On Frozen Blog

Remember about 10 days ago when sentiment began to surface that the arrival of the Olympic break would prove injurious to all that great Caps’ Mojo? Today, not so much sentiment. In fact, in last night’s postgame, Bruce Boudreau explicitly claimed that the Olympic break couldn’t arrive soon enough for his club. He’s right. The Caps are badly in need of elusive practice time — it is Turnover Central in their own end.

The team had fits and bursts of energy last night but in general appeared second-game-in-two-nights weary most of it. They did not receive quality minutes from American League talents Tyler Sloan and Chris Bourque. They got, to put it charitably, a rusty effort in not from Semyon Varlamov, making his first appearance since December. It was an evening of individual brilliance by Alexander Semin surrounded by far too little cohesive and energized team play.

Andrew:

• “He makes the NHL look like a men’s league.” That was JoeB’s clever and astute quip applied to Alexander Semin’s fit of sickness in a 50-second, single shift stretch of last night’s second period, when he pretty much did whatever he wanted with the puck. It’s small solace in the midst of a second consecutive setback, but that shift by Semin was one for the ages. How would you describe it? JoeB I thought nailed it. You ever skated in a rec league — a men’s beer league — when your opponent has added for the evening an outrageous ringer to the roster, maybe a recently removed D-I talent who plays unfettered razzle-dazzle among all your team’s beer bellies? That’s what Alexander Semin looked like during those 50 second period seconds last night. Ottawa was helpless to defend him. From the standpoint of pure skill, could those have been the most impressive 50 seconds by a Capitals’ player in . . . team history? He soaped-on-a–roped; he banked passes to himself off of side boards; he directed passes between Senators’ legs back onto his tape; he dangled and deked and dazzled as if he’d made a deal with the devil. About the only thing he didn’t do with the puck was moon-walk. He twice humiliated one of the hottest goalies in the game right now. And most especially, he unleashed velocity mayhem off of his back foot — a feat of virtuosity few who’ve played this game at its highest level have ever displayed.

• Three straight games with a hat trick by a different player. Just wow.

• After the game Head Coach Bruce Boudreau ripped into his team’s goalie and its defensemen. It was Varly’s first game back, having been out of the lineup since late last year, so everyone expected some rust — everyone but Gabby. He let in some soft goals all right. His five-hole was way too unguarded most of the game, and he seemed slow to react to some plays. It shouldn’t be any large cause for concern, seeing as it was his first game back, but it is something to keep an eye on. Varly left for injury as the clear-cut number one goalie on this club, but of late Jose Theodore has been playing lights out and looks like the one. In Vancouver, if he does nothing else but face shots in practice, Varly’s game will sharpen as he’ll daily be facing some of the planet’s best shooters.

• All of that said, the defense was nothing short of farmhands idling in front of a giant wide open barn door — more like passive door men standing at the awning in front of a whore house, actually — in front of Varly’s cage. The effort the defense put in was reminiscent of the underwhelming defensive play on the blueline at the beginning of the year. While Karl Alzner was the only negative defenseman in the +/- rating on the evening, John Erskine and Tyler Sloan were on the ice for a lot of red lamp lighting. Not only that though, it was often one of them losing his man that led to a goal. There is nothing you can do about Shaone Morrisonn and Tom Poti being sick and injured. Sloan is young and Erskine is at times adequate because he has size, but last night neither of them was able to cover up each other’s shortcomings.

• A three-game skid is not something you want heading into the Olympic break. A team can’t win forever, but they also can’t keep playing sloppy, firewagon hockey headed toward the postseason. It is seriously hard to lose when a player on your team notches a hat trick; in fact, according to Nate Ewell, before the Caps dropped the last two games Caps’ teams were 49-0-1 when a player scores a hat trick. Imagine. Does that highlight the comedy of errors in their own end or what? Defensively Washington has not been on their game in the last two games — their last five games, actually, as they’ve surrendered 23 goals during that time — and they have “L’s” on the record because of it.

Alex

• Hockey dogma says that when a team scores four goals in an NHL game, that team should win. Two nights in a row the Caps have been downed 6-5 after a compelling Stanley Cup-convincing run of victories. The reasons? I’d say chemistry is top of the list. Even lines that have stuck together aren’t in sync when other lines have been shuffled. Jason Chimera needs to make a quick recovery. In Shaone Morrisonn and Tom Poti the Caps last night were simply missing their two best shutdown guys. And Semyon Varlamov might have to get some more training in before starting a game again.

• What use is a hat trick if it’s not in a winning effort, right? Alex Semin had been on an offensive tear up until eight games ago, when he suddenly fluttered. That’s when bad penalties began creeping back into his game. You’ll say he put the Caps up 4-3 and made a promising effort to get his fourth of the night not long after, but my question is ‘where have you been’? Known as one of the most skilled but streakiest players in the league, Semin can blow a game wide open and knows he can. But, why does he do it once every 10 games unlike his teammate and countryman, who’s a force every night? Well, because Ovi is Ovi. I’d like to see more consistency from a guy who’s earning a $6 million paycheck next year. Although admittedly, he seemed to earn about a million of it on that lone second-period shift.

• Speaking of the Russian Machine, Ovechkin was physical and energetic, but lacked the clinical finish he has had all season. Credit Anton Volchenkov and his 27 minutes of ice time, during which he seemed to block about 27 of Ovi’s shots. I thought Ovi’s game was a bit too much east/west. He tried controlling the puck under heavy pressure from Mike Fisher, Daniel Alfredsson, and Volchenkov instead of laying it off to Backstrom and finding open space himself. He’s scored goals with every shut-down defenseman in the league marking him, though, so maybe things just weren’t clicking last night. The Comcast game crew cited fatigue as a potential cause for Ovi’s power outage last night.

• With the Olympics around the corner, whoever thought Russia didn’t have a top-notch defensive defenseman, think again. Volchenkov, who justly garnered first-star honors last night, devours some of the hardest shots and lives to play another shift. If GMGM is dangling any assets prior to the Olympic roster freeze, Volchenkov or another shut-down D-man like Dan Hamhuis of Nashville would be players of obvious interest. But Ottawa’s not parting with Volchenkov any time soon. Ken Campbell of The Hockey News recently suggested Jan Hejda of Columbus as an option as well, considering the Blue Jackets have been friendly trading partners recently. Hejda is another product of the famously deep 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

• The goals-against the past five games are powerful ammunition for the ‘Go get a physical Dman’ chorus. Missing the team’s two best shuutdown guys last night needs to be acknowledged, but I’d be hard-pressed to complain about GMGM acquiring a physical, at least moderately mobile rearguard at this point. Is it ever a bad idea to add such a talent?