SB Nation User Blog: ns

Owen Nolan doing an Ovechkin...you can see why Ovi idolized this guy.

ns — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:20:30 -0000

Owen Nolan doing an Ovechkin...you can see why Ovi idolized this guy.

Shake up? Will it happen? Time to play GM.

ns — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:19:49 -0000

Simple question, not so simple answer.

With a slew of boneheaded mistakes and indifferent play, most recently vs. the supposedly dreadful @home Devils, there has been much late evening and early morning talk of trading a certain star or a "message-sending" trade of a bottom 6 player.

My question is do we really think GMGM will pull the trigger on any sort of shake up of the current roster? What would YOU do if you were in his shoes and wanted to contend for the cup not only this year, but for the foreseeable future.

Give Perreault more time and bench Semin for a few games?

Trade away an asset to create cap space to recall Alzner and/or Carlson?

Get rid of the maddeningly inconsistent Poti and give the bulk of his time to 4pointSchultz?

Trade Semin for a grittier winger with good offensive instincts and solid two way play?

P.S. Semin is one of my favorite players on this team, which also makes me want to smash my head on the nearest wall when I see efforts like last night vs. NJ. I would love to see him stay, just based on his unbelievable skills, but am starting to believe the Caps might need to leverage that talent to gain some key players to make this team, overall, a better one. Meh...

Have your say.

via cache.daylife.com

Poll

Will GMGM shake things up in the near future?

Yes

40 votes

No

64 votes

104 votes | Poll has closed

Southeast Division : Biggest Threat?

ns — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:03:02 -0000

Ladies, Gents, the Rest,

With the last month of non-hockey-hell upon us and the 2009-2010 season right around the corner, the list of questions regarding our Caps has grown long this offseason. Lately, I got to thinking about the Southeast Division and the teams we will be up against the majority of the year. Simple question: who do you think will be the most challenging team within the division for the Capitals this year?

Poll

Who will challenge Washington the most for the SE Division title?

Atlanta

6 votes

Carolina

135 votes

Florida

2 votes

Tampa Bay

26 votes

169 votes | Poll has closed

Brashear to KHL?

ns — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:19:50 -0000

Brashear to KHL?

In Mother Russia, Brash makes more $$$

Who Will Be the Caps Leading Scorer in the Playoffs?

ns — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:09:16 -0000

Its finally here. Game Day. Who would have thought April 15th would be a GOOD day.

Will Ovechkin continue his goal scoring dominance?

Will Semin play another MVP caliber series as he did against the Flyers last year?

Will the underappreciated (at least league wise) Backstrom take the next step to becoming an elite center?

Will Green add more votes for the Norris with post season play?

Excited to see what the Caps have in store for us. Poll is up. Check it.

Vote!

Poll

Caps Playoff Leading Scorer?

Backstrom

12 votes

Fedorov

0 votes

Green

1 votes

Laich

7 votes

Ovechkin

33 votes

Semin

24 votes

Slapshot

3 votes

80 votes | Poll has closed

Revisiting : Caps preseason predictions

ns — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:51:37 -0000

We are coming up on the last leg of the season, and thought it would be fun to take a look at a previous JR post where we made our great, and horrible, predictions.

Here is the link: http://japersrink.blogspot.com/2008/09/thursday-open-thread.html

Got a kick out of seeing mine. Here they are with a few comments:

Semin will dangle, hop, fall, and score. his best season yet under the mentoring of Fedorov. ~35 goals.

yessss

Fedorov's name will be misspelled consistently all season as Federov. Not sure what to expect from him as no one knows what level of ice-time he will receive. He is still the man.

Laich will not show much improvement over his late season performance (which isn't all that bad, as he played his role well). ~19 goals.

has not disappointed. crash the mother-f'in net. Captain to be, i hope.

Backstrom will play with a confident low-key swagger this year, on whatever line he is placed, and put up at least 80pts. he will shoot more...i can feel it.

already at 74 pts. will surpass 80pts! added swagger? why yes.

Kozlov will continue to madden anyone that watches him play on a consistent basis, and then gawk at the stats that show him to be a valuable resource.

his on ice play has now surpassed his stats. i know he is VERY important to line #1.

Fleischman will still suck and will be pushed out by a hungrier player.

whoops...

Alzner will not win the Calder, since he is not flashy, but will be seen as a franchise player. ~30 points.

Alzer, say hello to my little friend, the Salary Cap. Sorry buddy.

Fehr will become trade bait.

still a possibility for off season

Clark...~20 goals at most??

Verizon Ice will break you, my friend

Carolina will come back with a vengeance, and have us pegged as public enemy #1.

Tampa Bay...no idea. Lecavalier is a beast, though, and scares me every time he is on the ice with sneaky St. Louis.

Montrealwill have a disappointing season, barely making the playoffs.

ahahahahahahaha (although Habbies are my #2)

Rangers will be a force.

Rangers ~~will be a force~~ ~~will continue to acquire half-hearted players and drown in their own lofty expectations~~ suck. (fixed)

Ovie...do we really need to bother?

superman.

group hug time:

via www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com

Someone please caption this...

ns — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:44:59 -0000

Someone please caption this...

Staal contract = Backstrom contract foundation/basis or just the beginning?

ns — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:49:20 -0000

So, Mr. J.Staal has been awarded a 4yr/$16mil contract, per TSN, by the slumping Penguins (had to get that in there).

How do you think this affects Backstrom's target salary and length, as he is the next big signing of our team's core?

I'm thinking it will be very close to Mike Green's terms...

- check out zee poll -

General cap figures for your reference:

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=WAS

Poll

how much $ per year for the nifty Swede? (all figures in millions)

Ovechkin &....penalties?

ns — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:29:58 -0000

I stumbled upon this (surprising) stat while checking the Caps' leading scorers. So, through 26 games, Ovi has accumulated 32 PIMs, second to only Brashear who has 45 PIMs. His totals are less that our regular boneheads, i.e. Jurcina, Erskine, Morrisonn. Check it:

	Player	Team	Pos	GP	Points	+/-	PIM
1	Donald Brashear	WSH	L	26	3	-2	45
2	Alexander Ovechkin	WSH	L	26	35	10	32
3	John Erskine	WSH	D	19	2	2	29
4	Milan Jurcina	WSH	D	28	6	-3	26
5	David Steckel	WSH	C	25	7	1	22
6	Shaone Morrisonn	WSH	D	22	2	0	20
7	Sergei Fedorov	WSH	C	13	9	6	16
8	Michael Nylander	WSH	C	27	15	0	16
9	Chris Clark	WSH	R	20	3	-5	14
10	Matt Bradley	WSH	R	28	4	1	12

What really surprised me is when I compared Ovi's PIMs to last year:

	Player	Team	Pos	GP	Points	+/-	PIM
1	Donald Brashear	WSH	L	80	8	-7	119
2	John Erskine	WSH	D	51	9	1	96
3	Matt Cooke	WSH	L	78	23	1	91
4	Matt Bradley	WSH	R	77	18	1	74
5	Shaone Morrisonn	WSH	D	76	10	4	63
6	Mike Green	WSH	D	82	56	6	62
7	Alexander Semin	WSH	L	63	42	-18	54
8	Tom Poti	WSH	D	71	29	9	46
9	Chris Clark	WSH	R	18	9	0	43
10	Alexander Ovechkin	WSH	L	82	112	28	40

Quite a difference, no? Through 26 games of the 2008-09 campaign, Ovi is averaging ~1.23 PIMs/game, compared to ~0.488 in 2007-08, and is only 8 PIMs away from his entire total from last year.

I realize Ovi seems a tremendous amount of ice time and plays a very physical game, but does this trouble/surprise/baffle anyone?

If I didn't check the stats I would never have guessed this to be true. Odd.

Ideas? Thoughts?