Yesterday's game had it all - great goals, big saves, crunching hits and... wait. Yesterday's game didn't have it all, as it lacked what has become the one constant in Caps/Rangers games: Donald Brashear beating the crap out of Colton Orr.
So because Orr didn't dance with his most frequent dance partner yesterday, here's a reminder of what we were forced to go without:
In case you need help firing up the Ranger hatred for tonight's game, let me provide this brief reminder of what transpired the last time these two teams got together at MSG:
With that out of the way, we can turn our attention to the game.
Three games into the season, it seems that the high-priced free agent playmaking center that was brought in to feed the superstar scorer isn't fitting exactly where the team might have initially thought he would, so he has wound up in the middle on the second line and the other free agent forward they acquired has landed the plum assignment as the pivot on the top line for the time being.
Oh, by the way, I'm talking about the Rangers - who'd you think I meant?
New York will spend more this season on Scott Gomez than the Caps will on their four centers combined, and so far all they have to show for that investment are a handful of shots on goal. Luckily (?) for the Blueshirts, they also threw enough money at Chris Drury to entice him to come to the Big Apple, and he has found a regular spot on Jaromir Jagr's left and has the team's only game-winning goal on the young season (shocking, I know).
But it's early, and the Rags have lost two close games on the road to two good teams (Ottawa and the Islanders). They're still considered in the minds of most to be among the Eastern Conference's elite teams, despite a questionable group of blueliners and a lack of depth past their top two lines. Their top six forwards (a group that includes the three players named above as well as Brendan Shanahan and Martin Straka), have the potential to be frightengly good once they gel (let's hope it takes at least a little longer), and in Henrik Lundqvist they have a Vezina-caliber netminder who can single-handedly win a game on any given night.
The Caps, as you know, come into the game a perfect 12-for-12 on the penalty kill this season. What you may not know is that despite all their All-Star forwards, the Rangers are 0-for-15 on the power play so far. Hopefully both trends continue on Friday night, but that may be even more difficult to achieve than it otherwise would be for the visitors if they have to play without their leader in short-handed ice time, Boyd Gordon, who left yesterday's practice with an undisclosed injury. If Gordo can't go, Brian Sutherby would likely get a game sweater (can we still call them sweaters?) for the first time this season.
If Sutherby does get in the lineup tonight, perhaps he'll take the opportunity to renew acquaintances with Ryan Hollweg. Of course, that likely would only be an undercard to the main event:
I expect this to be the toughest test yet for the undefeated Capitals, and it certainly will serve as a good early-season measuring stick. A Friday night in Manhattan - what could be better?
Quick hitters today, as it's all I've got the time (or the stomach) for:
When did Shaone Morrisonn start taking Brendan Witt pills? That's three multi-minor games in his last six times out. Not good.
The Donald fed Andrew Peters his lunch in the first. I actually talked with Donald for a few minutes at Clyde's last Friday night and shaking his hand was, as my friend DK described it, like shaking hands with a grizzly bear - so strong.
Jerky keeps blowing people up, this time Adam Mair in the second along the boards.
Late period penalties bit the Caps in the butt not once (Boyd Gordon) but twice (Jerky).
Jeff Schultz had a pretty lousy game.
Is it just me or did the Caps miss Brian Sutherby? The forwards just weren't hitting anyone or playing with much physicality, Sutherby's strong suits.
How about some of those bounces?
Christ, Emmy - play the body, not the puck on that Stafford rush.
Tomas Fleischmann had a nice pick-pocket early and a nice rush late.
You have to admire Alex Ovechkin for not blaming anyone else for his recent slump ("It's not my partners, it's me," he said), but let's be realistic - when your linemates are Jiri "Novo-Flop" Novotny and Alexandre "Rooster" Giroux, you have a limited opportunity to succeed. At least give the kid Chris Clark back.
But what I find somewhat ironic is that Shanny was on the rules committee (or whatever they called themselves) that actually strengthened the instigator rule after the lockout. Had the League done away with the rule at that time (i.e. if all the plumbers supposedly taking their cheap shots at poor Jaromir could be dispensed with by, say, Colton Orr without fear of an extra penalty) maybe Shanahan et. al. wouldn't have to rely on the referees to make sure Jagr had adequate space on the ice.
There is nothing in the rule book that says if one player touches another player with his stick, it's two minutes for hooking. There's nothing in the rule book that says if one player touches another player with his hand, it's two minutes for holding.... We would rather have a missed call than a phantom call.
Well, Brendan, they missed some last night. Happy? No?
A comment by Rink Reader Pete got me thinking (dangerous, I know). Pete basically asserts that when Donald Brashear drops the gloves it ends up giving the opposing team a boost because, as The Donald is one of the most feared enforcers in the League, when an opponent drops his gloves with the big guy and lives to tell about it, it pumps up his teammates (and in some cases a home crowd). Is Pete right?
First, the raw data:
The Caps are 3-6 in games in which Brashear has at least one fighting major.
The Caps have outscored opponents 16-14 in games after Brashear fights.
Only once has Brashear fought in a game that was tied at the time of the fight, and the Caps went on to win that game.
The team leading the game at the time of the Brashear fight(s) went on to win each of those games.
From the above, it's hard to draw any conclusion at all about Brashear's ability to change a game with his fists. Individual game stories, of course, tell more.
In the December 23 game at Toronto, the Caps had a 3-0 lead early in the third when Mats Sundin struck for two quick goals. Momentum had clearly swung, and soon thereafter, The Donald fought Wade Belak. The fight gave the Caps a chance to regroup, and they went on to hold on to that 3-2 win. That's the good.
In the December 30 game against the Rangers, Brash dropped the gloves twice, but it was what he did after the second fight - his sucker-punch to Aaron Ward that resulted in his ejection - that is noteworthy. Soon after the ejection, Ranger goon Colton Orr took a head-hunting run at Alex Ovechkin, a move he likely wouldn't have tried had Brash still been around. I was quite critical of Brashear at the time (still am), but it was the sucker punch and not the fight itself that was the subject of my ire (though I recognize that the two aren't completely separable). That's the not-so-good.
Each of Brash's fights has its own story, but what does this quick glance at The Donald's fight card tell us about the impact his fights have on a game? Not much, really. Ask AO, however, how having Brashear around impacts a game and I bet you'll get an earful. And at the end of the day, that gets more to the point of what Brashear's job is. It's not to fight (or make ridiculously sick passes like he did on last night's Ben Clymer goal), but rather to protect the team's most valued assets. Sure, sometimes a fight can change the momentum of a game (as it did in Toronto), but if a team needs to watch one of their own get his head soaked with haymakers in order to decide to start trying, there's something wrong with the team. Brashear has been around a while and he knows when to fight and when not to, and thus far this season it looks like, for the most part, he's making the right decisions.
Table 1 - Donald Brashear's 2006-07 Fight Card
[Date vs. Team (opponent, win/loss/draw per HockeyFights.com); time of fight, score at time of fight (Caps' score first); final score (Caps' score first)]
According to Tarik's blog, Colton Orr got a five game suspension for cross-checking AO in the face and Donald Brashear gets one game for punching Aaron Ward. Shaone Morrisonn and Glen Hanlon apparently escape fine/suspension-free.
Frankly, I think Brashear deserved more, but agree wholeheartedly with how the League handled Orr, Mo and Hugs. As League disciplinarian Colin Campbell put it, "(Orr's) actions with his stick were reckless and dangerous. Although no injury resulted, the action is unacceptable."
The million dollar question now is, "What did Ward say that makes a sucker punch worth only a one game suspension?"
Yeah, it's old and has been beaten to death, but The Rink needed a shitlist and Stephen Colbert's "On Notice Board" is as good a way as any to do it. Here, then, is The Rink's Shitlist, in no particular order:
The depleted Caps dropped another game to finish the 2006 calendar year portion of the season at 16-16-7 (recaps galore here). But tomorrow is a new day and a new year. Clean slate. Tabula rasa. We all know that this past week has been brutal on the Caps health- and schedule-wise, so the losses are easily explained away, but the standings points foregone are not so easily parted with. Get healthy and get back to playing Caps hockey - there's plenty of time to right the ship and make the playoffs.
I don't want to spend too much time on last night's game, but did want to take a second to discuss the role Donald Brashear has taken on this team. He has become a fan favorite and undoubtedly a favorite of the guys in the locker room as well for his willingness to keep order at times when games might get out of hand (of course, that is supposed to be the referees' job, but their gross incompetence lately makes me question their ability to do so), and to try to provide a momentum-changing spark with his fists. He has five fights in the last five games, including a couple of absolutely punishing KO's.
But where was he last night when the Caps needed him? In the locker room after being excused for sucker-punching Aaron Ward. He'll likely be suspended for the hit, so there will be a couple more games where The Donald's intimidation won't be available to the Caps (and with John Erskine and Matt Bradley also injured, it leaves the team quite short-handed on the pugilism front).
Now, if the Brashear/Ward incident was sparked, as some are speculating, by Ward's use of a racial epithet, the Ranger defenseman is lucky that he didn't get more from Brash. That is, in many ways, even less excusable than most of the cheap shots thrown around the League on a given night. But if Brashear was incited by a little stickwork or run-of-the-mill trash-talking, he failed his team last night, for as soon as he was tossed from the game, Ranger "tough guy" Colton Orr started running around the ice like an idiot, knowing there would be no reprecussions for his actions; not from the referees and not from the Caps' bruiser.
Eventually, Orr cross-checked Alex Ovechkin across the lower jaw (when AO hadn't even been near the puck in ages), prompting flu-ridden Caps blueliner Shaone Morrisonn to jump Orr despite the knowledge that he would (and did) get his ass kicked. For his effort, Morrisonn got an instigator and a game misconduct in addition to his fighting major, while Orr got the fighting major and a charging minor. And since this incident occurred in the last five minutes of the game, guess what? Morrisonn could be suspended and Coach Glen Hanlon may receive the automatic $10,000 fine that goes with it. As Hanlon accurately summed it up, "Ovechkin gets his teeth loosened with a cross check and we get the instigator. I'm still trying to figure that one out."
I would strenuously argue (from precedent) that Morrisonn should not be suspended and that Hanlon should not be fined for Mo sticking up for his teammate in this instance, but the larger point is that it probably doesn't even come to this if Brashear had kept his cool and stayed in the game.
I like The Donald and think he's been a tremendous addition to this Caps team. But last night he didn't do his job and it's no different than a defenseman who blows his coverage or a goalie who lets in a soft goal - everyone on the team has a role and has to play that role to the best of his ability every night. Brash provides protection and a measure of security for the team's skill players. Can you imagine the liberties that other teams might have been taken without him in the lineup? No need to - you saw one last night and will likely get the chance to see more over the next few games.
UPDATE: Here's the video of the Brashear/Brendan Shanahan fight and the subsequent sucker punch. I didn't mention it above, but kudos to Shanny for challenging the big guy (and for having more guts than the rest of the Ranger roster combined):
Yesterday's game had it all - great goals, big saves, crunching hits and... wait. Yesterday's game didn't have it all, as it lacked what has become the one constant in Caps/Rangers games: Donald Brashear beating the crap out of Colton Orr.
[NHL.com Recap - SeSo Open Thread]
Eric over at Off Wing has a great post up today about the effectiveness of the current instigator rule (which, contrary to popular belief, was in place prior to the beginning of Gary Bettman's tenure as Commish).
Am I leaving anybody out?
