Friday Caps Clips

Obviously, being in great shape enabled him to play harder, longer and that probably contributed to more opportunities on the ice. But more likely, it was his maturation as a hockey player that allowed him to maximize his chances. Still, you’ve got to admire a pro athlete who takes his job so seriously and is willing to pay the price physically in the off-season. I know a lot around here aren’t enamoured with his PC pep talks, but the guy may be one of the hardest workers in hockey.

Here’s a question…what the hell is Laich doing in the gym for four hours?

I don’t think it’s out of the question that for younger/juniors players, conditioning helps shooting percentage. I know the current thinking is that there’s very little mature adults can do to help their shooting percentages, but as far as I know that work hasn’t been done with younger, developing players.

More chicken/egg stuff: Was moving Backstrom up and down the first and second line to help jump start his scoring, or was it a cause of his slump?

Umm.. the chicken biscuit with egg please. :)

Umm.. the chicken biscuit with egg please. :)Chic-fil-A for the win.

I don’t know which one this would fall under, but Washington sturggled to score, in part, due to Backstrom’s career low 65 points and overall “struggle-itude”.

When your first line center isn’t clicking, your first line isn’t clicking. It’s something we saw all year, something we hoped would be remedied, something that effectively cost the Capitals a spot in the 3rd round. There were many instances in which Backstrom had pivotal goals on his stick and failed to convert mere feet away from the net.

In a different situation, one where your “second line center” doesn’t completely disappear in the 2nd round, or where the majority of your offense isn’t being powered by a rookies and grinders, the Capitals wouldve been fine without Backstrom at the top of his game.

Tough zone starts and injuries including a broken thumb are good enough explanations for me

Those Wawotan summers sure look chilly.

ugh. Reply fail.

If we plotted my reply fails vs. coffee consumption there would be a r^2 of -1.

Hate the fact as some may, there are Pens fans with intelligent things to say.

Not to mention both “locker room views” presented were edited for a television series, and the narrative for the first two shows was “Caps bad, Pens good.”

No question. Shame the cameras weren’t rolling during the Caps 14 game winning streak. The locker room was a much different place I’m sure.

That list is depressing.

We have got to get him above Tarek, stat!

I would love to watch the backwards skating drill they talked about. I bet those guys do it at ridiculous speed.

Why does the banner on that article read “by Katie Carerra” but at the bottom it says "By Tarik El-Bashir "

Was it maybe just edited by El Bashir?

Yeah, I have a question about Stevenson. In last year’s development camp, he was the rage. In this year’s camp, I don’t think I heard a word about him other than a scuffle or two. Assuming he played, should I assume he was ‘underwhelming’ this year? What does anyone know? Is he slipping down the prospects’ chart?

Stevenson was never approaching Orlov. Anyone that characterized it that way was misleading. Stevenson could be a nice dark horse story, but he’s not going to be a special player in the NHL (not to imply that Orlov will, but he does have the skill to do it).

Flemming has the potential to make the NHL, but he is a long shot as well. We’ll see how it plays out. He’s not very big, but I love his game.