The Washington Capitals faced a gut check the last two days. They played back-to-back games in two different cities against two of the best teams in the NHL this season. They were coming off a bewildering 3-2 shootout loss to division rival Winnipeg. The Capitals needed to come up, however, they came up small in two nationally-televised games.
Hockey fans across America saw what people in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia have seen all year, a group with a lot of talent but disappointing results. They watched a team without any confidence. The Caps seemingly can not score any goals and can not stop other teams from scoring on them. On Sunday, Washington lost 3-2 to the Eastern Conference leading New York Rangers on the road. On Monday, they were defeated by the San Jose Sharks, currently in 1st place in the Pacific Division, 5-3. At one point in the third period, they trailed 5-1, in a home game.
Monday’s blowout loss was inexcusable. The Capitals trailed 3-0 in the second period before trying to make a comeback which was futile. Dmitry Orlov scored on a long shot with one second left in the period to get them on the board. However, the Caps could not generate any momentum to the third period. They looked like they were sleepwalking as the Sharks out muscled the puck away from them along the boards throughout the game. Brent Burns released a near 60-foot shot from just inside the blue line that got by goaltender Braden Holtby.
Holtby was starting for regular goalie Tomas Vokoun who had the flu. The Burns goal was not even the strangest one San Jose scored in the game. In the first period, Dan Boyle took a slap shot from behind the center ice red line that Joe Pavelski deflected from nearly 70 feet off Holtby‘s glove and into the net. Pavelski, who had 2 goals and 2 assets in the game, accidentally was standing outside the Capitals zone when the puck hit his stick. It was similar to Dustin Byfuglien’s game-tying goal Thursday. This one gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead. Late in the second period, Pavelski shot the puck toward Holtby but it was tipped in front by Logan Couture. The puck hit Holtby, rolled up his right shoulder and arm, and dropped down behind him before Patrick Marleau tap the puck over the goal line for a 3-0 lead.
Meanwhile, head coach Dale Hunter tried to make some lineup changes for the Sharks game and those backfired. Against a big and physical San Jose team, 6-foot-3, 229 pound Mike Knuble was scratched from the lineup for the third straight game. Knuble has struggled offensively this season scoring only three goals in 53 games. He has scored 20 goals in a season for eight straight years including the past two with Washington coming into this season. Joel Rechlicz was chosen instead of Knuble. Rechlicz, 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, had played only 25 games in seven pro seasons entering Monday. He played for only 90 seconds in the entire game. Rechlicz committed a reckless penalty nearly four minutes into the second period when he received a 10-minute misconduct for arguing from the bench. The strangeness did not exist only on Monday night.
On Sunday afternoon in New York, regular goaltender Tomas Vokoun was the first Capitals player onto the ice as Washington came out for warm-ups. However, Vokoun was under the weather with the flu. He could not start so backup goalie Michal Neuvirth did instead. Neuvirth gave up three goals on 28 shots but the scoring plays were due to excellent New York Rangers passing and poor Capitals defense.
Neuvirth was in line to start on Monday against the Sharks if Vokoun was still ill. Instead, Dale Hunter chose to use Holtby, who was called-up with Rechlicz from the team’s American Hockey League affiliated Hershey Bears. Holtby, Rechlicz, and defenseman Keith Aucoin were sent back down to Hershey, Pa. after Monday’s loss to the Sharks.
On Friday, the Capitals began a four-game road trip in Sunrise, Florida nearby Miami versus the Southeast Division leading Panthers. 24 hours later, Washington travels north up the state to Tampa to play the Lightning. Next week begins with a contest in Raleigh, North Carolina against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday, the 20th, before traveling to Canada for a meeting with the Ottawa Senators , next Wednesday, the 22nd. The Caps will face three of their division rivals and a playoff contender in Ottawa within in six days.
In addition, they will come home for only one game versus Montreal on Friday, February 24th before another back-to-back in Toronto the next night. The second game of that two-day segment is against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are one point ahead of Washington for the last playoff spot. This is just the beginning of the scheduling troubles for the Capitals.
In March, the Caps are going to be marching in to work more than half of the time. Washington will play 16 games in 31 days with several on the road against strong opponents. They include two games against Eastern 3rd place Philadelphia, a home game against 8th place Toronto, along with two games versus division rival Winnipeg.
Finally, a five-game road trip over ten days March 13th to March 22nd will likely determine if they make the playoffs. The journey includes games at the New York Islanders, Winnipeg, Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
Showing posts with label capitals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label capitals. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Capitals claw past Cats for division lead
The Washington Capitals’ 2011-12 season could be characterized as a roller coaster ride with tons of ups and downs. After a downer on Super Bowl Sunday, losing 4-1 to the defending champion Boston Bruins, the Capitals responded with a 4-0 win last night over the Florida Panthers. The victory gave Washington a 1-point lead over Florida in the Southeast Division and 3rd place in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
The Capitals re-energized their high-powered offense to win for only the fourth time in their last ten games. Alexander Ovechkin was the offensive star as he scored two goals to improve his total to a team-leading 22 for the season. Mathieu Perreault and Jason Chimera added goals for the Capitals. Perreault scored the first goal (9th of season) only 13 seconds into the game. After the puck was shot into the Panthers defensive zone, Alexander Semin cutoff a clearing pass to the far side and passed the puck to Chimera. Chimera skated behind the net and whipped a pass in front to Perreault for the goal. Nearly nine minutes into the 1st period, the Caps’ got awarded a power play when Marcel Goc was called for a holding-the-stick penalty. 34seconds later, Ovechkin took a short pass from Dennis Wideman just inside the Panthers’ blue line, moved down the left wing and fired a wrist shot between the legs of Florida goalie Scott Clemmensen for a 2-0 lead at 9:21.
Washington led 2-0 after the 1st period thanks also to the goaltending of Tomas Vokoun. Vokoun stopped 10 Florida shots in the period on the way to 42 saves in the game. He stopped Mike Santorelli on a low shot from the right wing just over 3 minutes into the game. However, Vokoun gave up a rebound to a few feet to his right but Shawn Matthias whiffed on the shot.. It was that kind of night. Everything went well for the Capitals while the Panthers couldn’t get any breaks. 36 seconds later, Vokoun make a sliding stop on a shot by Stephen Weiss from 5 feet right in front of the goal. Matthias was snake bit again on two other chances later in the 1st as Vokoun dropped down to his right to deny a solo effort through two defenders at 11:43. With 20 seconds left in the period, Matthias took a pass from Mikael Samuelsson, faked to his backhand, fired a forehand shot, and was robbed by Vokoun. He did draw a penalty on the Capitals as Wideman was called for slashing.
Starting the second period, the Panthers had the power play but the Capitals would score not Florida. Chimera collected his second point of the game with a shorthanded goal (15th of season) at 1:01 for a 3-0 lead. He used his excellent speed by skating the puck on left wing into the Panthers’ zone before flipping a high pass across to Matt Hendricks. Hendricks moved down the right side and then passed back to John Carlson who sent the puck to Chimera in front of Clemmensen who scored after a couple of whacks at the puck. Vokoun kept the Panthers off the board with key saves on Krys Barch from 15 feet at 2:42 and later Samuelsson on a long wrist shot at 3:52 and on Marcel Goc on a slap shot at 5:02 while Florida was on another power play. Vokoun’s best save of his 17 total in the 2nd came midway through the period on a high shot from Tomas Kopecky following a cross ice pass from Matthias at 9:25. Ovechkin scored his second goal of the game 2:22 later at 11:47 firing a rocket past Clemmensen from the top of the far face-off circle. Ovechkin picked up a loose puck, cut to his right toward the middle and found an opening between Clemmensen’s arm and the crossbar.
In the third period, the Capitals stopped attacking on offense which led to more chances for Florida. The Panthers pumped 15 more shots at Vokoun who saw his teammates lay back too much on defense in the final 40 minutes. Vokoun stopped Kris Versteeg six and half minutes into the third on a low shot. Versteeg dragged puck around Carlson on defense with the Panthers on another power play. Florida had 32 shots on goal in the last two periods (42 for the game) while the Capitals only fired 24 shots on goal for the entire game. The Panthers were 0 for 4 on the power play while the Capitals were 1 for 1. The Caps played a very physical game outhitting Florida 31-19. The 4-0 win was the second shutout for Vokoun against his former team and fourth this season.
Washington leads the Southeast Division with 60 points, one ahead of Florida at 59, and four ahead of Winnipeg at 56. The Jets defeated Toronto 2-1 last night and play at Washington on Thursday. The Panthers return to Florida also that night to host Los Angeles.
The Capitals re-energized their high-powered offense to win for only the fourth time in their last ten games. Alexander Ovechkin was the offensive star as he scored two goals to improve his total to a team-leading 22 for the season. Mathieu Perreault and Jason Chimera added goals for the Capitals. Perreault scored the first goal (9th of season) only 13 seconds into the game. After the puck was shot into the Panthers defensive zone, Alexander Semin cutoff a clearing pass to the far side and passed the puck to Chimera. Chimera skated behind the net and whipped a pass in front to Perreault for the goal. Nearly nine minutes into the 1st period, the Caps’ got awarded a power play when Marcel Goc was called for a holding-the-stick penalty. 34seconds later, Ovechkin took a short pass from Dennis Wideman just inside the Panthers’ blue line, moved down the left wing and fired a wrist shot between the legs of Florida goalie Scott Clemmensen for a 2-0 lead at 9:21.
Washington led 2-0 after the 1st period thanks also to the goaltending of Tomas Vokoun. Vokoun stopped 10 Florida shots in the period on the way to 42 saves in the game. He stopped Mike Santorelli on a low shot from the right wing just over 3 minutes into the game. However, Vokoun gave up a rebound to a few feet to his right but Shawn Matthias whiffed on the shot.. It was that kind of night. Everything went well for the Capitals while the Panthers couldn’t get any breaks. 36 seconds later, Vokoun make a sliding stop on a shot by Stephen Weiss from 5 feet right in front of the goal. Matthias was snake bit again on two other chances later in the 1st as Vokoun dropped down to his right to deny a solo effort through two defenders at 11:43. With 20 seconds left in the period, Matthias took a pass from Mikael Samuelsson, faked to his backhand, fired a forehand shot, and was robbed by Vokoun. He did draw a penalty on the Capitals as Wideman was called for slashing.
Starting the second period, the Panthers had the power play but the Capitals would score not Florida. Chimera collected his second point of the game with a shorthanded goal (15th of season) at 1:01 for a 3-0 lead. He used his excellent speed by skating the puck on left wing into the Panthers’ zone before flipping a high pass across to Matt Hendricks. Hendricks moved down the right side and then passed back to John Carlson who sent the puck to Chimera in front of Clemmensen who scored after a couple of whacks at the puck. Vokoun kept the Panthers off the board with key saves on Krys Barch from 15 feet at 2:42 and later Samuelsson on a long wrist shot at 3:52 and on Marcel Goc on a slap shot at 5:02 while Florida was on another power play. Vokoun’s best save of his 17 total in the 2nd came midway through the period on a high shot from Tomas Kopecky following a cross ice pass from Matthias at 9:25. Ovechkin scored his second goal of the game 2:22 later at 11:47 firing a rocket past Clemmensen from the top of the far face-off circle. Ovechkin picked up a loose puck, cut to his right toward the middle and found an opening between Clemmensen’s arm and the crossbar.
In the third period, the Capitals stopped attacking on offense which led to more chances for Florida. The Panthers pumped 15 more shots at Vokoun who saw his teammates lay back too much on defense in the final 40 minutes. Vokoun stopped Kris Versteeg six and half minutes into the third on a low shot. Versteeg dragged puck around Carlson on defense with the Panthers on another power play. Florida had 32 shots on goal in the last two periods (42 for the game) while the Capitals only fired 24 shots on goal for the entire game. The Panthers were 0 for 4 on the power play while the Capitals were 1 for 1. The Caps played a very physical game outhitting Florida 31-19. The 4-0 win was the second shutout for Vokoun against his former team and fourth this season.
Washington leads the Southeast Division with 60 points, one ahead of Florida at 59, and four ahead of Winnipeg at 56. The Jets defeated Toronto 2-1 last night and play at Washington on Thursday. The Panthers return to Florida also that night to host Los Angeles.
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