The Anthracite Triangle

Seems the "Phantoms" of the AHL, once of Philadelphia but currently of Glen Falls, NY, are going to return to the Keystone State in 2014.

It's roughly 75 miles from Hershey to Allentown, about 95 miles from Wilkes-Barre to Hershey, and about 65 miles from Allentown to Wilkes-Barre.

The Anthracite Triangle of the AHL (with Reading in the ECHL thrown in for us Caps fans)...

Pages on a Calendar

Dates shaded in green are those when the NHL and NHLPA met, or talked, or "touched base."*


* Source: "NHL Lockout Timeline" (USA Today)

A NO-point night -- Game 16: Rangers 4 - Capitals 2

The Washington Capitals entered their contest against the New York Rangers on Wednesday having won six straight games.  The bug in the punch bowl there was that the last four of those wins were obtained from teams that did not make the playoffs in 2011-2012.  Still, the Caps were making hay while the sun shined.  In those six games the Caps averaged 3.8 goals per game, while allowing just 2.3 goals per game.  The power play was 5-for-17 (29.4 percent), while the penalty kill was a perfect 16-for-16.

The Caps would move up in weight class with Wednesday’s contest, the first of a home-and-home set against the New York Rangers.  The Rangers eliminated the Caps in seven games in last year’s Eastern Conference semifinals, and they came into this season as a leading contender to represent the East in the Stanley Cup finals.  And this would not be exactly the team that eliminated the Caps last spring, either.  Rick Nash was signed to a contract in free agency last summer and would be a hoped-for counter-weight for goal-scoring on the left side to Marian Gaborik on the right side of the Rangers top line.

It would be the Caps stiffest defensive challenge since starting their six-game winning streak against Pittsburgh on October 31^st.  And the Caps were up to the challenge early, the game taking on the style the two teams played last spring – a lot of skating around to little effect on the scoreboard.  The teams were scoreless through the first half of the period, despite the Capitals enjoying a four-minute power play when Anton Stralman cut Mike Green with a high stick.  It was the Rangers, though, who tilted the ice right after the power play.  That pressure was rewarded when Rick Nash drew both Caps defensemen to his side of the ice as he skated with the puck in the left faceoff circle.  It left Brad Richards alone at the post to the left of goalie Michal Neuvirth, and Nash slid the puck across for a tap-in to give the Rangers the lead.

The goal got the Madison Square Garden crowd into the game, and it made things that much more difficult for Washington trying to get out of their own end under Ranger pressure.  Playing almost entirely in their end of the ice after the Richards goal yielded dividends when the Rangers crowded the Capital net.  Ryan Callahan notched his third goal of the season from a scrum in front of Neuvirth, and on the play Caps defenseman Dmitry Orlov tumbled into Neuvirth.  The goalie was attended to by the training staff in what looked to be an injury to his right ankle or knee. 

Neuvirth remained in the game, but he was victimized barely two minutes later in the final minute of the first period when Michael Del Zotto wired a shot that Neuvirth whiffed on as he trying to glove the puck down.  The Rangers quick work in the last half of the second period gave them a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Neuvirth was relieved by Braden Holtby to start the second period in his first appearance since losing to Calgary on October 27^th.  Holtby did not look as if he had much rust, keeping the Rangers from adding to their advantage to open the middle period.  Holtby’s efforts turned the momentum for the Caps, and they were rewarded late in the period when Mathieu Perreault circled around the Ranger net and attempted a wrap-around to Ranger goalie Martin Biron’s left.  Biron covered the post, but the puck squirted out to Marcus Johansson between the hash marks, and Johansson snapped the puck past Biron before he could square himself to the shooter.  The Caps could not parlay that goal into any further scoring, and the teams went off after 40 minutes with the Rangers holding a 3-1 lead.

Although the Caps kept up the pressure to start the third period, any hope they had of coming back was effectively halted at the 11:19 mark when Derek Stepan redirected a Dan Girardi shot over Holtby’s blocker to put the Rangers up 4-1. 

The Capitals made it closer when Dmitry Orlov scored his second goal of the season with a slap shot through a screen in front of Biron, but with just 1:42 left in the contest, there was not enough time for the Caps to mount any further comeback.  The Caps’ six-game winning streak went by the boards, 4-2.

Notes:  The loss dropped the Caps to 1-4-2 on the road… Washington successfully killed off three shorthanded situations, bringing them to 19-for-19 over their last seven games… Neuvirth is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

Rangers 4 – Capitals 2

When There's 64

Someday, perhaps even this season, the National Hockey League will stop playing games and start playing games.  If there is to be a season this season, it will not be of the 82-game sort.  It could very well be a 64-game season.  That is a number that would make sense.  In each of the last four seasons NHL teams have played 64 games within conference, 18 in the other conference.  An abbreviated season would likely mean that each club would be restricted to an intra-conference schedule.

A 64-game intra-conference schedule then begs the questions for Caps fans, “is this a good thing, or is it a bad thing?”  Start with the face that the NHL has used the 64-18 conference split format for the last four seasons.  In each of the four seasons the Caps out-performed their overall record in their Eastern Conference schedule:

Over the last four seasons the Caps have averaged a record of 40-15-9, which works out to a 114-point pace over 82 games.  Only once in four seasons have the Caps had a record against the West of better than .500 (standings points).  Avoiding that west coast trip that always seems to stymie the Caps would have to be considered a good thing, at least for this regular season.  But is their record against the East any better than that of their Southeast Division counterparts?

Of the five teams in the Southeast the Caps are the only one to have averaged better than a standings point earned per game in all four seasons against Eastern Conference teams.  The down side of that is that the Caps have seen diminishing returns over the last three years (1.53, 1.41, and 1.19 standings points per game).  Fortunately, only Atlanta/Winnipeg has shown continuous improvement in that regard over the same three seasons (1.00, 1.03, 1.05).

One could argue that a lot of that record has been built by the Caps at the expense of the rest of the division in intra-divisional play.  In fact, the Caps have been successful in that regard.  They are the only team in the Southeast to average more than a standings point earned per game in intra-divisional play over the last four seasons and the only team to achieve at least ten wins in each of those four seasons.

However, the Caps have enjoyed broader success in the East outside of the division than have their Southeast competition.  They are, again, the only team in the Southeast to have averaged more than a standings point per game against Eastern Conference teams outside the division in each of the last four seasons.  And only one team in the Southeast averaged more standings points per game against other Eastern teams than did the Caps (Florida last season, 1.25 to 1.20).

Seven Capitals from the 2008-2009 team who appeared in at least 20 games are still with the club.  That says a lot about turnover.  But within that group is the core of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, Brooks Laich, and Karl Alzner.  The Caps have maintained an ability to outperform their divisional competition despite turning over two-thirds of the skaters and replacing both goaltenders.  That the Caps have been able to maintain an advantage in performance in the face of that turnover speaks to the ability of the core to perform at an effective level in the context of their division and conference in the regular season.

The effect of losing the production of an Alexander Semin, who has had an especially productive career against Southeast Division teams (87-76-163 in 157 career games against Southeast Division teams), especially when that player goes to the team that is likely to be the Caps stiffest competition in the Southeast in whatever season might be played this year.

Still, the Caps recent history of success in the East suggest that should that season be played, and should it be limited to intra-conference play, the Caps will do well enough to secure a playoff spot.

A TWO-point night -- Game 15: Capitals 4 - Maple Leafs 1

The Washington Capitals went into their Saturday night contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs riding a five-game winning streak, their longest since opening the 2011-2012 season with a seven-game winning streak.  Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs arrived in Washington for their second and final visit of the 2012-2013 season with a 7-2-1 record, one of their losses in regulation coming at the hands of the Caps on October 17^th by a 4-2 margin.

The teams started slowly, looking like a pair of prize-fighters feeling each other out.  It was not surprising to see Toronto open that way; they were fresh off a win over New Jersey on Friday night.  The Caps, though, looked sluggish despite their coming in on a run.  Toronto had the better of the chances early, getting a power play opportunity when defenseman Jack Hillen was sent off for interference.  Goalie Michal Neuvirth stood tall in the face of good pressure from the Leafs keeping the puck in the offensive zone for almost the full two minutes.

Toronto had an excellent scoring opportunity in the eighth minute when Nikolai Kulemin and Joffrey Lupul skated in on a 2-on-1 break.  Neuvirth turned away a redirect attempt by Lupul to keep the game scoreless. 

The Caps got a chance in the late stages of the first period when Mikhail Grabovski was whistled for tripping.  It took the Caps barely 20 seconds to convert the chance when Mike Green converted a pass from Nicklas Backstrom into a snap shot that beat goaltender James Reimer over his glove.  That was the only scoring of the opening period, the Caps enjoying a 9-8 edge in shots on goal.

The Caps extended their lead early in the second period as a product of hard work behind the Toronto net. Joel Ward and Jay Beagle pinned defensemen John-Michael Liles and Carl Gunnarsson behind Reimers, not allowing either defenseman room to find a teammate up the wall.  Ward poked the puck free from under Beagle and Gunnarsson from behind the net to Reimer’s right.  The puck slid out to Joey Crabb at the post, and Crabb wasted no time stuffing the puck through Reimer’s skates.

Toronto got that goal back later in the period just after a penalty to Mike Green expired.  With the Caps unable to clear the puck, even back at full-strength, Liles gloved a puck down for the Leafs and fired a shot at Neuvirth.  Unable to control the rebound, Lupul and Kulemin each got whacks at the puck with Kulemin sliding the puck under Neuvirth to bring the Leafs back within one at 2-1.

The Capitals would get a power play opportunity of their own late in the second period when Dion Phaneuf was sent off for cross-checking.  They could not take advantage of the opportunity, though, and were fortunate not to have ended the period tied.  David Steckel intercepted a cross-ice pass and found himself with nothing but open ice ahead just before time expired for the second period.  Steckel was not quick enough to give himself a better shooting opportunity before the horn sounded, and his shot from just inside the blue line was turned away by Neuvirth as the clock hit zero.

Washington had a chance to put the game away early in the third period after James van Riemsdyk was penalized for boarding Jack Hillen.  Once more, however, the Caps could not convert the power play chance, going the entire two minutes without registering a shot on Reimer.

The Caps caught a break, though, just past the mid-way point of the period.  Mathieu Perreault attempted a shot from a severe angle to Reimer’s left.  Reimer got the blade of his stick on the puck, but it deflected up and away from him.  It struck Matt Hendricks in the arm as he was fighting for position in front with Gunnarsson.  The puck tumbled over the goal line for an apparent goal, but the referees went to video review to confirm that Hendricks did not punch the puck in.  After a brief stoppage, the on-ice call of a goal was confirmed, and the Caps had their two-goal lead back.

Toronto was unable to muster much offense after that, perhaps a combination of their second game in two nights and the Caps going into a defensive shell.  The Leafs were pressed into taking chances late, and were burned when John Carlson intercepted an exit pass and fed Troy Brouwer, who deked Reimer to the ice before stuffing the puck around him to give the Caps a 4-1 lead at 18:33.  That would end the scoring, the Caps skating off with their sixth straight win and tenth of the season.

Notes:  With the win, Michal Neuvirth recorded his 10^th win in 13 appearances, his quickest to ten wins in his career; he had ten wins in his first 15 appearances in 2010-2011… Alex Ovechkin recorded an assist but does not have a goal in five games since recording two against Pittsburgh on October 31^st… With his assist in the second period Jay Beagle recorded a point in consecutive games for the first time in his career.

Capitals 4 – Maple Leafs 1

A Fan's Lament

I’m a lot like any other working stiff.  I get up early in the morning, prepare for the day, head to the train, and go to work.  Once at the office I have to deal often with people debating over large sums of money.  At the end of the day – usually a long day – I get back on the train and try not to think about tomorrow’s responsibilities at the office.  I get home, open the mail, and I find bills – the mortgage, insurance, the credit cards, utilities.  I spend a portion of the evening dealing with those matters. The weekend comes.  It is a time to relax, but it is also a time to fix the leaky faucet, clear the clogged gutters, mow the lawn, trim the bushes, and clean out the garage.

Just like any other working stiff.

I steal away some time for myself by buying a ticket to see competition on the ice and excellence in the display of talent.  I go out of a passion for those qualities, for the game, for the sheer entertainment of it.  It is recreation in the literal sense of the word.  I feel better; my spirit is “re-created” for having spent some time away from the commute, the job, and the chores.  It is an opportunity to step outside my life for a few hours.

For the last two months, the NHL and the NHL Players Association have debated over large sums of money.  They have put men in suits in the headlines, not men in jerseys.  The news is about talking, not competing.  It is about negotiation, not the game.

You want to know why fans are mad?  They have taken our game and made it look like our lives.

A TWO-point night -- Game 14: Capitals 5 - Oilers 3

The Washington Capitals entertained the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night in a game that featured the once-thought to be “in” team of young and precocious stars skating against a team that is thought to be the next “in” team of young and precocious stars.  The Caps of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Mike Green have the experience of being spoken of as fresh, exciting, and a contender for years to come.  Unfortunately for the Caps, it has not quite worked out that way.  The Oilers, on the other hand, with Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, and now last June’s number one draft pick Nail Yakupov, represent the latest version of “fresh and exciting” the NHL has to offer.

Fresh and exciting was not exactly how this contest started for the Oilers.  A big reason for that is despite the obvious talent and potential Edmonton has up front, there is still work to do on the back end.  That shortcoming was on display early in the first period when Mathieu Perrault beat defenseman Ryan Whitney to a loose puck deep in the Edmonton end to avoid an icing call.  Perreault slipped behind the Oiler net to goalie Devan Dubnyk’s left.  Coming out the other side Perreault had an opportunity to shoot, but he found Jason Chimera on the opposite side with a stride on the other Oiler defenseman Ladislav Smid.  Perreault found Chimera with a pass that merely had to be redirected through the short side before Dubnyk could get across to block the shot.  Chimera did just that, and the Caps had a 1-0 lead at 5:33 of the period.

It was a good start for the Caps, but the Oilers paid it no mind.  Barely two minutes later the visitors got the goal back when Nugent-Hopkins stepped around Jay Beagle, then froze defenseman Mike Green with a faked shot.  It gave Nugent-Hopkins time to take one more step to get a better shooting angle, and his wrister from between the hash-marks beat goalie Michal Neuvirth cleanly to tie the game.

The Oilers took the lead when Nugent-Hopkins played the role of set-up man.  Holding the puck at the goal-line to the left of Neuvirth he sent the puck through the slot to Jordan Eberle left open at the edge of the left wing circle.  Eberle one-timed the puck over Neuvirth’s left shoulder to put the Oilers on top, 2-1.  There was no other scoring in the period, but enough damage was done for the Oilers to take that lead and a lead on the shot meter of 13-5 into the locker room after 20 minutes.

The Oilers came out flying in the second period, the Caps seeming to be a step or more behind every time an Oiler forward touched the puck.  What seemed inevitable came to pass in the fourth minute of the period when Sam Gagner and Taylor Hall worked a give-and-go, Hall finishing the return pass to put the Oiler up by a 3-1 margin at the 3:48 mark.

Sometimes with a young group of talented players, their focus will start to wander when things are going well.  That might have been the case when the Oilers had a chance to put the game away mid-way through the period.  The Oilers were guilty of over-passing and passing up good opportunities, and it finally bit them.  Nugent-Hopkins tried to backhand a pass through the hash-marks, and Karl Alzner got a stick on it to deflect it to the side boards.  Brooks Laich was there to collect the puck, and he sent it up to Chimera, who was streaking out of the Caps’ zone.  Having taken Laich’s lead pass in stride, Chimera used his speed to foil the angle that Nick Schultz thought he had on him.  His snap shot from between the circles beat Dubnyk through the five-hole, and the Caps were back to within a goal.

The goal got the Caps’ crowd back into the game, and the cheering turned into a roar when Nail Yakupov made the mistake of lowering his head as he was about to cut into the middle of the ice just inside the Caps’ blue line with just over five minutes left in the period.  Just as he crossed over, Alex Ovechkin lowered his shoulder into the rookie and dropped him to the ice like a sack of wet cement.  Yakupov skated slowly to the Edmonton bench, but did return later.  The hit changed the momentum to the Capitals, putting the Oilers back on their heels and exposing once more their comparatively weaker blue line and goaltending.  Mathieu Perreault took advantage of it when he settled into open ice at Dubnyk’s left late in the period.  From there he put the finishing touches on a pass from behind the Oiler cage by Marcus Johansson, drawing the Caps even at 3-3 with just over a minute left in the middle period.  The teams went to their locker rooms with no further scoring, but the Oilers still holding a 27-17 edge in shots.

Once momentum is lost it is hard to regain, and the Oilers found that out when the Caps struck in the first minute of the third period.  Matt Hendricks scored his first goal of the season when he and Jay Beagle double-teamed Theo Peckham in the left wing corner to Dubnyk’s right.  Hendricks kicked the puck free and headed to the net while Beagle chased the puck down along the end wall.  Before Peckham could recover and throttle Beagle, the Caps forward slid the puck out front where Hendricks batted it in through Dubnyk’s pads to give the Caps the lead again at 4-3.

Jack Hillen scored his first goal as a Capital in the period’s eighth minute when his wrist shot was deadened in front by an Oiler.  The puck’s change of pace and direction was cause for it to skitter by Dubnyk’s left pad on the far side, giving the Caps a two-goal margin at 5-3.  From there the Caps forced Edmonton to play zone-to-zone, denying them the opportunity for stretch or cross-ice passes that could break a skater free for a scoring chance.  The Oilers played into the Caps’ hand by trying to force passes through the middle of the ice or trying 60-foot passes that were frequently deflected away from their targets.  It made for a boring final ten minutes of the game, especially considering the scoring over the first 50 minutes, but that suited the Caps just fine as they skated off with their fifth straight win, 5-3.

Capitals 5 – Oilers 3

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: