It's a NO point night -- Caps vs. Canucks, October 26th

A no point night...and today’s frustrating analogy comes from the section “T” of the dictionary…

traction (trak’-shun): noun -- the adhesive friction of a body on some surface, as a wheel on a rail or a tire on a road.

In last night’s 3-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks, the lack of traction – in the game and for the season – was on display. Let’s leave aside, for the moment, that it was Roberto Luongo in net for the Canucks – a goaltender the Caps haven’t beaten since the Hoover administration. They had their chances – lots of them. It was a virtual replay of the game against Tampa Bay on Wednesday in this respect…in the game against the Lightning, the Caps “outattempted” the Lightning in shots, 57-45 (shots-plus-attempts blocked-plus-missed shots). Last night, the total favored the Caps, 57-46.

And it wasn’t as if the Caps’ chances were of the poor variety, but there was a subtle difference in the nature of the attempts. The top scorers on the top two lines – the players you’d expect having the most chances taken (Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Chris Clark, Viktor Kozlov) – had 33 attempts on Wednesday. Last night?...24. A substantial number of those 24 attempts were of the quality variety – Luongo having to sprawl across the mouth of the cage to foil a one-timer from Ovechkin and then, with the game in the balance in the waning moments, turning away Semin from in close being perhaps the most visible examples of fine chances.

It comes down to traction…the Caps just couldn’t really find any last night, just as they haven’t (yet) this season, save for those first three games. They are a shot, a save, or a hair’s breadth away from having a big night or a decent streak. Last night was typical of that – no Caps played especially poorly, but there were some bad plays that the opposition took advantage of (much as Tampa did on Wednesday, without the same unfortunate game result). Mike Green played the puck a bit lazily along the boards, and when he and Taylor Pyatt had finished their “monkey-humping-football” routine, nudging the puck down the ice into the Capitals’ end, Olaf Kolzig remembered that he was last night’s goalie too late to stop the puck from slithering under him for the Canuck’s second goal. There weren’t a lot of those instances last night, but enough so that the Caps never established much of a rhythm until very late and very desperate. In other words, they never got much traction.

It was unfortunate, because the Caps put on an incredibly dominating performance in one underrated aspect of the game – faceoffs. We pointed out coming in that Vancouver was faceoff-circle challenged coming in, and they lived down to that. The Canucks lost 44 of 68 draws (35.3 percent winning percentage). Boyd Gordon and David Steckel won a combined 25 of 35 draws (71.4 percent). But even that is deceptive and indicative of a lack of traction. The Caps were only 14-13 in defensive zone draws (51.9 percent). The Canucks were somewhat better at pinning the Caps in their own end at the start of plays.

The Caps were equally dominating in physical play, outhitting the Canucks, 32-12, as befitting the biggest team in the league. Milan Jurcina led the hit parade with five, but Matt Bradley and Donald Brashear chipped in four, themselves.

Among the notable numbers at the individual level, Brian Pothier played like he was at an arcade game (or was wearing a number “8” jersey)…eight shots on goal, another four attempts blocked. Add in two hits and a couple of blocked shots on his own in more than 27 minutes of ice time, and it was a pretty good game from the blueliner.

Ovechkin had his second straight multiple point game (1-1-2), and complemented his game with a couple of hits and three blocked shots. The demonstration of Ovechkin’s more well-rounded game continues, and not at the expense of consistency.

The Peerless does have to doff his prognosticator’s cap to Alexander Semin in one regard. The kid didn’t back down when getting tangled up with Willie Mitchell during one lengthy sequence last night. Mitchell is a pretty tough fellow – not in the brawler sense, but he throws his weight around effectively. Semin and he tangled, and when Mitchell decided the time was ripe to throw that weight around, Semin gave it right back…then went after him again…and again. The two tussled from one side of the ice to the other, but while Mitchell wasn’t any the worse for wear in the exchange, kudos to Semin for taking care of his own business.

The Peerless gets the feeling the Caps are this close to breaking out – in a game and over a stretch of games. But it’s getting to where they need to demonstrate that pretty quickly. Carolina has opened a seven-point lead (although in two more games played than the Caps). While the Caps’ season has 73 more games to play, one does not want to lose contact with the teams at the top of the division, even this early. Right now, the Caps need a push from someone to get some traction...who is it going to come from?