October 10, 2006
Looking At The Caps Defense With Capital Prospect
Thanks to the now indispensible On Frozen Blog for pointing me to Capital Prospect, which is doing some yeoman's work in looking at the Caps Defense in the team's first two games.
Click here and here, and be sure to review the tables that detail all of the defensive stats, including ice time.
Some thoughts:
* I hope Brian Pothier is eating his Wheaties. In the first two games he's already averaging better than 25 minutes of ice time, nearly 10 minutes more per game than he logged his last two seasons in Ottawa. Granted, much of that extra ice is coming on the PP, but it's still got to be a strain. At $2.5 million per year, it looks like the team will be looking to keep him on the ice as much as possible.
* Before the season began, Shoane Morrisson was described as the team's shutdown defenseman, yet he's currently averaging less ice time than both Steve Eminger (who was benched in the team's last exhibition game) and reconverted defenseman Ben Clymer.
* Jamie Heward, who anchored the defense a year ago, is rapidly becoming an afterthought. Last season he averaged nearly 22 minutes per game. So far in two games, he's dropped to a little under 16 minutes per game.
* Mike Green, who appeared in just 22 games last season, is being brought along slowly, a luxury the Caps can afford with Clymer back on the blue line. There's no doubt in my mind that Green will eventually be quarterbacking this team's power play, but we're still a little way aways from that right now.
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12:06 PM