On Superbowl Sunday, the Caps and Bruins play an afternoon game in DC just 12 days after their last meeting. Today's loss could very well impact the future of the Caps organization. I'll get into that more here in a bit, but first, some video highlights...
Your Ovechkin highlight and Save highlight all in one video...
A Fan's view of Hendrick's fight today...
Now, onto the Recap:
-Biggest story coming out of today's game has to be the injury to Brooks Laich. Laich took a knee to knee hit into the boards and did not return. He attempted to skate during a TV timeout but could not return. After the game, he was seen leaving the locker room on crutches and with a brace on. If this is any sort of ligament tear, he could be out months. Leaving the Caps with Marcus Johansson as their top center on the depth chart. A Johansson that went 5 of 16 in the faceoff dot today. Folks, if Laich is out for an extended period of time, we could be in trouble and watch for the Caps to become very active in the trade department.
-Speaking of trades, with the trade deadline approaching, I give the Caps next week worth's of games to determine whether or not they are buyers or sellers. Add in a potential long-term injury to Brooks Laich and the Caps could be wheeling and dealing. Looking down at the starting lineup tonight, I can only count a handful or two of players that should be considered safe. If it was me, Ovechkin, Hendricks, Laich, Brouwer, Perreault, Chimera, Knuble, Vokoun, Alzner, Carlson, Orlov and Wideman are the only safe players. Add Backstrom and Green to that list as well. That leaves Marcus Johansson, Alexander Semin, Keith Aucoin, Joel Ward, Jeff Halpern, Michael Neuvirth, Roman Hamrlik and Jeff Schultz as trade bait. The Capitals desperately need a top 6 Center and a top 4 Defensemen. Can that group of bait bring in a Jeff Carter? I'd be confortable bringing in Holtby up as well if we needed to use Neuvy as bait. Regardless of whether it is during the season or this coming off-season, the Capitals organization is going to get a massive make-over (don't we say that each off-season?). I'm just not sure which direction this Hunter-led team wants to go. Anything but the way it is now will be better.
-Now that I'm off my soapbox, today, the Caps outshot the Bruins 36-30. Just the FIFTH time the Caps have reached the 30 shot plateau under Dale Hunter. Holy Cow! Can we bring back Boudreau? haha. At least when he led the team, the games were fun to watch. Now, unless the Caps get near perfect play from their goaltender, it is quite painful to watch.
-Getting back to the topic of discussion on Center. The Caps lost the faceoff dot today 43-24 to the Bruins. Our top line Center, Johansson, went 5 for 16. He's looking more and more like a bottom 6 center in my eyes. If I'm an opponent and I see #90 come to the dot, I would be feeling pretty good about our chances. With Backstrom out, and now potentially Laich, the Caps are left with Johansson, Halpern, Aucoin, and Perreault as Centers. Yikes. Those names do not strike fear in many.
-Jeff Schultz has now played 3 straight games. Today reaching about 15 mins of ice time. Hopefully he sixth defensemen minutes, will make him more attractable on the trade-market than a scratched defensemen.
-Much has been said about Mike Knuble being in a slump. Well, when you only give him 8:31 of ice time, you're not going to get much. Joel Ward even got more ice than Knuble (9:51). Ward did have an assist tonight. Hopefully we can shed him in a trade here soon. We are wasting too much salary cap space on him getting 4th line minutes. Remember when the top line consisted of Ovechkin-Backstrom-Knuble? I bet if we stuck to that, Knuble would have kept producing all along instead of a steady decline into 4th line minutes. A product of Boudreau's and Hunter's endless line jumbling. Lack of chemistry.
-Ovechkin finally played an Ovechkin-of-old like game. 7 Shots on goal with 2 misses and 7 hits. He was a force on the ice. He did miss an open net in the 1st period that could have changed the game. There's definitely a correlation between his play and the Caps finally reach the 30 shot mark.
-That's all I have for today's game. Enough of my doom and gloom. We will all be waiting on the news about Laich in the coming days. With the Panthers on Tuesday and the Jets on Thursday, the Caps face MUST win games this week with a plethora of holes on the roster. We shall see what GMGM does. As always, go CAPS!
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