Nicklas Backstrom

Ovie’s Back! Caps Beat Bolts 3-1!

Alex Ovechkin Scores on a Breakaway, Beats Antero Niittymaki

Alex Ovechkin's gonna eat yo face! (Photos by Mike Carlson)

Some of the Caps’ best games this season have been against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and tonight was no exception. Marking Captain Alexander Ovechkin‘s return after suspension, tonight’s bout with the Bolts gave us hits, goals, fights, and — for once– a team that looked truly solid.

Goals from Tomas Fleischmann, the Russian Machine himself, and Alex Semin lifted the Caps above the Tampa Bay team, but the glory of the win must belong to the most excellent Jose Theodore. Stopping all but one of the 34 shots aimed at his net, Jose made tonight’s 3-1 victory possible.

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By Peter Hassett 11 years ago

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Caps Stun Blackhawks in OT, Overcome 3 Goal Deficit & Ovechkin Ejection. No One In DC Surprised.

Oops. Russian Machine made a boo boo. (AP Photo)

Oops. Russian Machine screw up big time. (AP Photo)

At around 2:00pm, after Alex Ovechkin was tossed and Chicago was starting the third period with a 3-0 lead, I got a call from RMNB lead writer Peter Hassett who’s currently spending his last day in California for a weekend wedding. He said and I quote:

“I thought the Tampa Bay Game was the disaster game of the season. I guess it’s this one now.”

I reminded him that there was still 1 full period of play left- which is a lot of time for the Capitals even without Ovechkin – and that Chicago blew a similar 3-0 lead to the Flyers the day before. Undeterred, Peter replied “Dude, It’s Over.”

So of course, the Capitals were victorious and won in Overtime over a stunned Chicago Blackhawks team, 4-3. SORRY PETER. We’re just going to warn you now, we’re not in the mood for happy bullets.

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By Ian Oland 11 years ago

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Wednesday Webhits - Who's going to bring home the Gold

It’s Wednesday, so it’s time for another Wednesday Webhits! The big topic of the week is obviously the Winter Olympics, and Puck Prospectus has given us a nice break-down of the top four Olympic hockey teams from a statistical perspective. And don’t worry, this post is not all about international competition, as we also take a look at the top scoring blue lines in the NHL, the top individual scorers (naturally with a healthy Washington presence), and – in a follow-up to a link from last week – what the optimal shift length should be. (Take note Sashas)

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By 11 years ago

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Lost in Russia: Alexandre Volchkov

Alexandre Volchokov: We'll Never Forget. (RMNB Graphic)

Alexandre Volchokov. Hopefully the beard symbolizes maturity. (RMNB Graphic)

Widely regarded as one of the biggest busts in NHL history, Alexandre Volchkov was the Washington Capitals 4th Overall Selection in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft. Then he proceeded to play in only 3 games for the NHL Club, never registering a single point. For those whose memory of Volchkov is fuzzy, let’s let the wonderful Wikipedia fill in those blanks:

“Volchkov was a talented right-winger who put up impressive offensive numbers while playing junior hockey for the Barrie Colts. Washington management were well aware of Volchkov’s attitude issues, but decided that his talent overshadowed any potential problems. Offensively gifted, the enigmatic Volchkov never reached his potential as a pro due to his poor attitude. In one incident while playing with the Capitals’ minor league affiliate Portland Pirates, he walked out on the team during a playoff game.

Having had enough of his poor attitude and chronic underachieving, the Capitals traded Volchkov to the Edmonton Oilers on February 4, 2000, for a fourth round draft pick, but he never played with the parent club. Former Oilers’ GM Kevin Lowe, then the team’s coach, recalled his first training camp meeting with Volchkov in which the player insisted on being referred to as ‘The Volch-inator‘. After just twenty-five games with the Oilers’ minor league affiliate Hamilton Bulldogs, team management soured on his poor attitude, and he returned to play in Russia.”

Where’s The Volch-inator now? Surprisingly he’s still playing hockey! We had Fedor search through a bunch of Russian and Belarus websites. And this is what he found.

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By Ian Oland 11 years ago

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Caps Beat Thrashers 5-2! Number 13, Baby!

Ovechkin Scores League Leading Goal Number 39 Against The Trashers

John Erskine Rocks Chris Thorburn's World (AP Photo/Nick Wass) (Top: Mitchell Layton/NHLI via Getty Images)

Greetings from Arctic Frederick, Maryland. From deep within our carbon-neutral geodesic dome, the RMNB staff watched tonight’s date with Atlanta Thrashers with a subdued passion. Sure, the Thrashers are fighting for a playoff spot, but they also just lost superstar Ilya Kovalchuk in a radical trade to the Devils. So while this game didn’t have the same drama as others lately, it did present a degree of mystery.

Mystery solved. The Caps turned in an even performance for two periods before heating up in the third. Your standard goal scorers Ovie and Backy were joined by Jason Chimera, Mike Green, and even the bipolar Alexander Semin on the scoreboard tonight. Netminder little Mikey Neuvirth turned in an A+ effort to keep the Thrashers to two. Even John Erskine had a great night, making hay out of Chris Thorburn’s brainpan. And if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that the Caps scored five goals again, ensuring free wings from Glory Days for the 10th time. Now all the ticketholders have to do is survive the epic snowstorm hovering over the tri-state area.

Instead of teasing the bullet points, here’s a secret: blogatrician Ian Oland has a crush on CSN’s Lisa Hillary.

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By Peter Hassett 11 years ago

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Nick Backstrom Close to Signing 7-10 Year Extension Per Expressen.se

Nicklas Backstrom is close to a new deal. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Nicklas Backstrom wants to dominate in DC Long Term. The Russian Machine approves. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Nicklas Backstrom is probably the best center in hockey now, but we’ve been worried about what will become of him next season. Well, not anymore.

As Swedish site Expressen.se reports, Backstrom is very close to a new deal with the Caps, in which the details are being finalized now. According to the Swedes, the Caps will retain Backstrom for 7-10 years, earning 5.5 to 6 million per year. Backstrom’s agent characterizes the deal:

You should understand that the new contract must match the level of a player who will become a superstar.

Express.en says the deal is close to being done and should be finalized this week. If it’s not, the Russian Machine is prepared to scribble the thing out in Sharpie pen and run the contract over to Backy’s house ourself.

By Ian Oland 11 years ago

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Caps Beat Rangers 6-5! Ovechkin Becomes First Russian to Get 500 Points in First Five Seasons.

Alex Ovechkin shoots through a maze of Rangers and Capitals players

Alex Ovechkin Is Party Now. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) (Top: Scott Levy/NHLI via Getty Images)

[Ed. note- two big, honkin chunks of news about Semyon Varlamov and Nicklas Backstrom are broken below!]

(Hold on a second. I need to pop a handful of beta-blockers before I’m calm enough to write about this game rodeo.)

Alright. The New York Rangers looked like they could be the team to end the storied streak of hockey this year. Not the Capitals 12 wins in a row; I’m talking about my still-undefeated Russian Machine “Ovie’s bedroom eyes” shirt (now 10-0-0). Congratulations to all other lucky shirts out there as well. Eh, @ngreenberg?.

The Rangers were a driven team at MSG tonight. Led by the scary fast Marián Gáborík, they looked like they could score every time they were in the offensive zone. Now we know how every other team’s fans feel. The Rangers effortlessly scored on their first three power plays and led the Caps for all but ten seconds in the first two periods.

I’ll be honest: there were moments of doubt. Other Caps fans must have felt fleeting flashes of lapsed faith, too, but then we remembered who we’re dealing with. The Capitals of 2010 are the deepest team in the NHL. If there’s a crisis, all they need to do is summon one of their many miracle workers. Tonight it was unconquerable D-man, Tom Poti. Tom delivered the tying goal less than a minute into the third period, and Nicklas Backstrom followed him five minutes later with the game winner. The Caps would hold on to win their 12th game in a row. Tonight marks the first time in over a decade that a team has strung together that many wins.

Folks, I’m burying the lede. The big story tonight is Alexander Ovechkin scoring his 500th career point. He is only the ninth player to do so in his first five season, and the very first Russian on the list. And AO did so in his typically pivotal fashion– closing a two-goal gap at the end of the second period. Without that performance, this game would have been over.

We’ve got some big news for you behind the jump. Come on feel the noise.

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By Peter Hassett 11 years ago

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Wednesday Webhits: The Frost King’s Links Of The Week

This week we’ve got a some more on how the points system effects scoring, whether a goalie should be credited more for making those “big saves”, the top individual players in the power-rankings, and who should be chosen for the All-Star team.

Leverage, Pre- and Post-Lockout

http://www.behindthenethockey.com/2010/2/2/1221771/leverage-pre-and-post-lockout

“Leverage is a concept that gets used a lot in baseball – it’s essentially the probability of winning at a given point in a game. In hockey, unlike baseball, teams are awarded a point for losing, so leverage actually captures not winning percentage, but the expected number of points a team can expect in the standings given the score and the time remaining in the game…

What I want to draw your attention to is the difference between the two charts. In particular, there is a significant leverage difference in tie games:

Basically, the “loser point” has completely changed third-period incentives. Giving up a tie-breaking goal in the last five minutes of the game is now approximately one quarter point more costly than it was before the lockout, while scoring that same goal is worth one quarter point less than it was before. NHL teams are obviously aware of these incentives, and it should come as no surprise that a record high percentage of games have been tied at the end of regulation time this season. I know of no other sport that works like post-lockout hockey – as long as teams don’t decide to game system any more than they already do, it can probably continue. But the incentive is to play for the tie whenever you can, and the system can easily fall completely out of its unsteady equilibrium.”

I know I’m beating a dead horse on this, but the system is bad.

The Hogwash of “Big Saves”

http://brodeurisafraud.blogspot.com/2010/02/hogwash-of-big-saves.html

“If there exist some goals that are unstoppable and a goalie can’t predict his team’s future offence, which are two basic assumptions that obviously hold in hockey, there really is very little opportunity for a goalie to mess with the scoreline without costing his team. And that is why attempts to explain away poor individual save statistics with references to a goalie’s win total are just biased nonsense.

Long story short, the next time you hear an announcer say something like, “It’s not how many saves you make, it’s when you make them”, what he’s actually telling you is, “I have no idea how to separate the contribution of a goalie from the contribution of the rest of the team.””

Player Power Rankings: Miller Time

http://www.puckprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=448

Ovie stays at #4, where he’s been for a while. He’s the top non-goalie in the ranking at 21 Goals Versus Threshold.

“Nothing says success like a 10-game winning streak, and the most comforting thing for the Capitals is that it’s not all Ovechkin. While the captain has an impressive 18 points over those nine games, that still leaves 27 goals on which he wasn’t involved.”

Howe and Why: The 2010 All-Stars

http://www.puckprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=442

Mike Green was ranked as the Easterns Conference’s top defenseman, and second in the NHL behind Chicago’s Duncan Keith. Three Capitals made it amongst the forwards, with Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Semin all ranked in the top 7.

By 11 years ago

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11! Caps Beat Bruins 4-1 To Break Consecutive Wins Record!

First, a little mood music:

Now, where were we? Ah yes. The Washington Capitals have just broken the consecutive win record set by Craig “Pig Pile” Laughlin and the the 1983-1984 team. It’s a historic night for the organization, the boys, their dads, the coach, and their fans. But it would not have been possible without the marvelous game given to us tonight.

The Bruins have been bruised this season. Their reputation for low scores and anemic defense might have lu11ed some into false optimism, but not us. We know how Boston wanted badly to end their losing streak, and they sure showed that passion in the first period. The visiting Caps trailed 1-0 going into the first intermission, and the fans were already atwitter with bad tidings. Someone must have said something stirring in the locker room, as the Caps of the 2nd and 3rd periods were a who11y different creature: one with hustle and an unerring determination to win. Mike Knuble, Brooks Laich, and Boyd Gordon scored crucial goals that propped up the team for this momentous win. Caps beat Bruins 4-1.

God help us; they’re going to celebrate in New York City. Bu11ets!

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By Peter Hassett 11 years ago

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Ninepeat! Caps Beat Panthers 4-1. Mike Green Okay After Knee-To-Knee Hit.

Matt Bradley Checks a Florida Panthers Player Hard Into The Glass

Mike Green tumbles to the ice after knee-to-knee hit. (Photos via AP)

Mike Green tumbles to the ice after knee-to-knee hit from Dmitry Kulikov. (Photos via AP)

It would be one thing if the Caps squeaked another narrow win to keep their 9-game streak alive. It’s another thing entirely when the Caps secure that win in another blowout and without the presence of any their typical superstar antics. The 4-1 victory over the Florida (America’s groin) Panthers is owed mostly to garbage man Mike Knuble, who continues to find ways to score that look horrible in a highlight reel. So although the streak continues, this fan’s worries abound.

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty.

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By Peter Hassett 11 years ago

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