So I Heard That Strasburg Kid is Pretty Good

He was throwing a no-no before he got the hook the other day. Can't wait for that Reds series in June when he should debut at Nattos Park. Going into May the Nats are only a half game out of first and a game out of the wild card. Dunner came through in the clutch at the Wrigley matinee yesterday with the game winning homer. The Hershey Bears, how about them? Still on their way to the Calder!

Ok last night was pretty bad. The entire series was really, but game 7 was the icing on the cake. Halak was good again, but not game 6 good and very beatable. I know crazies are going to want to blow up the team, but we have to wait to get all of the information out. Something was very, very wrong this series, and I don't trust the media around DC enough with their coverage. If Portis gets a cold it leads off the evening news, but no one can seem to explain what exactly happened to the Caps. Boudreau doesn't need to go. He took over a team in disarray, led them on a miracle run to the playoffs, got knocked out by the refs the next year, and then won the President's trophy before he has had three full years. Give him another year and if a similar collapse occurs, then we need to move on. In the meantime, there is no one to replace him and I won't give up on him yet.


People are blaming Green, which is ridiculous. He didn't play great, but he is young and full of talent. That penalty last night was dumb, but a lot of guys on the team made stupid plays throughout the series. Backstrom petered off towards the end as well, Semin was more of a detriment than anything else, Fleischmann was over his head, and even Captain America Carlson who is everyone's darling was to blame on the second goal last night. (On a reverse angle of the play he gave up and it was his man who scored.) I have been for trading Semin for over a year, but we won't even get market value after his abysmal performance this series. Other than him, wholesale changes on a President's trophy team are ludicrous, something happened that we do not know about. In all seriousness the Hershey Bears do look good this year and we have an overflowing pipeline of talent coming up to an already great hockey team that just couldn't do it this year. If we are saying the same thing a year from now, we have to look elsewhere. The future is still bright, even though the present is painful. Nothing has changed since two weeks ago other than another painful loss to add to the Caps history. This chapter is done, but not the story.


Same goes for OV. Anyone that says that Crosby is clearly the best in the world now clearly knows nothing about hockey. If OV's goal isn't disallowed by an over-zealous ref, the game turns the Caps favor and we are talking about Philly now. Because that did not happen now he is a lesser player? If Semin manages to score two goals in the series after a season where he averaged a goal every other game and the Caps move on, then OV is the best again, but not right now? Come on. He was the sole focus of Montreal's stifling defense (40 plus blocked shots last night alone) and the Caps needed someone else to step up. No one else did. 3 goals in 3 games, one goal in 33 power plays is a team where no one else stepped up to supplement the team's leading scorer when he was the focus of the Habs defense. And OV has a long time to go, he isn't even 25 yet. Lemieux played 7 years before he sniffed a playoff game and he was pretty good. OV is the Barry Sanders of his league, and I'm not even ready to call Crosby any Emmit Smith. Sanders was always the better player, playoff records be damned.


This season I blogged about a lot of the injustices against the Caps; unwarranted suspensions, trumped-up steroids allegations, and league office smear campaigns and biases. Leave it to the league to tie a nice bow around the theme I was hoping would not prevail. I have the tape right here, 5:55 in, and Knuble was not in the crease on OV's called back goal until after the puck passes. Rule 78.5 disallows a goal "when an attacking player has interfered with a goalie in his goalie crease." This did not happen, Halak stretched to make the save freely and missed, and just when Verizon had started rocking without any Tom Green or Axl Rose prompting, the Caps responded legitimately. And the league all to happily took it all away without even glimpsing at a replay in a game 7 with no other games happening in the league. That would have been a different period and game, but we will never know now. It never should have come down to it in a game 7, but it did. The Caps dug their own grave, the NHL front office again was only to happy to nail shut the coffin.


I still think last year's loss to the Pens was more painful because it was a consistent fleecing by the refs. I bet Super Bowl 18 stung pretty bad, I was 3 and don't really remember, but a Lombardi from the year before probably eased the pain. But this series is one of the top 5 lowest moments in an increasingly depressing history of sports thus far in this town. But this Stasburg kid looks good.

Four Goals to Philly

The good news is if the Caps play like they did last night in game 7 they will probably win. The bad news is if Halak plays like he did in game 6 the Caps will definitely lose. The guy was great last night, you have to tip your hat to him, but the Caps helped him out more than a little. Someone needs to tell Semin not to aim for the H on Halak's jersey or go completely wide of the net. Fleischmann had four-fifths of the net wide open and put it in between the big C on #41's jersey. OV whiffed on a backhand attempt off a backhand on the breakaway. All a 5 on 3 resulted in was some boring passing and a deflated team. And Morrisonn just got robbed, it was a hell of a play, and Halak deserved his standing O. I'm not panicked or discouraged, but of course I am worried. Halak has had 90 saves in two games, but he also in net games 2 and 3 and was more than human. Even if we can get him to play in between those two extremes, the Caps should win at home.

This series could have been over if the Caps came to play in Game 1, instead they needed to adjust. Halak was good in game 5, but nowhere near as lights out as we was last night. If the Caps could have just gone 10% on the power play this series, it would be over. Instead we are one for thirty. If Semin could have showed up for any of these games or at least not hurt more than he has helped it could be over. Everyone is riding Green, but at least he is playing some defense. Fleischmann is all of a sudden completely worthless. And OV has not had one of his transcendent games that have spoiled DC in his career here since the Olympic break. If any one of these things had happened in game 1, 5, or 6, this series would be over. If one of them happens in game 7, we can still win. If Halak can not be Superman three games in a row, we wait for Philly to make it down 95. Don't panic, just worry.

But the time for excuses has come and gone. The Philly series two years ago was lost because the Caps had to win 10 of 11 just to be able to play them and were burned out. Pittsburgh had a top 5 team in the league last year, and the Caps were good enough to beat them but not the refs as well. (And just in case anyone thinks I am just a bitter Caps fan I am, and I won't forget that travesty. I won't forget game 1, Semin slashed by Orpik, pushes back, Semin goes to box. Game 2, Kunitz crosschecks Varly across the neck, no penalty. Game 3, Jurcina cross-checked into the net by Kunitz, called for delay of game instead of a cross-check, or the blatant interference of Boyd Gordon along the boards that allowed Malkin to corral the puck and score in overtime. I won't go past game 3, or Pittsburgh's more damning version of Spygate, or the fact that the Caps have been called for more or equal penalties in that series the last fifteen games. But if you flip a coin 15 times, the chances of it landing on heads every time is 1 in 32,000.) The point is the Caps got better, and are now good enough to take on the refs and the Pens at the same time. We may not have that chance now because they did not come to play in game 1 this year, game 5 was not all that much better, and game 6 Halak was hot, and our "young gun" sharpshooters didn't do a whole lot to cool him down. If one of these guys came alive last night, its a whole new game.

Its ok, because they still can. Four goals should finally put the Habs away. This should already have been wrapped up, but here we are. We won't have our best defensive defenseman now that Poti is out for a few weeks. Alzner is getting called up again, and I feel okay pairing him with Carlson, they did fine in Hershey together. The Habs aren't scared but are clearly frustrated as illustrated by their diving Crosby impressions that finally got called last night. Varly doesn't look invincible anymore, but neither of the Caps goalies looked that way coming in. (And I would go back to a fresh Theodore for Game 7.) Things don't look as rosy as they did games 1 or 5, but the Caps are still the better team and should win. No more exscuses. The "young guns" have the talent, they just need to translate it through effort to the scoreboard. This team is too good to let fatigue, refs, or hot goalies bring them down. Its their time to do great things, they just need to finally believe and finish what they have started.

What's a 3-1 Lead Without Some Negativity?

The Caps are getting boring. The Canadien fans booed the national anthem again, Varly still looks like the hottest goalie in the playoffs thus far (where did Ryan Miller go,) the penalty kill still has more goals in this series than the power play but it doesn't matter, and Ovechkin is still the greatest player in the game. Lets talk about how great the guy is when utilized by a competent coach like Boudreau. While 25 games is a small sample, he currently has the highest goal per game average in the playoffs in the history of the NHL. Higher than Gretzky, Howe, Lemieux, Orr, Richards, anyone. He isn't sitting by the goal waiting for chip shots. He is 8th in the playoffs in hits while no one else in the top twenty has more than one goal. By the time OV and this dynasty in the making is done, he could be the greatest of all time. But that is looking a ways down the line. All we need is fair officiating.


One Cap who will not be amongst the greatest of all time is "Mr. Irrelevant" Alex Semin. He has always been a selfish player, and he would be invisible on the ice if not for his mistakes almost adversely effecting the Caps. His laziness was apparent in game 3, and if not for Boyd Gordon again, he could have cost us one more. He was the guy who lazily did not get off the ice and got the 6 man penalty called against us. Gordon and Knuble scored the short-handed goal to turn the tide and drive the stake through the heart of the Habs, but that game could have been in peril because of Semin's handling of the puck in an attempt to pad his stats. He eventually did with an assist to OV's second goal. But look at the tape, he was poke-checked by Gill, and a fortuitous bounce had the puck land on the stick of someone who knows what to do with it. Boudreau gave the team today off (a lot of respect for the Habs at Kettler apparently,) but I would have made Semin practice by himself. Lets just hope we trade him next year before his contract runs out and get something for him. He's a forty goal scorer so he has to be valuable for someone but unfortunately, not the Caps.


Speaking of next year and negativity, the Redskins still play soon. The schedule coming out further dampened any hope of this not being a rebuilding year for the burgundy and gold. McNabb is great, and I think they will draft Williams to protect his blindside, so he should make it through at least ten games. It would be nice to already have someone there so we can grab Berry, but we can't always get what we want, we have to draft what we need. The Skins play 7 teams with 11 wins last year. Optimistically, that gets us to 2-5. There are 6 teams with records ranging from 7-9 to 9-7, and if we split that gives us a 5-8 record. We play three crap teams (one of whom we lost to in Detroit last year) and if we sweep those we are at 8-8 and out of the playoffs. I think 3-13 is just as plausible with an older and injury-prone team. If there is any way to trade that fourth overall pick for multiples they need to do it and hope some tackles get cut by teams around June. If we can get a second round pick this year for Haynesworth great, but if the Lions want him, get their first next year. It will still be high, and coupled with what should be another bad year for the Skins, you have two top ten picks next year to get your QB of the future. I don't know what next year's QB class will look like, but I am sure Kiper will have a list out on Sunday morning.


Or how about this scenario? The Steelers want to trade Big Ben because they are a classy organization (unlike their cross-town crony crybabies.) Snyder has no class, so why not get the guy and hire someone to keep him away from underage girls at bars? I am ready to write off next year, so his six game suspension doesn't mean a whole lot, especially with a competent QB like Campbell if we don't trade him away for an insignificant fifth-rounder. Trade him for McNabb, getting a youthful guy who is tough enough to stand behind the Skins line after crashing into guardrails already, swap first round picks, and pick up a second or third while you are at it. If you can slide Haynesworth in there somewhere, you turn the Steelers into a Super Bowl contender, and the Skins could be competitive in 2012. I'm being serious, the 10 year stink of Cerrato doesn't wash off in a few months. An offensive tackle is the smart choice, but not a guarantee. Boswell, the Ovechkin of the Post, had an amazing stat: if you take every first to fourth overall pick from 1980 through 2004 totalling one hundred players, 39 NEVER made one Pro Bowl. (Paging Mr. Shuler and Mr. Westbrook.) If there are no moves towards the future and no football in 2011, the Nats have a better chance of making the playoffs before the Skins. Yeah I said it, mark it on your calendars, April 22cnd, 2010.



That is if anyone comes to see them. They have had the two lowest attendance numbers in the history of Nattos park two out of the past three games. Granted, those two days fell on Caps playoff games. I may be one of the bigger Nats fans in town, but if I had free tickets for those $330 seats behind home plate for a Rockies game in April and the Caps were playing pivotal playoff hockey on the road, I would be planted firmly on my couch. The Nats can't complain, they have had back to back 100 loss seasons, and as the Redskins need to see, Rome wasn't built in a day. Ticket sales are actually up, with an average of 20,143 through the first nine games compared to 19,803 for last year, and when some of these games are sandwiched between 10-0 deficits 3 innings in, Nationals park is clearly a third-rate ticket compared to the rest of DC sports. They are currently the fourth-best team in the NL, and if they can play .500 ball into June when our starting rotation should be both healthy and stocked with Strasburg, this town will get excited for a possible winner. Right now, owner Mark Lerner is even ignoring the games in DC to go up to Harrisburg to watch Strasburg in AA rather than his own team's games so you can't really blame the fans right now for no-showng as well. It is just impossible to beat the Caps right now. This could be one of the greatest teams in the history of DC sports. Sorry I hadn't talked Nattos or Skins in a while, but the Caps are just too good not to gloat over right now. Lets hope they finish off the Habs Friday and take a week to relax for the Carter and Gagne-less Flyers.

This Is What We Expected

While giving up a 3 goal lead in game 2 had to be demoralizing for the Habs, game 3 might be the nail in the coffin for their psyches. The Habs came out and played their best period of hockey this series in the first and it netted them nothing. The Caps are back. The defense held tight finally overwhelming with the backcheck, and the unknowns (outside of DC) came up with the offense as the Habs concentrated on Ovechkin. There is a reason Boudreau won coach of the year before he even coached a full season in the NHL, and McPhee should be the executive of the year after this run. I would have gone with Theodore tonight, but Varly was obviously the right choice; he was stunning. I didn't understand why Steckel was a healthy scratch; he was our best player game 1 and has been shut down on the penalty kill. (And is our key to beating the Pens and the refs if it comes to that.) But Boudreau made the gut decision to go with Boyd Gordon on the fourth line, and was rewarded with a shorthanded goal and 13 for 15 from the circle. McPhee bringing in the depth to be able to make these switches mid-series is huge. Chimera is the best mid-season pickup, turning into our own Avery or Barnaby, except with more speed and class without the dirtiness.

The Caps hits are wearing the undersized Habs down more game by game. The only thing the Caps led in any statistical category in the first period was hits at a 15-7 clip. The results came in the second with the four goal onslaught and 4 minutes of penalty time alone to a frustrated Plakanec. That's the second game in a row one of their top-liners has gone away for a significant chunk of time. OV has been neutralized (by OV standards, he still scored a goal,) but Montreal's top liners all had a -4 rating tonight. Boudreau made the adjustments with the players McPhee got for him, and those two should share the hard hat for the night.

And the Caps are not even playing their best hockey. They were dominated in the first, and the Canadiens still couldn't get a lead. OV was neutralized, and Semin continues to prove that Backstrom's extension should have been hammered out well before his. He stopped short of preventing a Caps icing for fear of getting hit. OV gave him a perfect pass to a wide open net that he flubbed. Green is finally playing defense, but his offense is still AWOL. OV had only one shot but made it count, so flummoxing the Canadian scoreboard guy they put the goal up for the Canadiens. (I know the Canadians have a propensity for cheating but even the refs noticed that.)And currently, the number one power play in the league has less goals than the penalty killing unit. (0-7 tonight, 0-14 this series, 0 for the last 21 stretching back to the regular season, and Gordon scored shorthanded tonight.) The Caps are finally jogging, but by no means are they sprinting. They have woken up from the malaise of a team that clinched at least the third seed in early March, and have scored 10 out of the series last 12 goals. They are unbeatable if Varly stays hot and all cylinders start clicking, not just in this series, but the rest of the way. But lets not deal in ifs, lets just win the 14 left and be on with it.

If the Caps keep it up and win game 4 this series is over. Maybe we can get a sneak peak of Hershey for game 5 in DC. I know this would shortchange the fans at Verizon on Friday, but they have an assignment to occupy them. Lets show Canada what a classy hockey town looks like. When O Canada comes on pre-game don't boo like the classless Canadians did tonight amongst chants of "OV Sucks" during the Star Spangled Banner. Cheer for them, they could use the pick-up. They don't have much in Canada besides hockey, and by the looks of tonight's game

and these "die-hard" hockey fans filing out halfway through the third period in a playoff game, that doesn't amount to much either. Its not the first time these people have done this, and it probably won't be the last. They did it across the nation at the Vancouver-LA game as well. I know I have pointed out Canada's intolerance in this blog before, with their history of Nazism and the oppression of all players non-Canadian by the NHL front office. But this is still spilling over as shown in the picture above with the Nazi salute and the angry child in their Canadian garb and actions before the game. Maybe they aren't as classless as Philly fans, right? Wow, you have really hit rock bottom when Flyers fans show you up. I hope we beat these SOBs a combined 20-0 for number 14 and 13 on the hit list.

What, Me Worry?

Game two was tense at 4-1, but not worrisome. Its all about perspective, and if you needed to get at least four goals at that point in the game would you have picked any other team in the league other than the Caps to get it? They are still the best offense in the league, and just as a 2-0 lead should be safe for the Sabres with Ryan Miller, a 4-1 lead late in the second just isn't safe against the Caps. Unfortunately for the Sabres in their game 2, Miller did give that lead up letting in 5 in a loss. Maybe the Caps offense is a little more valuable then the best goaltender in the league, even in the playoffs. And maybe people should stop writing off the Caps as another great regular season team with a great offense that can't produce in the offseason. They came through after we spotted two goals before some people had taken their seats.

Speaking of which, someone should check and make sure Theodore doesn't have any outstanding gambling debts to any bookies that may have bet on that game. I know he took two good, hard shots, but they were open shots and in the playoffs those are the easy ones. The screened shots and the chip shots from the crease when the goalie is on his belly with 400 lbs of defenseman on top of him are the hard saves. Nonetheless I would start him in Montreal. There is no way he can possibly play worse, and Varly's 19 save performance wasn't illuminating. (Its kind of like Jeff Hostetler in Super Bowl 25. You could have had Phil Simms play instead, and it really would not have mattered with Scott Norwood on the other sideline.) I think the real goalie controversy may be Halak or Price. This is the best chance to go back to him, so give Theo another shot.

The Caps adjusted everything about their game since the first matchup. They started faking shots and making the Habs defenseman drop to defend them before passing or skating around them. They are varying dump and chase with carrying the puck across the blue line, and the rest of the series should be a poker game where the Candiens are guessing and not anticipating as they were in game 1. With the amount of talent the Caps have as shown through the number of offensive opportunities they have had compared to the Habs over the first two games, they can whittle down the Habs proverbial chip stack pretty quickly. On top of this, you could see the Habs physically wearing down over the course of the second period and on due to the Caps advantage in size and brawn. This should continue over the course of the playoffs unless we play the Devils who are our size, or the Pens, who are not allowed to be checked. The Caps will seem even faster in Game 4s compared to Game 1s.

You would think that after two consecutive overtime playoff games the Caps two biggest stars would be worn down a little, but instead of sitting comfortably on a couch while they waited for their press conferences, Backstrom and OV played basketball. Horribly. They should have been wearing Wizards uniforms. Backstrom has an excuse, but OV's mom won a gold medal in basketball. The point is if these guys still have energy after the game, especially all-around OV who had 7 hits just in the first period on his way to a goal and 3 assists, the Habs and the rest of the East should be scared. We are outhitting the Habs, but losing the war of attrition along the boards which leads to 3 goal deficits. Look for that to change as our undersized French-Canadian friends wear down and give up.

While OV adapted his game to assisting and throwing out checks at every opportunity, no one else in red really seemed to get mad and play full-throttle until the score was 4-1. While Backstrom's hat trick was great, clutch Carlson is the man, and the MVP played like one, the biggest Caps contributor on Saturday was big Tom Poti. Everything seemed uninspired until the Habs started to take cheap shots at the Great 8. Poti, who is by no means a fighter, politely asked Gomez to stop. Gomez declined, threw another cheap shot, and Poti pummeled him. Not only did he get one of the better Canadiens out of the game for five minutes, he got the sweater over the head and pounded him, igniting the fans and the Caps en route to one of the better victories in a season full of them at Verizon. Hopefully, he will start clearing the puck out of the defensive zone a little more effectively as well from now on.

(As a side note, the refs have been pretty fair across the board thus far into the playoffs. But in the Poti clip, look at the refs drag OV off the ice as if he was the child of Lucifer that the NHL PR department paints him to be. The Great 8 was the one who took the cheap-shot and is only trying to defend himself and his teammates. If the fight had turned into a brawl it would have been 5 on 4, possibly injuring a Cap for the rest of the run. This is the perfect example of the NHL front office's actions directly spilling out onto the ice.)

Its a five game series now, and the hometown heroes are still the favorites. When they get back to town Wednesday night, lets hope the magic number is down to lucky 13.

Nothing's Changed: Just Need 16

Please dear God no one panic. I know how we are in DC; we all get over-excited and overly concerned. I would even bet there is some Caps fan out there wondering if we should fire Boudreau. Put yourself in the other guys' shoes. You are a Canadiens fan, you speak French, love high taxes, and have nothing to do but hockey. Your team squeaked into the playoffs. You have to feel good, your goalie looked good, your team played absolutely perfectly, and your boy Plekanec talked smack all week and came through in the clutch. You made one of the greatest players ever seem like he had the night off, holding him to zero shots. Now all you have to do is beat the best team in the league 3 out of the next six games by playing exactly the same.




Or perhaps you would feel better in those familiar Caps shoes. Nothing has changed between now and 7 o'clock tax day. You still just have to win 16 games to get what you want. I'll wear the Caps shoes. If I was a Habs fan I really would be ecstatic and enjoy it for tonight, because it is downhill from there. The Caps were sluggish and never really got in gear but it is correctable. All of the over-hyping of the goalies was just that, hype. Theodore had the best game on the team in a losing effort. Unfortunately, Halak had a great game as well. But, how many times do you think the Habs will win when they face 47 shots? I would say one in ten. How many times will OV not get a shot on net? Twice in the 83 he has played this year. The concern was Theodore and he is fine, the Caps don't have too many two goal games. The offense is the same one that has been around all year. The Habs were spectacular, give it to them.

OV is getting smothered, with occasional double teams, just as he has been since the Canadians did it in the Olympics. That means someone is open, get it to them. On the power play, stop focusing on getting it to Ovie at the point, plant Knuble in front of Halak, cycle and shoot. Have OV work on separation. Spacek and Hanirlik match up well against the Great 8, in the November meeting, the two of them combined for 11 blocked shots, 7 against OV. The Canadiens as a team had 29 blocked shots tonight, 9 by Gill. That is how they beat us, so work around it. The Caps need to stop taking dumb penalties, Green's delay of game and Backstrom's cross-check come to mind. The PP is the only way the Habs score. Green needs find the O and D balance again, instead of worrying himself out of position like he did tonight. Fleischmann is a good guy, but Morrison needs to center that 2cnd line. And the Caps need a forecheck beyond Steckel, who led the team in hits with 6.

We were worried about Theodore, he is fine. No one should be worried about the offense, it is not going to disappear for long. We dominated the game except for a few five minute lapses that the Habs sprang on. Its one game, the top seeds lost 5 of 7 so far. Would you rather be the less talented team that barely eked out a win playing perfectly and still need to win 3 against the best team in the league to move on? Or would you rather be the best offensive team in 15 years with a hot goalie who just needs four to move? I think the answer is obvious. And if you really feel down in the dumps remember this; at least you are not a Sharks fan.

Lineups: Picking Out Crooks is Easy

Do you recognize either of the other two men to the left and right? I would venture to say that 9 out of 10 Americans could not name either, and most hockey fans who are not die-hards could not name both. But I will get back to these two gentlemen in a second after a quick rundown of the Caps-Canadiens series. Starting with goaltending, neither team has really seen the other's starters barring an injury relief by Theodore in Montreal where he allowed 4 goals on 25 shots. Goaltending is the Caps biggest weakness and the Habs greatest strength and I would give both Theodore and Halak a B each. The power play is the biggest key to the series, as the Habs have the second best in the league to the Caps, but are dead last in scoring 5 on 5. The Caps are great five on five as evidenced by their relatively (as compared to the rest of their record in 5 on 5 play) poor showing in overtimes during the regular season. Seeing as the Habs outpenalized the Caps in the regular season 20-17, if the refs are instructed by their bosses to remain fair (which is a big if,) the Caps should be ok. As a side note, Fehr is our top goal scorer against the Canadians, and the length of the series hinges on which Alexander Semin decides to show up.

With a healthy Caps team, other than Backstrom's undisclosed injury that was announced today, the Caps should wrap this up in 5 or 6. (Once again I can not stress enough how badly it needs to be in five to make a long successful run this year.) As for the rest of the league, assuming once again there will be fair play, I will give you my predictions. (And by fair I mean not allowing someone who drew an instigator penalty in the last 5 minutes of a game to have their automatic suspension rescinded just because they are a Penguin.) Hopefully this will not be a concern for too long, as I have the Pens going out in the first round to Ottowa who is just a better and hotter team. My other upset in the East is the Flyers over the Devils. It sounds crazy, but they beat them five out of six this year which is crazier. And the Sabres will squeak by the Bruins. Miller can't carry that team forever, and Ottowa will beat the Sabres to play the Caps in the Conference Finals after they throttle the Flyers. The first round of the West is almost chalk, with the one exception being the Wings over the Coyotes. Second round the Canucks beat the Blackhawks and the Red Wings beat the the Sharks. The Cup Finals will pit Vancouver against DC, and unfortunately I have the hometown heroes losing. But I'm not Karnak.

Back to the gentlemen up top who you don't recognize. To left you have Henrik Sedin, who lead the league in points, was drafted 3rd overall behind his twin brother Daniel who plays for the very same team that I have winning the Cup. Sounds like a good story, one would think you would hear more about it, but unfortunately for them they are Swedish so the NHL deems them irrelevant. To the right you have Steven Stamkos who shares the Maurice "Rocket" Richard trophy for most goals this year with Crosby, is not old enough to buy a beer in the US yet, and was drafted first overall. Congratulations to all of these players for beating out Ovechkin for these distinctions. (I am sure that they all could beat him in a fist-fight if OV had one hand tied behind his back as well. Lets keep in mind that the Commissioner and his cronies have kept OV out of ten games this year because of suspensions and injuries taken after allowing other players to take runs at him, and he was still only beaten by a hair. The MVP still clearly resides in DC.) But Stamkos is clearly a young phenom drafted high along with the Sedin brothers, much like the touted Crosby, but Crosby seems to steal the limelight. How could that be?

There is a clear parallel between this and the Masters this weekend. While I do not purport to know anything about golf, I prefer sports instead, it seems to me that Mickelson's win was a great story, but all we have heard about for the last five months is Tiger, Tiger, Tiger! He finished tied for fourth in this "masterful" tournament, and I bet most people would have as difficult of a time picking out the guys who beat or tied Tiger as they would picking out Sedin and Stamkos. All we see are ads of Tiger and Crosby during their respective matches, because golf and hockey have all of their eggs in one basket, and are missing out on the real stories that occur. At least Tiger has earned his reputation, he really is the best golfer in the world. Crosby is not even the best player on his team. Without Malkin, the Pens went 5-9-1 this year, with only 3 of those wins in regulation. Crosby only had three goals and two assists over that 15 game span. Its a good thing the NHL did rescind that suspension against Malkin in the Cup Finals, otherwise they would not have been able to show Crosby hoisting the Cup over and over again. Can you remember who the playoff MVP was? He didn't wear number 87.

These stories are not followed because they don't fit into the NHL's PR machine plan since the day the Princess was drafted. OV was a young phenom, but did not really get league-wide attention until the league made him the ying to Crosby's yang. Stamkos could be a better young phenom than either of them, Patrick Kane is an outstanding young American player on an outstanding team, and the Swedish Sedins were young phenoms before all of them, but they are all ignored because the NHL made their decision of who to hype. Bettman tipped his hand of clear bias two years after he assumed power and installed the "Canadian Assistance Plan," where US teams had to subsidize small Canadian teams and Canadian teams only. This legacy of Canadian bias still lives on today under his rule in the PR department and spills out into the ice.

If you were planning on seeing all of the Caps games nationally broadcast because they are the best team in the league forget it, the four and five seeds in the East have that billing as shown plastered all over NHL.com. The Commissioner didn't even acknowledge the Cap's victory of the President's Cup, instead sending his Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly try to hand it to Ovechkin last week. Maybe Bettman can bend the rules to make it easier to hand over to his favorite star next year instead of moping again like this year. Crosby loves ogling those trophies and disrespecting the game, that crabby integrity guy Ovechkin didn't touch anything prematurely. Its almost like Crosby grabbed the Prince of Wales Trophy knowing the Stanley Cup was already guaranteed to him. Maybe the NHL's commercials had already been filmed.

Don't ruin the playoffs and justified accolades two years in the row to keep "Canada's sport" Canadian, let the script write itself. Bettman as a figurative George Lucas has already painted Ovechkin as a Darth Vader-like character. As much as Bettman wants Crosby to be Luke Skywalker he is more Jar-Jar Binks-ish. Goofy and weird with way to much face time, something created with good intentions but falls way short and detracts from the greatness that came before it. He tied for the Rocket, but he is no MVP. That guy still lives in DC. Maybe OV will hand this trophy over to Semin this year, who with him became the first two Russian teammates to score over 40 goals together. Oh, you didn't hear that story either?.....

Caps Sweep the Refs

The Caps finished up their regular season sweep of the Pens last night and it was sweet. The Caps have been the better team for the past two years now, and it has never been more evident than last night. Every time the Pens tried to claw out of their hole the Caps answered back and in a hurry. After the first period it wasn't even a game. This year they have beat the Pens by coming from behind, in a shoot out, and just plain stomping them in two different 6-3 scores. More encouraging is that they seem to have them figured out. Crosby has been pretty silent this season against the Caps, save a soft goal last night that Varlamov should have gloved. OV's empty-netter to pour in the salt with a grin was the icing on the cake. That was almost as nice as watching Fleury lose his mind on the way out of Mellon in the second period.

The Pens power play that killed us last postseason seems to have been figured out. Putting Steckel at the point to shut down Gonchar led to a 3 for 4 performance on the PK, with the one goal falling squarely on the shoulders of Varlamov. Knuble was a genius pickup by McPhee. He was a Pen killer as a Flyer, and now has at least a goal in every matchup against the Pens while in a red sweater. Finally, Jeff Schultz continues his dominance over the Pens (and the league) with a +5 rating for last night, +12 over the Pens the past 2 years, and a +44 for the league lead this year. McPhee needed to tweak a team that was already better than the Pens to be able to beat the refs as well, and hopefully they can do so if we see them in the playoffs.

I said yesterday that the Caps have had more or equal penalties than the Pens the last 11 times they have met. I missed three games. Including last night, that streak is actually at 15 now. (All four regular season games this year as well as last year and the 7 game playoff series that was decided by NHL brass before the puck dropped in game 1. In other words, this trend has gone on since the Caps got significantly better than the Pens. Since the lockout the Caps were 1-7-1 against the Pens, 7-1-2 regular season under Boudreau.) The Pens can't beat us they can only cheat us. They tried again last night, giving the Pens a four to one advantage in power plays. In fact, because our power play only lasted four seconds, the Pens actually had 101.5 times as much time on the power play as the Caps. That seems pretty fair. They ignored Talbott's elbow to the head of Semin despite the fact that Semin could not get up from the ice for several minutes. The linesman waited several seconds after the high stick to Morrisonn and only called it after he noticed his helmet on the ice. If the Caps ever get the penalties against them called they fare pretty well against the Pens; 50%, or 4 for 8 for the year on their power play.

So maybe this trend is just a fluke, or the Pens are more disciplined than the Caps. Unfortunately for the integrity of the NHL referees and last year's Cup, the numbers don't support this theory. In the last fourteen games against the Pens, the Caps have been whistled 73 times versus the Pens 43 called infractions: the Caps 63% of the time, the Pens just 37%. Lets select three other Caps opponent's last 14 games against us: the Devils who have similar size to the Caps, the Lightning who have similar speed, and the Rangers who also played a seven game series against the Caps where penalties are called less frequently. On average, the Caps are whistled an average of 72 times in a fourteen game span, the other teams 63, for a percentage of 53% to 47%. Does that differential of 6% really blow up to 26% against a team that they clearly dominate? I don't know how much more people need to see that the Pens are clearly the Duke of the NHL and the refs clearly swallow their whistles for them. It appears that McPhee has done enough to get us our two-year long rightful spot in the Cup Finals, we just need to hope the refs don't step up their game.

DC is a Strange Town

Neither picture above is doctored but they both sure seem like it. Somone was already wearing a Skins McNabb jersey at Opening Day yesterday (that still happened,) and you can officially pre-order one off the Redskins website this minute. It will take a while to get used to, but we have to. The picture to the right is a phantom slashing call on Schultz against Matt Cooke who is clearly passing (and surprisingly not taking someones head off illegally in this shot.) We should also talk about Opening Day for the Nats, but lets tackle the Skins first.

Its done, McNoring is a Skin, it is time to move forward and deal with it. I don't think it was a good decision for the Skins, the guy should have been a Viking and that franchise will regret their decision more and more as Favre continues his offseason flip-flops and postseason INTs. I don't think the Skins are Super Bowl contenders, but Shanahan and Allen do, and I am giving them their time to do what they see fit. That is the only explanation for this trade, as well as the Johnson and Parker pick-ups. This is an old team, and they may not even play in 2011 if there is a lock-out. But they still have to build for the future if Shanhan expects to last five years here. I would not be the least bit surprised if they go ahead and pick a QB in the draft anyways, bringing our QB count in DC to a grand total of 6: McNabb, Campbell, Grossman, Brennan, Bartel (who?), and Claussen/McCoy. That is more QBs than starting O-lineman who we are exceedingly thin on. Trade for picks, and sweep the bad taste of the Cerrato era completely under the rug. Apparently Haynesworth and Landry were on the trading block. Get rid of Thomas, Kelly, and one of the TEs to accrue picks along with these guys. Grab Brandon Marshall. And don't get rid of Campbell for nothing. I give the Skins a 2 game improvement with McNabb and a two game improvement with Shanahan to put us around 8-8. With a little luck we might need a decent backup when McNabb goes down if we can make this miracle run that the Skins seem so giddy about right now.

I say 2 game swing with Shanahan, but he is such a vast improvement over Zorn that is being conservative. I love this guy. He identified Campbell's strength as a long ball passer and his inadequacies in the West Coast. Cerrato still hasn't figured that out five years later. He will not commit to a 3-4 defense yet despite hiring Haslett, because he "doesn't know who" he's playing with yet. He is ready to coach to the team's strengths in some areas, and go with what he thinks wins in others. The grimace on his face turns Cowher-esque when Haynesworth comes up. Haynesworth is supposed to be a team leader, but he couldn't bother to show up with the rest of the team for McNabb's press conference. (If Shanahan doesn't like him get rid of him now. Trade, him, cut him, buy him out and figure out a way not to take a cap hit beyond this year. He was the last desperate move by a GM who can't get hired anywhere else so move on. When the St. Louis Rams won't even consider trading anything for him, something is awry.) Finally, Shanahan is a bitter, salty man, He is still angry Al Davis fired him over 15 years ago, and feels he has something to prove still. So let's see him do it. His opening line to McNabb was that "this is a rebirth, which is better than being fired." Translation: Philly hates you, they always did, they fired you, everyone hate me too, lets go prove them wrong. McNabb is not the key pickup, Shanahan is, and I am excited to see what he does.

Lets go to another team that is hated, the Caps. I have documented the bias against them the past two seasons, which have led to a fraudulent Cup, bogus games, and phantom suspensions on a Bellicheck and Tim Donaghy type scale. The picture is just another example. The game against the Pens means nothing tonight, maybe it will effect if we play the Pens in the second round or if they can eek it into the Conference Finals. It would be nice to just try a fair, equitable hockey game for once with the NHL's two hyped stars. Certainly not like the last game where the Pens penalty advantage was five to one. This stretches back eleven games between the two teams, where the Caps have been called for more or equal penalties in each contest. One can argue over which team is more talented, but there is no doubt the Caps are bigger, stronger and faster. So one would think the Pens would need to hook, hold, and interfere a little more, but unfortunately that does not fit into the NHL's marketing plans. The Caps are just too good against everyone this year, even with bad calls and no calls against every team like this one on Perreault that resulted in a penalty on the Cap's Morrisson.

Even though the Caps have overcome this adversity, they are still disrespected throughout the league. While the season is far from over, there has not been one moment where the Caps have not clearly been the best team in the league and deserving of the President's Cup that the league has tried to keep from them but can't. While everyone I have ever known named RJ has been extremely intelligent and charming, unfortunately there is one exception to every rule and Columbus' RJ Umberger is it. These are some of his comments after the Caps victory over the Blue Jackets:

-"They play the wrong way, they want to be moving all the time." (I thought that is how you play.)

-"If you eliminate your turnovers and keep them off the power play, they're going to get frustrated." (In other words, if you play perfect hockey the Caps won't like it.)

-"A good defensive team is going to beat them in the playoffs." (If you can stop the highest scoring team in a decade from scoring you can beat them.)

-"A Western Conference team won't be overwhelmed by them."

The last one is not a problem for a little while but is the most annoying. The Caps have to be sick of hearing that they are good, but just not good enough. Against Western Conference teams who they play once a year and do not scout as heavily, they average 1.28 points (in the standings) per game. That is fourth in the league and good for over a hundred points over the 79 games played thus far. Some say our division is too easy but we can take them out as well. If we had played no one in the Southeast, we are still averaging 1.38 points per game, which is first in the league. Look, no one outside of DC wanted the Caps to be where they are right now but they are. The playoffs are a far cry from the regular season, but I hope the Caps go into the playoffs as not only the best team, but the angriest at the constant slights. They were cheated out of the playoffs last year, they were so good that despite the cheating this year they still are the best, and the cheating in the name of NHL PR will continue into the playoffs. Hopefully they overcome it like they have been doing since October.

Finally, the Nats played yesterday. They aren't really hated by anyone, people just feel sorry for them. They might have been a little salty after the Skins stole their day, but not after the game was actually played. No one missed much. I know that DC is a divisive city and the one thing that pulls everyone together is sports, so I won't go after anyone's politics in particular. But what is the deal with Democrats and baseball? First you have Hillary Clinton switching out her Cubs cap for a Yankee cap when she ran for senator in New York. Yesterday, Obama should not have worn a White Sox cap to throw out the first pitch, it is a breach of baseball etiquette. No one wants to see Obama the fan, they want to see Obama the POTUS. Wear the Nattos gear until you get back to the stands, then you can put on your Sox hat if you like. It turns out he isn't even really a White Sox fan. He joined MASN in the booth, and he had more trouble naming one White Sock than answering how he plans to pay for universal medicare. Its not like Rob Dibble is Bill O'Reilly; Dibble's insightful comment after Obama left was "it cannot be easy to be President, I mean, he's probably on the go all the time." Its great to have MASN back, its going to be a long season.

The More Things Change.....

I said I would give Shanahan and Allen a year or two to get things rolling for the Redskins after eleven years of failure under Snyder, but I have not understood anything they have done since they got here. When they released eleven big name players before free agency I thought they were gutting the team and starting from the ground up. But when you look into our backfield next year and see McNabb, Portis, Johnson, and Parker, it is going to look like the all-decade team for the 2000s as we head into the 2010s. Kind of like when we had the all-decade team of the 1990s, in 2000. I will still give the pair some time, and until I see otherwise, Snyder is always guilty until proven innocent. You just have to decide to rebuild or make a run; with the O-line we have now, we can not make a run in the East. And with tonight's trade, if the Eagles use those picks as wisely as they usually do, we may not be able to make a run for a while.

Of course I hated McNabb, I have railed against him for a while now as a loser who chokes down the stretch. Nothing has changed, but when he puts on the burgundy and gold, of course all Redskin fans should cheer for him. (The only exception to this rule was Deion. I can honestly say I would be more proud to say OJ Simpson was a Redskin then Deion.) But McNoring is not the right choice. Sticking with Campbell was, but he has essentially been shown the door, and it is unfortunate. He gave everything he had, even when his team was crumbling around him both figuratively and literally. He was sacked 23 more times than McNabb the last two years, but still played in every game and finished with a higher completion percentage both years. That has always been my knock on McNabb; besides choking, McNabb has never been an accurate QB with a career 59.0% completion compared to Campbell's lifetime 61.2% with a shoddy line and coaching. McNabb can't get the ball to his receivers as well as Campbell despite the fact that he has been playing in the same system his entire career, while Campbell has had his changed annually. Imagine what Campbell can do with consistent coaching and another 5 years before he hits McNabb's current age.

It is not just that I think Campbell is better. I hate Deion, but at least we didn't give up draft picks in the division to get him. A second and a third or fourth round pick doesn't sound like much, but look at just the histories of just these two teams. Grimm, Mann, Gary Clark, Lohmiller, Tre Johson, Raymer, Stephen Davis, Jansen, Dockery, Smoot, Betts, Cooley, McIntosh, and of course Vinny's 2008 triumvirate of receivers and McNabb's current targets were all drafted in the second or third rounds. In those same rounds the Eagles have drafted McCoy, DeSean Jackson, Westbrook, Trotter, Dawkins all the way back to Chris Carter and Cunningham. All of those opportunities go by the wayside in order to make a run this year, or if we can extend McNabb, next year?

I think most Skins fans will be happy about this, but I can't get on board this move. They will use words like "battle-tested," "proven," and maybe even "great leadership" at McNabb's press conference. And it is true, it has been proven that when big battles test him his great leadership has produced nothing. The Eagles are the Buffalo Bills of the NFC, but at least the Bills got to the Super Bowl. TO got the Eagles there once, and McNabb lost the other four championships. A while ago. The Skins have had eight coaches since McNabb was drafted. McNabb has made 6 pro bowls; a fluke last year when no one else wanted to go, and then you would have to go back to '04. Sine 2003, he has started all 16 games once. Only five QBs older than McNabb will be in February have ever won a Super Bowl; Starr, Unitas, Staubach, Brad Johnson after Snyder booted him for George, and one other guy.

Here is where there is one glimmer of hope. Elway was the oldest guy to win a Lombardi, a constant loser until Shanahan grabbed the reigns and he won when he was 36 and 37. Maybe they think McNabb will work out just as well despite having no line around him. Or maybe McNabb will work out like the last QB the Eagles traded to us, Sonny. But lets face the facts, we worship Jurgensen because he has been such a constant prescence in DC since the 60s, but he was traded to us at 30 ,not McNabb's 33, and posted a 52-49-3 record and won no Lombardi trophies. Lets not let our expectations drop to being ok with playing well even if we do not win rings, that would make us no better than the lowly Eagles fans that we love to mock. I am going to give these new guys some time, and try to be extremely cautiously optimistic. Like how about this: imagine if by some miracle McNabb actually does win a Super Bowl here and all of Philly packs up and moves to Canada in shame? Or, if Snyder keeps grabbing guys like Haynesworth and McNabb who only play half the season sometimes, will he only charge half the price on tickets, merchandise, parking, and hot dogs? Hope abounds everywhere.