May 23, 2013

Washington Capitals Game 44 Recap: Rough night in Ottawa ends streak at eight

April 18, 2013 by

BACKSTROM HURT; WINNIPEG TRIMS DIVISION LEAD TO TWO POINTS

It had to end sometime.

The Washington Capitals, one of the hottest teams in hockey the last three weeks, rode into Ottawa to face a tough Senators team on the back on an eight-game winning streak, fueled by the league’s most dangerous power play and solid goaltending. Unfortunately, the team looked sluggish and was outplayed and beaten in just about every aspect of the game by a team that could very well be their first-round playoff draw — if the Caps can hold off the competition for first place in the Southeast.

Indicative of how badly the Caps were outplayed, they were outshot by the Senators 38-19 — including 11-4 in the first period.

To add injury to insult, center Nick Backstrom missed the last 7:16 of the game with an undisclosed upper body injury, thought to have been sustained when hit in the arm with an errant Mike Green shot midway through the final frame.

The teams played an ugly, uneven first period, with neither team generating any semblance of offense. In the second, the Sens started the scoring just 1:15 in, when Kyle Turris beat Braden Holtby from along the boards with an innocent-enough looking shot to his blocker side. Holtby appeared to look to the heavens in exasperation as the puck sailed past him.

The Caps knotted things up at 11;14, as Mike Ribeiro continued his career year by knocking in a bouncing puck past Sens goalie Craig Anderson. But the tie didn’t last long.

Two minutes after Ribeiro evened things up, Holtby tried to play a puck behind his net and back out the other side to Karl Alzner. Unfortunately, Holtby’s pass was off the mark and ended up right on the tape of Sens forward Cory Conacher, who snapped it into the unattended goal before Holtby could get back to his post.

That score stood until little more than one minute remaining, when Ottawa added an empty-net goal after the Caps lost the offensive-zone draw with six skaters. For the night, the Caps were beat in the faceoff circle, winning just 38 percent of the draws.

Though Holtby could be assigned direct blame on both goals, no one should hang the loss on the Caps goalie. This was a team-wide lackluster effort.

It’s bound to happen at some point after such a lengthy winning streak, but the Caps can ill afford to let up with the Winnipeg Jets breathing down their necks. The Jets cut the Caps lead in the division to two points with a 4-3 overtime win over Carolina. There is no rest for the weary, at the Caps travel to Montreal for a 7:00 pm Saturday showdown with Les Habitent before next Tuesday’s all-important head-to-head matchup with Winnipeg.

All hands on deck from here on out, but if Backstrom’s injury is anything more than a bruise…

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Washington Capitals Game 6 Recap: Caps Take Early Lead, Fade Late in 3-2 Loss to Ottawa

January 29, 2013 by

Tuesday night on the road the Washington Capitals played perhaps their two best periods of the season, but it was a poor third period that proved their undoing in a 3-2 loss on against the Ottawa Senators.

The Caps took a 2-0 lead late in the first period on goals by Troy Brouwer and Matt Hendricks, the second marker of the season for each. Michal Neuvirth earned his fourth start in a row for Washington after Braden Holtby started the seasons’ first two games. Although Neuvirth stopped 24 shots during the game, it was three Senators shots in the final 21:23 of regulation to send the Caps out of Scotiabank Place a disappointed group of players. [Read more...]

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GAME 60 Re-Cap: 20-Minute Effort Leads to 5-2 Loss in Ottawa

February 22, 2012 by

The Washington Capitals are beginning to enter desperation mode in their hunt for a fifth consecutive playoff berth, but it would be hard to tell from their performance Wednesday night on the road against the Ottawa Senators.  Instead, for the second game in a row the Caps delivered a positively tepid performance in an embarrassing 5-2 loss to the surging Sens.

John Carlson provided Washington’s first goal, an impressive one-timer from the right faceoff dot on the power play.  Mathieu Perreault’s goal was far less impressive, a shot that deflected off his face into the open net. [Read more...]

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Caps in Advance: Week 20

February 20, 2012 by

There may be no more stressful time for an NHL player during the regular season than the lead in to the trade deadline, particularly when your team’s owner has already gone on the record to say that moves will be made.

Washington’s four games this week are its last before Monday afternoon’s deadline, and the next quarter of games will go a long way toward determining general manager George McPhee’s stance and activity.  Two of the Caps’ upcoming opponents, the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs, occupy the final two spots in the Eastern Conference’s playoff field.

Luckily for the Caps, Dale Hunter’s squad has performed exceedingly well against its upcoming slate of foes. Washington is a combined 9-2-0 against Ottawa, Toronto, the Carolina Hurricanes, and Montreal Canadiens, outscoring the four foes by a margin of almost 3 to 2.

In personnel news, extremely encouraging is the return of defenseman Mike Green, who skated 18 shifts for almost 15 minutes in Saturday night’s 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, his first game action in over a month and only the second full game he completed since late October.  Green’s fellow Young Gun Nicklas Backstrom remains out indefinitely with a concussion, but the return of the high-scoring blueliner adds even more punch to a defensive corps that already boasts two of the top 20 goal scorers in the NHL: Dennis Wideman (T-4th, 10 goals) and John Carlson (T-17th, 7 goals). [Read more...]

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Washington Capitals’ next six games may determine playoff fate

February 15, 2012 by

The two weeks leading up to the NHL trade deadline may be the most closely-watched stretch of regular season games in the NHL season, as teams jockey for position in the playoff race, front office staffs assess the health of their rosters and consider trade options, and general managers ask their coaches to showcase potential trade bait for any and all suitors.

In the nation’s capital, the disappointing Washington Capitals currently sit in ninth place in the Eastern Conference with 61 points and have six games remaining before the 3 p.m. deadline on Monday, February 27.

Of those six games, three are against the three teams immediately above the Caps in the standings: the Florida Panthers, Ottawa Senators, and Toronto Maple Leafs.  All three of those games are on the road, two are in Canada, and one – a visit to Toronto in both teams’ last game before the trading deadline – on national television on Hockey Night in Canada. [Read more...]

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Game 27 Re-CAP: Capitals 5, Senators 3: A Whole New Vintage

December 7, 2011 by

Remember him? He's still got it. (Photo by Cheryl Nichols)

 

After a dismal loss on Monday, the Washington Capitals delivered the perfect response on Wednesday evening on the outskirts of Ottawa, rallying from a 2-1 third-period deficit to defeat the Senators 5-3 in a fascinating game that was full of incident.

The biggest talking point was (who else?) Alexander Ovechkin, who played one of his better games of the season in recording seven shots on goal and recorded his 9th tally of the season to put the Capitals ahead to stay at the 13:50 mark of the third period. The goal was downright Orr-like (as a native New Englander, that’s the highest compliment I can give any hockey player), as Ovechkin carried the puck into the offensive zone at the left point, circled behind the net to the far boards, put the brakes on at the half-boards, spun around to shake the Erik Karlsson and skated to the top of the circle before loosing a wrist shot past Craig Anderson to give Washington a 3-2 lead.

As occasionally happens, of course, Ovechkin made himself a talking point in a negative context as well. He should have received a penalty for spearing Chris Neil in the midsection in the second period. Not only was no penalty called, but Neil’s pain was compounded by being called for a dive. The official’s error wasn’t compounded on the scoreboard, as the Caps didn’t score on the resulting power play. However, there’s no doubt that the incident will be looked at again by the NHL and the possibility that Ovechkin will face supplemental discipline is a very real one.

But that was the worst thing to come out of a night where it appeared for a long time that the Capitals would have even more scrutiny heaped on them as the result of a tough loss. After outshooting Ottawa 15-6 in the first period and taking the lead through a Jeff Halpern tap-in early in the second, the Capitals allowed two very poor goals to surrender their lead.

The first, at 12:43 of the second, was a simple rebound goal by Erik Condra, who was in the right place at the right time to redirect the rebound of Karlsson’s point shot past Tomas Vokoun. Then, at 17:54, Nick Foligno scored a beautiful goal that highlighted many of the Capitals’ usual defensive frailties. After Foligno eluded a hip-check attempt by Dennis Wideman, he circled around a lame poke-check attempt by John Carlson, went wide of an over-committed Vokoun and gently slipped the puck of the goal line.

That made it 2-1, Ottawa after 40 minutes. Not for the first time under Dale Hunter, the Caps were required to rally from a deficit. But this time, they actually pulled the trick off. First, Nicklas Backstrom finished off a beautiful passing move with a power-play wrist shot to tie the game at 2-2 with 10:15 left to go in regulation. Then Ovechkin did his best Orr impression. Fifteen seconds after that, Marcus Johansson (remember him?) made a beautiful centering pass to Troy Brouwer, who made the score 4-2 with 5:55 left.

That should have ended the competitive portion of the game, but Alexander Semin took another step toward a return to Russia by committing a lazy, foolish hooking penalty. Ottawa scored five seconds into the resulting power play and only Carlson’s empty-net goal with 46 seconds left put the result beyond doubt.

Whether or not the four-goal third-period outburst will be an anomaly in the Hunter regime remains to be seen. Given the way the Caps have struggled against higher-caliber defenses so far this season, it seems likely that the road to the Stanley Cup Finals will be paved with 1-0 and 2-1 games. But even if that happens to be the case, Wednesday night’s game was a nice reminder of the team’s pure offensive talent, the main reason why so many fans fell in love (or back in love, in some cases) with the Washington Capitals.  It was a vintage performance, with a tough new style.

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Caps in Advance: Week 9

December 5, 2011 by

There was one big story for the Washington Capitals last week, and it was a doozy.

Long-time Capitals captain and fan favorite Dale Hunter was named the organization’s 15th head coach, replacing Bruce Boudreau, who was fired on Monday after it became evident to general manager George McPhee that “the players were no longer responding” to the four-year coach, who had become the fastest coach in NHL history to reach 200 wins the week prior. A few days later the team also fired assistant coach Bob Wood, who was previously Boudreau’s assistant in Hershey, and hired Jim Johnson, Hunter’s former teammate and the head coach of the Norfolk Admirals of the AHL.

At the time of the loss Washington was mired in a fifteen-game slump, looking completely lost after a great measure of early-season success. one reason attributed to the funk was confusion over the team’s system, as Boudreau has switched between run-and-gun and defensive-minded playstyles since the start of the 2010-11 season.

There will be no confusion under Hunter, who asks his team to play a distinctly “lunchpail” style of dump-and-chase hockey, not to mention the willingness to be a strong disciplinarian.

The first two games of the Hunter era were nothing to crow about, as the Caps dropped 2-1 results to the St. Louis Blues and Pittsburgh Penguins, mustering only 35 shots between the two games. Saturday night’s tilt with the Ottawa Senators was a great improvement, Hunter earning his first win in overtime on a goal by former Sens draft pick Brooks Laich. There was plenty of improvement, with the Caps recording 35 shots and committing only one penalty, but also plenty of room for improvement, as Washington was 0-for-4 on the power play and blew a 2-1 lead with less than five minutes left in the third period.

Washington has a short break, taking the ice again on Monday this week rather than their usual Tuesday night game, and Hunter will hope his system continues to become second nature for players who will be getting fairly worn down by the end of the upcoming stretch.

Games this week:

MONDAY, DECEMBER 5th @ FLORIDA PANTHERS
7:30pm, BankAtlantic Center
TV: CSN-MA

Records:
Washington Capitals: 13-11-1, 27 points, 2nd in Southeast Division, 8th in Eastern Conference
Florida Panthers: 14-8-4, 32 points, 1st in Southeast Division, 3rd in Eastern Conference
Season Series: 1-0-0

Washington’s November woes have them looking up at a new leader in the Southeast Division, the surprising Florida Panthers. A team basically reinvented with a drastic offseason of trades and free agent signings, the Panthers have quickly jelled in sunny Southern Florida.

The Panthers boast one of the top five highest-scoring lines in the NHL, and by far the least heralded. Stephen Weiss (9 goals, 17 assists) centers Kris Versteeg (12 goals, 16 assists) and ex-Cap Tomas Fleischmann (12 goals, 15 assists) to pace Florida’s attack.

Also contributing on offense is defenseman Jason Garrison, whose 8 goals this season, all slapshots, lead all defenders in the league. Prior to thisyear, Garrison had 7 goals in 113 career games over three seasons. One factor contributing to Garrison’s success is undoubtedly the significant ice time he earns as part of Florida’s top defensive pairings alongside reclamation project Brian Campbell.

Another major contribution to the Cats’ success is first-year head coach Kevin Dineen. It seems appropriate that a new coach from outside the organization (Dineen previously coached the Anaheim Ducks’ AHL affiliate) is the one who successfully transformed a collection of new players into a defensively-sound, winning team. Beyond Fleischmann, erstwhile Capital Jose Theodore (10-5-3, 2.28 GAA, .924 Save %) is also a major contributor to Florida’s success. Former Cap Matt Bradley is currently on IR with an upper body injury, and will slot in on the fourth line when he returns, possibly for the Washington game.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7th v. OTTAWA SENATORS
7:00 pm, Scotiabank place
TV: TSN, RDS2, CSN-MA

Records:
Washington Capitals: 13-11-1, 27 points,  2nd in Southeast Division, 8th in Eastern Conference
Ottawa Senators: 12-11-3, 27 points, 4th in Northeast Division, 9th in Eastern Conference
Season Series: 2-0-0

The NHL scheduling office clearly wants to get the Capitol Cup out of the way early this season, as Washington and Ottawa meet on Wednesday for the third time (out of four) within the first 1/3 of the season, and for the second time in three games. It’s a quality matchup as both teams are tied in points at 27, with Washington holding the tiebreaker with 13 wins to Ottawa’s 12.

Saturday night in D.C., Washington staked out a pair of one-goal leads, allowing Ottawa to tie the game up both times before Laich took a pass from Jason Chimera and waited for Sens goalie Craig Anderson to make the first move before flipping it under the crossbar for the overtime winner. The result was par for the course for Ottawa- Erik Karlsson played well (other than falling down right before Laich’s goal) in over 26 minutes, Milan Michalek scored a goal, and Anderson generally controlled play in his own end, turning away 32 Caps shots.

Not much will change for Ottawa on Wednesday night, other than the quality of their locker room. Gifted grinder Chris Neil returned from injury on Saturday against the Caps, recording 2 shots, 2 hits, and one penalty in 9:11 of ice time. By the time Washington comes to town Neil will likely be up to his usual 13:38 TOI, which means an extra four minutes of heavy hitting in the corners and crosschecks to the back after the play for Washington’s defensemen.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9th v. TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
7:00pm, Verizon Center
TV: CSN-MA

Records:
Washington Capitals: 13-11-1, 27 points, 2nd in Southeast Division, 8th in Eastern Conference
Toronto Maple Leafs: 14-10-2, 30 points, 2nd in Northeast Division, 6th in Eastern Conference
Season Series: 0-1-0

The Toronto Maple Leafs started the season on fire, thanks in large part to the staggering numbers on offense posted by Phil Kessel (16 goals, 16assists) and Joffrey Lupul (12 goals, 18assists, 30PIM), as well as the resurgence of defenders Dion Phaneuf and John-Michael Liles.

Expect the Caps to come out flying against Toronto. In the previous meeting between the teams, the Leafs demolished Washington 7-1 in Toronto on a national broadcast, a terrible showing that McPhee hinted was the genesis of the recent bench boss regime change. Even if the players weren’t responding to Boudreau, most of them certainly liked him, and a Friday night home date will give them the chance to exact some measure of revenge.

Over the past few weeks, since shellacking Washington, the Leafs have fallen back down to earth a bit, dropping from 1st to 6th in the Eastern Conference. #1 netminder James Reimer, who started six of Toronto’s first seven games, had been out of the lineup since suffering a concussion in late October.  Reimer finally returned on Saturday in a 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, his appearance relieving his team from having to rely on backup Jonas Gustavsson and minor-leaguer Ben Scrivens in net. As a team, the Leafs rank in the bottom third in the league in shots against (31.3/game) and goals against (3.23/game), numbers that should improve with an NHL-caliber goaltender in net.

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CAPS: Holiday Pre-Game Video

December 5, 2011 by

The Washington Capitals premiered a holiday pre-game video on Saturday night, December 3, 2011, at the Verizon Center when they hosted the Ottawa Senators. Here is the video in case you missed it.

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CAPS: Congrats to Ovechkin and Laich on 500th NHL Game

December 5, 2011 by

Saturday night, December 3, 2011, both Alex Ovechkin and Brooks Laich played their 500th NHL game at the Verizon Center when the Washington Capitals hosted the Ottawa Senators.

Alex Ovechkin had a first assist on Troy Brouwer’s goal, the Caps second goal of the night.

Brooks Laich scored the winning goal, only twelve seconds into overtime. Laich was drafted by Ottawa and played his first NHL game, and only game, for the Senators. It seemed fitting that Brooks would not only play his 500th game against the team that game him his first chance, but also to score the winning goal.

Caps fans “Laiched” the  3-2 victory over the Senators, which also marked the first win for new Caps Head Coach Dale Hunter.

Congrats to both players from District Sports Page on the milestone game.

500th NHL Game for both Alex Ovechkin and Brooks Laich (Photo by Cheryl Nichols)

Brooks Laich scores the game winning overtime goal in his 500th NHL game and is about to be congratulated by John Carlson (Photo by Cheryl Nichols)

Caps365 Video of Game Winning Goal by Laich:

Caps365 Video – Short Tribute to Ovi and Brooksy:

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Caps in Advance: Week 8

November 28, 2011 by

As the saying goes, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. The Washington Capitals started last week with a pair of 4-3 wins over Nashville and Winnipeg, and then followed up with a pair of absolute clunkers in back-to-back losses to the New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres.

Both losses were galling, particularly the 5-1 defeat at the hands of a Sabres team half-composed of players recently called up from the AHL’s Rochester Americans. It’s painfully clear that something is not working in D.C.; it’s yet to be determined if that something is team cohesion, coach Bruce Boudreau’s system, Tomas Vokoun’s confidence, or something else.

The NHL scheduler did the reeling Capitals no favors this upcoming week, as games against resurgent St. Louis and Ottawa squads bookend a highly-anticipated meeting with the Pittsburgh Penguins. In happier times (like last season), the hype leading in to a Caps-Pens game could rival that of Dallas week for the Redskins. Instead, the more apt comparison may be directly between the Capitals and the floundering ‘Skins, two teams completely falling apart after a strong start to the season.

Right now, the Caps are without an identity.  The same situation befell the Blues earlier in the season, and the Senators at the end of last season.  Big changes were made behind the bench for both squads. It may not be fair to suggest the same thing happen in Washington, but Boudreau will eternally find himself on the hot seat unless he can turn this Washington squad’s fortunes around ASAP.

Games this week:

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29th v. ST. LOUIS BLUES
7:00pm, Verizon Center
TV: CSN-MA

Records:
Washington Capitals: 12-9-1, 25 points, 2nd in Southeast Division, 8th in Eastern Conference
St. Louis Blues: 13-8-2, 28 points, 3rd in Central Division, 5th in Western Conference
Only meeting this season

Last year:
Capitals: 48-23-11, 107 pts, 1st in Southeast Division, 1st in Eastern Conference
Blues: 38-33-11, 87 points, 4th in Central Division, 11th in Western Conference

At the beginning of November, the Blues were a team in crisis.  St. Louis management had high expectations for the squad this season and deemed a 6-7-0 start unacceptable.  Head coach Davis Payne was fired, and Ken Hitchcock hired. Since then, the Blues have won seven of ten behind the strength of a solid offensive effort across the board and stellar goaltending from Brian Elliott, who leads the NHL in GAA (1.31) and Save % (.951) and has completely supplanted Cap-killer Jaroslav Halak as the main man in the Gateway to the West.

In recent years the Blues have been a team predicated on youth, featuring stars-in-the-making like David Backes and T.J. Oshie, plus Chris Stewart and Kevin Shattenkirk, two impressive youngsters acquired from Colorado last year. Last year’s promise wasn’t enough to get St. Louis into the playoffs, however, and the organization decided to bring in some new veteran on-ice leadership: namely, Jason Arnott and Jamie Langenbrunner. Arnott, the (briefly) former Cap, leads the Blues in power play goals, and together the two have brought much-needed levity to a volatile locker room.

Last week the Blues dispatched the Crosby-led Penguins in OT, before shutting out the Calgary Flames and then beating the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night.  One big reason for the positive results was the return of Stewart, who was suspended for three games for a hit from behind on Detroit’s Nicklas Kronwall earlier in the month.  With Stewart’s physical presence out of the lineup St. Louis lost two of three; with him, they have won three straight.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1st v. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

7:00 pm, Verizon Center
TV: NHLN, CSN-MA

Records:
Washington Capitals: 12-9-1, 25 points, 2nd in Southeast Division, 8th in Eastern Conference
Pittsburgh Penguins: 14-6-4, 32 points, 1st in Atlantic Division, 1st in Eastern Conference
Season Series: 1-0-0

Last year:
Penguins: 49-25-8, 106 points, 2nd in Atlantic Division, 4th in Western Conference

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: Sidney Crosby is on fire.  With 2 goals and 6 assists in his first 4 games, Crosby has shown emphatically that he’s still the best player in the game, post-concussion.

Dueling Captains Ovechkin and Crosby in 2010 (Photo by Cheryl Nichols)

Without Crosby, the Penguins were still the best squad in the NHL.  James Neal, after a disappointing close to 2010-11 when he was traded to Pittsburgh from Dallas, has been absolutely on fire, scoring 13 goals in 24 games, tied for 3rd in the league.  Jordan Staal has also discovered his scoring touch with 12 goals, over halfway to his season-high in goals just a quarter into the season.

Perhaps the most surprising story line out of Pittsburgh these days, more than Crosby’s health or Neal’s scoring, is the play of Matt Cooke.  The one-time Capitals appears to also be a one-time pugilist, past tense.  In 21 games, Cooke has recorded 5 goals, 6 assists, and only 8 penalty minutes.  Last season Cooke was 21st in the NHL in penalty minutes; this season, he’s tied for 248th.  Has Cooke redeemed his previous dirty ways?  It seems so.  He’ll probably never shed his reputation, but this season Cooke has found a way to play on the right side of that line between gritty and dirty, and that’s made him far more effective for the dominant Pens.

One question for Pittsburgh will be the play of Kris Letang, who took a headshot from Max Pacioretty in the Pens’ Saturday night game against the Canadiens. Letang returned to the game with his nose bloodied and broken and scored the game-winner in OT, but there could still be a lingering, lasting effect on his play, both physically and mentally.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25th v. OTTAWA SENATORS

7:00pm, Verizon Center
TV: CBC, RDS, CSN-MA

Records:
Washington Capitals: 12-9-1, 25 points, 2nd in Southeast Division, 8th in Eastern Conference
Ottawa Senators: 11-10-2, 24 points, 4th in Northeast Division, 11th in Eastern Conference
Season Series: 1-0-0

Last year:

Senators: 32-40-10, 74 points, 5th in Northeast Division, 13th in Eastern Conference

When these two teams met earlier in the season, the Capitals were riding high in the midst of a seven-game winning streak and the Senators were in an early season funk.  Ottawa has been extremely streaky in 2011-12, losing five of their first six before reeling off a string of six straight wins, followed by five straight losses, three more wins, and then a pair of losses before romping over the Flames on Sunday night.

Washington will be hoping to face the down-trodden Senators and not the squad backstopped by rejuvenated goaltender Craig Anderson.  Chances are the Caps won’t be able to avoid the offensive prowess of Milan Michalek, who has 12 goals so far this season. Michalek has been most effective at even strength and on the power play when lined up next to Jason Spezza.  In his ninth year in the league, the 28-year-old Spezza is not being asked to carry as much of the goal-scoring load for the Sens as in recent years, which in turn is allowing him to be more effective in his familiar role as a set-up man.

Leading Ottawa in spirit, and almost in points as well, is blueliner Erik Karlsson, whose 20 assists lead the NHL. Karlsson plays over 25 minutes a night for the Sens, who also rely heavily on Sergei Gonchar and Filip Kuba on their back line. Although all three are playing serious minutes and putting up points, only Kuba is a plus-player, at +3. In fact, Kuba is the only defenseman of the seven who have suited up for Ottawa this season who’s in the positive for +/-, indicating that the Sens’ bottom defensive pairings may be particularly vulnerable to pressure by Washington’s offense.

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