Happy 2008 everyone!
The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR to ring in the new year…
And we’re joined by 2007, who had a pretty grim year, if you’re a Caps fan. 2007…welcome.
“Not so loud…it was a long night.”
Out late last night, eh?
“Are you kidding?...as soon as that ball hit bottom in Times Square, my cheeks were hitting the nearest bar stool for some serious ‘celebrating.’”
Well, 2007 – can I call you “two?”…
“whatever…”
Two, in a word, how would you describe the year?
“ugh…”
Need a minute?
“No…that’s the word, ‘ugh.’”
Can you explain?…
“Jeez, were you awake?! – oh man, have I got a headache – the Caps were 27-43-12 in 2007…66 points. No...better if you slept through that.”
It wasn’t all bad…
“Yeah, you’re right…that Ovechkin kid had a good year…51-40-91 in 82 games. And Alexander Semin had 27 goals in 64 games. And Chris Clark had 21 goals in 54 games…that’s a 32-goal pace.”
And the Caps opened a new rink this year…
“Yeah, Kettler is a sweet facility…gotta give the club credit for putting that one together.”
Altogether, it was a mixed bag…
“Geez, Matt Pettinger was a mixed bag all by himself…he had a nice start to the 2006-2007 season, but you could kind of see his problems in the 2007-2008 season starting to show up in the 2007 portion of last season…he had ten goals in the first 31 games of last season, but after January 1st he was only 6-9-15 in 33 games. Add that to what he’s done so far this season, and he was 8-12-20 in 70 games in 2007.”
What about free agents?
“Aw, that crap is overrated. Think a guy like Todd Bertuzzi is worth a $4 million cap hit for six goals in 27 games? And the Rangers went double-dipping for centers that combined don’t have as many goals as Brad Boyes.”
Well, they have combined for 45 assists…
“Yeah, and that’s worth more than $14 million in cap hit?...all those signings seem to have done is make it more difficult to sign the guy they have to sign – Henrik Lundqvist.”
OK, so what about the Caps free agents?
“Nylander…Poti…Kozlov…an acronym for ‘kinda zero volt pylon.’”
C’mon, they’re not as bad as all that.
“Nylander and Kozlov have a total of 12 goals. Shoot, it wasn’t a stretch to think they’d each have that many by now, and if it wasn’t for
Well, the team had what a lot of folks think was a pretty good draft last June.
“Yeah, that Alzner kid is a hoot…and he’s going to be a fine hockey player.”
And let’s not forget about the kids down on the farm…Hershey had another good year.
“Another Calder final…if it wasn’t for
What else struck you about 2007?
“One goal games…the Caps were 5-6-7 in the first part of 2007, and they’re 7-8-5 so far this season. 12-14-12…geez, that last number looks awful, too, especially since they won only five games that went to an extra session in 2007…5-12 in extra session games?...gotta do better.”
There’s a good flip side to that, though, isn’t there?
“Yeah, they don’t get blown out as much. They had 13 losses by three or more goals from January 1st through the end of last season…only seven so far this year. They compete most every night.”
Like against
“Yeah, how ‘bout that? Two wins in regulation…no one else has done that to the Senators this year…now, if they could only beat
You would bring that up…
“ahh…just kidding. I liked that game against the Red Wings, too. No fear in the boys going into Joe Louis Arena…gotta like that.”
You got any advice for our readers for 2008?
“yeah…buy a ticket and go see a Caps game, for cryin’ out loud! These kids are gonna get better.”
Well, we have a game today… one that is played indoors. Since these teams played just a couple of days ago, there isn’t a lot to add to what we talked about last time. What we have is subplot…
Martin Gerber hadn’t given up more than three goals in a game in the entire month of December (6-2-0, 2.19, .931) and then channeled Martin Short as Ed Grimley, giving up seven goals on 29 shots.
Donald Brashear played Chris Neil’s skull like a bongo, but after allegedly declining an offer from Brian McGrattan for a spin around the ice…what is the over-under (in seconds from the drop of the puck) on a kerfuffle breaking out?
Alexander Ovechkin had two career hat tricks before his four-goal outburst on Saturday. In each of those first two hat tricks, Ovechkin followed it up with another three point game in the very next game he played (the first of which was the occurrence of “The Goal”). Think he can make it a three-peat?
Olaf Kolzig is the guy for the next several weeks as Brent Johnson recuperates from a knee injury (he’s the guy, anyway, but is less likely to be spelled here and there while Johnson is out). Giving up six goals – four in the third period – was not the sort of performance that would give comfort to coaches and fans alike, even if several were of the “deflection” variety.
If you’ve read this space, you know the answer to that last question…
Caps 5 – Senators 4.
I think Kozlov has been alright - he's #2 on the team in assists and shots and should start putting away chances soon. I also have no problem with Poti. I think he's played okay offensively and very solidly defensively...but it'd be nice if he had a goal.
ReplyDeleteAs for Nylander, that +/- is a big issue - even today he was 1+1 but a -2