Today’s word, boys and girls, is “opportunistic.”
The Caps defeated the Islanders 2-1 this afternoon to spoil “Kids’ Opening Day” at Nassau Veterans Memorial Colisseum in what was the kind of game you look at and think, “there’s one we coulda-woulda-shoulda lost.” How many times would you think there would be games in which Alexander Ovechkin was held without a shot, and the Caps would still win?
The Caps started slow (six shots in the first period) and got slower (six over the last two periods). But when opportunities were presented, they took advantage. Viktor Kozlov managed to solve Islander goalie Rick DiPietro for the tying goal in the second period (Ovechkin recorded the lone assist on a fine pass to Kozlov in the high slot for his third point in three games), and Brooks Laich pounced on a rebound that trickled just out of the reach of DiPietro, sweeping the puck past the sprawled goalie and diving defenseman Radek Martinek for the lead the Caps would not relinquish.
At the other end, Olaf Kolzig offered another effort to suggest that pre-season numbers (2-2, 3.59, .853) probably doesn’t mean much one way or another for veterans. Kolzig stopped 30 of 31 shots (that’s 53 of 54 in two games). His stop of a Bill Guerin re-direction on an Islander 5-on-3 was perhaps the stop of the game.
It was one of those games where the Caps had to get down and root around in the muck, because that’s the Islanders’ style, and it is one that isn’t going to give much life to the Caps’ advantage in skill. The Caps – to their credit – held their own, and the tale is in the numbers...
– Last year, the Islanders had the look of the more physical team when playing the Caps. Today, however, the Islanders weren’t so dominating. The Caps had 22 hits to 21 for the home team.
– Ovechkin had that goose egg on the shot counter, but he had five of those hits. Maybe he’ll take Pettinger’s spot on the checking line. Well, maybe not.
– The Caps won the turnover battle (takeways-plus-opponents’ giveaways) 19-16. The remarkable number here was “four.” That is how many giveaways the Caps had – the other side of puck possession being that you keep possession of the puck.
– Once more, the Caps won the battles in the circles, 29-24. Boyd Gordon won 13 of 20 draws. Only Michael Nylander found himself on the losing end of a majority of draws.
– Mike Comrie, who came into the game 4-2-6, +3, finished the game 0-0-0, -1, with four giveaways, 8-for-18 on draws, and two minor penalties to show for his effort.
– It was the third straight game in which the Caps took four minor penalties, and it was the third straight game in which they killed them all. The 12-for-12 is worth noting in that last year after three games, the Caps were 15-of-18. Cutting the times shorthanded by a third can be a key ingredient to their success this year.
In other areas...Brian Pothier actually getting the puck on net – a problem for the defensemen last year – allowed for the rebound that Laich collected and curled around DiPietro for the game winner...Tom Poti’s sweep-away check on a Trent Hunter breakaway was the play-of-the-game for the Caps...at the moment, only Nashville has allowed fewer goals than have the Caps (one in two games, compared to two in three for the Caps).
There are things one would like to see work more effectively – the power play and getting some more crooked numbers on the score sheet from Tomas Fleischmann come to mind. But right now, the Caps are 3-0. Say it slowly, let it roll off the lips...thr-r-r-r-r-r-ee and oh.
Thr-r-r-r-r-r-r-ree and oh.
No comments:
Post a Comment