An Underwhelming Start to the Season
Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog — Two games in and the Avalanche are snake bitten with an 0-2 record after losses to Edmonton and Boston. Not exactly the start we were all hoping for but exactly the start many pundits expected. And boy do I hate when pundits are proved right. Especially after saying they were wrong. ...

Thursday Roundup/Gamenight: Caps @ Pens
Japers' Rink — [image] [ NHL.com Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview ] Hey, it's the Penguins. Killer. I could make a crack about Sidney Crosby 's 41-point pace . Or comment on how horrid their power play has been through four games. Or how Marc-Andre Fleury has already seen far more rubber than any other goalie in the League. But these are the Penguins. You know who they really are (hint: who you think they are , of course) and what they can do, especially when they are, um, due. And while it's hard to make much of anything of early numbers (a wise man noted that we don't know anything about anything ), a few early data points ...

Friday Roundup
Japers' Rink — [image] Here's a stat for you: prior to last night's action, the Caps had taken the seventh-most minor penalties per game in the League at 5.8 . Here's another: prior to last night's action, the Caps had the 19th-rated penalty kill in the League at 78.8% . And here's what happens when you put them together: no team in the League with a worse penalty kill than the Caps' takes as many minor penalties as the boys in red, white and blue - the team is taking a ton of penalties and not doing a terribly good job of killing them off. So far this season, the Caps power play has been mediocre. The goaltending has been fair. But if this team's looking for a quick fix improvement (and ...

Tuesday Roundup/Gamenight: Caps @ Sens
Japers' Rink — [image] [ AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview ] A week ago today, we mentioned that Alex Ovechkin 's two-game absence from the Caps lineup presented opportunity aplenty for both the Caps and AO. Some players took advantage (at least for one night). Others did not . Now we'll see if the Great Eight can himself make the most of the opportunity to once again show everyone in the League why he is the reigning MVP and get his game, and more imporantly the Caps season (too dramatic?), back on track. And what better team for Ovechkin to face in this effort than the Ottawa Senators, a squad he positively torched last season to the tune of six ...

Alright! Michel Ouellet clears re-entry waivers!
Waiting For Stanley — The Canucks have called up the skilled forward from Manitoba and he has surprisingly cleared re-entry waivers. I didn't think he'd go un-claimed. In 10 games with the Moose this season, Ouellet has 4 goals and 10 points. What's not to like? He is leading the team in points. So does that mean that Jason Krog is out of the Canucks' lineup tonight? Krog was replacing the injured Jannik Hansen last game. Maybe Mike Brown sits? I don't think the Canucks have lost anyone else have they? Doubt it. On to tonight's game against the Predators. A disturbing stat from Canucks.com: After three power play goals allowed to the Red Wings on Sunday, the Canucks ...

Thursday Roundup/Gamenight: 'Canes @ Caps
Japers' Rink — [image] [ AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview ] Ah, the Southeast Division. If the Caps were in the Atlantic and facing the division leader tonight, a loss would drop them to eleven points out of first place. In the Pacific, a similar hypothetical would find them an even dozen points out of the top spot. In the Northeast, another loss would have the Caps sitting in the division's basement. But not in the Southeast, baby. With a loss tonight, the Caps would be a half-dozen points out of first place, and with a win? Second place, just one win out of first. For all the mediocrity we're seen out of the Caps so far this year - an MVP scoring champ who can't score, a ...

Saturday Roundup/Gamenight: Rangers @ Caps
Japers' Rink — [image] [ AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview ] No more Jagr. No more Avery. Can you really still hate the Rangers? You're damn right you can (and if you need a new reason why, here are a couple ). The Rangers come into tonight's game with the most wins in the Eastern Conference , a 4-1-1 record on the road, a miserly 2.12 team goals against average (thanks to an eye-popping 90.3% effective penalty kill ), a born-again Nikolai Zherdev and a brick wall named Henrik Lundqvist (who is 5-1-0/1.82/.936 in his last six games). Against that stout team defense, the Caps will ice a squad that has scored four goals in its last ...

Monday Roundup/Gamenight: Bolts @ Capslightn
Japers' Rink — [image] [ AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview ] It's hard to recall a game in which the starting netminder match-up was of as much interest to Caps fans as tonight's tilt between the Bolts and the host Capitals. For the locals, the question of who the number one goalie is hasn't been as unclear as it is currently since, well, the guy who will likely be between the pipes at the other end of the ice tonight lost his last job, and it makes for a somewhat difficult decision for head coach Bruce Boudreau - if he starts Brent Johnson , it will be four straight starts for B.J. with a likely tougher opponent (Carolina on the road) looming on Wednesday night before a weekend ...

Friday Roundup/Gamenight: Devils @ Caps
Japers' Rink — [image] [ AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview ] Uh oh. Here come the Devils and... Scott Clemmensen ? Perhaps Lou Lamoriello went to Brent Sutter and said, "Give this start to Clemmensen. I want reliable people, people who aren't going to be carried away. After all we're not murderers in spite of what this undertaker thinks." Or not. If you're not familiar with Clemmensen, here's a look at the 31-year-old's career stats (he has actually played in three games against the Caps, starting two, and going 1-1-0/2.61/.893). If you're not familiar with why Kevin Weekes isn't starting, here's a look at his stats on the season (plus, the two were ...

Canucks' D a bit banged up and sick heading into Pittsburgh
Waiting For Stanley — ... the Canucks and Penguins have the same goals-per-game average of 3.10. -The Canucks have the edge on the Pens in goals against per game and sit at 4th best in the NHL. Luongo's shutout streak didn't hurt that! -The Canucks are 2nd best in the NHL 5-on-5 (Boston is first) while the Penguins are 8th best. -I thought the Penguins' power play would be better this year, but it sits at 14th, while the Canucks are 18th. -Penalty kill efficiency: advantage Pittsburgh -Shots per game average: advantage Pittsburgh...barely -Shots ...

Monday Roundup/Gamenight: Caps @ Wild
Japers' Rink — [image] [ AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview ] The last time the Caps and Wild hooked up, it was just hours after the trade deadline last February, and Brooks Laich 's two-goal/two-assist performance paced the Caps in a game that produced one of the year's great hockey photos and the host's third win in four all-time meetings between the teams at the V.C. In Minnesota, however, the story has been quite different, with Washington going 0-3-1 while scoring just three goals getting shutout twice against the Wild. In fact, the Caps haven't won in Minny since February 9, 1993 (when Nicklas Backstrom was five years old and Niklas Backstrom was ...

Canucks-Flames preview
Waiting For Stanley — I like the attitude of Ryan Johnson. When asked if he will change his game when he comes back 3-5 weeks from now, as he has a broken finger and foot, he said "No." Johnson is a gutsy, character guy. He will be hard to replace. Alexandre Bolduc will try to fill Johnson's role the best he can. “Here, I’m not going to try to do anything crazy, I’m going to play my game, play it safe,” said Bolduc. “Not get noticed in a bad way, keep it simple and go from there. “I think there are lot of guys they could have called up from our team, we’re on a roll right now. Ryan Johnson is a defensive guy and they wanted someone who could fill that role, so I’m just going ...

Special Teams Trends
Japers' Rink — ... But as good as the power play has been, the penalty kill has been nearly as bad, allowing at least one goal in six straight and nine of the last ten games, and has dropped to 25th in the League. ...

Canucks have to take down the Wild tonight
Waiting For Stanley — ...not only because they can retake possession of first spot in the Northwest Division, but also because he longer this losing streak goes the harder it is on player and team chemistry and morale. I'm not feeling overly confident in the Canucks' abilities to play a tight 60 minutes at this point. I'm also not overly confident in the abilities of Sanford or Schneider. Both have played well, there is no doubt, but they need to steal a game at some point. And to continue the broken record.... the players in front of them need to tighten up defensively. 5 goals scored against the Wings is great, but not when you allow 6 against. -The Wild are coming off a 4-0 win over the Blues ...

Preview: Toronto Maple Leafs vs. New York Islanders
Lighthouse Hockey — [Editor's note: For some bottom-of-the-standings fun, I asked PPP at Leafs blog Pension Plan Puppets to give us a preview of tonight's game from the Leafs fan perspective. His is below, while he accepted my rambling over there.] Hi, I'm PPP. You might know me from SBN's Maple Leafs site Pension Plan Puppets or possibly from the Battle of Ontario where I  moonlight as a senators antagonist. Dominik asked to give you guys a preview of tonight's game and it's not good for the Leafs. Which means that it's really good for the Leafs! Confused? You won't be for long. You initial confusion is probably because the 'rebuilding' on ...

Saturday Roundup - Gameday: Caps @ Flyers
Japers' Rink — ... circled this one back in July, and it's good to see that Bruce Boudreau isn't even trying to pretend "it's just another game" - it's a biggie. The Flyers come into the game with an impressive 10-4-3 home record (and an even more impressive 8-0-2 mark in their last ten at the Bank du Jour Center), and are scoring bushels of goals, thanks to the League's third-best power play (which has been 35.7% successful at home) and a League-leading twelve shorthanded goals (making going up against their seventh-rated penalty kill all the ...

Monday Roundup
Japers' Rink — ... exceptional five-on-five and good on both special teams should have a pretty good record. If not, they're underachieving. By the same token, a team that is lousy on special teams and bad five-on-five but somehow has managed a .500 record is overavchieving. In both cases, the likelihood of a regression to their expected points percentage would be likely, all else equal. Jumping right into it, we'll ranks the 30 teams in five-on-five ratio, power play percentage and penalty kill percentage, add 'em up, and spit out a cumulative ranking (I think ...

Your Best Penalty Killer
Japers' Rink — ... As cliche as it is, there's truth to the old hockey-ism that in order to survive shorthanded, a team's goalie must be its best penalty killer. Given how poorly the Caps' penalty kill has performed on the season, one would assume that their goaltenders haven't been up to the task when a man (or men) down. Let's take a closer look at that assumption. ...

Tuesday Roundup - Gamenight: Caps @ Rangers
Japers' Rink — ... and the rest of their penalty kill. To put a fine point on that last, um, point, Henrik Lundqvist has a far better save percentage 4-on-5 (.915) than Jose Theodore has 5-on-5 (.886). That's not good. ...

We should be able to beat a slumping Senators team, right?
Waiting For Stanley — The Senators have lost the first 2 games of their season-high 8-game road trip, a 6-3 loss to Calgary last night and a 6-4 loss to Flyers on the 23rd. Ottawa has not won a game on the road in 11 games now (0-9-2). However the Canucks have lost 3 of their last 4 games and are taking a lot of penalties in the process. -Ottawa is 29th overall in goals per game ...

Unsurprising Stats Of The Day
Japers' Rink — ... and noted that the Caps penalty kill (which is still ranked a disappointing 23rd overall) has surrendered just one goal over the last three games. Gabby was quick to give just as much credit to the team's discipline as he was to the penalty killers, it seemed: ...

The "Models of Inconsistency" return home to dance with the Stars tonight
Waiting For Stanley — Both the Stars and Canucks are coming off disappointing losses. The Stars played catch up against the Oilers last night but failed 4-1. Coach Dave Tippett called it a "slap in the face to his team." He singled out Marty Turco for letting in 2 soft goals. When the Canucks lost 2-1 in a shootout to the Thrashers a couple nights ago, he called out Wellwood, Raymond and Bernier for lack of production. There is no problems with the Sedins right now. From Canucks.com: Daniel Sedin, who leads Vancouver with 19 goals and 41 points, had a goal and two assists against Atlanta, and has two goals and four assists over the last four games. Henrik Sedin, who registered two goals and an assist on Friday, ...

Trying to stay positive about the Canucks (5 stages)
Waiting For Stanley — I had a great sleep last night and have completely calmed down after the disheartening 6-4 loss to the Blues last night, and I have come to the following conclusions: 1. Sundin is going to be taking a lot of heat in this city and world-wide not only until he gets his game back, but also when the team wins at a more consistent level. It looks as though it's going to take him several games to compete at that level. Patience is required here. He was mostly to blame for 2 of the Blues' goals because of a lousy line change and an unfortunate slashing penalty. Had the Blues defenders' stick not broken, Sundin was playing at a level where he could have either scored or set up the ...

Two Point Friday
Japers' Rink — ... Today we'll throw the 23rd-ranked penalty kill out for discussion, because while it may very well be the team's biggest problem spot right now, the answers are by no means obvious. ...

Saturday Roundup - Gamenight: Bruins @ Caps
Japers' Rink — ... Tomas Fleischmann, Jeff Schultz and John Erskine, among others), while the Bruins have been bitten by the injury bug (losing Patrice Bergeron, Phil Kessel, Milan "I Love" Lucic in the interim). But the juggernaut that is the 2008-09 Boston Bruins seemingly cannot be stopped. They're second in the League in goals per game and first in goals against average. They're killing it on the power play, penalty kill and five-on-five, and haven't lost on the road since... the last time they ...

Monday Roundup - Gameday: Caps @ Isles
Japers' Rink — ... This has to stop - Ovechkin needs to be able to continue to play his game and the Caps need to be able to keep their pourous penalty kill off the ice as much as possible. ...

Canucks-Blackhawks Game Preview: Updated until game time
Nucks Misconduct — ... This is concerning. The Canucks are playing better lately, and finally won a game over the Hurricanes on Tuesday. But there are still too many holes in their game. They not only blew a 2-0 lead, but they also have not solved their penalty killing woes, which has dropped to 23rd in the NHL.  The Blackhawks have so much fire power up that if the Canucks don't get their PK in order it could get ugly on Saturday night. ...

Suddenly hot Canucks look to beat Desert Dogs
Nucks Misconduct — ... A loss by Vancouver in regulation means they will fall to 9th spot as the Oilers have more wins. So it's going to be a playoff-like game. For a team that has the same amount of wins as us, the Coyotes suck in most of the significant categories:   They rank 20th or worse in the following categories: Goals per game: 25th Goals against per game: 21st 5 on 5: 28th Power Play efficiency: 29th PK efficiency: 21st Shots per game: 27th Shots against per game: 25th ...

Game Day - Avs @ Caps
Japers' Rink — [AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview] If you're searching for the Colorado Avalanche in the League standings tables, you may want to save yourself some time and start looking from the bottom up. Injuries, mediocre goaltending and a lack of scoring depth have conspired to have the Avs possibly headed for their first losing season since moving to Denver. Their power play has been bad, their penalty kill worse, and they've been terrible at five-aside as well. They've been decent at home, but ...

Game Day - Thrashers @ Capitals
Japers' Rink — ... and penalty kill in the League (though, interestingly, they have been better in almost every aspect of the game away from home), and have already suffered through four losing streaks of four or more games this season. Just the kind of team that's likely to give the Caps trouble? Maybe. After all, Boston awaits on Saturday. ...

Game Day - Hurricanes @ Capitals
Japers' Rink — ... three head-to-heads in four games the two teams had back in late January of 2007, but it's still more than enough time for these pseudo-rivals to get plenty reacquainted. How are our old buddies from N.C. doing these days? Well, they're fighting for their playoff lives, and not doing a great job of it. They're in the bottom half of the League in goals per game and goals against average, five-on-five ratio, power play percentage and penalty kill, and have lost to Ottawa and Atlanta (and beaten Buffalo) in the ...

The Return of Buttercup: Canucks/Wild Game Thread
Nucks Misconduct — ... and the league's best PK (remember the good old days when that slot used to be Vancouver's? They're 21st by the way). Backstrom is the real deal, ranking fourth best in the league in both ...

Game Day - Capitals @ Predators
Japers' Rink — ... and a great group of mostly young blueliners) and, as mentioned above, have been scoring in bushels lately. Their penalty kill has been outstanding, and while ...

Canucks vs Ducks (Uh-oh, not another game against a non-playoff team)
Nucks Misconduct — ... and 24 shots in his last 21 games. Does Woody have any finish left in him? Keep in mind that Mattias Ohlund only needs 1 more point to break the Canucks' points record by a defenceman. COMPARATIVE STATS -The Canucks have scored more goals per game on average than the Ducks. -The Canucks have allowed fewer goals per game than Anaheim. -Vancouver is also: better 5 on 5, a fair bit worse on the power play, barely worse at killing penalties, get less shots per game,  and, by a slim ...

The Caps And Penalty Plus-Minus
Japers' Rink — With the Caps on Day Two of a two-games-in-ten-days stretch, it's time to focus in on the big issues facing the team as the playoffs loom, and near the top of that list, of course, is discipline. Peerless made the point recently that the Caps' penalty killing woes are exacerbated by the fact that they've been shorthanded way too often (with nearly 10% of the scheduled yet to be played, they've already had to kill more penalties this season than they had all of last season), and that the team's lethal ...

Canucks vs Stars Pre Game / Game Thread
Nucks Misconduct — ... bottle of "cheer my ass up." The Stars have gone through too much adversity this season.   -The Avery incident. -The crucial loss of the heart and soul and captain of the team due to a major knee injury: Brendan Morrow. -The extended loss of Sergei Zubov. -The loss of Brad Richards for over a month with a broken wrist. He comes back for one game and then breaks his hand. Done. -The good and bad sides of Marty Turco, -The uncharacteristically terrible special teams. -The Stars lost all 3 road ...

Pre-cap: Capitals vs. Thrashers
Capitals Kremlin — 48-23-8 SE Division Champs, Second in EC vs. 34-39-6 Fourth in SE, 13th in EC The wounds that were inflicted on Sunday have had less than 48 hours to fester and sting a Thrashers team that outplayed the Caps for two periods. It was the classic case of ...

Capitals/Rangers: Opening Thoughts
Japers' Rink — ... The Rangers Power Play. The Caps finished the season in the bottom half of the League in penalty killing, are likely without one of their top two penalty-killing forwards (Boyd Gordon) for at least the beginning of the series, and have been horribly ...

Playoff Teams vs. Non-Playoff Teams
IllegalCurve.com — As the 2009 NHL Playoffs is set to begin tonight, today’s Numbers Game looks at the statistical comparison between teams that qualified for the playoffs and those that did not. As expected, playoff teams scored, on average, 0.24 more goals/game in the East and 0.46 more goals/game in the West.  Playoff teams also had better goals against averages, higher power play and penalty kill percentages, and took more shots per game. Of note, the Rangers, who finished with the 2nd worst G/g in the East (2.44 G/g) and the worst powerplay in the league (13.9%), were well below both the Playoff team and non-playoff team averages. However, those numbers were offset by ...

Knubleve It? Mike's a Cap
Japers' Rink — ... A durable winger. Knuble has played in all 82 games in four of his last five seasons (and that's a fact, not a jinx). A solid defensive forward. Knuble blocked 48 shots last year (11th among NHL wings and more than any Cap forward other than David Steckel), he's only been a minus player once since 2001, and he had 37 takeaways to just 26 giveaways in 2008-09. He even killed more than two minutes of penalties per game last season for the sixth-best PK in the League. A Penguin killer... Knuble has ...