"The Other" Gordon

While we're in the middle of recapping current Caps' 2007-08 seasons, here's a look at future Cap Andrew Gordon's campaign, a first year in professional hockey which included a short (but successful) stint in the ECHL that got him on track for a strong finish in Hershey.

Gordon ended the AHL season third on the Bears in scoring with 16 goals and 35 assists in 58 games (the 35 assists tied him for the second-most on the team) and had a plus-22 rating, tops among Hershey forwards. He was tied for fourth among all AHL rookies in scoring and was named AHL Player of the Week back in early February.

Perhaps before long Boyd will be "the other" Gordon.

Saturday Roundup/'Canes 2, Caps 1

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

Before an announced crowd of 18,204 on Friday night, the Caps went 0-for-7 on the power play against the worst penalty kill in the League and are now 0-for-18 with no power play goals in the last six games and 1-for-24 in the last eight. There's not much more to say than that (though feel free to comment on the line juggling, a couple of selfish/bad penalties and yet another slow start), so I won't dwell.

Disappointing to be sure, but it was one game (and, notably, the third in four nights).

Rags tomorrow. Hopefully the power play shows up.

Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:

Today is Hockey Day in Canada on CBC, and Eric Fehr's hometown of Winkler, Manitoba is featured prominently in the festivities.... Some encouraging stats from Hershey: netminder Daren Machesney is leading the AHL in GAA and is fourth in save percentage (could he be "the bridge" or more?), Josef Boumedienne has points in eight straight, rookie Sami Lepisto is second in the AHL with a plus-23 rating, and Andrew Gordon is third in points per game among rookies and has a plus-17 rating.... H/t to Tyler on the link to Don Cherry's Top 10 Suits.... The South Bend Tribune has a great read on Teddy Ruth's partner on the Fighting Irish blueline... A year ago today I professed my love for Boyd Gordon and recapped a thrilling OT win, and two years ago today we mentioned Lindsay Czarniak, welcomed a new blogger to the blogosphere and dug up stories on gambling and steroids. Good times.

Daily Awards

• Hart: Ryan Carter (2G, including the game-winner, +2, 5 SOG)
• Ross: Ryan Carter (2 points)
  
• Norris: Scott Niedermayer (A, +2, 4 BkS)
  
• Vezina: Jonas Hiller (W, 36 saves on 37 shots against)
  
• Richard: Ryan Carter (2G)
  
• Calder: Ryan Carter (2G, including the game-winner, +2, 5 SOG)
  
• Aiken: Milan Jurcina (for his play on that Erik Cole goal... yikes)
  

Thursday Roundup

In case you missed it, Boyd Gordon's injury is a broken hand, one that he received during the first period of last Wednesday's Florida game. It should be noted that he played 15:38 in the game and scored in the shootout. With a broken hand. If he was a baseball player, he'd have been carted off the field and shot up with Novocaine in the ambulance on the way to the nearest hospital.

Another note of interest from Tarik's post is Chris Clark's comment that the ice at Verizon Center is the "worst in the League" (a point expounded upon by Vogs). "There's a lot of ruts in the ice," said Clark. "It's soft. It's wet half the time. I could see a lot of injuries coming from the ice there. It could cost [players] their jobs." Or coaches.

As bad as the ice is - and it is awful - is the poor quality of the home sheet showing up in the stats? Maybe. The Caps are averaging 2.25 goals per game at home and 2.40 on the road (over the course of a full season, that's about a six goal differential). That number may seem negligible, but given the opportunity to make the last line change, a friendly crowd, familiar setting, etc., you'd expect a team to be more potent at home (the Bolts, for example, are scoring well over a goal more per game at home than they are on the road). In fact, all but ten teams heading into last night's games were scoring more at home than on the road (insert adultery joke here). So while the differential here doesn't seem like much, the Caps are likely better than a 2.40 goals per game team on a decent sheet of home ice, and those six or more goals over the course of the season could translate into lost points in the standings. Then again, perhaps the ice is slowing down faster, more-skilled teams and the Caps are already getting those "home ice advantage" points.

Another couple of key indicators show the Caps performing better on home ice than on the road - the power play has clicked at 18.0% at home and 15.7% on the road and Alex Ovechkin has scored 10 goals at home (in 12 games) and 10 on the road (in 15). Of course, maybe on a good rink the Caps have a 20+% effective power play... and maybe AO would already be the NHL's leading goal scorer. [Sidenote: after the shootout against Florida last week, I meant to ask AO if the ice condition played any part in his decision to shoot rather than deke in the shootout, but his postgame time with the media was short, so I just let the big dogs eat.]

There's no question that the ice is horrible at the VC and that bad ice puts players' health at risk (and it has probably cost some guys - Clark, Tom Poti and Alex Semin - some games already this year)., but it's also likely costing the Caps on the scoreboard. Don't forget, however, that both teams have to skate on the same sheet, so it's probably saving the Caps a handful of goals against as well. The real question at this point, however, isn't 'what is crappy home ice costing the Caps?' but rather 'when the hell is someone going to do something about it?'

Anyway, on to the question du jour: Viktor Kozlov - boom or bust? He's got one goal since October 8 (a span of 24 games) and has been held shotless in two of his last four games. Still, he's on pace for 45 points, which is only six fewer than he had last year and 20 more than he had two years ago. The odd stat here is that he's on pace to take 43% more shots than last year (237), but score 64% fewer goals (9). Last year was clearly a fluke on the goal front for Kozlov, who tallied a career-high 25 goals (which equaled his total from the previous two seasons), but the points are still coming and, as is the case with Matt Pettinger, so long as he keeps shooting, the goals should come too. In other words, Kozlov may be playing a little bit below expectations, but if you had been hoping for much more from him, you probably weren't all that familiar with his complete body of work. Or am I wrong?

Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:

Andrew Gordon is back in Hershey and everyone's happy about it.... It was twenty years ago today Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play that Scott Stevens set a club record with five assists in a 10-3 win over the Kings out in Landover. The record would stand for a little more than a year before Mike Ridley would rack up six helpers in a 6-3 win over Chicago. Stevens' five points is still the team's single-game record for points by a blueliner.

Daily Awards

• Hart: Zach Parise (2G, 2A, +3, 8 SOG, 3 hits, 2 blocked shots)
  
• Ross: Zach Parise (4 points)
  
• Norris: Steve Montador (G, 2A)
  
• Vezina: Ilya Bryzgalov (W, 28 saves on 29 shots against)
  
• Richard: Zach Parise, Patrik Elias, Rick Nash, Randy Robitaille, Olli Jokinen (2G each)
  
• Calder: Peter Mueller (G, 2A, +2, 6 SOG)
  
• Aiken: Tomas Vokoun (2 goals allowed on 5 shots against in just 7:10 of work)
  

Wednesday Morning Morsels

Tarik profiles Karl Alzner (so does Burnaby Now), Corey Masisak has a piece on Andrew Gordon and Andrew Joudrey, FOX Sports' Jeff Gordon looks at nine NHL rookies (including Nicklas Backstrom), NHL Tournament of Logos wants to know which is your favorite Caps logo of all-time, and Alex Ovechkin's jersey outsold Sidney Crosby's (but not Anze Kopitar's?!) in August.

It's beginning to look a lot like hockey season, isn't it?

Rookie Camp Opens; Bouchard, Backstrom Audio

Rookie camp opened this morning and I got tired just watching Coach Hanlon skate the team.

While the drills didn't offer too great a chance to differentiate amongst the skaters, the standouts did stand out - notably Nicklas Backstrom, Francois Bouchard, Andrew Gordon and Sasha Pokulok (Dan Kronick, who skated with Backstrom and Bouchard, didn't look out of place either). Also of note, I was told that Eric Fehr is in town already and should be 100% healthy for training camp next week, which was good to hear.

After practice, I was able to catch up with Bouchard and ask him a couple of questions about his goals for training camp and beyond:

Finally, I got some audio from Backstrom, and asked him how Michael Nylander has helped his transition to North America:


Photos by Ken Berard

The Other Gordon And A Pair Of Finns

The fantastic Tim Leone has a profile of Caps' prospect Andrew Gordon in today's Patriot News that's certainly worth checking out.

Leone describes Gordon as a "high-energy forward" (head coach Bruce Boudreau compares Gordon to the Kings' Dustin Brown, who Boudreau coached in Manchester) who is certain to energize the Bears' lineup in his first season in Chocolatetown.

Leone also notes that hulking Finnish forward Oskar Osala is expected to play in Hershey this year as well, despite having another year of Junior eligibility left. Osala's fellow countryman Sami Lepisto is also expected to play for Coach Boudreau this coming season.

Finally, here's a bit of trivia for you - Sami Lepisto's godfather is none other than Jari Kurri.

Thanks for dropping all that knowledge on us, Tim!

Youth Will Be Served

NHL.com's Robert Picarello has an article up about five of the younger players the Caps have under contract (most of whom I'd expect to see at the Caps development camp next month), and it's definitely worth a read.

Hockey's Future: Capitals Top 20 Prospects

Hockey's Future has updated its Top 20 Caps Prospects (with a couple of paragraphs on each player) and the only thing that really jumps out at me is that Francois Bouchard has leap-frogged Tomas Fleischmann. Travis Morin's low ranking and the omission of Viktor Dovgan have some scratching their heads, but all in all, the list is rather unsurprising (and it's great to see two goalies so high on the list). Here it is, with a cherry-picked, not-always-in-context money quote for each player:

1. Nicklas Backstrom, C - "has the potential and maturity to center a first line as soon as next season"
2. Eric Fehr, RW - "with his impressive offensive prowess and ongoing success in the AHL, Fehr will not be a man with two teams for much longer"
3. Semen Varlamov, G - "quick legs, and a very quick glove, which lets him excel at breakaways, especially shootouts"
4. Francois Bouchard, C/RW - "he might not just contribute, but be an impact player"
5. Tomas Fleischmann, LW - "with great hockey sense, along with an impressive shot and playmaking ability, Fleischmann has excellent offensive potential"
6. Michal Neuvirth, G - "a well-rounded butterfly style goaltender who shines under pressure situations. Rarely getting rattled, his mental toughness is remarkable for his age."
7. Chris Bourque, LW/RW - "has all intangibles -- great hockey sense, excellent skating, leadership, competitiveness, and above all, the ability to put himself in the right positions to score"
8. Jeff Schultz, D - "all the physical potential to become a keystone defenseman at the NHL level"
9. Patrick McNeill, D - "has enormous offensive potential, and is defensively sound"
10. Keith Seabrook, D - "has an incredibly hard shot from the point, and an ability to find open shooting lanes"
11. Oskar Osala, LW - "has incredible offensive talent, and at 6'4 his great speed and skating ability is very rare"
12. Sami Lepisto, D - "One of the best young defensemen in Finland, Lepisto excels at puck control; with a very calm demeanor he makes good passes and exudes confidence with the puck."
13. Joe Finley, D - "His incredible size, mixed with a certain aggressiveness, gives him the ability to take control of a game from a defensive standpoint."
14. Maxime Daigneault, G - "With good size, and an aggressively challenging style, Daigneault covers a lot of space in the net and uses his butterfly technique and quick glove to stymie shooters."
15. Sasha Pokulok, D - "Out of all the defensemen in the Capitals prospect system, Pokulok may be the most well-rounded."
16. Andrew Gordon, RW - "Gordon has what every club in the NHL looks for in offensive players: consistency at a high level."
17. Travis Morin, C - "His great playmaking skills, matched with excellent puckhandling, makes Morin successful on the power play."
18. Mathieu Perreault, C - "has enormous offensive upside"
19. Stephen Werner, RW - "Werner is a good playmaker and makes good decisions. He has a hard shot and is good through traffic, but his calling card is his speed."
20. Jamie Hunt, D - "extremely quick and a very good skater for his size"