Daily Caps: Off to the Wild West

The Washington Capitals begin a 4 game road tour of the Western Conference tonight, starting off with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. The Caps enter the road tour after winning 6 in a row, before falling in a shootout on Saturday to snap the streak. D Mike Green is one guy who is looking forward to see how the Capitals respond on the 4 game swing.

“I think it will be a good challenge for us to go out there and see how well we defend,” said Caps defenseman Mike Green. “We’ve got a lot of stuff going on during the road trip and it’s a good chance for us to gel as a team and win some win hockey games.”

Even after a two day lay off, the Capitals face the road trip with some injury problems, including to leading NHL scorer Alexander Semin. But, in addition, the Capitals have also been missing D Shaone Morrisonn and F Sergei Fedorov. Neither is a guarantee for tonight. Despite winning, Brooks Laich says the Caps have been missing the two veterans …

“We always talk as a team that we want to give up two goals or less per game. It is not, ‘Well, we are missing [Fedorov] and [Morrisonn], so we´re going to give up more,’ ” forward Brooks Laich said. “We´ve got to be accountable — from forwards to defensemen to the goaltender. Everybody has to be accountable.”

So the word for tonight? Morrisonn appears closest, being deemed a game time decision, while Fedorov was put at questionable and Semin as doubtful.
One thing the Caps can take pride in, the fact they are sitting at 10-4-2, 17 games in, despite some injury flare ups. This is a critical road test for the banged up , but energetic Caps. Encouraging is the fact that Alex Ovechkin appears to be seriously heating up, along with C Nicklas Backstrom, the dynamic scoring duo that led the playoff surge last season. It comes at a great time to, when Semin falls to injury.
Tarik in his WED AM article lays out some good questions on how the Capitals move forward, largest one being, who will ultimately seize the job between the pipes. No word yet from Boudreau, but I am hoping, if healthy, Brent Johnson in back in the Net. Why? Because, besides injury, Johnson had done nothing to lose the job, while in my opinion, Jose Theodore has done nothing to win the job. Gotta admit, I will be pretty disappointed if #60 is in net tonight.
He also mentioned two of the most disappointing Caps on the roster — Chris Clark and Michael Nylander. Can you even really tell both are back this season? I can’t. I personally think Nylander is looking past Washington for his next gig.

Speaking of Nylander, going back to all that trade talk and the Chicago Blackhawks prior to the season starting, it appears the Caps tried to pry young D Dustin Byfulgelin form the Hawks for Nylander, but the proposal was rejected. At this point, it appears the Caps can’t get what they wants from the Hawks, so time to move on. Time to shop Nylander around with other teams.
OC Register has a nice article on Alex Ovechkin. That is the beauty of traveling out to the West Coast, the hockey fans in the West don’t always get to see the NHL’s biggest superstars that reside in the East, and quite frankly, vice versa.
Down in Hershey (AHL)
The Hershey Bears have back to back games coming up on Friday and Saturday against Philadelphia and Binghamton.
Here is a pretty good article on the excitement generated by the Bears this season. The roster is loaded with some of the best and brightest prospects in the Capitals system. That includes #7, 2007 first rounder Karl Alzner. Alzner is playing superb in Chocolate town. He moves the puck well, is smart, and energetic on the ice. Nothing more than watching him live Saturday night at the Giant Center, convinced me, Alzner is NHL ready. Hershey bench boss Bob Woods likes what he is getting from #7 …

“He’s actually chipped in a little more offensively than we thought he would,” Woods said. “Coaches like his type, guys who, when they’re on the ice, are gonna make good decisions and stay out of trouble. That’s hard to find, especially among defensemen.”

And for Alzner himself, he knows his role and his future as well …

“For me, I don’t think there’s too much pressure,” he said. “I know what kind of player I am, Washington knows what kind of player I am, Hershey knows what kind of player I am. I’m not gonna go and score 20 goals or 30 goals. I’m just a guy that tries to be solid every night.”

“The history with Washington is they want to send guys down here,” he said. “I was looking to making the team (in Washington), but I knew there was a good chance I was coming down here. I was prepared for it, and I’m very happy to be here. It’s a tough league to play in, and I’ve got to play in a tough league to get better.”

Grant McNeill is serving a tough guy role for the Bears. Nice long fight McNeill found himself in on Saturday night.
Hershey is 12-5-0-1, 3 points out of first place behind Bridgeport.
Down in South Carolina (ECHL)
South Carolina defeated Gwinnett 3-2 on Saturday to improve to 8-2 on the young season. They trail in second place by just 1 point behind Florida, who is 8-2-1.
Steve Pinizzotto and Maxime Lacroix scored for the Stingrays. The Rays won in a shootout, sealed by shootout netters by Trent Campbell and Paul McIlveen. Prospect G Michal Neuvirth picked up the win, stopping 26 of 28 shots. Neuvirth is now 3-0 with a 1.62 GAA and a save percentage of .946. The Caps have to be pretty pleased with the performances of Simeon Varlamov in Hershey and Neuvirth in South Carolina.

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• Nats trade Christian Guzman to Rangers
• El-Bashir leaving Post Caps beat