Boudreau's Boys: The Minor Ties That Bind

McPhee and Boudreau made some key moves at the deadline yesterday.  Hopefully, it will prove to be enough to get the Caps over the hump and propel them to a Stanley Cup victory?

There was a record number of trades in the NHL at yesterday's deadline.  No doubt owing to the fact that coaches as well as GM's were intimately involved this time around, because of the Olympic break.  Although GM is the GM, make no mistake Bruce Boudreau's fingerprints were all over these acquisitions.  Bruce obviously spent some time focusing on collecting some of his favorite ex-players.  Anyone who has read Boudreau's book "Gabby: Confessions..." knows that he does have his favorites.  Bruce, like any coach, prefers a certain style of play and naturally wants his players to fit into that scheme. So while many around Washington were calling for a big, hulking, bruising, defenseman that isn't necessarily what Bruce wanted.  You see big and hulking also usually goes along with slow, and slow is not a good fit for Boudreau and the Caps.

So Bruce went out and got the number one prize that he had his eye on, Joe Corvo.  While Joe is having an off year in Carolina (so is Carolina) he is still a top defenseman who is fast, can carry the puck, and eats up minutes a la Mike Green.  Most know that Bruce loves Mike Green like a son.  Well he loves Joe Corvo too, Joe played for Bruce at two different stops in the minors, Lowell and Manchester.  And if you look just a little further back than this year it becomes readily apparent that Joe can score.  I'm sure Bruce believes he can get Joe to fill up the scoresheet again using the system that Boudreau favors.  I envision Joe headmanning the second defensive pairing and giving Mike Green the opportunity to take a little less ice time and get some rest heading into the playoffs.

But Bruce wasn't done there, he went out and got Eric Belanger, another gentleman that he coached in the minors.  Belanger will probably end up centering the second unit, and the Caps will go from one of the worst facoff men in the NHL (Fleischmann) to the seventh best (Belanger) who wins at about a 58% clip.  Belanger will also help on the penalty kill. Eric is a remarkably consistent scorer who has exactly 13 goals in each of the past three years and betwen 22 and 24 assists.  However, remember that there is still 20 games or thereabouts left this year so he is improving and should score about 50 pts. this year in Bruce's system.

At this point Bruce only had about 8 or 9 guys that played for him in the minors on the current club so he went out and got another one, Milan Jurcina.  Milan is only 26 and seems to improve every year.  He knows Bruce's gameplan well and will add depth to the blueline. 

Finally George got to make a move and added Scotty Walker.  It probably bothered George, a known ruffian in his playing days, that the Caps didn't have enough feistiness on the team after the departure of Donald Brashear in the offseason.  He improved that area with the addition of Jason Chimera earlier this year and now Walker.  Walker (36) will also add a veteran battle tested presence in the locker room in the heat of the playoffs.     

The good news is that the Caps added all these cogs and only gave up one NHL player (Brian Pothier), one average prospect (Oscar Osala), and several picks (but none above the second round).  Overall I'd give Boudreau and Mcphee an A and I look forward to a long run in the playoffs