Farewell Bruce, Hello Hunter

What’s the first thing I see when I look at my phone this morning? A text from Dad: Bruce out. Hunter in. Immediately I ran to my computer to see if it was really true. Now, I am a big Boudreau fan, actually a huge Boudreau fan. The way he led the Caps on the ‘Cinderella run’ in 07-08 is something that sticks out to me particularly.

It strikes me as a little odd, considering Saturday night I was home watching the game with my dad and he said, “If they lose this game, I bet Bruce is fired.” Of course that immediately sparked a conversation about who would replace him. Dad voted for Dave Tippet (he’s always liked him) but seeing as he’s currently behind the bench in Phoenix, we came to the consensus that Hunter was one of the few options. (Considering we were just grumpy fans sitting at home grumbling, imagine my surprise when I saw the headlines this morning).

So let’s get down to the news.

Dale Hunter, former NHLer and longtime Washington Capital, replaced Bruce Boudreau as the head honcho for the Caps. Hunter spent 19 seasons in the NHL, 12 were spent with Washington. He is the 15^th head coach in Washington’s team history. He will make his debut tomorrow as the Caps host the Blues.

Hunter captained the capitals for five seasons (‘94-’95 to ’98-’99). He is known for a number of things including his work ethic and no-nonsense attitude, but he is most famous for his accumulation of penalty minutes. By the end of his career Hunter tallied 2,003 PIM, the most in Caps history. He is the only player in NHL history to record both 1,000 games and 3, 000 PIM. In addition to holding several capitals records, Hunter is one of the few players in capitals history to have his no. 32 retired.

Hunter, 51, has spent the last 11 years behind the bench for the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. His team won the Memorial Championship in ’04-’05, and he holds the record for getting to 300 and 400 wins the fastest.

This is the second time that the Caps have brought a junior coach from their system to the big league. We’ll see how Hunter does from here on out, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the team will be giving him 110% in no time.

Just in closing, I'd like to say farewell Bruce. You saved our team when it was crumbling around Glen Hanlon. You didn't win us a cup, but I think people should remember you fondly, I know that that this particular caps fan will.

So Classic.

Oh man, what a game. You can say it was not as much of a spectacle as the previous Winter Classics because of the weather, but to me, that made it all the more special. Cate was at the Winter Classic, so I will let her handle how the atmosphere of the whole event was in greater detail, but just from watching on the television I could tell that it was probably awesome to be there, no matter how much water was being dropped from the sky. The thing that pleased me the most was the mass amounts of red that I saw in the stands. Pittsburgh fans are a proud bunch and usually you do not see many of the opposing fans in their seats, but tonight was a much different story. The many loyal fans who were "Rockin' the Red" were just as loud and supportive as the fans in black and gold (oh, and blue for some reason). Pittsburgh fans are known for following their fans around, but we showed that Caps fans can do just the same if not better.

In a night that was all about Sid the Kid vs. the Great 8, how awesome was it that a player who even casual Caps fans don't know ends up being the hero for the boys. Eric Fehr scored two goals in last night's game. It was only his second multi-goal game, the first coming in 2009. The first goal came off a Marc-Andre Fleury "assist" and the second on a breakaway shot that Fehr did not mess around with. Instead of trying to deke out the super quick Fleury, he simply wound up and put it top shelf to help seal the deal for the boys in Red, White, and Blue. Just as a final note, if you listened to the very first episode of our show, I picked Eric Fehr as the breakout player of the year. Loos like someone has a good eye for talent ;)

The biggest aspect of this game was the weather. Shout out to the weather man working for NBC who said the rain would only last "another five minutes" midway through the second period. Way to keep the reputation of the weatherman ALWAYS being wrong alive, sir. Anyhow, the rain did seem to play a major factor in the game. By the start of the third period, the puck had a wake trailing behind it, and players were constantly falling on the ice for no reason. The rain seemed to enhance the rough and tough game that the Caps and Pens always seem to play when the rivals clash. Ovi broke the glass by hitting a Pens defender into it in the first few minutes. Erskine and Rupp scrapped to (in my opinion) an even draw in the first period, and from there, the hits kept on coming. With .6 seconds left on the clock, the Pens kept preventing the faceoff from happening by starting mini-scraps. It seemed as if they could not accept the fact that they had lost a sixth straight to the mighty Capitals in Pittsburgh.

The weather conditions definitely affected the goalies the most, and on this night, the man with the blue number one on his sweater rose to the occasion. Varlamov saved 32 of 33 shots and spearheaded a group that killed off 4 power players for the Pens. The more important thing, however, is that he did not make the key mistake. The same could not be said for Marc-Andre Fleury, who consistently came out of the crease and misplayed the puck. One of those mistakes ultimately led to the loss, as Fleury lost the puck to Marcus Johansson, who then gave it up to Eric Fehr for the easy goal. From all of us Capitals fans, I would like to thank both goalies for their efforts (mishaps?) in the Capitals' win.

One negative that came from this game was not a fault of either team or the weather. It was the NBC camera crew. The camera angles that were being shown to the viewing public were horrendous. I don't know if they got confused on whether or not it was a hockey game or football game or what it was, but they could not figure out that all the fans wanted was the simple side view. Granted, most of the game was presented in this format (as it should be), but they spent much of the game with weird canted angles from far away that made it impossible to see what was going on on the ice. Dumb it down a bit, NBC.

Those retro jerseys were amazing. The white with the red helmet and pants were awesome. I hope the Caps take a note from their rivals and use those jerseys in more games this season and in following years

Final note. Just a shoutout to the crew I watched the victory with and followed that up by beating the beat up and Applebees. Drew and Amy Hallman, Mike, Ryan, and Matty Brown, John Welsh, and Adam "Lucky Retro Jersey" Artuso. With this huge win, the Caps have officially gained their swagger back.

Fury: Unleashed

After the come-from-behind victory against Ottawa to end the miserable 8-game losing streak, I thought that it was almost more important to win the NEXT game after the losing streak had come to an end to start something that the Caps and their fans would be much happier about... a winning streak.

And it looks as though the boys from DC thought so too.

The Capitals dismantled the New Jersey Devils tonight, 5-1. The Caps scored 5 or more goals for the ninth time this year, and the offense looked like it was back to the powerful machine that the Capitals faithful are used to: free-flowing, creative, precise, and nearly unstoppable. Goals were scored by Andrew Gordon (his first NHL goal), Jay Beagle, Jason Chimera, John Carlson, and Mike Knuble. Gordon scored his inaugural goal on a beautiful assist from Marcus Johansson. Beagle's goal came down in the dirty area on a tap in. Chimera scored on a breakaway even while he was being hooked by the NJ defender. Carlson fired an absolute missile past Marty Brodeur after Ovechkin left the puck all alone for number 74, and Knuble tipped-in a rebound late in the game.

My Player of the Game is (much to Catie's delight) John Carlson. He recorded a goal and an assist while maintaining a +4 rating. Plus, his bomb of a goal in the 2nd period had me jumping out my chair and rewinding the DVR multiple times.

The most impressive part of this win to me has been the play of the so-called "no name players". No average non-Caps fan would be able to recognize all the names of the goal scorers, but they all have skills that make the Caps one of the deepest teams in the league. Gordon is known as a natural goal scorer in the AHL (where he has spent most of his career) and Chimera is one of the fastest skaters in the NHL, which allowed him to break away from the defense and put the puck top shelf on the New Jersey net.

But it was not only these men who were making plays for the Caps. Marcus Johansson had a brilliant game. His magnificent, cross-ice assist set up Gordon's goal and he dominated control of the puck, which allowed for him to set up other teammates for some easy chances, especially in the 2nd period. Matthieu Perreault played his usual high-energy role, getting into the dirty areas and helping to set up his line mates, Brooks Laich and Mike Knuble. The defense as a whole, including Neuvirth, also stepped up and did not allow an early goal, which it had been susceptible to do not only during the losing streak, but all season.

The play of the guys on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lines took pressure off the Capitals' superstars, who as a whole did not have the spectacular game that is expected out of them on a daily basis. Towards the end of the game, they started to gain some of their swagger, but none of the big name players (Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin, Green) scored, something that should still concern Caps fans going into the two match-ups with the rival Penguins within the next two weeks. Alex Semin in particular played absolutely horrible. I realize that he has been out for 3 games, but he just looked lost and did not look like he was putting in a lot of effort throughout the entire game. The other Alex, Alexander Ovechkin has only scored 2 goals in his last 18 games. If he does not get back on track, the Capitals will have a tougher time keeping the wins coming. Another small area of concern has to be the power play. The Capitals had all of their opportunities killed off in this game, something that can absolutely not happen in the next couple of games. If the boys do not capitalize on the man-up opportunities against the better teams in the league, they will have a much harder time winning.

The play of the Capitals tonight gave fans, especially this one, much more hope for the near future. After watching this dominating performance on both ends of the ice, I know that the Caps are indeed back to their winning ways and that the teams that are on the schedule in the near future (I'm looking at you Montreal and Pittsburgh) are going to have to fear the most potent attack in the NHL. Were back, baby.

Told Ya

Okay so I know I haven't been on here to post in a while, the middle of the semester is always the hardest time to get other things done. The last time I posted almost every Caps fans was starting to worry. The offense, especially the power play, was non existent, and the boys in red, white and blue had just been embarrassed twice by Tim "Super Human" Thomas. Even the games the the Caps WERE winning were always very close.

But now, all is well.

Since then, the Caps have won 7 of 8, their only loss coming to Minnesota, the second game of a back-to-back in which the Caps had to travel from Washington to Minnesota overnight. They have also won 5 straight, including a great come from behind win last night against a gritty NY Rangers team in which the Caps did not hold a lead until Matt Hendricks' goal midway through the third period.

There have also been many other noteworthy accomplishments during this 8 game span. The Caps have outscored opponents 33-19. They have won two more overtime games against Atlanta and Philadelphia (they haven't lost in overtime this season) and won their first shoot out of the year against Toronto (hear Steve Kolbe's call of the shootout here: http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?intcmpid=nav-video-main). They pitched their first shutout of the season against division rival Carolina, and exposed Tim Thomas for 3 goals before he was pulled in a 5-3 Capitals victory. October's Rookie of the Month Michal Neuvirth continues to play like a seasoned veteran. He leads the entire NHL with 9 wins and is currently holding a 2.46 GAA and a .912 Save Percentage.

The Caps need to keep the momentum going with two games against a sizzling Tampa Bay team in the next two and a half weeks. In that time span, the Caps also face Atlanta and Buffalo each twice, as well as games against Philadelphia and New Jersey, two teams who will look to get back at the Caps after being beaten by them earlier in the year.

DON'T FREAK OUT!

Okay, so our mighty Capitals, the President's Trophy Winners of yesteryear by absolutely dominating the league, just got dismantled twice in a row by the boys from Beantown. Were currently sixth in the East and 11th in the league! We did win four straight but they weren't blowouts and two went to overtime! WHAT IS GOING ON?

Before anyone goes and has a heart-attack, heed these words: Its early. Its VERY early. They've only been playing for two weeks. There are 75 games to go. One loss came against a fired-up Atlanta team on their home ice on opening night, who were fighting for a fallen teammate, and ultimately were probably underestimated. The other two losses came against a Bruins team that was led by a machine of a netminder with a number 30 on its sweater and the name Tim Thomas. Take Game 4 for example. Going into Game 4, Thomas had a .979 save percentage and was allowing 0.67 GOALS A GAME. Then he goes out and makes some ridiculous saves. Brooks Laich and Mike Knuble should have both had 2 goals to their credit by the end of this. None of the Bruins four goals came against a full strength side. Three were on the power play (the Caps had killed ALL of their penalties in the previous 6 games, so you can't ask for much more) and one was against a Caps line that was out on the ice way too long. The Caps don't meet with Boston again until November 5th, so they have time to get a little scoring punch going before they meet with the mighty Thomas once again, and by then, maybe Thomas, who is 36 years old, cools down a bit, a la Halak in the Eastern Conference Finals last year. Our next five games are against Atlanta at home, three road games against the Hurricanes, Minnesota, and Calgary, and then back home against Toronto before Boston comes to town. If the Caps can shape up before that suddenly big match-up, they can easily hand it to the boys from Beantown.

On a slight side note, the one thing fans can worry about is penalties. The Caps are 7th-worst in the league with a 105 penalty minutes. So far the PK unit has been near perfect (minus that blip in Boston), but it wont stay like that. The boys in red, white and blue need to be a bit more disciplined.

Rough and Tough Capitals?

The Caps showed that not only can they pack a powerful offensive punch, but they can also pack a pretty powerful fighting punch as well. During the third period of the 7-2 onslaught of New Jersey on Saturday, the Devils started to become a tad "chippy", but the boys in red, white, and blue responded well. Jason Chimera, Matt Bradley, Matt Hendrix, and even MIKE GREEN got in tussles with Devils' players, and there was even a big scrum after a New Jersey player targeted 20-year old young gun Marcus Johansson (Green and recent rich boy Ilya Kovalchuk more or less skated in a circle, but hey, it counts). This was an early test of toughness against a Capitals team that has not been known for their toughness in recent history, and they came out and proved themselves to not only the Devils but the rest of the teams in the NHL looking for some way to slow down the Caps. I personally hope this is a thing we see more often with the team, although maybe not with guys like Green (leave the fighting to the fighters). Comment and let me know what you think.

Side Note: All of this fighting went on WITHOUT DJ King, the enforcer signed by the Caps to give them a little toughness. He was scratched for this game, but everyone knows he'll be suiting up the next time these two teams take the ice.