On Frozen Blog » Colorado Avalanche

Does Washington Need a Watchdog?

The OFB Team — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:01:10 +0000

Late Thursday afternoon we learned that Colorado Avalanche roughguy David Koci, having gone head-hunting behind the net on Mike Green in the Capitals’ 6-1 smackdown of the ‘Lanche Tuesday night, was more or less absolved of any wrong-doing by the league — he was modestly fined, no suspension. So much for the league sending a clear message about respect by players for one another . . . color us unsurprised.

Time and again we’ve listened patiently to the game’s critics of enforcement and fighting suggest that were the league merely to rigorously sanction instances of egregious violence, there’d be no need for skating predators and pain merchants. So what are we to do with the league’s blind eye toward Koci? Shrug and wait for the next skilled Capital crumpled upon the ice from thuggery, apparently. Or should we?

Here we’re going to lay out our individual vantages on the issue, and invite you to share yours. It’s an emotional and heated topic without a clear-cut, easy answer—all the more reason to hear all sides. And it’s indisputably salient and important for the league as a whole, and the Capitals in particular.

OrderedChaos

The Caps don’t need an Enforcer — they need a Destroyer. Donald Brashear-esque enforcers are like WWII Battleships: deadly, imposing, but of limited use. Whereas destroyers are more nimble, just as deadly in a quick-strike capacity, but useful in a wide range of situations (in hockey, not just for heavy-weight fights and bench-warming).

When you hear Destroyer, think Dale Hunter… Matt Cooke with even more edge… and yes, Chris Pronger; scary, slightly crazy, sometimes dirty players whom the opposition truly fear, because you just never know who they’ll target or what they’ll do next. And not a drop-the-gloves kind of targeting, more the “You did something we don’t like to our star — now your star is going to regret it.”

Mind you, this part of the game is unfortunate, and the NHL needs to fix it. The league needs to do so by suspending players, and even coaches like the Avs’ Joe Sacco, for intentionally encouraging such dangerous play perpetrated by talentless goons. Yet, as clearly evidenced by the league’s inexplicable excusing of talent-free Koci’s goonery, the NHL mindset change will be glacially slow to arrive. The Capitals are built to win now. Expect more liberties to be taken with the Caps’ stars, particularly in the playoffs, until there’s a Destroyer draped in Capitals colors.

Alex

In the modern NHL, where the salary cap puts constraints on virtually every roster move, signing, and trade, why would any team want to waste even $1 million on lousy non-talent? So with last season’s departure of six-minute-per-game, $1.2 million Donald Brashear (whom I admire very much), came an era where skill can flourish on all four lines and light the lamp on a regular basis. One fighter, Matt Bradley, is having a career season, scoring one more goal already than he did all of last season. Why, you ask? Leaving enforcer types off the roster makes the faster, skilled players a lot better because there’s more room to operate. You think fights give energy boosts to teams? I think any Capitals’ goal at Verizon Center does the job, and the guys in red have scored every game this season at home.

Andrew

The question of whether the Caps need an enforcer is a moot point, because they already have one and his name is Alexander Ovechkin. Now he isn’t the typical enforcer in the traditional sense of the term, instead he enforces by putting the puck in the back of the net. When everything is said and done, sure it would be nice to get some physical retribution when teams run at Caps players, but isn’t a win so much sweeter? Why stoop to their level, instead take the high ground and just flat out embarrass them. In the end five minutes for fighting will feel good for a period, but two points and several goals by Ovie will feel so much better.

Gary

I don’t think that Washington needs an enforcer in the pure sense of the word. The Caps have no use for Danny Carcillo, David Koci, or Patrick Kaleta. One could argue that the Caps did just fine with dead weight on the roster in the form of Michael Nylander, so they could probably do fine with a thug taking a roster spot. The difference is, they would also take a spot on the game day roster. But it is clear that the status quo is not working as teams have been taking runs at Capitals, even after clean hits. While the Caps have countered with a lethal power play and taking the win, there is still the risk of serious injury. What if Green was out indefinitely with a concussion or another injury instead of probably playing tonight? Would the debate take a different tone?

Perhaps what this team needs is a little more grit. A little more toughness. A Dale Hunter type. Sure, Hunter racked up over 3,500 career penalty minutes. He also scored over 1,000 points. That’s not one dimensional. His playoff numbers? How’s 118 points in 186 games? Ask Philadelphia about his points.

One might say that these type of players have no place in today’s game. Perennial powerhouse Detroit begs to differ. Just this year they signed Brad May. Here’s what Dan Cleary had to say about May.

“Knowing what he does on the ice is a good, calming factor for everybody, knowing teams aren’t going to be able to take liberties on our good players and run around. It’s a great element that has helped us in the past with Mac (Darren McCarty) and Downs (Aaron Downey).”

Where is our Dale Hunter?

pucksandbooks

This is a longstanding and spectacularly spirited debate — I think it fairly brought down Twitter the other day — and the two sides are united by a keen interest in seeing the welfare of Washington’s players preserved and protected to the fullest extent possible. Bright and thoughtful people are seated on both sides of this issue. But what I find conspicuously missing across a wide cross-section of the anti- enforcers crowd is an acknowledgment of the since-the-game’s-inception role enforcement has played in our sport. If hockey — at the NHL level most particularly — has ever known a role for an enforcer on more or less every roster, and yet now all of a sudden has far less of a need for one, when precisely did the metamorphosis occur? And how? Salary caps suddenly altered the nature of our sport? Really?

For me this question is answered easily by the nature of our game. No other sport asks of its athletes what hockey does. Collide with one another, on every shift, at upwards of thirty miles per hour. Do so within the confines of unyielding dasher boards and increasingly inflexible plexiglass. Be built like NFL safeties and linebackers. And for good measure, carry a weapon in your hands. The nature of our game strongly suggests that nightly there will be violence; having one or two independent sets of eyes at ice level monitoring the drama is hardly deterrent; and decades’ worth of circumstantial evidence is highly suggestive that when a game’s violent tensions are addressed in culminating fashion by a slow dance involving heavyweights, most often order is restored. The cheap stuff comes to a screeching halt.

The cold hard reality is that non-sanctions like that for David Koci are par for the NHL course. This is a league that has ever wanted and nurtured ‘the buzz’ associated with toeing the line on socially unsanctioned, frontier-style retribution. It’s part of what distinguishes the NHL from all other sports. It isn’t going anywhere. And if you aren’t adequately prepared for engagement with it, you are vulnerable.

Late-Night Gamewatch Duty Falls Upon the Young

The OFB Team — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:29:45 +0000

One of the virtues of having undergraduate associates is that they can be assigned to monitor West Coast games while we old geezers hit the hay around period two for work in the morning. Take it away, night owls:

1st Period

Andrew’s take:

It is hard to make a definitive decision for or against the Av’s third jersey in this corner. It looks as if it harkens back to a more classic era but the strange color scheme makes it look like a bad Arena Football League or IHL sweater. Pucksandbooks astutely pointed out (before he went to bed) that there is a very Atlanta Thrashers look to them, which begs the question: why would you want to look anything like a largely unsuccessful franchise?
The Caps continued their first period dominance with two unanswered goals in the first frame. They have now outscored their opponents 43-17 in the first 20 minutes.
Both callups continued the trend of making an immediate impact as soon as they hit the ice. Birthday boy Kyle Wilson had an assist on his first shift and almost had a goal on his second. Later he added another assist. He looked most comfortable in his NHL debut. Meanwhile, Karl Alzner authored quick and accurate tape-to-tape passes and played super solid positionally. We shouldn’t be surprised by this any more, though, as Quintin Laing, Matthieu Perreault, Keith Aucoin, and Jay Beagle all were called up and had reliable if not strong stints with the team. Moreover, callups from Hershey never seem out of place, or uncertain of their assignments, in Bruce Boudreau’s system, precisely because it’s one that’s instituted organization-wide. Even the parent and affiliate practice sessions mirror one another down to the drill and minute.

Alex’s take:

When Alex Ovechkin isn’t shooting, his passing game is *ON*. He set up Knuble’s goal completely unselfishly on a play he’d normally shoot on, just as he set up Backstrom’s two-goal game against Toronto. Looks like Crosby’s becoming a better goal-scorer this season and Ovechkin’s playmaking skills are blossoming this campaign too. Him and Backie have sharing their games with each other.

Theodore looks strong and looked strong against Carolina. Whatever was bothering him last month has certainly not been in his coconut lately.Doubters may disagree, but his “poor” performances are more defensive errors than his.

When Alex Ovechkin isn’t shooting, his passing game is *ON*. He set up Knuble’s goal completely unselfishly on a play he’d normally shoot on, just as he set up Backstrom’s two-goal game against Toronto. Looks like Crosby’s becoming a better goal scorer this season and Ovechkin’s playmaking skills are blossoming this campaign too.
Theodore, on again, off again, on again: he looked strong last night and he looked strong against Carolina. Whatever was bothering him last month has certainly not been in his coconut much lately. Doubters may disagree, but his “poor” performances seem to include more defensive errors than we see with Semyon Varlamov in net. Do you think it’s possible that the team plays differently in front of the two goalies to any degree — even subconsciously?
Interminable goal reviews not only rob hockey games of their flow but often halt the momentum one team is enjoying. A new glacier formed in the Rocky Mountains in the time it took Toronto to adjudicate Brooks Laich’s kick-in goal, and seconds after play finally resumed the Caps out on the ice didn’t quite seem to be moving their legs as before, and Eric Fehr went to the sin bin for holding on that shift.

2nd Period

Andrew’s take:

While there was so much good in this period, the hit on Green just can’t be ignored. It is clear to me that Green is viewed as one of the Caps “can’t lose” players, that he’s irreplaceable. In my mind there is no question that the hit was dirty, and warrants a sizable suspension (not holding my breath for that). Koci led with a shoulder to the head, and I don’t think it was any coincidence that it occurred after the Caps were up 5-0.
Keeping the foot on the gas was the theme of this period. Earlier in the year Coach Bruce Boudreau said the team needed to learn how to win 3-0 and not 9-0. Watching them this season, I think the way that the team wins 3-0 is by actually winning 9-0. If they stop gunning for the net or playing their elite playmaking style it seems like they get caught flat-footed and on their heels a lot.
A tip of the victory glass to John Erskine. The quiet big man wasted no time seeking retribution for the hit on his teammate. At the start of the season many were worried about the team’s toughness after Donald Brashear left, and there are very legitimate questions as to whether having two “middleweights” carry out the enforcing is an adequate substitute, but there can be no denying the vigilance and guts of Erskine and Matt Bradley.

Alex’s take:

The Avs looked flat without the puck. With the puck, only a couple of their lines were buzzing, but if this was a first-place team playing tonight, that was pretty pitiful. Duchene and O’Reilly, really, were nowhere to be seen. Thumbs up to the D tonight for keeping them quiet.
Erskine’s game really picked up in this period. Over the past few weeks he’s been one of the safest players for the Caps, always funneling the puck deep in the offensive zone and digging deep in the defensive corners. Locker mentioned his minutes were up because Morrisonn only played five minutes the whole game, but did a lot with them including sticking up for his buddy Mike Green.
A shift for the ages: with about seven-and-a-half minutes left in the second stanza the Caps’ fourth line of Chris Clark, Dave Steckel, and Matt Bradley pinned the Avs in their own end for a seeming eternity, outhustling and out-playmaking their hosts at every turn. Ultimately they scored, too. The game was already 4-0 Caps before the goal. The effort and production on that shift seemed a microcosm of the entire night.
Forget Flash, he’s on Fire. He really wanted to get that hattrick, and the way he was shakin’ and bakin’ made him look like he was hell-bent on scoring his third. Unlucky to not get it in the end, but if he keeps up the way he’s been playing, it’ll happen really soon, I bet.

3rd Period

Andrew’s take:

What does it say about the Caps scouting and coaching that they can seamlessly switch forwards and d-men in and out of the front three and back two? That was a positively emergency bit of personnel movement required by Gabby in the game’s second half — they were down to just three D at one point! And they surrendered just the lone goal to the Avs. Amazing.

Alex’s take:

When Joe B and Locker have nothing else to say about how the Caps thoroughly crushed the Avs, well . . . there really isn’t.
The Lisa Hillary Christmas sweater back in the Comcast studio looked a heck of a lot better than the Avs’ third sweater.

Avalanche Snowed Under by Capitals: Caps 6 / Avs 1

The OFB Team — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:58:38 +0000

First Fifth Review

CollegePucker — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:07:45 +0000

The first fifth of the Capitals’ season leaves the club with a 10-3-4 record, 24 points, and a first-place tie for the the conference lead with the archrival Penguins. But is the Capitals position in the standings reflective of an authentic Cup-contending team? At the moment, Washington is the streakiest team in the league and has been incredibly inconsistent through 17 games. After two wins to start the season, DC lost four in a row, then won six consecutively, followed by three straight losses.

Here are some trends, stats, and pros and cons for each position:

Goalies

Washington has alternated goalies very regularly throughout the season, but I would argue that if Theodore did not sustain a back injury, he would have played in more than just nine games. He has been the better goalie, but the Capitals seem to play better – and more importantly – get wins in front of 21-year old Semyon Varlamov. Theodore’s play was outstanding during a four-game losing streak, except for two shaky goals to the Rangers’ Marian Gaborik. During that streak, Theodore took the loss for Varlamov against the Flyers, after the Russian had been shelled four times.

The young Russian goalie has a 5-1-0 record, yet has been mediocre in the seven games he has started. He owns a 3.18 GAA and sub-.900 save percentage. The trend here is the Capitals don’t play more defensively when playing in front of Varlamov; they just score more goals and allow more goals. Varlamov has played in three games – two against Atlanta and one against Toronto – in which the Caps had jumped out to huge first-period leads only to allow the opponent to make a quick comeback. Come playoff time, a 3.00 GAA is not going to cut it against the likes of the Penguins and Flyers. While Theo’s stats are not much more spectacular than Varly’s, he’s been the better of the pair.

Defense

The league-leader in defensive scoring isn’t Mike Green, but instead comes from the second-worst team in the league. Thomas Kaberle leads the league’s D-men with 18-points in 14 games. Number 52 does have a respectable 13 points in his 16 games played, but his two-goal season thus far is modest. Now he’s banged up a bit. ESPN projects him to total 11 goals and 71 points this season — which is all well and good — but his $5.25 million paycheck invites expectations approaching 25 goals a season. In his own end, Green remains a work in progress. He’s been noticeably absent physically as well.

Other defensemen have picked up the slack to support the team. In the first part of the season, the defense is better than it was last year. It is virtually the same corps as last year, plus Tyler Sloan, who had a two-game goal scoring streak. One more year of experience and playing together has helped the Caps tremendously. Tom Poti has been solid. Offensively, it’s nice to see Brian Pothier contributing for the regular D-men — he might be playing the best hockey of his life these days. I suspect he’ll be the go-to-guy on defense while Green’s lost to injury.

However, there’s tons of space for improvement on that end. Jeff Schultz and Milan Jurcina are the biggest guys on the team, but it amazes me how often they get beat to the puck, even when they’re in an advantageous position. Schultz seems scared to use his body and Jurcina often gets beat because his stick isn’t on the ice when he goes to the corners to clear the puck. It’s nice to see a healthy John Erskine in the line-up again.

Offense

What is up with Semin?

As of last night, approximately $15 million worth of offensive cap space has vacated the roster through injury, but the slick Russian hasn’t made an impact on a game yet. Check that, a positive impact. He had two secondary assists on Sunday against Columbus in Ovi’s absence, but his last worthwhile contribution was October 27 at home versus Philly in which he scored the game-winning goal with a sick wrister to the roof. This is Semin’s contract year, and his opportunity to make his next contract as valuable as possible. Read Andrew Tomlinson’s piece titled Stand-in Savior for more on Semin.

Alexander Ovechkin had six two-goal games and one one-goal game through the first 12 games of the season, meaning he scored in seven of those 12 — perfectly respectable for the league’s best player. He’s been an impact player in just about every game, and the Caps are hopeful of having him back in the lineup as early as this week.

Enter Mathieu Perreault. I’ve been a big fan of this guy since he was a Junior player when the Caps drafted him in 2006. The Quebecer put up monster numbers for Acadie-Bathurst in the Q and despite playing fourth line minutes in Hershey, he still put up 50 points in 2008-09. In the three games he’s played, he’s been an impact player despite his diminutive size, shaking off hits and physical play to keep possession of the puck. He assisted twice in his first game against the Devils and scored the first goal of his NHL career against Florida last night. He might not be returning to Hershey as soon as either the Caps or Bears imagined a week ago.

Speaking of AHLers, I was watching the New Jersey broadcast of Wednesday’s game when Mike “Doc” Emrick noted that Alexandre Giroux is a 28-year old 60-plus goal scorer in the AHL. The commentator said, “You’d think some team would have picked up on his skill and put him in the NHL.” I completely agree. I don’t think Eric Fehr or even Tomas Fleischmann have got the offensive upside of Giroux, though they may have more NHL career potential. If Boudreau wanted three scoring lines he’d perhaps consider rolling out Fleischmann, Perreault, and Giroux on the third line.

Wrap-Up

The Caps are tied for fewest regulation losses in the NHL with three. Buffalo, Colorado and Dallas are the others. They have collected points in 14 of their 17 games.

Some key questions ahead: Will Tomas Fleischmann show he is a reliable, top-six talent? Will Mathieu Perreault show he can stay in the big league this season? How will Eric Fehr contribute? What do we think of Alexander Semin’s play — most particularly in the past week — in this the most important year of his NHL career to date?

We may well have the answers to these questions by the midway point of the season.

Some Home Cookin' This Week Could Be Caps' Big Gain

gustafsson — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:00:28 +0000

If the Capitals play focused and disciplined and hard during their three home games this week against three beleagured opponents they will have a terrific opportunity to make up some serious ground on first-in-the-East Boston.

Montreal, Colorado, and Pittsburgh — all once-proud teams that have been seriously struggling as of late — visit Verizon Center this week. All of these teams had reasonably high hopes quite recently; the Penguins were picked by many to return to the Stanley Cup Finals and to be a serious contender and even to win it all, while Montreal was thought by many to be Pittsburgh’s toughest competition in the East. Colorado was not too long ago a rough and tough and Cup-contending franchise, and they certainly hoped to make the playoffs this season. Now all three will be lucky to finish above .500 this season. On top of their losing ways all of these teams have some of the ugliest season stats in the league.

The Penguins rank 22nd in the league in goals against, allowing on average 3-plus goals a game. That high number not only puts them 10 spots behind Washington but also below some of the league’s worst teams, including St. Louis.

Not to far away form Pittsburgh in that same stat is Montreal, who is averaging just fewer than three goals agame against. They have also only won three of their last thirteen games. The team looked like it couldn’t be stopped earlier in the season, but now is in a full-on collapse. Just yesterday Habs’ GM Bobn Gainey announced that the team’s star performer of a season ago, Alexei Kovalev, wouldn’t accompany the team on the road this week. The right wing scored 35 goals and 84 points last season but has just 13 goals in this campaign.

Then we come to the Avalanche. There really isn’t much to say that’s positive about this team. They rank in the bottom ten of the league in goals for, goals against, power play, and penalty kill, and they are on track to have the first losing record in Colorado franchise history. (Maybe they should have kept our hotshot goalie?)

The Caps are third-best in the NHL at winning games when they score first — they win 78 percent of those games. Montreal wins 69 percent of such games; Colorado wins 65 percent of them, and the Penguins win just 53 percent of games in which they score first. That’s dismal.

While none of these games will be cakewalks, or at least the Caps shouldn’t take them like they are, they provide the Caps a strong opportunity to make up ground on the flu-ridden, first- place Bruins. It would take a major collapse on all levels for the Caps to not have one of the top seeds in the East in the playoffs. It would be an enormous accomplishment though if they earned the East’s top seed.

Hockey Sweater Obsessives, Your Ship Has Arrived

The OFB Team — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:02:40 +0000

Paul Lukas of Uni Watch fame has published his NHL preview, chock full of hockey uniform photos from new sweaters, to memorial patches, to the sneaky “C” that Roberto Luongo added to his mask since by NHL rules no goaltender may wear the captaincy “C” on his jersey. So if you’re into the details of hockey uniforms, check out his article here and geek out to the hockey-gear minutia.

Hockey Sweater Obsessives, Your Ship Has Arrived

The OFB Team — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:02:40 +0000

"Washington Got an Elite Goaltender"

pucksandbooks — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:32:31 +0000

The Russian reaction to Capitals’ goaltender moves from Sovetsky Sport, including Alex Ovechkin’s take on things (translation courtesy of Dmitry Chesnokov):
The Caps management did everything right. The club saved about $1 million. The club also got an experienced goaltender. And now they will start to develop Varlamov and bring him closer to the first team, even though he will most likely start the season in the AHL. Considering the fact that Theodore‚Äôs contract is only for two years, the plan is to have Varlamov as the number 1 starter by the start of the 2010-2011 season.
Alex Ovechkin thinks this is the case. He confirmed his opinion in a conversation he had with Pavel Lysenkov:

“I think there is a possibility for Varlamov to debut in the NHL this season. At least Semion will compete for the number 2 role with Brent Johnson.”
What do you think about Theodore‚Äôs arrival in Washington?
‚ÄúWe needed a good goaltender because we were losing Huet. And our management made a thought-out move. I have only played once against Theodore in my career. It was last season; we played Colorado at home and won 2:1. Although, I didn‚Äôt score.
It is a shame that Huet didn‚Äôt stay [with Washington]. He was a great goaltender. But our future now lies with Theodore, and I am sure he won‚Äôt let us down.”

Washington's New View in Net, Take 2

pucksandbooks — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:11:25 +0000

As Pucksandbooks pointed out in his recent post, his assessment of the Capitals’ goaltender situation was his own. Now I don’t dispute Pucks’ facts, nor are his conclusions irrational ‚Äî but from my perspective they seem a bit dire and premature mere hours after the signing. So, as a counterpoint, here’s my take on the situation which, while hardly sunny, is a more optimistic outlook.
Let’s start with the bad: There’s no doubt that a combination of bad planning and bad luck has left the organization with a goaltender dilemma ‚Äî one that has been hanging over the team, Sword of Damocles-like, for years now. Olie Kolzig’s career naturally progressed from stellar to solid to adequate as he aged; a successor needed to be a top team priority before Kolzig’s ability to carry a starter’s workload was in doubt. As Pucks pointed out, the organization made such an attempt by bringing in Maxime Oulett from Philly; sadly, Maximus turned out to be more of a minimus.
Varlamov and Neuvirth are top prospects and progressing quickly; it is certainly feasible to see one if not both in Caps’ uniforms come 2010-11. Yet, really, a top-tier netminder was needed five years ago to avoid the team’s recent stop-gap measures. Easier said than done, to be sure . . . building and maintaining a team is tough. But if it were an easy job then it wouldn’t pay well, and GMGM couldn’t afford all those snazzy suits.
While the team’s need for a “bridge” goaltender, and its difficulty in addressing that need earlier, led to their shaky netminder situation this offseason, the team could do little to change the past on July 1, 2008.
So let me say this: the organization made the right call with Huet. The information slowly revealing itself indicates that, while the Capitals tried to lowball Huet initially, they were more than flexible in eventually giving him exactly what he asked for . . . only to have Huet reject the contract like James T. Kirk scoffed at alien STDs.
Once Huet made the business decision to squeeze a bit extra from another team, the Caps immediately snagged the best guy still available: Jose Theodore. General consensus saw Huet and Theodore as the two best ‘tenders in this year’s admittedly goalie-light free agent pool. Some would say they were equal; some feel Huet was #1 and Theodore #2 or #1A.
Regardless, once Huet made it clear that he wanted more money and a four-year deal, the Caps acted quickly to get the remaining free agent with the best potential as a starting netminder.
Huet returning for 3 years at a reasonable price would have likely been the best outcome for the Caps. But Theodore is no slouch; their styles are different, yet in many ways Huet and Theodore have similar pasts, similar potential, and similar stats. Remember, too, that expectations for Huet would have been intense based on his 20 games in a Capitals sweater . . . a mercenary like Huet may be one of those archetypal contract-year wonders who slip back to normalcy once they get their big deal. Tying up $22 million for four years of average play is not what the Capitals need ‚Äî particularly not with a pricey Alexander Semin contract just a year or two away.
Has the loss of Huet impacted the Capitals’ chances of a deep post-season run in the next two or three years? Perhaps a bit ‚Äî but mostly due to the team adjusting to their third starting goalie in less than a year, and the impact that may have on defensive strategies and cohesiveness, than a significant drop-off in goaltender skill.
Change is scary; changing a goaltender doubly so. But with a well rounded roster, stars like Ovechkin and Green, and top-notch coaches and staff (notably in Theodore’s case, superstar goalie coach Dave Prior), the 2008-09 Capitals hardly project to be bottom-feeders.
Let’s see Theodore don his new Capitals’ sweater and get a few games under his belt before deeming his signing a failure or a success.

A Day of Dastardly Dichotomy

pucksandbooks — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:36:30 +0000

On this the opening day of ‘08-09 NHL free agency Washington Capitals’ fans confronted the opposing twins of personnel movement outcome: morning elation with Mike Green’s signing and afternoon agony in the club’s failure to come to terms with season-salvaging, starting netminder Cristobal Huet. The¬†Capitals¬†this afternoon, having reached an impasse with Huet and his agent, signed Colorado’s¬†Jose Theodore to a two-year deal.
An absolute bulwark of the Caps’ stunning late-season surge to a Southeast division crown, Huet’s heroics won’t be returning, the fallout of which is this sobering question: have the Caps’ Cup contention plans necessarily taken a step back? It’s a¬†demoralizing outcome, most particularly in light of widespread reports, from reliable organization sources, that¬†Huet’s return¬†was largely a fait accompli.
It would be difficult to imagine a netminder better auditioning for the role of go-to guy, of in-his-prime, no. 1 stud, than Huet’s with the Caps this past spring. He went 11-2 in his 13 regular season starts with the Caps, posting two shutouts, a stunning .936 save percentage, and a microscopic 1.63 goals against. Those numbers weren’t as impressive in the playoffs against Philadelphia, but after the Caps fell behind three games to one in the series, Huet was rock solid and at times spectacular in net in nearly leading the Caps to a dramatic series comeback.
As for Theodore, this from the Caps’¬†press release:

Theodore, who will turn 32 on Sept. 13, won the Hart Trophy as the NHL‚Äôs most valuable player in 2001-02. The 5‚Äô11‚Äù, 182-pound native of Laval, Quebec, is a 12-year professional who spent the last two seasons with the Colorado Avalanche. He was 28-21-3 with three shutouts, a 2.44 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage in 2007-08, including a 21-13-2 record, a 2.24 GAA and a .919 save percentage in his last 37 starts.

2007-08 was indeed a rebound year for Theodore, but that’s also cause for concern for Caps’ fans. His has not been a career of model consistency, to put it charitably¬†(he was run out of Montreal). In his previous two seasons, with Montreal and Colorado, Theodore put up sub-.900 save percentages and above 3.00 goals-against numbers. Perhaps more troubling is this: Avalanche Head Coach Joel Quenneville collapsed a trap around him this past season, almost certainly boosting his numbers. ¬†
Disappointment over Huet’s departure¬†should not necessarily draw¬†savage criticism¬†of General Manager¬†George McPhee, who was poised today with a viable Plan B. According to the Washington Post’s Tarik El Bashir, the Caps met Huet’s demands of three years and $5 million per only to learn of his wish to¬†test the proverbial waters, apparently with the Chicago Blackhawks.¬†
Tonight a stunned HockeyWashington, still in mid-summer swoon over so spectacular a 2007-08 season, has seen¬†the sport’s best momentum here in 30-plus years come to a¬†screeching halt.¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†
Today in D.C. there’s palpable disappointment surrounding the personnel outcome for the most important position on the ice. A beautiful bride has run off; left behind is her ok-looking bridesmaid.