October 2, 2007
Your Nation’s (Washington) Capitals, and a few Ex-Caps
Well, no last-minute trades from the Caps this time (despite rumblings as far up as Ted’s Take that a last-minute trade might be in the works), but they were fair to the kids; Steve Eminger goes on the injured reserve to free the last roster spot, which means that Steckel, Green, and Schultz all get to stay; Schultz still has a thing or two to prove if the pulse of the Caps’ blog community is to be believed, but both Steckel and Green really worked for it and had fantastic training camps. I’m glad to see all three of them on the roster, and I hope that their rising fortunes will help float the Caps to a playoff spot this season.
Now that Steckel has made the roster, it will be interesting to see how they use him. In preseason, the Caps seemed to bring Gordon on pretty frequently for defensive-zone faceoffs, but Steckel is apparently equally talented on the draw; I’d be willing to bet that on that alone he gets to see a little time on the penalty kill than he would normally if he is, in fact, the fourth line center.
Green has been a fantastic offensive defenseman, and seems to really have some good hockey smarts; he’s able to take a forward position when he gets out of the penalty box without a problem, and that kind of jump is going to make him a great scoring threat both even strength and on the power play. Look for him to get a bunch of goals over the course of the season just catching teams off-balance on line changes; I think he has the vision and the skills to surprise a lot of teams this season who may be expecting a less dangerous defenseman in the spot.
The other thing that’s been surprising about the last couple of days has been the volume of well wishes sent Ben Clymer’s way on the message boards and blogs since he cleared waivers and was assigned to Hershey. He’s a grinder, and he played a big part in the Caps’ rebuilding; his demotion to the AHL is a good sign for the team, as it means the talent is finally deep enough on the NHL club that the bubble players are going to slip to where they’d be on a lot of other NHL teams, but he’ll be fantastic to hold onto for depth (assuming he’d ever clear waivers on the way back up), and there’s absolutely no ill will towards him by the fans for failing to make the team this season.
The Caps also bid a more final farewell to Jakub Klepis, who, in the absence of a contract from the team, simply failed to impress enough in camp to earn a spot on the team now that it’s more talent-heavy. Since he was unsigned, look for him to move over to Europe, or perhaps to another NHL team that’s a little thirstier for depth players. Best of luck to him, wherever he moves to.
The difference between making it and not making it at the highest professional level is so small; I wish the best of luck to the guys who are going to the AHL for more playing time, and I hope they can impress enough to merit the second look they all so desperately want, and to the players moving over to Europe, which can only be considered a failure if you think that being in the top 0.2% of players in the world instead of the top .1% means a whole lot in the great scheme of things. Of course just as much to the guys who have earned their shot and now need to come out every night in the NHL and prove that they deserve to be there every shift of every game.
Filed under: Hockey
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I think the Caps have the potential to be the dark horse in the Southeast Division this year.
Of course, one can argue that there is no real front-runner in the division.
From my point of view:
ATL-
In order to be successful, Lehtonen must be a brick wall and the rookies (Little, Sterling, Popovic, and Enstrom) must perform quite well.
As always, Kovalchuk and Hossa should combine for at least 75 goals; however, if they don’t, it might be a long year in Hotlanta.
CAR-
If Cam Ward can play to the ability we know he can, the Hurricanes should be fine. Peter Laviolette’s blue line is healthy again, and Eric Staal is another year older.
I’ve seen many predictions putting this team winning the division and some that have them in the abyss of the conference. Who knows?
FLA-
I think Jacques Martin did an excellent job with restructing this team. Bringing in Vokoun to “replace” Luongo’s absence is key, and probably puts this team on par with Tampa in regards to stability.
The question still remains, are enough pieces there to get playoff-virgin Olli Jokinen and Company into May and June hockey?
I don’t think so, but I won’t count them out.
TB-
Lecavlier. St. Louis. Richards. Boyle.
Same stuff, different year. Still no goaltending unless Karri Ramo comes in and performs like Patrick Roy circa 1984-85.
Finally, WSH-
With Nylander feeding pucks to Ovechkin I find it hard to believe he won’t win the Rocket Richard this year.
The Caps offense will be solid with Semin and Backstrom in the mix.
The question for Glen Hanlon’s team is, how will the defense hold up?
I predict the SE Division will look like this on April 5, 2008:
1-Florida
2-Atlanta
3-Carolina
4-Washington
5-Tampa Bay
Call me crazy, but this is what I’m feeling three hours before the puck drops!
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Interesting analysis, Jeff. Not sure how closely you’ve followed the Caps, but all appearances are that Nylander will pivot the second line with Semin and Backstrom. Not sure how long the lines will hold, but Hanlon seems to like an OV-Kozlov combo on the first line.