Friday Caps Clips: All-Star Interlude

Yipe. Did not give me a very good feeling for next year.

Interesting. Donald Fehr is a canny bugger.

The NHL/Bettman have annoyed me so often with their dumb decisions, I almost chortle to consider the knots Fehr will tie in their arses.

Yeah, it was pretty wretched. And the Ottawa “fans” were an embarrassment.

I didn’t watch, but I called Couture. Actually, I had Pominville or Couture. Both closed at 13/2 to be picked last. Should’ve bet ’em…

Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but does this seem like a subtle dig at Ovi?

“It’s never easy to leave one guy standing, to be the last one,” Chara said as he made his selection. “But Jamie really deserves to be picked because he had surgery a couple days ago and he still showed up. That’s a big credit to him. So I am picking Dallas Star Jamie Benn.”

It didn’t take long, but the whole “pick-a-team” concept novelty has worn off for me. Last year, it was intriguing. This year, it just makes the “game” part of the weekend more of a joke than it is. I guess it’s fun for the players, but as a fan, I have zero interest in this game. Part of being a fan is having a rooting interest — East versus West, North America versus Europe. I’m supposed to root for Chara or Alfredsson? Or is it just a game for the “ooooooh” factor of individual offensive moves?

God, I’m getting grumpy in my old age.

I didn’t watch, but that’s a pretty brutal review. I turned it on once and it was a commercial so I did something else.

The best part of the draft was when Henrik Sedin said that last year’s All Star Game (when the Sedins were on different teams) was great because he finally got a chance to play with good players. Other than that, yeah, it was largely lame.

That’s great.

I forgot how young he looked when he played here in DC… guy could play, too. Very smart player.

It posted after our Clips were up – it’ll be in tomorrow’s.

The Caps have been b-a-d by the fancystats for a while now. Nothing surprising here.

This is what God made DVR’s for… I’ll take a look at some games I want to see again.

Is NBCSports showing college hockey tonight?

Don’t cross the streams!

Hockey players aren’t very shy about that stuff. This isn’t a huge shock to me, it’s just funny they talked about it publicly.

We used to call it crossfire

Who used the sink?

Spoiler alert: the Caps will not go 13-0-0 within the Division the rest of the way…

If they go 0-3 on that Chicago-Detroit-Philly gauntlet, I’m not so sure they win 6 out of the last 8.

Not to piss in your Cheerios, but the Caps aren’t going to convert on 70% (note: mild hyperbole alert) of their scoring chances like they did on the Boston game.

It’s nice that they beat Boston, but they had a bunch of luck to do it.

The thing about luck is that eventually it runs out.

The 92-93 point cutoff isn’t as important as it might sound. The Caps could make the playoffs with fewer points depending on how the other Southeast teams are playing. If they win the division, then the other points, while nice, aren’t as important.

Of the teams in the division:

5th – Carolina – 45 points, 10 points back, 3 fewer games remaining. The Canes are playing well, but the hole they are in is probably too deep. Plus they rely on picking up charity points (9 of them) too much. I suspect they will be selling at the trade deadline, so they’re not a factor in the division except as a spoiler.

4th – Tampa Bay – 46 points, 9 points back, same number of games remaining. The Bolts are also quite a bit far back and have quite a mountain to climb. If they come out from the break hot and put together a run, they may stand pat or add a player at the deadline. If they come out flat after the break, they’ll be sellers and a non-factor.

3rd – Winnipeg – 50 points, 5 points back, two fewer games remaining. The Jets have improved a bunch now that they have an organization willing to support them, and full crowds every night. Still, I don’t see how this team keeps up their pace with the line-up they have. A successful rebirth of hockey in the Great White North, but they’re not a contender for the division title.

2nd – Florida – 55 points, 0 points back, same number of games remaining. The Kitties have been playing well most of the year, but at the break they began to tail off a bit. The Caps have caught them and have a tremendous edge in the tie-breakers (11 charity points already for Florida!) I honestly can’t see the Panthers keeping up their present pace, although a playoff berth might not be out of the question.

1st – Washington. As long as the Caps keep pace with the Panthers, they will be in the playoffs. I have a feeling that going down the stretch with about 18 wins will be enough to win the division, assuming they pick up 4 charity points on the way, that’s 40 points, meaning 95 for the year. That’ll win the division with a final record of 44-31-7. Very do-able.

That cutoff only matters if you are an at-large team (not a division winner). All the Caps have to do to make the playoffs is beat Florida and Winnipeg.

I wrote this in the Road Ahead post a few days back and thought I’d put it up again.

The Caps currently have a .391 win percentage on the road and a .708 at home.

Your figures are very optimistic with the Caps becoming a .556 road team and .812 at home. I don’t see either happening.

JP was looking at .500 on the road as being something to shoot for.

Here’s how it breaks down:

If the Caps don’t improve on the road, the Caps can’t lose more than 3 games at home. The current road win percentage will get them 14 pts. Combined with the current record of 55 pts they need 24 pts at home to hit the threshold of 93 pts. With 16 home games left, they need to win 12 of them. And 7 of those are against current playoff teams (two against the Panthers and one each against the Bruins, Flyers, Devils, Leafs, and the Sharks). That’s a tall order.

They get a little more breathing room if the play on the road improves to .500, which means they can lose 6 games at home. If the play at home drops off, forget it.

The Caps could capture the SE from FLA, especially if they fall apart. But hoping for another team to collapse doesn’t bode well for playoff success.

“For that story and more, check out CSNWashington.com. Back to you, Joe!”

can Chuck Gormley please go chill somewhere FAAAAAAAAAR away from access to twitter?

Should #CSNWashington correspondent Chuck Gormley be allowed on Twitter?

Ovi should be trolling for marlin in Miami just like Chuck is trolling for page hits.

it’s clearly not stupidity, it’s perhaps the greatest hockey comedy since Slapshot!

And it’s supposed to be playoff weighted? And he thinks Mr. Trending is top 50? List invalidated.

I don’t think he should have mixed in the goaltenders with the position players. It’s a completely different game. It’s the equivalent of comparing the value of a pitcher and a DH.

John Tavares still can’t crack the top 25

Way to distort things, Sportscenter!