Mathieu Perreault: Off-season expectations, a counterpoint

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Prospect Update: Mathieu Perreault

Today I will profile Hershey Bears center Mathieu Perreault.  Perreault is a 22-year old second year pro from Drummondville, Quebec.  He stands 5'10 and 174, though he seems much smaller than that on the ice.  So far he has played a major role for the Hershey Bears in this year's Calder Cup Playoffs.

The Hershey Bears tore through their first two playoff rounds in a hurry and now face the Manchester Monarchs in the Eastern Conference Final.  They defeated the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in 5 games in the first round and thumped the Albany River Rats in a second round sweep.

Bears #24 Mathieu Perreault

Perreault is Hershey's 5th leading scorer in the playoffs with 9 points in 9 games.  He already has twice as many goals in these playoffs (4) as he had in last year's Calder Cup run, and he has already eclipsed his career high in playoff points, passing the 8 (2-6-8) he scored in 21 games last year.

Elimination Game

There were 18 individual Capitals out there instead of a team in Game 6.  The Caps have got to play like a team, crash the net for rebounds, deflections and screens and stop making a decent goalie look like a god.  Jaroslav Halak is not Patrick Roy or Ken Dryden, Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin need to tone it down.  The Caps didn't exactly make it difficult for him, they let him see the shots, they let him get set for shots, didn't get second chances, and when they did, they put the puck into his leg pads or his chest.  Alexander Semin 15 feet from the goal with nobody within 10 feet of him should be an automatic goal, and Semin shot it like his kid sister was in the goal and he didn't want to hurt her feelings.  Yeah there were a few bounces that didn't do the Capitals' way, but it's funny you only seem to notice them when you're losing. Get traffic on Halak and make him uncomfortable, then tell me he looks like Patrick Roy. 

Capitals Regular Season Recap

My prediction for the Capitals season was not quite what transpired.  On September 30, I predicted a 57-17-8 regular season for 122 points and 1st place in the East, which includes winning the Southeast Division.  The Capitals finished 54-15-13 for 121 points and 1st in the Southeast, 1st in the East plus 1st in the League.  I also predicted the Capitals would play Ottawa in the first round, Philadelphia in the second round and Pittsburgh in the third round.  As usual, my western prediction was wrong, I picked Anaheim to play in the Final. 

 The President's Trophy

The Capitals set team records for the most wins (54), most points (121), most road wins (24), most road points (55), most home points (66), and tied for most home wins (30).  The led the league in goals (313) and goal differential (+85).  They has the league's best powerplay by far (25.2%) and scored the most powerplay goals (79).  They led the league in goals in each period of play (92, 103, and 112).  The finished second in overtime goals (6).  They led the league in home wins (30-5-6) and tied for the lead in road wins (24-10-7).  This marked a dominating season by the Capitals. 

Caps Notes 4/3

-The Capitals broke their losing streak against the Atlanta Thrashers with a hard fought, physical, complete game.  they won 2-1 with a goal from the top line and a goal from a grinder plus a very solid performance from their goaltender.  It'll be nice to see more of that going forward.

-Speaking of the Atlanta game, 48-year-old Chris Chelios was victimized on Matt Bradley's game winning goal.

Caps Notes 3/30/10 - Perreault Continues to Impress

-Congratulations to Jason Chimera, who recorded his 100th NHL assist last night on Mike Green's goal.

-Mathieu Perreault continues to make his case:  he already has as many goals (4) and points (9) this season as Alexandre Giroux has in his entire NHL career.  I think I know which one won't be recalled again this year.

Perreault already knows how to celebrate like a pro.

-We'll need Boyd Gordon's 60.1% faceoff win percentage come playoff time. After Gordon and 4th line center David Steckel (59.7%, 609 of 1020), the Capitals faceoff leaders are Brendan Morrison (51.2%, 486 of 948) and Nicklas Backstrom (49.9%, 620 of 1242).   Yikes.

Senators 5, Capitals 4 (OT)

The Capitals had yet another poor start tonight, but something changed:  the Caps scored a goal in the first period, and that made a huge difference.  After falling behind 1-0, the Caps got a fancy goal on a silly individual effort by Alexander Semin, who ripped a shot through Ottawa goalie Brian Elliott while on the powerplay to even the score at 1.  Semin got himself across the blueline after the Caps had had trouble setting up on the powerplay and with a little subterfuge on a fake spin move, he got himself into space before ripping a shot 5 hole, off the wrong foot, of course.

The Caps then fell behind 3-1 before the end of the period.

New Milestones

Alex Ovechkin reached the 100 point plateau for the fourth time in his five NHL seasons.  He matched his career high in assists with 54 and his career low of 46 goals.  Congrats, Alex!

Nicklas Backstrom recorded his 61st assist and 90th point on the season.  He's only the 5th Capital to ever record 90 points in a season, joining Alexander "The Gr8" Ovechkin, Bobby "The Can't Miss Kid" Carpenter, Mike "Mustache" Gartner, and Dennis "Dennis" Maruk.  This is in stark contrast to before Sunday's game when he was the 14th Cap to reach 80 points, which just doesn't have the same ring to it.  That 61st assist put him into a tie with Scott Stevens for the 5th best single season mark all-time in Caps history.