Capitals Power Ranking Roundup: Week 8
by EmilyB on Dec 1, 2010 1:00 PM EST
in Power Ranking Roundups
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Our weekly temperature-taking of the mainstream media's opinions on the Washington Capitals:
| Outlet | This Week | Last Week | What They're Saying |
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3 | 3 |
|
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3 | 3 | Ovie hasn't scored in seven games, but he's helping set up buddy Alexander Semin nicely for contract talks. |
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2 | 2 | The Caps are 3-0, and Alex Ovechkin has six points and a plus-4 rating in the three games since CSNWashington's Corey Masisak took AO to task for laughing with Ilya Kovalchuk in the hallway following a loss. Perhaps that should happen more often.. |
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4 | 3 | The NHL's version of Boise State. The Caps are 11-3-1 against the Southeast and Atlantic divisions. |
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2 | 3 | The Caps are 3-0-0 since the Ovechkin-Kovalchuk laugh-in controversy. |
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2 | 2 | The Caps opened Week 8 up by getting shut out for the second time in three games, but the club bounced back by week's end, picking up three wins in a row. Alexander Semin netted four goals in Washington's three wins, including his sixth career NHL hat trick. |
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2 | 2 | Nicklas Backstrom (four goals), Brooks Laich and Mike Green (three apiece) have more power play goals than Alex Ovechkin (two). |
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2 | 4 | Have won three straight. Defenseman Mike Green, out two games with undisclosed injury, left during OT Sunday after blocking a shot with his knee. |
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- | 1 | Pending. |
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3 | 1 |
|
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1 | 1 | It's a good thing Alexander Semin is scoring (four goals in two games) because Alex Ovechkin isn't (no goals in seven games), although he did get the shootout winner against Carolina. |
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2 | 4 | The return of G Semyon Varlamov brought a three-game winning streak to the Caps, with Varlamov allowing only four goals in the process. If healthy, he gives the Caps an advantage between the pipes. Key Injuries: None. |
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2 | - | Varlamov returns with three consecutive victories. |
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1 | 1 | Thumbs up: Yes, the real focus of the Caps’ season will be how they fare in the playoffs, but getting results and establishing good habits now is important. |
Click on logos for links to full power rankings.
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Ouch, second week in a row the Columbus Dispatch is laying out some serious Caps-hate
LET'S GO CAPS!!!
Dude, we’ve got Steckel, OSU’s greatest living hockey player! And we gave you Chris freaking Clark!
You perhaps knew me better as "Your Nation's Capital." Same great commentary, now with 100% more transparency!
by EmilyB on Dec 1, 2010 1:16 PM EST up reply actions 2 recs
they’re just bitter they’re stuck with Umberger!
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I’d like to have a word with Ryan Kesler…..
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forgive them, for they know not what they say. They’re sadly mistaken in the thought that the world revolves around Ohio.
what they don’t know is we all snicker about how lame Ohio is behind their back :)
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The NHL’s version of Boise State.
And Columbus is Ohio’s version of any place I’d rather not be.
"It's always good to have vikings."
by gfcaps fan on Dec 1, 2010 1:17 PM EST up reply actions 2 recs
They’re saying the Caps are 11-3-1 against the SE and Atlantic like it’s a bad thing… but the Atlantic has 2 of the top 5 teams on that power ranking. I’m trying to figure that logic out.
There is no problem a hammer cannot either fix or make irrelevant.
As someone who works really hard not to follow college football, can someone tell me why calling the Caps the NHL’s version of Boise State is a big cooler of haterade?
All offense, no defense (I think, although they did win one game 50-something to zero), and considered overrated by the BCS (particulary by The Ohio State University).
"It's always good to have vikings."
Nah, with the record they showed, they are trying to say that the Caps don’t play anyone and just beat up on weak competition.
Weak analogy from the Boise St. of newspapers in the Boise St. of cities in, well, the Boise St. of states
If it's too loud, turn it down.
Of course, the SE does get an auto berth into the NHL playoffs, so maybe the better CFB comparison would be VT.
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That’s the second time recently that I’ve seen the Caps compared to VT. Feinstein wrote an article trashing ACC football and said VT was the Caps (can’t win when it counts). I was kinda surprised to see that comparison, but it’s true.
I know you know better than that, fellow Hokie :) What does “can’t win when it counts” mean in college football anyway? What’s comparable to 3 ACC titles in 6 years in hockey, now about to play for a 4th in 7? I hope Feinstein doesn’t think that it’s just as easy to win a major conference title in football as it is to win your division in the NHL. That’s just stupid.
I’ll be the first Hokie to admit that the media perenially overrates us, but we’ve won just as many big games as we’ve lost. But again, what’s the definition of “big” game? In college football, it’s every game. In hockey, it’s just the playoffs. Bad, bad comparison.
I was thinking of all the big games (BSU, LSU, USC, Alabama) the Hokies always lose. They have been very successful winning the ACC, but it doesn’t seem like the national title hopes are going anywhere.
The whole beef I have is with labeling VT football as “chokers” or a team that “doesn’t show up”. Three out of those four teams you list above won the national championship that year, and VT didn’t show up in only one of them (at LSU in ’07). They had 4th quarter leads in all of the others.
I will concede that the Hokies in the past didn’t know how to close out big games in which they had leads, due to conservative coaching/offensive ineptitude, but to me that is far from choking or not showing up. Especially when going against vastly superior teams in terms of talent (Alabama, USC, LSU). I think VT deserves credit for scheduling these early season games in an attempt to bolster their national title hopes. They got criticized in the past for weak schedules, now they’re criticized for not beating better teams.
I’m just not buying the hockey comparison. In college football, your title hopes can be lost in an instant, but your season can still be salvaged and deemed successful.
I wouldn’t call VT chokers. Actually, it’s impressive that they keep scheduling all the top teams. I think they really should of beaten BSU this year, if they had their act together. The other teams, I am not saying they should of won. They competed well against all those teams except for LSU 2007. It’s just the national perception of the Hokies is a team that doesn’t win the big games. No way to change that until they actually win something. I think the program has done very well. They are just not at the level of competing for national championships, at least not with the current staff.
I buy the comparison. But my beef is the coaching. I see Boudreau as very similar to Stinespring. And I have the same complaints about the seeming inability to make adjustments. This was particularly evident for both at the start of each of their respective seasons.
If it's too loud, turn it down.
Stiney 2010 is not the Stiney of years past. Yes, he still has his one or two cop out plays (flanker screen, sideline bomb), but his offense this year is not just relying on talent. Aggressive, less predictable….
The Caps-VT comparison is horrible. You’re comparing amateurs to professionals, and a sport with playoffs to one without. A program with two decades of stability to one that was the worst in the league three years ago. What are you buying about it?
Neither team has won their respective championships, even when it seems like they should have done better and at least gotten to the game/series.
Let me ask you this way, since we both have two dogs in this fight that we’re (I’m assuming) equally passionate about. Which team has caused you bigger heartache due to the way their seasons ended? To me, it’s the Caps, by a longshot.
I’m new to being a Caps fan (relatively new to the area). I’ve been a Hokie fan longer. I think I’ve felt pretty distressed after some epic Hokie failures (BC 2007, Miami 2005, BSU 2010, etc). Although I was also at Game 7 of the Montreal series last year and that was painful. But I’m going to have to go with the Hokies here. Maybe it’s a function of them having less games, being more of a football fan, and them being students, most of whom are just playing for the love of the game and will never make it to the NFL. The most recent Hokie classes have shown a lot of character. I’ve been so impressed how they come back from being behind and win games this year, and how they overcame the 0-2 start. I am not sure that the Caps always show that much heart, although they seem to be trying this year to change things to do better in the playoffs.
I think it was more a shot at the competition they are facing. A lot of folks in the college football circles say Boise St. only has a good record because they face “the weaker sisters” and don’t have to face the stronger opponents in the bigger conferences.
The guy is Peter Schumpmaker. Lord knows what a schump is, but you can bet your bippy his ancestors made them. What he's doing is far worse than crafting fine schumps.
by Steckel Me Elmo on Dec 1, 2010 1:41 PM EST up reply actions
Basically, Boise State is looking like it’s going to get a BCS Bowl bid, and is in “the discussion” about winning the #1 seed. The big deal is that they play in the WAC, in which they are the only ranked team, while teams like Oregon are consistently playing against the likes of Stanford, USC, Arizona, etc. They get to blow out weaker competition, basically, and some feel it is unfair.
The difference that Columbus Dispatch chooses to ignore though is that all these teams play each other a decent amount, so in the end, you get to see a pretty accurate representation of skill vs. skill. If we beat Tampa Bay 6 times and the Rangers lose to them 4 times, we should know a little something about how we’d fair against the Rangers, etc.
For instance, the only time Boise State would play Ohio State is if they met in the BCS, and they rarely have schedules that have teams overlapping, even.
Portzline also fails to take into account that the Southeast is, these days, probably the second-best division in hockey (next to the Central division, of course) by total points, points percentage, goal differential/game, etc.
Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta aren’t exactly easy draws these days. And we haven’t played Florida yet.
I’d probably argue that the Pacific is a tougher division than the Southeast, but it is true that the Southeast is not just the Caps + 4 cupcake opponents.
The guy is Peter Schumpmaker. Lord knows what a schump is, but you can bet your bippy his ancestors made them. What he's doing is far worse than crafting fine schumps.
by Steckel Me Elmo on Dec 1, 2010 2:24 PM EST up reply actions
I hear all Columbus Dispatch power rankings in my head...
..done in the voice of David Spade doing “Hollywood Minute” on early 90s SNL
I poured spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone.
Bad Sasha!
(Yes, I know about the avatar hounding - just pretend mine is invisible.)
by oldemystix on Dec 1, 2010 1:39 PM EST up reply actions 2 recs
I think the Columbus Dispatch writers are a wee bit irritated they’re stuck in a backwater town like Columbus, and not a much cooler place like….Washington. I’d probably be a bit bitchy, too, if I lived in Columbus.
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As far as cities in Ohio goes Columbus doesn’t seem so bad. So I guess that kinda makes it a little Boise State-ish. Beatin up on all those weak-assed Ohioan cities
If it's too loud, turn it down.
“As far as cities in Ohio goes Columbus doesn’t seem so bad.” faint praise indeed!
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Columbus is a great city. It’s bigger than Cleveland and Cincinnati, is the state capital and the home of a giant university. It’s a thriving city, unlike most of the rest of the state.
I’m no fan of Ohio (and I hate OSU), but I’d live in Columbus more than anywhere else in the state.
I’d live in Columbus more than anywhere else in the state
More faint praise.
"I would feed them lefts until I was pretty much tired of doing it." - Alan May, JRR, 10.16.2010
thank you, someone who understands where I’m going from! :) Ohio.
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They’re just Michigan in disguise.
"If you don't shut the [hell] up, I'm going to kick you in the balls so hard your dentist is going to have to work around them at your next cleaning."
by Bald Pollack on Dec 1, 2010 1:59 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
I really liked Joe Haggerty’s comments at CSNNE. he clearly has been paying attention.
You perhaps knew me better as "Your Nation's Capital." Same great commentary, now with 100% more transparency!
And just like that the Penguins rip off five wins to push themselves up the ranks while Sidney Crosby gets harangued for a phantom slewfoot. This just in: Sid the Kid is competitive and sometimes crosses the line. No shock there. Nothing to see.
I’d be a lot less irritated with how the media handles Ovechkin if stuff like this were written about AO.
"Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful" George E.P. Box
by Knee high to a duck on Dec 1, 2010 3:37 PM EST up reply actions
Phantom? Really? I’m pretty sure we all saw it with our own eyes.
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No you didn’t.
Signed,
Media Who Loves Sidney and Tells You What You Should Think
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Representing Caps fandom in the Gateway to the West.
oh, right, sorry, my bad. I’ll stop with the independent thoughts.
GO SAINT SID!!!!!!
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More on Ohio and it’s overall perspective, which Mike & Mike expounded on this morning.
Ohio State President Gordon Gee on Boise State:
"Well, I don’t know enough about the Xs and Os of college football," Gee told the Associated Press. "I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it’s like murderer’s row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day.
"So I think until a university runs through that gantlet that there’s some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to [be] in the big ballgame."
As Mike & Mike point out – it’s important to look at the Strength of Schedule Rankings, where on many rankings Boise State shows a tougher schedule than Ohio State. Hmmm. Who is playing the Little Sisters of the Poor?
Life With Spidey -- a blog about sports, travel, work, family and fun.
Representing Caps fandom in the Gateway to the West.
the whole thing is just beyond fucked up and makes me hate big time college sports.
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Actually, it’s about a reporter for a second-tier newspaper in a second-tier city comparing the top team in the NHL to a soon-to-be second-tier football program.
by b.orr4 on Dec 1, 2010 4:19 PM EST up reply actions 2 recs
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