A Weekend to Forget

It was not the best of days for the Washington franchise yesterday as both of their affiliates joined the Capitals in loosing despite the fact that they all outshot their opponents. The Caps outshot the Penguins 31-25 before falling 3-2 in the end, the Bears outshot the Hamilton Bulldogs 32-22 even though they lost 5-2, and the Stingrays outshot the Florida Everblades 30-29 in spite of the fact that they were never really in the game, losing 4-1. Out of the three teams, the only one to record a point in the standings this weekend was South Carolina with their shootout loss to Florida on Saturday night.
(Photo Courtesy of Jason Cohn/Reuters)

The Capitals played pretty well overall in the nationally televised game on NBC. They once again shut down their opponents top guns, as they did in Tampa on Thursday night when only a five minute let down in the beginning of the second period lead to two Vincent Lecavalier goals. Evgeni Malkin scored on his only good opportunity of the day, a hard angle shot from the corner that I'm sure Brent Johnson would like to have back. Sidney Crosby was held in check, posting only a secondary assist on the Penguins first goal of the game, a Mark Recchi power play goal.

On the other hand the Caps once again had trouble putting the puck in the net. They hit the crossbar twice with shots in the third period including one from Alexander Semin on his penalty shot opportunity when he had a wide open net after completely faking out Penguins goaltender Jocelyn Thibault. Semin summed up the feelings of Capitals fans everywhere afterwards by looking towards the ceiling in disbelief. Alex Ovechkin was quiet again recording 5 shots in 19:44 of ice time, but never really threating Thibault. It is now safe to say that Alex is in a big slump as he has just 1 goal and 1 assist in his last 7 games. Kris Beech, Ben Clymer, and Steve Eminger were the healthy scratches again. In the meantime, Washington is now 1-11-1 in their last 13 road games. It may be safe to finally say it's time to look forward to next season.

The Hershey Bears lost their second consecutive game on Sunday. They followed up a sub par effort in a 3-1 loss against the Albany River Rats on Saturday night, with another dreadful outing against the Hamilton Bulldogs yesterday losing 5-2. Maxime Daigneault struggled for the Bears in his first start in goal since returning from a high ankle sprain as he allowed 5 goals on just 22 shots. Two quick goals by Michael Lambert and Mikhail Grabovski in the beginning of the second period had Hershey trying to play catchup for the rest of the game. Joey Tenute provided the only highlights in the game for the Bears netting both of their goals as he now has 17 on the season. Mike Green tailed his first assist of the season with Hershey, but he also had a -3 defensive rating on the day. The Bulldogs triumphed despite playing without their All-Star goaltender Jaroslav Halak, who was in the process of winning his first career NHL start for the Montreal Canadians 3-2 over the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Bears have now lost both of their games since Frederic Cassivi's recent recall due to an injury to Olaf Kolzig, leaving them seven points behind the division leading Norfolk Admirals. Their record on the season without Cassivi on the roster dropped to 10-8-0-2, while they are 22-4-5-3 while their number 1 goaltender is on the active roster. They will have to do their best without him, as he will be with the Capitals for at least the next 3 weeks as Kolzig recovers from his knee injury.

The South Carolina Stingrays finished up a weekend they would soon like to forget, loosing to the Florida Everblades for the second time in two days at the North Charleston Coliseum. Goaltender Daren Machesney started in goal for the second consecutive game after being reassigned to the team earlier in the week. He ended up being pulled from the contest in the second period after allowing 4 goals on just 11 shots. Davis Parley shutdown the Everblades the rest of the way, stopping all 18 shots he faced, but the lead was too much to overcome for the Stingrays. The weekend results dropped South Carolina into a tie with the Charlotte Checkers for fifth place in the South Division with 57 points. They now trail the division leading Texas Wildcatters by 12 points. With their six game home stand now over, the Stingrays will travel to Augusta to take on the Lynx Tuesday night, gametime 7:35 PM ET.

Sunday Morning Reaction

Win or loose there is always a lesson to be learned. Some of the lessons that were learned last night.

• This team has a long way to go before they can just show up and compete based on their talent alone.
  
• They have not been playing Capitals hockey as of late. The entire league used to talk about how the Caps worked hard every night. How they would outplay their opponent even if they didn't win. So far the tread this New Year is that the Caps are being outplayed consistently, and are relying on Ovechkin and Semin to make spectacular plays in order to keep them in the game.
• The Caps have repeatedly gotten off to slow starts. Having to play catch-up in most games.
• The Panthers had the Caps well scouted. And executed their game plan to perfection. This is the type of performance that the rest of the league can look at and emulate. The Capitals will need to make adjustments in their scheme as well as individually.
• Sometimes a game like this can be a good thing in the long run. Hopefully it will cause the team to refocus and analyze the what they need to do to improve.
• Calling all fans of hockey: The NHL is back on NBC, and let's face it, they are desperate for ratings. Their first broadcast yesterday saw on intensely competitive game between the Flyers and Penguins. The addition of Brett Hull to the broadcast booth also provided a much needed boost to the analysis of the game.
  
• A great article from Linda Cohn about the NHL schedule. Click here to read.
  

Down on the Farm:
The Hershey Bears finished up their season-long five game road trip with a 5-2 loss at Bridgeport. The Bears were playing with a depleted lineup as six players were absent from the lineup. Trevor Byrne, Dean Arsene, Matt Hendricks, Chad Wiseman, and Sasha Pokulok all missed Friday's game in addition to last night's tilt. Pete Vandermeer suffered a broken leg Friday and will be out indefinitely. The lone bright spot of the night was the performance of Alexandre Giroux, who accounted for both Bears' scores giving him 29 goals on the season. He is currently tied for second in the AHL in goals. The Hershey Bears return to action this evening at home against the Albany River Rats, game-time 5:00 PM. If you are able to get to the game the first 5,000 fans through the gates Sunday will receive a free team photograph of the 2006-07 team. Or visit http://www.hersheypa.com/events/hershey_bears/index.php to catch all the action live online via b2networks.
The South Carolina Stingrays avenged Friday night's loss by defeating the first place Florida Everblades 5-3 in front of 6,453 fans at Germain Arena. The Stingrays were led by their Captain Cail MacLean and Capitals prospect Viktor Dovgan who each netted two goals in route to the victory. From Stingrayshockey.com: “We challenged the guys in the second intermission and they responded perfectly,” South Carolina coach Jason Fitzsimmons said. “Dovgan was flying and got rewarded with a pair of goals. It’s nice to head into the All-Star break on a positive note.” The Stingrays return to action on Friday with a game at the Charlotte Checkers, game-time 7:00 PM.