The Washington Capitals head into the City of Brotherly Love for a likely not so loving welcome. The caps are coming in off a 2-1 OT win in Nashville that snapped the Caps 4 game losing streak, the Caps longest skid under HC Bruce Boudreau. Sergei Fedorov took matters into his own hands, netting the puck in OT to release the Caps from losing skid torture.
Here are the numbers . . .
* Caps record is 41-21-6 and the lead the Southeast Division by 10 over Carolina and trail Boston for first place in the Eastern Conference by 7 points.
* Caps are 1-3-1 in the month of March.
* The win in Nashville improved the Caps to 16-12-4 on the road
Players on a roll . . .
* Alexander Ovechkin has scored in his last 8 straight games. During that stretch, Ovie has accumulated 5 goals and 5 assists
* Nicklas Backstrom has scored in 13 of the last 14 games. He has scored in three straight after scoring in nine straight.
* Brooks Laich has been playing very well and deserves the recognition here. The Laich of last year seems to be reappearing now. He has that knack back for going to the net and standing in front of the attempting screens. Anyway we can get others to follow his lead?
* Milan Jurcina deserves mention as well. Is Jurcina picking up his hitting game? Impressive. Hey Schultz, take note.
Washington Times blogged about Brian Pothier and Hershey.
A trip to Hershey is always a good use of a day’s time – the travel
time isn’t bad, the city is a treat in the middle of Pennsylvania and
Giant Center is an absolute palace.
First
off, he is right. I live about 45 minutes from Chocolatetown and it is
a great place to visit. You got the chocolate factory and tours,
Hershey Park, outlets, City of Harrisburg, and the Giant Center itself
rivals NHL arenas, seating over 10,000 and a great, great atmosphere
with nice luxury suites.
Seriously, if you are a Caps fan, it
is worth a trip to come and see the atmosphere at the Giant Center.
You will leave that game thinking you were just at an NHL game. Giant
Center was a result of Legislation by the State General Assembly that
ultimately led to Heinze Field (Steelers), PNC Park (Pirates), Citizens
Bank Park (Phillies) and Lincoln Field (Eagles). It was all part of
the legislative deal to get votes. And the Bears deserved it,
especially considering the state of their old digs at the Farm Show
Complex. 75 years of hockey, tradition, winning, and a rabid fan base
deserved the Giant Center. In fact, I can tell you, of the 20 or so
games I have been to for the Bears, the Giant Center was never as
silent as Nashville was Monday night.
Back to the main point of this article
I’ve got some extra material from Pothier, young defenseman Karl Alzner
and Hershey coach Bob Woods that didn’t make it into print. All had
some interesting things to say about the weekend, the comeback and the
developing relationship between the 31-year-old veteran and the
20-year-old rookie:The influence Pothier’s had on Alzner is another positive
development. He helped mentor Alzner when the two were with the Caps
(even though Pothier was unable to play) earlier this season.“If you get to know Brian, he’s a pretty good guy,” Woods said.
“He’s a great guy, he’s been around and is just an easy guy to talk to.
For a young guy like Karl, I’m sure he was the guy that he could go to.
And I think that’s important. When you’re an older player, that’s part
of your job is mentoring the younger guys, being somebody to talk to
and give ‘em some advice. And Brian’s the perfect guy for that.”And there’s little doubt Pothier sees the same special talent in
Alzner that led the Caps to draft him – and keep him at the trading
deadline last week despite interest from other clubs.“He’s a special kid. For a 20-year-old, he’s very mature. He sees
things – his perspective isn’t a 20-year-old’s perspective,” Pothier
said. “He understands what needs to happen, he understands how to play
a simple game, and he understands what’s gonna make him successful.
He’s willing to do what it takes, too, and that’s the thing about him.
He’s just a phenomenal kid, a really good person, and he’s gonna be an
exceptional player with the Caps for many, many years.”
Nice to see that Pothier is continuing his mentoring of Alzner in Hershey as he was in his rehabbing in DC.
As far as the hits and how he is doing …
The first “substantial” hit Pothier received came courtesy of former NHL enforcer Ryan Hollweg.
“I was skating around the net and [Ryan] Hollweg came flying down
his side of the wing, and he tried to finish his check on me,” Pothier
said. “I made a pass, and then he hit me and I sorta landed on him. It
was a good collision and I felt fine, felt great. That was the one hit
that I guess you could say sorta gave me some confidence that stuff was
still working pretty good.”
Godo
news. Looks like recovery has worked for Pothier. If he does make the
return this season, the Caps will ultimately have a salary cap
situation to figure out.
The Pothier situation drew press from Canadan.com.
Speaking of Hershey, the Bears made no moves on Clear Day, the equivalent to the NHL trade deadline.
Tarik has an in depth article on the hotly contested argument over fighting, and particularly, staged fighting, in the NHL. Go read it, it is a good read.
Blog Check . . .
On Frozen Blog, our MVN Partner, has a blog post up on Pothier as well. Check in at Japers’ Rink for a quality game preview for tonight. Storming the Crease has up their game preview as well.
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