George McPhee’s next personnel move, more pressing in its urgency than figuring out what to do with Michael Nylander and Jose Theodore, ought to target some brawn for the Capitals’ lineup, to address the impunity with which opposing teams are attacking the Caps’ smaller, finesse forwards.
How would you like to wake up with Alexander Semin’s lower back this morning?
One of the great virtues of the ‘97-’98 Caps’ team that advanced all the way to the Cup finals was its beautiful composition of piss-’n-vinegar: Dale Hunter, Chris Simon, Mark Tinordi, Craig Berube, Brendan Witt, Joe Reekie. That team didn’t get shoved around a lot; I don’t recall Peter Bondra getting Samurai-chopped about the back much. Or when it did happen, Joe Juneau answering the bell.
And while it is Semin this season who is on the receiving end of the worst of opponents’ stick liberties, I’ve seen Nicklas Backstrom endure his share of face-plants along the boards as well. The Capitals, to state the obvious, have one pure enforcer on the roster, Donald Brashear. It isn’t enough, not for playing the high-octane, mega-skilled game they do that occasionally embarrasses opponents. It’s nearly universally acknowledged around the league that the Caps are a highly skilled, elite team. Hockey has a congenital code used by opponents to counter it. And it isn’t pretty.
Even this team’s mucking lines have a finesse quality about them. Boyd Gordon and Dave Steckel do important work on this team, but retribution isn’t their hallmark. Matt Bradley, bless his old time hockey heart, too often gets better than he gives in the rough stuff department.
And there’s no help to be had from the farm in this matter. The Caps in recent draft years haven’t really plucked a snarl skater. They’re paying a heavy price for it now.
To some extent, Chris Clark’s absence from the lineup exacerbates this vulnerability. The captain takes pride in getting his nose dirty, but also for standing up for his teammates. It’s why he’s such a good captain. Alexander Ovechkin is the team’s de facto captain, but he can’t be exacting vengeance, or policing. When the Caps added Matt Cooke to the lineup at the trade deadline last year the roster took on a slightly feistier aura, and down the stretch the Caps had a rather beautiful look about them.
Sooner rather than later Alexander Semin’s salary is going to begin reflecting his status as one of the world’s best hockey players, but the Caps need him in the lineup now — they simply have to have him in the lineup to contend. Right now, he skates with a target on his back — one opponents are hitting.
The Caps in recent years have been in the business of accumulating draft picks to build a healthy parent and farm club, but now may well be the time to sell off some assets to acquire some much-needed protection for the roster’s world-class core.
Santa’s not much going to like hearing this when I pay him a visit at the Mall this weekend, but I’m going to ask him to leave behind a big set of brass knuckles or two.
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Hershey just signed Kip Brennan who will make his first start with the Bears tonight. He has a handful of NHL experience and quite a few games in the AHL. Here he is in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsom40270ss
And one of his more infamous moments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3pjBfqpcv4
I’m just throwing it out there (knowing full well it does NOT FIT):
What about Sean Avery?
Each game has, not one-but TWO referees that should be able to administer a deterrent from the cheap shots. Instead they nearly allowed the game to devolve into a riot.
I was highly disappointed in the officials.
If you look at the game highlights on the website, even the St. Louis announcer commented that the game was getting out of hand.
Remind me to smack you in the head the next game for that one.
I know. But think about it, if the guy wasn’t a moron, he’s what we need ON PAPER.
But the guy is like T.O. And I don’t want him in our locker room.
But we do need an agitator. Where is Dale Hunter when we need him.
I am not usually one to make suggestions about trades because none of us can make it happen, so in a senut…
Having read the blog about GMGM on the Island, its apparent that their is a good deal of dissatisfaction with Brendan Witt’s game.
Assuming he’s not hurt and still has the tools to succeed, I wouldn’t mind seing him back in a Caps uniform.
I could go for a package that sends Brendan Witt and Richard Park to Washington for Jose Theodore and a combination of prospects or draft choices. Theodore is of minimal value to the Caps, actually what he is taking up in cap space hurts the team versus what he is contributing.
If the Islanders want to rebuild maybe we can help them.
@muddapacker,
I guess Witt makes some sense, but Park? He’s a fine player, sure, but why would we need him? Unless we’re sending them someone like Bourque or Lepisto or Sloan or Giroux (i.e., NHL-ready guys largely stuck in the minors or extras), why would they do that? We can get some grit back when Erskine comes back. And, assuming Semin will actually play again soon, maybe we expirement with Bradley on his line during the game. Bradley is a stand-up guy and would hurt those who hurt Semin, but also has a small amount of offensive ability (unlike Brash). We can afford to have Brads in the box for 5-10-15 minutes. OV, not so much.
We’re stuck with Theodore. The Kings and Blues (among others) might need a new goalie, and Chicago is also trying to unload a very expensive one. Terrible signing, but one that was probably necessary given the circumstances last summer. It may come as a shock to you, but trading a goalie who is overpaid and bad generally doesn’t work. Johnson, unfortunately, is the more likely trade target if Varlamov continues to show his good play.
I can understand the sentiment to try and deal JT, and Nyls, but by mid-season non-playoff teams rarely look to acquire big salaries; rather, they seek to shed them. By “assets” here I was refering to picks and or prospects. For instance, some time soon the Caps will have to decide where they see Chris Bourque fitting in, if at all. Is Neuvirth someone you dangle? January and February are going to be interesting for our GM, I think.
brendan witt is not a deterrent to anything other than the guy who comes out to move the nets off between periods. you know, because his butt is glued to the left post.
witt scares no one in this league. he is not a fighter, he is not intimidating. i sincerely hope he is dead to this organization until the end of time. and if he ever comes back, he sure as hell isn’t getting his number back.
I agree we have the heart but what we need is a big bag of knuckles. This was the case last season in the playoffs – especially against Philadelphia and is clearly becoming the case now – in the regular season, who knows what the playoffs will look like.
As far as refs go, they will never be able to truly control that kind of play – I know in theory they are but they don’t. It would take a completely new regime of refs – from major junior hockey to the pros to fix that. It isn’t going to happen.
I know I’m about to tread on holy ground here, but I don’t see Brashear being as aggressive as I’d like him to be, it’s almost like he’s trying to develop the second part of his career as more of a skilled player rather than the man that can control the ice. I will admit I’m not on the ice so maybe I’m not being fair, but I always want to see more impact from him.
Is Sean Avery available? (I joke, I am a kidder…)
it shocked me when the fracas resulted in no penalties last night–none. some of the worst officiating this year.
typically, i would disagree with your sentiment, hoping that the refs would be police enough. but there have been enough instances now of unpoliced physicality that the team should take matters into their own hands.
i hate the idea that certain Caps are getting targeted becasue they don’t play “Canadian-style” hockey. but it certainly seems to be the case.
@ Schultz
To tell you the truth, I not sure we need Park all that much… I have always liked his speed and shot, a kind of sniper type. I thought of him more as value added if they truly wanted to rebuild and wanted to get rid of him. I am sure we could use him down the stretch.
I understand full well Theodore’s present value, but I also know certain teams need help in goal. I think the Islanders are one of them.
So far as I am concerned, I would be close to waiving Theodore if his play doesn’t improve with the hopes that someone somewhere will pick up half of his salary thereby freeing up cap space which may allow us to keep Alzner.
But obviously, I would prefer something for him even if it were a fourth round draft choice.
The real issue here is Brashear, and to a lesser extent Erskine. I can’t believe that we have to discuss trading assets in order to protect our star players when we’re already paying around 2 million dollars to players whose sole purpose is doing exactly that.
There seem to be two problems with Brashear: 1)He picks and chooses his moments to fight. We may get retribution for last night, but it might not be for months, if not until next year. 2)Due to his reputation, a lot of players just won’t fight him, and with the instigator rule, there’s not much he can do about that.
I don’t want this to devolve into a debate over the instigator. Honestly, all the Caps need is for Brash and Brads to do run around taking cheap shots at Blues players until the team has to respond to their request to drop the gloves.
Sorry, but I will take a different view. The refs let the game get out of hand. When cross-check happened, the Caps on the ice, including Alex, all came flying over. Semin then left the game. Boudreau complained to the refs about the cross-check and got a 2 minute penalty. St. Louis scored on the resulting power play. Green has also left the game (not sure of the exact time in this sequence). The hits by the Caps picked up after Semin’s injury. But, if all the Caps came out with their brass knuckles, on who do you think the penalties would have been called on by those refs last night. If the Caps started beating up on the Blues, the Blues players would likely have played the innocent unwilling victims. I’m sure those refs would have bought that act. The Caps were down two men and had a rookie in the net. Getting the win is better revenge.
I’d like to see Brashear handle this sort of business. I guess he didn’t last night because of the nature of the calls/non-calls and not wanting to put the caps short-handed. He’s no dummy. But at the end of the day we got an unsportsmanlike anyway. One we wouldn’t have gotten if Brash had just taken care of it. Bruce wouldn’t have had to say word one to the ref if Brash had settled the score.
When Bruce put Brash out on the very next shift after Semin got injured, I thought that we were going to see some retribution. I was highly disappointed that we didn’t. I think Brash tried a couple of times but stopped short of getting an instigator.
Beyond that, there are more than just Brash that can and should throw down on our team. Jurcina is no lightweight, for example.
Stuff like last night should show the heart of a team. Instead we looked weak. 2 points, great, but how many will we lose with Semin out of the lineup?
What is it going to take before this team learns to pound the snot out of people that run our goalies and injure our stars with dirty play?
Witt’s not getting moved this season, he just signed an extension.
Even if he were available to be moved, a deal centered around Witt for Theodore makes no sense for the Islanders. They’d have no reason to want to acquire Theodore and they could get a better return on Witt.
“I don’t want to be traded,” Brendan Witt told Point Blank just 15 minutes ago in an interview in which he never backed down from his comments in today’s Newsday. “I want to fix the problem.”
- from islanderspointblank.com
I like the new side of Brash. He is showing decent skill with the puck and everyone still knows that he is a force when the game starts to degrade. Has anyone thought that Bruce may have told him, if he starts taking stupid fighting penalties, he will be benched?
Brash did try to start some fights last night but the wimpy Blues wouldn’t fight. I saw at least 2 instances where this happened. I would have liked to see some type of retribution though b/c now I think everyone will try to take advantage of our boys (did anyone see Backstrom get pushed around all night!). Brads needs to learn how to fight and I don’t really see Erskine as effective b/c he’s not smart about when he decides to fight. I think we do need someone else in here and soon! We can’t afford to lose all of our star players to a bunch of monkeys!
Brash tried to get Thachuk to fight (an under-rated tough guy, IMHO), but he wasn’t interested. Their regular tough guy (who’s name escapes me at the moment), was a scratch.
I like Brash, but we really don’t need a fighter. We need a killer. If someone takes a cheap shot at a skill guy, Brash should challenge them to a fight. If they decline, he should run them, from behind and high, if necessary. The other players can chip in to pay his fines. And I can think of no better game to start this new policy than tomorrow.
I remember a time in the Dark Ages of Capitals hockey (the blue, black & bronze days) when Simon used to skate on the top line for this very reason. I’d hate to break up the scoring party on our top line like that, but are we looking at Bradley up on the first line to camp in front of the net to discourage such goonery? That’s not going to work if you ask me…
The scoring chemistry seems to good to mess with like this, I think our muscle needs to come from the blueliners and we’re still painfully young on that side of the sheet. Do we expect Alzner to start punishing these transgressions? He’ll be in the same Concussion Clinic line as Erskine before too long, don’t ya think?
I hate to say it, but we might need to trade one or two Bears for a mean blueliner (and not Wiff). It’s a very nice problem to have though, since until very recently we never had anyone in the cupboard worth trading. GMGM will know what to do… trust the Capitals Cup Mojo!!!
I remember a bunch of Habs ganging up on Bondra in front of the net, and out of nowhere came Chris Simon, cruising speed. They scattered like cockroaches! He never had to do a thing, a la Sun Tzu’s “Art of War.” That’s the sort of thing we could use about now. In case the previous article is old news now, I posted additional comments there earlier, namely my impression of the crosscheck and how differently it was perceived, and a plea for a better name than Iron Curtain. Please think about that last, everyone, you are all so creative. Thanks.
“I remember a bunch of Habs ganging up on Bondra in front of the net, and out of nowhere came Chris Simon, cruising speed. They scattered like cockroaches!”
Great anecdote, Flying Cloud — the truth of which I doubt not in any respect.
I’m glad someone raised Erskine’s name. Obviously, he’s injured. But isn’t this more of a concern: doesn’t Alzner’s emergence, coupled with Schultz’s eventual return, necessarily make Big John a 7th (or 8th) guy? And while he’s tough for sure, I’m of the opinion that he’s not that great with the gloves off. In an ideal world, GMGM would be able to pluck a third line guy in a deal who could really (like a Simon in his prime) be a deterrence on every shift.
to me, this situation perfectly illustrates the lack of deterrent inherent in goon-on-goon violence. it says nothing to backes if the st. louis goon fights brashear. nothing.
now, on the other hand, if brashear gets on the ice every time backes goes out there and makes it his personal mission to snap him in half, THAT is a deterrent. caps should’ve been going out of their way to wreck backes for the rest of the night. didn’t really need a fight.
Not to change the subj, but the Caps website reports Varlamov has been sent down and Theodore activated.
I seriously think they need to bring Cookie back, they should have never lost him to begin with. We have plenty of young talent to deal for him. Cookie is a scrapper. Whats going to happen when we get into the mix with the Flyers again. Brashear did what he was suppose to do, he followed the code. The Semin hit was dirty but a enforcer should (and did) put the team first.
I think we all remember the day back when GMGM went into the Blackhawks dressing room in Columbus (pre-season game) for their goon squad running Caps players in an exhibition. We ain’t that far away from a repeat I am afraid. McPhee remains pound for pound the toughest guy on this team.
Brashear is the George Foreman of the NHL (in age, looks, and punching power) but obviously cant do this on his own; Matt Bradley is now the reincarnation of Steve (Speed-Bag) Leach in terms of his ability to strike opposing fists with his head; and John Erskine simply cannot be given a regular shift with an NHL team, certainly not in a playoff game.
Bottom line: this team wins with speed, strength and skill. Semin, Ovechkin, Kozlov, whomever, can deal with the opponents by putting them on their backs or filling their net with pucks. Guys like Alzner, Jurcina, etc are going to have to grow into this league.
Of course, what I say becomes meaningless in the first round of the playoffs when Kozlov shrinks to about 5 foot nothing and wont take a puck in a corner without a court order.
I’m so happy this conversation is taking place — I thought I was alone in the wilderness before I found this blog. We have the best hockey player in the world right now and some others in the top ten – my opinion and admittedly I’m biased. Not protecting them is criminal. I know we’re having salary cap difficulties but toughening up the rest of the lineup is an urgent, urgent priority – imo.
Unfortunately, unless we can make room for him, Alzner won’t fit under the cap, and Erskine will.
And if the projections are true, next year will be tougher if the cap shrinks.
And some people need to look at the difference between a agitator and an enforcer. The agitator goes out and gets under the skin of the opposition, and tries to draw them into taking stupid penalties. That was Cooke’s job. Personally I think Brads would be better suited in this role, than trying to act as an enforcer. Brash is our enforcer, and should remain so. Even though he seems to have mellowed as he gets older, his mere presence on the ice still seems to work better at getting games back under control than the ineffective attempts by the zebras.
I think that what really needs to be done is twofold.
First, the league needs to do a wholesale re-evaluation of the ALL the rules. Some of the changes have resulted in unintended consequences, and have slowed down rather than smoothed out the play. And secondly, the officials need to be reviewed and rated after each and every game, and more transparency on how calls have been made.
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