Couch Coach

I was watching Calgary last night decimate the lousy Oilers. Phaneuf and Bouwmeester on the same team seemed like a tough young core for D-men. But today Phaneuf traded to Toronto was a big surprise.

One of the players involved in the trade for him was Matt Stajan. I was thinking this week if the Caps did a trade, maybe Stajan would be who they would go after. The Caps need some depth down the middle and I was wondering with the Leafs sinking, their roster would be free game.

Watched the Canucks last night and the Sedin twins with Burrows line work like poetry in motion. They look like a very dominate team and that line looks to be maybe the strongest in the league. The passing was unreal. They know where the other is before they are there. That is one team come playoffs that may dominant the Western Conference.

And by best ever I mean for all time, not just this season.

With the exception of a few soft games at the end of the southwest division swing, they have been playing at an almost flawless level for the last dozen or so.  Their offense has been dominating team after team.  Defense has been tightening down their play and really improving.  The lines are stabilized, and each line is playing very well for its role.  In fact, the second line combo has been so strong that the Caps just about have 2 first lines, night after night.  Enviable.

Let’s just look at the first line.  We will say that the rest of the team playing with this same sort of balance and skill, in their roles.

Here, Knuble makes a perfect complement to Ovechkin and Backstrom.  He is like the deadly one-inch punch, able to score off any contact with the puck no matter how random or close to the goal.  Sometimes he cleans up on an Ovechkin shot and sometimes Ovechkin cleans up his rebounds.  The goalies must be putting on Depends undergarments when they have these two circling them.

And then Backstrom is there the whole time, quarterbacking it.  Oh and he has no problem putting in himself, either.  You know a team is in deep trouble when they are triple-covering Backstrom…  It is usually a matter of seconds before they are down a goal at that point.  Ask Anaheim, it happened to them just the other evening.

And seriously, the other lines and the defensive pairs are doing great jobs too.  Let’s take number 28 for example, who is playing so well right now that he is making highlight-reel quality goals faster than Hostess makes hoecakes.

Even goaltending has been good enough, even though there is a strange triangle with the injured Varlamov, the fragile Theo, and the green Neuvirth.  But with any luck that will sort itself out.   And the Caps are just not letting teams get second and third shots very often, keeping the goalies warm and snug most games these days.

And I would have to agree with Daggone here…  There is no reason to be talking trades or even wasting time thinking about them.  Sure, defense could be tinkered with.  But the current setup has some solid vets and room for Carlson and Alzner to step in slowly.

-Bobomite

Few quick notes..

Meant to say a few games ago about how far Flash has come. He has really turned the corner this season and more so as of late.

Ovie was a beast. He knows how to get up for great games. I am sure many pens posters will call him selfish and cherry picker for how he was gunning the last minute for the empty net but come on if that was Crysby they would be all for it.

I enjoyed the 5th goal by Backstrom. Why? Because that lined ruled pittsburgh in their own zone. What was best was Gonchar just stood there like his feet were in mud and just watched. Ahh, that brings me back to the good ole Gonchar days. He was always good for giving up a timely goal.

As for the crowd, it was nice to see so many Caps fans speckled throughout.
As for the Pens fans, come on, people write on how great Pittsburgh is for hockey, (I can write so many things to dispute that but I digress) and this team is the reigning champs with superstar Malkin but with a 1:30 left down by two the fans filed out. You can’t stay for another minute and a half??

BTW-
I am tired of some people saying the Caps need a veteran presence. Not sure what they consider Morrison and Knuble and to a lesser extent Chimera, Poti and Bradley.
I am not sure the roster has room for any more forwards. You can pick up a veteran forward like the Pens did with Guerin and only fit him in if he likes to play the 4th line. With that said I could see Gordon or Fehr being moved if it was the right piece.
The place they could use an upgrade is on defense but there again, who do you sit? You would have to move someone out to bring that guy in. I could see either Erskine and/or Pothier moved for a more stay at home physical guy.
I would keep Sloan. He is like an old Ken Klee. He can play forward or D which can be valuable in the playoffs with players getting banged up.

-Daggone

The Caps took it to their division foe. They dug in early with good goaltending and then just stuck to their game.

I think they have some serious considerations at the net position come playoffs. I think Jose is on his way out.

The Caps did get a little too cute in their passing late in the game. But who can blame them. Up by a bushel, why not get fancy.

They seem to be able to handle the East pretty well. The problem is they struggle with west teams. Maybe because the west teams are more like the Caps than any east teams. They need to learn how to play against speed and skill. Although, Atlanta has a lot of that, they just don’t seem complete like a San Jose.

-Daggone

The last two Caps games have been a real pleasure to watch.  The Caps are showing a much more healthy style of play these days.  A little more gritty, no aversion to mixing dump-n-chase with pretty passes, and much more defensive structure.  Also of note is that there have been more shots from the point and shots off the glass to get rebounds in front of the net, another good trend.  The Peerlees Prognosticator damned this trend with faint praise calling it “workmanlike play.”  But I think he misses the point – by mixing it up the Caps are less predictable.  The opposing defense has been backing off because they can’t trust that every single play will be of the stickhandle-n-pass variety, and it is working.

The Laich-Fleischmann-Semin line seems to be a very nice combo when The Jizz is present and accounted for.  (And he was at 200% against Montreal!) I think the Caps are much better off spreading out from the traditional Ovie-Backstrom-Semin line and rotating others into the first line.  Knuble is doing good in that regard, he is a net crashing missile as always.  I daresay his finger cannot possibly be 100% - he looks a little ham handed.  But he needed screws and plates in that finger so frankly I am surprised he didn’t take a lot more time on IR.  But sore finger or not he can clearly bang the puck in paddle-style as well.  And the chaos he brings to the crease is invaluable.

Accolades would be too numerous to hand out all around.  Of special note: Backstrom – on fire.  Fleischmann doing great at center.  Gordon with a sweet goal.  (I kind of forgot he even played for the team in fact.)  Laich just never stops working, I love the way that guy plays.  Steckel and Sloan with contract extensions, good moves.  Sloan there has been grumbling about, but I think everyone forgets how quickly injuries can pile up like they did in September and October.

And a special note on Mike Green – he has been playing great these last few.  I noticed that people are still pinging him (by default I suppose) for any turnover.  I myself have been critical of the guy at times.  But from watching what he is doing, he actually is playing a very tight game.  He has been blasting from the point and only pinching when appropriate.  He is hitting a bit more as well.  And he is not just trying to stickhandle into the zone against 3 guys all by himself.  He will score many more goals if he keeps this up, and strengthen the defense to boot.  Your loss, Team Canada.

As for the trade and all, I think it was a great move.  Ovie as captain is a great move.  He clearly takes it very seriously.  Chimera is not a game changer but he contributes more than Clark did in a pure on-ice assessment.  Jurnica I liked but I don’t think his absence will hurt the Caps in any way.  In fact, getting Alzner and Carlson rotating into the mix more will be a very good thing in my book.  Alzner may be rotated back the AHL right now, but he plays with a certain confidence and leadership that is nice to see.  And Carlson clearly will be a scoring threat, based on goals he already scored for the Caps and his World Juniors OT goal.

The only sad part is that I watched a few Columbus games after the trade and Clark and Jurnica were clearly very upset by it all.  The first few interviews were hard to watch, I thought they might start crying.  But all the best to them, the clearly loved playing for the Caps.  I don’t think it was a good trade because those guys sucked, or were a negative drain on the team.  I think it was a good trade for other reasons and the benefits that are clearly starting to show already.

Well here’s looking forward to a 3-game divisional road trip.  Should be some tough and interesting games for those reasons, despite the Caps much better overall record than Atlanta, Tampa and Florida.

Nice to see team USA win World Jr hockey gold.

Better yet, it was real nice to see Caps prospect John Carlson net the OT winner. It was a sweet no look shot!