Monday, October 15, 2007

Monday Roundup

Last Monday CapsNation was planning the parade route. This Monday it's Mapquesting the funeral procession. I guess that's what happens when you combine high expectations with the memories of recent, difficult seasons.

The Caps had the day off yesterday, as they licked their wounds both metaphoric and literal, and there's not a whole lot of news to report this morning. So I'll pose a question to all of you - which of the five games played so far do you think is most representative of the "real" 2007-08 Washington Capitals and why?

Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:

Slow day, but if you accidentally chug some Drano or something and need to induce vomiting, this may help.

Daily Awards
  • Hart: Henrik Zetterberg (G, 2A, +3)
  • Ross: Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg (3 points each)
  • Norris: Nicklas Lidstrom (+3, 2 hits, 2 takeaways, 0 giveaways)
  • Vezina: Josh Harding (37-save shutout win)
  • Richard: 7 players tied with 1G each
  • Calder: Josh Harding (37-save shutout win)
  • Aiken: Dustin Brown (0 points, -3, 1 minor penalty in 4-1 loss)

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Isles game.

- Solid tending
- Low shot count
- Inability to score on the PP
- Low number of penalties
- Luck of the draw for the win
- Little puck possession

I think those are the ingredients for this season. When they err on the positive, you end up with the Atlanta game. When they err on the negative...the Rangers.

I'll be at the games this weekend trying to decide if I'm really up for more disappointment this season. :(

~Mark said...

Yeah, I'd have to agree with keef. It saddens me to say that, because it was clearly their worst win (if you can say that). In some ways, I think this is good. They are still over .500, and Glen has plenty to motivate them with in terms of "don't get over-confident" and "stop playing run and gun".
I expect a win Thursday with very solid special teams!

Anonymous said...

NYR and BUF.

-High expectations [for the Caps]
-Little or no defense
-Over-reliance on one or two lines to score
-Benching guys who can perform
-Keeping guys on the ice who need to sit for a while (Pothier)
-Goalies stand on their heads
-Dumb penalties
-PP weak
-Lots of turnovers

What is up with the BUF blogs and their new meme: Washington Capitals W-Eagle logo=Nazi symbol?

Unknown said...

I go out of town for the weekend and look what happens...two straight losses. Maybe I should stay home from now until the end of the season.

As for Buffalo fans, they're just trying to deflect attention away from their logo.

Unknown said...

I think it's too early to tell. I don't think we've seen The Team yet. I think that takes 20 games to emerge, too.

We have seen an element or two: Strong goaltending. Increased all-rink awareness by 8.

Anonymous said...

None of the above. Get back to after 15 games and then we can make a rational decision. This is a young/newly formed team that's still trying to find its identity. The good news is that the goaltending appears solid. As for the Canadian idol, Sir Sidney, his image is more controlled than Hillary Clinton. Frankly, I'll take our wild child, Alex Ovechkin, over Madison Avenue's version of a hockey player any day. I wouldn't be suprised if all this media fawning is just making the regular players hate Crosby.

Anonymous said...

Things to not worry about:

1) Ovechkin
2) Goaltending

Things to worry about:

1) How much the opposing shots on goal have gone up since Gordon's been out of the line up.

2) Semin's injury

Has anyone noticed that the shots against jumped a bunch with Gordon not in the line up? I know some of it is that the Caps were playing the Rangers and Sabres (to very good teams) as opposed to Atlanta, Carolina and the Islanders, but some of that gap is Boyd Gordon...by the end of this year, he might be considered the best checking forward in the southeast.

I think the scoring will come, and I suspect they'll get back on track vs. the Isles on Thursday (a bad team, no two ways about it...)

Unknown said...

From Tarik, 1stRW today: "Laich/Motzko."

Yeah, that's not gonna git 'r done.

bill ball said...

JP-

You sized up the rollercoaster of Caps fandom over the past couple weeks quite well.

No thanks for the vomit.

Anonymous said...

jp, off topic, but do you have the link to the caps portrait that i remeber you having in a previous post. my damn girlfriend was screwing with my computer and erased it

Anonymous said...

jp, off topic, but do you have the link to the caps portrait that i remeber you having in a previous post. my damn girlfriend was screwing with my computer and erased it

Anonymous said...

sorry dont know what happened there

Anonymous said...

Here is the image of the team photo. Is that what you're looking for?

http://capitals.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NHLPage&id=8802

JP said...

@ anon: Here's the pic you're looking for, I believe (last anon's link got cut off).

Oh, and go easy on your old lady - I'm sure she didn't mean to erase it. :)

Anonymous said...

thanks, yea that was intended to be more light hearted than it sounded, or was it