Thursday Caps Clips: Roller Coaster Night Ends Right

Agreed. Though if the fight had been better, and not so mis-timed, perhaps the music would have been a plus. That said, I think we’ve been seeing the real D.J. King the past 3 times: confused with the puck; way out of position during breakouts from his own end; and fighting because it’s his job, not because it’s time to do his job.

Yeah, the Rocky music almost made me forget the video they did pre-game for Neuvirth’s RotM announcement (Instant Karma FTW).

Looked more like two monkeys humping a football to me.

Thanks, JP. Aside from spewing out my coffee, I genuinely laughed for the first time in the last 48 hours. Needed that. Thanks again!

It would be nice if King was going to get into meaningless fights that he would win. Orr got the grab, locked his arm, and was able to control the whole thing and land tons of those little 4inch jabs.

Yeah I kept waiting for King to come back with a flurry, but he just couldn’t get loose. Good job by Orr on that front.

Orr definitely caught King a bit by surprise.

maybe on Dec 23 he’d like to show off his new-found fighting skills to Brads, or Erskine, or Hendricks?

Also, I was watching the fight, I thought it was illegal to fight with your helmet on if you had a face shield, both of them did in Crosby’s fight

Wow. Who knew the Golden Child had it in him? He gets points in my book.

I was watching that game when it happened, and was also quite impressed by Crosby’s ability on that fight!

I mostly agree. Though I don’t think that Orr and King fought because the fans love fights. I think that they fought because it’s part of what they see as their job. In King’s case, I think it’s a way for him to prove to Boudreau that he “deserves” a sweater. I don’t know about Orr.

The problem is, I don’t think King does himself too many favors by engaging in the pointless fights. Once a fight starts, I want the Cap to win it. But 90% of the time I don’t want there to be a fight.

Fights should have specific significance to the TEAM. If a hockey team needs somebody to take a 5 minute penalty to make them play hard, there’s a problem with the bench. But if a teammate sends a message to the opposition about taking liberties with a goalie or skill player (and that happens a lot) then there was a team purpose. There are other instances too, of course, I merely think of this as the almost always acceptable impetus for a fight.

I think fights like this occur due to the ego of the two combatants. Both want to establish themselves as heavyweight enforcers and see how they measure up against other heavyweights. I don’t think Orr and King have fought before so even more of a reason to drop mitts. It’s two guys trying to mark their territory. It’s stupid and really should be penalized more than just a five minute major.

There are many arguments why its good to guy like King or Orr on your bench; some legitimate, some specious at best. Staged fighting is not one of them.

I personally think that fights that occur outside the parameters of the game such as upon the drop of the puck or when there has been no observable contact which precipitated the fight should come with 10 minute misconducts. That would include a fight like Sid had last night and a couple of the late game brawls from the home opener vs. the Devils.

I’m not opposed to fighting so long as it is done to serve it’s purpose. As you noted, to allow the boys to police themselves and be accountable for their actions.

DJ King can either fight, and make $500,000 a year, or he’ll have to go back to Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan.* Oh, and there are dozens of guys in lower leagues trying their best to prove that they can fight and play hockey a least as well as DJ King so they can get an NHL contract.

With that kind of pressure, is it any wonder he fights every chance he gets?
 
 

• To be clear, if it was me, I’d pick Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan over Boogaard, Shelley, and Orr.

Letang and Morrow went just before that and they were still down by 3, so I’m guessing it was an attempt to light a fire under the boys.

I actually have no problem with this. Good for him for trying to spark his team a bit in a somewhat lopsided game and for sticking up for a teammate…even if it means fighting a guy like Nisky who doesn’t really fight :P

What did bug me was a comment I read from Jeff Marek on Twitter – something along the lines of he’d rather see his superstar fight five times a year than block 5 shots a game. I don’t mind them doing it occasionally if it’s organic or if it’s done to fire up the team, but I think guys are more appreciative of a teammate for knowingly sacrificing the body for the team, i.e. blocking a shot, than they are of a guy throwing punches.

I’m sure he’s thinking in terms of potential injury, which I get, and maybe I’m misjudging what’s important to NHLers…but I’d rather see Ovie block shots than fight any day of the week.

I’m really disappointed that Sid didn’t say “dat shit ain’t right” in the post-game. Way to crush a girl’s dreams.

But we remember. Like Pepperidge Farm remembers. But we keep our mouths shut, for a price.

Slightly related (and forgive the rant in advance): that was the second game this year (the Bruins being the first) where I’ve known more about the opposition than the person talking the crap about Caps fans “only knowing Ovechkin.” Last night it was drunk Rangers yenta raised this question on the train home, and I asked her how the Wade Redden contract looked before I suggested she go straddle the third rail.

If anything it means that RBK will now have a reason to produce even more NHL brand NFL merchandise.

That span of 3:03 – appropriately called “a teamwide collective brainfart” by D’ohboy – almost cost us the game. That needs to never happen again.

Wow. Kind of harsh, don’t you think? EVERY team does it occasionally, because the other team is there to win, too. Sometimes the other team scores, guys. It happens. It wasn’t a great effort all game but it certainly wasn’t their worst performance of the year (not by a long shot) and there was good stuff. Plus losing a two-goal lead isn’t exactly uncommon – there’s a reason it’s called the most dangerous lead in hockey. By the same token, do you think teams blowing two-goal leads to the Caps over the last two years (and there have been many) have been cocky and disrespectful toward the Caps? I’d say no.

Considering they’ve held much bigger leads this year, leads that have a much higher potential for cockiness/sloppiness/whatever to become a factor, and have not only not lost the lead but not surrendered another goal…I think we’re being WAY too harsh on them for doing it once. I don’t want it to become a habit, certainly, but one game out of twelve is hardly a habit.

Sometimes when another team comes back it’s because they did a lot of stuff right. Not because the other team did a lot of stuff wrong.

Last night was a cast of the former with a little of the later.

Also, I firmly believe that if D.J. King wasn’t dressed the Caps would have won in regulation.

Especially given how bad we were 4 on 4 last year.

Yes, we were lacking in the personnel department. No Poti. No Sloan. Much as he is criticized, he’s a improvement over Fahey. No Johansson.

Just think how we would have looked If Semin really couldn’t have gone?

You could be on to something. Late in the game, Ovi skated back to the bench before a faceoff because of a broken stick. He took a long time before deciding which stick to take. Maybe it was because his sticks were switched??
Unless you go with him stalling for a breather, which makes more sense but is less provocative. : )

Nate had a tweet about this:

Thanks to the fan in Sec. 102 who returned Tomas Fleischmann’s stick last nite; he scored with that stick in the 2nd