Tuesday Caps Clips: Caps Win Wild One

Old is putting pucks in the net in the STL…

Malin posted on those red cord workouts Marcus did with Farjestad, those are supposed to build core muscles. Backstrom did them as well during the summer.

Yeah, I’d tweeted last night that “Coming into tonight, Vokoun was 3-8-0-1/3.39/.884 in his first starts of the season throughout his career. Always ended up fine. Worry not.”

I absolutely love what Vokoun said last night after the game… He recognizes that he played like crap and was amazed how strong the Caps were to bail him out, For that he he will bail the team out we they needed. As a team building concept I don’t think I would have wanted it any other way. Me Likey… A lot a lot

My GF last night on Vokoun: “At least we got him on sale.”

I’m “curious” about accountability, the way the Poles were “curious” about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

Count me curious as to who gets held accountable for the TMMOTO penalty in OT.

MoJo was flying out there…hope he wasnt hurt on that late tripping call. TB20 laid the lumber a few times…that was fun to watch

Last night I was wondering how Chimmers hands became softer in the offseason….my FB Status was asking when Chimmer became #99

The Calgary comment was definitely a gaffe. In the past he’s made many comments about Chimmer being a good Edmonton boy, like himself.

His blast last night shows that D-Wide should play the point along side GreenLife52 on the PP

not just you…it was like watching a real EA NHL arcade game last night.

They definitely were through the first period. But I’m not sure whether I got used to that pace, or they slowed down afterwards.

Whats real bad is he was noticeably better last night then he was on Saturday…no where near $10mil better tho

I’m not concerned yet. I think that at the end of the year when he’s at the top of all the stat categories we will look back at the first two games and laugh.

he was also absent from his locker when the media was allowed in the room after the game…think it was Whyno that tweeted that last night….

Perhaps it unavoidable echos the human/athlete/robot discussion above, but a flight around the globe tends to drain a person. Then to go play in a professional sports the next day and again two days after that. Yes, an athlete should have better stamina and be able to recover quickly, but everyone needs some recovery time.

We all know Ovi is motivated and will skate his heart out. I think he’s not had enough recovery time yet, so passing on morning skate seems to be the smart decision in my book.

Well, I was thinking about you Saturday night at the game when on the first power play, Brooks takes the puck on the side of the net and skates in for his patented stuff attempt …

Thanks, RB.

Is timeonice.com now generating the corsi/fenwick reports?

The Caps had outshot the Bolts 43 – 23 at the end of regulation, but not sure how much of that disparity was on the PP (not a huge amount I would guess, though).

Ward was Corsi positive in NSH despite getting the hardest comp and brutal zone starts. He’s legit.

(Green’s played 46:48, Hamrlik 45:08)

If anything, it’s weird (for me) to look at see Carlson and Alzner be under 20 minutes per (albeit in 2 games).

Nope… Hamrlik has always played big minutes in his career. Still, dialing him back a bit and letting the young pups eat the minutes (Alzner, Carlson) would be better all around.

Through a sample size of two games, there’s not a whole lot that could really surprise me.

I think Alznerson will get more minutes as we move along, it wouldn’t surprise me if BBBB is trying to protect them a little bit to build some confidence. RAHJC in particular looks a little slow to start.

Pleasantly so. Hamrlik is now underpaid for his role, no? Strangely…he’s been everything I was hoping Tom Poti would be.

TRADE THEM ALL!

26th Pick or Bust!

Malkin picked up an elbowing penalty in each of his first two games. When the hell is he going to finally get the reputation he deserves for being a dirty player?

I’m eagerly awaiting Mario’s impassioned plea for civility in the game.

Burned.

First reaction is that they’ve been burned for two PP goals, two soft goals and one fluke, so it’s pretty tough to start drawing hard conclusions.

That said, the system so far has not screamed out “trap” to me. Both TBL and CAR had pretty clear skating though neutral at times. Semin’s goal against CAR came after he blew the zone aggressively. Both games featured pretty hard forechecking (or attempted forechecking) from basically all the lines.

Watch the Bolts’ 3rd goal. See how Ovie is standing way down in the slot? Two years ago or at the start of last year, he’d never have been there – he’d have been up closer to the off-side point man. Now, he’s down in the slot. If only he’d actually picked up Moore rather than just stand there. . .

Beyond that, there were several times where both Ovie and Semin were below the goalline in their own end, which was almost unheard of prior to last year. The forwards are sagging lower and the D are putting less pressure on the puck behind the net and focusing more on blocking shots and guarding the front of the net. Rather than having the D and the center solely responsible for everything below the dots, the wings are helping out. This allows the C and D to collapse a little more toward the net.

Let’s keep in mind, there are in effect two new pairings out there — Green/Hamrlik and Schultz/Wideman. Carlson and Alzner have been ok, so far, but the other two pairs need to develop that instinctive knowledge of where the other will be.

If they’re having the same problems in November, that will be a problem.

Yes, MoJo drew a penalty on his up-ice rush and Halpern got a nifty scoring chance on his, but that probably wasn’t what Boudreau drew up on the whiteboard before the game.

Mackan was actually busting the 1-3-1 with speed up the middle all game. He got his goal that way and that line drew a penalty that way.

While I agree on just about all counts, substantively, I have a hard time getting worked up about it on October 11, when the captain just played two games in three nights after flying half-way around the world to bury a family member (among other mitigating factors).

Excuses? Yeah, they are. And I know that Bruce is fond of saying that the only things that are free in this world are bad habits, so the accumulation of ‘em (or inability to break existing ones) is troubling, no doubt, and frankly, I don’t expect things to change much based on what’s come before it. All that said, maybe it’s just a personal coping mechanism, but I’ll still reserve judgment some and not let myself get too concerned until this shit’s happening after the new year.

Today’s date – 10/11
Games Played = 2
New Players = 5

A little early to push the “We will fail in the playoffs” button, IMO.

If TV hugs the post a little better, this game doesn’t get to OT. The team seems like they have scored more screened/dirty goals in these past two games than they did all season, which is a positive. Lines 2-4 have played very well..

IMO, clearly the PP needs to do better than 0-7 and 52 and 44 need to get on the same page. Again, two games into a long season.

Giving this one a rec for eloquence.

My concerns about the top line are part of the record, so I won’t rehash them here.

On the plus side of the ledger, I thought the emphasis was not on scoring in transition or off the rush, but on getting the puck in the zone, often deep in the zone, and getting extended zone pressure. Chimera’s first goal came after the first line (I think) had an extended shift in the O Zone and TBL could not get a full change executed before the third line took the puck in neutral and headed for the net. Chimera’s second goal came after a turnover forced by hard forechecking.

I saw some glimpses of the old, bad caps – pulling up at the blue line and dangling, for instance. But it wasn’t as pervasive as it has been.

Guys also went to the net regularly to create traffic.

All to say that it wasn’t completely horrible all the time. I’m holding out hope that we’re looking at baby steps. Maybe.

Thank you for crystallizing why I left the game angry instead of relieved.

if I was in the same situation, I might see if there’s super cheap tickets on stubhub. I can’t imagine there’s a whole lot of demand to see Dallas-NYI.

I have no problems sitting in the nosebleeds. 40 is probably my cap.

Dallas tickets are more than 40? The place is a ghost town. I bet VC has more people for warm ups.