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.

John Carlson named to AHL All-Rookie Team

John Carlson was named to the AHL All-Rookie team today, following up his appearance in the AHL All-Star Game and his Calder Cup championship last season.

Carlson played in 48 games, with 4 goals, 35 assists, and 39 points with a +37 rating.  He finished 4th among all rookies in assists, 13th among all rookies in points, 2nd among all rookies and 4th overall in the league in +/-.

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.

NHL Finally Penalizes Deliberate Head Shots

The NHL finally did something about the head-shot epidemic that has diseased the league this season.  It should seem like common sense that if you hit an unsuspecting opponent directly in the head, it should be illegal.  Some major injuries have resulted this year to marquee players, and these hits have cost players games and future contract money, not to mention the effect a head injury can have on the rest of your life.  It has cost teams their chance at the playoffs.  If Boston doesn't make the dance, we'll know why.  Florida might not have made it anyway, but it sure was a lot harder without their only 30 goal scorer from last season.  When the best players are on the ice, the best hockey gets played and the more fans pay attention, which means more money for the league and the players. 

While I am certainly in favor of punishment for players who deliberately target their opponents, punishment is not the name of the game:  the name of our game is hockey.  Sometimes it can be brutal, sometimes it can be violent, and players get hurt all the time in normal game play.  It happens, it's the nature of the game and it's part of why we love it so much.  Not everyone is trying to win the Lady Byng, either. 

My hope for this rule is that players will think twice before making that hit so fewer players get hurt.  Players sometimes forget just how much damage they can do, but there needs to be a level of respect for your opponent.  You never know, you might be teammates tomorrow, and the only thing separating you is the logo on the front, so if you can't see that, don't hit him.

These are just two of the players victimized by head shots this season:  Marc Savard and David Booth.

Capital Inflation - New Career Highs

Much has been made of the tremendous offensive season the Capitals are having collectively and the scoring exploits of certain team members, but I thought it would be instructive to show just how many career seasons are going on right now for the Caps:

-Nicklas Backstrom has set a new career high in Goals (29) and Points (89).  His previous highs set last season were 22 Goals and 88 Points.

-Eric Belanger has set new career highs in Assists (25) and Points (39).  His previous highs were 24 Assists and 37 Points.

Capitals 4, Penguins 3 (SO)

Since he has become the Washington Capitals head coach, we have come to trust Bruce Boudreau's hunches.  From sticking with Eric Fehr and Tomas Fleischmann when they were struggling to Fleischmann's move to center, to playing Alex Semin and Nick Backstrom on the penalty kill, Boudreau has shown time and again why he is the best hockey coach alive.  So when he sent Mike Knuble out in the shootout, we knew he had his reasons.

Jose Theodore: Money Goaltender (Part 1)

In this post I will examine the suitability of Jose Theodore to lead the Washington Capitals into the playoffs as the starting goaltender.  In this installment I will examine his past playoff performances and in the next installment I will take a look at his current situation against other historical comparables.

Taking a look at Theodore's playoff history, I am filled with confidence that he will be more than capable of carrying the Washington Capitals to a Stanley Cup victory this season.  Theodore's career numbers are:  49 Games, 19 Wins, 27 Losses, a 2.79 Goals Against Average, a .912 Save Percentage, with 1 Shutout.  His most important numbers, though, are 4 and 100%.  Four as in the number of playoff series he has won as the starter.  One hundred percent as in four times he has been the goalie of record for his team's entire playoff run, and four times he has won a playoff series.

Here are summaries of his four long post-season runs over the course of 6 NHL seasons.  I must emphasize here that Jose Theodore has never once enjoyed home-ice advantage as a playoff starter.  The major prevailing trend of these playoff runs is Jose Theodore throws the team on his back and upsets a higher seeded team in round one, draining his overachieving team in the process and setting up a rout against a much better team in the second round.  He always comes to play in the biggest games, and he almost always follows up a bad game with a great one.  With the Capitals set to enjoy home-ice throughout the playoffs and being a high-scoring team, Theodore should not encounter the same problems has has faced in the past.

Capitals 3, Lightning 1

Tonight Alex Ovechkin returned from a league-mandated hiatus of 2 games. He returned with a vengeance, scoring the game-winning goal on a breakaway from a bank-pass from Nicklas Backstrom at 10:47 of the first period to break a 1-1 tie.  He fired 7 shots on net, loosed 6 more that missed or were blocked, and he had 1 hit in 22:52 of ice time.  Ovie is back.

Nicklas Backstrom's Worth

Capitals #1 center Nicklas Backstrom is due a big pay raise come July 1 when he becomes a restricted free agent.  Talks on a new contract are in progress and the two sides appear relatively close to a deal.  Trying to figure out his worth based on recently awarded contracts for comparable players is an interesting exercise, but one must also consider the salary structure on the Capitals.  Next season, Alex Ovechkin is due $9 million, Alexander Semin is due $6 million, and Mike Green is due $5 million.

The next question is term:  Ovechkin is signed for another 11 seasons, Semin is UFA after next season, and Green is on for another 2 seasons.  Where does Backstrom fit in this scheme?  One could argue he's somewhere between Semin and Ovechkin based on his role and production.

Hurricanes 4, Capitals 3 (OT)

The Hurricanes wanted it more tonight, scoring a goal in overtime to send the Caps to Tampa on a losing streak.  The game had a great tempo to start, few whistles and chances at both ends.  This was the game the Caps appeared to miss Alex Ovechkin, as they were not able to get the goals tonight.  It took a clutch goal from Eric Fehr with 10 seconds left to even get to overtime.  At least someone was celebrating:

It would have been nice to have some warning the Hurricanes would play so hard, but it was too late by the time Craig Laughlin made his pronouncement.  Admiral Ackbar wasn't happy:

Capital Killer Erik Cole Trying to Resurrect His Career

Carolina Hurricanes left winger Erik Cole enters tonight's game against the Washington Capitals coming off a two-goal performance last night against the Boston Bruins.

That brings his season total to 8 goals in 27 games in yet another broken season for him in the midst of a broken season for his beloved Canes.  Cole has missed 41 games this season with two separate injuries, symptoms of his rough and tumble style of play, and another game with an illness. That Cole is even still playing is a miracle, but Caps fans have more colorful words to describe it. He's the type of player you hate to play against but love to have on your team.


Erik Cole, who stands 6' 2 and weighs over 200 pounds, always seems to have something up his sleeve for games against the Capitals.  He has played 36 games against the Capitals and has scored 19 goals and 32 points, his best totals against any team.  He has scored two of his six career hat tricks against the Caps, too, including when we thought we thought we were free of him during his gulag in Edmonton. To put this in perspective, Cole has played 6.85% of his 525 career games against the Caps and has scored 12.25% of his 155 goals in those games and 9.61% of his 333 points.

Capitals 7, Panthers 3: It's Where Your Dad Always Tells You To Go

On a night when everything seemed to go right for the Capitals, one had to be reminded that the team's captain and best player was not on the ice.  The Capitals skated away with an easy victory in Sunrise, Florida tonight that ended with a football score after Brooks Laich kicked the extra point.  The toothless Panthers were able to score only on easy plays given to them by the occasionally careless Capitals as Jose Theodore shut the door time after time.

Panthers goalie Tomas Vokoun had a strong game with several highlight reel saves, but ultimately yielded the crease to backup Scott Clemmensen at 14:06 of the second period after allowing 5 goals.  That change yielded a goal for the Panthers 22 seconds later, but otherwise the Capitals seemed like the only hockey team in this game.

The Capitals went 2-4 on the powerplay and 3-3 on the penalty kill.  They were rewarded for crashing the crease and the Panthers couldn't put them on their rears so they had no fear of playing in the blue paint.  Jason Chimera, who charged the goal mouth and scored a goal on a rebound of a Brendan Morrison shot, said "It's where your dad always tells you to go."

Pay that man his money

Nick Backstrom has another great game, amazing overtime goal, and I think it is time for Teddy to pay that man his money.