Monday Roundup: The Greg Louganis Award?

Another long lay-off between games for the Caps means vacation time for our two primary local scribes, neither of whom has anything new to say about the team today. I can't say that I blame them, as this team is becoming a broken record of too many shots allowed, too many penalties and too little offense. More than the measurable stats, though, the Caps seem to be a fundamentally unsound team. Their passing is not crisp. Their skating, with few exceptions, is below average. Their clears and dump-ins are terrible. I'm not sure what excuse I can offer for these shortcomings (a lack of talent comes to mind), but it certainly needs to change.

The Caps next travel to Rochester (yes, Ra-cha-cha) to take on the Sabres Wednesday night, where they will try yet again to get that elusive first road victory of the season.

In other NHL news:

• TSN.ca has a new feature, their 2005-06 Rookie Watch, in which they track the League's best freshmen. Not surprisingly considering the source, the guy with one-third of the goals, a much worse plus-minus rating and three fewer team wins (i.e. zero) than Alex Ovechkin is currently in first place. Haters.
• TSN.ca also has an article on NHLers "mastering the art of inducing fouls." I agree with the gist of the article and feel that the League should crack down on diving as much as they do any other penalty. The last thing the NHL needs is more players combining soccer's histrionic acting with Duke basketball's goofy-white-guy-flop (though last time I checked, soccer and Duke hoops were both wildly successful and popular).

Daily Awards

• Hart: Chris Simon (2G, including game winning goal with :30 left in the third)
• Ross: Rene Bourque (G, 2A)
• Norris: Jassen Cullimore (2A)
  
• Vezina: Miikka Kiprusoff (W, 18 saves on 20 shots against)
  
• Richard: Mike Leclerc, Marian Gaborik (2G each)
  
• Calder: Rene Bourque (G, 2A)