Thursday Roundup/Habs 4, Caps 1

[NHL.com Recap - WashingtonCaps.com Postgame Coverage]

At the end of the first period of last night's 4-1 Caps loss to Montreal - a period in which the Caps outshot their opponents 14-7 and dominated play save for two defensive breakdowns that turned into Canadien goals - I turned to my wife and said, "I hope you liked that effort because that's likely to be as good as it gets tonight." I was more or less spot on, as the undermanned Caps ran out of gas and were able to muster up only a very late 5-on-3 goal to break Cristobal Huet's shutout bid.

A few noteworthy points:

• The Caps were again dominated in the faceoff circle, losing 57% of the 53 draws and a whopping 78% in the offensive zone. Dainius Zubrus (who has to be in the top ten in the League in being thrown out of faceoffs) and Kris Beech - the Caps' top two centers - combined to go 2-for-10 on offensive zone faceoffs. It's hard enough to score on the Habs when you have to gain the offensive zone first; not being able to take advantage of the opportunity to start in the zone makes life even more difficult. Boyd Gordon, who had an otherwise strong game, was 6-for-17 on draws.
• Brooks Laich looked good. I don't have any stats to back that up, but he was noticeable in areas other than the penalty kill, which has been rare for him.
• On the flip side, Mike Green was bad. I don't know if he's hitting some kind of wall, but his last two games have been among his worst this season.
• The line changes, especially in the second period, were particularly sloppy. At least twice, a Cap forward carried the puck across the blueline and dropped a pass to a teammate who had gone to the bench for a change, leading to a Canadien rush the other way.
• Olie Kolzig couldn't be faulted for any of the Hab goals (except for the empty-netter, for which Olie was horribly out of position). Saku Koivu's tip-in nail-in-the-coffin was a thing of beauty.
• Montreal's defense corps is everything the Caps' isn't - experienced, decisive and skilled at the break-out pass.
• Yesterday I mentioned the Habs' special teams and they were the difference last night as the Habs were 25% effective on the power play and 87.5% effective on the kill.
• It was a surprisingly large crowd for a mid-week game (during the holidays, no less), announced at 15,609 but didn't seem packed with Montreal fans. Huh. Could it have been the 7:30 start time (a half-hour later than usual)?
• The Donald absolutely soaked Aaron Downey's melon with haymakers (see video below - h/t to Off Wing). Psst... Aaron... he's left-handed.

After generating little offense against Huet and Les Habitants, it's off to the swamp to face Marty Brodeur and the Devils - that sure ought to cure what ails the team.

Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:

• NHL.com has a little piece on Nick Backstrom playing in his final junior hockey tournament.

Daily Awards

• Hart: Jeff Halpern (Game-winning goal, 2A, 4 blocked shots)
• Ross: Jeff Halpern, Marian Hossa, Jere Lehtinen, Daniel Sedin, Mattias Ohlund, Wojtek Wolksi (3 points each)
• Norris: Mattias Ohlund (3A, +1, 2 blocked shots)
• Vezina: Cristobal Huet (W, 30 saves on 31 shots against)
• Richard: Kristian Huselius (2G)
• Calder: Wojtek Wolski (G, 2A, +1, 4 SOG)
• Aiken: Jose Theodore (L, 5 goals allowed on 22 shots against in 41:52 of work)