To be honest, the Pens-Caps rivalry feels less relevant now than it has since the pre-Ovechkin/Crosby years. The Capitals, who were always thisclose to being a championship team, have been in a backslide since last season, and their identity as the Southeast team with the dominant scorers that no one wants to play looks to have been usurped by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Of course, no one has been more emblematic of the Caps' regression to the pack than Ovie, who has had one of the most inexplicable falls from grace that I've seen from an NHL superstar. Once clearly a top two player in the league, he is now dangerously close to "enigmatic Russian scorer" territory, and there's no clear reason why. The Caps are on their third coach in as many years, and Adam Oates has led them to a disappointing 2-5-1 record thus far, maybe because he's instructed his players to pass the puck at every chance, and only to shoot if there is absolutely no other option. (***ADAM OATES HUMOR***)
From Right to Left: Adam Oates, DAN LACOUTURE, Jaromir Jagr.
Regardless of their place in the standings, we fully expect the Caps to bring their best to the table tonight. We expect Ovechkin to land a big hit at some point, and to spend every power play skating around the top of the left circle with his stick half-cocked, waiting for a one-timer feed to hammer past Fleury. We expect Mike Green to make a couple nice offsenive plays and more than a couple embarrassing defensive lapses. We expect the ghost of Mike Knuble to tip in some ugly, tide-turning goal.
The Penguins enter the game riding high off of consecutive division wins against the Rangers and Devils in which we outscored our opponents by a combined score of 8-1. Here are some trends to keep track of this afternoon and moving on:
- Crosby showed up yesterday against New Jersey in a huge way. His snipe job on a 2-on-1 with Dupuis was incredible, but I preferred his assist on the Pens' final goal, where he muscled Krys Barch (cool name spelling, bro) of the puck behind the net and sent a perfect no-look pass to the point for Robert Bortuzzo's first NHL goal. Sid loves playing against the Caps, and here's hoping he's locked in and ready to start climbing the league leaders board
- The platoon situation is paying early dividends. After a rough showing from Fleury against the Islanders, Vokoun righted the shift with a near-flawless performance against the Rangers. He was a black hole, sucking in every puck sent his way and giving up no rebounds. Fleury was strong yesterday when he needed to be (which wasn't often), and the only goal he gave up was the result of his defense (in the person of, for some reason, Malkin) leaving him out to dry. Vokoun will be between the pipes against his old team, and let's all agree to put the goaltending controversy to bed for a while and just enjoy the wonderful sensation of having an elite backup.
- The defense has been in flux, but seems to be taking form. The entire corps looked great yesterday, allowing only 16 shots on net and blocking 14 in all. By now, we know what we're getting from our top guys, especially Orpik (who has been blocking everything in sight) and Letang (who continues to outskate everyone on the ice), but it looks like it's going to be impossible to stem the youth movement encroaching on the sixth d-man spot, with Despres and Bortuzzo making strong claims to what was once (it seems so long ago now) Ben Lovejoy's spot in the lineup. Both are huge (they're listed as an identical 6'4" and 215 pounds) and strong with the puck, and have made enough good plays to compensate for their to-be-expected rookie miscues. More importantly, both seem to be at that point in their development where they need exposure at the NHL level more than anything else. If one or both of them are going to be regular contributors to the Pens this year, it's out-of-the-pan-into-the-fire time. If there's a silver lining to the Niskanen injury, it's that it has forced Bylsma's hand, pressing the young fellas into extended duty earlier than perhaps expected.
- Hey, speaking of, I wonder if either of these young fellas could man the point on the power play. After Malkin's non-effort on the Devils' short-handed goal yesterday, I think the need for two defensemen at the point is unavoidable. Bortuzzo's slapshot looked pretty healthy, or at least healthy enough to get through Marty Brodeur, and let's not discount. The most glaring hole on the team - yes, more glaring than the need for a couple of top-six forwards - is the lack of a guy who can put a hard slapshot on the net. This is kind of a useful thing to have on the power play, especially when you've got Kunitz screening the goalie, and Crosby and Neal fishing for rebounds. If we can add this weapon to our arsenal simply by promoting one of our rookies into a quarterback role, the team will become much more dangerous. It's certainly worth kicking the tires. If not, something tells me we could talk the Isles into dumping Lubomir Visnosky on us. Lu-bo-mir! Lu-bo-mir!
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