Getting in touch with his inner Druce

Over on Japers Rink, there is the question that has to be asked of the Caps in this series, Who could be this year's John Druce? It's a fair question (The Peerless said in a moment of homophonic foreshadowing). We just think that the choices offered as an answer to the question -- Keith Aucoin, David Steckel, Boyd Gordon, and Matt Bradley -- miss the obvious.

Let's go back for a moment to Druce and how it was that he was so unexpected a star in the 1990 playoffs. In 1990, Druce had just completed his second regular season with the Caps. His resume, as those playoffs began, included 93 regular season games, in which he was 16-10-26, and one playoff game, in which he did not register a point. In spite of the fact that Druce had once put up 22 goals in 49 games for Peterborough in Canadian juniors and 32 goals for the Binghamton Whalers in the AHL, you wouldn't have pegged the then 23-year old to end up finishing second in the 1990 playoffs in goals scored - he had 14 (in 15 games) to Edmonton's Craig Simpson's 16 (in 22 games).

So, if you're looking down the Caps' roster, and you want to find a young guy -- 23 or so -- who has shown some goal scoring potential in the past, who has had some experience with the Caps in the regular season, but not too much, and who hasn't yet had a lot of highlights in his budding career, who might you find to fill the bill?

Hmm...let's see...

Druce had 93 games experience heading into his star turn, this guy has 109.

Druce had 16 career goals to that point, this guy has 15.

Druce had one playoff game of experience, this guy has five games of playoff experience.

Druce went the Canadian juniors-AHL-NHL route, and so did this guy.

Druce was 23 years old, this guy is...23 years old.

If you're looking for a Cap for whom the stars are aligned to get in touch with his inner Druce, it just might be this guy...

Don't look now, but...

Two players...

Player 1: Two games, 0-2-2, +1...his team is 3-1-1

Player 2: Five games, 0-1-1, -5...his team dropped to 1-5-0 today

Player 1...




Eric Fehr






Player 2...




Ryan Getzlaf

Fedorov Signs...Things Get Complicated

TSN.ca is reporting that the Capitals have signed forward Sergei Fedorov to a one year contract for $4.0 million.

That is about $1.5 million more than we thought Fedorov would (could) be signed for. While it lends some depth and stability to the center position, it suggests that the Caps are not done with personnel matters. Based on the numbers at nhlnumbers.com, the salary cap burden now looks like this for next season (updated for Brooks Laich and Eric Fehr signings, and correction for buyouts)):

The math no longer works for keeping the team together, unless Brian Pothier’s injuries prevent him from returning to the club. This could mean that an RFA is not going to be re-signed (we’re thinking that the player is Brooks Laich...ok, maybe not).

The roster look something like this, with Morrisonn awaiting arbitration:

Even with signings, things seem to get more complicated...

UPDATE: Fehr and Gordon signings included.

The Morning After -- Caps vs. Bruins

A one point night . . .

Blpblpblpblpblpblptht…..

The Peerless has no idea what to make of this team. Yesterday, we wrote:

If there was a team served up on a platter for what ails the Caps, it would be these Bruins. And that is precisely the kind of opponent the Caps have saved some of their ugliest games of the year for (see the combined work against the Florida Panthers in the last three meetings).

If the Caps show up and do something more than merely toss their sticks on the ice, they should win this game, and it shouldn’t be close.

Well the Caps didn’t exactly just throw their sticks on the ice, but it wasn’t exactly an inspired effort, either. There are those who forgot more about hockey over this morning’s coffee than The Peerless is ever going to know, but frankly, to say the club has “made a solid turnaround since the Ottawa game [on defense]” is really overstating the case in terms of the numbers, especially regarding last night’s game. Boston came into the game having scored a measly 31 goals in their last 16 games, only 13 in their last eight road games in which they went 1-7-0. This is a team that, for the moment at least, is supposed to get shut down. And the Caps give up one goal off a lost faceoff in their own end (the Caps lost 38 of 67 draws) and another to Patrice Bergeron, who couldn’t hit the water with the puck if he shot it off the poop deck of a cruise ship the last 16 games.

Then there was the offense. Again, here is a team – Boston – coming into this game ripe for the plucking. 72 goals allowed in their last 16 games, 37 in their last eight road games. And the Bruins end up giving up fewer goals in a road game than they’ve managed in almost two months. The Peerless believes that shots on goal matter over the long run of the season. Some argue to the contrary that if you keep the shots to the outside and don’t allow them in bunches, the shot total doesn’t matter. We think that over a season, you can’t count on that. But it sure looked to be the case last night. The Caps didn’t appear to be sticking their collective noses in tight to win loose pucks and bang them in.

But there were a few good performances. One deserves a special bag o’ chips . . .

Richard Zednik might have a “TRADE ME” sign on the back of his jersey, but it hasn’t seemed to hamper his effort. He had the best original chances to score last night and skated hard throughout. Brooks Laich played one of his better games with the club, and that would be true absent his goal. He played hard at both ends and was the only center who seemed to have a clue on faceoffs (winner of eight of 13 draws). Olaf Kolzig probably deserved better than to take the loss. The first goal, from Brandon Bochenski, he might like to have back, but he made a number of key stops down the stretch and really didn’t have a chance on a wide-open one-timer from Bergeron. And Eric Fehr had one of the few “paying attention” moments when he swept in a rebound for his second NHL goal. His taking five shots in the third period (almost half the club’s entire total for the period) suggests he’s starting to assert himself in the offense.

Which brings us to Alex Ovechkin. Every player has their worst game (even Wayne Gretzky, even Sidney Crosby…honest), and last night was, if not Ovechkin’s worst with the club, comes close. One got the feeling sitting in the stands that Zdeno Chara is really in this kid’s head. You can almost see Ovechkin trying to reason it out when he’s skating with the puck and Chara closing . . . “ok, now if I do this . . .” and by that time, his chance has passed. And last night was the extraordinarily rare game when Ovechkin skated without an obvious energy to him. We sat there thinking, “is he coming down with something?” He ended up with 17:38 in ice time last night, his lowest ice time total in a game he didn’t get thrown out of since November 28th. His two shots on goal ties his low mark for the season. And, he’s pointless in three straight games for the first time in his career (he hadn’t been held pointless in consecutive games this season until this stretch). He is in a slump. It happens. But it is odd, even in his brief career to date, to actually see it playing out on the ice.

Oh, and for all you folks longing for a return to the days of yesteryear, well, you saw it last night in the referee stylings of Don Koharski (whose mind might have been on other things, given the new concessions at Verizon) and Wes McCauley. They called 12 penalties in all, but that is very deceptive. Many were of the “non-discretionary” sort – coincidental fighting majors, coincidental roughing minors, a double minor for a high stick that drew blood, and a delay of game for shooting the puck over the glass. Only three “obstruction” fouls were called in the game, and it appeared as if they could have called three times that many. What, they left their whistles at the hotel? It was old time (1990’s) hockey.

But in the end, it was another point squandered, and there have been a lot of them over the past two months. Add them up, and the sum of it is – 13th place.

The Morning After -- Caps vs. Hurricanes, Part Deux

It was a two-point night!

Carolina was better . . .

Last night’s 7-3 win by the Caps over the Hurricanes was an effort by two teams to give away two points. Carolina was better. A lot better.

The Caps rushed to a 3-0 lead in the first 13 minutes on a pair of goals by Alexander Semin sandwiching one by Alex Ovechkin. The last two in that series were directly attributable to sloppy puck handling on the part of the Hurricanes, who all but handed the puck to the Alexes for their scores.

That should have ended the competitive portion of the evening, but when you’re 5-12-0 in your last 17 games, nothing is so simple as that. The Caps gave one back when Justin Williams sent a drive from the right wing point past Olaf Kolzig, who was having to contend with Andrew Ladd’s backside firmly planted against the cage of his mask. Compared to the iffy goaltender interference call against Jakub Klepis the previous night, that qualified as assault.

Worse was what followed. Mike Green chose just about the worst time to nonchalant the recovery of the puck at the top of his own zone, reaching out with one hand to try and corral the biscuit. He missed, and Carolina ended up burying the puck behind Kolzig moments later. That would be the last ice time Green would see for almost nine minutes. He ended up with just over eight minutes for the game – his lowest total (except for a game in which he was injured) this year. Welcome back from Young Stars, kid.

But this was a night for highlight plays. Alexander Semin had a pair of such – once backing the Hurricane defense in before roofing the puck over Cam Ward’s glove, later picking the pocket of Erik Cole and racing the length of the ice to – yup – roof the puck over Ward’s catching glove.

Alexander Ovechkin had a couple of his own – one coming on a Carolina giveaway deep in its own end, when he collected the puck and ripped a laser of a wrist shot – uh huh – past Ward’s glove. The other came on some of the sickest stick work you’ll see this year. From the left wing boards, Ovechkin used Mike Commodore, Scott Walker, Andrew Ladd, and Eric Staal like skating pylons to thread his way free off the boards and snake a pass to Kris Beech at the right wing hash marks. Beech had only to one-time the puck past Ward’s – well, you know – for the goal.

And even the new kid got in on the action – Eric Fehr had a memorable 11 minutes. Skating with Alexander Semin, Fehr waited as Semin moved out from the left wing boards between Erik Cole and David Tanabe and pushed the puck to the middle. Instead of trying to curl the puck on his own blade, Semin left it for Fehr, who rifled a wrist shot past Ward’s . . . blocker (thought I was going to say “glove,” didn’t you?). It was the game-winner for the evening. The Peerless was even more impressed with what Fehr did a short time later. Harrassing Dennis Seidenberg in the Carolina end, he picked the defenseman clean and in one motion fired a wrist shot that Ward barely tipped over the net. That was a play of will as much as skill on Fehr's part (and it didn't hurt to be 6'4", either).

This was a game of mistakes. The club that made most of them was going to pay, and tonight it was Carolina who wrote the check. The Hurricanes must have thought the Caps would roll toes up after the results of the previous night, but if there is one thing the Caps can do, it is muster up an effort against a superior opponent – they’ve done that several times this year (Buffalo, Ottawa, Atlanta, Dallas, to name a few). There are no eye-popping numbers leaping out of this game, although there are two that caught The Peerless’ eye. First, faceoffs. The Caps won that battle for the first time in six games against Carolina this year (30-28). The second was hits. As generous as the official scorer was with spreading them around in Carolina (61-33, Caps), he was frugal with them last night (18-14, Caps).

As for the keys to the games we spoke of a couple of days ago:

Get off fast (score first) – Scoring the first three goals would qualify as getting off fast. For the sixth straight time first on the board wins.

Be aggressive (out-hit Carolina) – 18-14 doesn’t seem to reflect the level of contact in this game, but the Caps did win that battle.

Shoot the damn puck – For the first time in three wins, the Caps did not have 30 shots (23)

Make sure the usual suspects are represented on the score sheet – The big line (Ovechkin-Zubrus-Clark), plus Semin, were 4-3-7 for the night

The Peerless is going to toss a bag o’ chips to Ben Clymer. Clymer had one shift last night on which he was a one-man forechecking crew. He might have had all 18 hits for the Caps on that shift alone. Although he is dimly reflected on the scoresheet (no shots, one hit credited . . . one??), he put forth a fine effort.

Another goes to Jeff Schultz, who played his best game since his recall. And by “best,” The Peerless doesn’t mean “highlight reel” best. He was patient and careful in his own end, for the most part, and was sturdy on his feet. He led the club with a +4 in more than 19 minutes of work, including leading all defensemen in penalty killing time.

The confounding thing about this club is that on any given night, they can put together a game like this, where the offensive cylinders are firing, Olaf Kolzig makes the saves he has to make when he has to make them, and the defense isn’t ECHL level (although a couple of guys had their moments last night). The trick is being able to do it on a consistent basis. When that happens – and note we said “when” – they will be a contender.

Oh, and Cam? . . . It looked like you had one of these on last night.