RED ALERT: Caps and 'Canes tonight

Mark ButerbaughNov 30, 2009

redalert The Washington Capitals do a rarity tonight so far this season, but one that will become all so familiar starting tonight, they play a Southeast Division opponent. Caps face off against the struggling Carolina Hurricanes in Carolina this evening. To date, the Caps have played 26 games, only 4 against division rivals. They face Southeast division opponents in 4 of their next 7 games.

Here are some Game Preview for tonight: NHL.com, Official Caps site, Peerless, Caps Nut, Sporting News

Our friends at On Frozen Blog have an excellent analysis piece on the Caps weakness, a weakness that we see often and is overly annoying, the ability to play down in the third period. Go read it.

What’s up with Dave Steckel? On the one hand, Steckel is a master of face offs for the Caps. he currently sits at 2nd overall in the NHL in face off wins with a 62.5% success rate, just behind NHL leader Paul Gaustad. Scoring wise though, Steckel has yet to record a goal and has just 2 assists in 26 games.

As the Washington Post notes, it is not from lacking of scoring opportunities.

"
“I’ve been trying everything,” he said. “I just can’t buy a bounce. It’s frustrating, but the thing is if I worry about that instead of penalty killing or faceoffs, it’s going to get worse.”
An example of his futility came Saturday in Montreal, where he had at least three chances to score. The best came in the second period, when, after Canadiens goaltender Carey Price turned away Alex Ovechkin and then Jay Beagle, Steckel whiffed on a rebound.
Steckel conceded that it’s sometimes hard to block out his drought.
“I don’t want to think too much about it,” he said. “I’ve gone through games where I’ve thought so much about scoring that it’s taken away from everything else.”
"

The question I have is, when the first goal comes, does a feast occur or will it go back to famine for Steck? One thing is clear to me though, despite his lack of scoring Steckel is important to this team both in terms of face offs and special teams play. That is where Steckel excels. Caps owner Ted Leonsis agrees. [Read more →]