Monday Caps Clips: Underway at Worlds

I’m not really a fan of Lambert, but boy did he DESTROY the Red Wings this weekend.

Really, to call the Wings massively successful would be to undersell their accomplishments. Since the mid-1990s, they have won about a dozen division titles, six conference championships and four Stanley Cups. If the title actually existed — and I’m sure their fans are lobbying for it right now — they would be, in every sense of the phrase, The Team of the Last 15 Years.

And that has made their supporters, who I’m sure are lovely people when they’re not wishing me dead on Twitter, the most repulsive, disgusting, entitled, whinging, crybaby, gutless, ignorant, intolerable conspiracy theorist mutants in all of sports fandom.

Here is just a sampling of some of the less outlandish things their fans have said over the last 18 months or so: Sidney Crosby didn’t shake Nicklas Lidstrom’s hand after the Penguins won the Stanley Cup and this complaint is in no way sore-loserism; Gary Bettman has rigged the NHL playoffs so Pittsburgh wins; Gary Bettman has rigged the NHL playoffs so Phoenix competes because "he owns the team;" Shane Doan is a dirty player; Gary Bettman is personally making sure that every penalty called in the Detroit/San Jose series is harmful to the Red Wings; Chris Osgood is a competent NHL goaltender.

Second, let’s just revisit that Babcock strategy. Lidstrom is 40 years old. He averaged almost exactly 28:30 in the four games Detroit lost to San Jose. He got big-time minutes against Thornton, Heatley, Marleau, et al and proceeded to allow that trio alone to pick up seven goals and 12 assists in five games. This was a brilliant coaching decision by Babcock, oh yes. He was on the ice for seven goals in this series, including both in Detroit’s (and possibly his) swansong. He wasn’t even facing the puck when Marleau buried the series-clincher off the crossbar and in. I understand sticking by the old warhorses that have been through more postseason battles than most NHL players could dream of, but, as with all horses, sometimes you gotta take ‘em out back and put two in the back of their head.

Also, referring to Tomas Holmstrom as “a lump of dried cat turds”, among other highlights

I give the guy all the credit in the world for knocking this one out of the park

Want to be careful how far to push that argument…

This year’s shot differential rankings:

1 WSH 14.0
2 SJS 9.3
3 PIT 6.1
4 CHI 3.9
5 DET 2.6
6 NJD 1.8
7 BOS 1.0
8 VAN -0.7
9 PHI -0.8
10 BUF -1.9
11 NSH -2.3
12 LAK -3.5
13 PHX -5.1
14 OTT -7.9
15 MTL -9.9
16 COL -16.0

And the top shot differentals going back to 1998 (results and record included):

2009 SJS 12.3 CQF 2-4
2008 DET 12.9 SC 16-6
2007 DET 10.0 CF 10-8
2006 DET 13.7 CQF 2-4
2004 OTT 12.0 CQF 3-4
2003 DET 12.8 CQF 0-4
2002 BOS 11.6 CQF 2-4
2001 NJD 8.7 SCF 15-10
2000 NJD 8.3 SC 16-7
1999 OTT 14.0 CQF 0-4
1998 BOS 13.1 CQF 2-4

Seven teams with double-digit shot differentials were eliminated in the first round. Of course, this year makes eight.

In general, I think shots matter, precisely because goaltenders are so tightly bunched (for the most part) around the .900-.930 save percentage range. But I’m not sure how strong a relationship it is.

A letter to AO. [IIHF] = Interesting. Hmm.

Anyone else excited about Memorial Cup? Starts this Friday!

So far, Brandon (host city), Windsor, and Calgary are in. Still waiting on the winner of Moncton/St. John.

And in a non-Caps “this date in history”, Bobby Orr posed for the greatest hockey photo in history.

oft forgotton is that was on OT winner in game 4 of a series the bruins swept from the blues. so while its a dramatic photo, not the most dramatic or clutch goal goal in NHL history by a long shot.

btw, the third straight finals sweep in a row, st. louis losing all three. head coach? scott bowman…

From the IIHF article, talking about Ovi and his Russian team beating the Slovaks (minus Halak):

Sometimes things go just as expected. The immovable object stays immovable. The underdogs will stay under. And the powerful force can’t be stopped.

Ouch.

So was he signed by the Islanders, as the caption states, or the Caps, as the article states?

So I get the e-mail about Select-a-Seat, if I want to move my location. Except that when you read it, there are probably about a dozen seats available to move to. Pretty amazing. I can remember a couple of years ago, they had to bring players back to town to sign autographs to get people to come to these (and get new people to buy season tickets).

THough it was only a shot differntial table, and not Corsi, It was interesting anyway. However, now that its done, I’de like to see a table on the upsets, because as we know, the Caps outshot the Habs by a wide margin, and the Pens are doing so as well, etc.
Subjectivity is a funny thing.

Alex Ovechkin, bringing teams and fans together.

Ugh. You’re welcome, Soup. Whatever.

Red Wings’ Eulogy is up.

Harsh, but still good. I don’t think it’s my favorite, but I liked it.

The Gill Saga continues in MTL. Corey’s tweets were pretty entertaining yesterday. He and Hal had the same flights from PIT to MTL together.

The player benefiting most from the long Hershey layoff: Michal Neuvirth.

Yay?

I never saw any Jumbotron shots of Pat Sajak during this year’s playoffs. Anyone know if he showed up this year?