Take Your Pick

Keeping in mind that hockey is played at both ends of the ice, which blueliner would you rather have for the coming season (stats are 2006-07 numbers - click on the Player tag to see who it is if you can't figure it out)?

Player A (31 years old): 81 games played, 26 goals, 38 assists, -28, 135 PIMs, 101 hits, 149 blocked shots, 85 giveaways, 62 takeaways.

Player B (30 years old): 78 games played, 6 goals, 38 assists, -1, 74 PIMs, 61 hits, 170 blocked shots, 58 giveaways, 50 takeaways.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, over the past five NHL seasons, Player B has out-pointed Player A by 18 points and has the better plus/minus rating by 38.

Reasonable minds certainly could differ as to who was more valuable to his team last year (though Player B's sqaud made the playoffs while Player A's team did not) and who will be more valuable going forward, but when you consider that Player B signed a 4-year deal for $14 million and Player A signed a 5-year deal for $27 million, can those reasonable minds really still differ?

Offseason Shopping List: Defensemen

Having unanimously settled a new first-line center for the Caps, it's time to find a new "number one" defenseman. As was the case with centers, should the team choose to go the free agent route, there are certainly some options out there. Unlike centers, however, this year's free agent class of defensemen is relatively weak as compared to last year's.

First, a look at likely market conditions. In the offseason leading up to the 2006-07 season, teams were working with a $44 million salary cap. The top (unrestricted) free agent defensemen available were Nicklas Lidstrom, Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Ed Jovanovski, Rob Blake and Bryan McCabe. A quick look at the deals each got:

• Lidstrom (36 years old): 2 years, $15.2 million ($7.6 million per year); 2005-06 stats:16-64-80
• Chara (29): 5 years, $37.5 million ($7.5 million per year); 2005-06 stats: 16-27-43
• Redden (29): 2 years, $13 million ($6.5 million per year); 2005-06 stats: 10-40-50
• Jovanovski (30): 5 years, $32.5 million ($6.5 million per year); 2005-06 stats: 8-25-33
• Blake (36): 2 years, $12 million ($6 million per year); 2005-06 stats: 14-37-51
• McCabe (31): 5 years, $28.75 million ($5.75 million per year); 2005-06 stats: 19-49-68

Now, that's one hell of a class of blueliners. Sure, a couple of 'em are a bit long in the tooth and there are some injury concerns there, but any one of those guys (with one exception) could conceivably put together a Norris Trophy finalist season (and some have already, multiple times). Compare that to this year's top-five UFAs (in no particular order): Mathieu Schneider, Sheldon Souray, Kimmo Timonen, Brian Rafalski and Roman Hamrlik. See any Norris winners there? Any perennial finalists? Me neither.

So what will these guys cost? As we discussed with the centers, for 2007-08, the salary cap is expected to rise to between $46 and $47.5 million, but for the ease of this exercise, let's call it $48 million, a 9% increase over 2006-07. It would stand to reason that the top free agents, then, will cost around 9% more than they did last offseason (of course this assumes that some other factors, such as supply of and demand for these players holds constant, but again, pinpoint accuracy isn't important here). In other words, get ready to shell out around $6 million - bare-minimum - for the next 2-5 years. With all of that in mind, let's take a look at the candidates for the top-D spot (stats through 6 March 2007):

• Roman Hamrlik
• DOB: April 12, 1974
• Nationality: Czech
• 2006-07 salary: $3,500,000
• Honors and Awards: 1996, 1999, 2003 NHL All-Star; 1998 Olympic Gold Medal
• 2006-07 stats: 59 GP, 5-25-30
• Career regular season stats: 983 GP, 129-368-497
• Career playoff stats: 49 GP, 1-19-20
• Games played over the last five NHL seasons prior to 2006-07: 351/410
• Why he's a prime target for the Caps: Former number one overall pick (and we know how the team loves to collect former first rounders), Hamrlik is a good skater, shooter and passer who plays a physical (enough) game.
• Why he's not: He's somewhat injury-prone and makes mistakes in the defensive zone at times. More than that, he's not a true #1 defenseman.
  
• Brian Rafalski
• DOB: September 28, 1973
• Nationality: American
• 2006-07 salary: $4,200,000
• Honors and Awards: 2000, 2003 Stanley Cup; 2002 Olympic Silver Medal; 2002, 2004, 2007 NHL All-Star
• 2006-07 stats: 67 GP, 7-36-43
• Career regular season stats: 526 GP 43-256-299
• Career playoff stats: 91 GP 15-37-52
• Games played over the last four NHL seasons prior to 2006-07: 384/410
• Why he's a prime target for the Caps: Rafalski is a winner and comes from a franchise that knows what winning is all about. His numbers may not be the most impressive, but they've been held down somewhat by playing in a defense-first system. He's a smart player, a great skater, and a capable offensive defenseman.
• Why he's not: He's not big (5-10, 190). Seriously, that's just about the only "negative" I could write about Raffy. Maybe the fact that he'll be 34 by Opening Night 2007 is another, or the fact that at a $4.2 million 2006-07 salary, his 2007-08 salary will likely be one of the highest in the League.
  
• Mathieu Schneider
• DOB: June 12, 1969
• Nationality: American
• 2006-07 salary: $3,300,000
• Honors and Awards: 1993 Stanley Cup; 1996, 2003 NHL All-Star
• 2006-07 stats: 54 GP, 11-37-48
• Career regular season stats: 1118 GP, 200-459-659
• Career playoff stats: 92 GP, 7-39-46
• Games played over the last five NHL seasons prior to 2006-07: 356/410
• Why he's a prime target for the Caps: Schneider has a cannon from the blueline and passes extremely well - an ideal powerplay quarterback. Plus, he'd fill the on-ice Jew quota that has been deficient since Jeff Halpern left town.
• Why he's not: He'll be 38 on Opening Night 2007, doesn't have great size and misses a handful of games every year with injuries.
  
• Sheldon Souray
• DOB: July 13, 1976
• Nationality: Canadian
• 2006-07 salary: $2,432,000
• Honors and Awards: 2004, 2007 NHL All-Star
• 2006-07 stats: 67 GP, 23-32-55
• Career regular season stats: 492 GP, 63-114-177
• Career playoff stats: 34 GP, 3-7-10
• Games played over the last five NHL seasons prior to 2006-07: 224/410
• Why he's a prime target for the Caps: Souray has a laser of a shot from the point and plays with an edge. Also, he's recently reconciled with his wife, and she's certainly a plus.
• Why he's not: He will likely be the highest-paid free agent defenseman by far, but is a guy who has played 55% of his team's games over the past five years and who has well over 30% of his career production so far this season worth that much? Add in that he's not a terribly skilled passer, not the most skilled defensively and takes bad penalties and I think you have your answer.
• Kimmo Timonen
• DOB: March 18, 1975
• Nationality: Finnish
• 2006-07 salary: $2,280,000
• Honors and Awards: 1998 Olympic Bronze Medal; 2006 Olympic Silver Medal; 2004, 2007 NHL All-Star
• 2006-07 stats: 66 GP, 10-37-47
• Career regular season stats: 559 GP, 76-217-293
• Career playoff stats: 11 GP, 1-3-4
• Games played over the last five NHL seasons prior to 2006-07: 392/410
• Why he's a prime target for the Caps: Timonen is durable, fast and a good passer with a good shot.
• Why he's not: He's smallish and perhaps a marginal number one guy.

From a quick glance at the above and my gut impressions of these five, I'd rank them Rafalski, Timonen, Souray, Schneider, Hamrlik in terms of how they'd fit what the Caps are doing. I'm sure I'll meet a lot of resistance ranking Souray so low, but his injury-riddled past and defensive/discipline lapses scare me - I'd gladly trade a few MPH on the slapper for a few more takeaways and plusses at the other end.

Finally, as we did with the centers, having attempted to pick an unrestricted free agent, let's explore the restricted free agent route, where the money saved could be spent on a center and/or a rightwing. Of course you would be giving up some picks, but with all of the prospects the Caps will have compiled by then and names like Ryan Whitney, Joni Pitkanen and Ryan Suter on the market, maybe it's an option worth exploring (if for no other reason than to screw Pittsburgh and/or Philly financially by making them match a high offer).

Monday Roundup/Caps 2, Isles 1 (OT)

[NHL.com Recap - WashingtonCaps.com Postgame Coverage]

Man, that was one long game. Countless turnovers resulted in little or no flow and conditions were, to put it kindly, less than ideal. But, in the end, the veteran leader that you thought would come through for his team did and the Colts beat the Bears Caps beat the Islanders on Sunday. Some thoughts:

• A goalie shouldn't have to gor 3-for-3 in the shootout in order for his team to win. Luckily, Olie Kolzig did.
• For the second straight game, Milan Jurcina led all Caps' defensemen in ice time and looked good doing it with five shots on goal, three blocked shots and a plus-one rating. Obviously it's a small sample size, but so far, so good.
• "Hits" is a notoriously subjective stat category, but objectively, the fact that defensemen Jurcina, Shaone Morrisonn, Jamie Heward and Jeff Schultz combined for zero of them isn't terribly impressive.
• The Caps' power-play is still broken, with little in the way of puck possession in the offensive zone and no quality scoring chances being generated (other than those for the opposition).
• Alex Semin had the game-winning shootout goal but his stat of the day is four takeaways and zero giveaways. It was good to see him play a more responsible game after his awful game in Pitt a day earlier, but it would be nice to see him share the puck a bit more.
• The third line of Matt Pettinger, Boyd Gordon and Richard Zednik was by far the Caps' best line, and if they can keep producing at a reasonable level, the Caps would, on paper at leat, have three lines contributing down the stretch.
• With Matt Bradley back in the lineup, Kris Beech and Ben Clymer sat, as predicted by some.
• Former Caps Brenda Witt and Chris Simon got chippy with Brian Sutherby on a number of occassions. I wonder what that's all about.
• Isles' blueliner Sean Hill did a good job containing Alex Ovechkin, clearly familiarizing himself with AO's "go to" moves prior to the game. With nothing to show for his efforts on Saturday either, AO is now scoreless in back-to-back games for the first time all season.
• Rick DiPietro looked great for New York. They should think about locking him up with a long-term deal.
• There were at least three (four? five?) stoppages in the game for glass-related repairs. Add that to the numerous offsides, icings, penalties, etc., and I'm not sure but this may have been the second-longest Caps-Islanders game of all-time.

The Caps will welcome Boston to the VC on Tuesday night as the top-pairing of Jurcina and Morrisonn will get a chance to show their old team what they gave up on. Hopefully the B's will leave town drooling the drool of remorse on the pillow of regret.

Daily Awards

• Hart: Sheldon Souray (Game-winning OT goal, 2A, +1, 2 SOG, 3 blocked shots)
• Ross: Sheldon Souray, Tomas Plekanec (3 points each)
• Norris: Sheldon Souray (see above)
• Vezina: Olaf Kolzig (31 saves on 32 shots against through OT, 3 saves on 3 shots against in shootout)
• Richard: Tomas Plekanec (2G)
• Calder: Jordan Staal (G, 2 SOG)
• Aiken: Brooks Orpik (0 points, -2, on ice for last three Montreal goals in 4-3 OT loss)

Thursday Roundup/Gamenight: Habs @ Caps

[NHL.com Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview - Official Gameday Thread]

Didn't the Caps just play these guys? Yup. You know what that means, don't you? I get to be lazy and rehash my preview and recap from that game (and while I'm at it, I might as well rehash my Sheldon Souray Jersey Night idea). Killer.

So what's changed in a week (other than the Caps positioning in the Eastern Conference standings)? Not much. The Caps are a bit healthier, and perhaps The Donald will be a little better behaved (Aaron Downey sure hopes so), but everything keeps coming back to three main points: the need for better special teams, a 60-minute effort (especially a strong start), and better success in the faceoff circle. If the Caps fail in any of these three areas, that five-game losing streak will become six games real fast.

Google Search of the Day:

• I'm often amused at how people stumble upon The Rink. I get a ton of Lindsay Czarniak searches, some fairly bizarre searches (btw, nice hockey blogosphere roll call on that one), and some damn funny ones (NSFW... at all, though the second item in the search results is an absolute riot). I figured I'd start sharing them with y'all from time to time, and today's is certainly a gem.

Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:

• Semen Varlamov and his Rooskie mates get to take on Canada for the gold at the World Juniors. Nick Bäckström and the Swedes will play the Yanks for bronze.
• Vogs has a nice piece on Eric Fehr and C-Bo up at Caps.com.
• Newsflash: the Caps' attendance bites but will be cured by winning more games.
  

Daily Awards

• Hart: Dany Heatley (3G, including game-winner, A, +2, 6 SOG, 3 takeaways, 2 giveaways, 1 hit, 1 blocked shot)
  
• Ross: Dany Heatley (4 points)
  
• Norris: Lubomir Visnovsky (G, A, +1, 2 SOG)
  
• Vezina: Roberto Luongo (W, 39 saves on 40 shots against through OT and four saves on five shots against in the shootout)
  
• Richard: Dany Heatley (3G)
  
• Calder: Loui Eriksson (G, +1, 2 SOG in 2-1 shootout loss)
  
• Aiken: Ryan Miller (L, 6 goals allowed on 36 shots against)

From Le Department Promotionale

Always thinking about how to increase ticket sales for NHL games, I had a brilliant idea for a promotional giveaway for the Canadiens to use. Now, I know that the Habs sell out every game, so maybe this promotion can be used by other teams when the Habs are in town. For instance, how many people are going to go to the Verizon Center on Wednesday, December 27 to see the Caps host the Canadiens? Probably around 12,000. But employ this giveaway and the place will be packed to the rafters.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you Sheldon Souray Jersey Night:

This one's free, NHL. From here on out, I'll be billing you.

Since He Hasn't Beaten A Goalie in Three Weeks...

According to TSN.ca:

The Toronto Star reports that Montreal police were called to Sheldon Souray's apartment Sunday after receiving a 911 call for an altercation between the Canadiens defenceman and wife Angelica Bridges.

The Rink, of course, would never make light of domestic violence and hesitates to report speculation about a player's potential marital issues, but Souray's wife is so attractive the story warrants attention. Please forgive our reversion to adolescence.