Off Wing Opinion

Tonight the Caps face off against the Devils in New Jersey. I for one will be watching the game with hockey friends at Clyde's as we support the Wilson High School hockey team, the only public high hockey team in DC. So if I'm brief today, it's because I have places to see and people to see about saving hockey.

Tonight will be the debut of some new faces, as Huet gets the start between the pipes and Federov looks to center the 2nd line for the first time. Kolzig will be on the bench, and has been relatively quiet about the 3-goalie situation. His agent, on the other hand, has been saying enough for the both of them. From Tarik;

"I have no idea why the Capitals chose to do what they did," [Kolzig's agent Art] Breeze said by phone. "You will have to ask that of Capitals ownership and management. The temptation to comment further is overwhelming. I am constrained, however, from additional comments by my client's professionalism. I sincerely wish I weren't."

"Olie clearly has been, and certainly continues to be, the heart and soul of the Washington Capitals," he added. "Almost single-handedly he has carried that franchise on his broad shoulders for many years. And he has many more years playing at the highest possible level ahead of him."

Cooke has joined the team, but will not play tonight. And in preparation for his debut, Corey has found that the NHL store in New York has already taken care of any DC Federov fans.

Caps Nut breaks down the two extremes we could see tonight from the newbies.

There is also the issue of chemistry as to exactly how Sergei Fedorov fits in with Alexander Semin for now. Remember that it took a couple of months for A.O. and Nicklas Backstrom to mesh and last year's deadline acquisition, Jiri Novotny, never seemed to fit in during his 18 games with the Caps. So tonight could be very, very awkward for the Caps against a team that they cannot afford to be awkward against. Of course, the flip side is that Huet stands on his head, Federov and Matt Cooke play like they've been here for the past ten years and the Caps roll over the Devils who are only looking to work in a new defenseman acquired at the deadline.

Here's hoping they mesh perfectly. With the Caps having played the Devils not too long ago, there's not much new here. Brodeur will still be solid between the pipes, and the Caps will have to get off a ton of shots and find some holes to put a few on the board. Johnson played well against them, but that rebound under the pad in OT was a killer. It's understandable to see why he won't be heading back with the team after having his start pulled from him. But overall the Caps are a marginally better team with their additions, so hopefully that tips the score back in their favor tonight. They didn't lose by much last time, so we should be able to get a win tonight, even if it's not by much.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 5:33 pm by Joe Dumas and is filed under 2007-08 Washington Capitals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

To start off, OFB and Japers' Rink (both links have the video) have both put up posts concerning a new NHL commercial revolving around Ovechkin's quest for 60 goals. To show what elite company he will join the commercial scrolls over the names of Lemieux, Gretzky, Hull, Esposito, and Lafluer. Over at Islanders Army they have some beef with the non-inclusion of Isles great Mike Bossy. And rightfully so. But what about other big names that cracked 60? Selanne topped 60 in his rookie season, and had a season with 73 goals. That same year, Alex Mogilny tied Selanne for most goals with 73 of his own. Even Jari Kurri has cracked 70 goals, nevermind 60. So while I love the commercial, I agree with Islanders Army; put some more, if not all the names in.

Also, today is the 28th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice. I personally have gotten in the mood by watching "Miracle" -one of my favorites. For all of you who don't have the movie, I'd suggest jumping over to OFB to see the clip from the movie where Kurt Russell, as Herb Brooks, gives the boys the pre-game speech before the game against the Soviets.

Great moments are born from great opportunity. And that's what you have here tonight boys...If we played 'em ten times they'd win nine. But not this game...TONIGHT we are the greatest hockey team in the world...

Those young men from Boston U., and Minnesota, and New Hampshire, and Wisconsin, they stepped up big, and a week after Hockey Weekend Across America, we celebrate a major moment in history for hockey in the United States.

According to Tarik and Corey, the Caps have recalled Fehr and Lepisto from the Hershey Bears.

Coach Bruce Boudreau said he doesn't expect Schultz (strained left knee) to play this weekend and that he also has not decided yet whether he's going to use Lepisto or Fehr in Carolina. The players were called up, he said, as insurance because the a couple of guys (he didn't say which ones) are "under the weather".

We'll see who's hurting when the Caps head down to Carolina. Hopefully it's not Ovie again. JP over at Japers' has a troubling theory concerning Ovie's poor health and production of late.

This past December, thanks to Dallas quarterback Tony Romo's very public canoodling with Jessica Simpson, football fans added another hex to the list - The Girlfriend Curse. Simpson's pink presence at a late season game was seen by some as the reason the Cowboy QB had the worst outing of his career in a 10-6 home loss to the woeful Philadelphia Eagles.

Now the question is raised locally - do Caps fans have reason to fear a Girlfriend Curse of their own?

Now lets not jump to conclusions. When Ovie was texting her 10 minutes before games and during breaks before she came over, he was doing well. Maybe he's been genuinely sick and in some sort of mini-slump. But the faster he can pick his game up, the faster these thoughts from Caps fans will go away. Because not only does it hurt seeing Ovie slumping, but a level of anger and disgust gets thrown in when the scoring lead is currently held by a Penguin not named Sidney.

Also, The Peerless and CapsChick take a look at the trade deadline and try to figure out just what would be the right move. The consensus? Stay pat. Peerless asks, is "there is a deal in the making that will spark a long playoff run?...or merely a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing?" With maybe the exception of Marian Hossa, there's no big name guy I can think of on the block. And while Hossa can put up big numbers, he's had a weak season by his standards. CapsChick puts it perfectly when she says;

Bottom line is this - the Caps will probably be in the fight for a postseason berth for the remaining twenty games of the year. They've made an improbable turnaround and continue to improve over last year, regardless of whether they make the playoffs or not. As fans, as hard as this may be, we have to be patient and know that we may have to wait a little longer but it will happen and it will happen when the time is right - not because of some player who will flit in and out of this organization faster than you can say "choke".

There you have it. The Caps will be in the hunt a spot with or without new blood. And even with some added talent they probably won't win the Cup, which is why a GM would bring in that talent. So instead of trading off picks or pieces of the organization, see if the team we have can make it on their own. If they don't, they've still shown improvement over last year, if they do, a lot of fans are happy. But the bottom line is that they're improving, and will be for the foreseeable future. So lets not mess with progress.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 7:53 pm by Joe Dumas and is filed under 2007-08 Washington Capitals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

First off, I would like to take this opportunity to mention again that the Catholic University hockey team will be playing GW on the Verizon ice immediately after the Capitals game. I encourage all to stay and enjoy.

With the 'Canes coming into town this becomes a crucial 4-pt. game. The Caps can open up a 3-pt. lead or drop 1-pt. behind Carolina. The Caps come in with momentum and hunger, so don't look for them to slow down tonight.

Tarik has looked over the remaining schedules for the top 4 Southeast teams, and it looks like everyone is pretty even the rest of the way. There was one interesting thing in there.

Each of the four teams close out their schedule with at least seven consecutive games against division foes.

So each team has at least 7 4-pt. games to end the season. It looks like barring a runaway the division won't be decided until the last couple of games. For whoever makes it out of the Southeast they will be banged up, as their schedules mean every one of their last several games is a must-win. Whatever happens, it will certainly be interesting hockey.

But while it is a big game tonight, we haven't actually hit the do-or-die stretch yet. As Caps Nut notes;

Ranking the importance of this game on a scale of 1-10 I would rate it at about a 6, maybe a 6.5. A win tonight would certainly help but a loss tonight would not be totally devastating. The magic number entering tonight is 51 and after tonight's game we'll still have three games remaining against the Canes. The important thing is that the next two of those three will be in Carolina. So while the Caps need to win tonight, it doesn't qualify as a "must" win. Now if the Caps are one point up on the Canes on April 1st when they meet for the final time this season in the Phone Booth, then it will be an 11 but not tonight.

So while a win would be good, a loss won't kill us either. And after tonight we still have a game in hand, which, according to Bruce, "is only good if we win it."

For a couple other pregames check out:
The Peerless Prognosticator
Japers' Rink

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 5:00 pm by Joe Dumas and is filed under 2007-08 Washington Capitals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The Caps should go on tour with David Blaine or Criss Angel, because they're pretty good at pulling off moves that make you wonder if you really saw what you just saw. After blowing leads of 3-0 and 4-2 last night, they managed to come away with the win on Alex Ovechkin's OT winner. The goals given up included one with less than a second to go in the second, and the tying goal for Montreal with just over 30 seconds to go. But somehow Ovie put the team even more squarely on his shoulders, and netted his 4th goal of the night for the win. His reason for playing so well?

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 6:06 pm by Joe Dumas and is filed under 2007-08 Washington Capitals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.