Is it just me or did the southeast division get a little tougher? I do believe they did. I get to see the southeast division a lot here in Washington and as I noted earlier in the year, the Capitals were pretty dominant last season but I’d say change is blowing  in the wind.

While the Tampa Bay Lightning have had Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier, you have to admit that the arrival of Steven Stamkos and the evolution of Steve Downie added some extra flare to their goalscoring. But this upcoming season they get a seasoned veteran who knows how to deposit 30 goals a year into the back of the net. Hello, Simon Gagne.  If that doesn’t prove to you that TBL is emerging as stronger, I get it. Gagne has one year left on his contract and you are thinking disposable. Don’t dismiss them so fast.

Two words: Steve Yzerman. Those two words when strung together with the term GM means long-term emerging threat to me and I think it should to you too. Look for TBL to build and look for them to be a hard working team on a mission.

Still not convinced that the Southeast division got tougher? The Atlanta Thrashers. I don’t know that they’re going to be the second coming of Chicago (and I don’t believe that they will) but I believe they did an outstanding job bringing in some well needed goalscoring and presence.  Take a look at who they’ve acquired and tell me they didn’t improve. I dare you to.

What am I doing bringing all this up? After all these points don’t you think the Capitals now have a bit of a different focus going into the new season? I think they do. Something tells me they may have to work a little harder this year earning the division title. Now before anyone jumps down my throat I didn’t say they won’t. I’m merely saying it will be a little harder trying to get there this upcoming season.

Jodie Smola
NHLHS Washington Capitals Correspondent
jsmola@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @phillysunshine

According to Andy Strickland and Jeremy Rutherford the St. Louis Blues have sent enforcer DJ King to the Washington Capitals. King agreed to a two-year contract extension totaling $1.25 million prior to the trade.

King was the Blues 6th Round pick (190th overall) of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. Since making his NHL debut on October 5th, 2006 King has appeared in 101 games with the St. Louis Blues. In that time frame he has accumulated 4 goals, 9 points and 185 penalty minutes.

While one of the strongest and fiercest fighters in the NHL – he has slowly fallen out of favor in St. Louis. Back to back injury plagued seasons and the growth of local boy come home Cam Janssen have limited DJ’s opportunities to play. Only appearing in 13 NHL games the last two years.

In his last full season King appeared to possess the skill required to take a regular shift every night. After the long term shoulder injury in 2007 King came to camp on 2009 looking to make his way back to the roster. By that time Janssen had taken his fair share of punches and endeared himself to many a Blues fan. Much of the fanbase had grown to believe in Cam as the better option for an enforcer and Cam backed it up at camp. His skating, stickhandling and hockey sense all noticeably improved. Janssen still has far to go, but has quickly hit the same playing level as DJ King.

It appears that the local appeal and lack of injury history turned the table in Janssen’s favor.

In return the Blues acquire Stefan Della Rovere. He was the Caps 7th Round pick (204th overall) in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. The 5’11, 200-pound forward has a large amount of winning experience. He was a member of the 2009 Canadian WJC Gold Medal team and the 2010 Silver Medal team. HE captained the Barrie Colts in to a deep OHL playoff run. To close out his 2010 season he played for the 2010 Calder Cup winning Hershey Bears of the AHL. In 230 OHL games, Stefan registered 138 points (65 goals, 73 assists) and 479 penalty minutes.

Yes, 479 penalty minutes. For those of you who took in the last two U-20 World Junior Championships you know what I am talking about. Della Rovere was a Grade-A pest for Team Canada. He is an aggressive and tough forward who will get under opponents skin. There is the potential for a the thin line between right and wrong to be crossed. However, the same can be said of any player of his ilk. His game lives on the edge and teams benefit because of it.

He is not Patrice Cormier.

This is another solid deal made by Doug Armstrong. Turning an unnecessary surplus in to quality depth. Della Rovere has shown he can play at the highest levels and will get a shot in St. Louis. At age 20, he will not be heading back to the OHL. The expectation for now is that he will compete against Vlad Sobotka, Brad Winchester and BJ Crombeen for time on the energy lines. Most likely he will start the season with the Blues AHL affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen.

You can find the full release from the Blues on their Official Website.

Jeff Quirin
NHLHS St. Louis Blues Correspondent
jquirin@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @MuSigma45

While many teams  have taken advantage of the early stages of the free agency period, I can’t help but feel that the Caps need to make a big move. As I write this, I’ve been waiting 14 days for GM George McPhee to work his magic…and I’m still waiting.

Don’t get me wrong, the Capitals have made some deals. They picked up some players to restock their Calder Cup winning Bears, and this was greatly needed due to departures, but what I have been waiting for is a big acquisition on the backend. Since I like the idea of allowing the youngsters to take over the crease, the upgrade really needs to happen on D.

Let’s face it there is room for improvement and I think the Caps should make a move. For those die-hard fans out there, I’m not attacking any of the current D, instead I’m trying to remind everyone reading this that sometimes it’s about picking the correct players to achieve your goal. They don’t have to be the top person in the league, they have to fill a position and fill it as close to perfectly as possible.

For quite some time, I have verbally attacked Mike Green’s defensive flaws, but if the Caps paired him with a shut-down D who could cover the entire back end while he’s joining the rush, it would be a win-win situation. Green would be able to do what he does best, and the back end would remain protected. Who on the current roster can handle such a duty? Dead silence, huh?

I know that management and the fans are pulling for some of the Bears to graduate to the Caps, and I’m not completely against this. Instead I urge some caution. John Carlson is a great prospect. He held his own when called up to the NHL and he is going to be a tremendous asset to the organization for years to come. My concern arises in his youth. D take time to develop. Is it so wise to attempt to insert him into the NHL for his first full season as a pro, bypassing the AHL? Will he be able to handle the rigors of the NHL schedule at this point in his development? It’s a risk I’m not willing to take.

Is the Capitals organization ready to test out younger players on D and in goal during the same season? Don’t get me wrong, there is a chance that everything will click, but I’m a little hesitant to say this is a good decision. There will be youngsters added to a defense corps who struggled in the playoffs last season. Additionally there will be two goalies in net, who have never played an entire NHL season as a starter, who have be riddled with injuries, and are coming into a team with a problem in the playoffs. I don’t know what you all are thinking, but I’m thinking that it’s risky. Will this team get very far in the playoffs in the upcoming season with two youngsters in goal? I think they would have a better shot if they were given some added help in front of them.

What’s the moral of my story? Dear George McPhee, beef up the back end and do it soon before you don’t have any options. Be bold, man, be bold.

Jodie Smola
NHLHS Washington Capitals Correspondent
jsmola@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @phillysunshine

With the 26th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, the Washington Capitals select…

Kirill Kabanov

Although Kabanov is considered a hot head, and somewhat of a risky pick, if there was ever a team to pick him, it was the Washington Capitals. Kabanov is a skilled Russian forward, and with established stars like Alexander Ovechkin, Nik Backstrom and Mike Green, he could be taught to control himself and let his skill do the talking for him on the ice. With a multitude of defensive prospects, the Washington Capitals would surely love to add this high risk / high reward forward.

Luca Vacca (LeafsWire)
NHLHS Toronto Maple Leafs Correspondent
leafswire@nhlhotstove.com
@leafswire

The Hershey Bears won the Calder Cup the other night and it shouldn’t shock anyone that John Carlson started off the scoring. (Caps fans generally refer to him as Captain America after all.) It also shouldn’t shock anyone that the D made their presence felt on the score sheet last night. (This is the team & fans that wholeheartedly embrace Mike Green.)

So while the team and fans celebrated I couldn’t help thinking about what the fans and the entire North American continent were able to see on live television coverage: the future.

I don’t think there is any doubt in my mind that Michael Neuvirth and Carlson get pulled forward. And it’s probably not going to be too long before you see Aucoin and Bourque filling in. If the Caps want to make another run for the Stanley Cup, I think they are going to have to pull from within and that has to start now.

These players were hand picked and groomed to take over slots on the Caps and now is as good a time as any. The fans are ready for them and they have definitely been making some noise for themselves. I’ve been saying it for a while now: let the “kids” play.

Jodie Smola
NHLHS Washington Capitals Correspondent
jsmola@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @phillysunshine

We got your fix right here.

We go live tomorrow with our 2009-2010 NHL season wrap-up show.

Be sure to tune in live with us tomorrow from 1-3 p.m. EST.

The Hockey Guys on Blog Talk Radio – link for show tomorrow. Chat room will open approximately 5 minutes prior to show’s puck drop.

Here is why I like Mike Knuble:

Who can push him out of the crease? When he’s planted in front of the opposing goalie, he’s planted. Okay, I suppose Pronger and Chara can move him, but you know what I mean. His job is to park in front of a goalie and pick up all the garbage. He knows his job and he’s darned good at it. (Mind you I can’t stand how they liken him to a moose down here….or how they call him BIG Mike Knuble…but they get it down here too. The fans didn’t embrace him at first, but that rapidly changed. He has been a fan favorite and continues to be.) He does his job, day in day out, no complaining, he just does it.

The best part about Mike Knuble is that his role isn’t where his work ends. He is never shy about addressing the media. Actually he’s quite honest, articulate and blunt. It’s refreshing and I feel that it settles a team down. He lays it all out there…what needs to be done…what went wrong…taking ownership. This is part of his leadership skill.

Many of you probably remember that I had a mini campaign going for him to take over the C as an interim. I “lobbied” this way because he does have good leadership. He isn’t afraid to call out mistakes, offer suggestions or deal with the media after a hard loss. He leads by example on the ice, in the locker room and off the ice. Fans respect this. I respect this. He may have left my home team, but I am a fan of his no matter where he goes.

As an added bonus, I really believe that he has helped in Brooks Laich’s development. I can’t prove this, of course, but from the pre-season games on, I just view Laich differently and I see his game differently. I saw the two of them a couple of times in the pre-season work the front of the net together and ever since then Brooks Laich seems to have really found his home. (Much like Mike Knuble.) Perhaps that is why I have a growing appreciation of Brooks Laich’s game, and maybe I’m seeing something more than what was there. But, I know Knuble has helped with player development. He has done it in the past, and I have no doubt he’s doing it with the Capitals.

The Washington Capitals made a wise decision to pick him up as a free agent. Their wiser move would be to resign him because he doesn’t appear to be at the end of his career. If Mike Knuble isn’t finished yet, I’d let him play until he’s ready to quit. If the Caps don’t resign him they may find him parked in front of Varlamov or Neuvirth…

Jodie Smola
NHLHS Washington Capitals Correspondent
jsmola@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @phillysunshine

For the Montreal Canadiens, the number eight seed was simply enough. Enough to ignite a spark under a team compiled of averaged sized players surrounded in turmoil from every angle except financially.

And to think, luck was on their side in order to squeak into the playoff picture.

After blowing a 4-1 lead in game two of their first round quarter finals series with the Washington Capitals and more importantly falling behind in the series three games to one, it seemed as if there would be no Cinderella story this season.

Guess again.

Jaroslav Halak and company fought back, taking each and every after Washington sent them to the brink.

As of today, the Canadiens await their opponent for the Eastern Conference finals series that will begin on Sunday.

However, the road to the Conference finals has not been easy.  In fact, the Habs made history and created one of the better Cinderella stories of all time.  Again, a team that was not even guaranteed to make the playoffs are defying the odds.

The Eastern Conference dark horse, who in my opinion were the Montreal Canadiens all along (as you can read here), are now four wins closer to playing for the greatest prize in all of sports history.

After the series against the Capitals, the Canadiens had to face the defending Stanley Cup champs. After a scare against their first round opponent, the Ottawa Senators, the Penguins bounced back led by Marc-Andre Fleury, Sidney Crosby and the gang.

Enter the Canadiens.

With a back and forth series, it went to a seventh game to decide who would be playing for the Conference title. Hal Gill was a force, when healthy, for the Habs in shutting down Crosby, which was a key situation that played out over the course of this series.

We all know about sniper Michael Cammalleri, who score seven goals against the Penguins in the seven game series.

One name that continues to grow, not only in ice time but across every media hotbed in both Canada and the States is that of P.K. Subban. The Habs rookie defenseman has had quite an amazing playoffs.  Even with a few hiccups along the way, which are all expected from a just turned 21 year old skater.  To be thrown into the fire and pressure cooker in Montreal, Subban has answered the call.  He is averaging 20 minutes and 20 seconds of ice time through these playoffs. He has filled in for the injured Andrei Markov on the power play, and has played in every situation.  Cool, calm and collected seems to be P.K.’s style, a style that he displays well.

Whoever the next opponent is, the should not take Montreal lightly.

These playoffs have been nothing short of incredible.

For Montreal, it’s a telling tale for such a storied franchise.

Anthony Curatolo
NHLHS Senior Writer
acuratolo@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @HockeyGuy_AC

I know that I walk a fine line with Washington Capitals fans. I’m considered an outsider because the Caps are not my home team but I actually think that the Capitals fans need to hear what an outsider has to say at this very moment when they don’t see any silver lining.

Repeatedly I keep hearing the same blames being hashed out and I’d like to address it.

I’ll start with the first one I heard : It’s all Mike Green‘s fault. Wow, really? The last time I checked hockey is a team sport. One man doesn’t cause the downfall of the entire team. And trust me you cannot find anyone more critical of Mike Green than me. This was the best playoffs he has had as a Capital and he really didn’t play all that different than the regular season. So why is the game 7 loss his fault? Because he took a stupid penalty? He happens to be one of the most volatile and passionate players on the team. That wouldn’t be his first mild eruption and it won’t be his last. (I vividly remember him wrestling Bobby Ryan to the ice.) To blame him is just absurd in my book. If you want to be upset with him about something, how about the fact that he has defensive flaws? That is, however, a different topic for another paragraph.

Fire Bruce Boudreau would be complaint #2. I’ve heard it all over. In the media, in passing, even directly from people who know me personally. This loss, while it is very hard to take for Caps fans, firing your award winning coach is not the answer. Don’t make a rash decision or charge in the midst of a highly emotional time.  Boudreau has taken this team from disorganized and flooded with potential and turned them into an offensive powerhouse during the regular season. Look at how far the Caps have come from just 3 years ago. It’s absolutely amazing. I’m sure you can guess by my previous writing, I am most certainly not a fan of Boudreau. Not personally at least. His coaching however has earned him coach of the year awards and has regularly gained him league-wide recognition. So, really, you all want to axe him?

I respectfully ask everyone to take a deep breath, step back and consider the following…

Everywhere I read titles and captions that the Capitals choked. I disagree. To me choking in hockey means absolute collapse. An inability to shoot, control the puck, pass the puck and generally play cohesively. This is not what happened to the Capitals. I instead prefer to refer to what happened as a shutdown. They were after all shutdown were they not?

Jaroslav Halak, in a three game span, stopped 131 of 134 shots. That statistic is a perfect example of what I’m trying to explain. 134 shots means the Caps gained control of the puck and placed it on net but they were stopped by Halak. That’s pretty much the definition of being shut down to me.

And what about blocked shots? Remember those statistics from the game? It was a pretty  stellar component of the Habs performance. They shut down the powerful Washington Capitals offense while blocking a tremendous number of shots. Again, that pretty much sums up my definition of being shut down.

The fact remains that the Montreal Canadiens put forth an amazing performance. Halak, in conjunction with the remainder of his teammates, pulled together and performed pretty much on cue and the Washington Capitals could not get around them.

So we are back to my major complaints with this Washington Capitals team. Let’s start with defense. Who can be counted on to consistently and effectively shut down the top stars in the NHL? Do the Capitals have a Chris Pronger or a Scott Niedermayer? Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe that the D are getting better and that they are tightening up, but there needs to be a major acquisition or else I suggest bringing in someone to help train the D how to step up their game.

Goaltending.  Jose Theodore had an amazing season and I truly believe that both Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth will be elite goalies one day, but there is a problem. Let’s look at Game7. Varlamov faced 16 shots on goal and 2 got past him.  Does this concern anyone else? If you get shutdown offensively and you are facing a hot goalie, you would need your goalie to be a wall. That’s problematic.

What do I think in the end? I think it’s time to get a different mindset on the D for starters. Next I think the philosophy they you can come from behind and outscore opponents on a daily basis needs to be replaced. The young goalies need to develop and they need to be afforded the time to do so.

Do I think the current team can achieve their goals? Yes but with revision. The team needs a little retooling and that should be a major post-season focus. With proper retooling I believe that the Capitals can get to the Stanley Cup finals. It will take a bit of negotiation and a bunch of elbow grease. And most importantly, it’s going to take the fans, media and management to remain calm and level headed. Calling for people’s heads on silver platters is not going to fix the team’s flaws and fixing those flaws should be the top priority.

And in the midst of all of this, I guess I’m begging the Capitals fans to keep the faith in their team. You have some amazing talent in there, and they accomplished some great milestones this year. Don’t allow the early playoff exit sour your season. Sometimes you hit a bump in the road and you have to keep going anyway.

When Montreal began the series with Washington, it was obvious that the number one seed in the league just didn’t have what it takes to beat the Canadiens. The Capitals, with the number one powerplay and the most goals scored in the league really had nothing on the team who’s penalty kill clicked at exactly 83%, good for 12^th in the league and who had scored on average, 2.56 goals/game, ONLY 1.26 goals/game less on average than the Caps.

Furthermore, it was to be expected that goaltending should be absolutely spectacular for a team who, for most of the first six month of the season, had an ongoing media-fed goaltender dilemma that seemed never ending. Habs in seven was a given.

Not.

Entering the series, the Habs were more than the underdogs. Most people considered Montreal nothing more than a speed bump on a German autobahn (no speed limit highway). Even I had predicted Habs in three, meaning unless the Habs crushed the Caps so badly in the first three games that the league would let them advance out of pity for their opponents, there was no way that Canadiens could possibly win. Yet here were are, at the end of game seven, where the Habs pulled off one of the greatest series upsets of the decade, and even in the history of the NHL. But how?

The first two reasons why the Canadiens were able to pull off three consecutive wins when down three-one in the series are: 1) Jaroslav and 2) Halak. In his last three games, Halak has faced 134 pucks, stopping 131 of them. Halak came on as the surprise of the year, since his performances last year were less than outstanding, sporting a .915 SV% and 2.86 GAA, but only 18 wins in 34 games played.

In Montreal, he was the complete opposite of a fan favourite, often receiving the blame for every loss that he played in. Yet now, Halak has turned it around completely, keeping Montreal in every game by never giving up an inch of his crease. I would like to say that he stood on his head during the whole series, but honestly, he was too busy making those huge saves to have time to get on his head.

As mentioned in my previous writing, another important factor for the Habs was their solid PK game. The Habs were able to go 32/33 on the PK, reducing the league’s regular season PP% leader to a nasty 3% on the man advantage. Furthermore, the Habs killed off one big five on three in the first frame of game six, without allowing Washington to register one shot on goal in 75 seconds. Montreal’s movement during the PK, and also their perfect positioning, reduced to a minimum the amount of shots that the Caps could take, all the while cutting off their passing lanes.

Another factor that worked for the Canadiens in their series was their ability of many of their forwards to fire quick, precise shots from the wings on the Washington goalies. Considering their lack of size and grit up front, the Habs had to compensate for their inability to crash the net and stay in the crease by firing accurate and quick shots from the circle. Although it can be debated that this tactic may only work against “weaker”  goaltenders such as Jose Theodore and Semyon Varlamov (during this series, at least), I believe that the early goals scored from quick shots from around the point/circles allowed Montreal’s forwards to shatter the opposition’s goaltender’s confidence quickly.

A noteworthy factor towards the Canadiens win was also the defensive corps’ willingness to block shots with the body. Just in game seven, the Habs blocked 36 shots, Hal Gill once again leading the charge with six blocks of his own. I believe that shot blocking is an excellent way of demonstrating your will to win no matter the costs, and the Canadiens definitely showed us in this series that, no matter the costs, they would do everything and anything to keep the other team from scoring.

A final factor that helped the Habs win? The fact that Alexander Semin, Mike Green, and often Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, seem to have forgotten to get off the place and get on the ice. I do not want to remove any credit from the Canadiens players for their win, but I do believe that Washington not having its four top players show up on a consistent basis severely undermined their chances of winning. This was especially noteworthy in the last game, where Mike Green not only was completely invisible on defence, but his only offensive contribution was by providing the Habs with a couple powerplays that they could then capitalize on.

Of course, these are only a few of plethora of factors, in and out of the game that the Habs play, that led them to defeating Washington.

If you think that I missed an important one, just shoot me a comment!

Christopher Nardi
NHLHS Montreal Canadiens Correspondent
cnardi@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @dragonlancehuma