Recap: Rangers 3, Capitals 2

(sorry for the frikkin’ novel)

Here’s how it looked from section 305:

Madison Square Garden was a tomb. Maybe half full, and they could barely get any noise going at any time. I took advantage of the deathly pall about a minute after the second fight to shout out Brandon Sugden’s name as loudly as I could. I hope he heard. The kid deserves to hear his name shouted in MSG after the night he had.

On a related note, Donald Brashear is not a good hockey player. At the end of his first penalty, he rumbled back onto the ice, and the Caps basically continued their power play for a little longer. He’s an empty jersey out there. And Brashear’s decision making on the second fight was inexcusable. Rangers had the puck in deep and were had just taken a shot on goal when play was whistled dead. I don’t care if it is preseason — killing a scoring chance so you can try to save face after getting planted in the first fight is selfish and stupid. I don’t miss Brashear. Not one bit.

Cudos to the Caps fan who brought the cowbell, and rang it every time the Caps cleared the zone during a penalty kill. She really got under the MSG crowd’s skin.

OK, picture the PensBlog charicature of Ovechkin. I don’t mean that stupid tutu picture, I mean their version of him as a player. Sure he scores a lot of goals, but he’s selfish, plays no defense, cherry picks constantly, has no discipline, and randomly headhunts players who don’t have the puck and never gets any penalties called for it. That’s the Alex Ovechkin who took the ice today. This was a true “get that out of your system” game, because if he plays like that again he needs to be benched. I’m serious. The second Rangers goal falls squarely on his shoulders — he was constantly out of position that whole shift and essentially gave the Rangers a power play. Only it was worse because his teammates didn’t know they should be in penalty killing mode.

If I were king, you could mark about 5:00 left in the third period as the moment that Alex Giroux’s bid to make the team officially came to an end. 2-2 game, tail end of a Caps’ power play, and Lundquist is sprawled out after making one save when the puck lands on Giroux’s stick right in the crease. And he buries it — right into Lundquist’s pads. Caps probably win the game if he scores there. I think it’s time for Giroux to see a sports psychologist, because nobody can score 75 goals at any level without having the skills to score that goal. It makes me very sad to say I think there’s something wrong there. There’s no other explanation.

Let me preface this next section by saying I like John Erskine. I there’s a place on the Caps for John Erskine. With that said, John Erskine:

• cannot keep up with Mike Green
• should not be asked to play Mike Green minutes
• and should never, ever, EVER be put on the power play again

I don’t know how it looked on the TV, but his play on the first goal may have been the worst hockey play I’ve ever seen. With the Caps on the power play, Erskine takes the puck and begins to move it out of the Caps’ zone. All four other players (you can probably guess who they were) break for the Rangers blue line. When the young guns are all between the red line and the Rangers blue line, and Erskine has just crossed the Caps’ blue line moving up the left side, Gaborik cuts across center and puts a little pressure on him. Erskine gets a little off balance. That’s unfortunate, but it happens all the time.

Erskine’s next action, though, is totally inexplicable. The smart thing to do is to send the puck up the ice along the boards. Maybe it’s a turnover, but that’s not so bad. Instead, Erskine centers the puck across the Caps’ blue line to ABSOLUTELY NOBODY. Nobody, but Gaborik, that is. Who gets the easiest breakaway of his life. I don’t care how infrequently Erskine plays the PP, he has to know that he’s the only guy back in that situation. A brain fart of the highest magnitude. Far, far worse than an injured Jeff Schultz blowing a tire. I can’t stress strongly enough the key element that the TV can’t show — exactly how far away every single Caps player was from the puck that Erskine sent across the ice. It was embarrassing.

Mike Green was fine today. His tracking radar is still off, so he still isn’t hitting the net with any shots. But that’ll come. Otherwise, he was unexceptional (in neither the good nor the bad ways). He cheats the play a lot. It’s risky. It generates more Caps goals than it costs them. That’s his game. But I can’t question his judgment on any particular plays. Erskine definitely made him look worse, though. Erskine just could not keep up.

Boudreau has challenged last year’s Bears to force him to put them on the Caps’ roster. One player really stood out and is doing exactly the things Boudreau said would earn him a roster spot — Tyler Sloan. I’m officially a Sloan believer right now. He was steady, solid, and reliable. It made me feel good to see him out there. Juice also had a nice game, although I think some of Juice’s good stats can be attributed to Sloan’s steadiness. To my eyes, Sloan was the better player on that pairing.

Alzner looked like he was thinking too much. He took a bad penalty after getting out of position and diving for a shot block (the shot never came) when his stick tripped a player up. He was out of position some, and just generally didn’t look comfortable. He doesn’t belong on this team right now. Thank goodness his pairing mate played as solid a game as you could have asked for. A veteran game. Good patience, good judgment, a couple of big hits and a lot of calm, steady presence. That paring mate was Jeff Schultz, and he played perhaps the best game as I’ve seen him play. Schultz may have passed Poti in my mental depth chart today (a testament to Poti’s poor preseason as well as Schultz’s continuing development). One of the stories of the game in my mind was Schultz playing exactly the way everyone has wanted him to for the last few years.

I predict the Caps open the season with 13 forwards (12 really, since Nylander won’t play) and 8 D. The team rotates Green, Schultz, Poti, Pothier, ShaMo, Juice and Sloan, with Erskine a healthy scratch. That lasts exactly as long as it takes GMGM to trade a player or two.

Theo was very solid. I can’t blame him for any goals. I think the 3rd goal looks worse in slo-mo — it really was a bang-bang play, with the puck coming from behind the net through traffic to the waiting player right on the doorstep. And he had no chance on the Gaborik goals.

Aucoin did his thing today and he did it well. I still think there’s a place for him in the NHL, but it may not be the Caps. Still, the guy can finish, he plays with a lot of energy, he’s got good vision and good hands. I wouldn’t mind seeing him on the Caps’ power play, and maybe on a line with Morrison and either Semin or Knuble.

If Jay Beagle doesn’t make the roster, it won’t be because he didn’t work hard enough. He had a couple of great forechecking sequences and was demonstrably playing his guts out. Sorry Bourque lobby, but Beagle has been the better player. I think Aucoin and Laing have probably claimed the two roster spots that are available, but Beagle is my close #3. I think Bourque and Giroux are a ways behind them.

It was fun to see hockey in New York. Tomorrow’s 7:30 AM flight, with me still on Pacific time, less fun.