Friday Caps Clips: Caps Beat Back Bolts

Don’t laugh. I bet Semin knows more English than Varly. Watching the game last night, after Semin’s hat trick, Sasha was chatting it up with Backstrom for a good minute. So unless Nick has learned Russian, I’m betting the conversation was in English. I’d love to know why he refuses to give interviews in English.

Over-tweezed eyebrows?

Nipplectomy?

Achy Breaky Pelvis?

I don’t think he’s had any injuries in the Quintin Laing class: I think he’s still got an intact spleen and has never had swine flu….

It’s called an instigator penalty and it’s already on the books. With all the hyperbole over head shots taking the aggression out of the game, nobody seems to have issues with guys feeling they have to fight someone after a clean hit. It really is a joke. I think Corey tweeted that guys are more likely to get an instigator after a flagrant hit on one of their teammates (one where retaliation really is in order) vs. taking on someone after a clean hit.

Of course, since Comcast didn’t bother to show us a replay, I couldn’t see what transpired after the Bradley check. I’m assuming the guy went right after him.

I don’t think “table” means what you think it means.

I was impressed by TB. They’re well-coached, and very skilled. Good team.

Their transition game is awesome.

Thanks. I was half-hoping one of the Caps caused the injury.

It’s not you.

It’s just you that’s a whiney, spiteful, angry old man that never has anything useful to say ever and just needs to be put out of his misery.

Kelley is a Hall of Fame writer. And while I don’t care for a lot of what he’s written in the recent past, they don’t just hand those accolades out like “I Voted” stickers. If you take issue with a column or columns of his, let’s hear why rather than just smearing the guy all over the screen.

Kelley also, for what it’s worth, has been battling cancer for more than a year now. Not that that necessarily gives someone an excuse to produce sub-par work product, but rest assured that the “misery” you’d like to see him put out of is likely quite substantial.

His opinion seems to be that instead of trying to improve the All-Star Game, lets just get rid of it. Instead of trying something new, lets just punt. Ok, fine. Not exactly out of the box thinking.

The NHL will not get rid of the game. It’s one of the few opportunities for the League to schmooze sponsors and try and court new ones. We are enjoying great success here in DC, but there are cities in the League where empty seats are the norm despite some quality play. The League needs all the positive exposure it can get, particularly with a new TV deal in the offing. The game is secondary anyway. I don’t think the game will be going anywhere anytime soon.

Lets just be glad they didn’t decide to award home ice to the winning conference like MLB.

He looks like he’s praying for his hat trick.

It’s almost like he’s physically restraining himself from smiling or showing any kind of joy.

Sasha: Well, will you do me a favor then? Can you bring me my chapstick?
Bruce: No, Sasha.
Sasha: But my lips hurt real bad!
Bruce: Just borrow some from the trainer. I know he has like five sticks in his fanny-pack.
Sasha: I’m not gonna use his you sicko, Brooks Laich uses those and he’s always got cold sores!

We certainly appreciate the linkage.

Shills! Don’t believe what you read from Ted or his minions. Caps actuallly lost last night, but you won’t read that from Ted as he’s too busy counting the revenue he got from the Leafs.

/Cox’d

I think for the next game, they should play a 20 minute intra-team scrimmage just before taking the ice.

They’ll be playing a scrimmage squad as it is.

Now if we can just get a right winger or a center that can keep up with him :)

Perrault! :)

Chimera is the next in the line of lightning fast Cap third-line wingers with hands of stone. First there was Yvon Corriveau, then Todd Krygier, now Jason Chimera. Would like to see him finish more often but he does create chances and boy can he skate!

I think it was last-last offseason when he talked about focusing on increasing power in his stride…he doesn’t have Chimmer’s raw speed, but he has a very powerful stride. There was a moment yesterday where he was chasing a retreating defenseman, and you could almost see the ice being kicked up under his skates.

Yup. While it’s true that the bounce that put the puck at the side of the net was “lucky,” this description eliminates all of the skill that Knuble displayed in knocking it in. That was a hell of a play.

Check that final thought. Not a rebound of a shot that Laich got to, but a rebound off a blocked shot.

Still a pretty good, hardworking play by Laich and Knubs.

And Ryan Malone’s goal was a lucky bounce off Neuvirth’s pads to his stick. Seriously, if you eliminate all the goals scored in the NHL that came off "lucky"deflections, you’d probably be left with five pure goals a week to talk about. Maybe it was a fortuitous bounce that sent the puck to Knuble, but it was hard work by Mike that put him in the right position to be able to capitalize on the deflection.

It’s actually not. I don’t think you’ll find anything on the site that doesn’t serve a specific purpose.

If the fan’s confidence in the Caps is declining when the team is first overall, imagine where it will be if they go on a losing streak.

Actually, I think it’s pretty cool: while the Caps are on a long winning streak, I think we can all agree that their play up to this point hasn’t been as good as their record, not really all that close, either. I see that confidence poll as not getting blinded by the wins (trees) and seeing how the team is actually playing (forest).

Of course, this could be confirmation bias on my part, I’ve been beating that drum all year.

You can see the 19-on-19 corner discussion in the highlights, which unfortunately stopped short of the blueline incident.

I want to say that it was Bergenheim who did that, though I might be wrong on the number. Green also said some not nice things to him about it as well.

I also distinctly remember John Erskine body slamming someone last night.

That’s Stamkos’ second goal from right on top of the crease in the last two games. When was the last time AO scored from right on top of the crease? Game tying goal v. NJD? (Probably not, but I love that goal and can’t think of another after it.)

I wouldn’t care if we loaned anyone to Florida.

Now we start sending guys to anywhere in Penn, NYR or TBL……

The takeaways were the most impressive part for me, too – his goals were fine, he’s a great goal-scorer, but for me there’s nothing quite like watching him get the puck away from someone else. I think at least two of those three takeaways initially looked to me like lost causes and I was just happy to see Sasha pestering the puck-carrier…and then suddenly he had the puck and was skating the other way. Amazing.

Link fail sorry, http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Video-Listen-to-Puck-The-Bunnies-the-anti-pu?urn=nhl-284914

Fan-rec’in-tastic.

Anyone think that she looks like Luke’s daughter? From Gilmore Girls? You know… April? OK, I should probably just shut up now.

Not at all – I’m thrilled to see him working his way back up. I hope he makes it back to the bigs.

Go here and try to find the abbotsford logo (easier if you go to the “larger map” link) and contemplate what their travel schedule must look like. Eesh.

That’s what Li’l Stevie Y said too…

Green must be having bad dreams of that Moore goal he was burned on in Game 7 last April.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/05/what_happens_with_the_hats.html

Glad to see the Jax making good use of guys the Caps had no use for. Perhaps they’d be interested in Francois Bouchard and Flash for Jan Hejda.

Pure luck. ;)

AAV of 4.5 mil/year. That’s not entirely surprising.

That’s his first UFA contract, right?

I really like Backes. If I recall correctly he plays either RW or C, correct?

His GVT was only 7.1 last year, though, so $4.5M is a lot of cheese. I suppose they do lock him up for his prime, though.

I never thought he’d be coming here anyway. If he makes one of their other centers expendable then maybe we can pounce on that guy, as long as it’s not Boyes.

That’s absolutely ridiculous.

League leader in wins not eligible either (well, until we start making those Livestrong bracelets with “Neuvirth” on them like Lisa Murkowski for the write-in).

The real question is at the end of the article, why isn’t every single player in the NHL on the ballot, its online, it wouldn’t be that hard. That’s the way baseball does it.

While Semin may be deserving of being included in the discussion, I’m pretty sure he’ll be one of the guys getting picked by NHL operations for the fantasy draft.