Lisa Hillary's Blueprint For The Capitals

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Friday, November 20. 2009

Game 22 Canadiens vs Capitals

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Game 18 N.Y. Islanders vs. Capitals

Life Without Ovechkin

Saturday, November 6, 2009

Game 17 Florida Panthers vs Caps
By Lisa Hillary
CSNWashington.com contributor

The Washington Capitals really proved in Florida last night that they can win without Alexander Ovechkin. I thought it was a real character win, this team proved that they're not just a one man show. They had some balanced scoring; we saw goals from Tyler Sloan, Brendan Morrison and Brian Pothier. Brian is, perhaps, an unsung hero on this team. Bruce Boudreau said last night on Comcast SportsNet, "this is exactly how Brian plays and we know that".   So, kudos to the Caps last night, that was a great win without Alexander Ovechkin.

Speaking of Ovie, he did practice for the first time the other day in Florida. He tried to take a couple of shots but its my understanding that he did put his stick away because he just could not raise his arms above his chest. But, the good news is he was back out on the ice. Ovechkin still remains week-to-week but he does not rule out playing against the Islanders next week at home. We'll keep our fingers crossed there.

Unfortunately, injuries continue to mount for the Washington Capitals. Last night against the Panthers, both Mike Green and Jeff Schultz went down with injuries. We're being told that Jeff Schultz has a lower body injury and Mike Green has an upper body injury. They say upper body, but I noticed the injury happened on a hip check last night, so i would say more than hip area. It's possibly just a bruise on that hip area, but still obviously a stinger, enough to get some swelling. We're still early in the season and the Capitals have a good record so i don't think the team is panicking.   These guys need to rest. I don't think Boudreau can afford to sit both Schultz and Green at this point but I wouldn't be surprised if one of them rests tonight.   Boudreau did say it would be a game time decision so just keep your eyes on the ice during the pregame warmup, that's usually an indication to see how good they look and then they'll decide whether they're going to play or not

Bruce Boudreau would not say who will start in net. I would expect, because it's a back-to-back situation and there's another game at home early next week, that Semyon Varlamov would play tonight. That would be my hunch. No players practiced this morning so it's hard to say, but even with Theodore and the win, I wouldn't be surprised if Varlamov played tonight. He has never played against the Panthers and his record so far this season is an amazing 5-1-0 with a 3.18 goals against average.   I think at this point, the Capitals are very comfortable with whoever is between the pipes, but there's nothing wrong with those stats for Varly so I wouldn't be surprised if he plays tonight.

It's not surprising to me that Michael Nylander has been put on waivers. He went down to Grand Rapids and played very well down there. I won't be surprised if some scouts were looking at him. Whether he ends up in Europe or with another NHL team, I think George Mcphee [The Capitals GM] is going to try to work out the best possible scenerio for Michael Nylander.

That's all for now, I'll see you at the Verizon Center tonight.

Sunday, November 1, 2009
Game 14 Columbus Blue Jackets vs Caps
By Lisa Hillary
CSNWashington.com contributor

Here's a little preview of tonight's game against the Blue Jackets.
The Washington Capitals are looking to extend their point streak to nine games when they take on the Blue Jackets at the Verizon Center. They should be able to do that against a Columbus team that is definitely struggling right now.

The Blue Jackets have lost three straight and five of their last six games. However, Columbus has proven to be very successful in the past when facing the Washington Capitals. They won both games against the Caps last season.

In terms of injuries, Nick Backstrom is not feeling so great.   However, Coach Boudreau assures the media that it is not the swine flu, which is something that is ailing forward Quintin Laing. Mike Green is fighting through a foot injury but will likely play. Eric Fehr remains a question mark after missing the last three games with a rib injury.

That's all I have for now, I'll see you tonight from the Verizon Center.

Friday, October 30, 2009
Game 13 New York Islanders vs Caps

Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Game 11 Philadelphia vs Caps

Thursday, October 22, 2009
Game 9 Caps vs Atlanta Thrashers
By Lisa Hillary
CSNWashington.com contributor

Here's some quick notes on tonight's game and on the Capitals.

Alexander Semin did not make the trip to Atlanta at all. There is some debate whether he's sick with the flu or if he's actually hurt. GM George McPhee is very good at not disclosing injuries and even Bruce Boudreau wouldn't say one or the other whether it was flu-like symptoms or if he was hurt.

As far as healthy scratches, it looks they will be Tyler Sloan and John Erskine. Erskine is still bummed by his hand injury, apparently he's been cleared, but looks like he'll be a healthy scratch.

As far as who the starting goaltender will be, you can usually judge by who comes off the ice first. My sources are telling me Semyon Varlamov was off the ice first this morning and that's usually a strong indication.

The Capitals called up Keith Aucoin and Alexandre Giroux today. Aucoin has already been up once this year. This is Alexandre Giroux's first call up of the season; we did see him last year. Giroux is tearing up the American Hockey League in goals so I expect him to make an immediate impact at Philip's arena tonight.

As we know, Michael Nylander was sent to Grand Rapids on a conditioning stint. Just because he's been sent down for a conditioning stint, this doesn't mean that he is going to play in the American Hockey League. It just means that perhaps an NHL team is looking at him and they want to see what he can do. Grand Rapids is very close to Detriot, it's their farm team. Who knows, maybe a scout is in town to have a look at him, who knows. George McPhee said he wasn't ruling our Michael Nylander going to an NHL team

Monday, October 18, 2009
Game 8 Nashville Predators vs Caps
Alex's Amazing Goals

Thursday, October 15, 2009
Game 7 San Jose Sharks vs Caps

Monday, October 12, 2009
Game 6 New Jersey Devils vs Caps

Thursday, October 8, 2009
Game 4 NY Rangers vs Caps
By Lisa Hillary
CSNWashington.com contributor

Changes to tonights lineup: Milan is the odd defenseman out. With 8 defensemen on this Washington Capitals team, somebody is going to have a take a turn every night and there's no reason why it happened to be Milan Jurcina tonight, it was just his turn in the rotation.

Another change in the lineup tonight is Tyler Sloan, a usual defenseman, will see some time playing forward. We haven't seen that this year but he's no stranger to that position. When Bruce Boudreau was head coach of the Hershey Bears, he quite often would put Tyler Sloan in that forward role; he's very strong on the forecheck and what this does is it gives the Washington Capitals more options.

Jose Theodore will start in favor of Semyon Varlamov. Again, Bruce is still not convinced which one will be his number one goaltender at this time. He still is going to go back and forth until he is comfortable using one over the other. Jose Theodore has one win on the season and one overtime loss which was last game against Philadelphia. Varlamov started that last game and Theo came in for him in the second period to finish up the game. Bruce felt that he actually played well.

Bruce Boudreau told us at practice yesterday that he was not happy with the play of Tom Poti and John Erskine against Philadelphia. Both of those defensemen were on the ice during five out of the 6 goals. He's had conversations with both of them separately and they are aware of their poor play so I look for them to have a much better game tonight in front of Jose Theodore.

Saturday, October 3, 2009
Game 2 Toronto Maple Leafs vs Caps

Thursday, October 1, 2009
Game 1 vs Boston Bruins
By Lisa Hillary
CSNWashington.com contributor

I haven't spoken to Bruce Boudreau today, but I'm thinking, based on principal, he's going to go with Jose Theodore tonight in net. He's always maintained that Jose is his starting goaltender, his number one so I would expect him to go with Jose and then he'll ride the hot hand.   If Jose is lights out tonight, Jose will start again here in the home opener if not, he will go back and forth all year if he has to, until he will find his number one goalie and that's just based on last year.

Next, on defense, I know a lot of people have concerns. Hopefully Mike Green is going to have a good season, unfortunately he did not finish that way in the playoffs.   But, he says he's 100% healthy, he's lost a good 25-30 pounds and his shoulder is feeling fine. It appears that Jeff Schultz and Tyler Sloan will be healthy scratches tonight. And, then again, it will be based on performance in terms of defense, So, i look for Mike Green to have a good season.

I think the fans and the media are looking forward to seeing how Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison both fit in. They bring veteran leadership to the team and I think in years past its what this team has lacked. The other thing it does is it relieves some of the pressure on Alex Ovechkin. I think last year the team leaned heavily on Ovechkin and this sort of lessens the load a little bit and spreads out the scoring. Knuble is a goal scorer. He's an assist guy as well, he'll be great at setting up for Ovechkin. This also allows Bruce to juggle things around.

I think fans need to be patient. It's an 82 game schedule, there's going to be some bumps along the road. There's going to be losing streaks and you can't judge the season by tonight or even the home opener; there's going to be guys that are nervous. It's a long season and, really, it's the 2nd half of the season that's important and they just really need to stay healthy. This is a great team and they could go all the way.