Wednesday Caps Clips: Clowned

The big thing I noticed in last night’s recap here… not a single mention of Alex Ovechkin. It speaks volumes.

Another game tied up after two periods. Another 3rd period where they give up 3 goals.

I know we all talk about playing a 60 minute game, but even if they’re only playing 30-50 I would prefer the last 20 of the game to be included in that.

Win every game.
Win every shootout.
Win every OT game.
Win every Conference game.
Win every game where a star player is sidelined.
Win every Division game.
Win every Western Conference game.
Win every game the refs steal from them.
Win every game while a handful of new players get with the program.
Win every game vs an inferior (on paper) opponent.
Win every back-to-back game.
Win every home game.
Win every game just by showing up.

So how hard will practice be today? Probably, very.

Will we be able to read the tea leaves for who the healthy scratch will be Friday?

1) If a “top liner” takes the day off as maintenance day and someone else takes their place, that someone else will be the healthy scratch. Unless it’s a former top line regular or typical top line replacement.

2) If someone normally on one of the top 3 lines is practicing with the 4th liners, he’ll be the healthy scratch

What could the caps get for semin at this point, top line RW and a 2nd round pick?

Let’s give Dallas credit—they’ve got a good team with few superstars, but they beat the hell out of us at evens all night. But hat hurts the most was that third goal. We had that PK in the bag, with a key draw won, and then that entire foursome, most noticeably Nicky, got pwned…just all sorts of fail there.

1. Each team’s star player is possibly the most talent player in their sport, but they don’t fit with the traditional image of their sport/position, are constantly over shadowed by players who do, and are constantly dogged by questions about their character and leadership ability. Neither has been playing well thus far.
2. Each team has it’s own offensive enigma, who, when at their best, can take over a game, but can often become invisible for long stretches, or even hurt their team. So far this year, both players have been trending AWOL.
3. In recent years each team faced doubts about their defenses, but appeared to answer them with big free agent signings. They looked great initially, but the wheels now appear to have come off.
4. Both teams’ GMs can acquit themselves well in the early rounds of the draft, but are incapable of finding good players with later picks, and tend to be active in free agency. They’re generally well respected by the fan bases, and are rarely assigned the blame for the teams’ failings.
5. Both teams’ coaches could be the best in franchise history (since neither franchise has won a championship), but are constantly on the hot seat because of their inability to win in the post-season and their perceived inability to make key adjustments and hold players accountable for their mistakes. The fan bases have a love-hate relationship with them, and if they don’t win this year, they’re totally gone (although that’s the same thing they said last year). Also, they’re both really fat.
6. Most importantly, they are both immensely talented teams who come into every year with high expectations, but seem to lack the ability to put away their opponents and win big games. When it really matters, be it in the 4th quarter or game 7, they collapse. It’s tough to tell if this is a product of poor coaching or soft players who just don’t care enough, but either way, it’s a criticism that will be ingrained in their public image until they win a championship.
7. Oh, and did I mention both of their mascots are anthropomorphized eagles?

Just to be clear, this isn’t me going off the deep end after the Caps past two losses. This is me going off the deep end after the Bears game. The Caps at least still have a shot at doing something this year.

Stumbled upon some comments from Brett Hull on Ken Hitchcock (in light of Hitch’s new gig) that I thought were somewhat interesting and perhaps relevant:

"I came in kind of a free wheeler, I kind of played my own game. Within the system, I had a theory on what I had to do to get open and create some offense. When I got to Dallas, there was no ad-libbing. We had a game plan, there was a certain way we played and you were going to do it come hell or high water. It was a big adjustment for me. But when you see (Mike) Modano and you see (Joe) Nieuwendyk and (Jari) Lehtonen and (Sergei) Zubov play under that umbrella, it doesn’t take you long to figure out you’re going to do it and enjoy it and enjoy winning. That’s what happened.

"He is a fantastic hockey coach. The St. Louis Blues players are going to be prepared to win every night. He is meticulous with X’s and O’s and a game plan to challenge and beat your opponent every night. I don’t want to say (he is a) taskmaster, but there is no nonsense with Ken. You’re going to play, you’re going to play hard and you’re going to play within his system. If you do, you’re going to have a lot of success. And if you don’t, you’re probably going to try to have a lot of success on another team."

There’s more there at the link. But… yeah. Structure.

(And “Jere Lehtinen”)

I have a Curran story. A buddy of mine used to live in Monroe, Louisiana (he was an economics professor at NE Louisiana, now Louisiana-Monroe… he’s since moved on to Southwest Missouri State..)

Anyway, he invites me down because Monroe had gotten a team on the old Western Pro Hockey League. The WPHL was a league set up to play in the old rodeo rings from New Mexico to Louisiana, and eventually there were teams all the way to Mississippi. The team in Monroe, the Moccasins (the snakes not the shoes) had a game when I visited against the El Paso Buzzards (really!) and the Moc’s captain was… Brian Curran. I was there in my old Dale Hunter jersey and Curran nodded when he saw it. Pretty cool. We chatted a little after the game and he said he enjoyed playing in Washington (Landover at the time he was here) but despite the busses and such in the WPHL, he loved being in Monroe. Unfortunately Monroe didn’t love hockey and they were out of business by 2001, despite having a winning season all of the years of their existence.

He looked unsettled – probably as a byproduct of his tyeammates not getting it done on front of him but he never looked calm in the crease to me.

I hated to watch that 3rd period more than the VAN game. Just complete and utter breakdowns in goal and in front.

Both DAL and VAN games tied going into the 3rd after Caps getting back to even – shameful collapses in both situations.

Btw, on a somewhat administrative note, the Kundratek trade provides a good opportunity to really get the most out of the SBN platform. Click on the kid’s name and you’ll get plenty of info on him and everything that’s been written about him by the blog(s) that know him best. Good stuff.

Some noise going around on Twitter now that Erskine may get suspended for his hit on Daley last night.

I’m not a big NBA fan, but this lockout thing has me terrified of the Pandora’s Box that’s going to be opened at the next NHL CBA negotiaions. There’s more than a few teams (like Dallas) that are losing even more money than NBA teams, AND the owners have a much more favorable split in the league revenues. I can’t think the owners are going to try to make that split wider, but they may claim they need to (I think it’s 57/43, but I could be wrong on that).

I’m trying not to be overly fatalistic about it, but at the same time, I’m just trying to enjoy all the hockey I can. /sigh

Why didn’t BB re-unite Carlzner when going against a team with a red hot first line with two superstars…

kcarrera Katie Carrera
Seven minute skate to start practice followed by one-on-one work in the corners, along the boards. #Caps

And we’re off!

bmcnally14 Brian McNally
Everybody on the ice at #Caps practice save Jay Beagle. They’re skating right now. Plan for later: I’m guessing more skating. Good times!

Can’t believe Beagle is skipping practice after last night’s debacle!

A little late to the party, but rec’ing the title of today’s Clips.

Spent some time at practice this morning, but arrived a little after they started and left before they were done. Bruce was definitely skating them hard. Beyond that, I’m not smart enough to tell anything else. I hate that the acoustics at the rink are terrible and you really can’t hear what he’s telling them, although I did catch one instance where he told them that if they couldn’t get some particular item right, they’re f’d. So I imagine he was dropping bombs all morning.

And in other news, Jaromir Jagr is on a seven-game points streak… #thereisnojustice

I’m not going to pretend that I it doesn’t exist, but last night I was at the game, and I’m not sure if it was just the section I was in, but the Caps fans around me were on him harder than usual. I typically go to roughly 10-15 games a year, and split my time between the upper and lower level and you hear the constant grumblings at the game, at the bar before and after the games (mainly about how he needs to be traded, how he sucks, etc.), but never before have I heard him heckled as badly as last night. It was basically “Trade Schultz” chants and yelling “You Suck” at him when he has the puck behind the net. And there was even a small group of fans “whooping” him when he touched the puck.

By no means am I a Schultz-apologist, but I definitely thought it was ridiculous for home fans to heckle their own player. Sure, we all get on the guys who aren’t playing well, but in the end, I support the players who play for my favorite team because I’d much rather see them succeed than fail.

Like I said before, I know that there are people who realize what Schultz is, and like or tolerate him; and I realize there are a group of people who can’t stand him. I just figured the name on the front of the jersey always more important than the one on the back.