For the first home game of the new year, the Washington Capitals are looking to avenge a dreadful two-game trip to the West Coast that saw them lose their respected matchups by a combined score of 7-3. The Caps had their work cut out for them, facing two of the of the top teams in the Western Conference in the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings. The road trip proved that there is plenty of work to do if they truly want to make a Stanley Cup run.

The Capitals are also playing their first home game since the departure of team captain Chris Clark, who was sent to the Columbus Blue Jackets along with Milan Jurcina in exchange for Jason Chimera. Clark’s absence meant that the Capitals would need to appoint a new player to wear the coveted “C” patch. As Alex Ovechkin made his way onto the ice, fans in the Verizon Center noticed a change with his wardrobe. For the first time in his career, he will be wearing a “C” on his sweater. This move makes the Russian superstar the 14th captain in team history.

1st Period Overview:

The Capitals and Canadiens both were unable to put any points on the board but Washington was certainly more aggressive, dominating the Habs with 11 shots on goal compared to Montreal’s three. Ovechkin led the team with almost nine minutes of ice time, almost all of which were in full speed and full force, obviously motivated by his new role on the team.

Aside from Ovechkin’s obvious presence on the ice and the discrepancy in shots, there was not much action for fans to enjoy, unless you love defense and offenses failing to finish off passes near the opponents’ goals. Expect a more offensive second period (Captain Obvious alert!) from the Capitals.

Prediction: Ovechkin scores a goal in the second period to celebrate his captaincy. (Am I going out on a limb here?)

Faceoffs won: Mon – 9 Was – 10
Shots: Mon – 3 Was – 11
Hits: Mon – 5 Was – 14
Blocked Shots: Mon – 6 Was – 3
Goals: Mon – 0 Was – 0

2nd Period Overview:

The beginning of the second period started off exciting, with the Caps firing shots from close range and hounding Canadiens goalie Carey Price. The pressure paid off when Tomas Fleischmann weaved his way in the middle of traffic in front of the net and easily slid the puck between Price’s feet for his 15th goal on the season. That goal came just over five minutes into the period.

The Caps should be noted for their great penalty kill following Jason Chimera’s two-minute minor for hooking halfway through the period. During that PK, the penalty killers cleared the puck across the ice several times and were helped by several athletic saves by the youngster, Michal Neuvirth.

Shortly after the penalty kill however, Montreal’s Josh Gorges fired a blast over Neuvirth’s shoulder for the Canadiens’ first appearance on the scoreboard. That was when the action started. A minute and a half later, Eric Fehr retaliated for the Capitals, deflecting a pass off of the skate of Montreal’s Hal Gill into the net to regain the lead. Thirty six seconds after that, Alexander Semin, like Fleischmann, tacked on his 15th goal of the year to give the Caps a 3-1 lead heading into the second intermission.

My prediction for the new captain to score was wrong but my “Captain Obvious” obersvation paid off, as it was certainly a more offensive and active second period that even featured two big fights..

Faceoffs won: Mon – 6 Was – 12
Shots: Mon – 10 Was – 17
Hits: Mon – 6 Was – 6
Blocked Shots: Mon – 4 Was – 4
Goals: Mon – 1 Was – 3

3rd Period Overview (most of it):

As has been status quo with the rest of the game, the Caps have kept the puck on Montreal’s half of the ice for most of the period.

Despite starting out the period even, the Canadiens were able to cut the Caps lead to one with a power play goal scored by Benoit Pouliot, making the score 3-2.

Needless to say my absence has left me pretty far behind on my recapping, but really, do you want me to re-hash the last couple of weeks, game by game? Didn’t think so.

So, while I was gone, I see the Caps traded Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina to Columbus in exchange for some much needed salary cap space and Jason Chimera. Word is the Caps saved $2 million on the deal. In an example of pennywise and pound foolish, the Caps announced the trade a few hours before they were supposed to face division rival Carolina.

Carolina was a game the Caps should have won easily, but they didn’t, and they haven’t won since.

Now I’m not going to make as big a deal about Chris Clark being the “Captain” as the media did. I liked Clark well enough, but felt his impact on the ice was negligible. Clark missed most of the past two seasons and the team played fine without him.

Milan Jurcina on the other hand was not the flashiest of defensemen, but he was solid especially in the corners. Sure the Caps had more than a handful of defensemen, but I could certainly think of better candidates to ship off.

So what was this trade really about? Chimera isn’t good enough to warrant two players by himself is he? Of course not! I’ll tell you, I think the Caps are so deep in Hershey right now, this trade was used to free up salary cap space to be able to call up more guys.

Now Chimera obviously isn’t shy about contact, his penalty minutes show that. I’m thinking that Chimera was brought in to be a “goon”. Think about it, when the Caps had Brashear, they had an enforcer to mix it up with the other team. He was referee bait; without him, the refs are targeting Alex Ovechkin. Clark made a nice effort trying to be the team’s enforcer, and he got in a couple of fights, but Clarkie’s not a fighter.

Don’t get me wrong; Clark can throw down when he has to, but he’s not the guy that’s going to skate out there with a chip on his shoulder looking for a scrap.

With Chimera, the Caps may just have that referee bait they’ve been missing that will free up Ovie from the wrath of the whistle. It may not work, since Ovechkin is officially on the refs’ radar, but it’s worth a shot.

The hard part now is chemistry along the lines. Chemistry is important. I know the Caps have only added one new guy in Chimera, but combined with the loss of Clark and Jurcina it has a snowball effect.

The first thing that happens is that as the coach, you shuffle the defensive pairings. Jurcina was a big hole to fill in ice time, so now you have new pairings that you may not have had before. You get used to the guys you’re skating with, so when you have someone new, you tend to play a little more cautiously.

Not just the D-pairings, the forwards start to get a little more cautious as well. They might take a shot, and instead of pursuing the rebound into the corner, they are racing back towards the blue-line. This creates fewer scoring chances. So what does a coach do when his team isn’t generating offensive pressure? He mixes up the forward lines trying to find the right combination that will generate consistent offensive pressure.

Now you have more guys skating with other guys they don’t usually skate with, and they are doing so knowing the pressure is on them to produce. They feel like they have to compensate, and do more, so instead of trusting the guy across the ice to do what he’s supposed to do, or be where he’s supposed to be, they make sure they are there instead; which usually means they are there also. Now if you have two guys sharing the same 5-feet of ice, that’s not directly in front of the crease; one of them isn’t where he’s supposed to be. They both know it, so in a similar situation next time, nobody will be there because the one will go back to where he is supposed to be, and the other will vacate the spot assuming the other guy is going to be there.

If you’ve been watching the Caps through each of these losses, than you have seen examples of what I was just talking about. Caps players skating into each other, or passing the puck to empty space (where you probably said what I usually do; “who was that pass to?”) or sometimes trying a drop pass that becomes a turnover because the guy skated into the zone thinking he had a trailer that wasn’t there.

So, I know the big question is “can the Caps get their mojo back?” Sure they can, they just gotta relax. The only new guy is Chimera. Don’t grip the stick so tight when taking a shot, and make those scoring chances count. Trust the other guy to do his job, and focus on doing yours. There is still a lot of hockey to be played between now and the post-season, so a few losses won’t hurt too much.

The Caps played better in LA than they did versus Carolina so they are starting to get it, and I expect we’ll see the Caps return to form tonight at home versus Montreal.

At least, I hope so!

P.S.

Sorry about my recent absence, I hope to be back to my regular Caps Recap next week with nothing but good things to say about our favorite guys in the Red, White and Blue.

C-A-P-S Caps! Caps! Caps!

At that point, the decibal level in the Verizon Center was deafening. In the arena, you could feel that something was going to happen for the Caps. When Sergei Federov, certainly no stranger to the playoff hero role, scored the game winning goal (and first of the series), the decibal level soared even higher, and remained there until well after the final horn blew.

Feds believed the energy from the crowd helped will the team to victory: “It was a great atmosphere all around. I’m sure any player who plays in an atmosphere like that would enjoy it and work hard and play hard… It really was an amazing experience.”

Bruce Boudreau agreed.

“The last five minutes after we scored,they never sat down, they never stopped cheering. If you look at the energy we had just in checking. The people brought that out. They wouldn’t let us not continue skating,”  Boudreau said, adding, “ it was really a thing to watch.”

Of course, going into the third period, it was an experience few thought would come to pass. For the first two periods, the Capitals were out-played and out-hustled. If not for the continued dominating play by the barely 21-year-old Simeon Varlamov, this game could easily have been 3-0  after five and a half minutes. 

In the first period, the normally gifted Washington offense had only managed two shots on the Rangers Henrik Lunqvuist. Luckily, one of them went in after deflecting off two Rangers defenders.

The second period was more of the same. It almost felt like the Caps were on penalty kill the entire period. Washington managed nine more shots on goal, but Lunqvuist looked to be back in form for this pivotal game 7.  The most telling stat of the second period was time of possession. While this isn’t an officially kept statistic, Mike Green mentioned in the locker room after the game that he felt like the Caps only had the puck for 2 of the 20 minutes in the period.

After the second period ended, there was a weird vibe in the air. Some thought that this series was set to end like last year’s opening round defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers. Still others thought that the Caps were lucky to be tied at 1, and that the third period was the Caps period, so anything could and would happen. Most though, believed the Capitals would prevail.

Whatever the vibe in the building, the vibe in the locker room was much like the last. In his post-game presser, Coach Bruce Boudreau, when asked what was said between the dreadful second period and the fateful third, quipped:  “One of the messages was ‘20 more minutes.’ How hard is that to work as hard as you can for one of the best feelings you’re ever going to have.”

Besides the motivation, the Coaching staff went to work, as well, trying to solve the dominating play the Rangers brought to the rink.

“We were used to them being a more passive team and they were very aggressive, in your face,” the Caps head coach stated. ”We had to change what we were doing and I’m not that sharp. I took me two periods to figure it out.”

Whatever was said or done, it paid off. The Caps came out in the third playing like themselves. The passing was crisp, the effort was phenomenal and the results were there. Everyone in the building began to feel like a Russian was going to send the Rangers packing. Of course, everyone assumed that Russian would be Ovechkin or Semin.

Enter Sergei Federov. As Feds skated down the right side, pulling up to look for the trailer on the play for a pass, he noticed several things. First, Wayne Redden was playing way off, quite possibly because the ever-threatening Ovechkin was on the left side of the net. Second, there was no trailer on the play. Third, the top-shelf glove side of Lunqvuist, perhaps the outstanding goalies only weakness, was beakoning him. He let the shot go, kept a longer follow-through to get the shot up, and watched as the puck soared into the net for the eventual game winner with just under five minutes to go in the third.

Fellow teammate and countryman Alex Ovechkin was the first on the scene leaping onto the 39-year-old’s back, squeezing him hard and slamming him into the boards.  Since Federov was the Red Wing that ended the Caps Stanley Cup hopes oh so many moons ago, perhaps this game seven winner will reverse the fortunes of this young, exciting team in their current pursuit.  

Regardless of kharma and the existential side of the meaning of this goal, Federov has brought something the Capitals haven’t experienced since that 1998 run to the Cup finals and never since the best owner in Washington sports bought this team: a playoff series win.

While many thought Ovie would play the role of hero, Boudreau was not as surprised. “Experience sometimes pays off. He knew what he had to do and… when to do it,” the Capitals coach said. ”That’s what makes him one of the greatest players ever.”

Washington Capitals fans everywhere sure think so.

The Capitals coming back home after a 2-1 loss to the Flyers on Wednesday didn’t really need to bounce back tonight (it is pre-season after all), but they did. Our story begins with a young Russian man; maybe you’ve heard of him, he’s called “Ovechkin.”

Now, I don’t speak any Russian, but I am quite certain that if you trace the name Ovechkin back to it’s roots you’ll find that it means “finds the back of the net.”

True to his (unofficial) namesake, Alex Ovechkin found the back of the net on the penalty kill to score the games first tally. He did it short-handed, exactly 15 minutes into the first period.

As a matter of fact, the first three goals of the game were scored by the usual suspects; Alex Ovechkin, Chris Clark and Nicklas Backstrom. My guess is that Ovechkin is actually Kaiser Soze as he was also credited with an assist on both Clark and Backstrom’s goals.

Clark’s goal in the second period (3:50 on the PP) was that of a pool-hall hustler, or one of those old Larry Bird/Michael Jordan commercials as he went off the back glass, (as he circled around behind the net picking up his own rebound) off the back of the goalie (Jean-Sabastien Aubin), and nothing but net.

Nearly five minutes later (8:45) Brooks Laich helped Nick Backstrom find the backdoor to Aubin’s net as he passed the puck to Backstrom who was waiting just behind the crease.

Meanwhile at the other end of the ice, Jose Theodore was the “purveyor of the pristine ice” as the Caps had outshot the Flyers 15-4 at the 30-minute mark. The Flyers only managed 4 shots even though they had been on the power-play five times during that time.

Early in the second period, Riley Cote decided that life just wasn’t worth living and chose Donald Brashear as his manner of suicide. Cote picked the fight that not only put him on the receiving end of several of “The Donald’s” gourmet knuckle-sandwiches (and a relatively quick trip to the ice), but also got him an additional roughing major to add insult to the injury.

The Flyers had had enough of the Capitals scoring by the end of the second period, and replaced Aubin (who had stopped 14 of 17 in two periods) with Martin Biron.

Biron would not fair much better as he would go on to stop only 10 of 12 shots giving up goals to Tomas Fleischmann and Eric Fehr.

Theodore may not have had to do much this game, as he really only faced 18 total shots, but his most spectacular came midway through the third period when he faced down a 3-0 break-away and managed a nifty glove-save. The lone goal given up by Theodore was to Danny Briere while Chris Clark was sitting in the penalty box on a questionable interference penalty.

Notes:

— Cote could not leave Brashear alone and ultimately got himself and Brashear matching unsportsmanlike and game misconduct penalties later in the third period.

— The crowd at Verizon may not have been a sell-out, but you wouldn’t know it to hear them. The Caps faithful let their team know how much they loved them all night long and “rocked the red” proudly.

—Jay Beagle continues to impress and was named one of the stars of the game tonight without having as much as a goal or an assist. Beagle was paired up with Boyd Gordon and Donald Brashear tonight and showed that he wasn’t afraid to give or take a hit. He found himself in the middle of quite a few scrums but no major fights. “He’s pretty good actually,” said Coach Boudreau who seemed to light up when asked about Beagle, “I like that guy. He plays with a lot of energy, and he’s already becoming a bit of a fan favorite.”

—Alex Ovechkin is seeing a lot of time on the penalty kill in the pre-season and so far has two shorthanded goals to show for it. It would appear he will be a regular to that job as well as his usual power play shifts. “I want to play at every station” said Ovechkin after the game, “I want try and play simple, and when I have a chance to shoot the puck, I shoot the puck.”

—The crowd rained down the boo’s every time Steve Eminger touched the puck. I can only imagine the warm reception that awaits Olie Kolzig. Eminger was traded to the Flyers last year for a first round draft pick.

—Sergei Federov played defenseman this evening and Coach Boudreau has been tight-lipped about whether that move signals that he is looking for an opening for center Jay Beagle. Of course, there aren’t a lot of spots open for defenseman either and fan-favorite Karl Alzner is still trying to find a spot. Bruce Boudreau has some tough decisions ahead, but admits it’s a good problem to have.

—The regular season for the Capitals starts next Friday versus Atlanta and their home opener is Saturday versus Chicago. The Caps are currently 5-1 in the preseason with one game left and are off to their best pre-season start since 1999 when they went 5-2-0. The Caps are currently at the top of the Southeast division.

The ‘Canes got a little sloppy in the second racking up three penalties within the first five minutes of the period and allowing Michael Nylander to score on the power play. They would make a bigger mistake a little more than halfway through the second when they tripped up Alex Ovechkin who made them pay on the subsequent penalty shot to tie the game at 2.

The Caps would go on to score five unanswered goals between the second and third periods and held the ‘Canes to just three shots in the third period. Michael Nylander and Alex Ovechkin would each score again in the third period along with LW Chris Bourque.

For a game that had no real meaning there certainly seemed to be a lot of hard feelings between these two teams as they each racked up 15 penalties in a game that saw six fights between the second and third periods.

“The match-up was a little one-sided, our way, just on paper” said Capitals Captain Chris Clark after the game. Clark had 2 assists and was involved in a scrap in front of the Carolina net that resulted in a 2-minute roughing minor. “”I thought they played a heckuva game for their age and experience. I thought they played really well and they held their own for most of the game, but I think experience sometimes takes over toward the end of games.”

I asked Clark how it felt to be back out on the ice, mixing it up again, after spending most of last season injured. “It feels awesome,” said Clark, who was all smiles after the game, “I missed the bumps and bruises. I missed waking up the next day and feeling terrible, so it’s something I look forward to.”

The Caps were 2 of 15 on the penalty kill. Coach Boudreau was asked about the high number of penalties after the game.

“Well, you’re gonna take penalties in the pre-season,” said Boudreau, ” the refs are gonna make a statement , and they’re gonna call every little thing.” Boudreau went on to say “Sometimes it’s good ‘cuz you learn a lesson, but when you want the kids to play sometimes it’s not so good because you’re always in the power-play/penalty-killing unit.”

Game Notes: Michal Neuvirth stopped 24 of the ‘Canes 26 shots and was replaced in the third period by Daren Machesney who only had to face three.

After scoring his second goal of the night in the third period, Alex Ovechkin was serenaded by the crowd with chants of “MVP! MVP!”

Tonight’s three stars were Michael Nylander (2 goals), Alex Ovechkin (2 goals, 1 assist), and Chris Bourque (1 goal, 1 assist).

The Caps play their next three games on the road and don’t return to Verizon Center until Friday October 3rd when they face the Flyers at 7pm.

On Expectations coming into the new season:

“Last year we came to camp hoping to make the playoffs but we weren’t sure where we were at. This year it’s a different feeling around here. After what we did last year we’re expecting to make the playoffs and not just expecting to get in, but expecting to do something when we get there.”

On how tough the off-season was after losing Game Seven of the playoffs during an overtime penalty:

“It’s tough to lose on a penalty call in Game Seven. I think it stung everybody pretty deep, and I don’t think anybody forgot that over the summer. It’s still pretty fresh in our minds, and we’ll come back with a vengeance this year, and we still feel we have something to prove.”

“That loss didn’t sit well with anyone. The way we were playing we weren’t scared of anyone, and we were gonna play Pittsburg [in the] next round if we had won that game and we weren’t afraid of that. We were looking forward to that.”

On coming into training camp without Olie Kolzig:

“It is [odd]. Since I’ve been here Olie’s been the calming/cool presence in the locker room, and he’s gone now. I had a great time with Olie. He really helped me my first years. [He is] a great guy to have in the locker room. I can’t say enough about him, he’s awesome. Every day [he] came to work hard. He was very professional. He’s also great with young guys, and helping us into the league.”

“You know now there’s some other veteran presences in there. We’ve got Sergei Federov back. We’ll have him for a full year, and he’s another guy the guys really look up to. There [was] a bit of a void when Olie [left] but we have other guys that can fill that.”

On Kolzig going to a division rival:

“I dunno, we get a chance to play against him. It’ll be interesting, but Olie had to do what was best for Olie, when it came down to it. Turned out the organization was looking in a different direction. So, y’know, as competitors we still wanna play the game we still wanna prove that we have something left. I think that’s where Olie’s at. It was fun playin’ with him, it was awesome playin’ with him, but now we get a chance to play against him, it’s gonna be interesting. [When I] go to his net, we’ll see if I get a stick in the back of the legs or something.” {laughs} “It’ll be a fun time.”

On the return of Nylander and Clark this season after spending most of last season injured:

“We missed those guys last year. That’s a lot of talent right there in those two guys. Brian Pothier’s another guy that we’re missing from our line-up, and having Nyles back and Clarkie back at full strength it’s really gonna help us. I think it’s gonna give us a lot more depth up front and also we get our Captain back. Y’know, you can’t say enough about Chris Clark; he’s the heart and soul of this team. He plays the way we wanna play. He’s hard-nosed, he plays every night, he competes and that has a trickle down effect to the other guys on the team, and we’re happy to have them both back.”

On what Alex Ovechkin can do for an encore this season:

“I don’t think Alex concerns himself with proving or trying to score more goals than he did last year [or] more points, that’s not what he worries about. Something you guys aren’t fortunate enough to see is how competitive [he] is behind the scenes, in the locker room, when we’re down a goal, how much he wants to win. He doesn’t care if he scores two goals in a game he just wants to win the hockey game, and that’s something you guys don’t have the luxury of seeing. He, I think, is going to measure himself, not so much by how many goals and assists, but by how the team does. That’s the type of guy Alex is, that’s why he’s a leader of this hockey team, and that’s why they signed him for thirteen years. He wants to succeed, he wants us to make a run in the playoffs, and ultimately I don’t think Alex will go to sleep at night until he’s won a Stanley Cup.”

On whether Alex Ovechkin should be named a team Captain this year:

“I don’t think so. I think it’s undisputed that Alex is the face of the Washington Capitals, and he’s a leader on our hockey team. Chris Clark is a veteran that’s been around and he knows how to handle a hockey team, and how to be a leader. Alex is a superstar; we all know that, but Clarkie has a great relationship (as does Alex) with all the players, just a bit more of a calming presence, and we missed Clarkie last year. We missed him sorely last year. We missed his leadership; we missed his on ice ability. Neither of those guys, I think, are too concerned with titles, and who has the “A” and who has the “C”. They both know their roles on our hockey team, and both guys I think equally just wanna win. They don’t care who’s wearing the “C”.”