"The biggest thing is you know you look at some of these kids coming on. We know that next year a lot of them will be out of ...will not be restricted and you have to accommodate them if you want to grow your organization. You got the Kessels of the world and other guys that are within their... Jur...Jurcina and those that are coming on that you got to save room for as they grow."
You know, I'm sure the Caps would be happy to help reunite Jacobs and Jurcina should, the B's want to swap Milans.
En route to their first playoff appearance in half a decade, the 2007-08 Caps racked up only 33 fighting majors, good for 22nd in the League. Whether or not this is a positive or a negative can be debated (though without the context of each individual fight, I fail to see the usefullness of doing so), but what isn't up for discussion is the fact that the 33 fights were the fewest for a Caps team since the 2000-01 season. Here are the annual totals for the last seven seasons:
Of the 33 fights this past season, nine came with Glen Hanlon still behind the bench (which would pro-rate to 35 over the course of a full season) and 24 came under Bruce Boudreau's watch (which pro-rates to 32).
Now, Boudreau is hardly a pacifist - his 2005-06 and 2006-07 Hershey Bears combined for 182 fights in 160 games (thanks in large part to Louis Robitaille) - and his Caps had to pick their spots more carefully than Hanlon's did. Nevertheless, some will undoubtedly question the team's toughness. I won't (mainly for three reasons: 1) there's a world of difference between total fights and team toughness, 2) Donald Brashear, 3) the Detroit Red Wings), but that's neither here nor there right now, as the point of this post is to take a look back at the year that was in Caps fisticuffs.
Nine different Caps received fighting majors during the 2007-08 regular season, lead, of course, by Brashear (with 12). Matt Bradley was right behind Brash with an even ten (the most he's had in a season since 2003-04), and John Erskine fought four times in his 51 games. David Steckel's rookie season included two fights, and Chris Clark, Brooks Laich, Shaone Morrisonn and former Caps Matt Pettinger and Brian Sutherby all had one fight apiece.
How'd these pugilists fair? Using the incredibly scientific HockeyFights.com vote tallies, here's the breakout (note - if neither player in a fight was voted the winner by a majority, it's counted as a draw here):
That's a total of 10-10-13 overall and 3-7-9 for guys still with the team not named Donald. This team may be tough, but they're not going to physically intimidate anyone if #87's not in the lineup (which, I suppose, is why he is in there).
So what do you think - is this team tough enough? Do they need an enforcer in the lineup on a nightly basis? In light of the current cap concerns, did they need a million dollar pugilist?
We previously gave you reasons to watch every Caps game in October and November. Here's why you should watch the games on the slate for December:
Dec. 2 vs. Florida: The last time the Caps and Panthers played was the last game of the regular season for both teams, and the Caps had a simple goal in mind. Here's how things turned out:
Dec. 4 vs. N.Y. Islanders: The Isles took three of four from the Caps last season, and the one game the Caps managed to win was due in large part to the heroic efforts of Olie Kolzig, who ends his Caps career with a 26-10-2 record (tied for the most wins he has against any club), a 2.31 goals against average and a .910 save percentage against the Isles. Kolzig's replacement, Jose Theodore, has a career 12-9-1 record against New York, but a stellar 1.89 GAA and .936 save percentage, so look for the Caps to regain the ownership of the Islanders that carried them to a 34-9-3 record in head-to-head meetings from January 27, 1995 through April 7, 2006.
Dec. 6 @ Toronto: Ron Wilson is 4-0 against the Caps since being relieved of his duties in D.C. and is 7-2-1 all-time as a head coach against the Caps, including an active seven-game winning streak. That's gotta end sometime, no?
Dec. 7 @ Carolina: Hey, Carolina again. The Caps have more hat tricks (8) against Carolina/Hartford than against any other team in the League other than Philly (9), but Alex Semin is the only current Cap to turn the trick against the 'Canes as a Cap.
Dec. 10 vs. Boston: Given that the Caps dropped a dime on the B's in one game last year, Donald Brashear dropped Shane Hnidy in another, and Milan Lucic dropped Brian Pothier in yet another, the game is a good bet to produce something of note. Let's just hope Chris Rooney isn't calling this one. Here's a reminder of what the Caps' offense can do on an "on" night:
Dec. 12 vs. Ottawa: Martin Gerber has a 3.61 GAA and .864 career save percentage against the Caps, but throw out last year's 9.13/.730 and... it's still 2.86/.888.
Dec. 13 @ Montreal: Expect the Canadien faithful to ride Theodore all night as they did in his only previous game as a visitor in Montreal, a game in which he got lit up for eight goals, including five in the third period.
Dec. 16 @ N.Y. Islanders: There's a good chance that the Islanders will have either John Tortorella or Bob Hartley behind the bench when the season starts. Presumably, whomever it is would still be there in mid-December.
Dec. 18 vs. St. Louis: The Blues will pay Keith Tkachuk and Paul Kariya a combined $10 million this coming season - watch 'em try (and fail) to be worth it. The two averaged 21.5 goals and 40 assists apiece last year, and
Dec. 20 @ Philadelphia: The Flyers. In Philly. Mike Wise wet his pants just looking at this game on the schedule.
Dec. 23 @ N.Y. Rangers: It's just not the same any more. No more Jaromir Jagr. No more Sean Avery. Luckily Colton Orr's still around:
Dec. 28 vs. Toronto: In one game against the Leafs last season, the Caps got goals from Boyd Gordon, Matt Pettinger, Jeff Schultz, Matt Bradley and Brian Sutherby. Those five players combined for 21 goals the rest of the season.
Dec. 30 @ Buffalo: The last game of '08 - a year that truly belonged to 08.
Game of the Month: There are a bunch of good Northeast Division matchups on the schedule in December, but the Game of the Month is with a team from the Atlantic, and it's a rematch of last year's first round playoff series with the Flyers.
One year and one day ago, the Caps hosted a joint Draft Viewing/Uniform Unveiling event out at K-Plex. A good time was had by all, etc., but no one could have known then that the participants in the night's festivities were, in fact... doomed.
Below is a snapshot of "The Unveiling Four," Ben Clymer, Brian Pothier, Chris Clark and Jeff Schultz, from left to right.
Each has faced his own unique set of circumstances since that night:
Pothier's career is in jeopardy after being on the receiving end of a Milan Lucic hit back in early January. He played 38 games in 2007-08;
Clark played in only 18 games in 2007-08 as he took an Alex Ovechkin slapper to the ear in October which cost him eight games and is still battling a nagging groin injury from late November that has cost him 56 games plus the playoffs;
Schultz missed five of the Caps' seven playoff games with a back injury; and
From Backstrom to Steckel, we're taking a quick look at and grading the 2007-08 season for every player* who laced 'em up for the Caps during the campaign (and is still with the team) with an eye towards 2008-09. Next up, Brian Pothier.
Contract Status: 2008-09 salary of $2,500,000; UFA after 2009-10 season Age (as of October 1, 2008): 31 NHL Seasons (including 2007-08): 4+ 2007-08 Regular Season Stats: 38 games played, 5 goals, 9 assists, +5, 20 PIMs Key Stat: Pothier was one of two defensemen on the team (Tom Poti being the other) to average more than 15 even strength minutes, one power play minute and one shorthanded minute per game. Quirky Stat: Had no points on Fridays, despite playing nine Friday games and having more than twice as many shots on that day than on any other.
The Good: Pothier was on pace for a 10-goal/19-assist/plus-10 campaign (which would have been career bests in goals and points, and the five goals he did score tied a career best) when his season was derailed by Milan Lucic. His 7.7 shooting percentage was tied with Mike Green for second among the team's blueliners, he drew the second most penalties per sixty minutes of a Caps rearguard, and even though he played less than half the season, he ended up fourth among the D-corps in points. Pothier had the best plus/minus relative to his team of any Caps defenseman, the second best takeaway-to-giveaway ratio of the group, and had four goals in 17 games under Bruce Boudreau.
The Bad: Pothier had two points (no goals) and a minus-3 rating in 15 November games and had just one goal in his first 26 games. He also had the second-fewest hits-per-game of any Caps defenseman (Poti had the fewest).
The Vote: Rate Pothier on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) based on his performance relative to his potential for the season - if he had the best year you could have imagined him having, give him a 10; if he more or less played as you expected he would, give him a 5 or a 6; if he had the worst year you could have imagined him having, give him a 1.
The Questions: If Pothier gets better and can play, what role do you see him having on the 2008-09 Caps? What will it take for him to earn a 10 rating next year?
If you've missed any of the previous 2007-08 Rink Wraps, click here, get caught up, and vote - polls will stay open for a while.
* And by "every," we mean every one who played more than just a handful of games.
It certainly wasn't the primary motivation for acquiring goaltender Cristobal Huet at the trade deadline last week, but with three of the Caps' last 16 games against the Boston Bruins, it doesn't hurt that Cristo has dominated the B's throughout his career. In three games against the Bruins so far this season, Huet is 3-0-0 with a 1.67 goals against average and .943 save percentage, and for his career he is 8-2-0/1.93/.940 with three shutouts (the most wins and shutouts he has against any opponent).
In fact, Huet has great career numbers against a handful of the Caps' remaining opponents: his best career GAA (1.08) and save percentage (.964) are against Florida, who Washington will face twice more; he's 2-0-1/1.73/.947 against Nashville (who the Caps play on March 18); he's 4-2-2/2.05/.932 against Atlanta, 6-3-0/2.24/.931 against Tampa and 3-2-1-0/2.37/.931 against the 'Canes (each of whom Washington will play two more times before the regular season wraps up); and he's 3-2-0/2.13/.915 against Pitt, who the Caps face at home next Sunday.
Sure, Huet is no longer playing behind Mike Komisarek, Andrei Markov et. al., but the fact that he has a career 29-13-1-4 record with a 1.97 GAA, .937 SV% and nine shutouts against the teams the Caps will play in 13 of their last 16 games has to count for something. Oh, and against those other three teams - Buffalo, Calgary and Chicago - Huet is 8-9-1-3/2.73/.909... maybe Olie Kolzig can get some work in in those games - he's 26-19-6-1/2.42/.914 against that trio of teams.
The flip side of the "Huet vs. the Bruins" coin is "Tim Thomas vs. the Caps." The B's netminder is 8-0-1 with a 1.82 GAA and .940 SV% in his career against Washington, thanks in large part to Zdeno Chara's ability to shut down Alex Ovechkin. For his career, the Great Eight has only five points - and only two goals - in nine games against Big Z's teams (Boston for this year and last, Ottawa in '05-'06) and three goals and four helpers in nine tilts against Boston.
So even though the Bruins come into tonight's game 7-0-1 in their last eight and the Caps have been playing around .500 hockey for the past month-and-a-half (8-6-3 since January 22), expect another tight game - since the lockout, only one of the nine games between these two teams (of which the Caps have won only one, by the way) was decided by more than one goal (this season's only meeting, January 3rd's 2-0 Boston win). Oh, and for those of you revenge seekers, a reminder that this will be the first time the Caps have seen Milan Lucic since he quite possibly ended Brian Pothier's career.
The Caps should have no trouble getting up for this game. Maintaining that intensity will be the challenge.
Why The Bruins Will Win:
"The Bruins will beat the Caps tonight because Tim Thomas does yoga. All bets on the Bs are off if Huet wears his old Canadiens helmet, though." - The Hockey (and Donut) Blog
"Right now, the Bruins are flat out clicking. Everything that can go right is going right, and Boston has six straight wins. Between the pipes, Tim Thomas has allowed just one goal in his last two outings. This alone is not a good sign for Washington, as Thomas is 8-0-1 in his career against the Capitals. A solid performance from Thomas and the rest of the B's could lead to seven wins in a row." - The Bear Cave
"The Bruins will win because they're on a 6-game win streak. Besides, the only quality players on the Caps' roster are Ovechkin and ...uh....that other....hmm. Well, at least they have Ovechkin." - The Spoked B
"The Bruins will win because they have won their last six games, and are planning to make it seven tonight to keep the streak alive." - WickedBruinsFan
Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:
Happy 24th Birthday to Alex Semin and Happy 45th to Kelly Miller... H/t to Ted Leonsis for digging out this GMGM gem.... On this date in 1996, Jim Carey set the franchise mark with his sixth shutout of the season (and second in two days). He'd add another three before his Vezina-winning campaign was over, and the nine shutouts remain a Caps single season record.... On this date in 2004, the Caps sent Sergei Gonchar to Boston for Shaone Morrisonn and the picks that were used to draft Jeff Schultz and Mikhail Yunkov.... On this date in 1895, according to the HHOF, "The earliest recorded ice hockey game was played, with McGill University going against the Victoria skating club, at the Victoria Rink in Montreal. The two teams played with nine men on a side, and used a flat disk as a puck." Chris Chelios finished the game with a plus-two rating.... Finally, one year ago today, we wished Semin a Happy Birthday with some of his personal highlights and started our offseason free agent wish list by looking at the available centers.
Daily Awards
Hart: Craig Anderson (53-save shutout win)
Ross: Patrick Kane (3 points)
Norris: Niklas Kronvall (2A, +3)
Vezina: Craig Anderson (53-save shutout win)
Richard: Patrick Kane, Jeff Carter (2G each)
Calder: Patrick Kane (2G, including the game-winner, A, +2)
Aiken: Henrik Lundqvist (3 goals allowed on 8 shots against in just 19:40 (!) of work)
If this was Potsy's first concussion, there'd be reason for concern and the expectation that he'd return at some point. But this isn't his first concussion. Or his second. In fact, it's (at least) his fifth as an NHLer (and who knows how many more he might have had before arriving in the show or that have gone undiagnosed). A quick rundown of the five:
Five concussions, three in the last 26 months (and even if we don't count that curious December, 2005 noggin knock, it's two significant concussions in the last year). When is enough enough? That's up to the individual player, of course, but given that he's at least five-eighths of the way to Eric Lindros's reported concussion total, there's got to be a good chance that if Potsy's mind isn't made up already (and it probably should be), the doctors (and/or Jesus) will be recommending that the 30-year-old blueliner hang up the skates... before it's too late.
The team has gone 14-6-2 without Pothier in the lineup, which isn't necessarily remarkable in and of itself - he had been benched earlier in the season for poor play - but combining his absence with Tom Poti's recent and potentially lingering injury leaves a couple of gaping holes on the blueline that aren't easily filled and start to look a little bigger than the sum of their parts.
Which brings us back to Pothier's future. If he is to retire, the Caps would have both a need on the blueline (as if they don't already) and the internal cap space to satisfy it. Which, with just a week to go before the trade deadline, makes the status of Brian Pothier's career among the more important questions that we'd like to see answered.
And you thought non-stop coverage of the Iowa Caucuses was boring.
A few notes from an uninspired evening:
Jeff Schultz is listed at 6'6", 221 pounds. Chuck Kobasew is 6'0", 192 pounds. How in the hell does the former allow the latter to push him into Olie Kolzig on a 3-on-5 penalty kill when the referees would let the Caps blueliner do damn near anything to clear the front of the net? KB texted me before the game "I'm gonna go with Kobasew as the Bruin who most embarrasses Schultz tonight." Very prescient.
Every now and again we get a reminder that Mike Green is only 22-years-old, and last night was more or less a sixty-minute reminder. Green was totally out of position on the first Boston goal, took a careless double-minor that led to their second and could easily have gotten called for a dive on the Marc Savard hooking penalty. He did draw two penalties, but both were highly questionable calls. Was he feeling too much responsibility with Tom Poti out? Likely.
Olie Kolzig had his best game in weeks, perhaps months. The fact that it came in a loss makes it less likely that Bruce Boudreau will start Freddy Cassivi in Montreal on Saturday, but we shall see.
The officiating was, at best, inconsistent.
Despite getting stuffed on a partial breakaway in the first, Tomas Fleischmann played his best game in a while as well.
Please, Gabby - no more Donald Brashear on a scoring line or power play. Brooks Laich deserves that spot, if it comes to that.
Alex Ovechkin always has a tough time with Zdeno Chara, and last night was no exception (though he did ring two missiles off the iron).
The Caps are now 1-6 with Potinot in the lineup.
Milan Lucic is an animal. He absolutely crushed Brian Pothier late in the second, and that's the last we saw of Potsy for the night.
Now it's off to Montreal for another tough Eastern Conference match up. Getting Alex Semin, Poti and/or Pothier back would be nice - getting a better all-around effort will be necessary.
Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:
Thanks to Rink Reader Chris for pointing out the Mike Green love in Dave Hodge's latest offering.... On this date back in 1986 Mike Gartner registered his 10th career hat trick and Dave Christian had a pair of goals and three helpers in a 9-3 rout of the Devils. Four years later, Sergei Gonchar would tally the second ever hat trick by a Caps defenseman (Kevin Hatcher had the first) in a 6-1 win over the Habs. Daily Awards
Hart: Jarome Iginla (2G, including the OT game-winner, +3, 4 SOG, 4 hits)
Ross: Nine players tied with 3 points apiece
Norris: Brent Burns (3A, +3)
Vezina: Tim Thomas (31-save shutout win)
Richard: Evgeni Malkin (3G)
Calder: Martin Hanzal (G, A, +1, 2 hits, 2 SOG)
Aiken: Marty Turco (3 goals allowed on 4 shots against in just 13:14 of work)
Stanley Cup of Chowder (via Puck Daddy) brings us the following quote straight from the mouth of Boston Bruins billionaire owner Jeremy Jacobs boasting yesterday about a couple of his team's up-and-comers:
