Monday Caps Clips

I know there’ve been a couple Ovie biographies written already. Is there anything different about this one?

Call me crazy, but i really dont have any interest in reading an ov biography, whether it be of the fawning/suck up authorized version or the unauthorized kitty kelly-ish hatchet job version. seems like there have been many great articles writted about ov and his parents and upbringing to get a good understanding of where he’s from and what motivates him. besides, the guy is not yet 25 so might be a bit early for a biography. kind of like when a band puts out a greatest hits album when they’ve only been together for a few years.

but from listening to the damien cox interviews on JRR (nice job guys), it sounds pretty clear that the angle was about ov the brooding meanie who beats up paparazzi and is mean to nice canadian boys like max talbott. hey, a guy’s gotta sell books and i guess painting ov as the “dangerous” villian will sell well in canada. i think it was telling when cox said that because he had no authorized access to ov, he didnt “owe anything” to anyone…such as the truth perhaps?

I guess Brian Pothier is headed to Switzerland after all. His sign-with-an-nhl-team-or-else deadline expired yesterday.

Au revoir, Potsy.

Kevin at Jumping the Glass seems to like MP for 2C more than anyone else if you read between the lines. I had to read it 3 times because all I could think about for first 2 times was cookies. Sesame Street references are always a win in my book.

Leafs HQ on being an “insider” and successfully starting a trade rumor on Twitter. I guess it’s stuff we knew already (trust Bob McK and Darren Dreger and a few others), but amazing to see this put into practice.

BTW, yesterday I said I had a Farm Report coming. Look for it tomorrow.

I’d be OK with the Caps finishing that trade they’ve been working on today.

Nothing is happening.

Love August. Love it.

Would you have picked Henri Richard over Guy Lafleur for Habs Mount Puckmore?

I sure wouldn’t have.

Red Line Station takes a look at PDO and the Caps during the regular season last year.

It’s an interesting stat.

His conclusion is basically that the Caps outperformed their true talent level last season, which I generally agree with.

I keep seeing stuff online and on Twitter about how the Caps are in the mix for Niemi.

Interesting, but I just don’t see it happening. Has anyone seen anything that would give this legs?

I get that we have cap room, but Niemi is only 26, and I’d assume getting him would mean Neuvirth or Varly would be moved?

New question of the day, folks…

Anyone else read about Kane’s weekend with the Cup? I couldn’t resist. Really, I can’t imagine how anyone else could have as much fun as he did with it. Niagara Falls? Hard to beat that visual.

Blueshirt Banter has a nice insight into another reason why Kovy’s contract was nixed—a NMC that turns into a NTC. (Dave Shapiro is the author, fwiw).

This is easily one of the dumbest things I’ve read in quite some time.

Money quotes:

Well, we’ve had five full seasons with the trapezoid and while it might have been a concern in the pre-lockout NHL, the game has changed so much and the flow of play has so greatly improved that the league could easily abolish the trapezoid and allow goalies to play the puck with impunity without compromising offensive chances.

Well, Ken, part of the reason that the game has changed so much is that the dump and chase actually works again. This forces defensemen to surrender the blueline more easily, which makes it harder to play the trap effectively. But hey, let’s just go and remove one of the rules that led to the fast, freewheeling game we’re enjoying right now, so we can go back to watching 1-0 games between the Wild and Devils.

And who’s to say it wouldn’t lead to more scoring opportunities? Have you seen the way some of the goalies can pass the puck these days?

Who’s to say? I dunno, Ken, how about my friend Common Sense. The trapezoid only takes away small areas of ice, and those areas are about 200 feet from the opposing net. Goalies like the Marties (Brodeur and Turco) already venture from their nets to gather in pucks and start the breakout, the trapezoid simply takes away pucks in the corners. Thinking that somehow allowing goalies to corral pucks in the corners, 200 feet away from the opposing goal, will allow for more opportunities than allowing forecheckers to get to those pucks, around 35 feet away from the goal is just bewildering logic. It’s the same kind of logic that convinced the league that more area behind the nets would lead to greater scoring. All the trapezoid does is allow teams to dump the puck into the corner.

You want to get rid of a lot of the headshots that have become so controversial without actually instituting a headshot rule?

Fat lot of good this would do Marc Savard, or David Booth, or any number of the guys who got nailed on blindside hits. Moreover, there’s already a rule against slamming defensemen’s heads into the boards from behind – it’s called boarding.

And really, how fair is it to inhibit goaltenders from playing the puck anyway? Knowing how valuable a skill it is, many young goalies have honed the craft of puckhandling and made it an essential part of their skill package. Why should they be penalized for doing so?

It’s fair if the rule is equally applied to both teams. NHL hockey players get paid ridiculous sums to play in a league where the rules are subject to change. I’m not feeling terribly sorry for them. And it’s not as though goalies can’t play the puck anymore, they just can’t play it in certain places on the ice. You might as well ask the rhetorical question, “is it fair to not let Tomas Holmstrom stand inside the crease and interfere with the goalie, or to let Sean Avery wave his stick in Marty Brodeur’s face? After all, they have honed their craft and made annoying goalies an essential part of their skill package.”

And isn’t prohibiting a goalie from playing the puck tantamount to stopping defensemen from blocking shots? The next time you watch a game and wonder why the score is 1-0 in the third period, watch closely how many shots don’t even reach the net because uber-protected players are bravely throwing themselves in front of slapshots.

I gotta be honest, Ken, I’m not a huge fan of the current “pack it in on net and pray it hits someone” strategy, either. If you’ve got a solution, I’m all ears.

Another one I’ve never been able to figure out is why teams are allowed to ice the puck with impunity when killing a penalty. First, you give a team a disadvantage for breaking the rules, then you allow it to break the rules again to mitigate the disadvantage it faced for breaking the rules in the first place.

Now you’re talking. . .

Sound crazy? Well, it’s no more outlandish than establishing a small, defined area in which goaltenders are allowed to play the puck.

Goddamnit, Ken. You’re an idiot.