Zubrus and Heward Dealt at Deadline

Danius Zubrus to Buffalo for Jiri Novotny and a 1st Round Pick

To For

Overall this is an amazing return for a player that has proven that he is nothing more than a second line center or better yet a right wing. The problem with Zubrus has never been his skill level, where at times he has displayed what a dominate player he can be. He has just never been able to provide the consistency needed to be a first line player, as he has a tendency to disappear for extended periods. While it would have been nice to keep him in Washington for his leadership, his contract demands at the moment did not make that possible.

In Novotny, the Caps get the young center that they coveted who is a former first round pick of the Sabres in 2001. He is a player that has excelled at every level he has played at, but with the quality depth in Buffalo, he has yet to receive an opportunity to play a key role at the NHL level. In Washington he will definitely get that opportunity as he should step right in to the top line with Ovechkin. Novotny's profile from The Internet Hockey Database:

Jiri Novotny

Center
Born Aug 12 1983  -- Pelhrimov, Czech Rep.
Height 6.02 -- Weight 194 -- Shoots R


Selected by Buffalo Sabres round 1 #22 overall 2001 NHL Entry Draft

                                      --- Regular Season ---  ---- Playoffs ----
Season   Team                        Lge    GP    G    A  Pts  PIM  GP   G   A Pts PIM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2000-01  Ceske Budejovice HC         Czech  19    0    4    4    2  --  --  --  --  --
2001-02  Ceske Budejovice HC         Czech  41    8    6   14    6  --  --  --  --  --
2002-03  Rochester Americans         AHL    43    2    9   11   14   3   0   1   1  10
2003-04  Rochester Americans         AHL    48    1   14   15   16  13   0   1   1  10
2004-05  Rochester Americans         AHL    61    5   20   25   36   9   2   2   4   4
2005-06  Rochester Americans         AHL    66   17   37   54   40  --  --  --  --  --
2005-06  Buffalo Sabres              NHL    14    2    1    3    0   4   0   0   0   0
2006-07  Buffalo Sabres              NHL    50    6    7   13   26
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    NHL Totals                         64    8    8   16   26   4   0   0   0   0

Jamie Heward to Los Angeles For a Conditional Draft Pick in 2008

    To  

This seems to be nothing more than move to make some space on the Capitals blue line. With the recent return of Pothier, Erskine, and Muir from injuries, the team had too many defenseman. This opens up a spot for Eminger to get back into the lineup after he had been a healthy scratch for the past 6 games. It also means that Jeff Schultz has solidified his spot in the lineup for the rest of the season. The conditional draft pick most likely is contingent on whether Heward resigns with the Kings over the summer.

Caps/Devils Preview

New Jersey Devils (38-18-6, 82 points)
at
Washington Capitals (24-28-10, 58 points)

Television: Comcast SportsNet
Radio: WTNT 570-AM
Gametime: 1:00 PM ET

When the Caps and Devils hit the ice today at the Verizon Center, the NHL's trade deadline will be a little more than 48 hours away. What that means is that this might be the last time a few select players get a chance to wear a Capitals sweater.

Danius Zubrus and Richard Zednik seem to be the most sought after assets Washington has. Both players will be unrestricted free agents at the end of the season, and while the team has expressed interest in resigning them, neither is close to an agreement. If extensions are not reached before the deadline the word is that they will be dealt.

The Caps could also part with a few other players in hopes of solving their current logjam on the blue line. Veterans Jamie Heward and Brian Muir have both been involved in trade rumors over the past few days. The only problem with trading them is, what can you get in return? Is it really worth dealing them for middle round draft picks, which is about as much as I can see them getting in individual deals. Their is always the possibility that they could package them together with Zubrus or Zednik in hopes of increasing their overall value. All of this should lead to an exciting couple of days as the team prepares to make moves to improve the team for the long haul.

As for the game itself, the Capitals will look to build on their solid performance in New Jersey in hopes of sweeping their weekend series against the Devils. While Alex Ovechkin was unable to break out of his current funk, going scoreless again in yesterday game, his fellow countryman Alexander Semin had a goal and assist to lead the Caps to the win. The team also got offense contributions from Boyd Gordon (2 assists), Matt Pettinger (SH goal), Milan Jurcina (1st goal with Caps), and Tomas Fleichmann (1st NHL goal, picured) to provide an unexpected offensive explosion against one of the best goaltenders in the game today.
(Photo Courtesy of Bill Kostroun/AP)

Before yesterday's result the plan was for the Devils to rest Martin Brodeur today and start his seldom used backup Scott Clemmensen. But now it wouldn't surprise anyone if Brodeur is back in the net again today in a game New Jersey would hate to lose.

Heading into the weekend, the Caps had already announced their intentions to play Brent Johnson in both games. On Saturday, he finally was able to win his first game in the fifth start he's had since since replacing the injured Olie Kolzig, and picked up his first career victory over the Devils.

The key to the game will once again be to get out to a good start and avoid falling behind a Devils team that is traditionally hard to come from behind on. Plus, you have to expect New Jersey to be extra prepared for this game following yesterday's outcome.

Poor Special Teams Play Dooms Caps in Montreal

Capitals Fall For the 7th Straight Time on the Road
Montreal Canadians 5, Washington Capitals 3
Boxscore
(Photo Courtesy of Ian Barrett/AP)

If the Capitals were going to find a way to snap out of their current road funk, this was the game to do it. The Montreal Canadians had lost 4 straight games at home, and found out today that they'll be playing the rest of the regular season without their All-Star goaltender Cristobal Huet.

But that didn't seem to matter tonight, and once again the Caps played an atrocious first period that saw them having to play from behind. They took penalty after penalty and the Canadians made them pay. With the help of 2 goals by Christopher Higgins and 1 goal by Michael Ryder, Montreal converted on 3 of 7 power play opportunities to take a 3-0 lead into the first intermission.

From the second period on the Caps looked like a completely different team. Their hard work shut down the Canadians attack and allowed them to generate an offensive attack for the first time in the game. Just 2:06 into the period, a slap shot from the point by defenseman Jamie Heward was tipped home by Brian Sutherby, past Montreal's rookie goaltender Jaroslav Halak, for his 4th goal of the season. It was Sutherby's first goal since January 9th.

Washington kept the pressure on and with the same lineup still on the ice they scored again 30 seconds later. For the second time Heward ripped a slap shot from the point, this time it was deflected off Maxim Lapierre's stick and through Halak's five hole to get the Caps right back in the game, 3-2.

Late in the period the Capitals special teams let them down again. This time though it was while they were on the power play, as Montreal notched their league leading 16th short handed goal of the season. Michael Ryder tallied his 2nd goal of the game and 19th on the year when he made a nice curl and drag move around Alexander Semin, who was forced into a defensive position because he plays the point with the extra man, and snapped a shot past Brent Johnson. Semin would atone for his defensive mistake on the same power play. He took a pass from Heward in the neutral zone and maneuvered his way up the ice, around defenseman Sheldon Souray, and roofed a shot off of the upper right corner in what was a beautiful one man effort. It was Semin's 31st goal of the season and gave his team some hope heading into the 3rd period as they once again only trailed by one, 4-3.

But the Caps could not get any closer and managed only 4 shots in the final period. A Garth Murray empty netter sealed their fate with 58 seconds to go as the Caps road record fell to 1-12-1 in their last 14 games.

It was a physical game from the start. Multiple scrums ensued after the whistles as Canadians' captain Saku Koivu was involved throughout the night. In the first period he and Milan Jurcina had a shoving match behind the Capitals net. Later in the third period Koivu and Matt Pettinger were both handed matching roughing minors after exchanging blows.

During the course of the game two Caps players left the ice with blood dripping from their face. Alexander Perezhogin elbowed Shoane Morrisonn in the first period and Matt Bradley was hit with a high stick by Christopher Higgins before a faceoff in the third period. Each player returned to action after receiving some medical care and their attackers were both given double minors for drawing blood.

The Caps will have a short time to recover from this game as they will host the San Jose Sharks Wednesday night at the Verizon Center. The team announced that all upper deck tickets can be purchased for 50% off of the normal price for this game only. The offer is limited to the first 500 orders.

Game Notes:

Kris Beech, Ben Clymer, and Steve Eminger were again the healthy scratches.... The Caps could only muster 18 shots on Halak as he won his second consecutive start of his NHL career.... Jamie Heward was originally credited with two goals on the night, but his first goal was later awarded to Sutherby. He would've had the fastest two goals in Capitals history for a defenseman.... Alex Ovechkin was shut out again and now has just 1 goal and 1 assist in his last 8 games.

Capitals Sunday Practice Update

First a quick look at the lines for today's practice:

1. Red line - Ovechkin, Zubrus, Clark, plus Zednik who should play Tuesday in Ottawa
   
2. Teal line - Semin, Laich, Fehr
3. Yellow line - Pettinger, Gordon, Sutherby
4. Black line - Brashear, Beech, Clymer

Mike Green was the first to hit the ice 15 minutes before practice was scheduled to begin. He showed no signs of his recent ankle injury and seemed to be skating at 100%.

Once again Brian Pothier and Matt Bradley were not at practice today joining injured list members John Erskine and Brian Muir on the sideline.

The practice had a very technical feel to it and the team was treating it that way as, despite the big win last night, there was not a lot of hooting and hollering today. They started off with a forechecking drill where the center was responsible for pressuring the puck in the offensive zone while the two wings covered the side boards preventing the breakout pass. Next was an outlet drill that had a couple of variations to it, all of which ended up in a breakaway scoring chance. This was followed by a drill that focused on their quick breakouts as 2 defensemen were located on each side of the forward line. They would change directions a couple times before entering the offensive zone.

The next part of practice was the most heavily practiced drill of the day as they worked on their play in the corners. The exercise would last as long as the offense controlled the puck. There were three variations of this drill that included dividing the offensive zone into a smaller area. They were highly contested drills as there was a lot of hard hitting led by none other than Ovechkin. Jeff Schultz also knocked Brooks Laich to the ice, drawing a roar from the players. While this was going on, Kolzig and Johnson took turns working with goaltending coach Dave Prior on the other side of the ice.

The practice finished up with a 3 on 1 breakaway drill that also included a trailing defenseman. Ben Clymer had the prettiest goal in this exercise beating Johnson glove side that drew an applause from the nice crowd on hand. I would estimate that there was about 200 people there on this Sunday morning as the bleachers were mostly full.

After practice Jamie Heward brought his son out for a little mites on ice entertainment. I lost track counting the number of times he fell which was amusing.

The NHL returns today to NBC with a regional game at 3:30 PM ET. If you are a fan of hockey you should support the sport as we need all the ratings we can get. The local game in DC should be Philadelphia at Atlanta.

Down on the Farm:

Before a sellout crowd of 10,734 people at the Giant Center last night, the Hershey Bears took a 2 goal lead into the third period before falling to the Norfolk Admirals 4-3. Newly demoted Jakub Klepis scored his first AHL goal of the season and Chris Bourque added his 12th and 13th in the losing effort. It was the Bears second straight loss heading into the All-Star break as they are now 4 points behind the division leading Admirals.

Matt Stefanishion tied the game at 3 late in the third period and Donny Grover got the game winner in overtime as South Carolina rallied for a 4-3 win at the Texas Wildcatters. It was the third consecutive game in as many nights between the two teams. Davis Parley stopped 42 of 45 shots for the win in his fourth consecutive night of work including his game with Hershey on Wednesday. The Stingrays will take a much needed break and return to action on Friday night in Duluth, Georgia against the Gwinnett Gladiators.