Washington right wing Petr Sykora, who was shaken up midway through the second period on Friday and did not return, skated Saturday morning and is expected to be in the lineup against Atlanta. Also, Ben Clymer, the defenseman-turned-winger who skated several shifts as a defenseman in Friday night’s game, was said to be spending a lot of time skating backwards in Saturday’s pregame skate.
If the Caps were to go with Clymer in their defensive rotation on Saturday, Matt Pettinger could find himself back in the Washington lineup. Pettinger – along with right wing Stephen Peat and defenseman Nolan Yonkman – was a healthy scratch on Friday.
See? Everyone's been saying Biron, but I think it's more Morrisonn that's the laggard right now (and I know he's a young guy, and I want him to do well).
Peat in? I'm catching up to fjc in the prognosticating department
Not odd at all- (and the Caps to the PP already! ).... you do that because the home team gets last change- if they put their best line out, then the Caps' 4th line stays on the ice and wears them down. If they match up against that line to start the game, you put ZOH out as soon as you can, with the Thrash' weaker line on the ice.
"Not odd at all- (and the Caps to the PP already! ).... you do that because the home team gets last change- if they put their best line out, then the Caps' 4th line stays on the ice and wears them down. If they match up against that line to start the game, you put ZOH out as soon as you can, with the Thrash' weaker line on the ice."
Interesting.
Our top line ended up playing against Bondra's line and their best d-pairing, though.
The goal, Joe B. said it was a bad clear by Heward that let Atlanta keep the puck in the zone. Kolzig's under fire, again- just imagine this team with Kovalchuk....
Our top line ended up playing against Bondra's line and their best d-pairing, though.
Chess on ice.
This message has been edited by marc_mehdi on Oct 8, 2005 7:38 PM This message has been edited by marc_mehdi on Oct 8, 2005 7:35 PM This message has been edited by reallycrowesnest on Oct 8, 2005 7:32 PM
No, thanks. And with Lehtonen in goal! I believe we'll face them four more times.
[PS: Sorry, Roger, I had edited your post instead of replying, LOL! I found the first version of your post by clicking like a mad man on the back arrow! It's now fixed.]
This message has been edited by marc_mehdi on Oct 8, 2005 7:41 PM
This morning, I watched the highlights of yesterday's games, and I must say that the goals scored by Kotalik and Afinogenov against the Bruins were beauties! Almost exactly the same goal, except that Kotalik shoots right and Afinogenov shoots left.
Yes, already 9 goals in the Bruins-Pens game. Record to break: 10 goals (Islanders-Sabres on opening night, with one ENG, and Thrashers-Caps yesterday, with 2 ENG).
This message has been edited by marc_mehdi on Oct 8, 2005 9:09 PM
You missed a good scrum, Marc- Kolzig finally had enough, and a Thrash landed in his crease- Olie decked him twice with crosschecks (7-1... Hossa), and then the fights started- Eminger squared off with Petrovicky, got twisted down, and P hit him in the face while he was face down on the ice.... SE got back to his feet and got a few in himself before the refs got them apart. Now, Peat and Sutherby get into it with someone right in front of Dunham, (Sutton took Peat down, right into Dunham)..... more calls, and the Thrash to the PP again. 3:42 left 3rd.
Nothing of the Caps play made any sort of sense tonight.
What also didn't make sense tonight was the bogus charging penalty the refs called on AO (when he knocked the Atlanta defender into Dunham after the whistle).
Had this taken place in the Toronto/Montreal game going on at the same time, that would not have been called.
I actually liked that move, if not the call- the Thrasher Dman (I think it was Havelid) skated in on AO, maybe said something to him, and AO just shouldered him away (and off his feet, right into Dunham). And there is pretty much the answer as to why Ovechkin had so little ice time in the 3rd- when Havelid was on the ice, Ovechkin was not.
Havelid was Ovechkin's shadow all night.
You can see this in the shift charts (and Havelid's super-massive 30:59 TOI. And, by the way, Havelid had 27:48 TOI the first game, doing the same thing); the Caps tried skating with him, they tried waiting for his shift to finish, they tried everything, but couldn't get the guy off the ice when they wanted Ovechkin on.
Havelid is 32, and a veteran; he was perfect in his defense of a rookie. I know hockey's a team game, but I think we're seeing this type of man-to-man coverage more and more (you might not remember that far back, but when the Caps played the Lightning in that last playoffs, every time Calle Johansson hit the ice, Lecavalier and St. Louis did, too- they eventually drove Calle out of the series.) . Every club is now going to expose Ovechkin to this kind of defense (they've just seen 120 minutes of it), and it's up to Hanlon to figure out how to beat it. Cassidy, bless his heart, figured it out in the playoffs- he benched Calle- but I don't think Hanlon has that option. The Caps are going to have to learn how to counter this type of smothering defense, if they want to see improvement.
We shall see.
edit: It will be Malik or Kasparaitis doing this job, Monday afternoon- I'm leaning toward Malik (Kaspar is too prone to take penalties, and may still be recovering from past injuries).
This message has been edited by reallycrowesnest on Oct 9, 2005 6:56 AM
Friday, the defeat was a lot less disheartening, because we scored three goals, and if we don't count the two ENG (especially the third one, for which I blame Hanlon), it was only a 5-3 loss. The kind of defeats we can accept.
Saturday was different. I think that Johnson should have started in goal, or should have replaced Olie at the second intermission. We were trailing 3-1 after two periods, and it was still possible to come back; but just in case the third period turned into a nightmare (that was actually very predictable), it was better to preserve Olie from that, I think, because the previous defeat was enough for him. According to Tarik El-Bashir's last article, though, he's not that affected by the two consecutive Bonzaizations, so perhaps it doesn't matter... But Johnson needs to see some action soon.
This message has been edited by marc_mehdi on Oct 10, 2005 4:49 AM
Current Topic - Game 3 at ATLANTA Thrashers (L 1-8)
And with Lehtonen in goal! I believe we'll face them four more times. 
