Wednesday Roundup/Gamenight: Caps @ Thrash

[AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview]

For the third time since the beginning of the month, the Caps will play an enormous intra-divisional game. In the first two, the goaltending was great, allowing just three goals and an empty netter against. The offense, however, was dormant, and the Caps dropped both games.

Three inter-division February wins have vaulted the Caps into first place, but the fact of the matter is that with a dozen more Southeast Division match ups remaining on the schedule and only a .500 intra-divisional record, the Caps need to step it up against their "rivals," and that needs to start sooner rather than later.

Following that in-depth analysis, I'll leave you with your "how 'bout that?" stat of the day: In the five previous meetings between these teams on the season, five different goalies have gotten wins - Brent Johnson, Ondrej Pavelec, Johan Hedberg, Olie Kolzig and Kari Lehtonen. Maybe the Caps should give Freddy Cassivi tonight's start....

Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:

In John Buccigross's world, the Leafs don't want Alex Ovechkin because he's only the fifth best player in the League and people probably give a crap whether or not there's any Ben Folds on Marissa Miller's iPod.... Sami Lepisto's call-up/send-down yesterday ensures that, at least for another few days, Miika Elomo can keep the title of "Last Finn to Play for the Caps."... Ooohhh, scary.... Wha?! Someone has more meaningful goals than AO?! Inconceivable!... Plenty of love here.... No matter who wins, the boss's bases are covered.... This is awesome, but if we're going with movie-based Caps promo posters of old, give me "Goalbusters Three."... Finally, one year ago today we looked at AO's artwork (one of our most popular posts last year), took inspiration from a dead guy from across the pond, rocked a brand new NHL ad and played bench boss, and two years ago today we bid adieu to the NHL for a couple of weeks and used an Olympic prediction (which, btw, we nailed) as an excuse to post a Rink favorite picture.

Daily Awards

• Hart: Tomas Vanek (3G, including the game-winner, on 3 SOG, +1)
  
• Ross: Thomas Vanek, Trent Hunter (3 points each)
  
• Norris: Dion Phaneuf (Game-tying goal with :50 left, A, 2 SOG, 2 hits)
  
• Vezina: J.-S. Giguere (W, 32 saves on 34 shots against)
  
• Richard: Thomas Vanek (3G)
  
• Calder: Karri Ramo (W, 19 saves on 21 shots against)
  
• Aiken: Chris Osgood (L, 3 goals allowed on 4 shots against in just 8:49 of work)
  

Odds And Ends

Today brings a flood of noteworthy materials out there on the Internets and rather than devote a meaningless post to each, I'll bang out a meaningless bullet point on each (it's gotta be better for the environment, right?). Let's dig right in:

• Greg over at The Fourth Period has his take on the MSM's coverage of the NHL and it may not be what you expect. Unless you expect quality analysis (unlike some mainstream journos) and perspective. Then it's exactly what you'd expect.
• Speaking of the mainstream hockey media, ESPN's John Buccigross has never been one of my favorites, but if he keeps writing articles about how good the Southeast Division is and will soon be, he'll quickly change that. Sure, I wrote about it two weeks ago and Ted Leonsis noted it last week, but Bucci is still on the SE Bandwagon way before most of his colleagues.
• There's another mock draft up, this one at MyNhlDraft.com (see USAToday.com's mock here and The Rink's comments thereupon here). In this latest mock, the Caps take Nicklas Backstrom, who I think is more likely A) to be there at #4 than Jordan Staal and B) to be the guy the Caps want anyway. One thing is for sure: judging from these two mock drafts, after St. Loo (presumably) nabs Erik Johnson first overall, no one knows what's going to happen.
• The NHL announced today that not a single player failed his drug test (which targets steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs but not stimulants) this year. Not one. Out of 1,406 tests administered. In the wake of the Bertuzzi incident, a cancelled season and a gambling scandal involving the best player in the game's history, the League sure is lucky it didn't have to deal with a drug scandal during the Stanley Cup Finals, isn't it?
  
• Finally, Hockey'sFuture has it's annual team-by-team, five-year-out draft evaluation in progress and recapping the Caps' 2001 draft, well, isn't pretty. In fairness, the Caps' first pick wasn't until 58th overall, but still, the fact that only one of the team's ten picks that year ("NHL Bust" Owen Fussey) is still with the organization and that the ten picks have played a total of five NHL games categorizes 2001's draft as an utter failure.

Tuesday Roundup: Mr. Clutch and WWBD (What Would Bucci Do)?

On the off chance that you're new to The Rink and/or you've lived in a cave since October, let me bring you up to speed: Capitals rookie Alexander Ovechkin had a really good season. How good? Well, he is USAToday's Clutch Scorer of the year based on a formula which:

[R]ewards points that occur when the game is tight as opposed to ones that run up the score. Bonuses are given for clutch points scored late in the game. Ovechkin had a hand in 66 goals that put his team ahead or tied the score. The Capitals had only 126 such goals this season.

According to WashingtonCaps.com, along with this accolade:

Ovechkin claimed two of the 17 awards presented Wednesday when Home Ice on XM Radio hosted its awards show, the “Espos,” named after “In the Slot” co-host Phil Esposito. Ovechkin won the Carl Voss Trophy as the NHL rookie of the year (Voss was the first recipient of the Calder Trophy, the NHL’s official award for rookie of the year) and the Gilbert Perreault Trophy for best goal of the year (Ovechkin’s goal in Phoenix scored while sliding on his back).

In non-Ovechkin news, John Buccigross tells us what the Caps should do this offseason:

With Ovechkin in the lineup, the Capitals gained six wins and 11 more points than the 2003-04 season. The fact that he was a plus player on such an awful defensive team is only more Rookie of the Year evidence for him. His line usually had the puck.

The Capitals could go a few ways. They need defensemen and they could use a young center. If you want to improve quickly, you are always better off getting veteran defensemen via free agency and drafting skill. When you have such an immediate star like Ovechkin, it can make an organization impatient.

Free agency: They need a couple of rear guards. I said rear guards. Hal Gill on line No. 2.

Draft: I like Peter Mueller and think he fits in with the Capitals' developing style of play. He would be here at this point and would be a high-value pick. The Caps do like to think outside the box. Last year, they took 6-5 defenseman Sasha Pokulok with the 14th pick in the first round. I wouldn't be surprised if they took Nigel Williams here, a big defenseman on his way to Wisconsin in the fall. The Capitals draft off of need, more than Central Scouting ranking.

As is usually the case, I couldn't disagree with Bucci more. Oh, the Gill free agent signing is fine. And even Mueller isn't too much of a stretch. But Williams? With the fourth pick overall? The 13th-rated North American skater in the draft (though he is a "huge and rapidly improving blue-line horse") will be around long after the number four pick, and if the Caps are interested in him they have plenty to offer in order to move up and get their man in later in the first round. But with the #4 pick, the Caps need to draft one of the stud centers available and I'd be surprised if they didn't do so.

Finally, though not Caps-related, by now I'm sure you've seen the monster hit Buffalo's Brian Campbell laid on Philly's R.J. Umberger in Game 1 of their series. If not, here it is:


I guess you could say that Umberger got owned (cap tip to Allsmokenopancake for the link).

Team Preview: New Jersey Devils

Key additions: Larry Robinson, Head Coach; Alexander Mogilny, RW (FA - TOR); Vladimir Malakhov, D (FA - PHI); Dan McGillis, D (FA - BOS); Richard Matvichuk, D (FA - DAL); Krzysztof Oliwa, LW/RW (FA - CGY); Darren Langdon, LW (FA - MTL); Zach Parise, C (D - 2003, 1/17); Aleksander Suglabov, RW (D - 2000, 2/56)

Key losses: Scott Niedermayer, D (FA - ANA); Scott Stevens, D (Retired); Pat Burns, Head Coach; Jan Hrdina, C (FA - CLM); Igor Larionov, C (Retired); Turner Stevenson, RW (FA - PHI); Tommy Albelin, D (Retired); Raymond Giroux, D (FA - MIN); Jiri Bicek, LW (FA - Europe)

Key players unsigned: Paul Martin, D; David Hale, D

Forwards: The Devils seem to be in some trouble up front. Their best player has Hepatitis (no, not that kind, this kind) and won't be back until November, no one seems to know where the goals are going to come from, and the team is already more than an Alexei Kovalev over the salary cap. Then again, the Devils always seem to be in some trouble up front? In 2003-04 the Devils only had two forwards (Patrik Elias and Scott Gomez) who had more than 37 points (155 NHLers, total, bested that mark), yet finished 14th in the League in goals scored. In the salary cap era balance and depth are the keys to success and with twelve double-digit goal scorers in 2003-04, the Devils had both. They have lost two of those forwards (spring-rental Hrdina and Stevenson) to free agency, and will have to trade another one or two (likely the disappointing Jeff Friesen and/or the injury-prone Viktor Kozlov) in order to get under the cap, but the team is confident that their contributions will hardly be missed. The Devils brought back Mogilny via free agency for a second tour of duty in the swamp. If he can stay healthy, his return will help the team cope with the absence of Elias as he will seek to recapture the chemistry he had with Gomez in his first turn as a Devil, when, in 2000-01, he posted his best numbers since the mid-90's. In fact, when Elias returns, the Devils will likely have their most potent group of forwards since, well, the last time Mogilny played for the team. New Jersey is also very high on Parise, who is coming off a strong first professional season at Albany of the AHL (18 goals, 40 assists). Jamie Langenbrunner, Brian Gionta, Sergei Brylin, Jay Pandolfo and defensive-specialist John Madden will all be counted on to again score a dozen or more goals. Ultimately, the Devils offensive success will hinge on Elias's return and Mogilny's health and production but most of all on everyone pulling his weight by kicking in the occasional goal. Isn't that the way it always is in Jersey?

Defensemen: Defensemen like Niedermayer are irreplacable. So are defensemen like Stevens (who is as good as retired - even his goalie expects him to call it quits). That said, General Manager Lou Lamoriello has done an awfully good job of filling their spots on the roster. Brian Rafalski has shown that he is ready to take his game to the next level. He's not Niedermayer, but there isn't a team in the NHL that wouldn't love to have him. Colin White is a mean s.o.b. in front of the net, and the team hopes that Martin and former first round pick (22nd in 2000) Hale are the Niedermayer and Stevens for the next generation of Devils. The additions of Matvichuk, McGillis and will provide physical presences in the defensive zone and Malakhov, another second-time Devil, will help in all situations. At the end of the day, losing Niedermayer and Stevens would be a crushing blow to most bluelines, but the Devils have been able to fill some holes and deal with the losses better than could be expected. So far.

Goaltenders: With apologies to Rink readers for ripping off John Buccigross, what Sam Beam is to Iron and Wine, Martin Brodeur is to the New Jersey Devils. Seventy or more starts in each of the past seven seasons, with at least 38 wins each year. Two Vezinas, a Calder and four Jennings trophies. Three Stanley Cups and an Olympic gold. Eight All-Star games. The youngest goalie in NHL history to win 400 games. His career goals against average is a miserly 2.17 and his career save percentage an equally stifling .912. Taken with the second-to-last pick in the first round of the 1990 Entry Draft (do you think some of the teams that passed on him are kicking themselves?), Brodeur, now 33, has become a legend, inspiring a wave of French-Canadian butterfly goalies like Marc-Andre Fleury, Roberto Luongo and Jose Theodore (Patrick who?). Brodeur will face this year without security blankets Niedermayer and Stevens in front of him for the first time in his career. New rules have reduced the size of his pads and will prevent him from handling the puck as much as he has in the past (the League punishing a player or two who have tailored their game around a certain skill seems patently unfair, but that's another article for another time). But despite all the change around him, there will be at least one constant: Martin Brodeur will start 70 games this year and he'll probably win at least 38 of them.

Bottom line: It seems that every September the puck pundits are predicting that "this is the year" that the Devils miss the playoffs . They don't have enough offense. Teams have figured out how to beat the trap. Martin Brodeur is overrated. Yet every year the Devils continue to show the League that they are one of the best coached, best disciplined and best managed teams around. And in every spring but one since the 1989-90 season, they've been playing postseason hockey, usually one or two breaks away from winning it all. Lou Lamoriello has been busy this offseason and, as mentioned above, his work is not done yet. But then again, his work is never done. As the Devils battle for playoff position come March, Lamoriello will be working the phones as always, looking for another playmaking center or scoring winger to make another run at the Cup and prove the pundits wrong yet again.

Update (9/6): Scott Stevens has announced his retirement. One of the great defensemen of this generation and a guy Caps fans have been pining over for years, Stevens' presence on the ice will be missed (except by Eric Lindros, Paul Kariya, Ron Francis...).

Thursday's Rumors, News & Notes

Confirming my initial feelings on Mathieu Biron, Dave Fay notes in his WTimes article this morning that "[b]ig as he is, Biron is said to lack a mean streak and is not a smooth skater." Yep, my new least favorite Cap. Fay also provides us with our first rumor of the day, so without further ado:

• Right Wing Alexander Mogilny has narrowed his choices down to the Caps and Panthers. Please, Alex, choose Florida. We do not need or young Russians inheriting your work ethic. Other reports have Mogilny's final destination narrowed to four teams, while yet another claims he'll end up in Manhattan or on Long Island.
  
• The Sens are trying to move center Bryan Smolinski and his $2.25m contract. Good luck with that.
• Here's a new one - the Leafs are talking to Eric Lindros. Winger Anson Carter too.
• The Rangers and Pens are reportedly interested in center Chris Gratton. Pittsburgh is also looking to add a defenseman, with the names Brad Bombardir, Todd Simpson and Curtis Leschyshyn coming up.

Spe alerted us to this link, the substance of which he calls "[a]n unfortunate side-effect of the new cap equation... [that t]he League has transferred player injury costs from owner to player."

Buccigross calls the Caps "obviously the worst team in the NHL," but unlike the painfully stupid Scott Burnside, Bucci's colleague at ESPN.com, Bucci seems to understand that the Caps are positioning themselves for the future. Burnside, it should be noted, is "a freelance writer based in Atlanta." Hmmm...

Update: The Isles signed defenseman Brad Lukowich. The Jackets signed center Ben Simon.

Update: Finally... the Leafs have signed Lindros.

Monday's Moves

And so it begins...

• The Panthers have inked both Joe Nieuwendyk and Gary Roberts, adding well over 2,000 games played, 900 goals and 1,800 points. Not a bad afternoon for the Cats.
• Boston picked up forward Brad Isbister from Edmonton for a fourth round pick in next year's draft. I doubt this was the "huge" deal to which GM Mike O'Connell was referring.
• The Kings signed forward Tom Kostopoulos.
• Minnesota signed forward Andrei Nazarov.
• St. Louis signed forward Aaron Downey.
• Anaheim sent center Mikael Holmqvist to Chicago for forward Travis Moen.
• Columbus signed defenseman Adam Foote, one of the most sought after defensemen on the market. This is probably the first signing that never would have happened under the old salary structure, and is an encouraging sign that perhaps every team will be able to compete for top free agent talent.
  

In other news, John Buccigross continues to embarass himself here. If you were struggling for a way to put a positive spin on ESPN not televising the NHL this year, not having to listen to this clown is it.