Monday, February 18, 2008

Sitting at the end of the bar...


Did you know that...

Alex Ovechkin has recorded ten or more shots in four games this year...the Caps are 3-0-1 in those games. He's registered fewer than five shots in 19 games...the Caps are 9-7-3 in those games.

Matt Pettinger has points in five games this year...the Caps are 5-0-0 in those games.

Last year, goaltender Olaf Kolzig faced more than 35 shots in a game 18 times. His record in such games: 12-4-2. This year, he has faced more than 35 shots only three times...he is 2-1-0 in such games.

On the other end of the spectrum, Kolzig is 2-2-0 in the four full games in which he played and faced fewer than 20 shots. Last year, he played only one full game in which he faced fewer than 20 shots...he lost that game.

Nicklas Backstrom is 8-32-40, +3 in 39 games since Thanksgiving.

The Capitals are 20-7-4 in games in which Viktor Kozlov has registered a point, 9-0-1 when he has scored a goal.

At the start of the year, you might have thought Michael Nylander, Chris Clark, Brian Pothier, Tom Poti, and Alexander Semin would be important cogs in the Caps' machine. Among them, they all have missed at least ten man-games to injury, a total of 114 and counting (Nylander, Clark and Pothier still out).

Among players taking at least 200 faceoffs this year, David Steckel leads all rookies with a 54.9 percent winning percentage. He's also seventh among rookies in hits (85), sixth in takeaways (27), and third among rookie forwards in blocked shots (35). Backstrom leads all rookies in takeaways (49) and is tied for fifth among rookie forwards in blocked shots (22).

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