Wow. So I haven't posted since... when?! Yeesh. I've been horrible! Let's not admit to that. This is a brand new blog. Yeah. Brand new. Just started it! :-)
LET'S GO, CAPS!
So the Caps are poised to start the 2015-16 season in two days' time against the New Jersey Devils.
The pre-season went amazingly well; the Caps were one of three teams that did not lose in regulation, and the sole reason they were not at the top of the league was the Detroit Red Wings' and Edmonton Oilers' better records (with one more game played in both cases). The third team that was unbeaten in regulation was Anaheim, who came in second to Edmonton (with two fewer games played).
Here's how it shook out...
Detroit Red Wings
Games Played 8
Wins 6
Losses 0
OT Losses 2
Points 14
Goals For 33
Goals Against 17
Goal Differential +16
Edmonton Oilers
Games Played 8
Wins 6
Losses 1
OT Losses 1
Points 13
Goals For 25
Goals Against 16
Goal Differential +9
Washington Capitals
Games Played 7
Wins 5
Losses 0
OT Losses 2
Points 12
Goals For 21
Goals Against 13
Goal Differential +8
Anaheim Ducks
Games Played 6
Wins 5
Losses 0
Points 11
OT Losses 1
Goals For 18
Goals Against 9
Goal Differential +9
At the other end of the spectrum, we have the three worst teams:
Arizona Coyotes... ouch
Games Played 6
Wins 0
Losses 5
OT Losses 1
Points 1
Goals For 4
Goals Against 19
Goal Differential -15
Dallas Stars
Games Played 7
Wins 1
Losses 6
OT Losses 0
Points 2
Goals For 13
Goals Against 27
Goal Differential -14
New York Islanders
Games Played 8
Wins 2
Losses 6
OT Losses 0
Points 4
Goals For 18
Goals Against 31
Goal Differential -13
What I find the most interesting about this year's pre-season format is the differing number of games played by each team. We have:
8 Games (9 teams)
Detroit (6-0-2)
Edmonton (6-1-1) - one split-squad game pair
Columbus (5-2-1) - one split-squad game pair
Vancouver (4-3-1)
Calgary (4-4-0) - one split-squad game pair
Ottawa (3-3-2) - one split-squad game pair
Toronto (3-5-0) - one split-squad game pair
Pittsburgh (3-5-0)NY Islanders (2-6-0) - with two split-squad game pairs
7 Games (10 teams)
Washington (5-0-2)
Boston (4-2-1)
San Jose (4-2-1)
Buffalo (4-3-0)
Philadelphia (3-2-2) - one split-squad game pair
Winnipeg (3-2-2)
Tampa Bay (3-3-1)
New Jersey (3-4-0)
Montreal (2-3-2)
Dallas (1-6-0)
6 Games (11 teams)
Anaheim (5-0-1)
Los Angeles (4-1-1)
NY Rangers (4-1-1)
St. Louis (4-2-0) - one split-squad game pair
Chicago (4-2-0)
Carolina (4-2-0)
Minnesota (4-2-0)
Nashville (3-2-1)
Florida (3-3-0)
Colorado (1-4-1)Arizona (0-5-1)
Now, it seems to me that it should have been possible for all teams to play a 7-game pre-season schedule. As it is, 9 teams got an extra game, and 11 teams were shorted one. Now, some of those "extra" games were split squad, where half the team played a home game, and half played away. Since it's not possible for a player to be in two places at once, I suppose that makes a kind of sense. Split squad games did count in the standings, but games against non-NHL competition (and I will have to look that up) didn't. Let's take a closer look.
Split squad games:
Edmonton at Calgary / Calgary at Edmonton 21-Sep-2015
Philadelphia at NY Islanders / NY Islanders at Philadelphia 21-Sep-2015
Toronto at Ottawa / Ottawa at Toronto 21-Sep-2015
Columbus at St. Louis / St. Louis at Columbus 22-Sep-2015
NY Islanders at Philadelphia / NY Islanders at New Jersey 25-Sep-2015
Home-and-Home games:
San Jose at Vancouver 21-Sep-2015 / Vancouver at San Jose 22-Sep-2015
Detroit at Chicago 22-Sep-2015 / Chicago at Detroit 23-Sep-2015
Vancouver at Calgary 25-Sep-2015 / Calgary at Vancouver 26-Sep-2015
Toronto at Detroit 2-Oct-2015 / Detroit at Toronto 3-Oct-2015
Now, with the split squad games, we know that one player could not have possibly played in both games. The funny thing is, two of the teams with split squad game pairs were Philadelphia (7 games) and St. Louis (6 games)... The Red Wings (as we'll see below), Canucks, and Penguins didn't have any split-squad games.
But looking at the home-and-home games... that's another matter entirely. It's entirely possible for the same player to appear in both games... Let's take a look.
San Jose Sharks / Vancouver Canucks
One
of these games took place at "Hockeyville," this year at the Q Centre in
Victoria, BC. There are no reports up for this game, which ended in
overtime. So there's no way to compare the two sets of games to see if
they were split-squad over two days' time, or whether one or the other
teams was playing roster players in both games. From what I'm finding elsewhere, it seems unlikely that they played it as a split squad over two days' time, though...
Detroit Red Wings / Chicago Blackhawks
Detroit had no players in both games.
David Rundblad (D) suited up for both for Chicago.
So did Jan Hejda.
And Ryan Garbutt.
And Daniel Paille.
AND Viktor Svedberg.
Now... how many of those 'Hawks are on the opening night roster for their team?
David Rundblad is.
Ryan Garbutt is.
The other three, no. But with five players in both games for the Blackhawks, that's not really the same thing as a split-squad game... is it?
Vancouver Canucks / Calgary Flames
Matt Bartkowski suited up for both games for Vancouver.
So did Brendan Gaunce.
On the Calgary side, we have Garnet Hathaway suiting up for both games.
Matt Bartkowski is a roster player; Gaunce is not. Still... not a split-squad game.
Toronto Maple Leafs / Detroit Red Wings
For Toronto, we have Richard Panik in both games.And Joffrey Lupul.
And James Van Riemsdyk.
AND Shawn Matthias.
And Peter Holland.
Mark Arcobello.
Nazem Kadri.
Morgan Reilly.
Roman Polak.
Leo Komarov.
Jake Gardiner.
Martin Marincin.
Wow. Just. Wow. Panik, Lupul, JVR, Matthias, Holland, Arcobello, Kadri, Reilly, Polak, Gardiner, and Marincin are all roster players. Every last one of them.
Detroit:
Nick Jensen
Daniel Cleary
Andy Miele
Brian Lashoff
Xavier Ouellet
Cleary and Ouellet are the only two roster players out of this list...
So this pair of games really, truly cannot be counted as a split-squad game. Detroit got eight pre-season games, with two sets as home-and-home. And they came out with the best pre-season record. And Toronto, even with playing 12 roster players against Detroit's two, couldn't beat the Red Wings' squads either time.
Last season, Detroit finished 12th in the league with 100 points even (one point behind Washington, and 13 points behind the Presidents' Trophy winning New York Rangers. Poor Toronto finished 27th in the league, with 68 points.
So enough of Detroit being hot stuff this season... they whaled on the Maple Leafs (sad, sad team that they are), but who else did they play?
Game 1 - Detroit at Chicago (4-5 OTL)
Game 2 - Chicago at Detroit (4-1 W)
Game 3 - Pittsburgh at Detroit (6-1 W)
Game 4 - Boston at Detroit (3-4 OTL)
Game 5 - Detroit at Boston (3-1 W)
Game 6 - Detroit at Pittsburgh (7-2 W)
Game 7 - Toronto at Detroit (4-2 W)
Game 8 - Detroit at Toronto (2-1 W)
Chicago, as we know won the Stanley Cup last season. They split their games with Detroit, but scored fewer goals. Pittsburgh finished 15th in the league last year with 98 points, and were positively slaughtered by Detroit both times they faced each other. Boston, who finished out of the playoffs last year in 17th place with 96 points, split with Detroit, but again, scored fewer goals. And Toronto (poor, lowly Tornoto)... well, we already discussed Toronto.
In any case, if Detroit can continue to score goals at the pace they did in the playoffs, the NHL better look out!
But enough about Detroit; this is a Caps blog, innit???
Right about now, I'm liking what I've been seeing and hearing this pre-season.
The Caps let Fehr, Brouwer, and Ward go, but picked up Oshie and Williams in return. I consider that a big win for the roster. Braden Holtby (the HoltBEAST!) has been cemented in as the #1 goaltender, with Philipp Grubauer as his backup. Mike Green is gone, but the defense is solid, with Alzner, Carlson, Chorney, Niskanen, Orlov, Orpik, and Schmidt on the roster. And we finished pre-season 5-0-2 without #1 Center Nicklas Backstrom in the lineup.
Let me say that again.
We finished pre-season 5-0-2 without #1 Center Nicklas Backstrom in the lineup.
Let's take a look at our opponents.
Game 1 - Carolina at Washington (2-0 W)
Game 2 - Washington at Boston (1-2 OTL)
Game 3 - Washington at Montreal (4-3 SOW)
Game 4 - Washington at NY Islanders (3-1 W)
Game 5 - Washington at Carolina (3-4 SOL)
Game 6 - Boston at Washington (2-1 SOW)
Game 7 - NY Islanders at Washington (6-2 W)
Carolina finished well out of the playoff picture last season, at 26th in the league, with 71 points. Boston, as already discussed, had 96 and was one game behind Calgary, but they were also not in the playoffs. Montreal kicked ass last year, finishing with 110 points, good for second in the league. The Islanders finished with 101 points, as did the Caps, and we saw and beat them in 7 games in the playoffs last season in the first round.
Still - third in the league, both in points and in goal differential is nothing to sneeze at. No, we didn't score at the prodigious rate that the Red Wings did, or even at the prodigious rate we normally do - but pre-season is for looking at the kids who will be seasoning in Hershey, and if they didn't score, it's not the end of the world.
So, who did score?
Tom Wilson opened up the scoring against Carolina in game one. His goal was enough, although Derek Roy (who would not ultimately make the roster) also scored to make the win a shutout. The goalies, Holtbeast (who started) and Ellis (who finished) split the game. 2-0 Win
In game two against the Bruins, it was Nate Schmidt who lit the lamp. It was enough to take the Caps into overtime, where David Pastrnak would score his second of the game 12 seconds in to hand the Caps their first loss of the pre-season. 2-1 OT Loss
Game three, against Les Habitants, was a minor scoring fest on both sides. The ultimate 4-3 victory was brought about thanks to Andre Burakovsky, T.J. Oshie, Alex Ovechkin, and in the shootout, T.J. Oshie again. Oshie, as we will see, is a shootout beast. Our old friend Tomas Fleischmann scored for the Canadiens, and did win himself a roster spot, so we'll be seeing him this season a couple of times... My "hockey crush" on Flash notwithstanding, I hope he plays well for the Habs - unless they're playing us! 4-3 Shootout Win
Game four, wherein we faced last season's demonous Islanders, was another win, this time 3-1, with Sean Collins (no, not that one, the other one!), Andre Burakovsky, and Karl Alzner providing the Caps' offense. 3-1 Win
Game five, wherein the Caps faced the Hurricanes a second time, took us to the shootout, where the Caps (backstopped by non-roster goaltender Justin Peters) would fall, but not before Alex Ovechkin, Stan Galiev, and Michael Latta would score in regulation time. Shootout hero T.J. Oshie's one shootout goal wouldn't be enough, and in four rounds, Jeff Skinner and Nathan Gerbe both scored for Carolina. I'm pretty sure losing to the Hurricanes was a big part of what cost Justin Peters his roster spot... that, and the thought that he wouldn't be claimed off waivers, unlike Grubauer if we sent him down... 4-3 Shootout Loss
Game six, the Caps' second outing against the Bruins, saw Alex Ovechkin tie the game late in the 3rd period, and T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov both scoring shootout goals to get the Caps the 2-1 victory in the gimmick that we aren't supposed to see that many of this season thanks to the new 3-on-3 OT format. More on that later, too. 2-1 Shootout Win
Finally, we come to game seven. The Caps played the Islanders. No. Not played. The Caps feasted on the Islanders. OK, the Isles weren't playing their starters. But still. T.J. Oshie would connect first, followed by Jay Beagle, Evgeny Kuznetsov, John Carlson, and Alex Ovechkin (twice) would finish it off with his first multi-goal game of the pre-season (and hopefully one of many once we start playing for real!) 6-2 Win
How Many Goals?
Ovechkin -5
Kuznetsov - 2
Burakovsky - 2
Oshie - 2 (+3 in the shootout!)
Beagle - 1
Carlson - 1
Alzner - 1
Wilson - 1
Schmidt - 1
--------------
Collins - 1
Roy - 1
Ovechkin has one guy who got the same number of goals as he did this pre-season... That's Anton Lander from Edmonton.
Who in the hell is Anton Lander???
In 132 games played in the NHL (all for Edmonton, since 2011-12), Anton Lander has a whopping 8 goals. Eight. He almost beat his own career record in the pre-season! He also played in 6 games to Ovi's 5. But, he got an assist, giving him 6 points in 6 games.
I'm impressed at this guy coming out of the woodwork like this. And yes, he made the team this year. Good for him! Edmonton played scary well this pre-season. We'll see how they come out when the games really count.
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