It looks as if Alex Semin will be back in the lineup for tomorrow night's game against Florida, which is quite obviously a good thing for a team in desperate need of scoring. Semin's return and Milan Jurcina's crappy play of late have caused a bit of a ripple effect of line juggling, leaving the forward and defense combos at this morning's practice as follows (per Tarik):Ovechkin-Backstrom-Clark
Semin-Gordon-Pettinger
Fleischmann-Nylander-Kozlov
Brashear-Steckel-Laich
Erskine-Morrisonn
Schultz-Pothier
Poti-Green
Jurcina-Eminger
I guess the thinking there is that you might as well play Semin with two guys who could barely score into an empty net, since they won't be passed the puck anyway.Semin-Gordon-Pettinger
Fleischmann-Nylander-Kozlov
Brashear-Steckel-Laich
Erskine-Morrisonn
Schultz-Pothier
Poti-Green
Jurcina-Eminger
Here's the question of the day, though - is Glen Hanlon's discipline applied consistently and/or should it be? My point here is that Milan Jurcina is far from the only Cap to make a mistake in the past month, but he seems to be punished for his screw-ups more openly, whereas other players seem to get free pass after free pass. Thoughts?
Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:
The Caps passed on claiming Ilya Bryzgalov off waivers, allowing the Coyotes to claim the Russian netminder, who promptly went out and shut out the Kings in his Phoenix debut.... Chris Bourque had a pair of goals in Hershey's win over Bridgeport last night, but the interesting note in the Lancaster Online summary is that Bears coach Bruce Boudreau "is rumored to be a possible replacement if management decides to fire Caps coach Glen Hanlon." Not that that's news, I just hadn't seen it in print.
Daily Awards
- Hart: Patrick Sharp (3G, including the game-winner, A, +4, 7 SOG)
- Ross: Patrick Sharp (4 points)
- Norris: Michal Rozsival (2G)
- Vezina: Ilya Bryzgalov (28-save shutout win)
- Richard: Patrick Sharp (3G)
- Calder: Eric Nystrom (2A, +1)
- Aiken: Antero Niittymaki (2 goals allowed on 2 shots against in just 20 minutes of work)
10 comments:
Salary check:
Jurcina: $913,000
Poti: $3.5 million
One Eminger note: He's an RFA after this year. Someone will sign him. I just flat don't get why GMGM is so hellbent on destroying his value to the franchise.
I'm not talking about Poti - they need to keep playing him to get the PP going.
But what about Schultz? Or Brash?
What I don't understand is why put Erskine in Juice's spot? The physicality is the only thing they really have in common, but benching a righty is pretty much the only way to ever get Emmy some ice time. If they've thrown the whole lefty righty thing out the window (even though it's obvious how few of our D can actually play well on their off side), then why hasn't Emmy played more?
Hmm, Semin and Pettinger had such wonderful chemistry last year together, why not try it again this year. (/sarcasm off)
Honestly, I've said this elsewhere, but why doesn't Hanlon just make a wheel and spin it for his line combinations during the game. "AND THE WINNER OF WHO GETS FREE ASSISTS WITH ALEX OVECHKIN THIS SHIFT IS...... Matt Bradley!"
oh, and lets not forget, why are they practicing anyhow? There is nothing to work on.
According to Tarik Semin's going to be skating 3rd line (plus PP I'm sure) minutes the first couple games to get back into shape. After that I'd guess we'll see Ovechkin, Kozlob, Backstrom, Nylander, Semin and either Clark or Fleischmann in the top 6. If it's Flash, Clark will probably go to 3rd line duty with Gordon and Pettinger.
1) Chimaera, after watching Hanlon the last 3 years, you may have hit upon the way he does pick his line combos!
2) No reason to place your best players together? If those 3 line combos are accurate, then Hanlon needs to go now.
My eight year old daughter and I were lamenting about what it would take for Shultz to get benched. She said, "I guess he has to actually score for the other team mommy." Out of the mouths of babes. For the life of me, I cannot see why he has not been given the hook.
Why do we need Bryzgalov? Hanlon and GMGM love Brent Johnson. And once every twenty games, he gives such a great performance, he actually makes me think so. Problem is those other 19 games....Plus, he's really funny in the locker room. Which is always nice.
Great fire one minor-league coach and replace him with another minor-leauge coach...
If that actually happens, I'll join the fire GMGM bandwagon.
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