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The Caps and Penguins play for the second time this season Thursday night in Washington. As if we need another reason to watch, let’s take another look at what happened on October 13.

It’s 38 days later and Beagle hasn’t played since. Imagine if Dale Hunter had been on the ice that night. Or Thursday night.

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So, has there been any big news in Caps Nation since I last posted?

Let’s see, ridiculous losses to Toronto, the Rangers and the Sabres?  Anything worth mentioning there?

Ahhh, the coaching change.  That seems to be the big news of the day (or of two days ago – to paraphrase the immortal words of Professor Dave Jennings, I have a job, people).  Let me stick my two cents in.  Full disclosure – as an Islander fan, I hate Dale Hunter for the Turgeon hit (best line -after Hunter was hired and Kirk Muller, who skipped town on the Islanders, was hired in Carolina, someone on twitter posted, “Who’s hiring Darcy Tucker?”).  Having said that, if Hunter coaches as he played, with a no bullshit approach, it seems to be the style that this teams need.

I’ve harped repeatedly in these pages, and by all accounts, at least two of you have listened (thanks, mom) about the lack of accountability that pervaded the Boudreau era.  The Semin scratch was a little bit of too little, too late.  And if I’m Joel Ward, scratched for oversleeping a special teams meeting (a first time transgression) – the whole act seems, I don’t know, a little bullshitty.  Ward has to be thinking to himself, “Ovi is allergic to the defensive zone, Semin takes an average of one penalty in the offensive zone a period and nothing happens for years, and now all of a sudden, he’s brent sutter?”

I think Boudreau was also too much of a chameleon for his own good.  His offensive style met with limited playoff success and all of a sudden there were rumblings here in town among the fan base.  Keep in mind, he should get a pass for that first year as he took the worst team in the league and led them to a charge for the final playoff spot.  The flameout the next year led to the change from uptempo Bruce to defensive zone Gabby.  Now, all of a sudden, after letting the lunatics run the asylum for the better part of his tenure, he’s all about accountability.  I wonder how the fan base would have reacted if they had a semblance of a professional football or basketball team to distract them.  Let’s be honest – DC is not exactly Flim Flam, Saskatchewan when it comes to hockey.  This town is desparate for a winner, and the fact that a charismatic young star was leading an exciting team distracted them from the depressive Groundhog Day-style Snyder era.   Christmas, the Junkies (only one of which knows the first thing about hockey) spent multiple segments talking about it instead of the Deadskins.

So, now you have Dale Hunter.  Early returns are a 2-1 loss to the Blues.  Small sample size, so let’s wait and see what happens.

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I think we all know what happens tonight. History will be made. And on a June night, not too far in the future, history will make amends.

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That sentence (and muscle contraction) was more or less repeated by every person with even a casual stake in the Pittsburgh Penguins. An explanation, though, is probably necessary.

While the Washington area generally had fond feelings for Mr. Boudreau, what with his astounding winning percentage, genial attitude and affinity for gym shorts (typically Al Bundying them), the Penguins fans, well, did not. It’s not that we hated him as a person or thought he was any sort of a villain – we just viewed him as something of a buffoon. Now this had little to do with the barbeque sauce incident…or his rotundness… or even his idiotic commercials. No, there was just something fatally missing about his coaching ability. We took comfort knowing that while the Caps would likely beat us in the regular season (as those were the Cap’s playoff games), Boudreau lacked the strategic ability to get the Caps past the Pens in a multi-game series.

Gentleman scholar

It was then with great sadness when we woke up yesterday morning to learn of his dismissal. Visions of the Capitals own version of the 2009 Penguins danced in our heads. Gone was the coach that took a middling, yet supremely talented team from doldrums to respectability. His very simplistic and aggressive style, which had so successfully transformed the Capitals into a contender, was now guilty of holding them back. What was needed now was a heady, strategically minded coach that will create schemes to match the talent. And that is why the Capitals hired…wait…Dale Hunter?

Where this blogger first learned to hate Dale Hunter

Please don’t get me wrong, Dale Hunter was a loathed but respected player by Penguins fans (God was he a douche in NHL ’93), and has a reputation for being an intense and passionate minor league coach. But is he really what they need to win a cup? I agree that a disciplinarian will probably be a breath of fresh air, and I think Ovechkin particularly will enjoy playing under him. Hell, I even think these first 10 games will show a new vigor in the Cap’s step. I just feel like an inexperienced coach* that lacks strategic pedigree is an uninspired move for this team. I get the sense that McPhee felt he had to go ultra-populist in hiring a local hero, simply to avoid the pitchforks and torches accompanied by firing a popular Boudreau.

So in the end, we are sad Boudreau was let go as we believed he had a snowball’s chance in hell of ever winning a Cup. However we don’t have much faith Hunter will either.

-IronCityspy

*Please don’t compare him to Bylsma. Bylsma had a reputation for being a brainiac even back to his playing days.

IronCityspy is a reluctant contributor to the Washington, D.C. blog “I Spy Things DC” (http://www.ispythingsdc.com) and an unapologetic Penguins fan. Follow him @TeamIan. 

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Things seem to be relatively calm in a city that routinely gets too high and too low about its Redskins (although it’s impossible, in my humble opinion to be too low about that team – especially since the two quarterbacks that the coach was willing to stake his reputation on – his words  - are awful – doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in a head coach whose genius seems to be tied to having a gentleman whose name rhymes with John Shmelway – but I digress) with respect to the Capitals.  It could be that it’s just turned to November, and people are still distracted by the Redskins, or it could be a sign of relative maturity in the fan base (though recent trips to the phone booth belie this point).  So let’s take a look, given the recent two game skid, of what’s wrong with your Washington Capitals.

There is no shame in losing to the Vancouver Canucks.  They were the runners-up last year, and despite what you think of Roberto Luongo (choke-cough-choke) this is a talented team.  The Sedin twins, a healthy Ryan Kessler (who is one of the LJizzle’s favorite players – the LJizzle is a bit xenophobic and loves both referring to himself in the third person and uber-talented American hockey players) – this is a talented team.  And the goalies can be expected to falter from time to time.  The real issue with this game, and the takeaway, is managing goaltender starts.  I don’t think it’s rocket science to say that you have to spot Vokoun, a 36-ish year old goaltender, a little bit more – the important games are in April and May, not October – you don’t want to burn him out.  And you need to keep Neuvirth sharper by playing him more.  This one’s on Gabby and GMGM to make sure their young goaltender of the future gets more PT so he stays sharp.  I would start him, on average, every third or fourth game, and if he gets hot, ride him a bit.  Vokoun is a professional – and he’s more likely to be there in April and May at his age if he isn’t completely overworked in the regular season.

As far as the loss to the Oilers go, you can chalk that up to two things.  The first is running into a ridiculously hot goaltender.  Khabibulin is goaltending like it’s 1999.  The Caps threw everything but the kitchen sink at him in the third and he stopped everything.  The Oilers, by the way, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberles, Magnus Paarvajjiaaarrvvvaaajjji  (or whatever the hell his name is) are going to be a fun watch as they grow up the next couple of years.  No, the problem was the neverending parade to the sin bin.  Now, the Ljizzle is no stranger to the penalty box – he’s received as many as 50 minutes in one game (though his specialty is berating horrible referrees) – but no one is paying him to play the game.  The fact of the matter is that the Caps are prone to taking bad penalties at the wrong time – have been for years – and the issue here is that there’s no accountability.  The reason Semin’s Semin – floats through too many shifts – takes bad penalties – is because he’s allowed to be that way by Boudreau.  A healthy scratch for Semin – while it might infuriate the poser lunatics at Verizon who insist on calling him Sasha – we get it, you have the Internet too – would send the right message to this team, as would restricting ice time for players who screw up.  I’m not saying he has to turn into a raving madman like Tortorella, who lets his anger and personal conflicts limit him as a coach.  On the other hand, Torts has a Stanley Cup.  At any rate, any accountability would be good from Gabby, who seems content to let the lunatics run the asylum.

So, on to the Ducks tonight.  Let’s see who starts in goal and how the boys come out.  They weren’t going to win all 82, but it’ll be nice to see how they react to the first real adversity of the season.

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It’s been a good first week for the Caps. It’s hard to argue with gaining ten out of a possible ten points in your first five games.

You might think “Who have they played?”

I would argue that Carolina is much improved and the Pens are the Pens, but aside from that, it’s not a murderer’s row.

Despite their shopping spree, Florida is just not that good, and I think Tampa Bay is going to backslide as Roloson is starting to show his age.

Vokoun has been good, despite letting in some bad goals from off angles in his first start. The proof for him will be in May, not in October, and he’s not terribly playoff-tested, but if you said to me, “You could have Vokoun for a year for under $2M, or sign Bryzgalov to a stupid 9-year deal that counts almost $6M per year against the cap until he’s 40, I would take the former every time. I’m not sure that Bryzgalov is better than Vokoun, he’s got a history of playoff folds, and it’s a classic Philly goaltending move. The best thing that could happen to Bobrovsky is to get out of there – complete disregard and lack of patience for a promising young talent by Dineen.

I will say that we’re going to look back on the Bryzgalov deal as the worst goaltender deal since (and maybe even worse than) DiPietro.

Kudos to GMGM for this deal, and for fleecing the Avalanche in the Varlamov deal.

Having said all that, there are some bones to pick.

Bruce Boudreau continues to confound, and his next logical thought would likely be his first. The whole “I’m going to start Neuvirth in the first home game, even though the team has already conceded that Vokoun is the guy” was just stupid, and risked alienating Vokoun needlessly.

Vokoun is an older goaltender, there are going to be plenty of places to spot Neuvy, didn’t need to do it the first game.

Further, the Green-Hamrlik pairing continues to confuse me. Green has absolutely no hockey sense whatsoever. His never-ending desire to rush the puck leads to bad decisions – he makes these rushes regardless of situation – and lead consistently to odd-man rushes the other way.

I don’t know if Brads was thinking just of Semin in his off-season screed against the team, but some of the comments he made seemingly could be interpreted against Green. To pair him with an 85 year old Roman Hamrlik seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

I’d rather see Green paired with Alzner, who is much younger and very defensively responsible. Carlson has
some of Green’s offensive flash, but is much more cognizant of defensive responsibilities and would be a better fit with Hamrlik.

It seems like Bruce rarely matches up lines, and the Semin situation calls out for the coach to hold him accountable, yet he never does anything in this regard.

Gabby aside, a good start to the season. Let’s see where it takes us.

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Last night’s game was an important one, and not just because it resumed the best rivalry in the NHL. No, it was important because it honored the horrid tragedy of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash, which unfortunately puts into stark perspective just how meaningless “the NHL’s best rivalry“ is.

http://speakingofthedevils.com

I guess I would be remiss not to make a few quick points about last night’s action, but I leave it to Brad to recount it in gratuitous fashion.

1. It was an objectively thrilling and fun game. If the NHL is serious about growing the sport, literally every Penguins/Capitals tilt needs to be broadcast nationally.
2. In the immortal words of Shane Falco, it’s better to be lucky than good. The Penguins dominated the Capitals statistically for the game, and for the 1^st and 3^rd periods they looked superior in ever facet. The Capitals were beyond lucky to get out of there with a win, and I doubt even they would dispute that.
3. I wouldn’t be celebrating too hard, Caps fans. The Penguins were without 3 of their top 4 players and still should have won.

All right, with that formality over with, back to the real story.

The plane crash that ended the lives of virtually every Lokomotiv player was so utterly preventable that had it happened anywhere in the developed world other than Russia, there would be quite a few people in jail by now. The plane in question, the Soviet-era Yakovlev Yak-42D, is so reviled for being unsafe and liable to crash it’s not even allowed to enter European Union airspace. So the idea that Russia has yet to scrap these flying coffins is unconscionable.

Don't fly Cuba Air

It would be quite easy to collectively roll our eyes last night over all the pageantry, overly dramatic music, et all. But my normally spine-covered heart felt slightly thawed watching Malkin and Ovechkin, both obviously shaken by the tragedy, participate in this tribute. Keeping this shameful event in the forefront could end up saving quite a few lives — which is far more important than anything that happened on the ice. Good for the NHL, good for the Penguins and Capitals and good for the many Russian players that displayed nothing but dignity.

-IronCityspy

P.S. If you are an aging NHL veteran considering going to the KHL for one final pay day, one word of advice; DON’T.

IronCityspy is a reluctant contributor to the Washington, D.C. blog “I Spy Things DC” (http://www.ispythingsdc.com) and an unapologetic Penguins fan. Follow him @TeamIan. 

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So, we’re back. And we have some cool site news. I am now officially one of two Capitals Correspondents for the awesome misterirrelevant.com. Yeah, we’re not sure how we got Mottram to fall for it but he did.

In case you missed it, our first post went live over there last week. Check it out, it’s disturbing.

We also have two new contributors to the site. We’ll keep you in suspense for now but I will say that one of them is a Penguins fan, so there’s that.

Follow us on twitter, @stopthehats, and look for Mr. Irrelevant post number two this afternoon.

Alex Ovechkin and Brooks Laich celebrate Laich's first goal of the season. The Caps beat Boston 4-1. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson) (Winslow Townson - AP)

Jose Theodore let Semyon Varlamov know that there will be a serious competition for the no. 1 goalie spot. Theodore didn’t allow a goal until 7:56 in the third when the Caps already led 4-0. It came on a shorthanded breakaway and he got a piece of the puck before it trickled in.

There were many reasons for Washington to be optimistic after this game against the top team in the East last year. The Caps were efficient on the power play, scoring twice in five opportunities. Ovechkin got off to a quick start with three points on opening night. The secondary scoring was there, Nicklas Backstrom had three assists, Alexander Semin had two. And Theodore was strong in the net.

The Caps head back to Washington for their home opener Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Caps finally open the season Thursday night in Boston. Here’s a bunch of predictions and features from the experts, and some idiots, to get you ready.

Is This the Year for the Caps? (Washington Post)

Does Alex Ovechkin have a shot at catching Wayne Gretzky’s goal-scoring record? (Washington Times)

2009-10 Washington Capitals Season Preview (Japers’ Rink)

Eastern Conference Power Rankings (Buccigross)

ESPN’s Experts’ Picks (Four letter dot com)

Caps Give Ovechkin a Supporting Cast (Yahoo! Sports)

2009-10 Eastern Conference staff prognostications (Puck Daddy)

Expert Picks (CBS Sports)

SI’s 2009-10 NHL Scouting Reports (SI.com)

NHL Season Preview: Team-by-Team (Sporting News)

Uni Watch: Comprehensive NHL Preview (Uni Watch)