Hockey Night In Washington: Caps vs. Lightning

Just a reminder that I'll be at tonight's game against the Lightning. Here's a listing of online previews and game night discussion threads:

NHL.com Preview
Mike Vogel Preview
Comcast Preview
Caps Nut
Japers' Rink
Official Game Thread
Southeast Shootout Thread

Tarik El-Bashir did an online chat yesterday. On Frozen Blog posted a great feature on Alexander Semin too.

See you tonight at the rink.

UPDATE: Greetings from the Verizon Center. Just saw an interesting stat up on one of the screens in the press box. Though the point of the graphic was to show that nobody in the league is further under the salary cap than Washington, what struck me was the team sitting pretty at 27th: Nashville.

Nashville is a team ready for the playoffs right now. And with all that room under the cap, the team could very well add multiple players at the deadline and still easily stay under the cap.

Up on the scoreboard video screen, they're showing highlights from Peter Bondra's five-goal performance against the Lightning on February 5, 1994. I remember hearing about it on the radio on my way to the rink in Reston to play a late night game. Can't believe it's been 12 years, and I can't quite believe that Bondra can't find a job in the NHL.

The funny thing is, if he had only signed with the Caps last season instead of Atlanta, he may very well still have been in hockey.

UPDATE: Here's a note I got from Nate Ewell with the Caps this morning:

Pettinger and Green are both day-to-day. Gordon is healthy – he actually could have gone last night. We’re at 22 on the active roster now, so we can activate Pettinger when he’s ready without any movement necessary.

And from Tarik El-Bashir at the Post, based on some of the things he saw during Thursday night's game at Atlanta. I had asked Tarik a couple of questions: 1)Couldn't help but notice that Semin is leading in scoring but only sixth in ice time. Why is that?; 2) Saw that Jakub Klepis has had a drop in ice time. Any thoughts?

Here's what he wrote:

I did notice Semin's drop in ice time, and he definitely missed a couple of shifts in the second and third, but I chalked that up to bad line changes and Hanlon mixing up the lines. i didn't see any blatant defensive lapses. Semin did not double shift at all yesterday. Ovechkin got all of the double duty, skating on the right side of the fourth line. btw, he looks lost as a RW. As for Klepis, I wouldn't be surprised if he is sent back to Hershey soon. Petty and Gordo are expected to be back in the next few days.

Interesting.

UPDATE: What I'm looking at tonight:

1) Caps Power Play: This unit is taking it's time when it comes to getting its act together. In the new NHL, you can't afford to have the 23rd ranked power play and expect to win with any consistency.

2) Caps Penalty Kill: Yes, I know Matt Pettinger is still hurt, and he's the team's best penalty killer, but the Caps have been letting teams hang around courtesy of their leaky penalty kill. At home, they've yielded 4 power play goals on only 14 chances, 25th in the league.

3) Alexander Semin's ice time: The kid is the team's leading scorer, yet he's 12th in ice time, 6th among the team's forwards. Looks like the kid has earned a few more shifts. Will he get them?

4) Brian Pothier's ice time: He's averaging better than 28 minutes a game, fifth in the league behind Zdeno Chara, Tomas Kaberle, Bryan McCabe and Scott Niedermayer. Last season with Ottawa, he averaged about 16:30 per game. My question is this: Is he durable enough to stand up to the pounding over the lenght of the entire season?

Starting Lineups: Washington: G Kolzig; D Clymer, Eminger; W Ovechkin, Clark; C Zubrus. Tampa Bay: G Denis; D Janik, Kuba; W Alexeev, St. Louis; C Richards. Scratches: TBL: Craig. WSH: Gordon, Muir.

That's it for now. See you after the game with my notes, and post game thoughts.

BTW -- We're only four minutes from game time, and it looks like we've got another sparse crowd. The Caps actually had a ticket agent set up on the street in front of the arena tonight.

LIGHTNING 6 CAPS 4, FINAL: Attendance: 13,327.

CAPS 2 LIGHNING 1, END OF FIRST PERIOD: Tampa Bay jumped to an early lead on a shorthanded goal by Lecavalier at 5:51 assisted by Pratt and St. Louis. Tampa Bay simply broke up a play in front of the net, and Pratt sprung Lecavalier on a breakaway.

The Caps evened it up on another power play as Ovechkin potted his fourth of the year at 6:39 with assists by Semin and Pothier. To tell you the truth, all the work came from Semin as he stick handled through traffic before getting knocked down about a stride short of Denis. From there, it looked as if momentum carried the puck in the net, or perhaps Tampa Bay's Kuba accidentally knocked it in.

One surprise here: Semin playing the left point on the power play with Pothier on the right.

The Caps made it 2-1 on a nice goal from Mike Green at 16:07. He took a pass from Zubrus at the right point, then skated parallel to the blue line before uncorking a shot at the top of the slot that found the back of the net.

Other notes: The Caps killed three power plays, but Tampa Bay's unit looks very crisp, and if they keep playing this way, it's only a matter of time before they score with a man advantage. Boyle and Kuba work the points as well as any pair of defensemen I've seen this year, especially Boyle, who looks particularly deadly when he sets up on the blue line at the top of the slot.

For a long stretch at one point the top unit (Zubrus, Ovechkin and company) were back on their heels and it looked as if they were on the penalty kill. Pothier took a goaltender interference call at 18:04, even though it looked as if a Tampa Bay player checked him from behind into Denis. Tampa Bay outshot Caps, 14-9.

Semin ice time: 3:44, with 2:09 coming on the power play and only 1:35 at even strength. Nine Caps forwards had more ice time in the first period.

LIGHTNING 4 CAPS 2, END OF SECOND PERIOD: Two quick goals at the top of the period gave Tampa Bay the lead, and they added one late to make it 4-2.

Tampa Bay tied it up at 3:10 on a wraparound from St. Louis, assisted by Tarnasky and Taylor. Tarnasky was battling behind the net when he lost the puck, and St. Louis picked it up and tucked it behind Kolzig.

Only 22 seconds later, Tampa Bay got another off a slap shot from Alexeev, assisted by Ranger and Fedotenko. Tampa Bay added a third goal when Karlsson scored at 19:01, assisted by Afanasenkov.

While the Caps were outscored 3-0 in the period, I can't really say they looked as if they were outplayed. Tampa is just doing the little things right: Driving the net, screening the goalie and letting go of the puck from long range. It's easy to forget this team won the Cup just three years ago, but they did, and the core of that team is still with the Lightning today.

They picked up another three penalties, while Tampa Bay had a clean sheet. Tampa Bay outshot the Caps 11-9.

LIGHTNING 6 CAPS 4, FINAL: The play opened up significantly in the third period, but it was the Lightning who took advantage early in the period, tacking on a pair of goals to put the game out of reach as the Caps once again failed to keep the shot count on Kolzig under 30.

Tampa Bay made it 5-2 at 9:04 when Alexeev tipped in a shot from the top of the slot from Boyle, second assist to Richards. The Caps got one back at 13:28 when Sutherby tapped in a rebound of a Pothier shot from the point to make it 5-3.

The momentum didn't last long, as Richards scored unassisted at 13:37 after stripping the puck from Clymer just inside the Caps defensive zone.

With Taylor in the box for tripping, the Caps pulled within 2 at 16:03 when Ovechkin knocked home a bouncing puck for his second of the game, assisted by Zednik and Semin.

Final shot count: Tampa Bay 35 Caps 33.

Don't know what I could exactly add after this game, other than the fact that the Caps were beaten by a team that had a whole lot more skill players than they did. Once again, they gave up too many power plays, and subjected Kolzig to way too many shots, not to mention all the times they left him basically naked -- like on the goals by Richards and St. Louis.

That's all for now. The Caps go on the road for four games in five nights against what might be the toughest division in hockey, the Northwest. I'll be back in the press box again November 3 when the Caps play the Thrashers. See you then.

Eric 01:42 PM

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