Bolts Keep Collecting Caps Castoffs

Per TSN, the Lightning have traded defenseman Matt Carle and a third round pick to Philadelphia for Steve Eminger, Steve Downie and a fourth round pick.

Caps/Flyers Live Video Stream

Link here, FYI, and leave your impressions of the game in the comments.

Thursday Roundup/Gameday: Flyers Rookies @ Caps Rookies

Dump d-dump dump... Dump! A round of links on me today:

Please make sure Mike Green never sees this.... See you guys out at Piney Orchard this afternoon?... Alex Ovechkin was named D.C. Sportsman of the Year, narrowly edging out Matt Chico.... It probably cost more to insure AO for three weeks at Worlds last spring than to pay John Erskine's salary for an entire season.... Hugs in Finland!... Wouldn't it be something if Sergei Fedorov or Jose Theodore won the Hart Trophy this year? Uh, yeah.... As you know, Karl Alzner and John Carlson have been impressive in Rookie Camp.... Finally, congrats to Paul and everyone at Kukla's Korner on a killer redesign and, more importantly, a new stable of some of the best bloggers in the 'sphere.

[Note: I normally wouldn't pimp a commercial site (especially one from which I get no kickback), but HockeyAttire.com has some great deals, on top of which you'll get 50% off if you enter "alloff50" in the coupon code. Unfortunately, most of their Caps stuff is old logo, but I picked this up for $84.87 total and it arrived in less than a week and is a money replica (and it actually has the correct white lettering, not the black lettering shown). H/t Dunzy.]

Happy 48th Birthday, Dale Hunter

Yep. I'll post this just about every chance I get:

Top 10 Games In Philadelphia Spectrum History

The big news out of Philly yesterday (that everyone already knew) was that the Spectrum is going to be shut down and demolished, to which I say, from the bottom of my heart, "Farewell, hell hole."

Don't get me wrong - I'm sure the ol' barn was a great place to see a game if you were a Flyers fan or someone who wanted to take in a game in a classic hockey atmosphere. It's just that the Caps never had much success playing in the CoreStates First Union Wachovia Bank du Jour Spectrum (a 24-43-4 record all-time attests to that), so my memories of the place aren't terribly fond.

But in an effort to see the building to its dusty grave without ill will, I've thrown together a Top 10 (Hockey) Games in Philadelphia Spectrum History:

10. January 18, 1992 - The 1991-92 NHL All-Star Game featured three Caps: Kevin Hatcher, Randy Burridge and Don Beaupre. Burridge had a goal and Hatch an assist, but Beaupre got lit up to the tune of six goals on 12 shots against in one period of work. Still, three Caps on an All-Star squad was solid.

9. December 19, 1982 - Trailing 1-0 with less than four minutes left in the third period, the Caps got goals from Milan Novy, Bobby Gould and Mike Gartner in a 2:09 span to steal a win against the Flyers' brilliant young netminder, Pelle Lindbergh.

8. March 28, 1991 - Don Beaupre made 21 saves, John Druce had a goal and an assist, and Rod Langway had a pair of helpers in a 3-0 shutout.

7. January 27, 1989 - Clint Malarchuk's 42-saves and Geoff Courtnall's early goal were all the Caps needed in a 1-0 win.

6. March 24, 1981 - Gartner beat future Caps netminder Pete Peeters three times for his fourth career hat trick in a 5-2 Caps win.

5. December 21, 1980 - Mike Palmateer's 44-save shutout (the second road white-washing in franchise history and the Caps' first win ever in Philly) was impressive, but the story of this game was the 344 PIMs the two teams combined to rack up. Not surprisingly, this game still stands as the highest PIM total ever in a Caps game.

4. April 8, 1989 - With the Patrick Division Semifinals knotted at one game apiece, the series headed back to Philly, where Kelly Miller would win the game for the boys in red in overtime.

3. January 8, 1984 - Bengt Gustafsson had a hat-trick with eight minutes to go in the second period, but he wasn't done there. Anton's dad would go on to score two more goals in the 7-1 route.

2. April 7, 1984 - Up two games to none in their best-of-five Patrick Division Semifinal matchup, the Caps had a chance to finish off Philly in their own house, and they did just that with a convincing 5-1 win in a game that featured seven minor penalties (including five hi-sticks and a rough), ten fighting majors and five 10-minute misconducts in the first period.

1. April 14, 1988 - Trailing Philly three games to one in the Patrick Division Semifinals, the Caps had just won Game 5 at home and headed up I-95 to try to win their first road game of the series. They did so in a 7-2 thumping that set the stage for this.

Now, I recognize that Flyers fans might have a slightly different list than the one above, but generating discussion is what these lists are about, so I welcome some quibbling over the order or even a game or two that should or shouldn't be there.

As for the building itself, it will be missed, I'm sure. Perhaps the current Flyers team can honor it by practicing there (or even by hosting their in-state rival for a regular season game) one last time... at demolition time.

And Now They're Dead

Join me, won't you, over at GDub's Puck Daddy blog to bid a heartfelt goodbye to the 2007-08 Philadelphia Flyers. Oh, and bring a tissue if you tear up as easily as the commentors over there.

The Caps And The Conference Finalists

ESPN.com's David Amber - who sure does love him some Top 10 lists - has thrown together a list of the Top 10 playoff games in team history for each of the four Conference Finalists. Not surprisingly, a few Caps games made the lists. And since, as a Caps fan, I am by definition masochistic, I present them to you so you can share in re-opening the wounds:

Penguins, Game #9. April 24, 1996: Game 4, Eastern Conference semifinals vs. Washington (3-2 quadruple OT win)

This game had a bit of everything. The wacky: In the second period, Lemieux was ejected for instigating a fight with the Caps' Todd Krygier. The weird: In the second overtime, Joe Juneau was stopped on a penalty shot by Ken Wreggett, who had replaced Tom Barrasso (who left early in the game with muscle spasms). The wild: After scoring the tying goal many hours earlier, Petr Nedved scored on the power play in the final minute of the fourth overtime. Nedved eluded a sliding Mark Tinordi and snapped a low, hard shot past Olaf Kolzig, who had already made 62 saves. The game was the fifth-longest in NHL history, with only a few thousand fans remaining from the sellout crowd in Washington. The Penguins would win the next two games to take the series in six.

Red Wings, Game #7. June 16, 1998: Game 4, Stanley Cup finals vs. Washington (4-1 win)

This game is memorable for a few reasons. First and foremost, it brought the Red Wings a second straight Stanley Cup. But the image that resonates most with many hockey fans is the sight of Steve Yzerman handing the Cup to wheelchair-bound Vladimir Konstantinov on the ice during the postgame celebration. The previous June, just six days after winning the Stanley Cup, Konstantinov, Slava Fetisov and team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov were involved in a serious limousine accident that ended Konstantinov's career. The Wings rallied around their fallen defenseman throughout the 1998 season and on the night they won the Cup without him on the ice. The team made it clear he was not forgotten by helping Konstantinov do a victory lap with the Cup in his wheelchair and engraving his name (and Mnatsakanov's) on the Stanley Cup.

Flyers, Game #6. April 11, 1989: Game 5, Patrick Division semifinals vs. Washington (8-5 win)

Leading by two goals, shorthanded with just a minute to play in the game, Ron Hextall made NHL history again. Two seasons earlier, Hextall had become the first NHL goalie to score by shooting the puck into the opposing net during a regular-season game. In this game, the enigmatic 24-year-old became the first NHL goalie ever to score a playoff goal. With Caps goalie Pete Peeters pulled, Hextall corralled a Scott Stevens dump-in behind his net and, from his goal line, rifled a high shot that landed at the far blue line and slid into the corner of the Capitals' empty net. Though he allowed four goals on the first 23 shots he faced, Hextall picked up the win and a place in the NHL record books. The Flyers beat the Caps in six games.

Gut-wrenching, all of 'em... and one of these teams (hint: not Philly) is going to win yet another Cup in a couple of weeks. How depressing.

Sometimes Karma's A Female Dog

For more schadenfreudian goodness, make sure to stop by The 700 Level, and if mainstream media whining is more your thing, the Philadelphia Daily News has you covered.

... And Then There Was Golf

Congrats to the Flyers and their fans.

Vengeance next year!

Game 7: Flyers @ Caps

[AP Recap - Game Summary - Super Stats - WashingtonCaps.com Postgame - AP Preview]

Yesterday I asked four questions (not the same ones we asked Saturday night, incidentally):

Could the Flyers keep Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin from adjusting their sites and finding the net for a big goal (or two... or three...) in Game Six?

They couldn't, and the pair scored the game-tying, game-winning and game-icing goals.

Could the Flyers continue to win games with production from basically one line?

They couldn't, as they could only muster a pair of power play goals, one by first-liner Danny Briere to keep the top line's goal-scoring clip at 50% of Philly's total.

Could the Flyers continue to win games with Martin Biron stopping less than 90% of the shots he's facing?

Biron actually saved exactly 90% of the shots he faced and was a wall for a period and a half, but his .857 save percentage over the game's final two periods proved insufficient.

Finally, could the Flyers sweep all three home games in the series by winning and ending the series?

They couldn't, and now they've got to come back to D.C. for Game Seven in the midst of the epic collapse we talked about on Friday and the Caps have now twice in the series erased two-goal deficits and gone on to win the games (Games One and Six), and, of course, have erased a two game series lead.

Some quick thoughts on Game Six:

• A couple of possible injuries to keep an eye on, most notably to Mike Green (which is potentially huge) and Tom Poti (who says he'll play tonight), but Eric Fehr may also have been nicked up. A Fehr injury would open the door for a Chris Clark "Willis Reed" moment... that won't happen.
• I feel like if I had a dime for every big save Cristobal Huet has made in the last three games, I could pay for tomorrow night's ticket with the change.
  
• You know the whole team's buying in when... Nicklas Backstrom has two hits, including one on Derian Hatcher.
• Ovechkin's line: two goals (including the game-winner), plus-one, nine shots on goal... no hits? Hmm.
• I now know why Biron holds up every glove save he makes for everyone in the arena to see - it's because he's the most surprised guy in the house that he made the stop.
  
• Semin and Backstrom have great chemistry. Ovechkin and Backstrom have great chemistry. My guess is that anyone and Backstrom would have great chemistry. Kid's legit (newsflash).
  
• Briere is back to his regular season ways, posting a minus-three rating.
  
• The Caps had 11 giveaways, the Flyers had 16.
  
• Philly won 57% of the draws on the night, with no Caps' pivot faring any better than 50% (Sergei Fedorov was 9-for-18).
• Steve Eminger and John Erskine were each plus-three. Erskine had five hits and each played more than 17:30. That's called raising your game.
• Great look at the Scottie Upshall dive (h/t grapejoos), and if the Caps win tonight, be prepared to see a lot of that head-snappin' action next series.
  
• Brooks Laich had a pair of assists, six shots on goal and an unlucky penalty. He continues to be un hombre con machismo.

So it's on to Game Seven at home.

Finally, you'll be seeing this a lot today, so enjoy it a time or two here as well:

Hey, Philly...

Ovechkin's back.

Game 6 Open Thread

Game 6: Caps @ Flyers

[AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview]

Before the puck dropped to start the third period of Saturday's Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series between the Caps and Flyers, and with the Caps holding a slim 2-1 lead, I turned to my dad and said, "The Flyers have nothing to lose right now - all the pressure is on the Caps to hold on to this lead. It wouldn't surprise me to see the Flyers come out real loose and dominate the third."

And that, of course, is exactly what happened (everywhere but on the scoreboard, that is).

Those roles now are completely reversed - all the pressure is on the Flyers to win at home tonight. And while the Caps still have something - something big - to lose, it's not going to be the guys in white who are gripping their sticks a little tighter than usual.

Can the Flyers keep Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin - who are one-two in the playoffs in missed shots - from adjusting their sites and finding the net for a big goal (or two... or three...) in Game Six? They'd better hope so.

Can the Flyers continue to win games with production from basically one line (Philly's top line has accounted for half of their goals in the series while the Caps have gotten just 21% of their goals from their top unit)? They'd better hope so (or get some more help from a secondary source... and this is one place where the Mike Knuble injury hurts the Flyers so much).

Can the Flyers continue to win games with Martin Biron stopping less than 90% of the shots he's facing? They'd better hope so (or hope that Marty raises his game a bit).

Can the Flyers sweep all three home games in this series by winning tonight and ending the series? They'd better hope so... because they sure as hell don't want to come back to D.C. for a Game Seven.

The pressure's on, Philly. Can you feel it?

Sunday Open Thread

"Which way is it back to Philly?"

Game 5: Flyers @ Caps

[AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview]

After losing Game 4 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series, the Caps had a choice - they could get busy livin' or get busy dyin'. Knowing these Caps, there was never a choice at all, and you can expect one of the team's best efforts of the season tomorrow afternoon at Verizon Center.

Thursday night was a turning point for these young Caps, whether it manifests itself in a win Saturday or not. But don't take my word for it - here's the boss:

Our team is bigger and tougher than the Flyers. They know it now and we know it now.

We now know how to play playoff hockey, NHL style.

From the top down, they're saying all the right things, and they believe every word of it.

In theory, at least, the mountain standing before the Caps at present isn't unscalable - win at home (where they were 23-15-3 this year), win in Philly with all the pressure in the world on the Flyers to close out the series at home (where, incidentally, the Caps have won four of their last six games), then come back home and finish the series with a victory over a similarly young team in the midst of an epic collapse.

In practice, of course, that's much easier said than done. Only twenty times in NHL history has a team come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-seven series (the Caps have been involved in four of those series, including 1988's comeback win against the Flyers) out of 219 such situations.

"Twenty?" defenceman Steve Eminger asked on Friday. "Why not 21?"

Indeed.

But win or lose, the Caps will look back on Thursday night as something of a coming of age. Win or lose, this Flyers team has provided the perfect playoff baptism for these Caps. They do a lot of what you need to do to win in the playoffs, and they've exposed precisely the "right" Caps weaknesses. Had the Caps met the Penguins or Canadiens in the first round and fallen short, they'd probably be able to convince themselves rather easily that they were out-skilled. But this Flyers team - through three games - showed the Caps that they were being out-worked and out-muscled. And come springtime in the NHL, it's those latter attributes that are the far more valuable to possess.

This series is far from over. Or perhaps the end is nigh. But coming back from a 3-1 deficit isn't impossible, despite that 20-for-219 number. To put that stat in apples-to-oranges perspective, the Beatles recorded 214 songs from 1962 to 1970 and had 20 Number One singles. In other words, the Caps have about as much chance of winning this series as Lennon/McCartney had of writing a chart-topping single in their prime.

Sounds pretty easy now, doesn't it?

DSB

Bouncing Back

As you know, Alex Ovechkin was held to just one shot on goal in last night's double overtime loss to the Flyers.

A quick glance at how AO followed up each of the games in which he had two or fewer shots on goal this past regular season:

• 0 SOG @ NYI (10/8); Next game: 1 goal, 7 SOG @ NYR
• 2 SOG @ ATL (11/6); Next game: 1 goal, 1 assist 10 SOG @ OTT
• 1 SOG vs. NJD (12/10); Next game: 1 goal, 5 SOG vs. NYR
  
• 2 SOG @ NYI (12/22); Next game: 1 assist, 3 SOG vs. TBL
• 2 SOG @ PIT (12/27); Next game: 4 goals, 1 assist, 5 SOG @ OTT
• 2 SOG vs. TOR (1/24); Next game: 0 points, 4 SOG @ MTL
• 1 SOG vs. NYI (2/20); Next game: 3 assists, 8 SOG @ CAR
  
• 2 SOG @ NJD (2/29); Next game: 1 goal, 1 assist, 4 SOG vs. TOR
• 2 SOG @ CHI (3/19); Next game: 2 goals, 2 assists, 9 SOG @ ATL

That's nine games in which opponents held Ovechkin to two or fewer shots on goal, and he has rebounded with an average of 1.4 goals, 1.0 assists and 6.1 shots on goal. He has only been held off the score sheet in one of those nine games (and then only because he faced an amazing goalie) and scored at least one goal in two-thirds of them.

Point being, you can't keep a good man down... and Alex is a very, very good man.

Game 4 Recap

Game 4 Open Thread

"The media is wrong if they think we're satisfied, and the media is wrong when they think the series is over." - Bruce Boudreau
UPDATE: In case you missed it, Flyer fans have taken to telling their mothers what to do. Classy.

Game 4: Caps @ Flyers

[AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview]

I was going to call this post "The Audacity of Hope," but that title apparently was taken by some elitist or something.

Anyway, I'm going to make this short and sweet.

In the comments to OFB's tribute to Broadway morning post yesterday, b.orr4 pointed out that in the history of the NHL Playoffs in best-of-sevens in which the team without home ice advantage had a 2-1 heading into Game 4, that team has won just over 60% of the series, to which I responded by geeking out and quoting Han Solo ("Never tell me the odds").

But sixty percent? That's it?

Think about where the Caps have been this year. Take a look here and check out how many days all year the Caps' chances of making the playoffs were as good as 40%. Hell, as late as March 20, the Caps' chances of making the playoffs were just 17%... and we obviously all know how that turned out.

I've said ad nauseum that this team plays best with its back against the wall, which is where it is now. Couple that with the fact that they have been absolutely dominated and yet still "in" every game against a team they've beaten three times since Thanksgiving (twice on the road) and there's certainly - on paper - reason for measured optimism.

The Caps haven't played their best game yet, not by a long shot. The Flyers have. Probably twice.

Don't stop believin'.

Game 3 Recap: Flyers 6, Caps 3

[AP Recap - Game Summary - Super Stats - WashingtonCaps.com Postgame]

I'm not even sure where to start, so I'll just throw the burning question out there - have you ever in your life seen a team's offense, defense, goaltending and coaching all go to crap so quickly and at the same time? To paraphrase the late Herb Brooks, the Caps are playing worse every game and right now they're playing like the middle of next week.

And yet, with three minutes left (before Shaone Morrisonn got into the spirit of giving that plagued the defense all night), the Caps were just a single goal down. Which, if you think about it, is consistent with the series so far - the Caps have been absolutely dominated in just about every aspect of the game and yet were in each one until the very end and are down just two games to one.

Never before has the term "so close, and yet so far away" been more apt.

Feel free to comment on specifics - like the Caps, I think I may have expended nearly all of my physical, mental and emotional energy in the four months leading up to the playoffs.