A TWO-point night -- Game 13: Capitals 4 - Lightning 2

The Washington Capitals took their three-game winning streak on the road on Tuesday, paying a visit to Southeast Division rival Tampa Bay Lightning at Tampa Bay Times Forum.  While the Caps were putting together their three-game streak to take them to the top of the Southeast Division, the Lightning were stumbling along at 4-4-1.

This contest marked the return of Mike Green to the lineup after having missed a week to an ankle sprain suffered against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Halloween night.  Green would get a chance to skate on the power play for the Caps early as Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman was sent off for high sticking just 33 seconds into the contest.  The Caps converted the early opportunity, and it was Green lighting the lamp.  Nicklas Backstrom started the play by winning a draw to goalie Anders Lindback’s left, pulling the puck back to Alex Ovechkin.  The Caps winger wristed a shot toward the Lightning net that hit a body in front and skittered to the right wing corner.  Backstrom was first to the puck and walked the puck up the right wing wall.  When challenged, Backstrom slid the puck over to Green at the top of the offensive zone, and Green’s one timer sailed through a maze of bodies and past Lindback to open the scoring at 1:02.

Fifteen minutes later, Mike Ribeiro netted his fourth of the season and second in as many contests.  It was a case of catching the Lightning in a missed communication between their defensemen.  Dmitry Orlov chipped the puck out of the corner to the left of goalie Michal Neuvirth in the Caps’ end.  Matt Carle tried to keep the puck in, but had it bounce over his stick onto that of Marcus Johansson.  The trouble for the Lightning was that Carle’s partner – Brian Lee – was caught below the top of the left wing circle, giving Ribeiro a chance to dart through the middle and join Johansson on a break.  Johansson carried the puck in on the left side, and as he reached the top of the circles slowed just for an instant to suggest a shot.  Lindback squared up to him, giving Johansson the chance to slip the puck to Ribeiro for the tap-in that gave the Caps a 2-0 lead that they would take to the first intermission.

The second period started much like the first period started.  The Caps were awarded an early power play – Ryan Malone going off at 4:18 for cross-checking – and the Caps converted when Brooks Laich poked home a rebound of a Mike Ribeiro shot at 4:43. 

The Lightning got back into it mid-way through the period when Caps goalie Michal Neuvirth lost track of shot from Brett Connolly that pinballed off of legs in front of the crease.  The puck laid at the left post, but Neuvirth was at the other side of the crease.  Before he could lunge and cover the puck, Teddy Purcell poked it over the goal line to bring the Lightning to within two at 3-1.

The Lightning appeared to cut the deficit to one barely a minute after the Purcell goal.  With Troy Brouwer off for holding, Steven Stamkos was set up for a one-timer on a pass from Martin St. Louis.  Stamkos’ shot handcuffed Neuvirth and popped over the goaltender’s left shoulder.  The puck appeared to land on edge on the goal line, and Neuvirth dove to cover it.  The referee signaled a goal, but the play went to video review.  The verdict from the war room in Toronto was that the entire puck did not completely cross the goal line, and the goal was disallowed.

The disallowed goal would loom large later in the period when Lightning defenseman Matt Carle was sent off for tripping at 15:37.  Less than a minute into the power play, Nicklas Backstrom swatted a rebound of a Mike Green shot past Lindback, and the Caps had a 4-1 lead heading into the second intermission.

The Caps played cautious hockey in the third period, keeping the Lightning from generating any momentum through the neutral zone and avoiding any odd-man rushes against.  It made for a relatively easy period for Neuvirth in goal, despite the fact that he faced 12 shots in the period.  The last of those shots, however, found the back of the net when B.J. Crombeen deflected a shot by defenseman Victor Hedman through Neuvirth’s pads at 17:55.  The Lightning pulled Lindback for an extra attacker with 90 seconds left, but they could not manage a shot on goal with the 6-on-5 advantage.  It was enough for the Caps to wrap up a 4-2 decision and maintain their lead over the Carolina Hurricanes in the Southeast.

Notes… The two-goal decision broke a six-game streak for the Caps in which each game was decided by one goal… Mike Green celebrated his return with a three-point night (1-2-3); it was the most points he recorded in a game since going 2-2-4 in a 7-1 win over Detroit on October 22, 2011…

Capitals 4 - Lightning 2

 

A TWO-point night -- Game 12: Capitals 3 - Stars 2

Since taking a 7-1 beating at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens on October 20^th, the Caps played in five consecutive one-goal games, three of them needing extra time to decide, going into their game against the Dallas Stars on Sunday.

The Stars arrived in Washington fresh off a 3-2 Gimmick win on Long Island on Saturday, pushing them past the .500 mark at 6-5-0.  The Caps entered the contest winners of their previous two games following a four-game winless streak, holding a 6-3-2 mark.

Michael Neuvirth was in goal for the Caps, while Richard Bachman was getting his first start of the season for the Stars, the second straight game in which the Caps faced a club’s number two goaltender.

It was evident that Bachman had some rust after sitting for the first 11 games of the season for Dallas.  He was fighting the puck early and allowed the game’s first goal when Jason Chimera stepped through the left wing circle and sent a harmless-looking backhand shot that snuck between Bachman’s body and his right arm.  Barely two minutes later Mike Ribeiro victimized his old team by taking a feed from Marcus Johansson and wristing a shot into the short side from the right wing face-off dot at 6:22 of the first period.

After that second goal, things unraveled for the Caps, or rather they became unraveled.  It started at the 6:33 mark when John Erskine was goaded into a bout with Ryan Garbutt.  The pair went off with coincidental minors and coincidental fighting majors that deprived their clubs of their contributions for the next seven minutes.

That was not all for the Caps, though.  Mathieu Perreault went off for hooking at 8:01.  Jason Chimera followed him off at 11:59 when he boarded Derek Roy.  And it was Perreault again just before the end of the period, heading to the box for tripping.

Dallas could not make good on any of their opportunities, though, as Michal Neuvirth slammed the door on the Stars.  He held Dallas without a goal on 11 shots for the period.  The Caps led at the break, 2-0.

Although the Caps managed to avoid any damage from the Stars’ power play, the penalties they took blunted the momentum they generated early in the first.  They had opportunities to recover that momentum when Dallas took a pair of penalties of their own in the second frame, Aaron Rome at 3:04 for tripping and Bachman at 9:10 when he shot the puck off the rink for a delay of game call.  The Caps were not any more successful on their power plays in the second period than the Stars were on theirs in the first period.  And it might have come back to haunt the Caps when Nicklas Backstrom took a hooking penalty just before the horn to end the second period.

The Backstrom penalty carried over into the third period, and the Caps successfully killed it off.  But what they could not do was clear the puck out of their zone, even after the penalty expired.  Dallas took advantage of that opportunity when Derek Roy snapped a shot past Neuvirth from the top of the circles.

That goal put the Caps back on their heels trying to protect the lead against a motivated Stars team.  Dallas peppered Neuvirth with an assortment of shots, but the netminder denied the Stars the tying goal.  His efforts were rewarded late, after Dallas pulled Bachman for an extra attacker.  Alex Goligoski shattered a stick trying to send a shot on goal, and the puck trickled to John Carlson.  Carlson fed Brooks Laich with only Goligoski back and without a stick.  As Laich crossed the red line with Goligoski trying to keep in his shooting lane, Marcus Johansson skated up on Laich’s left.  Laich slid the puck to Johansson, who wired it into the back of the Stars’ net to give the Caps a 3-1 lead with just 1:05 left.

That was not the end of the excitement, though. As the clock was winding down zero and the Stars once more skating 6-on-5, Goligoski fired a shot off the post to Neuvirth’s left.  The puck caromed out to Derek Roy, who fed it across to Michael Ryder at the edge of the left wing circle.  Ryder wasted no time snapping the puck over Neuvirth’s right pad to bring the Stars back within one at 19:54.  With only six seconds left, though, Dallas did not have the time to mount any more challenges, and the Caps skated off with their third straight win, 3-2, and the top spot in the Southeast Division.

Notes… Going 0-for-4 on the power play, the Caps are now 1-for-23 over their last nine games… Neither John Erskine nor Ryan Garbutt returned to the ice after their fight in the first period; both are described as having sustained “upper-body injuries”… Johansson’s goal was his first since scoring the Caps’ first goal of the season in a 4-1 win over New Jersey on Opening Night… Including Matt Hendricks’ game winning trick shot in a win over Boston, the Caps have seven game-winning goals from six different players after Johansson’s game-winning goal tonight; only Alex Ovechkin has two.

Capitals 3 – Stars 2

Timing

“Observe due measure, for right timing is in all things the most important factor.”

-- Hesiod

Michigan Stadium – “The Big House” – is an enormous arena.  When filled on a Saturday afternoon for a football game, it takes on a life of its own.  It pulses with fans coming out of their seats as a big play unfolds.  It takes on the bright colors of maize-and-blue clad fans cheering for the team representing the University of Michigan.  But most of all, there is the sound.  When more than 100,000 voices cheer as one, the Big House opens to the sky in a full-throated roar that might be heard all the way to Canada.

And when The Big House stands empty, the silence is just as profound.

On January 1, 2013, The Big House should have been filled with fans in Red Wings red and Maple Leaf blue cheering the teams as they skated in the climax of what promised to be, as Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard put it on Friday, “the granddaddy of the Winter Classics.”  A festival that would have bridged the 45 miles from Detroit to Ann Arbor would have provided fans with as much hockey as you could fit into a fortnight.  From December 15^th through New Year’s Day, amateur hockey games (including an Ontario Hockey League doubleheader), free skates, the Great Lakes Invitational tournament featuring four college teams, an American Hockey League game featuring the affiliates of the Wings and Leafs, not one, but two alumni games because so many alumni of the teams wanted to be a part of this.  Then there were the outings, signing sessions, exhibits, and other events surrounding the festival.

Yesterday, the National Hockey League cancelled the 2013 Winter Classic.  It, and the Winter Festival accompanying it, will be played and held eventually (no dates have been set, a nod to the fact there is still no new labor deal in place).  Many of the games and events have been rescheduled and relocated, the Great Lakes Invitational, for example, to be played at its traditional venue – Joe Louis Arena – instead of on a rink at Comerica Park.  The Ontario Hockey League and AHL games will be moved to indoor venues. 

It would have been spectacular, though.  It would have turbocharged the momentum the league has had since coming out of its last lockout in 2005.  But on the eve of what would have been an event that in some ways might have eclipsed even the Stanley Cup tournament as a means to show sports fans all that makes hockey great, the league pulled the plug to make this celebration the latest casualty in the ongoing stalemate with the players association over a new labor agreement.

The National Hockey League has nothing if not a ghastly sense of timing.  In 1994 the New York Rangers ended a 54-year drought without a Stanley Cup by winning a seven-game final against the Vancouver Canucks.  Led by Mark Messier – a player whose picture appears under the definition of “leader” in the dictionary – the Rangers captivated New York City, but they also served to propel hockey to the forefront of American sports in the spring.  Long a niche sport confined to winter climates, the Rangers had the talent and the moxie to win over casual sports fans to hockey.  It was an opportunity for the NHL to take an equal place among the major team sports in North America.

And how did the league take advantage of the opportunity?  The league and the players could not come to any agreement on a new labor deal, and the players were locked out to start the following season.  Instead of building on the momentum of the Rangers’ exciting spring of 1994, the NHL lost 468 games – almost half of the 1994-1995 season – to the lockout.  A season that should have started in October did not start until January 20, 1995.  San Jose lost an all-star game (they would host another in 1997).

It had all the looks of a lost opportunity.  It was a case of self-inflicted misfortune.  It was ghastly timing.

And here we are again.  Hockey in Hockeytown.  Hockey in the largest venue for the sport on the planet.  From dawn ‘til dusk – and after – in the Holiday season hockey fans could eat, breathe, and live the sport.  Fans not familiar with the sport could make their acquaintance and get to know what it is about hockey that makes its fans as rabid and devoted as they are to the sport.  Two cities hurting in an uncertain economy could have life breathed into their communities.

But again, a lost opportunity.  Self-inflicted misfortune.  Ghastly timing.

The games will be played…elsewhere.  The events will be held…eventually.  Maybe on New Year’s Day 2014, maybe not.  But will those games and those events have the same unbridled joy attached to them, whenever they are held, after enduring the frustration and the ill-will that hangs heavily over the lingering labor dispute?

In the end what we are left with is The Big House at the corner of South Main Street and Stadium Boulevard in Ann Arbor.  On New Year’s Day it will stand open to the sky, empty.

A silent scream at an opportunity lost.

A TWO-point night -- Game 11: Capitals 3 - Bruins 2 (OT/SO)

There was no rest for the Capitals.  Hard on the heels of their thrilling come-from-behind overtime win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday, the Caps played host to the team they defeated in the 2012 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals of the Stanley Cup tournament – the Boston Bruins – on Friday.

The Caps did catch a break in that the Bruins were playing the second half of a road back-to-back set, their first back-to-back of the season, having played in Toronto on Thursday night.  The Caps got another break when Bruins head coach Claude Julien decided not to start goalie Tuukka Rask on consecutive nights, giving the nod to rookie Anton Khudobin in his first start of the young season.

Khudobin might not have had NHL experience, but it was not as if he was not experienced.  The 26-year old entered this season with more than 170 games of AHL regular season and playoff experience, almost 70 games in the ECHL, and more than 20 games with Metallurg Magnitogorsk in Russia.  And even his sparse NHL experience was successful.  He brought a career record into this game of 5-1-0, 1.32, .961, and one shutout earned over small parts of three seasons with the Minnesota Wild and the Bruins. 

Khudobin and the Bruins, not to mention the Caps, continued just where they left off in last spring’s opening round playoff series.  Neither team was able to find the back of the net, and the game was played with a zone-to-zone ferocity that belied the fact that this game was being played in November.  The first 20 minutes passed without a good scoring chance for either side.  And while Khudobin was able to keep the net clean for the Bruins, Caps goalie Michal Neuvirth did the same for the Caps.  The Caps led in shots in the first period, 5-4.

The start of the second period was much like the first, neither team able to gain much of a foothold in the other’s defensive zone.  That changed when Nicklas Backstrom took a slashing penalty just before the six-minute mark of the period.  The Caps almost killed the penalty off, but with just 14 seconds left in the penalty kill an attempted clear by John Carlson hit a post between two of the glass partitions at the side wall and ricocheted to Tyler Seguin in the right wing circle.  Seguin backhanded a pass to Patrice Bergeron at the edge of the left wing circle, and Bergeron wristed the puck past Neuvirth to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 7:44.

The lead lasted only nine seconds.  After Backstrom won the ensuing faceoff, Carlson sent the puck off the boards and into the Boston end.  Dennis Seidenberg was retreating on the play and tried to sweep the puck onto his stick.  He missed, and his momentum took him away from the puck.  Backstrom pounced on the unforced error and snapped the puck through Khudobin’s five hole to knot the game at a goal apiece.

The Caps would get their own power play opportunity when Milan Lucic was sent off for charging, but the Caps could not solve Khudobin with the man advantage.  Except for some mutual disrespect between Matt Hendricks and Brad Marchand that resulted in coincidental roughing minors late in the period, there was no further excitement before the teams went to their locker rooms at the second intermission tied at a goal apiece.

Rich Peverley broke the tie early in the third period when he was able to get multiple whacks at a loose puck in front of Neuvirth.  Given the way the game was progressing, that goal might have been enough.  But with just under nine minutes left in the third period, Joey Crabb returned the favor by getting several pokes at a loose puck in Khudobin’s crease.  His last poke managed to slide the puck under the goalie for his first goal of the season just as he was getting sent to the ice by Bruin defenseman Andrew Ference.

That was how the 60-minute portion of the game ended, the teams tied at 2-2.  Both goalies kept their nets clear of pucks in the five-minute overtime, and the contest went to the trick shot competition.   Round one featured Tyler Seguin for the Bruins and Mike Ribeiro for the Caps, neither being able to score on Neuvirth or Khudobin.  The second round of Patrice Bergeron and Nicklas Backstrom had the same result. 

David Krejci had a chance to put the Bruins up in the final round, but Neuvirth did not bite on an attempt by Kreici to open up the five hole with a deke.  Neuvirth turned away the shot, giving the Caps a chance to clinch with Matt Hendricks skating to center ice.  Hendricks started in, and as he reached the top of the circles opened up his stick blade to show a forehand shot.  Khudobin bit on the fake, dropping to the ice to defend the shot that didn’t come.  He was prone at the top of his crease – paralyzed, as it were – as Hendricks curled to his left and wristed the puck into the open net, giving the Caps a 3-2 win.

Notes:  Mike Green missed the contest with a “lower body injury;” he is still listed as day-to-day… Alex Ovechkin was held without a shot on goal for the first time this season… the goal in the Gimmick round was Hendricks’ 10^th career goal; he is 10-for-14 for his career and 9-for-12 in two-plus seasons with the Caps.

Capitals 3 – Bruins 2 (OT/SO)

The Capitals at the Imaginary Ten-Game Mark

Ten imaginary games into an imaginary 2012-2013 season, the Caps sit with a 5-3-2 record, good for second in the Southeast Division behind the Carolina Hurricanes (6-3-0).  It is not quite the 8-2-0 record the Caps compiled in their first ten games last season, but it is still a 98-point pace for the season.

On the bright side, the 29 goals compiled so far has the team ranked ninth in scoring offense, the 2.90 goals per game so far an improvement over the 2.66 with which they finished last season.  On the other side of the ledger the 25 goals allowed represents a 2.50 goals per game average, which ranks 11^th in the league.

Special teams are a mixed bag.  The power play suffers an old problem – not enough work.  At this time last season the Caps already had 38 man advantages, converting them at a 23.7 percent pace.  Through ten games so far this (imaginary) season the Caps are only 4-for-25 (16.0 percent).  The penalty kill is faring better, allowing fewer opportunities than at this time last season (33 to 36) and is killing a larger share of them off (84.8 percent to 75.0 percent). 

Individually, Alex Ovechkin is off to a fine start.  His 8-5-13 start is an improvement over his ten-game start last season (5-5-10).  And although Nicklas Backstrom (1-8-9) is not quite on the pace on which he started last season in his first ten games (4-10-14), he does not seem to be suffering any lingering effects of the concussion that cost him half a season in 2011-2012.

If there is a bit of a surprise it is that all eight defensemen on the roster have registered at least one point in the first ten games.  Even Jack Hillen (0-1-1 in his only appearance) and  Jeff Schultz (0-1-1 in two games) have points.

On the other side, the Caps might have expected a faster start from Mike Ribeiro (2-3-5 through ten games), and Wojtek Wolski has but two assists in five games for which he has dressed.

In goal, Michal Neuvirth has taken a firm hold on the number one role, compiling a 5-2-1 record with a 2.25 goals against average and a .927 save percentage.  On the other hand, Braden Holtby’s start has been somewhat slower.  Through ten games Holtby is 0-1-1, 3.09, .886 in three appearances.

The team leaders at the ten-game mark of this imaginary season are as follows:

Toeing the Line...or Stubbing One's Toe?

“While the players believe Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs is calling the shots, an educated guess at the final group includes but may not be limited to Anaheim, Columbus, Florida, the Islanders, Phoenix, St. Louis, Washington and Dallas -- enough to block any agreement from getting done…”

-- Elliotte Friedman, CBC Sports

In the October 31st edition of his incomparable “30 Thoughts” weekly series, Elliotte Friedman of CBC Sports speculated on who, in addition to Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, might be driving a hard line from the league’s side of the table in the continuing labor conflict between the National Hockey League and the NHL Players Association.

Why these teams?  Geographically, they are diverse.  All four time zones are represented – the Islanders, Washington, Columbus, and Florida in the East; Dallas and St. Louis in the Central; Phoenix in the Mountain zone; and Anaheim in the West.  Not all are “sunbelt” states with Washington, the Islanders, St. Louis, and Columbus being eastern or Midwestern cities.  They represent different waves of expansion, ranging from St. Louis entering the league in the first expansion from the Original Six to Columbus entering the league in the latest wave in 2000-2001.

It is that notion of the last expansion wave that hints at a possible reason why these teams might be the basis for a hard line cohort.  The 2000-2001 expansion wave that brought Columbus and the Nashville Predators into the league made the NHL a 30 team league.  A league of 30 teams might be expected to have a range of vitality and viability among its members.  And in a league whose success is still largely a function of gate receipts, attendance matters.  It is here where the clubs have something in common – misfortune, or the memory of it in the 30-team era.

Here are the attendance rankings of these eight teams (average paid attendance for home dates) over the 11 seasons since the last wave of expansion:

It his helpful to consider these rankings in terms of how those rankings fall into the top, middle, and bottom third.  We color coded the individual rankings in accordance with their respective placement among the thirds, red for bottom third, yellow for middle third, and green for top third.  We also highlighted in black the instances in which any of these teams finished 30^th and last in attendance.

There is a lot of red and black in that table – 50 instances, in fact, or the total of 88 instances (57 percent).  Four of the teams have finished last at least once, and one of this group finished last in nine of the 11 seasons of the 30-team era (the Islanders a total of five times).

And the numbers are even more daunting in the post-Lockout I, “cost-certainty” era for these teams.  There are 36 instances out of 56 in which these teams finished in the bottom third in attendance (64 percent).  Turned on its head, these eight teams had eight instances in 32 pre-lockout in which they ranked in the top third (25 percent), only five in 56 instances since the 2004-2005 lockout (nine percent).

Looking at the teams individually, five of them – Anaheim, Columbus, Florida, the Islanders, and Phoenix have done especially poorly.  Since Lockout I, none of these five teams have had as much as a single season in the top third of the league in attendance.  Six times in seven seasons they finished last – the Islanders four times and Phoenix twice.  Two – Dallas and Washington – might have what might be mirror images of “success effect.”  The Stars reached the playoffs six time in seven seasons from 2000-2001 through 2007-2008.  Over that period they finished in the top third in attendance three times and in the middle third on four other occasions.

However, Dallas has not reached the playoffs in any of the past four seasons.  Concurrently, their attendance has dropped from 12^th in their last playoff year to 14^th to 17^th to 23^rd to 28^th last season.  Lack of success has been met with lack of attendance.

On the other hand, Washington stuggled on the ice and at the gate in the early part of the 11-season, 30-team era.  In the first seven seasons of this period (from 2000-2001 through 2007-2008) the Caps did manage to make the playoffs in 2000-2001 and 2002-2003 but were first-round exits each time, adding to a long history of playoff underachievement.  Then there was the club’s rebuild that had them losing games by the bushel on the ice and fans by the hundreds in the stands.  In five of the first seven seasons of the 30-team era the Caps were in the bottom third in attendance five times and never ranked higher than 13^th.

Then they started winning.  The Caps finished 24^th in attendance in the 2007-2008 season, even though they made the playoffs.  But their attendance late that season reflected their changing fortunes.  The Caps made the playoffs in each of the next four seasons, their attendance at least climbing into the middle third and even the top third once (10^th in 2010-2011).  That they were not ranked higher is a product of arena size, since the Caps’ winning trend in the regular season has been accompanied by a long sellout streak.

For Dallas and Washington, the formula is clearly win, and the fans are in.  The last team in this eight-team group – the St. Louis Blues – presents a unique situation, but not so unique as to be too far apart from the other seven teams.  The Blues are a team that did quite well before Lockout I.  In each of the first four seasons in the 30-team era the Blues were a top-third team in attendance, never finishing lower than sixth.  But then there was that lockout.  Coming out of the season-long hiatus the Blues were not very good.  In the first three years after Lockout I the Blues did not make the playoffs in any of them.  Perhaps not coincidentally, they ranked 27^th and 30^th in attendance before jumping back to 13^th in 2007-2008.  One has to wonder if that experience – trying to regain a foothold after the lockout – won’t be repeated if this lockout continues indefinitely, especially in a town that is much more a baseball town than it is a hockey town.

What Elliotte Friedman has done in identifying what might be a hardline cadre among NHL owners is also to identify a collection of teams that suffer varying degrees of systemic problems with attendance.  Within a certain range, performance at the gate is one thing that these teams have in common.  The most serious problems exist in the sunbelt rim of Anaheim, Florida, and Phoenix, with perennial whipping boys Columbus and the New York Islanders thrown in (although the Islanders should benefit from a move out of their obsolete arena on Long Island in favor of a new facility in Brooklyn).  For the others, attendance is a hot house flower that seems not to thrive nearly so well when things aren’t going well, or if there are other things (like Cardinals baseball) for fans to do.

A TWO-point night -- Game 10: Capitals 5 - Penguins 4 (OT)

The Washington Capitals returned from an unsuccessful road trip to find the Pittsburgh Penguins dropping by Verizon Center on Wednesday night.  The Caps and the Penguins met for the first of four times this season, and the clubs were headed in opposite directions.  Washington ended its road trip with a 0-3-1 record to drop them to 4-3-2 for the season, while the Penguins shrugged off a cool start to take three of a possible four points out of their last two games to reach .500 at 3-3-2.

These are two teams with more than a little familiarity with one another and more than a little animosity toward one another.  Both were on display early as the Caps took advantage of the last change to match the Alzner/Carlson defensive pair against the Crosby-Kunitz-Dupuis line whenever possible.  And the big hitters for each team – Troy Brouwer for the Caps and Brooks Orpik for the Pens – were making life difficult for players caught unaware along the boards.

The Caps broke on top first when they took advantage of a napping Penguins defense.  Roman Hamrlik beat Penguin forward James Neal to a loose puck in the corner in the Caps’ end of the ice.  Hamrlik chipped the puck free up the boards to Jason Chimera, who turned and headed up the left side.  Chimera’s burst of speed caught Ben Lovejoy flatfooted, and the Caps forward sped by.  Matt Niskanen tried to take advantage of an attack angle to stall Chimera’s progress, but Chimera’s speed gave him a lane into the Penguin zone.  He curled around Niskanen and tried to snap a shot past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguin goalie turning it aside.  But it was Mike Ribeiro knifing in from the right side who corralled the puck ahead of Evgeni Malkin, and Ribeiro snapped the puck past Fleury before the goalie could get across the crease, giving the Caps the 1-0 lead at 5:58.

The teams exchanged power plays later in the period, but neither club could convert its opportunities.  The Penguins led in shots at the first intermission, 10-8, but the Caps led on the scoreboard, 1-0.

The lead didn’t last long after the puck was dropped to start the second period.  Sidney Crosby broke clean on a breakaway when Mike Green caught a rut in the ice at the Penguin blue line.  Crosby wasted little time with dekes, snapping a low shot just over goalie Michal Neuvirth’s right pad to tie the game just 1:02 into the period.  Green was injured on the play, favoring his left leg as he went off.

The goal and Green’s injury seemed to leave the Caps a bit out of sorts for the next few minutes, and it cost them.  Matt Niskanen gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead when his shot hit John Erskine in front, the puck skittering past Neuvirth’s left pad.  Only 15 seconds later, Crosby potted his second of the game when he snapped the puck over Neuvirth’s left shoulder on the short side from the low edge of the right wnig faceoff circle. 

With the Penguins hopping out to a 3-1 lead Caps head coach Adam Oates called his timeout to try to slow things down and blunt the Penguin momentum.  Perhaps surprisingly, he did not replace Neuvirth to accomplish that aim.  He was rewarded for his discretion as Neuvirth settled the rest of the Caps down with a couple of key saves on Neal on a Pittsburgh power play just after their third goal when the Penguins could have blown the game open.

Neal would get a measure of revenge when he wristed a shot past Neuvirth with just 37 seconds left in the second period to give the Penguins a 4-1 lead at the second intermission.

The third period lacked for spark as the Penguins came out looking only to play sound defense in front of Fleury and letting the Caps shoot from long range.  This might have been how the final 20 minutes played out, but with less than seven minutes left Derek Engelland got tangled up with Jason Chimera in front of the Caps’ bench.  As they separated Engelland gave Chimera a face wash and was whistled for a roughing minor penalty at 12:16.

On the ensuing faceoff Nicklas Backstrom won the draw cleanly from Brandon Sutter back to John Carlson.  The Caps defenseman sent the puck wide to Alex Ovechkin in the left wing circle, and Ovechkin one timed the puck high over Fleury’s blocker to bring the Caps within two at 12:23 of the period.

The Caps got within one just over two minutes later when Brooks Laich won a battle for the puck with Sidney Crosby behind the Penguin net, sweeping it out to Joel Ward who stuffed the puck under Fleury’s pads before the goalie could find him lurking in front.

The goal was the first shot in a furious effort by the Caps in the last 5 minutes to draw even.  Fleury turned several fine chances aside, and the Caps pulled Neuvirth for an extra attacker with just over a minute to play in regulation.  With the clock winding down toward zero, Tyler Kennedy tried to rim the puck around the boards behind the Penguin net to relieve pressure.  Mike Ribeiro cut off the puck along the right wing boards and whipped it to the net.  Fleury kicked out the puck, but he was unable to steer the rebound to a teammate.  Ovechkin reached for the puck and snapped it back at Fleury, but the goalie managed to get a pad on it.  He could not cover it, though, and it make for a mad scramble at the top of his crease.  Fleury tried to lunge forward to glove the puck to the ice, but Troy Brouwer poked at the puck as Fleury’s glove was coming down over it.  Brouwer got to it an instant before Fleury’s glove and slid it through the goalie and in with 1.7 seconds left to tie the game at four.

The Penguins argued that play should have been stopped, to no avail, and that is how regulation ended.  Overtime started with both teams seeming to want an early end to the extra session, the Penguins starting with Crosby and Malkin as their forwards, the Caps countering with Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.  Crosby won the draw to start overtime, but Paul Martin’s attempt to find Malkin on a long pass was too long, and Karl Alzner was there to control the puck at the Caps’ blue line.  Alzner sent the puck across to Backstrom, who eased across the Penguin blue line on the right side.  As Martin closed on Backstrom, the Caps center slid the puck to Ovechkin entering the zone on the left side.  Kris Letang eased over in an effort to get Ovechkin to change direction, but rather than cutting inside the defenseman, Ovechkin fired a wrist shot past Letang.  The shot sailed over Fleury’s glove on the long side and just under the crossbar to complete the comeback, giving the Caps a 5-4 overtime win an bringing their four-game winless streak to a halt.

Notes: The power play goal at 12:23 of the third period broke an 0-for-18 streak of futility for the Caps… Mike Green is listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury… Matt Hendricks went off in the third period after blocking a shot but is not expected to miss time. 

Capitals 5 – Penguins 4 (OT)

A NO-point night -- Game 9: Wild 2 - Capitals 1

While Hurricane Sandy was lashing the east coast with high winds, rain, and Twitter commentary, the Washington Capitals wrapped up their first long road trip of the season with a visit to the Twin Cities to face the Minnesota Wild on Monday night.  The Caps entered the game winless in three straight (0-2-1), while the Wild were meandering around with a 3-2-2 season mark.

The Caps came into this contest having difficulty scoring on their power play – 3-for-20 for the season and 0-for-14 dating back to the third period of Game 3.  Their difficulties continued when they could not convert a penalty taken by Minnesota defenseman Tom Gilbert early in the first period.  The problem the Caps have been having on their power play has not been taking shots as much as it has been getting those shots on net.  On this power play Alex Ovechkin managed to get three shots off, but all missed.

The Caps returned the favor of taking a penalty mid-way through the period when Jason Chimera was sent off for holding.  He was followed to the penalty box by John Carlson, who shot the puck off the rink for a delay-of-game penalty to give the Wild more than 90 seconds of 5-on-3 time.  The Wild would not need all of it to get the game’s first goal.  Dany Heatley ripped a shot over Caps’ goalie Michal Neuvirth’s blocker to give the Wild a 1-0 lead at 10:58 of the first period.

The Wild converted the back half of the power play on an unfortunate play for the Caps.  From the right wing faceoff circle Devin Setoguchi attempted to send a pass across to Heatley at the left wing hash marks.  But Jay Beagle got his stick on the pass on its way through.  The trouble for the Caps was that Neuvirth was sliding across to defend against Heatley.  Beagle got too much of the puck and redirected it into the net through the space that Neuvirth vacated.  That was how the clubs went to the first intermission, the Wild up by a 2-0 margin.

The second period was marred for the Caps by their wearing a path to the penalty box.  The Caps took three minor penalties over a 14:31 stretch of the second period – Troy Brouwer, Matt Hendrick, and Mike Ribeiro being the culprits – but the Wild could not convert due to Neuvirth’s superb performance in goal.  Neuvirth turned away all 11 power play shots he faced in the period, and it seemed to provide the Caps with a spark.  The Caps outshot the Wild 6-0 in the last 3:11 of the period, but Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom was up to the task, turning all of them away.  The period ended as it started, with the Wild holding onto their 2-0 lead.

The momentum the Caps established at the end of the second period carried over early into the third period as they pinned the Wild in their own end and kept the home team playing defense.  The pressure paid off when Ryan Suter was sent off at the 2:44 mark for holding, giving the Caps their second power play opportunity of the game.  The Caps futility on the man advantage continued in the technical sense, as they failed to convert in the 2:00 of power play time allotted to them.  But with the Caps still exerting pressure in the Minnesota end, they did convert just four seconds after Suter’s penalty expired.  Nicklas Backstrom notched his first goal of the year when he put back a shot by Alex Ovechkin, the rebound for which the Wild’s Backstrom had trouble controlling. 

The Caps kept applying the pressure and had an excellent opportunity with the clock winding down to the five minute mark when Mike Ribeiro and Brooks Laich had a 2-on-1 break.  However, Backstrom turned aside Laich’s redirect of a Ribeiro pass with his right pad, and the chance was no more.  Despite outshooting the Wild, 17-8, in the final period, the Caps could get no closer.  Backstrom made the one-goal margin stand up, and the Caps had their fourth consecutive loss, their road trip finishing with an 0-3-1 mark.

Notes:  The loss left the Caps winless on the road (0-3-2), while they are undefeated at home (4-0-0)… The power play is now 0-for-16 over its last six-plus games… The penalty kill, which started the season 17-for-17, is only 8-for-13 over its last four games…

Wild 2 – Capitals 1

“We believe we're paying out too much”

That was a surprising moment of unvarnished honesty by the Commissioner almost seven weeks ago in this interminable labor dispute between the National Hockey League and the NHL Players Association.  We fans see reports that operating costs have gone up for the league and its clubs since the last lockout (that we have to use the term "last lockout" is a clue how nauseating this whole thing has become).  But while these costs have gone up, according to the Commissioner, they have done so while hockey-related revenues have gone up.

It got us to thinking, what if a fan had that kind of a mind set?  Consider, according to the Energy Information Administration, gas prices have gone up by 91 percent since the league cancelled the 2004-2005 season in February 2005 (and that is after a four percent drop in gas prices in the last week).  That here in the DC area, base peak fare for Metrorail in Washington has gone up by 56 percent.  Metro parking rates have gone up by similar amounts.  And as for parking downtown goes, it varies, but based on where we park when do drive to games, it has gone up by two-thirds.  The cost of outfitting a fan (hats, jerseys, shirts) so that they have the right look when they see their favorites on the ice play has gone up.

And none of that includes increases in ticket prices over the past couple of years (about 15 percent per year, based on my invoices), despite the fact that many of the people attending games in this area have not seen their hockey fan-related revenue ("HFRR")  increase, either as a result of pay freezes for Federal employees or a general downturn in the economy.

It might make a hockey fan think, "Mr. Commissioner, we think we're paying out too much, too."

Think we'll see any savings from any reduction in player share of revenue passed along to hockey fans?

Yeah...hang on to that dream.

A ONE-point night -- Game 8: Flames 3 - Capitals 2 (OT)

The Washington Capitals can now be said to be facing a bit of adversity.  After their 4-0-1 start, they were pasted by the Montreal Canadiens by a 7-1 margin, then lost in the dying seconds to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, 2-1.  The four game road trip began its inbound leg with a visit to Calgary to take on the Flames on Saturday night.  The Flames are not expected to challenge for a Stanley Cup this season, but they did come into this game having won all three of their home contests to date.  The Caps, on the other hand, were 0-2-1 in three road games.

Head coach Adam Oates shook things up a bit for the Caps, inserting Jack Hillen on the blue line for his first start, giving Jeff Schultz his second start of the season (those two replacing Dmitry Orlov and John Erskine), and sitting Marcus Johansson in favor of Wojtek Wolski.  Calgary made a change of their own, giving Leland Irving his first start of the season in goal spelling Miikka Kiprusoff.

Washington came out sluggish to open the contest, playing the first half of the first period primarily in its own end.  Calgary, however, was tied for 24^th in scoring last season for a reason.  The Flames were unable to take advantage of Washington’s inability to generate any momentum coming out of their own end, but got some help when Matt Hendricks was sent off for cross-checking at 9:41. 

Calgary converted the power play when Jarome Iginla muscled in close and stuffed the puck past Caps goalie Braden Holtby.  The Caps had their own chance on the power play when defenseman Chris Butler was whistled for holding.  The Caps could not manage so much as a shot of goal on their power play, a shortcoming that would cost them when the Flames added a second goal shortly after the penalty expired.  Hillen tried to clear the puck from the Caps’ zone, but Jay Bouwmeester managed to glove it down and then pass the puck to Curtis Glencross for a lay-up from Holtby’s left.  That ended the scoring in the first 20 minutes, the Flames holding a 2-0 lead.

The second period settled into a pattern of action largely limited to the neutral zone.  Neither team mounted much offense, even when presented with opportunities on the power play.  The teams exchanged a pair of unproductive power plays on their way to the 40-minute mark, at which point the score remained 2-0 in favor of Calgary.

Early in the third period the Caps were charged with their fourth minor penalty of the contest, a tripping penalty to Mathieu Perreault.  Calgary was sloppy in executing its power play, though, and the Flames found themselves chasing the puck down into their own end with frequency.  The artlessness with which they were handling the puck bit them when Mark Giordano tried to send the puck cross-ice and found only Troy Brouwer’s stick.  Brouwer deflected the pass into the neutral zone and beat Giordano to it.  There was nothing left between Brouwer and the Calgary net but open ice.  A deke and a shot later, the Caps had halved the deficit with their first shorthanded goal of the season.

The goal seemed to spark the Caps, who tilted the ice to the Flames end.  What they were not able to do, however, was to deposit the puck over the goal line.  The circle of justice came back on itself late in the period, though, when Joey Crabb fought off two Flames along the boards to slide the puck to Perreault in the right wing faceoff circle.  Perreault spun around at the dot and fired a shot that surprised Irving and sailed past him on the far side, just inside the post, to tie the game with less than four minutes left in regulation.  Jack Hillen got the second assist on the goal to make it three-for-three in players who spent time in the penalty box in this contest.

Neither team could muster much in the way of scoring chances in the last few minutes of regulation, and the game went to an extra five minutes.  The Caps had a chance early on in overtime, but Wojtek Wolski’s deflection of a John Carlson drive hit the post and caromed out.  It would be the best and last chance the Caps would have in the extra frame.  With the clock approaching one minute in overtime Mark Giordano found Alex Tanguay at the edge of the left wing circle for a shot.  Braden Holtby fought it off, but the rebound found its way to the stick of Jarome Iginla to Holtby’s left.  Iginla had an open net to shoot at, and he did not miss, burying the puck and the Caps’ chances for a comeback in the back of the net for the final 3-2 margin.

Flames 3 – Capitals 2 (OT)