Knee-jerks: @ Toronto, 3/6/07
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March 7, 2007
Ah, the joys of 'playing out the string'. With a roster weakened by trades and decimated by injuries, the Caps certainly are game, but don't have much firepower to bring to the table. Against a desperate Toronto club on the road, the Caps came up empty. Coach Hanlon seems to be riding his two Russian Alexanders, and if they don't hit paydirt, the chances of the Caps' winning seems to go down the tubes.- The funniest moment of the night was Alexander Semin's amazing behind the back shot, which he took by throwing the puck behind him while down in front of the Leafs' crease. How it went undetected by the refs is beyond me, but good for a laugh.
- Frederic Cassivi played fairly well in goal for the Caps, and it was good to see him get a start. Brent Johnson is capable of playing better when he is 'on', but inconsistency has been an issue. It's fairly apparent how much this team misses Olaf Kolzig.
- Alexandre Giroux turned in another decent night's work, continuing to creating things, typically on the forecheck. It would be nice to see him cash in on one of his chances as a reward for his hard work, and the Caps could use the goals. This is a good chance for Giroux to show what he can do at the NHL level.
- This is Tomas Fleischmann's chance, as well, and outside of the occasional nifty move, he hasn't made a good showing so far. The team needs its youngsters to chip in at least occasionally, and he was given significant power play time along with solid even-strength minutes. So far, not a positive result.
- John Erskine had some fun little battles with Darcy Tucker last night, dumping Tucker hard on his rear after the agitating forward stole the puck from Cassivi after the whistle and put it into the net. Erskine also dug into the bag of sneaky tricks by pulling hard on Tucker's stick, throwing the forward off-balance in a move that went undetected by the referees. The big defenseman has been one of the bright spots this season, providing snarl as well as some solid positional defensive play.
- Despite both being credited with 5 shots, the Alexes were mostly held in check. Ovechkin had a fantastic opportunity coming in from the left wing (notice he took his defenseman outside, something he hasn't done much of this season), but couldn't convert. For the remaining 15 games, it looks like the offense is in their hands, and one-line teams can be easy to shut down. A line with Fleischmann on one wing and a healthy Fehr on the other would be given some good matchups and get some quality ice-time to try and establish any other kind of scoring presence.
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