The Confluence
Next entry: Penguins must retaliate for Ovechkin’s runs
Previous entry: Oh yeah, it’s the Capitals and the Penguins in Round Two
A look at the hated Washington Capitals
by Tony on 04/29/09 at 08:07 PM ET
Comments (9)
It’s been like a bad dream for the Washington Capitals and their fans.
The Petr Nedved goal in the 4th overtime in 1996.
The Jaromir Jagr overtime goal in 2000.
The Marty Straka overtime goal in 2001.
Six playoff series victories for the Penguins in seven matchups versus the Capitals.
Why even play this one ??? Of course, I jest.
The Caps have the capability to be a very dangerous team. Then again, they have the capability to be a very vulnerable team. Let’s take a look;
- Ovechkin: Yup, Ovie gets his own category. The ultimate wild card. The ability to contain or perhaps the inability to contain Ovechkin will go a long way in determining who goes to the Conference Finals and who goes on vacation. Ovechkin had 3 goals and 7 points in the recently completed 7 game series vs. the Rangers. That’s not a bad defensive performance at all vs. a sniper of Ovechkin’s caliber. The Penguins will have to continue that kind of containment to have a good chance of defeating the Caps.
- Forwards not named Ovechkin: The Penguins would be foolish to completely focus on Ovechkin, and I’m sure they won’t. But the Caps have plenty of other forwards that are capable of lighting up the scoreboard, such as Alex Semin, Nicklas Backstrom, Viktor Kozlov and veteran Sergei Federov. Overall there were nine Caps that scored in double figures. It will be the Penguins defense’s responsibility to keep these snipers on the perimeter, rather than crashing the net on Marc-Andre Fleury.
- Defense: The Caps have a very underrated defense. You may not know their names outside of Tom Poti and recently Mike Green, but they have a steady defensive corps that should not be overlooked. They were in the middle of the NHL pack in terms of goals allowed per game at 2.93. They were also in the top third in the league in 5 on 5 goals allowed with 141.
- Goaltending: The key to the series, most likely. After Jose Theodore was pulled after Game One, Simeon Varlamov played outstanding between the pipes, going 4-2 with a 1.17 GAA and .952 save pct. Of course, with all due respect to the Rangers, there’s a big difference between the Rangers and the Penguins, offensively. You can bet your bile duct that the Penguins will be throwing as many pucks on net that they can. If somehow Varlamov can continue his excellent play against the Penguins’ skilled forwards much like he did against the Rangers, it surely makes things harder for the Pens.
- Special Teams: The Caps had the 2nd best powerplay in the league this year at 25.2%. Their penalty kill was tied for 17th in the NHL at 80.6%. The ability of the Penguins’ penalty kill to contain the Caps’ powerplay will go a long ways.
- Venue: The Verizon Center has become not the easiest place for opposing teams to play in. Certainly, that goes double for the Penguins, although they’ve played well there in the Crosby era, going 5-1. Caps fans even resorted to buy several hundred pacifiers last time the Penguins visited D.C. (to no avail, though). That said, it’s become a loud arena, and combined with the ownership’s methods for preventing Penguins’ fans from obtaining tickets, makes the crowd more slanted towards those rooting for the Caps.
Keys to the series:
- Take advantage of Ovie: Ovechkin is a powerful skater, as well as a bruising hitter. However, what he does on the offensive end he quite often lacks doing on the defensive end. He does not nearly backcheck as often as neither Malkin nor Crosby. And it’s in this area that the Penguins have to take advantage of Ovechkin’s numerous runs into the Pens’ zone and go the other way.
- Varlamov: As said before, he’s gonna see a helluva lot more pucks than he did in the Rangers’ series. If the Pens can get under Varlamov’s skin, we may see Theodore again.
- Penguins’ special teams: The Penguins must get their lousy powerplay going again. The Penguins’ cycling behind the net are going to cause penalties, it usually does. The Penguins must make the Caps pay for taking these penalties. In addition, the aforementioned Capitals powerplay could cause havoc if not contained by the Penguins penalty kill. However, the Pens’ PK has done an outstanding job in the playoffs so far against a very good Flyers’ powerplay.
- Penguins forwards vs. the Capitals’ defense: The Pens can run four lines quite well after their acquisitions at the trade deadline. So although the Caps’ defense may be underrated, if they can take advantage of them with their forward depth, it would make things easier for the top two lines.
It’s going to another great series. Emotions will be running high right off the bat.
Prediction ??
Penguins in six.
Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins, Washington+Capitals,
Comments
I like varlamov, however…as you said…the penguins play more of a team game than the Rangers…and will likely pepper him with shots.
Even though the Caps won the Rangers series it was a mixed bag, there were at least 2 games where their huge offensive talent put up 2 or less goals. While fleury is no Lundqvist the penguins probably have a better all around defense than the Rangers.
Being a pens fan I have to pick the Pens to shut Ovechkin up for the remainder of the playoffs.
Posted by stoneman from Vegas on 04/29/09 at 09:55 PM ET
@catz - You may want to take a glance at the stats for the Caps, they aren’t lighting the lamp with great frequency either…
http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats.htm?fetchKey=20093WASSASAll&sort=points&viewName=summary
Overall though, I agree that secondary scoring is going to be huge…
Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 04/29/09 at 10:03 PM ET
I wouldn’t put too much stock in Ovechkin’s 3-goal performance in round one. The Rags did a pretty good job slowing the game down.
Both of these teams are fast and high scoring. This could be one for the ages, but I think my Caps win in 7. I envision Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin, and Semin all having a lot of points by the end of this one.
Posted by Thag from DC on 04/29/09 at 11:31 PM ET
Tony,
You make an excellent point. I think everyone gets carried away with the results of the first round… We have to remember that one playoff round is a very small sample size and trends are magnified by playing the same team.
Is Varlamov a great goalie? Who knows? He played the unbelievably offensively inept Rangers. He has great numbers as a result.
Is Osgood playing well? Who knows? Columbus was not deep offensively and many players were in their first playoff series. Osgood could give up 6 goals a game against a better team…
In any case, all we know is that except Malkin and Crosby, the Pens’ forwards are doing NOTHING! I just don’t see how the team can have any success unless someone else catches fire. This is the worst offensive performance I can remember in the playoffs by the Pens…. Things could change, but I just don’t see Kunitz and Guerin, Fedotenko and Sykora/Satan allowing the Pens to get much further. I feel bad for Malkin and Crosby!
Go Pens!
Posted by catz27 on 04/29/09 at 11:57 PM ET
catz, kunitz is admittedly one of the streakiest guys in the league. he scores in huge bunches. he’s about due for a couple net wrinklers.
heres whats different for the pens and the caps that isnt always true for most teams: they dont need guys to get hot to be successful. a lot of teams need 5 guys putting em in all the time to win. when you have malkin/crosby and semin/ovechkin, you just need guys to chip in every so often. obviously it helps if the tank gets hot and gets the ht, but guys like him or kennedy or talbot, just need to chip one in every so often. the big guns take care of the rest. they score enough points between the two of em to make up for not having 5 guys with 20+ goals a season.
the key to this series is washingtons goaltending. everyone knows what they’re getting with fleury. varlamov is going to have to stand on his head and not pull a carey price.
Posted by yo whatev from puketown on 04/30/09 at 12:57 AM ET
I disagree on Kunitz, I don’t think his primary talent is scoring. He’s an extremely effective hitter who scores mainly garbage goals (but he DOES shoot a lot). I think it would be more of a negative sign if the defense wasn’t scoring and they have been. Eaton has been playing better than his ability both defensively and offensively. Remember, the flyers play more of a lockdown (interference) type game than just about every team in the East including the caps.
If bylsma was smart (which he appears to be) I would find another winger for crosby (possibly Adams) and put Staal back with Kunitz; when they were playing together with kennedy (I believe) they were on fire.
The only gap I see with their offense is the fact that the additions they made didn’t address the fact that crosby needs a sniper with speed and the fact that they don’t have a consistent big forward to play in front of the net (should be staal but he won’t do it). Bylsma knows if there’s someone in their AHL farm that can plug in because he was coach there; but with them deeper into the playoffs call-ups aren’t really going to happen.
Posted by stoneman from Vegas on 04/30/09 at 02:19 AM ET
Wow, lot to cover in the comments section.
@catz27, not sure why you would say Guerin and Kennedy have cooled since they each had the same or more goals than five of the six supposedly dangerous Flyers players who scored more than 25 goals this year. Only Simon Gagne with 3 had more than BG and TK, and one could argue he was inconsequential after Game 3.
I do agree that both Kunitz and Staal have cooled offensively and Sykora has been non-existent for over a month. I do disagree about Satan because anyone who isn’t already biased against him because he didn’t put up Hossa like numbers this year would see that he had some of the only scoring chances in Game 5 (yes, I know he didn’t finish but neither did anyone else) and created some chances in Game 6. I think he is due to put some home.
And I wouldn’t say that the forwards are doing nothing. True, they are not scoring regularly, but goals are at a premium in the playoffs. Plus, the third and fourth lines have been keeping the opposing teams bottled up in their own end. There is something to be said for preventing other teams from scoring too.
As for other comments, Varlamov is a concern, but you can’t really gauge anything from his performance against an AHL-level offense like the Rangers have. Is he the next Hasek or the next Jim Carrey? I’m hoping for the later.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in Ovechkin’s 3 goal performance either considering all of his goals were inconsequential. His goal in Game 4 was wasted because they didn’t win anyhow. His goal in Game 5 was the fourth in a 4-0 game and the outcome had already been decided well before he scored. His goal in Game 6 made it 5-1 in a game that ended 5-3, so yet another one with the game already well in hand. My point is he hasn’t scored a goal that has tied the game or won it for his team.
As for Columbus, they looked like the Penguins from a couple of years ago when we got knocked out in the first round against Ottawa. They looked very much like a young team experiencing the playoffs for the very first time. I think Detroit is going to have problems with Anaheim, but I still think they’ll make it back to the Finals, especially with San Jose out of it.
I’m not going to predict a winner. I just hope that Melrose is wrong again, that graying no-coaching talent douche bag.
Posted by Hept-Rossi on 04/30/09 at 09:00 AM ET
@stoneman - We agree on Kunitz. On a team with better wingers, he’d be ideal for a third line role. Saying that, if Crosby had a sniper on his other wing, he’d be a decent LW for Sid to dig in the corners and provide solid defensive coverage.
The Pens have good puzzle parts, but they just don’t complement each other.
@Hept-Rossi - Comparing Guerin and Kennedy to the Philly forwards may be a pretty low bar to set… Both had key roles in the first games, but their offensive contributions (but not all contributions) tailed off. To me, we were getting outplayed in large portions of the last 4 games of the series.
Satan was WAIVED. 30 yr old+ players who are contributing do not get waived for any reason. I live in the NYC area and watched him deteriorate last season with the Isles. He just doesn’t have the wheels to be an offensive contributor in today’s NHL and his other contributions are limited. I realize that our farm system is down to the bare bones in terms of forward prospects, but there has to be a better answer than the retreads we keep throwing out there. I don’t get how the Pens’ current crop of wingers are supposed to work with an uptempo system…
BTW, http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/gamelog/?id=1341&team=Pit
My point is that people say the Pens have a deep group of forwards. That is a total misnomer. The Pens have two all-World forwards and a bunch of third/fourth line players. Washington can theoretically put out a couple of reasonably well balanced lines. They killed us in the regular season because of it. We have some new players and a new coach, but I’m not sure that will make a difference.
Agree with the other comments.
Go Pens!
Posted by catz27 on 04/30/09 at 02:01 PM ET
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
Most Recent Blog Posts
Turn Out The Lights, The Party’s Over: I’m Stepping Down
Bill Cowher’s Daughter to Marry Kevin Westgarth
Penguins Sign Forward Steve MacIntyre
Penguins Re-Sign Forward Dustin Jeffrey to Two-Year Deal
Crosby Donation Leads To Renovation at Children’s Hospital
About Kukla’s Korner
Kukla’s Korner is updated around the clock with the work of our own talented bloggers, plus links to the best hockey writing around the internet. We strive to bring you all the breaking hockey news as it happens.
The home page allows you to see the latest postings from every blog on the site. Subscribe here. For general inquiries and more, please contact us anytime.
Get the top online sports betting bonuses available to sports betters!
When learning from experts it’s best to learn personally from them, or from their blog. We can provide that with poker lessons blog, your home to learn poker personally.
Do you get shocked from the luck in the game of poker? Stop getting shocked and start being a Poker Shoker.
As well as reading about hockey games, you can also find info about poker like which poker sites accept American Express or which are the best Canadian poker sites and also find the top rakeback sites at rakeback.net.
Kukla’s Korner is always a free service for readers, but it costs some money to maintain. If you’re ever in a position to donate a few dollars to help out, we’d be very appreciative.
I seriously hope you are right in your prediction, but I expect that the Pens will lose in five.
The primary reason for this is that beyond Malkin, Crosby and Gonchar, no one is scoring at even a poor rate. Guerin and Kennedy have cooled. Kunitz, Staal and Sykora/Satan have been invisible offensively.
It’s possible that Fleury steals a few and/or Varlamov loses a few.
With the Pens PP playing atrociously and lack of offensive depth, I just don’t see this series turning out well.
Go Pens!
Posted by catz27 on 04/29/09 at 09:52 PM ET