UGLY, but... The Caps Do It Again; Hurting Leads To Another Call To Hershey

A win that was not pretty, and a point given away to a southeast division rival, made for a nail biting night at Verizon Center on Saturday as the Capitals beat the Atlanta Thrashers 4-3 in overtime. While the game did have its bright spots it was still the exact same kind of "win" I had mentioned in this previous post. While they did get the "W", the devil is in the details.

Once again the Caps came out flat in the 1st period. They were out shot 13-4 in the first frame, and gave up their 4th straight power play goal, allowed the opposition to gain the lead first for the 5th straight game, 6th over all, and were shut out in the first period for the 5th time this season. So it seems so far, the Caps are having major problems getting going in the first period. Fortunately for them (and us their fans) they have, thus far, been able to climb out of those holes to win more often than not. However it still is a fairly unsettling. If this trend continues, it is going to cost them some games, probably more than last season. Games that were won last year that were close, may end up either being losses, or at least going to overtime, giving away more points. Something to watch going forward I think.

The Caps are also still hurting. Out with injuries (or still resting from one) for this game were:

• Semyon Varlamov - unsure if this was a 1 game rest or he is out on IR.
  
• Marcus Johansson - is expected to play Wednesday in Carolina.
  
• Tom Poti - is listed as day to day.
• Matt Bradley - lower body injury.
  
• Boyd Gordon - healthy but resting, according to Bruce Boudreau.

Today the Caps announced that they have called up 29 year old veteran AHL blue liner Brian Fahey, (pictured left) presumably to take Poti's place on at least part of the upcoming road trip. Fahey played in his first NHL game on October 16th, when the Caps beat the Nashville Predators in Overtime 3-2 in Nashville. Just joining the Hershey Bears this season, he so far has 1 goal, 1 assist and 10 penalty minutes in 4 games played.

Now, on to the bright spots, since there were a few. The Caps won, and are now 3-0 in overtime games so far this season. Alexander Semin saved the Caps this game with his 4th career hat trick. Matthieu Perreault, who was called up from the AHL Hershey Bears for this game, along with Jay Beagle, had a direct hand in two of Semin's 3 goals, and ended up being a +3 for the game. Michael Neuvirth was back between the pipes for DC and had another solid game for his 5th win of the season. Injured defecemen Mike Green came back and did play, albeit for only 5:39, and all of that was on the power play. Even though he did not factor into the scoring at least he was back, even if not at 100%. Hopefully this 3 day break will give him the chance to get back to top form.

Hats fly as Semin completes his hat trick aginst the Thrashers.

The hero of the night turned out to be Tomas Fleischmann who scored the game winner at 1:37 of over time, collecting a rebound from Eric Fehr's shot while seemingly tied up.

While the two standings points and the victory are great, the Capitals are still seeming to do things the hard way, all the while giving up valuable standings points to their opponents. This time to a division rival. Hopefully a few more bodies will be healthy and things will get even better for the next divisional game which is Wednesday night Raleigh. That game also starts a 3 game road trip which sees the Caps travel out west to visit the Minnesota Wild and Calgary Flames to close out the month of October. Something tells me they are going to have to perform a little better if they want to come away with all 6 of those possible standings points.

Amid Complaints, Death Threats, Fan Internet Wars... Caps Vs Pens Resumes In Pittsburgh Tonight

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Capitals lead series 2-1

The very much hyped NHL Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, and thier respective Stars Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, thus far has lived up to all the hype, and then some. Replete with complaints from both sides, raging from accusations / allegations of cheating, to complaints about officiating, to whining from Penguins fans about the ticket sales tactics used by the Washington Capitals to limit sales as much as possible to Caps fans only, right down to a death threat against Washington's superstar winger, Alexander Ovechkin. The threat was discovered on the Penguins official message boards, and was reported to authorities in PA, as well as to both clubs, and to the NHL, all of which took the threat seriously, sparking more drama, which now includes police involvement, in this already dramatic series. The death threat, which as now been highly publicized on both the internet, and on local television news outlets in both cities, was apparently made by a 17 year old male from Chambersburg, PA. I will not post this persons name since he is a minor, but it has been posted on several news outlets websites. Police were investigating the thread, and have questioned the person, and confiscated the computer used to post the message. The threat, (pictured at left) which was posted was simply this:

"I'm killing Ovechkin. I'll go to jail. I don't care anymore."

The subsequent media frenzy has now sparked what could be dubbed an internet messagboard war between Caps and Pens fans. The Pens fans are apparently firing back by attempting to invade the Capitals Official Message Boards and look for questionable posts to report to authorities. There are multiple threads on both the Caps and Pens message boards regarding the subject. This has prompted the administrators of the Caps boards to close the boards to any new registrations until after the current playoff series is over. It has almost gotten comical at this point. Never a dull moment in this series thus far.

Now, onto the game. The Capitals will be looking to regain a 2 game lead in this best of 7 series once again tonight in Pittsburgh. The Caps who did not play very well in game 4, with the exception of goaltender Simeon Varlamov, will be looking to rebound and once again take control of this series. The Capitals, who have faced a spate of injuries, are once again making some lineup ajustments. The biggest news of the day was the Washington Capitals star forward Alexander Semin (pictured left) did not skate in this mornings practice. It is possible that he is nursing an injury, but there have been no outward signs of anything too serious. He was seen leaving Mellon Areana this morning, and appared to move just fine. Alexander Ovechkin seems to think he will be ok to play in tonights game. The Caps also made another lineup adjustmet today, returning defencemen Karl Alzner, and recalling forward Jay Beagle (pictured lower left) from thier AHL affiliate, Hershey Bears. It is unclear who Beagle will replace, but it appears there will be shakes ups throughout the Caps 4 foward lines. Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau is known for his willingness to change things up in the lineup if things do not go as planed for the Capitals. It will be interesting to see who gets in and who sits, and who is placed on what lines. The Capitals are already without the services of defencemen John Erskine, who did skate this morning but its still questionable for tonights game, and forward Eric Fehr. Erskine has not played since taking a hard shot to the leg in game one of this series. Eric Fehr has missed games 2 and 3 with an undisclosed upper body injury, and is likely to be out again tonight. It is unclear if Boudreau will use Beagle in tonights game, or if he will once again go with veteran forward Micael Nylander. Tyler Sloan has replaced Erskine in both games he has missed thus far, and presumably will be in the lineup again this evening. Here is Caps Washington Post beat writer, and author of the blog Capitals Insider, Tarik El-Basir in his video update from Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh:




If the Capitals hope to regain thier 2 game lead in this series, and afford themselves the opportunity to close things out on home ice Saturday night at Verizon Center, theyw ill need to play a much different game than they did in game three. The Caps will need to pick up thier speed, and have much more control of the puck. They will also need to keep themselved out of the pentalty box. In the last game, the Capitals recieved only two power plays to Pittsburgh's 7.
Personally I feel confident the Capitals will rebound tonight, and once again regain a commanding 2 game lead in this series. Off to prepare for watching tonights game!

LET'S GO CAPS! ! !

No Flu For You, On To Game Two. Erskine Possibly Out, Alzner Possibly in?

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So I wake up this morning and start my reading and what do I find? Tarik El-Bashir, of Washington Post fame, is reporting on his blog, Capitals Insider, that two top Capitals prospects with the Caps AHL affilate, the Hershey Bears had been held out from last nights Bears playoff game vs the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, Pittsburgh's AHL affiliate, due to an "illness". Hmmm... Flu? Worse... swine Flue? Oddly enough the two players in question are defencemen Karl Alzner (left top) and Tyler Sloan. (lower left) They just also happen to be the Bears top D paring. At the same time, we also learned that the Caps had recalled them both to the big club. It gets more interesting by the minute. Something was definitely amiss here. Why would the Caps recall two sick defencemen, and risk getting thier entire roster infected with the secret "illness" that was plaguing the two baby caps? was it worth the risk? Something was definately not right here. As we would later learn, it was all a big cover up. A ploy to throw off both the Bears and the Caps enemies. The baby Caps were never in fact "sick" with anything, and were on the ice practicing this morning at Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington. Tyler Sloan told Bashir...

"I don't know anything right now. We've just been told that it's precautionary in case anything happens. I was going to rink for meetings, then went home for some rest and a nap and got a phone call saying, 'Stay home, you're sick. And your partner caught the flu."

The more menacing thing behind all of this was, why they were called up. As it turns out, they were called up largely as a precautionary measure. However, it is also now clear that John Erskine is "questionable" for tonights game 2 of the Caps Eastern Conference Semifinal series VS the Pittsburgh Penguins. Erskin did take a hard shot to the leg and limpped back to the bench during game one on Saturday. It is being reported that Erskin has some type of leg injury, and may need to rest for a game. The Caps are already without the services of defencemen Jeff Schultz, which has them with 6 healthy defencemen currently available. Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau told Tarik...

"We've only had six healthy defensemen up here and I think we were playing with fire if someone would go down in warm-up. We've got John banged up a little bit. He's going to try it and see if he can go. But we figured we take precautionary measures and call up a couple of guys just in case. If we had to go to one, they both know our systems as well as anyone."

So at least one of the baby Caps may likely get a shot at thier first NHL playoff game tonight against the Penguins. My guess, and hope, is that it will likely be Alzner. Alzner is a highly touted, big, speedy, and agile defencemen, and is considered by many to be the Capitals top prospect at the position. Alzner was drafted by the Caps in the 2007 NHL entry draft, 5th over all, and has had a great career thus far for Hershey. He has also gotten some NHL time under his belt with the Caps as well, appearing in 30 games for them over this past season, scoring 1 goal, getting 4 assists, and taking one penalty. His plus / minus rating was -1.

So that brings us to game 2. The series, and the matchup the whole world has uber hyped up and had been hoping for, Ovechkin vs Crosby, Caps vs Pens, resumes tonight @ 7PM on the Verizon Center ice. The Washington Capitals are looking to take full advantage of thier home ice and extend thier series lead to 2-0. If that is to happen, the Capitals MUST play a better game than they did in game one, where they were outshot, and were often out skated, out hustled, and also made many bad mistakes and givaways. David Steckel was quoted as saying regarding his goal, and the game...

"I think it was a wake-up call. We were getting our [butts] handed to us, pretty much. It was a joke. I don't know if it was because it was an afternoon, [but] we didn't come ready to play."

Pittsburgh is a dangerous team for sure, and it will only be a matter of time before a team that good takes advantage of the Capitals mistakes. Hopefully the Caps have identified where they could have improved from game one, and will take that to heart tonight and get on top of this game early, to stay. If they can do that, and Simeon Varlamov can continue his goaltending heroics, with the Caps getting scoring from all available sources, they should be just fine, and should once again come out on top.

LET'S GO CAPS ! ! !