All posts in hockey

(photo by Joe Sargent)

Well damn. So much for the fairytale ending for the 2013 Washington Capitals.

With forward Brooks Laich returning to action for the first time this season, and with the added bonus of a healthy defenseman Dmitry Orlov making his debut this season as well, the hope was that these two players would bolster the lineup and provide a much-needed spark to a team in a season-long slump.

That, of course, didn’t happen as Washington dropped a winnable game by a score of 2-1 to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Capitals are really starting to look like a squad with no magic pill to help them awake from their slumber.

Forget, for a brief moment, that the Penguins are the Capitals’ biggest rival. That had little to do with the outcome of this one game.

Instead, notice how Pittsburgh has been constructed. Pay close attention to the depth up and down that roster and how a team without the services of two of the best players in the game today — forward Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang — can adapt and overcome.

Even if you hate them, you’ve got to respect that the Penguins are currently riding a 10-game winning streak without two of their top players. Pittsburgh has drafted well and added a few key free agents and that’s why they’re currently the top team in the Eastern Conference.

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(photo by Greg Fiume)

When it comes to hockey, I am a traditionalist in the purest sense of the word.

To me, places like Quebec and Hartford are much more deserving of franchises than most locations below the Mason-Dixon line. Shootouts are terrible and should be removed from professional hockey as soon as humanly possible. And while some might see it as barbaric, I don’t ever want to see a day when fighting is completely eliminated from the sport.

Naturally, my connection to the Washington Capitals has much more to do with the “good ol’ days” of Al Iafrate, Dino Ciccarelli and Bobby Carpenter than it does with Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green.

So it should come as no surprise that I have never completely been on board with the Caps playing in the Southeast Division. With apologies to the hockey hotbeds of Florida and North Carolina, it’s never felt right to see the Capitals competing against the likes of the Lighting, Panthers and Hurricanes for bragging rights.

While “Rock the Red” era has ushered in plenty of regular season success — including division titles, Presidents’ Trophies and more — I’ve always longed for a return to the old Patrick Division and the heated rivalries with teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers.

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(photo by Rob Carr)

Don’t look now boys and girls, but the Washington Capitals continue to inch their way towards respectability.

The playoffs are still unlikely and there’s still plenty to improve upon (namely the 28th-ranked penalty kill unit in hockey), but Washington appears to be heading in the right direction after a sluggish start to the 2013 season.

Consider this: no team in the Eastern Conference has won more often than the Capitals over the last 10 games, who have gone 7-3-0 since Feb. 9. In fact, the only teams with more wins in the entire NHL over the last 10 games are the Chicago Blackhawks and the Los Angeles Kings.

That’s not too shabby.

And yet, the Caps are still tied for the fewest points in the conference. That’s what a 2-8-1 start will do to a franchise trying to retool itself on the fly.

The most interesting aspect of Washington’s recent turnaround is that it’s largely coming from non-traditional areas. For years, the Capitals happily billed themselves as the “Young Guns” and a bunch of spare parts.

Well, here’s how those cornerstone players have fared through 21 games this season:

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(photo by John Woods)

Well, at least the Washington Capitals like to keep things interesting.

Most reasonable hockey fans knew this would be a season of transition as the Capitals essentially had to learn first-time coach Adam Oates’ system on the fly. Considering they didn’t have the benefit of a standard offseason thanks to the lockout, it wasn’t a stretch to envision these players needing some time and in-game experience to learn how to embrace offense once again after the Dale Hunter era.

Some nights, the players on the Capitals roster look as though they’re playing together for the first time. Other nights, they seem as if they’ve been playing in this system for years as they make smart decisions with the puck and play positionally-sound hockey.

In short, they absolutely look like a team going through the necessary growing pains as they work towards some much-needed stability after turning to their third coach in less than three seasons.

That is why it’s absolutely pointless to dwell too much on the outcome of one single game — good or bad. Sure, it’s tempting to overreact after one outing (like, say, a lackluster showing against the Philadelphia Flyers), but anyone watching this season with an eye towards the bigger picture understands that games like that are necessary during the evolution process.

Whether you’re talking about an 82-game season or an abbreviated 48-game slate, it’s safe to say all teams* are going to have nights when they’re both mentally and physically outmatched.

*Except the Chicago Blackhawks. They may never lose again.

The most important trait a team — regardless of sport — can have is how it responds to adversity. Okay, you got beat up and had your lunch money stolen by the Broad Street Bullies. Are you going to shut down and feel sorry about yourself or are you going to use that game as motivation to ensure it doesn’t happen again?

While these players still struggle with consistency period to period and game to game, Caps fans should still feel encouraged that the team is still putting up a fight even though the first half of the 2013 season has been far from ideal.

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(photo by Tom Mihalek)

Some nights you’ve got it and some nights you don’t.

Well, it took all of 23 seconds Wednesday night to see that the Washington Capitals didn’t have it against the Philadelphia Flyers, who cruised to an emphatic 4-1 victory at Wells Fargo Center.

During the course of an 82-game season, games like this are bound to happen. Sometimes the energy level isn’t there thanks to back-to-back games. Or maybe the players find themselves emotionally drained after getting up for a meaningful game against a former teammate.

Whatever the case, it’s not uncommon for a team to fall flat from time to time during the course of the regular season. That being said, games like that are much tougher to write off when you’re only playing a 48-game schedule and when you’re attempting to shed the title of worst record in the entire league.

“When you give up the first goal on the first shift, that’s disappointing,” said forward Joel Ward. “I don’t know. You just have to have the will to get in there and make things happen, and it’s just a disappointing start that we got off to.”

Unfortunately for the Capitals, once they dug themselves into such a gaping hole, each and every game remaining on the books takes on a heightened importance.

“We didn’t play good at all,” said Caps defenseman Karl Alzner. “Just got outworked. It definitely seemed like we played the night before, mentally and physically just weren’t going. It looked like at least mentally, in my opinion, we weren’t executing on the plays that we have been in the past few games and that wasn’t a good effort by us.”

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(photo by Clyde Caplan)

One of the reasons the Washington Capitals hold such a special place in my heart is because, growing up, it was a family tradition to spend my birthday at the rink watching the Caps in action.

Even now, all these years later, I still can’t help but scan the schedule when it’s released to see which home game is closest to my birthday.

Some seasons it’s an otherwise mundane Wednesday night game against a doormat like the New York Islanders. Other years, it’s a highly-anticipated contest involving a former player’s return to D.C.

Obviously, the return of forward Alexander Semin, who scored 197 goals during his seven seasons in Washington, made Tuesday night’s affair must-see TV for any and all Caps fans.

Whether you loved him for his lethal wrist shot or you hated him for his penchant for taking mind-numbing penalties in the offensive zone at the worst-possible time, it’s clear — possibly for the first-time ever — people cared about the Carolina Hurricanes coming to town.

So naturally, because the hockey gods have a wicked sense of humor, the most polarizing player on the ice found himself with a one-on-one breakaway in the early stages of the game.

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(photo by Clyde Caplan)

The Washington Capitals snapped a five-game losing streak to the New Jersey Devils in impressive fashion — cruising to a 5-1 victory at the Verizon Center Saturday.

The win was vital for several reasons — first and foremost, it marked the first time this season the Caps actually defeated a team in one of the top eight seeds in the Eastern Conference (they were 0-7-1). After all, it kind of goes without saying you can’t really make up any ground if you can’t actually beat any of the teams ahead of you in the standings.

It was also nice to see Washington put together a solid outing against the Devils because that’s where first-time coach Adam Oates came from and the Devils represent the blueprint Oates believes will help get the Capitals back on track. Beating the team you’re quietly trying to emulate can obviously do wonders for a team trying to establish a new brand of hockey.

But most importantly, this game was easily the best performance of captain Alex Ovechkin, who recorded the 11th hat trick of his career (and his first since Jan. 22, 2011, against Toronto). The Great 8 added assist for good measure, which equaled the most points by Ovechkin since Feb. 4, 2011 (and was the 14th time in his career that he has tallied four or more points in a game).

It took 17 games, but Ovechkin finally registered more than one goal in a game this season. And anyone who watched the first game against New Jersey two days earlier knew it was only a matter of time before Ovechkin found the back of the net.

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