Recap: Capitals 4, Rangers 1

What a game, glad to see Sasha play well.

Got say, ilya Brysgalov is a pretty fun guy #24/7

It kind of looked like the Rangers tried playing the Caps’ (old) style, which we all know plays right into the Caps’ strength.

A couple of points:

• Glad to see the Hammer love. It was his best game as a Cap. Might not be saying much, but it’s at least a positive sign. Along with #81, Hammer was the best D-man on the team tonight.

• Brouwer had a bit of a nightmare—the missed tap-in, the ill-timed DOG in the 3rd, the stumble out of the box after that DOG which negated a possible 2-on-1…and that’s just to name three. Credit to him for being in good positions all night, but yeah…that wasn’t his best game.

• Joel Ward has become completely anonymous.

Then again…we did it on a backup goalie

I’ve seen some commentary to the effect that the Rangers had a bad game, and that certainly seems to be the narrative Torts is running with, but I saw a whole lot of good D on the Caps’ part, some good, timely goaltending, and a PK that saved the bacon of some boneheaded penalties. Frankly, that overturned kick-in goal seemed to be the only total mistake on the Rangers’ part that spurred the Caps. everything else, it seemed like the Caps made happen. Did I make that up? Or were the Caps just insanely lucky, and, to quote Torts, opportunistic?

Positive Positive Positive.

Really hope they continue this against Buffalo and Columbus this weekend. That’s four points.

Look at the standing and four points would put us in 6th in the East, presuming NJ, Win, OTT and Tor don’t win. Big ifs, but that’s how close we are right now.

"I wouldn’t say it’s the defense, I would say it’s some brain-dead plays at our blue line as far as turnovers," Tortorella said. "It’s unfortunate with Del Z (Michael Del Zotto), he loses the puck on the first one. But a turnover by Mitch (John Mitchell) and a turnover by Richie (Brad Richards), not against their third- or fourth-line, but against their top line. It kills us. That’s what’s frustrating. I thought we beat ourselves a little bit there in those situations. They’re an opportunistic team. They don’t want to defend. They want nothing to do with it. So what do we do? We don’t allow them to defend on those plays and they go score goals and then they get rolling, that’s where they gained momentum. So that’s what’s frustrating."

I don’t really have a point with it, just thought it was interesting (the Caps site has it on video as well).

The Caps first goal was a great hustle play by Marcus Johansson, putting himself in position to pilfer a bouncing puck and then going to the bakery for a rebound goal. Although there were a few fortuitous bounces in that sequence, we’re not going to complain.

Yeah, but the crew announcing the game weren’t going to let you forget that it was all Rangers mistakes that led to that goal. I didn’t hear anything positive about Mojo’s effort on that play until the intermission report. I missed Joe B and Locker like crazy after two minutes of Doc’s falsetto.

The schedule for the next nine games would appear (stress on appear) to be set up for the Capitals to make a bit of a run:

vs. Buffalo
@ Columbus
vs. Calgary
@ San Jose
@ LA
vs. Pittsburgh
vs. Carolina
vs. NYI
vs. Tampa Bay

Only Pittsburgh and San Jose are in playoff position as I write this. In addition to those two, only San Jose and LA have more points than the Caps, and they have 41 and 40 respectively to the Caps 38.

It looks good. That’s all I’m saying’.

capitals as a whole looked good, but I can’t feel as good about Vokoun as the recap does. He got lucky several times, and his rebound control is beyond atrocious.

I was positively dreading going to this game. Thankfully, the worst part was the shrieking banshee and her hillbilly father sitting behind me. My headache is just now going away.

Neuvy is awesome

NHL.com is giving Brouwer credit for that goal.

Sidebar: From a pure skating perspective, Halpern is one of the best Caps forwards. He has a great stride.

Back from the game. Glad the 2nd line contributed a couple of goals. I’ll admit spending much time earlier today bad mouthing the 2nd line and reporting that they hadn’t done anything all year regardless of who was on it. I’ll admit that was a great exaggeration but the 2nd line has had their issues this year. While Brouwer had his “gordy” game when moved to the 2nd line, he had slowed down since then. Meanwhile, Johansson had also cooled off at the same time. Hence, with our two main 2nd line players (Brouwer and Johansson) not doing well, that line’s productivity had suffered, Granted, blame can not be laid solely on them since numerous people had manned that line, generally without success. (At one point, the 2nd line was getting no more minutes than the 4th line.)

General observations on game:

1) Glad the 2nd line finally woke up with goals by MoJo and Brouwer
2) Great insurance goals by Semin (even if no hat trick)
3) Lousy looking power play. Seems they gave more opportunities to the Rangers than they got themselves. That last PP was particularly abysmal. Memo to Hunter: Can you please get Ovi off the point and relocate him to another role? Playing the Point is not the best use for a guy of Ovi’s skill set
4) Rangers goal — it didn’t help that our guy (Carlson) fell down as they were rushing to the net.
5) The waved off goal pretty much sucked the Momentum out of the Rangers
6) Our guys had trouble staying out of the box.

It’s final in Calgary. RUS 3, SVK 1. No points in two games for Kuznetsov.

Tomorrow’s Clips today. Ladies & Gentlemen, Scotty Hockey:

http://scottyhockey.blogspot.com/2011/12/22-9-4-power-less-play.html?spref=tw

It’s late, but I didn’t get home until 11:30 (Thanks Vs. for starting games at 7:40 instead of 7:05…) But here are your numbered points, sans acrostic…which I miss…

1) First off, what I noticed more than anything in the first period and the second, was that the Caps came out hitting. Not just a little and not just occasionally, they were hitting anything in a white jersey out there. I think they had a lead of like 13-4 or something in hits after the first. It carried over to the second and late in the second you could see the Rangers backing away from the corners and giving the Caps more room. The Caps won the battles in the corners and on the boards last night, and got the result they deserved.

2) Wow… Alzner made a boo-boo. Coughing the puck up behind the net and having to take a penalty. If this happens once again in the second half, they should trade him. Go Flyerzzzzz….

3) Despite all the shot blocking by Callahan in the first (he was credited with 4 blocks… remarkable), I lost a little respect for him on his assist. Sure, taking that shot hurt like a mother[Franceschetti]er and he turtled up. It was only after that when he looked up and saw that his team was on a 2-on-1 that he had a miraculous recovery and was able to get off the ice. If you’re hurt, fine then get into a protective position, but don’t use that to your advantage. This isn’t soccer. There is a difference between pain and injury, and most players, Callahan included, know the difference quite well. He was trying to get a whistle. The referee should have given it to him once his team established possession.

4) Semin had 2 nice goals and looked really good on a couple of other chances. The only flaw I saw in his game last night was on one shot he took coming down the right side. Once he took the shot he peeled off and headed to the side boards. If he had gone hard to the net, there was a rebound waiting. Still, Good Sasha.

5) There was a play in the first period involving Chimera, Laich and Ward that Dale Hunter should show the team every day. The puck goes behind the Ranger goal line, and they try to come out on their right side, Chimera steps in hard on the forecheck, the defender stops, and the puck goes a little past Chimera. A quick flip of the puck to the slot and Laich has a good scoring opportunity. Only a reaction save by Biron keeps that from being the first goal of the game. It shows what hitting can do.

6) Again, as it was said last week. It’s easier to win when your stars play like stars. Ovechkin is on a four game point streak (2G, 3A), and Semin has 6 points the past 5 games (4G, 2A).

Next up, Buffalo. The Sabres are 1-4 in their last 5. The only win was over the Caps, and that was because of a horrible period of hockey by the Caps. I don’t think that will happen again… Time for the big push to begin…