:00.002-04:00

Series A: Washington Capitals (54-28; 121 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Montreal Canadiens (39-43; 88 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):

Probably tomorrow night.

Series B: New Jersey Devils (48-35; 103 points; 1st Atlantic Division, 2nd Eastern Conference, 6th Overall) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (41-41; 88 points; 3rd Atlantic Division, 7th Eastern Conference, 18th Overall):

By earning a playoff spot with a gimmick win on Sunday evening, the Flyers got for themselves a great draw in the first round when the Devils defeated the Buffaslugs. While everybody is justifiably concerned about the Flyers goaltending, they forget that the Flyers can score from time-to-time and when it come to shutting down juggernaut New Jersey offense, they only have to worry about Ilya Kovalchuk and Zack Parise. The Flyers won 5 of the 6 games in the regular season, but will likely have to wear the Devils and goaltender Martin Brodeur down to win this series. That shouldn't be too hard because Brodeur is 37 and once again played well over 70 games and almost 4,500 minutes, not including the Olympics. Since the lockout, Brodeur has faded badly in every playoff appearance and has not gotten past the first round in the last two years. Ilya Kovalchuk didn’t impress in his first playoff appearance three years ago and isn’t likely to react well to Philadelphia’s physical style of play over a two week period. In spite of the fact that he's playing for a big contract, don't expect him to greatly improve his 1 goal and 1 assist in 4 playoff games totals as the Flyers will look to intimidate him from start to finish. New Jersey however does have a real chance in this series because of the laughable state of the Flyers goaltending situation. However Flyers goaltender Brian Boucher doesn’t have to great for the Flyers to win this series, just needs not to lose the series for the Flyers. Philadelphia in seven.

Series C: Buffaslugs (45-37; 100 points; 1st Northeast Division, 3rd Eastern Conference, 11th Overall) vs. Boston3rd Northeast Division, 6th Eastern Conference, 14th Overall): Bruins (39-43; 91 points;

Well ladies and gentlemen; if you having trouble getting some sleep, this just might be the series for you to watch. Both the Buffaslugs and Boston Bruins have great defense and goaltending. They rank 4th and 2nd in the league respectively in goals against, but neither is known for scoring very much. While the Buffaslugs are 10th in goals for, the Bruins are dead last in 30th place. However, some of the Buffaslugs best forwards are nursing injuries right now and well, Boston's offense was bad before Matt Cooke blindsided Marc Savard. So if you want to try to sit through this series, we wish you the best of luck as there should be plenty of games going to overtime and plenty of overtime periods in those games. This series might become the leading argument for bringing the gimmick into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, for Boston, this is a much better fate than having to face Washington in the first round. The Buffaslugs though would be have been better off getting to the second with Montreal or Philadelphia. But instead, both teams have a fairly even series to play against each other in the first round. This series is a toss-up but because we have to pick a winner we’re going with the Buffaslugs in seven.

Series D: Pittsburgh Penguin Scum (47-35; 101 points; 2nd Atlantic Division, 4th Eastern Conference, 8th Overall) vs. Ottawa Senators (44-38, 94 points; 2nd Northeast Division, 5th Eastern Conference, 13th Overall):

Two familiar playoff foes who are playing for third time in four years get rubber match going tomorrow night. The general consensus among those with two brain cells or not complete and total homers is that the Penguin Scum are not nearly as good as they were last year. And last year they needed a ton of help in order to be awarded the Stanley Cup. So the first question begs, how much will they end up getting this year? The Penguin Scum will certainly need the help because the best player on the team, Evgeni Malkin-Lindros, has been MIA for most of the season, even when he wasn't injured. Ottawa though is banged up right now, Alexi Kovalev and Flip Kuba are out for the rest of the season, however the Senators are dangerous and very, very streaky. The big question of this series is how well does goaltender Brian Elliott play for Ottawa; If Elliott is on, the Penguin Scum are going to need to find Malkin-Lindros or just have the league break out the hose yet again to get past the Senators. But despite of all of that, we're having trouble coming up with a pick for this series because we can't decide what is stronger, our hatred for Pittsburgh or our hatred for Senator's General Manager Brian Murray? We're very wary of teams who think they only need to "turn it on" get going at this point in the season so we'll go with Ottawa in seven.

Round I Daily Report 4-13-2010

2010-04-13T05:46:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: how to get upset, who is he talking about? Examiner.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com. AP Wire. Canadian Press.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette.

Today's Spin:

Why do all the lower seeded teams blythely state "the pressure is on the other team"? We know it is true in a sense, especially when the Caps are such heavy favorites, but how can you sit there and think that a big underdog isn't concerned at all about getting embarrassed in this situation? And will the Montreal fans be very understanding if the Canadiens get waxed in four straight games? We don't think so.

Caps vs. Bruins 4-11-2010 Wrap Up/ Round I Daily Report 4-12-2010

2010-04-12T06:15:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: gimmick loss, final totals. Examiner. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Boston Globe-Democrat: capped off, memory made. Boston Herald: getting it done, tough guy, ready for Round I.

Final Regular Season Thoughts:

82 down, Round I to go!

The Neutral Playoff Observers:

NHL.com. CBC: another second rounder, big challenge. ESPN.com. TSN.ca.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette.

Today's Spin:

We're debating on whether or not to stink with the simple frog jokes or brush up on our non-existent French skills to insult these guys...

Round I Schedule

2010-04-11T22:42:00.007-04:00

Series A:

Game 1: @ Washington, Thursday April 15th, 2010, 7 pm, Comcast SportsNet, TSN, RDS, Versus

Game 2: @ Washington, Saturday April 17th, 7 pm, Comcast SportsNet, TSN, RDS, Versus.

Game 3: @ Montreal, Monday April, 19th, 7 pm, Comcast SportsNet, TSN, RDS.

Game 4: @ Montreal, Wednesday April 21st, 7 pm, Comcast SportsNet, TSN, RDS.

Game 5: @ Washington, Friday, April 23rd, 7 pm, Comcast SportsNet, TSN, Versus, RDS.

Game 6: @ Montreal, Monday, April 26th, 7 pm, Comcast SportsNet, TSN, Versus, RDS.

Game 7: @ Washington, Wednesday, April 28th, TBD, Comcast SportsNet, TSN, RDS.

No broadcast information is available yet, but because Game 2 on Saturday is a 7 pm start we're betting that is CBC. L.A.-Vancouver Game 2 would be the second half of the double-header.

UPDATE: National Broadcast Information is out and has been added, no CBC coverage as we had thought.

UPDATE AGAIN: TEB has the local coverage and it has been added. Will Joe Beninatti call the Caps games that Versus seems to have exclusive rights to?

Here Come The Canadiens

2010-04-11T21:42:00.000-04:00

For the first time ever, the Washington Capitals will face the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And while there isn't any playoff history to fall back on, it took the Washington Capitals 35 tries, which came on February 19th, 1980, to finally beat Montreal for the first time in the franchise's history. It wasn't until November 26th, 1983 before the Caps would claim a victory in Montreal.

This year, the season series was split right down the middle with both teams winning 2 games, once at home and once on the road, along with both teams earning 5 points. The first matchup came on November 20th at the Phone Booth and the Canadiens got away with a 3-2 win in regulation. Eight days later in Montreal and on Hockey Night in Canada, the Caps escaped with a 4-3 gimmick win. On January 5th, the first night of the Captain A.O. era was kicked off with a 4-2 win in the Phone Booth. However you might remember that the Canadiens finally put an end to the historic 14 game winning streak by pulling out a 6-5 win in overtime on February 10th in Montreal.

Elsewhere in the East, New Jersey faces Philadelphia in the 2-7 matchup. The Buffaslugs will get Boston in the 3-6 series. The Penguin Scum have earned the Senators in the 4-5 pairing. Out West, the San Jose Sharks get the Colorado Avalanche in the 1-8, 2-7 has the Chicago Blackhawks facing the Nashville Predators. Vancouver is the third seed facing the Los Angeles Kings as the sixth seed and the Detroit Red Wings have the five seed and head to Phoenix who has the fourth seed in the Western Conference.

They're still hashing out the schedules but Puck The Media Reports that CBC is gauging interest in a Montreal series. If that is the case, bank on the Caps and Canadiens starting Thursday night and Game 2 taking place on Saturday night for the traditional Hockey Night in Canada broadcast. There are no scheduling issues in the Phone Booth for this round but Bell Centre has a potential conflict for Game 6 on Sunday the 25th should the series go on an every-other-day schedule. There is also the unattractive possibility of playing a back-to-back set at some point to rectify that and provide CBC with a Saturday night game.

Stayed tuned folks, once we have a reliable source hand out the schedule we'll post it here. We'll also start posting Montreal and other media reports tomorrow morning and every morning throughout our run through the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Because remember folks, it's not just hockey,
IT'S PLAYOFF HOCKEY!!!

Caps vs. Bruins 4-11-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-04-11T21:13:00.000-04:00

Sorry folks, we had some family business to attend to... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Alexander "Slappy" Semin notched his 40th goal of the year.
The regular season is finally over and no hint of major injuries heading into the Post-Season.

THE BAD:

In his last start before the Post-Season, Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov did not have a strong outing. Considering the first round opponent, this could be a huge problem.
Jason Chimera got hit with a bogus goaltender interference penalty early in the game (he was pushed into Tim Thomas) and then skated around with the wrong kind of chip on his shoulder and a big fat target on his back for the rest of the game. He's got to keep his composure from here on out if he wants to be effective.

THE UGLY:

The game was decided by a gimmick.
Bruce Boudreau showed no interest in trying to win the gimmick.

Ok folks, not much to say other than the season is now thankfully over. We'll be back shortly to start the playoff insults.

Caps vs. Bruins 4-11-2010 Preview

2010-04-11T05:39:00.000-04:00

Washington Capitals (54-27; 120 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Boston Bruins (38-43; 89 points; 3rd Northeast Division, 6th Eastern Conference, 16th Overall):
Caps Game #82, Home Game #41, NHL Game #1,224

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: Clinched 3/28
President's Trophy: Clinched 4/4

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 12:15 pm. Washington TV: None. Radio: WJFK 106.7-FM. Boston TV: None. Radio: WWBZ 99.5-FM. U.S. National TV: NBC. Canadian National TV: TSN2. NHL Center Ice: None.

Today the Caps finish off the regular season on home ice against the team that they started it with, the Boston Bruins. The Bruins are back in town after Monday night's 3-2 loss in overtime. The Bruins defeated the Buffaslugs on Thursday night 3-1 and the Carolina Hurricanes yesterday 4-2 on home ice to wrap up a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post: eyes elsewhere, not slowing down. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Boston Globe-Democrat: playoff bound, unknown future, not likely to be there. Boston Herald: goal met, quick flash, big save, better position.

What Do We Expect Today?:

Well folks, we're wondering if the the guys over at NBC who chose this game aren't kicking themselves rather hard right now. They could have selected a game that actually meant something for today's broadcast, the Flyers-Rangers game in Philadelphia but instead they were left with this game, a meaningless affair with nothing but personal stats at stake. The Caps and Bruins are locked into their seeds and will learn who their first round opponent will be later today regardless of the outcome of the game they're playing in. The Caps will watch the Flyers-Rangers game because if Philadelphia wins, the Caps will play Montreal. Should the Rangers win, the Caps get another first round matchup with the Rangers. Boston will watch the Buffaslugs play the New Jersey Devils because should the Buffaslugs win in regulation, the Bruins will face the Devils. If the Devils win or simply get to overtime, then the Buffaslugs will play the Bruins in the first round. But as for the game on NBC, the only drama is will Captain A.O. play and get the three points he needs to tie Henrik Sedin to win the Art Ross Trophy? Captain A.O. is also now tied with Steven Stamkos of the Ning at 50 for the Rocket Richard and Stamkos will be playing the Florida Panthers later. There is of course Canadian Diving Team Captain, Lowblow Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby who could also sneak into the Richard race because she and her team play on Long Island tonight as well. The Islanders were blown out 7-1 by the Devils last night. So expect today to be the Captain A.O. Show a little more than usual as the Caps try to get him points and goals he needs for those trophies. As for how much the Bruins will care to stop him, we don't know. But we do know that the Bruins have nothing to play for, they've already wrapped up their playoff spot and have no chance of facing the Caps in the first round which must seem like a major victory for them already.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 5
Bruins 1
Winner by Captain A.O.
(45-36 on the season with TWO perfect games now)

Caps vs. Thrashers 3-9-2010 Wrap Up

2010-04-10T13:18:00.000-04:00

Caps vs. Thrashers 3-9-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-04-09T23:00:00.000-04:00

What perfect night... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

The unappreciated (at least on this night) Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore with 29 saves tonight to pick up his 30th win on the season. One of the two goals he gave up tonight was totally out of his hands. He might have had a save on the other but we aren't complaining. He more than held up his end of the bargain tonight and was denied one of the stars of the game.
Captain A.O. with his 49th, and 50th goals of the season. 7th Game Winning Goal this season. And don't forget the 59th assist on the season giving him 109 points in total. He's one point clear of Henrik Sedin, who has one game left to play tomorrow at home against Calgary, for the Art Ross and one goal ahead of Canadian Diving Team Captain, Lowblow Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby for the Rocket Richard.
Nicklas Backstrom with two goals and an assist, on Captain A.O.'s 50th goal, for 101 points on the season. The first time he's topped 100 points. Break out the wallet because this going to cost us.
Alexander "Slappy" Semin didn't get his 40th goal tonight but it wasn't for a lack of trying. Slappy fired 14 shots tonight, 3 of which were blocked and 11 that made it on goal. One difference we noted that once the force-feeding of Captain A.O. ended (we counted 3 times), the force-feeding of Slappy began but Slappy was picking his spots and not shooting the puck just to shoot. He did however end up with three assists getting him to 83 points on the season so it wasn't a totally futile night for Slappy.
Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz followed up his +5 against the Penguin Scum on Tuesday night with a +4 tonight, tied with Backstrom and Slappy for the team lead, and once again was not on the ice for any goal against. He actually extended his league lead in +/- over Captain A.O. too boot; +48 to +46.
The Penalty Killing was 2 for 2 tonight. Baby steps with this unit.

THE BAD:

The Power Play went 0 for 4 and botched a 44 second 5-on-3 trying to force-feed guys for their milestone goals.

THE UGLY:

Captain A.O. was picked off clean at the blueline on the Power Play trying to do too much and gave a shorthanded breakaway to Clarke MacArthur who converted.

Well until Captain A.O. started scoring in the second period, tying the game at two, it was every bit the snooze fest we thought tonight would be. When Captain A.O. scored again in the third period, everybody in the arena came to life, except for the Thrashers who didn't start showing signs of life until the game was out of hand and they showed some anger over having the score run up on them. Though we do tip our caps tonight to Ondrej Pavelec who kept Atlanta in the game for as long as he could. He was under siege tonight as the Caps 3rd and 4th lines regularly went to the net as they will need to next week. Without a strong effort from Pavelec, this game could have been worse.

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

Caps vs. Thrashers 4-9-2010 Preview

2010-04-09T06:05:00.001-04:00

Washington Capitals (53-27; 118 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Atlanta Thrashers (34-46; 81 points; 2nd Southeast Division, 10th Eastern Conference, 27th Overall):
Caps Game #81, Home Game #40, NHL Game #1,208

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: Clinched 3/28
President's Trophy: Clinched 4/4

Verizon Center, Washington D.C. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WTEM 980-AM. Atlanta TV: SportSouth. Radio: WCNN 680-AM. U.S. National TV: Versus (Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic feed). Canadian National TV: NHL Network. NHL Center Ice: None.

Tonight, the Caps look to pad some stats and continue the resting rotation as they host the Atlanta Thrashers for the sixth and final meeting this season. The Caps have won all five of the previous games including a 2-1 win just 8 days ago at the Phone Booth. The Thrashers are playing their final road contest of the season and were officially eliminated from the playoffs on Tuesday night when they lost on home ice to the New Jersey Devils 3-0 in their last outing. That loss was Atlanta's third in a row.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post: options available, scoreboard watching. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: speaking up, shutting it down, preview.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

Well folks, there's no sense tap-dancing around the issue, with the Caps being locked into first place overall and the Thrashers out of the playoff picture, tonight becomes a complete and total exhibition game. There are various personal stats on the line tonight, most notably Captain A.O. is trying to win some more trophies for his trophy case. The team itself has a chance to sweep the Thrashers in a season series for the first time in franchise history. And there is also maybe a chance to appease the Ultimate Fighting on Ice crowd and extract a pound of flesh from Colby Armstrong who returns from his two game suspension tonight for his elbow on "Mighty Mouse" Matthieu Perreault last week. But that's about it from where we sit. We don't think either team is going to play particularly hard as Atlanta has shuttered players with nagging injuries and Bruce Boudreau continues to tinker with a lineup that will start the playoffs next week. Expect to be bored by this game tonight and constantly checking on the Flyers-Rangers game.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 5
Thrashers 2
Winner by Captain A.O.
(44-36 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps @ Penguin Scum 4-6-2010 Wrap Up

2010-04-07T05:45:00.000-04:00

Caps @ Penguin Scum 4-6-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-04-06T22:59:00.000-04:00

Still won the third period, even though we didn't need too... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

For the first time in Franchise history, the Washington Capitals break out the brooms on the Penguin Scum in regular season series. Yeah, yeah we know it doesn't mean anything that playoffs and Cups and Terrible Towels are the only things that count. But you have to take a nod to history here.
In the battle of #1 Centers, Nicklas Backstrom with a "quiet" 3 assists tonight. All of them primary. And he won 62% of his faceoffs. You can't say the same for his counterpart.
And let the kvetching begin, Captain A.O. with two goals tonight to reclaim the pole position in the Richard and Ross Races. The second goal was an empty netter with .2 seconds left in the game that he and the Caps were working hard to get. Remember, the first tie breaker for both trophies is fewest games played and Captain A.O. has that one well in the bag on all his competitors.
Too bad we can't pick up AM signals in our Command Center here because we would love to hear the Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz bashers equivocate his +5 tonight on the Post-Game Show. That's right, +5. Sarge was not on the ice for a single goal against tonight and the only Caps goal scored with him on the bench, a Power Play marker which wouldn't have yielded him a + anyway. Sarge is now leading the league in +/- with a +44, one better than Captain A.O. who was only a +1. Serious question here, why isn't Sarge getting consideration for the Norris trophy?

THE BAD:

Tom Poti however was on the ice for two of the three goals against tonight. So what else is new? He however escaped with a +2 because he was Sarge's partner again tonight.
Eric Fehr with two penalties tonight and wasn't able to convert a couple of prime chances that he got.

THE UGLY:

Shaone Morrrissonnn had a difficult night tonight to say the least. He was a team worst -2, the only Caps to post a minus rating tonight, but it was very well earned. He lost his stick and instead of letting an unscreened and square to the shooter Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov make a routine save on Jordan Leopold in the second period; he tries to block the shot and ends up deflecting it into his own net That alone is good enough to earn tonight's John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles Bonehead Play of the Game Award. Not to be outdone though, Morrrissonnn also played a large role in the third period Leopold goal by trying to lie on the ice to block the shot, at a perfect distance to hide the puck coming off of Leopold's stick from The Saviour allowing Leopold to blow it by The Saviour who had a solid game.
Four Power Plays for the Penguin Scum to just one stinkin Power Play for the Caps. And because it took Captain A.O. all of four seconds to score, the Power Play time was a gaudy 6:42 seconds in favor of the Penguin Scum. Don't ya love it when the refs don't even try to hide it? The second Leopold goal was started when Backstrom got tripped at the Caps bench with no call and Tomas Fleischmann took a stick to the face later in the third period after the Caps had scored on their lone Power Play which wasn't called either.
Oh, and we were serious last night about never wanting to see the Erskine Bowles - Tyler Sloan pairing on the blueline again unless it is in a Caps Alumni Game.

Here's the part about tonight that cracks us up, the scratches for the Caps were, Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green, John Carlson, Scott Walker Texas Ranger, Eric Belanger, Boyd Gordon, Brendan Morrrissonn, and Milan Juricna. That means, yes the Erskine Bowles - Sloan pairing was out on the ice, as was The Human Bruise Quintin Laing and Jay Beagle Yet not only could the Penguin Scum, missing just Evgeni Malkin-Lindros (who has been missing all year to be honest) and Chris Kunitz, not only couldn't win the game tonight; they couldn't even get the lead or tie the game back up after the Caps took the lead exactly 13 minutes into the game. Forget getting swept by the Caps and having just 3 wins in 17 games against the teams ahead of them in the overall league standings; that alone has to weigh heavily on the Penguin Scum's minds. The Caps are just playing out the string waiting for the playoffs to start but the Penguin Scum still actually have something worth fighting for. Maybe the Penguin Scum are tanking again, trying to set up another second round date with the Caps and don't want to win their division. But if they aren't careful, the Penguin Scum won't make it out of the first round if they keep this up. Another two points, another record set for wins in a season, road wins in a season, and points in the standings. Things just keep humming along and we're not even trying that hard.

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

Caps vs. Bruins 4-5-2010 Wrap Up/ Caps @ Pengiun Scum 4-6-2010 Preview

2010-04-06T06:03:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Boston Globe-Democrat: big mistake, thrown into the fire. Boston Herald: point made, under the weather.

Final Thoughts:

79 down, 3 to go.

Washington Capitals (52-27; 116 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) @ Pittsburgh Penguin Scum (46-33; 97 points; 2nd Atlantic Division, 4th Eastern Conference, 8th Overall):
Caps Game #80, Road Game #41, NHL Game #1,186

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: Clinched 3/28
President's Trophy: Clinched 4/4

Mellon, Arena, Pittsburgh, PA. 7:40 pm. Washington TV: None. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Pittsburgh TV: None. Radio: WXDX 105.9-FM. U.S. National TV: Versus. Canadian National TV: TSN2 NHL Center Ice: None.

Tonight, the Caps hit the road for the final time in the regular season when they head up to Pittsburgh to face the Penguin Scum for the fourth and final time this season. The Caps have won all three games against the Penguin Scum this season with the last two coming beyond regulation. The Penguin Scum have slipped into a cripple fight with the New Jersey Devils over the Atlantic Division Title, a Title that now may only gain the eventual winner a single seed in the playoffs. The Penguin Scum have won three of their four games since falling to the Caps in a gimmick 13 days ago with their last win coming in overtime against the Thrashers at home on Saturday 4-3.

What The Natives Are Saying:

Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: inward focus, personal goals, what's wrong with him? Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: priority #1, coming back, Scouting Report. Penguin Scum.com.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

If Bruce Boudreau continues to rest star players as the regular season winds down, the first question will be who gets the night off tonight before we can even try to predict what the effect will be. For instance, Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green's night off produced some unsavory pairings on the blueline. If the forward combination are tinkered with tonight, it could have a similar effect. The difference tonight however is that the Penguin Scum are more than capable of taking advantage of the self-inflicted chaos in the Caps lineup. We hope that there's a greater level of intensity tonight simply because of the rivalry that doesn't exist. But if Nicklas Backstrom and/or Alexander "Slappy" Semin are given the night off, then don't expect much as Boudreau once again signals to his team that tonight's game doesn't really matter. Nevermind that the Caps have a chance to sweep yet another potential playoff opponent, one that many think the Caps must go through in order to claim any legitimacy to a Stanley Cup win.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 5
Penguin Scum 3
Winner by Walker
(43-36 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps vs. Bruins 4-5-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-04-05T23:11:00.000-04:00

Why wasn't there a review at the end there??? Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Nicklas Backstrom was flat out robbed in the three stars selection tonight, one goal, two assists, for three points on the night but it wasn't good enough to be selected at all.
Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore with another solid performance in making 28 saves.
Captain A.O. with two assists tonight giving him 104 points on the season and 524 in his career. With 3 games left in the season, he's just 23 points behind Mike Ridley for 6th on the Caps All-Time Points list. However we happen to think that it was his hit on Zdeno Chara in Vancouver is what setup Backstrom's goal. Chara came all the way across the ice to lay a hit on Captain A.O. in retaliation which is what got Backstrom open for Captain A.O.'s pass.
The Power Play was 1 for 2 tonight and picked up the Game Winning Goal in overtime.
Oh, and we feel we should mention again, two of the three goals were scored from in front of the net. Nice to see the Caps getting into playoff mode.

THE BAD:

The fourth line was left on the ice late in the first period and they gave up a goal with under two seconds left off a faceoff. Yeah, we know we have another game tomorrow night but we can't let those mismatches take place on home ice.
Look, we understand and readily admit that Bruce Boudreau is better hockey coach than we will ever be. Furthermore, we know that the Caps expect to be playing for another two months or so but how can you get the team into playoff mode if Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green is given the night off simply to rest? Will Alexander "Slappy" Semin and Backstrom be given a rest tomorrow night?

THE UGLY:

The sitting of Green created a pairing of John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles and Tyler Sloan. We sincerely hope that the next time we see that pairing is in a Caps Alumni Game because they were just about as frightening as you would expect that pairing to be.

So by giving Boston the Bettman point tonight, the Caps have now given themselves Philadelphia as the likely first round opponent. Now that could of course change by Sunday night but right now if we had a choice, we'd just rather play the Bruins. Because for a team fighting for their playoff lives, we didn't see much urgency from the Bruins.

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

Caps vs. Bruins 4-5-2010 Preview

2010-04-05T09:02:00.001-04:00

Washington Capitals (51-27; 114 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Boston Bruins (36-42; 84 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 18th Overall):
Caps Game #79, Home Game #39, NHL Game #1,179

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: Clinched 3/28
President's Trophy: Clinched 4/4 (San Jose eliminated)

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 7:10 pm. Washington TV: None. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Boston TV: None. Radio: WWBZ 99.5-FM. U.S. National TV: Versus. Canadian National TV: TSN, RDS (French) NHL Center Ice: None.

Tonight, the newly minted Presidents' Trophy Champion Washington Capitals begin the final week of the season against the team that they started the season with, the Boston Bruins. This is the third meeting between the teams this season and the first time the Bruins have come to D.C. to face the Caps. The Caps won both games up in Beantown earlier this season. The Bruins are part of the dogfight for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference which will be the Caps opponent in first round of the playoffs. Like the Caps, Boston is having trouble building some momentum heading into the playoffs. They've alternated wins and losses over their last seven games. In their last outing on Saturday night, they managed a 2-1 win in overtime against the Thug Leafs in Toronto.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Boston Globe-Democrat. Boston Herald: more injuries, tough nut to crack, Scouting Report.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

One of our friends is married to a woman from the New England area and she tells us that the folks in Boston are salivating at a chance to take on the Caps in the first round. Well tonight we can get a preview of what they will look like should it actually happen. And to those Bruin fans looking forward to knocking off the Presidents' Trophy winners, we say, be careful what you wish for. Tonight's game should be a contrast in styles. As everybody knows, nobody even comes close to matching the scoring that the Caps do while nobody scores less than the Bruins. The CW says that the Caps don't play defense and their goaltending is highly suspect but while the Bruins have the second best Goals-Against in the league, (behind the Devils), the Caps are only 17th and actually have a better GAA that two other playoff qualifiers (but one of those doesn't have any problems at all in the world to worry about because they have a Cup). So this should be like most of Boston's recent games, low scoring, defensive minded, grind-tit-out hockey. The Caps have shown at a few different times this season that they can win that way and should use this week to remind everybody of that now that there's nothing left to clinch or team records to break. Finally, like last Thursday night, the Caps are going to want to send a message to the Bruins that should they end up in the 8th seed, it will not be an easy series for them to play.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 3
Bruins 0
Winner by Backstrom
(42-36 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps @ Blue Jackets 4-3-2010 Wrap Up

2010-04-04T09:25:00.000-04:00

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: Clinched 3/28
President's Trophy: 1 San Jose (Chicago eliminated, 28th of 29)

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Columbus Dispatch: not enough time, couldn't shake it, war room issues, catching up.

Final Thoughts:

About R.J. Umberger's comments, A. we find it rather interesting that he's able to make that pronouncement after just two games against the Caps. We don't have to beat the entire Western Conference, just one team four times in seven games. Furthermore we don't have to overmatch them in order to do it. B. Bruce Boudreau is aware of the problems with his forwards. After, it is the same issue that has cropped up all year long but the Caps have shown that they can bear down when needed after all, C. That didn't work out too well for the Blue Jackets did it? After Columbus got with in one, the Caps only allowed two more shots on goal. D. Spoken like a loser who will be setting up his tee-time at this point next week.

As for the Caps, the Sharks are now forced into perfection, they must win every single game for the remainder of the season while the Caps must lost every remaining game in regulation. The first test for the Sharks comes tonight in Colorado.

78 down 4 to go.

Caps @ Blue Jackets 4-3-2010 Preview

2010-04-03T10:16:00.000-04:00

Washington Capitals (50-27; 112 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) @ Columbus Blue Jackets (32-46; 77 points; 4th Central Division, 14th Western Conference, 24th Overall):
Caps Game #78, Road Game #40, NHL Game #1,171

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: Clinched 3/28
President's Trophy: 3 San Jose (27 of 29 eliminated)

Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Columbus TV: Fox Sportsnet Ohio. Radio: WBNS 1460-AM, WWCD 101.1-FM. NHL Center Ice: Fox Sportsnet Ohio and Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Feeds.

Tonight the Caps hit the road for the second to last time this season starting a three games in four nights in three different cities when they travel out West to Ohio to face the Columbus Blue Jackets. This is the second meeting between the teams this season and the Caps might have a little revenge on their minds as the Blue Jackets dealt the Caps a 5-4 defeat in overtime at the Phone Booth back on All Saint's Day. In addition to the defeat, the Blue Jackets targeted Captain A.O., injuring him during the game and causing him to miss the next three contests. The Blue Jackets however have since fired their head coach, traded off a number of players, including Jason Chimera who was dealt to the Caps along with Milan Juricina whom the Caps sent to Columbus and then Columbus returned, and are now officially eliminated from all Post-Season considerations. The Blue Jackets however have figured some things out since the deadline and are playing better hockey, relishing their roles as spoilers. Columbus has won five of their last ten games including 2 of their last three. In their last outing however they lost in Detroit 3-2 to the Red Wings.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post: homecoming, trying to start a goaltender controversy. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Columbus Dispatch: unhappy homecoming, more injuries, Game Preview, Southeast Beast.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

Well folks, if you're expecting some kind of bloodshed because of the incident back in November, Jared Boll of the Blue Jackets is among the six players they have out for the rest of the season. This also includes former Caps Captain Chris Clark. Furthermore, goaltender Steve Mason, who has already driven the Caps nuts, could miss tonight's game with an injury he suffered in the Blue Jackets last game. But there's no point in going into these details. Yes the Caps can put themselves onto the brink of winning the President's Trophy and setting up a situation where they can win on Monday night at home against the Bruins, but today is Holy Saturday which means tomorrow is Easter. Us long time Caps fans know that Easter weekend is anything but kind to the Caps. From that last link we learned that Columbus is a combined 14-3 against the Southeast Division over the past three seasons, including and 3-1 mark against the Caps. Add in Easter weekend and all the questions about focus and play heading into the playoffs will start flooding back.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 1
Blue Jackets 3
Winner by Nash
(42-35 on the season with one perfect game)

Editorial Note For The Dozens of Readers of This Blog:

As mentioned plenty of times above, today is Holy Saturday, and while it may seem like we've given up all hope already, we would still watch tonight's game if we we're attending the Easter Vigil Mass tonight. Therefore, there will be no Post-Mortem after tonight's game.

Caps vs. Thrashers 4-1-2010 Wrap Up

2010-04-02T05:37:00.000-04:00

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: Clinched 3/28
President's Trophy: 3 San Jose (27 of 29 eliminated)

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: blown chance, notes.

Final Thoughts:

When we got into the car after Mass last night, Steve Kolbe was excitedly telling us that if the Caps held on and won, they would be one point away from clinching the President's Trophy which we knew was completely wrong. The Sharks can currently finish with 114 points on the season, two more than we have after last night's win. However, because of all the Bettman points we've been racking up, the Sharks have the first tie-breaker over us, which is wins, thus necessitating the need for an extra point putting the magic number for the President's trophy at three. San Jose is in Minnesota tonight and any loss there by the Sharks would put the Caps in position to win the President's Trophy on Saturday night in Columbus.

77 down, 5 to go.

Caps vs. Thrashers 4-1-2010 Preview

2010-04-01T08:34:00.000-04:00

Washington Capitals (49-27; 110 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Atlanta Thrashers (34-43; 80 points; 2nd Southeast Division, 9th Eastern Conference, 22nd Overall):
Caps Game #77, Home Game #38, NHL Game #1,152

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: Clinched 3/28
President's Trophy: 5 San Jose (Phoenix eliminated, 27th of 29)

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C., 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Atlanta TV: SportSouth. Radio: WCNN 680-AM. U.S. National TV: Versus (Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic feed outside of the D.C. Area) NHL Center Ice: None.

Tonight, the Caps looks to end a three game losing streak when they finish off their quick three game homestand by hosting the Atlanta Thrashers. This is Atlanta's second vist to D.C., though their first almost ended up keeping them here until today, and the fifth of six meetings this season. The Caps have won every single meeting so far this season by a combined score of 22-10. The Thrashers are trying to make a run at the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference so that they can face the Caps even more this season. They currently sit two points back of the Boston Bruins and are even in games played. However the Bruins have the tiebreaker over the Thrashers and Atlanta faces the Caps once more after tonight, the Devils, and the Penguin Scum twice to close out their season. The Thrashers have won six of their last nine games and are coming off a 3-2 win in Toronto on Tuesday night.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

Well folks, we know we're beating a well-beaten dead horse here but if Bruce Boudreau scratches Brooks "and Dunn" Laich again tonight, you will know how the Caps will come out and play tonight's game. However, if Laich is inserted back into the lineup, expect the Caps to actually show up in the first period. Either way Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov, who is expected to start in goal tonight, will be under siege to start tonight's game. Atlanta is in total and complete desperation mode right now trying to make it into the playoffs. The Thrashers know that they have their work cut out for them with their remaining schedule and will be pulling out all the stops to get any points that they can muster. The Caps would be well advised to take advantage of their chances and play sound defense against the Thrashers. Complicating matters for the Caps tonight is the Atlanta Penalty Kill which has killed off every Power Play in the last eight games so the Caps will need to use their dominance 5-on-5 to win this game tonight. Finally, if the Caps were looking for extra motivation, since tonight's game is a potential first round preview the Caps don't want to give Atlanta any thoughts that they could possibly compete with them in the first round should they sneak into the playoffs.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 4
Thrashers 3
Winner by Captain A.O.
(41-35 on the season with one perfect game)

Editorial Note For The Dozens of Readers of This Blog:

We're having some trouble with our pooter at the Command Center which we think is related to Comcast's servers which is why this preview is so late this morning. However, even though we hope the problem will be fixed this evening, today is Holy Thursday which means there are much more important things than a hockey game where the Caps can put the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks onto the brink of elimination from the President's Trophy race. Therefore folks, despite the pooter problems at the Command Center, there wasn't going to be a Post-Mortem tonight anyway.

Caps vs. Senators 3-30-2010 Wrap Up

2010-03-31T05:40:00.000-04:00

Caps vs. Senators 3-30-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-03-30T23:16:00.000-04:00

Now we're starting to worry... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Alexander "Slappy" Semin with two goals tonight skating on the top line.
"Mighty Mouse" Mathieu Perreault with a go-ahead goal early in the third period. The penalty he was called for later that the Senators tied the game on just reeked of being a makeup call.

THE BAD:

The special teams were certainly "special" once again. The Power Play was 1 for 5, scoring on their first shot on their first Power Play and then taking the rest of the night off. After Slappy scored the first goal, the Power Play unit didn't register a shot on goal over the next two man advantages.
Captain A.O. led a 2-on-1 late in the third period and instead of ripping the shot on goal against a shaky Brian Elliot, he passed it to Mike Knuble who had to do well just to get the puck towards the goal but ended up missing the net. Captain A.O. seems to be overthinking out on the ice right now and needs to let the game come to him.
And despite Slappy scoring two goals, putting him up on the first line was a big fat mistake. Knuble needs to stay with Captain A.O. and Nicklas Backstrom in the playoffs because with Slappy on the first line, there isn't anybody going to the net and Slappy and Captain A.O. get in each other's way more often than not.

THE UGLY:

As bad as the Power Play was, the Penalty Killers were even worse posting an ugly 1 for 4 tonight. That folks is why the Caps were a collective +5 on a night where they lost and people think we have a defending and goaltending problem.
And speaking of players overthinking, we could actually see Tom Poti thinking tonight. He had two ugly turnovers because he held onto the puck for way too long. He was a +1 and the only goal against he was on the ice for was the game winner, but we are not happy at all with his play tonight. He seemed to improve once reunited with Joe Scorvo.
Falling behind 1-0 on the first shot of the game and trailing after 1 period 3-1. The sooner this starting slow ends the better.

Ok folks, we are starting to get a little concerned but we still happen to think that Bruce Boudreau holding Brooks "and Dunn" Laich out for the fourth consecutive game sends a mixed message to his team when he's trying to get them fired up for the playoffs. The players know if these past four games meant anything, Laich would have been playing in at least three of them and can tell that despite the words of the Head Coach, there's no real urgency right now. Maybe Bruce is trying to wear down the player's cockiness and get their attention through some losses down the stretch here so that they'll play better come playoff time. Or maybe there is something else going on here, we don't know, we're not in charge. However, either way, we're glad that the Caps are getting this out of their system right now rather than trying to play through this in the first round again. We're also glad that the Easter season will be over before the playoffs begin too.

Caps vs. Senators 3-30-2010 Preview

2010-03-30T05:51:00.000-04:00

Washington Capitals (49-26; 109 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Ottawa Senators (41-35; 87 points; 2nd Northeast Division, 4th Eastern Conference, 13th Overall):
Caps Game #76, Home Game #37, NHL Game #1,136

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: Clinched 3/28
President's Trophy: 7 Chicago and San Jose (26 of 29 eliminated)

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C., 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Ottawa TV: Rogers Sportsnet East. Radio: CFGO 1200-AM. Canadian National TV: RDS (French) NHL Center Ice: Comcast SportNet Mid-Atlantic and Rogers Sportsnet East feeds.

Tonight, the Caps, who will not be able to clinch anything at all, look to get back on track when they host the Ottawa Senators for the fourth and final meeting between the teams this season. The Caps have had some trouble with Ottawa this season, winning only once in three tries, but the home team has won all the games so far this season. Ottawa is once again on one of their patented streaks this season. After losing 5 in row, the Senators are currently on a 4 game winning streak after beating the Florida Panthers 3-2 at home on Saturday night in their last game.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Ottawa Senators: new kid, look forward to the chance, heating up, twins. Ottawa Sun.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

After a bad loss on Sunday the Caps should come out tonight ready to play and wanting to prove what a fluke the last two games have been. However of the walking wounded, only Shaone Morrrissonnn is slated to be back in the lineup tonight. That alone should help the Caps but we still don't believe that Brooks "and Dunn" Laich and Brendan Morrrissonn would still be sitting out as well if this was a playoff or some other game that the Caps had to win. So is the key to ending the Caps current two-game skid simply a better first period? Against a team on a four game winning streak, it certainly is. But for some reason with this franchise, the Easter season is Caps own Bermuda Triangle and in case you heathens haven't noticed, this is Holy Week as Easter is this coming Sunday. We understand why Bruce Boudreau doesn't want to push guys who are a little banged up right now. After all the Caps expect to be playing hockey for another 10 weeks but as long as the Caps aren't facing any real pressure, we just have a gut feeling that they aren't going to play the way they need to here with seven games left in the regular season.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 2
Senators 5
Winner by Alfredsson
(40-35 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps vs. Flames 3-28-2010 Wrap Up

2010-03-29T05:36:00.000-04:00

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: New Jersey eliminated, Clinched 3/28
President's Trophy: 7 Chicago and San Jose (26 of 29 eliminated)

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Calgary Herald. Calgary Sun: still alive after all, good defense, long time coming.

Final Thoughts:

Well, we ended up backing into the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference, but we'll take it.

75 down, 7 to go.

Caps vs. Flames 3-28-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-03-28T19:31:00.000-04:00

So much for putting those questions about our defense and goaltending to rest... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Captain A.O. with a goal and assist tonight getting himself back on track and registering 100 points in a season for the fourth time in his five year career.
"Mighty Mouse" Mathieu Perreault taking advantage of his recall by scoring a goal today.
Yeah this one is kind of lame but after laying an egg in the first period, the Caps fought back to "win" the second and third periods 3-1, out shooting Calgary 30-10. Imagine what the Caps could have done had they played the first period?

THE BAD:

Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz, the favored defensive whipping boy, was only one the ice for one goal against and ended up even on the day because he was on the ice for a goal that the Caps scored.. Tom Poti, who inexplicably escapes criticism, was on the ice for 3 goals against today and ended up a -2 because one of the goals allowed was on the Power Play. Maybe, just maybe, Ranger and Islander fans have a point about Poti.
The Penalty Killers were 1 for 2 today. It is us or has the Penalty Killing on the road, a problem all season long, gotten better while the Penalty Killing at home is starting to really struggle?
Down 1-0 early and given a chance to get back into the game on the Power Play, the top rated unit couldn't generate a single shot on goal.

THE UGLY:

No way to excuse Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore today who avoided a loss despite giving up three goals on just nine shots. He didn't have a chance on the last goal he allowed but just simply whiffed on the first two he allowed. None of the six saves that he made could be considered big saves.
Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green had a adventurous day today. He took a highly suspect (in other words, Barbara Streisand) closing the hand on the puck penalty which led to a goal against. He then pulled up and avoided blasting Eric Nystrom with a clean shoulder to the chest in the neutral zone. Nystrom responded by blinding-side Green with a hit to the head. However, don't count on Nystrom becoming the first victim of the NHL's new headshot suggestion.

We have to admit folks, we don't know which way to go on today's game. Yeah, the Caps did exactly what they shouldn't have done which was give life to a team that had none. Once the Flames got up 2-0 they clearly felt that they could compete with the Caps and in many cases, not only did but won more than their fair share of battles. However we have to ask ourselves, if this was a playoff game or a MUST WIN GAME for the Caps, would Brooks "and Dunn" Laich, Brendan Morrrissonn, and Shaone Morrrissonnn have sat out today? We seriously, seriously doubt it. For the Caps to lose the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference they would have to lose every single game left on their schedule in regulation and the New Jersey Devils would have to win every single game left on their schedule. That just isn't happening and with a seven point lead on San Jose and ten point lead on Chicago, the Caps would have to go into collapse mode in order to lose out on the President's Trophy. Simply put, there isn't much for the Caps to play for right now aside from the fact that over an 82 game schedule, there are going to be games where just about everything breaks against you. You come out flat, bad calls are made against you, the puck just doesn't bounce your way among other calamities. Finally, think back to March 19th, 2008. The Caps got shellacked in Chicago by the Blackhawks 5-0. For about the umpteenth time that mnth the Caps playoff's chances were written off. That however was the last regular season loss the Caps would suffer that year as the Caps went onto win the final seven games and make the playoffs many thought they wouldn't. Are the Caps about to go on a seven game winning streak here? We doubt it mostly because the Caps don't have to, but we're not too worried going forward here and we're looking forward to Tuesday's game in Ottawa to see how we respond to day's stinker.

Caps vs. Flames 3-28-2010 Preview

2010-03-28T07:29:00.000-04:00

Washington Capitals (49-25; 109 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Calgary Flames (37-37; 83 points; 3rd Northwest Division, 9th Western Conference, 14th Overall):
Caps Game #75, Home Game #36, NHL Game #1,122

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 1 New Jersey (Buffaslugs eliminated on Friday 13th of 14)
President's Trophy: 9 Chicago (Vancouver eliminated last night 25th of 29)

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C., 3:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Calgary TV: Rogers Sportsnet West. Radio: CFAC 960-AM. NHL Center Ice: Comcast SportNet Mid-Atlantic and Rogers Sportsnet West feeds.

Today the Caps have a chance to officially secure the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference without any help from anybody else when they open up a three game homestand by hosting the Calgary Flames. This is the first and only meeting between the two teams this season, last year the Caps lost to the Flames 2-1 in Calgary. The Flames however have not won in D.C. since March 13th, 1999. The Flames had been in a battle with Detroit for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference but have picked a bad time to go into a slump. The Flames have lost three of their last five games including both games on their 3 game east coast trip which wraps up today in D.C. Yesterday they were beaten badly by the Boston Bruins, 5-0.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Calgary Herald. Calgary Sun: faith no more, new leadership, sending a message, dead man talking.

What Do We Expect Today?:

When a team takes a severe tongue lashing in the press like the Calgary Flames did today, there is only two things that can happen. They can either come out and play some of the most inspired hockey anybody has ever seen or they can fall completely apart and skate zombie-like through the rest of the season. Right now we have to think that the Flames are going to choose the latter rather than the former based upon the comments from the Calgary players themselves over yesterday's beatdown in Boston by the Bruins. The Flames know that they laid a major egg and yet there was not a single hint of anger in the quotes published. Not even by Head Coach Brent Sutter. Maybe some anger set in on the flight from Boston to D.C. Maybe some anger will form as they slept last night. But it is not likely the case here. In addition to coming off two ugly losses, the Flames are playing their third game in four days on the road. They made the trip from West to East which is always harder and shouldn't have much in the tank for today's game with the Caps. The key for the Caps today is to jump on the Flames early and often. The Caps cannot afford to allow the Flames to stick around because the longer the Caps do, the more likely it will be that the Flames come to life and give the Caps a fight. Today is a good chance for the Caps to hone their killer instinct in taking out a team that has already given up which is something they'll need when they playoffs start in two and half weeks.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 7
Flames 1
Winner by Knuble
(40-34 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps @ Canes 3-25-2010 Wrap Up

2010-03-26T05:33:00.000-04:00

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 1 New Jersey and Buffaslugs (12 of 14 eliminated)
President's Trophy: 9 Chicago (Los Angeles eliminated 23rd of 29)

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Raleigh News & Observer. Canes.com.

Final Thoughts:

Bruce Boudreau has to be trying to be trying to keep the Caps ego in check which is the only rational explanation we can come up with for him scratching Shaone Morrrissonnn and Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz in favor of John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles and Tyler Sloan against a team that defeated us one week ago. Either that or he just wants to clinch the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference on home ice.

74 down 8 to go.

Another Night,

2010-03-25T21:41:00.000-04:00

another gimmick. And it is somewhat fitting because everybody knows how much we loathe the gimmick that traffic prevented us from making it home in time to see the start of tonight's game. Those who have to listen to Steve Kolbe know that listening to his call of the game is rather useless.

Besides, we've been flipping between this game and the Joisey-Rangers game that is also heading into a gimmick. So no Post-Mortem tonight folks.

Caps vs. Penguin Scum 3-24-2010 Wrap Up/ Caps @ Canes 3-25-2010 Preview

2010-03-25T05:38:00.000-04:00

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: gimmick win, new heights, all cleared. Examiner: had a feeling, slowly improving. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: can't win, out again, holding back. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: frustrated, guys out. Penguin Scum.com.

Final Thoughts:

Kind of what we thought, the Penguin Scum played as well as they could but just came up short.

73 down, 9 to go.

Washington Capitals (49-24; 108 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) @ Carolina Hurricanes (30-43; 69 points; 5th Southeast Division, 13th Eastern Conference, 27th Overall):
Caps Game #74, Road Game #39, NHL Game #1,100

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 3 New Jersey (Pittsburgh eliminated, 12th of 14)
President's Trophy: 11 Chicago (Colorado eliminated 22nd of 29)

RBC Center, Raleigh, NC, 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Carolina TV: Fox Sportsnet Carolina. Radio: WCMC 99.9-FM. NHL Center Ice: Fox Sportsnet Carolina feed.

Tonight, the Caps can clinch the #1 overall seed in the Eastern Conference with a little help when they travel down Tobacco Road to face the Carolina Hurricanes in the sixth and final meeting between the teams this season. The Caps have taken three of the five games so far this season, earning seven points in the process. The Caps and Canes have so far split the games in Raleigh. The Canes won the last matchup, last Thursday in Raleigh, 4-3 in overtime. The Caps blew a third period lead and fell behind late in the third period but however managed to tie the game back up even later in regulation before falling late in overtime. Since last Thursday's win, the Canes got more magic late in overtime to beat the Penguin Scum in Pittsburgh on Saturday but have now lost two games in a row. The Canes fell 5-3 at home to the Buffaslugs on Sunday night and 3-2 to the Ning in Tampa on Tuesday night in their most recent game.

What The Natives Are Saying:

Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Uh, we don't see anything folks... Sorry...

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

Typically after playing the Penguin Scum, we would be on watch for an emotional letdown. However, as we noted in the Post-Mortem last night, we didn't see as much emotion as we expected to see last night. So if there's any emotional letdown, there isn't very far to fall off from. The Canes currently sit 9 points away from the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference and have just 9 games left and five teams to get past in order to make the playoffs. While Carolina may not officially be playing out the string here, they are getting pretty close. With any win tonight and any loss by New Jersey to the Rangers, the Caps can clinch the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. If the Caps lose tonight, they'll still be waiting to claim the top spot in the East. But if there is a theme for tonight it would be redemption. It has been a week since Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov has played in Raleigh. The Saviour would undoubtedly like to have a couple of the late goals he gave up last week back and what better way to redeem yourself than against the last team to beat you? A win tonight would also be the The Saviour's second win in six games since returning from injury. The Caps are playing on back-to-back nights for the next to last time this season but have had three days off before last night's game and will have two days off before their next game on Sunday. There should be enough in the tank tonight to get the win to break the franchise record for points in a season (a record set just last year) and be no more than one point away from securing the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Yes, the Canes are always a tough out for us, but not a team we can't handle.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 3
Canes 2
Winner by Backstrom
(40-33 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps vs. Penguin Scum 3-24-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-03-24T23:09:00.000-04:00

Here we go again... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Alexander "Slappy" Semin with a shorthanded goal on an individual effort as pretty as you're ever going to see. It was his second shorty on the season and just the fourth for the Caps this season. The fact that it tied up the game at 2 in the third period was just icing on the cake.
Mike Knuble doing what he does best, getting to the net and picking up garbage knoals. It kind of makes us wonder why he bothers shooting from distance. And let us stipulate that Bruce Boudreau looks like a genius for sending him out there in the gimmick. Had Knuble missed and the Caps lost, Boudreau would have been hounded for sending out a guy who had never scored a goal in the gimmick.
Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore had an outstanding game again tonight. Not a whole lot he could do on the three goals he gave up and while you might want him to make a big save on the third goal late in the third period, he had just made some big saves in the sequence right before that one.
Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green and Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz were +3 and +1 respectively. For Schultz, it was his first plus game in 8 games.

THE BAD:

So the Caps are now 7-1 when allowing more than 40 shots on goal. That's nothing to be proud of as the Caps were outshot tonight 42-32.
Matt "Omar" Bradley and David "Bolt Cutter" Steckel were both a -2 tonight. The Bolt Cutter can at least lean on his faceoff ability (though he was 6-7 tonight) to stay in the lineup, Omar can't.

THE UGLY:

The game was decided by a gimmick.
We realized early on that Paul Devorski and Ian Walsh were calling tonight's game as if it were a playoff game and they certainly did. 5 Power Plays for the Penguin Scum versus only 1 for the Caps. We guess we should feel lucky that they didn't call it like a Game 7.

On the scale of 1 to 10, Caps-Penguin Scum games recently have had an intensity of about a 12. Tonight it was more like a 6, maybe a 7. For long stretches tonight, it really did seem like just another regular season game. We're curious to see what the Penguin Scum media have to say about tonight's game (we've already heard Dan Bylsma's spin cycle and aren't impressed) because if this really was another top drawer effort from the Penguin Scum, they'll be easily dispatched in the Playoffs before they ever reach the Caps. Once again the Penguin Scum blow a lead to the Caps. Once again the Penguin Scum get blitzed by the Caps in the third period. Yeah, yeah the playoff are a different animal but things like this have a way of catching up to you in the playoffs. But for yet another night, the Caps picked up a win on pretty much talent alone. That's not to say that the Caps played poorly or didn't have any intensity, they just didn't play tonight's game like their lives depended upon it as they usually do against the Penguin Scum. We have no doubt that the Caps will ramp up the intensity come playoff time and should the Penguin Scum last enough to face the Caps again, the intensity will be cranked up to about 15.

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

Caps vs. Penguin Scum 3-24-2010 Preview

2010-03-24T05:57:00.001-04:00

Washington Capitals (48-24; 106 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Pittsburgh Penguin Scum (42-31; 90 points; 2nd Atlantic Division, 4th Eastern Conference, 7th Overall):
Caps Game #73, Home Game #35, NHL Game #1,091

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 5 New Jersey (11 of 14 eliminated)
President's Trophy: 13 Chicago (Nashville eliminated 20th of 29)

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C., 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Pittsburgh TV: Fox Sportsnet Pittsburgh. Radio: WXDX 105.9-FM. U.S. National TV: NHL Network (Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic feed) NHL Center Ice: None.

Tonight the Caps are back in action after a three day layoff to face the Penguin Scum at the Phone Booth in the third meeting of the teams this season. The Caps are back on home ice for the first time in 12 days, have seven of their final ten games at home, and have beaten the Penguin Scum in both games so far this season. Pittsburgh has lost two in a row after losing in Detroit Monday night to the Red Wings 3-1. It was their fourth loss in their last six games.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post: puck to the head, interviewed. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: just another game, the pain of a loss, Q & A. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: MVP race, link to arrestee, scouting report. Penguin Scum.com.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

Well Ladies and Gentlemen here, we go! The players and coaches certainly have a point about the media over-hyping this game tonight as the NHL Network is treating this game in the middle of the week in late March as a Stanley Cup Finals game with wall-to-wall coverage including a one hour pre-game show. The truth of the matter is, there isn't much at stake as both teams will meet again in Pittsburgh in about two weeks and the Caps and Penguin Scum will have 8 and 7 other games respectively left on their schedules. Yes, the Caps can eliminate the Penguin Scum from the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference and President's Trophy race with any kind of win tonight but that is just a mere formality. The Penguin Scum have been a in a rut recently, their two wins in the last six games came over a punchless Bruins team and Tampa Bay. If this game has any importance to the Penguin Scum, it is that it will be one of their last tests against an elite team heading into the playoffs. Of the Caps remaining ten games, only Carolina and Columbus are out of the playoff hunt with two games against Atlanta who is sitting on the fringe. Pittsburgh however still has the Ning, the Islanders twice, and the Maple Thug Leafs on their schedule and two dates with the Thrashers as well. The Penguin Scum are running out of measuring sticks and they didn't measure up very well against the Red Wings on Monday night. The key here for the Caps tonight is to put the cliche of "it's just another game" to work for them tonight. The Caps and Penguin Scum have already faced each twice this season. The Caps have established their dominance in both games and know that they don't need their best effort to get past the Penguin Scum. There is also the game in two weeks for the Caps to exact any revenge that might be necessary after tonight's game. If the Caps can establish a business-like manner and not try to deal a knockout blow right away, they will come away with the win. The teams shouldn't be flat as the crowd at the Phone Booth will provide plenty of energy and the new ice sheet should cut down on the toe-picking that occurred earlier this month. The biggest question though we have for tonight is, how many hats do we need to bring?

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 6
Penguin Scum 3
Winner by Captain A.O.
(39-33 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps @ Ning 3-20-2010 Wrap Up

2010-03-21T08:21:00.001-04:00

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 5 New Jersey and Pittsburgh (Caps cannot win the tiebreaker against these teams, hence the extra point added 11 of 14 eliminated)
President's Trophy: 13 Chicago (Detroit eliminated 19th of 29)

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

The Other Side:

St. Petersburg Times: not enough, more responsibility. Tampa Tribune: further back, marketing madness, farm and other reports.

Final Thoughts:

We ran some quick and dirty numbers but with two wins in the two games this week and a little bit of a help, the Caps can wrap up the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference, before any other team in the NHL wraps up a playoff spot. That should give you an idea of how badly the Caps have lapped the field here, especially in the Eastern Conference, and why we've often heard from other teams that they played a great game but still couldn't get within one goal of the Caps on their home ice.

And what is really scary, now the every other night run of 9 games in 17 days is over. Bruce Boudreau is going to have plenty of practice time now to improve the systems play which according to Boudreau, what he needs to get this team playing as well as it can.

72 down, 10 to go.

Caps @ Ning 3-20-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-03-20T23:52:00.000-04:00

And they say we can't win the close ones... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Welcome back Captain A.O. with his 45th goal of the season putting him in the driver's seat for the Richard Trophy. Because of the injuries and suspensions, Captain A.O. does not need to win either the Art Ross or the Rocket Richard trophies outright, he simply needs to be in a tie for first place in order to claim them. The first tiebreaker for both awards is the fewest games played.
Alexander "Slappy" Semin going to the net and scoring the insurance goal tonight. After scoring he seemed energized and could have had a couple more to really open the game up.
The Penalty Killers have taken a lot of heat this year, especially on the road, but were 5 for 5 tonight. They allowed 12 shots on goal during those 5 kills but nothing in the back of the net.
They say that your goaltender has to be your best penalty killer, we don't know if Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore really was but he was solid once again tonight. He made 33 saves tonight, didn't give up much in the way of rebounds, and the one that got past him tonight was not his fault. The competition should be over now.

THE BAD:

The nominal third line that was working was broken up tonight by Bruce Boudreau. Brendan Morrrissonn energized the second line tonight but the players he left behind, Eric B. Fehr and Jason Chimera looked a little lost out there tonight with different line-mates.
Eric Belanger had little jump in his skates and just "didn't compete" on a number of occasions in the offensive zone. He had the chances to be a big factor tonight but just didn't get it done. Maybe he should sit next?
We make no secret that we think that the Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz critics go way too far in their criticisms on him. However, tonight he struggled a bit and made a glaring error that resulted in a goal against. This is the second game in a row where he's made that kind of high profile mistake. Everybody had tough stretches and slumps throughout an 82 game season but Sarge is picking a bad time to go into a funk.

THE UGLY:

Scott Walker "Texas Ranger" obliged Zenon Konopka in Konopka's favorite pastime tonight and Walker ended up ending his own evening rather early. Luckily we have some better depth than we did before the deadline but the general rule of thumb is to make other people react to you and not you react to them.
Wes McCauley and Dennis LaRue called a very loose game tonight. That led to a lot of the chippiness that you saw and they should have held a firmer grasp on the game tonight.

The knock on the Caps is that they can't play tight, grind them out, close games. Well, the Caps did it again tonight. Yeah both teams kept trying for the long passes which were getting gobbled up but that is a sign of a team playing good defense, they don't let those passes through. We also like the improving Penalty Killing on the road. This week, the Caps were 14 of 16 on the Penalty Kill with both goals against coming in 5-on-3 situations. The Caps are now up to 27th on the road with a 74.2% effectiveness rate. Now if the Caps can stop taking boarding penalties and find somebody other than Tom Poti to put out there for the 5 on 3 kills, the Caps should be in good shape.

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

Caps @ Ning 3-20-2010 Preview

2010-03-20T06:50:00.002-04:00

Washington Capitals (47-24; 104 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (28-42; 68 points; 3rd Southeast Division, 11th Eastern Conference, 25th Overall):
Caps Game #72, Road Game #38, NHL Game #1,063

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 8 New Jersey (11 of 14 eliminated)
President's Trophy: 16 Chicago (18 of 29 eliminated)

St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, FL, 7:37 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Tampa TV: Sunshine Network. Radio: WDAE 620-AM. NHL Center Ice: Sunshine Network and Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic feeds.

Tonight, the Caps finish off their last extended road trip of the season when they head back into Florida to face the Ning for the sixth and final time this season. The Caps have won three of the five games so far this season but the Ning won the last matchup last Friday 3-2 in the Phone Booth. However, since that win, the Ning have embarked on a three game losing streak, all at home, and wrap up a four game homestand tonight. In their last outing, the Ning got blasted by the Buffaslugs by the tune of 6-2.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

St. Petersburg Times: keep it simple, stupid, Game Preview. Tampa Tribune: top talent, Scouting Report. Ning.com.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

Well folks, he's back. With his latest suspension over, which Captain A.O. is going to show up tonight? The tentative Captain A.O. who doesn't hit as much and looked to avoid further suspension? Or the Captain A.O. of old who went all out on every shift, hitting everything that moved, and a few things that didn't? Hopefully the latter and not the former. Furthermore, with the return of Captain A.O., the rest of team will continue to pick up the slack instead of giving him the puck and watching him go. If Captain A.O. plays with "reckless abandon" and the rest of the team carries their weight, this won't be a close game. However Bruce Boudreau has a tough choice to make tonight because with Captain A.O. coming back, somebody has to come out of the lineup. The nominal third line of Jason Chimera, Eric B. Fehr, and Brendan Morrrissonn have been too good over these last two games to be broken up. Tomas Fleischmann, who filled in for Captain A.O. on the first line, has shown that he can't handle the second line center position and is a bigger waste than usual on the fourth line. But, expect Fleischmann to go back on the second line and Eric Belanger to either go to the fourth line or get scratched. One of other thing we'd like to note, this is the first time since the Captain A.O.-Steve Downie incident back in January that the Caps return to Tampa. Yes, the Caps and Ning have played twice since then without incident but remember The ~~Code~~...er...Crock. It calls for something like this to be settled on the home ice of the aggrieved party which in this warped case would be Tampa. Downie tried and failed to do everybody a favor and take out Canadian Diving Team Captain, Lowblow Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby on Sunday (and oddly enough, escaped any supplemental discipline) on home ice. We expect him to try a similar stunt with Captain A.O. tonight. Matt "Omar" Bradley needs to be on standby tonight to bleed all over Downie.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 5
Ning 1
Winner by Semin
(38-33 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps @ Canes 3-18-2010 Wrap Up

2010-03-19T05:35:00.000-04:00

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 8 New Jersey (Ottawa and Philadelphia eliminated, 10th and 11th of 14)
President's Trophy: 16 Chicago and San Jose (18 of 29 eliminated)

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Raleigh News & Observer. Canes.com.

Final Thoughts:

Darn it, it wasn't a hallucination...

71 down, 11 to go.

Post-Mortem Postponed

2010-03-18T21:40:00.000-04:00

Hey folks,we've been fighting a cold all week here and we're pretty hyped up on narcotics (the Q is talking to me, the Q is talking to me...) and we think we just saw some weird stuff like the Caps blowing a late lead and losing in overtime.

Anyway, we'll be back in the morning. We think...

Caps @ Canes 3-18-2010 Preview

2010-03-18T05:52:00.002-04:00

Washington Capitals (47-23; 103 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) @ Carolina Hurricanes (28-41; 64 points; 5th Southeast Division, 14th Eastern Conference, 28th Overall):
Caps Game #71, Road Game #37, NHL Game #1,044

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 10 New Jersey (8 of 14 eliminated)
President's Trophy: 19 San Jose (12 of 29 eliminated)

RBC Center, Raleigh, NC, 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Carolina TV: Fox Sportsnet Carolina. Radio: WCMC 99.9-FM. NHL Center Ice: Fox Sportsnet Carolina and Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic feeds.

Tonight, the Caps continue on their road trip when they head on over to Raleigh to face the Carolina Hurricanes for the fifth time this season. Despite being stuck in the bottom of the Southeast Division all season, the Canes have given the Caps a bit of trouble this season earning points in three of the four games so far this season and all three Caps wins over the Canes have been by just one goal like last weeks 4-3 win in overtime. After that game, the Canes rebounded to beat the Penguin Scum in overtime to start a four game homestand but have lost their last two games. First 4-0 to Phoenix on Saturday night and then 5-2 to Boston on Tuesday night to just about snuff out any thoughts the Hurricanes might of had about going on a run to make the playoffs this season.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Raleigh News & Observer.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

It will be interesting to see which Carolina team the Caps face tonight in Raleigh. Will it be the Canes team that has played them tough all season or will it be the one that is playing out the string? It looks as if the Chicago game and the Captain A.O. suspension have given the Caps a wake-up call late in the season. If that is the case, the Caps could end up making quick work of Carolina rookie goaltender Justin Peters who is expected to get the task of taking on the Caps tonight. But even if the Caps don't make quick work of Peters, who stopped 37 of 40 shots last week against the Penguin Scum to get the 4-3 overtime win, the Caps again simply have too much for Carolina to deal with. However, the Canes can and will make it close if the Canes play as loose in their own zone as they did on Tuesday night. Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov is the expected starter in goal for the Caps tonight so the Caps will need to protect in front of him better.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 3
Canes 2
Winner by Walker
(38-32 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps @ Panthers 3-16-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-03-17T05:39:00.000-04:00

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 10 Pittsburgh and New Jersey (8 of 14 eliminated)
President's Trophy: 19 San Jose and Chicago (Calgary eliminated 12th of 29 eliminated)

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: no problem, slow it down. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Miami Herald: big mistakes, missing something.

Final Thoughts:

70 down, 12 to go.

Caps @ Panthers 3-16-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-03-16T22:36:00.000-04:00

Imagine if we had Captain A.O.... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

13 of 18 skaters registered a point tonight. Brendan Morrrissonn and Brooks "and Dunn" Laich lead the way with 3 points each. And we should note that neither of those guys were under serious consideration to play in the Vancouver Olympics.
The nominal third line was anything but a checking trio tonight as Morrrissonn, Eric B. Fehr, and Jason Chimera were the best line for the Caps tonight. Bruce Boudreau better not break them up or scratch Eric B. Fehr again.
7 goals scored, a goaltender chased and only one of the seven goals came from as far away as the hash marks tonight. Once again, these are the types of goals the Caps are going to have to score to succeed in the playoffs. Laich took an absolute pounding to get the PAT tonight.
And with the rout, only Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green and Joe Scorvo played over 20 minutes tonight. Good job by Boudreau to roll the lines and play everybody. There's only two more games left on the road trip and in the every other night run so any additional rest is a bonus.
The Power Play was officially 2 for 4. One of the missed Power Plays was a 3 second Power Play. The Penalty Killers were 3 for 3 with a 3 second Penalty Kill. But with our road Penalty Killing numbers, we'll take it.

THE BAD:

While Florida doesn't have the firepower to run and gun with the Caps, the Caps were still too loose and left Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore out to dry. He gave up three goals tonight but none were really his fault because the Caps really weren't clearing the crease and tightening things up as much as they should have. The 37 shots on goal against is testament to this fact.
Tyler Sloan is just a younger, somewhat cheaper version of John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles and he certainly played like it tonight, getting blown by on a number of occasions.

THE UGLY:

Greg Campbell (looks too much like his father...)

Photo from NHL.com

With his kneeing penalty in the second period, we're setting the over/under on Green's suspension at 5 games. He is after all, a repeat offender...

Ok folks, we soundly beat a team we should soundly beat even without our best player available to us. Hades, this is the fourth time this year we've done it. What concerns us about games like this is that bad habits start to creep in as we saw during the 14 game winning streak earlier this year. The Caps kept going for the stretch passes up the ice even when they were covered and as previously mentioned, abandoned Theodore way too much and didn't protect the crease with a large lead. But we are pleased with the overall effort. If the Panthers aren't going to the play with the desperation they need to make the playoffs, the Caps had to bury them and that's exactly what they did tonight. This should be a confidence boost for some of the players who were struggling a little bit recently as well. The Caps are going to need all hands on deck to win it all this year and it is nice to see the Caps not struggling the way they did at this point last year too.

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

Guess The Suspension!

2010-03-16T11:05:00.000-04:00

Well folks, every so often we need to get some sort of confirmation on just how few people read our little bit of cyberspace. So we decided to put our heads together and came up with a great idea just how to find out.

Run a contest!

That’s right Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re wading back into the contest pool and this time our evil minds have come up with what thinks is a splendid idea for a contest.

Guess Captain A.O.’s Next Suspension, Playoff Edition!

When Captain A.O. returns from his latest suspension on Saturday night, there will be 11 games left in the regular season, two maybe four of them with any real meaning in them. So it will be relatively easy for Captain A.O. to keep his powder dry for those games, unless of course Matt Cooke decides to blindside Nicklas Backstrom.

But once the Playoffs start, the intensity cranks up to 12 and all bets are off.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs start on April 14th, 2010 but because of Phone Booth booking issues, the Caps won’t start until the 15th. But just in case between now and 11:59 pm Eastern Time on April 13th, 2010 e-mail us at our usual address- capsnut over at gmail dot com- and tell us which game you think Captain A.O. will once again goon things up, commit a suspendable offense, and how many games his egregious act will cost him. For tiebreaking purposes, name the player whose career that Captain A.O. nearly ends with his wanton, reckless, and dangerous thuggery.

So for instance, if we had done a similar thing last year with Donald Brashear, the winning entry would have been First Round, Game 6, 5 Games, Blair Betts.

And as for clarification purposes, this suspension contest is for on-ice, in-game actions only. Something like Brashear’s one game suspension for pre-game activities in Game 6 last year will not count. Nor would a bench incident like Captain A.O. going John Tortorella and hosing down some fans count either. Furthermore, Captain A.O. does not have to be assed any penalty on the play in question during the course of the game. Only supplemental discipline counts for the purposes of this contest and yes, automatic suspensions such as instigators in the last five minutes of a game will count provided of course that the suspension is not overturned by the NHL Front Office. (Stop laughing…)

So to win, you must have the round, the game, and the length of suspension correct. The player fouled by Captain A.O. is the first tiebreaker. If there is still a tie then the earliest entry will be declared the winner.

The winner will get to write, within certain guidelines because we are a family blog after all, the Official Bleatings From a Caps Nut response to the suspension handed down by the NHL Front Office and their selection of a coffee mug from shop.NHL.com!

So once again Ladies and Gentlemen; get those entries in, and you may enter as often as you wish between now and 11:59 pm Eastern Time on April 13th, 2010 at capsnut over at gmail dot com. Good Luck!

Caps @ Panthers 3-16-2010 Preview

2010-03-16T05:43:00.001-04:00

Washington Capitals (46-23; 101 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) @ Florida Panthers (28-39; 66 points; 3rd Southeast Division, 12th Eastern Conference, 26th Overall):
Caps Game #70, Road Game #36, NHL Game #1,033

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 12 Pittsburgh and New Jersey (Boston eliminated, 8th of 14)
President's Trophy: 23 San Jose (11 of 29 eliminated)

BankAtlantic Center, Sunrise, FL, 7:37 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Florida TV: Fox Sportsnet Florida. Radio: WAXY 790-AM. NHL Center Ice: Fox Sportsnet Florida and Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic feeds.

Tonight the Caps continue their road trip as they seek to break out the brooms against the Florida Panthers. This will be the sixth and final game against the Panthers this season and so far the Caps have won all of them. Florida has been hanging on the edges of the Eastern Conference Playoff race and have won four times in six games since the Olympic Break; twice in their last three games beyond regulation time. In their last outing, the Panthers handed the San Jose Sharks a rare loss on their home ice 3-2 in overtime on Saturday.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Miami Herald.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

So for the fourth time in six games this year, the Florida Panthers will avoid facing Captain A.O. in a game this year. If you're looking for a reaction from us to the suspension the only we'll say is that the suspension and lack of quotes about it from Colin Campbell himself speaks all for itself because there was never a doubt in our minds that a suspension would be forthcoming. As for the game tonight, the Caps have proven that they don't need Captain A.O. to defeat the Florida Panthers. The Panthers have a game in hand but are six points behind the Boston Bruins for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. The Panthers have to get going and get going now if they wish to make up that ground. After dropping their last four games on home ice as part of a six game losing streak heading into the Olympic Break, Florida has won both of their games at home since the Olympics. Making this game interesting tonight is Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov's turn in the goaltender rotation. The Saviour has lost three of his last four games and two in a row despite showing some improvement in his last outing. The Caps though simply posses too much firepower compared to the Panthers and with some mildly competent goaltending and a decent effort should have no trouble dispatching the Panthers tonight.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 4
Panthers 1
Winner by Semin
(37-32 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps @ Blackhawks 3-14-2010 Wrap Up

2010-03-15T05:57:00.000-04:00

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 12 Pittsburgh and New Jersey (Montreal eliminated 8th of 14)
President's Trophy: 23 San Jose (Minnesota, Dallas, and St. Louis eliminated 12th, 13th, and 14th of 29)

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Chicago Sun-Times: bad weekend, disagreement, new commercial. Chicago Tribune: another meltdown, out for the season, Serious Issues.

Final Thoughts:

We should hear today about how long the suspension to Captain A.O. is.

69 down, 13 to go.

Caps @ Blackhawks 3-14-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-03-14T17:36:00.000-04:00

We told you there wouldn't be a shutout today... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Facing a team that tends to out-shoot its opponents 34-25 per game, the Caps actually out-shot the Blackhawks 30-23 despite some moments of bad over-passing in the third period.
The Power Play was officially 1 for 5 and officially blew a 2 minute 5-on-3 but the Caps scored three seconds after the 5 on 3 ended and the Caps second goal was a direct result of the pressure applied by that Power Play. And to give credit where credit is due, Chicago goaltender Antti Niemi did an outstanding job to keep the Caps at bay as long as he did.
Nicklas Backstrom with two goals and one assist though you might be able to credit him with an assist on his game winning goal as he recovered his bad turnover to start the rush going the other way.
And a shout out to Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore who couldn't be faulted on any of the three goals he allowed (on two of them a forward blew his coverage) and made some big saves with the game tied that allowed the Caps the chance to win this game in overtime.

THE BAD:

We knew we're beating an empty glue bottle here but Bruce Boudreau's love of Tomas Fleischmann continues to confound us. Fleischmann was promoted to the first line and it was his blown coverage that led to the 3rd Chicago goal. Otherwise, he was as invisible as usual.
And as infuriating as it was to see Fleischmann on the first line, Alexander "Slappy" Semin had one of his "enigmatic" games today. Two totally and completely unnecessary penalties in the offensive zone in the first period and then floating around and not really trying for much of the rest of the game though he did draw the double minor that got the Caps going in the third period. However he didn't earn time on the first line today with the way he was playing. Though we did find NBC's line combinations and defensive pairings funny as they listed Slappy as a second line winger and third pairing defenseman.
The Caps got pwned in the faceoff circle today. Eric Belanger was the only Caps above 50% going 10-7. The rest of the Caps were a combined 9-23 for the entire game and not a single Blackhawk had a losing record on draws today.

THE UGLY:

Look folks, there's no denying it, Captain A.O.'s hit on Brian Campbell was worthy of a five minute major for boarding and a game misconduct penalty. No the hit was not vicious, it wasn't cheap or dirty, but it was totally and completely unnecessary. To make matters worse, it was at a place on the ice where a serious injury could take place. But what we already know is going to get us and everybody us riled up is the lengthy suspension Collin Campbell is going to hand down to the "Repeat Offender" at some point tomorrow. The fact that "Repeat Offenders" Matt Cooke and Dan Caricllo got away with what they did last week will be immaterial and we're interested to see how Campbell attempts to justify it.
And for good measure, last night the Oracle of the Ultimate Fighting on Ice Fans, Don Cherry, said it was outrageous that Matt Cooke wasn't suspended and called for a ban on shots to the head from the side and back but NBC's Mike Milbury refuses to back down and even gave a slight nudge to Cherry for selling out. Both men have a point that the players need a clearly defined standard of what is and is not permissible ASAP. But Milbury is just wrong to continue to beat the drum of a "sissfied" NHL where no hitting is allowed. Nobody is talking about ending the hits like the one Captain A.O. landed on Jaromir Jagr in Vancouver, but at the same time, nobody wants to see players carted off the ice stretchers and their careers placed in jeopardy. And we'd really like it if this stupid red herring of "softer" equipment were ignored.

Well folks, we have to admit, we didn't have much hope of winning today's game heading into the third period. We thought that the Caps played well for the most part in the first period despite spending most of the period trying to kill off penalties. The Caps understandably had a hard time getting back into their groove in the second period and weren't trying to get to the front of the net to score some goals. The Caps finally got in front of the Chicago net in the third period and look at what happened. 3 goals scored on 11 shots in the period and Chicago only took one. The Blackhawks have suffered some horrible collapses lately and that the Caps were willing and able to give them another one today shows the character that this team needs to become very tough to beat come playoff time. But in the interim, the Caps have to keep their edge as they play out the last 13 games of the regular season. The Cup was not won today and should the Caps and Blackhawks meet in the Stanley Cup Finals, we doubt that this game will play much of a role in the series.

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

Caps @ Blackhawks 3-14-2010 Preview

2010-03-14T09:28:00.000-04:00

Washington Capitals (45-23; 99 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) @ Chicago Blackhawks (44-23; 93 points; 1st Central Division, 2nd Western Conference, 3rd Overall):
Caps Game #69, Road Game #35, NHL Game #1,022

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 14 Pittsburgh and New Jersey (7 of 14 eliminated)
President's Trophy: 27 San Jose (10 of 29 eliminated)

United Center, Chicago, IL 12:45 pm. Washington TV: None. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Chicago TV: None. Radio: WGN 720-AM. U.S. National TV: NBC. Canadian National TV: TSN. NHL Center Ice: None.

Today the Caps start a week-long four game road trip when they head to Chicago to face the Blackhawks for the only time this season. Last year, the Caps opened up their home schedule with the Hawks and the Caps skated off with a 4-2 victory. Chicago is on track to become the first team other than the Detroit Red Wings to win the Central Division since the St. Louis Blues won it in 1999-2000 with a magic number currently at 14. Chicago has split their six games since the Olympic Break and are playing in their second consecutive NBC Sunday game at home. Last week they lost to the Red Wings 5-4. They claimed a 3-2 win in overtime at home on Wednesday night but lost by the same score late in regulation yesterday in Philadelphia to the Flyers.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire. NBC.com.

Open Source Intelligence:

Chicago Sun-Times: gone in 122 seconds, one shot stop. Chicago Tribune: late letdown, tough task ahead, it's good to be Captain A.O.

What Do We Expect Today?:

Well folks, we could be in for about as exciting of a regular season game as one can see between two teams who do not have a long-standing rivalry. The numbers are amazing, the Blackhawks give up the fewest shots in the NHL but only Toronto and the Blackhawks themselves take more shots than the Caps. The Blackhawks are one of the best teams on home ice yet only San Jose and St. Louis have won more games on the road this season than Washington. But the one we want to watch is the Blackhawks Power Play. At home they're 29th in the NHL with just a 14.9% conversion rate. The Caps however are equally bad on the Penalty Kill on the road. The Caps are also 29th in the NHL in that category with a dismal 72.7%. The Caps Power Play is ranked 3rd in the NHL on the road and Blackhawks Penalty Killers are 3rd on home ice. Both teams however had questions looming big in goal. It has to be especially troubling to the Blackhawks because they allow so few shots and with the amount of rubber they throw at the opposition, Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore is going to have to be on top of his game today for the Caps to get a win and maybe even some puck possession. Based on the report about the Caps practice yesterday, Friday night's loss served as a wake up call to the Caps, and one they will need playing at 11:45 am Central Time and losing an hour of sleep last night. How the Blackhawks respond to yesterday's letdown could be the biggest X Factor in today's game. Those kinds of losses aren't easily forgotten and can be rather demoralizing to a team. Either way, it should be a fun one to watch and we would suggest some sort of drinking game for today's game with just the phrase "Preview of the Stanley Cup Finals" but not only is this a Family Blog, we don't to assume any liability for alcohol poisoning. Finally, one interesting nugget we dug for this game, the last two times the Caps have gone to United Center, a shutout has been pitched. In the Caps last visit on March 19th, 2008, Olie Kolzig made his last appearance in a Caps uniform while losing 5-0. It was also the last loss the Caps would suffer in the 2007-2008 regular season. On February 15th, 2004, Olie Kolzig shutout the Blackhawks, 4-0. Something tells us though that there won't be a shutout performance today.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 3
Blackhawks 1
Winner by Captain A.O.
(36-32 on the season with one perfect game)

To Err Is Human, To Forgive Is Divine

2010-03-13T13:43:00.000-05:00

NHL Senior Vice President and Director of Operations Colin Campbell must really be taking this Holy season of Lent to heart. That would greatly help to explain why after looking the other way on Matt Cooke's hit on Marc Savard he did the exact same thing with Philadelphia Flyers' forward Dan Carcillo refusing to suspend him as well. Though Carcillo merely shoved linesman Greg Devorski who was trying to break up a fight on Thursday night instead of cheap shotting somebody onto a stretcher like Cooke did.

And maybe that is why Dan Carcillo isn't getting the attention that Matt Cooke did. The NHL wasn't "embarrassed" (we use the quotes because it is clear that nothing really embarrasses the NHL) by somebody being carried off on a stretcher and no traumatic brain injuries were suffered. But something about this did catch out eye and we feel more than obligated to point it out.

In explaining his decision making process in the Matt Cooke Incident, Colin Campbell claimed that because the NHL Suggestion Book was silent on matter of intentional hits to the head that cause injuries; he could not take any supplemental action against Matt Cooke. However, in the case of Daniel Carcillio, NHL Suggestions 40 and 41 are all about Abuse of the Officials. Suggestion 41 specifically covers Physical Abuse of the Officials and Suggestion 41.1 and 41.3 apply directly in the case of Carcillo:

Any player who deliberately applies physical
force in any manner against an official, in any manner attempts to
injure an official, physically demeans, or deliberately applies physical
force to an official solely for the purpose of getting free of such an
official during or immediately following an altercation shall receive a
game misconduct penalty. In addition, the following (41.2, 41.3, 41.4)
disciplinary penalties shall apply.
...
Automatic Suspension – Category II - Any player who deliberately
applies physical force to an official in any manner (excluding actions
as set out in Category I), which physical force is applied without intent
to injure, or who spits on an official, shall be automatically suspended
for not less than ten (10) games.

Now this all clearly applies to the Carcillo Incident, he made deliberate contact with an official who was attempting to break up an altercation. There is no question that Carcillo was not attempting to injure Devorski nor did Devorski suffer an injury in the incident. Do us a favor though and please read through this section of Suggestion 41.5 as it relates to the automatic review process for these types of situations:

Automatic Suspension – Process - Immediately after the game in
which such game misconduct penalty is imposed, the Referees shall,
in consultation with the Linesmen, decide the category of the offense.
They shall make a verbal report to the League’s Director of Hockey
Operations and advise of the category and of the offense. In addition,
they shall file a written report to the Director of Hockey Operations in
which they may request a review as to the adequacy of the
suspension. The NHLPA, the player and the Club involved shall be
notified of the decision of the Referees on the morning following the
game. The League will then hold a conference call with the NHLPA to
review the Referees application of this rule, and will refrain from
issuing public comment affirming the Referees application of Rule 41
until that call is complete.
The player or the officials may request the Commissioner to
review, subject to the provisions of this rule, the penalty imposed by
the Referees. Such request must be filed with the Commissioner in
writing not later than seventy-two (72) hours following notification of
the penalty.
If a review of the incident is requested by either the player or by
the officials, a hearing will be conducted by the Commissioner on an
expedited basis, and best efforts will be used to provide a hearing
before the second game missed by the player due to the automatic
suspension imposed under this rule. The player’s suspension shall
continue pending the outcome of the hearing by the Commissioner.
For Category III offenses only, the Commissioner may conduct the
hearing by telephone. For Category I and II offenses, the hearing shall
be conducted in person.
After any review as called for hereby, the Commissioner shall
issue an order that:
(i) sustaining the minimum suspension, or
(ii) increasing the number of games within the category, or
(iii) changing to a lower category, or
(iv) changing to a lower category and increasing the number of games
within this category, or
(v) in the case of a Category III suspension only, reducing the number of
games of the suspension.
The penalties imposed under this rule shall not be deemed to limit
the right of the Commissioner with respect to any action that he might
otherwise take pursuant to Article 18 of the CBA.

Now where does it say that the official in question who was fouled gets to make the final call on whether or not the player is suspended? We can't seem to find it in this section or in any other part of the NHL Suggestion Book. Yes, they may "request a review" but in light of the ugly incidents that continue to plague the NHL how in the world can Colin Campbell back the request not to impose the Automatic 10 game suspension in this case? Daniel Carcillo, like Matt Cooke, is a repeat offender when it comes to dirty play out on the ice and the suspensions that go with them. Look at the stock photo that TSN chose for Carcillo, Carcillo is the exact type of player that the NHL needs to get rid of if it is serious about growing.

But the worst part of this is not that this was a blown chance by the NHL to show that it is a serious professional sporting league. No, it is the clear illustration that not only the NHL Front Office has no respect for their own rules, but the on-ice officials who are hired to enforce them have no respect for them either. This is why the officiating standards from game-to-game are so wildly inconsistent. This is why hockey has such a bad reputation. Even little kids know that you can't touch the officials. But now the NHL has just gone and shown that you can and have it deemed acceptable behavior.

Maybe the NHL would have something about Carcillo if he had "accidentally" smacked Greg Devorski in the head with a chair or a large belt of some kind. We don't know, but we're sure that in enough time somebody will do something like that and we'll be able to find out.

Caps vs. Ning 3-12-2010 Wrap Up

2010-03-13T07:28:00.001-05:00

Caps vs. Ning 3-12-2010 Post-Mortem

2010-03-12T23:20:00.000-05:00

Send in the clowns... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

Captain A.O. with two more assists tonight to run his season total to 52 and points total to 96. And he didn't miss his 45th goal and 97th point on the season by very much late in the third period either.
The Power Play was 2 for 4 tonight and the Penalty Killers were 1 for 1 and didn't allow a shot on goal. That's right, the Caps took only one penalty tonight. It surprised us too just a few minutes ago when we realized that.
The circus is in the Phone Booth next weekend which means this crummy ice sheet that has had pucks bouncing and players toe picking all over the place these past week will be taken out and a new sheet will be installed before the Penguin Scum infect the Phone Booth on the 24th.

THE BAD:

Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov is slowly getting back into form. He couldn't be blamed for the last two goals he allowed but still should have stopped the first goal. He was fighting the puck for most of the night but did show some flashes of his form from last Spring. The big question we have though is it coming back to him quick enough? There's only 14 games left.
Reunited and it didn't look too good. Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green and Shaone Morrrissonnn were both a -2 tonight.
And while we're glad to see the Power Play click and the team stay out of the Penalty Box, it also means that the Caps were outscored tonight at even strength 3-0.

THE UGLY:

Down two goals heading into the third period, Bruce Boudreau shuffled the lines and reunited the SOB trio. Boudreau however continued to try to roll all four lines during the third period (Scott Walker Texas Ranger with Brooks "and Dunn" Laich and Mike Knuble???) and didn't deploy the SOB line as often as he usually would in that situation. So was Boudreau trying to win the game, conduct more line experiments, continue to parcel out the ice time, or some combination of the three? Whatever it was, it didn't really work.
And speaking of parceling out ice time, we really, really, hope we've seen the last ice time that Tyler Sloan and John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles will get this season. There is no point in having John Carlson on the roster if he isn't going to play and we seriously question the healthy scratching of a player with the second best +/- in the NHL.

Well folks, while we would like to see the Caps make an effort to win everything, their Division, Conference #1 Seed, President's Trophy, the Eastern Conference, and the Stanley Cup; we know that the Caps aren't too interested in winning the President's Trophy. It is hard for us to get too worked up about a game like this because while the Caps lost, they actually played some of their best hockey this week tonight and that was before they fell behind 3-1. It sometimes happens like this and while we're sure that some people are starting to remember last year's swoon before the playoffs, we'd like to say that we think the Caps are actually playing harder and better hockey now than they were at this point last season with the playoff spot and division title wrapped up. The Caps didn't really match the urgency of the Ning partly because of the lineup but also because the Caps really don't need to. And even then, the Ning started packing things in having at least four players around their goalie in the third period and whenever the Caps had the puck in the corner, the Ning had all five players below the faceoff circles to keep the Caps at bay. The Caps could have punched through and gotten the game tied up and maybe even won it in regulation but Boudreau is clearly working on something right now. Exactly what it is, we don't know but the time for experimentation is almost over.

Caps vs. Ning 3-12-2010 Preview

2010-03-12T06:06:00.000-05:00

Washington Capitals (45-22; 99 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (27-39; 66 points; 3rd Southeast Division, 11th Eastern Conference, 24th Overall):
Caps Game #68, Home Game #34, NHL Game #1,001

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: Clinched 3/11
Southeast Division Championship: Clinched 3/11
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 16 Pittsburgh, New Jersey, and Buffaslugs (Atlanta eliminated 7 of 14)
President's Trophy: 30 San Jose (9 of 29 eliminated)

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. Tampa TV: Sunshine Network. Radio: WDAE 620-AM. NHL Center Ice: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic and Sunshine Network feeds.

Tonight, the newly minted back-to-back-to-back Southeast Division Champion Washington Capitals wrap up a five game homestand when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning for the third and final time this year. This is the penultimate meeting between the two teams as the Caps will look to sweep the season series on home ice having beaten the Ning 5-4 last Thursday in the Phone Booth for their third win in the season series. The Ning are wrapping up a three games in four nights road trip and coming off a pair of losses North of the Border. On Tuesday night they fell to the Montreal Canadiens 5-3 and last night dropped a 4-3 decision in overtime to the Maple Thug Leafs. The Ning have just one win in the five games since the Olympic Break ended.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

St. Petersburg Times: digging deeper, who's in charge, game tonight. Tampa Tribune: slip slidin' away, roasting Cooke, Scouting Report. Ning.com.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

The Caps issue of motivation took another hit last night with Atlanta's 2-1 loss in Columbus which clinched a playoff spot and third consecutive Southeast Division Title for the Capitals. The Caps can go .500 for the rest of the season and still clinch the Eastern Conference #1 seed and clearly haven't made winning the President's Trophy a top priority but they have a four point lead right now in that race. So while the lineup tinkering continues, trying to find the right combinations for the playoffs that won't start until April 15th, the Caps remain in cruise control heading towards the playoffs. Tonight the Caps get a Ning team that needs every point they can get but aren't doing a very good job of accomplishing that. And while it doesn't matter to the Caps, the rest of the Southeast Division is very tight with the Ning tied with the Thrashers and the Panthers and Hurricanes tied just two points behind both teams. It isn't a stretch to say that the Ning need this game tonight more than the Caps do but that has been the case in every game for the Caps since the Olympic Break ended 10 days ago. We think it really depends on the effort put forth by the Ning tonight who are playing on back-to-back nights and their third game in four nights on the road. The Caps have been doing just enough to win but we don't think the Ning will have enough to get by because of their schedule.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 4
Ning 3
Winner by Steckel
(36-31 on the season with one perfect game)

A Notch Above Professional Wrestling

2010-03-11T13:25:00.000-05:00

Back when Mike Green was slapped with a three game suspension for delivering an elbow to the head, we knew that it would only be a matter of time before another vicious and intentional hit to the head would come along and the NHL would look the other way. It only took 36 days and we happen to think it only took that long because of the Olympic Break.

By now everybody knows what Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguin Scum did on Sunday afternoon to Marc Savard of the Boston Bruins. And you also know by now that the NHL has decided to look the other way in the matter. Today’s mealy mouthed excuse from the NHL? “It wasn’t a penalty.”

Funny, when Donald Brashear clobbered Blair Betts with a clean open ice hit that injured Betts in Game 6 of the First Round last April, no penalty was called on Brashear for the hit. (He did receive a roughing minor along with Paul Mara who came to the aid of his fallen comrade) Yet Colin Campbell felt it was necessary to tag Brashear, who like Cooke was considered a repeat offender, with a five game suspension in the playoffs. A sixth game was added because of Brashear’s actions during the warm ups that day.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why we (and the rest of the sports world) happen to think of the NHL as something just a notch above professional wrestling. The only difference we happen to think is that the members of the media who follow professional wrestling are in on the joke that it is all setup whereas most of the media are like a majority of hockey fans who think the NHL is a legitimate sport. But folks, it isn’t. Legitimate sports leagues do not operate like this.

Quite frankly, it is simply craven and cowardly for Campbell to hide behind the “it wasn’t a penalty" excuse for his inaction as it related to Matt Cooke when the NHL couldn’t change their rules fast enough to stop the New York Rangers’ Sean Avery from waving his stick in front of the New Jersey Devils’ Martin Brodeur’s face in the playoffs just two years ago. After a few days in the sun with the league’s General Managers discussing whether or not to do something about head shots (as Traumatic Brian Injury comes a bigger and bigger issue nationwide) for Campbell to look the other way on Cooke’s actions and then blame the fact that the NHL Suggestion Book is silent on the matter and therefore effectively tying his hands is simply outrageous. But not very surprising.

Further adding to the problem is the NHL’s timeframe for making these decisions. The Penguin Scum have been off since Thursday so the NHL felt no need “to rush to judgment” on Cooke but in the interim, everybody looking at the NHL for guidance is left wondering just what that guidance is going to be. There were 11 games played on Monday and Tuesday, including one with the Philadelphia Flyers, before the non-decision decision was handed down by Campbell on Wednesday afternoon. That’s 11 games where the players had no idea what the current standard was going to be set at. We understand letting the emotions settle, we understand “getting all the facts before making a judgment” but allowing three days to pass after the incident in question because the player under the gun won’t be playing anyway puts other players in the league at risk just as much as not suspending a player like Cooke.

But by dragging their feet on these situations, the NHL allows their various “old sage voices” to publicly plead “not to take hitting out of the game.” After all Don Cherry says he knows what Americans want, he says we watch NFL football all time and the NFL has nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero on the issue of head shots ever in the history of the leauge. We just watched an amazing Olympic Hockey Tournament under international rules that include penalties for headshots and we can tell you that there was very little hitting or excitement in any of the games. Jaromir Jagr can personally attest to the lack of hitting in Vancouver.

No, Don Cherry tells us if we want to protect the players, we need to soften up their equipment so that these faster, stronger, and bigger players who train all year can’t hurt each other. (Sadly enough, the NHL is seriously heading in this direction). We’re also told that the instigator penalty is the reason why we have all these problems too. The idea that a team would target a Nicklas Backstrom late in a game they’re leading with a fight to get him off the ice is just ludicrous! Nope, the same players who are taking the cheap shots in the first place will be entrusted to “police the game” and call the offenders into account for their actions and all will be fine with the world.

But what is really sad is that this situation once again shows that the NHL is not serious and is making the satire of Slap Shot! into reality. The NHL could clean up its act overnight as it relates to cheap shots, headshots, and outright thuggery and it would start by getting rid of fighting. Because while we typically disagree with Larry Brooks, he had a great point last year that the NHL cannot seriously do anything about headshots and still allow fighting in the game.

And we have what we happen to think is a great idea on how to get rid of fighting without actually getting rid of fighting directly. The NHL should first all, start actually enforcing their own rules on a consistent basis, making them rules instead of the mere suggestions they currently are. But after that, a rule should be added that any player who is assessed with any major penalty during a game is automatically assessed a game misconduct and ejected. Furthermore, players who receive game misconducts are automatically suspended on a progressive scale. A player’s first game misconduct in a season is an automatic one game suspension, the second one a two game suspension and on until the fifth game misconduct when the suspension time doubles from five to ten games. A player who manages to amass five game misconducts in one season will be suspended for a total of 20 games and facing a 12 game suspension for his next game misconduct. It wouldn’t take very long for players to figure that one out. Additionally, the only person who should be able to rescind the automatic suspension is the NHL Commissioner. Since the Commissioner is the public face of the NHL Front Office, we don’t think he would be too inclined to defang a rule designed to clean up the game.

Yeah a Zenon Konopka would spend more time in the press box than he would on the bench, but who would really miss him? Including the pre-season, he’s had fighting majors in 25 games so far this season. Under our proposal He wouldn’t have gotten to ten games with a fight because with the 18 game suspension for his 9th game misconduct, he would be suspended for a cumlative total of 80 games in just one season. And who would miss the likes of Konopka? He’s not exactly somebody the NHL is clamoring to get on David Letterman or the Today Show. How many covers of Sports Illustrated or The Hockey News has he graced?

No, the only ones who would miss a Konopka, or for that matter a Matt Cooke, are the Don Cherry, Mike Millbury, and other Ultimate Fighting on Ice fans that have been an albatross around this game’s neck for too long. And because Gary Bettman and Colin Campbell are too cowardly to confront them, it is time for the NHL owners to get people who will stand up to that crowd for the betterment and growth of the game. The owners have openly wondered just what do they get out of shutting down their league and letting the players go to the Olympics every four years? The answer is nothing because Olympic hockey does not tolerate the nonsense that the NHL does and everybody knows it. Which is why if the owners were serious about growing the game, they would be pushing for an end to this nonsense too.

Caps vs. Canes 3-10-2010 Wrap Up

2010-03-11T06:15:00.000-05:00

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: 1 Atlanta or 2 Montreal (New York Rangers, Florida, and Tampa Bay eliminated; 4th, 5th, and 6th of 7)
Southeast Division Championship: 1 Atlanta (3 of 4 eliminated)
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 17 Pittsburgh (6 of 14 eliminated)
President's Trophy: 28 San Jose (8 of 29 eliminated)

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post. Examiner. Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Raleigh News & Observer.

Final Thoughts:

Well folks, tonight the Atlanta Thrashers visit the Columbus Blue Jackets and any loss by the Thrashers to the Blue Jackets will yield the Southeast Division Title and a playoff spot for the Washington Capitals. Heading into tonight, the Thrashers maximum point potential is 100 points and the Caps of course already have 99. Should Atlanta and the Caps end up tied at the end of the regular season with 100 points, Atlanta would have 44 wins and the Caps would have 45 wins giving the tiebreaker to the Caps. Should Atlanta pull off a win tonight, the Caps can still clinch a playoff spot, but not the Southeast Division, if the Edmonton Oilers defeat the Montreal Canadiens tonight in regulation in Montreal. Otherwise, the Caps will just have to get a single point from the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night to secure things.

67 down, 15 to go.