Saturday, January 05, 2008

Green's Day

With this afternoon's overtime game-winning goal, Mike Green is once again alone atop the list of NHL defenseman in goal-scoring and shooting percentage (minimum 75 shots on goal), and tied for the NHL lead among all skaters in overtime goals. He had a team high 27:46 of ice time, doled out three hits, chipped in with a couple of helpers, finished with a plus-one rating and almost made people forget about getting abused by Andrei Kostitsyn early on.

Question: is there a better trio of players under the age of 23 in the entire NHL right now than Green, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom? The trio now has 33 goals (including five game-winners) and a whopping 67 points in the 21 games since Bruce Boudreau took over.


13 comments:

Abhinav said...

I picked another bad game to skip.

:(

meep_42 said...

With Alzner, Godfrey, and a little luck with the development from the guys in the Q I think the future is looking pretty good.

-d

Anonymous said...

Great game. Nice to see the Caps come back after being down 2-0. They stuck with it and Green won it. Nylander had Price fooled on that play.

How 'bout this:

"Boudreau credited tough guy Donald Brashear with riling up his team in the first intermission.

'One of our leaders came in after the first period and gave the group hell,' Boudreau said. 'We had a game plan, and some of us were on it and some of us weren't. We needed a kick in the butt and the guy gave it to them.'"

I know this post is about the Great Green, but nice to see what Brash gives to the team, too; he gets a lot of crap on the Caps boards for his stickhandling and skating.

AO's Sunshine State Fan said...

Fantastic ending to the game! And what a great goal by Ov on his way out of the sin bin! Makes you wonder if he got the penalty on purpose just to show his talent!! Game looked bleek at first, but the boys turned it around! WAY TO GO CAPS!!! Stop posting on Greenie or we'll be reading about him in those freakin' Canadian rags, ah, I mean newspapers!!

Abhinav said...

Just watched the highlights. The green goal was just terrific, as were more than one of the Habs goals.

On a sad note, I was beaten to the punch by someone in picking up Green in my Fantasy Hockey league.

Anonymous said...

better quartet when Semin is healthy maybe?

Anonymous said...

Scoring the GWG: awesome
Getting absolutely demolished by AO afterward: priceless

Abhinav said...

How did Eminger play?

Anonymous said...

Not to good, coughed up the puck at the blueline a couple of times, probably because her was nervous.

Didnt do much in 6+ minutes of ice time.

Played decent in his own end.

Hooks Orpik said...

"Question: is there a better trio of players under the age of 23 in the entire NHL right now than Green, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom?"

Yes.

I realize you're probably trying to bait me, but I know who's out scoring them: Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal. 113 points overall to 106 and with a six game winning streak, yeah, I'm taking the boys in black and gold.

DMG said...

Crosby and Malking can stand with Ovechkin and Backstrom and may be better (although maybe not in the last month or so).

But Jordan Staal is on pace to finish the year with six goals, 21 points and a -25 plus/minus rating, so Green's way ahead of him, especially right now - Green currently has 21 points which is what Staal is projected to finish with and Green's a defenseman, not a forward.

NS said...

dare i ask. how did Fleischmann play?

i'm with you rage...miss all the fun games to watch.

Anonymous said...

"Question: is there a better trio of players under the age of 23 in the entire NHL right now than Green, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom?"

No. Absolutely not.

Which makes that recent Segway excursion even more hair-raising.

Here's hoping that Dear Mikey-Boy can get himself nominated to got to the All-Star game, along with Ovie. I like the way the next few years are looking. Not just Alzer, Godfrey, but Fehr too. And Nicky is outstanding. Such coolness under stress.

--> Note to Uncle Ted: time to spread that ole wallet wipe open again!