Tuesday Roundup/Wild 4, Caps 3

[AP Recap - Game Summary - Event Summary - WashingtonCaps.com]

A 4-0 loss would have looked the same in the standings as the 4-3 defeat the Caps suffered in Minny last night - two points lost, a third-straight regulation loss for the first time under Bruce Boudreau, another four goals allowed in a road game (which makes the Caps five-for-five on the trip in that respect), etc.

But considering whom the Caps were playing without by the time this game ended, considering some of the mysterious calls with which they were forced to deal, and, most importantly, considering the team's refusal to roll over and play dead, this game went from "the wheels have completely fallen off the wagon" to a character builder and quite nearly a huge confidence booster in the span of 5:17.

And despite the injuries, the calls, the trade rumors and cap woes, the road trip from hell and so on and so forth, the Caps are still in first place in the Division with a game in hand - the sky ain't fallin' quite yet.

A few thoughts on the game:

• Blame Peerless for turning Cal Clutterbuck into a latter day Cam Neely - yesterday he noted that "Clutterbuck ... almost certainly won’t score (he has no points this year)." How about prognosticating that "Chris Clark ... almost certainly won’t scor" for Wednesday night?
• Jose Theodore's save on Pierre-Marc Bouchard was other-worldly.
• The Caps scored a power play goal for the seventh straight game, and it was only the eighth the Wild have allowed all season, so there's that.
• Losing Boyd Gordon hurt where you'd expect it to - the Caps were only three-for-five on the penalty kill in his (and Jeff Schultz's) absence, and won only two of ten shorthanded faceoffs.
• Did Derek Boogaard get a piece of JT60 on a free skate near the crease or was I seeing things?
  
• Because of injuries and/or coach's decisions, four players played less than seven-and-a-half minutes and fewer than ten shifts, leaving the rest of the ice time to be divied up amongst the other 14 skaters. Milan Jurcina absorbed a lot of those minutes and ended up with 21:25 of ice time, and finished with an assist, a plus-one rating, and a pair each of shots and hits.
• The Caps were outshot 33-28, but when you add in shots that were blocked and missed, the Caps sent more rubber towards the Minny goal than vice versa by a 57-50 margin.
  
• John Erskine continues to be horrible with the puck, coughing it up whenever pressured, as was the case on the first Wild goal. Erskine had a team-worst minus-9 Corsi Rating (Tyler Sloan had the team's best mark at plus-11).
• Eric Fehr did a great job out-muscling Kim Johnsson for the puck on the play that ended with Matt Bradley's goal, but Fehr should have shot the puck himself rather than forcing the pass to a well-covered Bradley. Hey, the Caps got a bounce!
• Shouldn't one have to close his hand on the puck in order to get penalized for closing his hand on the puck?

So the Caps - most of them, at least - return home battered and bruised to face the worst team in the Conference on Wednesday night. A little home cooking has rarely sounded so good.

Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:

The Caps are holding steady at seventh for the second straight week in CBSSports.com's power rankings.... Joe Finley can eat 50 buffalo wings, but has played only two games this season due to injury. Hell of a combination (and h/t to sk8 on the first link)....

Monday Roundup/Gamenight: Caps @ Wild

[AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview]

The last time the Caps and Wild hooked up, it was just hours after the trade deadline last February, and Brooks Laich's two-goal/two-assist performance paced the Caps in a game that produced one of the year's great hockey photos and the host's third win in four all-time meetings between the teams at the V.C.

In Minnesota, however, the story has been quite different, with Washington going 0-3-1 while scoring just three goals getting shutout twice against the Wild. In fact, the Caps haven't won in Minny since February 9, 1993 (when Nicklas Backstrom was five years old and Niklas Backstrom was 14), meaning that Washington has averaged exactly one goal every five years in the Land of 10,000 Lakes since Pablo Honey was released, which isn't good (the lack of offense, that is, not the record).

As if a rough history isn't enough, the present day doesn't offer much more reason for optimism. Minnesota has the lowest team goals against average in the NHL, allowing just two goals per game, which should suit the Caps just fine, as they've only scored twice in each of their last two games. But the Caps' offense, even without any semblance of puck control Mike Green, Alex Semin and Sergei Fedorov, is doing some things right - the power play, for example, has scored at least once in each of the past six games, going 8-for-25 over that stretch. Of course, Minnesota has the League's best penalty kill so far at a staggering 91.4%.

If the Caps are going to have any chance tonight, they'll likely have to take an early lead and protect it - the Wild are 4-0-0 when leading after the first period and 6-0-1 when leading after two. In fact, throw in last season and Jacques Lemaire's squad is 27-3-4 with a lead after twenty minutes and 38-0-5 when ahead after forty, and since the lockout, they're 67-11-6 and 90-4-7, respectively.

Mustering up offense will be just half of the challenge, however, and the team's collective inability to keep pucks out of its own net of late could put this game out of reach in a hurry. In their last four games, the Caps have allowed 21 goals and their goalies have a woeful .833 combined save percentage. Enter Jose Theodore (one would think), who has had some success against Minnesota in the past, going 3-2-1-1/2.10/.920 in his career.

Tonight's game, the Caps' eleventh in 21 nights, offers a road-weary Washington team the opportunity to return home with five points from a brutal five-game trip and a renewed sense of confidence - let's see what they do with the opportunity.

Oh, and don't forget to get your drinking game on tonight. Given the Wild's style of hockey, the Caps' play recently and a Versus broadcast, it may be the only way to make it all tolerable (though this is scheduled to be a Lindsey Soto game). And if you're playing with the right beverage, you might even see something like this by the third period.

Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:

Michael Russo is a personal favorite hockey writer of mine, so his Caps/Wild preview is a must read.... OFB has video on JT60's new mask. Question - does he play for the Caps or Reebok?... Caps PA announcer Wes Johnson lends his pipes to "Fallout 3".... Hey, a Ted Leonsis fan page on Facebook (I guess if you're not one of the lucky 4,995, this is the next best thing).... Loose lips sink trades, Dave Bolland (whoever the hell that is).... Good morning, Katie - make sure to grab this next one.... The Vancouver Sun ran a feature on Karl Alzner over the weekend, and he's pretty blunt about the reason he's not a Capital right now (not that we didn't know).... Speaking of Caps prospects, here's a nice piece on Nick Larson (h/t Nate).... Finally, I would never tell you how to vote, but if you don't vote for Mirtle's "From The Rink" here, I'm pretty sure the terrorists have won.

Tuesday Roundup/Gamenight: Wild @ Caps

[AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview]

The Caps and tonight's opponents, the Minnesota Wild, really aren't all that different. Both teams are in second place in their Division. Each team has a Ni(c)klas Backstrom, a blueliner named Schultz and one of the League's most talented goal scorers. Um... both teams play in the NHL.... neither has won a Cup...

The fact of the matter is that the Caps and Wild actually are about as different as two teams can be in today's NHL. The Caps are an up tempo, run-and-gun squad while Jacques Lemaire's Wild play a trapping style and wait for their opponents to make mistakes. And unlike the Caps, who have lost four of the last five games in which they had a lead at any point, the Wild take a lead and go and hide with it - Minny has the League's best winning percentage when scoring first and is 25-0-1 when leading after two periods.

Think that first goal is going to be big tonight?

Minnesota comes into tonight's game having lost three straight and scoring only three times along the way, but with dynamic offensive players like Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, Brian Rolston and Pierre-Marc Bouchard (assuming they don't trade him for an even more dynamic - and familiar - offensive player during the day) and a good power play, they can drop four or five in a hurry on an unsuspecting team that isn't prepared.

The Caps and Wild have played six times since Minny's latest NHL club entered the League in 2000, and the Wild have won five times, including a 3-2 shootout win last season. But only once has a game between the two teams been decided by more than a single goal, and only twice have more than three goals been scored in any one game in the series. To top it off, Minnesota is one of just four teams in the NHL against whom Alex Ovechkin does not yet have a goal (one assist in one game) and the Caps are one of only two teams against whom Gaborik has never lit the lamp (one single assist in six career games). How 'bout that? Oh, and in case you're wondering, Donald Brashear and Wild uberthug Derek Boogaard have fought once in the past, but with the Boogie Man on the IR, the two won't be renewing acquaintances tonight.

So expect another low-scoring affair and let's hope that the Caps' have the better of the Backstroms and the better of the bounces tonight - they'll probably need both in order to win.

Why The Wild Will Win:

"The Minnesota Wild will defeat the Washington Capitals because they have greater scoring depth and play a defensive system that is perfect to counter attack an offensively aggressive Capitals squad. Not to mention, the Wild currently have much more to lose and know they cannot afford to drop non-Conference games in another ultra-tight Western Conference." - The State of Hockey News

Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:

Time change for the March 9 Pens game.... Insert Sidney Crosby joke here.... One year ago today it was Trade Deadline Day Eve, but the Caps got into the act early, trading Richard Zednik and Lawrence Nycholat, which we discussed, as well as the previous day's Caps/Devils game, and two years ago today we had the opportunity to gloat and use one of our favorite pictures. Good times.

Daily Awards

• Hart: Darcy Tucker (2G, A, +1, 4 SOG, 3 hits, 5 BkS)
  
• Ross: Matt Stajan, Darcy Tucker (3 points each)
  
• Norris: Jaroslav Spacek (2A, +3)
  
• Vezina: Vesa Toskala (31-save shutout win)
  
• Richard: Darcy Tucker (2G)
  
• Calder: Clarke MacArthur (G, 3 SOG, +3)
  
• Aiken: Ray Emery (L, 5 goals allowed on 21 shots against in two periods of work)

Stat Of The Day

The Caps and Minnesota Wild are the only teams in the NHL not to have scored four goals in a game yet this season.

The 6-0-1 Wild last scored four times in a regular season game in their last game of the 2006-07 season (April 7), while the 3-4-0 Caps last managed the feat on March 18, 16 games ago.

New Logos And Jerseys Part XI

Sigh. More horizontal piping across the shoulders as the Wild unveil their new uniforms (not much of a change, as the new home jersey is similar to last year's alternate sweater, with the addition of that racing stripe):

Does anyone else think it's weird to have slightly different home and road logos (asks a blogger for a team that had vastly different home and road logos since the turn of this century)?