Oveckin and Stamkos Face Off for First Time in Playoffs

Well the Caps got past the New York Rangers in what was a tough 5 game series.  Up next there southeast division counterpart the Tampa Bay Lighting.  The Bolts came back from 3-1 deficit to beat the Crosbyless Shittsburgh Penguins in 7 games. The Caps won the regular season series 4-2 and the Caps outscored the Bolts 18 to 10.  This could be the start of a long rivalry in the southeast division.  Ovechkin vs Stamkos is a sexy headline to hockey fans and Boudreau has called out Stamkos and Steve Downie for flopping to much.  Trash talk and a playoff series sounds like the perfect mixture for a rivalry.   Here's my keys to this series.

Facing a Real Offense: Yes it was a great defensive performance against the Rangers, yes it was great that the pk only gave up one goal, but outside of Marion Gaborik the Rangers have no offensive weapons what so ever.  Against the Lighting the Caps defense will have to worry about more than one offensive threat.   The Bolts have Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St Louis who have both won a cup and oh yea they have the up and coming talent in Steven Stamkos.  St Louis is 3rd in the league with playoff points with 4 goals and 4 assists.  The Caps defense has done a good job at times during the regular season against the Bolts offense as they did shut Tampa out 6-0.  Tampa's offense likes to work the puck in deep then throw a centering pass into the slot.  Sounds easy to defend but if the defense does not stay at home the centering passes can cause confusion in the Caps defensive zone.   

Old vs Young: The Caps and Lighting feature two different goaltenders.  The Caps have Michael Neuvirth who is only 23 year old and Tampa has Dwayne Roloson who is 41.  Nuvie, in the playoffs, has a GAA of 1.38 and a save percentage of .946%.  Not to be out done Roloson has a GAA of 1.77 and is leading the playoffs in save percentage with .949%.  Without Neuvirth, the Caps would not have beaten the Rangers in 5 games and without Roloson Tampa maybe on the golf course right now.  The goalie that remains hot, that team has the best chance of winning this series with the offensive power both of these teams have and both of the goalies will be seeing a lot of shots on goal.

Support From the Third Lines: Another reason for both of the teams success is the support from there role players.  The Caps have gotten contributions from Jason Chimera and Swedish center Marcus Johanson.  While the Lightning have received help from Sean Bergenhim and Simone Gange.  When teams get help from there role players that takes the pressure off of the teams stars and it also puts pressure on the opposing team's coach to choose which defensive line he should send out.  When its just a team's top line scoring coaches know to put there top dmen on them, but if you have multiple lines scoring that makes the decision a little bit harder on who to send out.  Ovechkin and Stamkos don't have to do everything since they know they can rely on there teammates for scoring help and that'll relax and Ovie and Stamkos also; and from my experience you play better when you're relaxed.  If one of the team's third line goes cold expect that team's scoring to drop and expect that team to struggle in this series.

Expect a lot goals coming from this series.  I won't be surprised if a regular score is 5-4, 4-3 on nightly basis.  From the Caps perspective I would like to see Nicklas Backstrom start scoring more as he only has 1 assist in this year's playoffs.  If Backstrom can finally get going that will be a deadly first line for the rest of the playoffs.  If this was last year's team I could see this series going 7 games, but the Caps finally learned how to play defense and will hopefully stick to that philosphy for this series to shut down Tampa's scorers.  Even thought Tampa has Lecavalier and St Louis, who have cups, I still think this is a young team and they don't have the defensive fire power to shut down Ovie and company.  Give me the Caps in 6 games.  LETS GO CAPS!!!!

Can You Hear Us New York????

For Caps Game 4 Must be Treated as Game 7

Well the New York Rangers got the game 3 win and could be on the verge of turning the series around with a game 4 win Wednesday night.  While at times the Rangers did get, what some may say, lucky goals the fact is that the Caps were out shot 35 to 25 and it seemed that most of the play was spent in Caps defensive zone.  The Caps also reverted back to there bad habit of taking stupid and uneeded penalties. For Bruce Boudreau and the rest of the Capitals the formula is simple win game 4 and take the series win with game 5 at home, of course easier said then done.

There are multiple reasons why the Caps must treat game 4 as a game 7.  The most obvious one is that with a game 4 win, by the Rangers, that guarantees a game 6 back at MSG.  Therefore making it a long series and possibly another 7 game series for the Caps.  Also, the longer the series goes the more likely that Henrik Lundqvist  continues to get hotter and hotter as a goaltender.  The Caps  need to think about conserving there energy if they are to win the cup, by making it a quick sereis.  It's been evident that this series has been very physical and the physicality will most likely continue for the rest of the series.  With that being said the Caps need to limit there bumps and bruises by ending the series as quickly as possible, especially with the possibility of playing another physical team in the Montreal Canadiens in the next round.  With a game 7 mentality, that means the Caps will be more focused, less likely to commit dumb penalties and play as team instead of relying on the individuals talent, thank you Herb Brooks.  Look at the focus Ovechkin had in game 1, that type of focus rubbed off on the rest of the team and they played well for most of game 1 and all of game 2.  If the Caps can take that type of focus and get that killer instinct, while playing this game like a game 7 this team is unstoppable.  With a game 4 loss, all the talk and questions are going to come again.  Why can't the Caps hold on to a lead in a playoff series?  That is the last thing that the players and coaching staff need to be ask about in a playoff series.  If the Caps take this series in 5 games then all of that talk of not holding onto a series lead will be gone. 

To win games 4 and 5 the Caps must get back to what they were doing in game 2 and in the second half of game 1.  They need to be the ones that come out a throw the first hit and kill the Rangers will physically. Come out with game 7 intensity to cancel out the Rangers intensity from playing in front of there fans.  The Caps can not be playing in there defensive end of the ice for the majority of the time as what happened on Sunday and that was part of the reason for dumb penalties because of the tired legs.  Which brings me to my next point. Backstrom, Knuble and Hendricks all took stupid penalties on Sunday, Stanley Cup winning teams don't do that type of crap, which is exactly what it is.  Knuble on the pk had no one around him when he was attempting to clear the puck, so if there's no one around you why did Knuble decide to try to bounce it off the glass?  Makes no sense to me just shoot the puck down the ice, no need to be fancy in that situation.  For Backstrom the play was already ahead of him, as Karl Alzner defended Marian Gaborik  perfectly, but Backstrom just had to commit the hook or slash on the Rangers player entering the zone, once again dumb.  I will say the Matt Hendriks penalty was a little bit questionable, but don't put yourself in that position.  Offense hasn't been that bad so far this series, but I will say there is no way that this Rangers team should be outshooting our offense by 10 shots.  Yes the Rangers have a great defensive line pairing of Staal and Girardi, but the Caps were able to have a great offensive performance in game 2.  Yes I know the Rangers now have the advantage of last line change, but that's were the second and third lines of the Caps must score in game 4.  I would like to see the Caps try to get Lundqvist's head a little, crash the net more, give "The King" a little love tap or two just to mess with him and possibly throw him off of his game. 

I know that I personally said that Caps will in 7 games, but man would it be nice to win a series 3-1 especially when playing a team like the Rangers.  Wednesday we will be able to tell if we are going to be in it for the long haul or if the Caps have finally learned how to get a lead in the series and keep the lead.

WVU Scrimmages for First Time

Today WVU scrimmaged for the first time this spring.  The team spirits were not discouraged despite the rain as both the offense and defense were fired up to be going full contact.  Besides regular play the team went field goal team live, but no other special teams.  Both the offense and defense improve with every practice, but of course there is plenty need for improvement.  

Offense: Geno Smith was able to handle to the pace of the no huddle offense well, for it being just spring practice.  Adding to the multiple trips formations, in Holgorsen's offense, a shotgun formation with 3 backs was featured multiple times today.  The formation usually consisted of a RB and 2 FB's or 1 FB and a TE to go with the RB.  Besides Ryan Clarke being at the FB position, redshirt junior, Matt Lindamood saw time at FB with the one's today.  Despite being a TE, Tyler Urban is being use a lot and is producing.  Urban is able to get open by running routes right down the seam or on the hashes of the field.  Everytime Urban ran down the seam he was open and did not drop a pass today.  If this continues Urban will cause multiple miss matches come this fall.  In the ongoing RB competition, no one really separated themselves,but freshman RB, Vernard Robers threw is name into the competition as he had a 27 yard run, the longest of the day.  Roberts, Shawn Austin, Daquan Harqrett and Trey Johnson all saw pt with the first string today.  Trey Johnson had the majority of the carries and showed a lot of shiftyness in between the tackles.  The WR's continue to enjoy this new spread offense.  Tavon Austin had the most catches out of the receiver core and as we saw last year, Austin is dangerous once he gets the ball in space.  One surprising stat is the amount of runs Holgorsen called today, the ratio was 40 passes to 34 runs.  Somewhat different to his air it out offense at Oklahoma St and Houston University.  The offense had two fumbles and one pick on the day

Defense: The defense had a little bit more lumps than the offense.  Most notable was CB Keith Tandy.  Since the start of spring practice, all of the coaches had been signing the praises of Tandy.  That didn't show today as Tandy was beat bad by Ivan McCartney multiple times today.  Tandy had 6 int's last year, but has shown inconsistency the past two years, which is not good since Tandy is slated to be the #1 corner this year.  Overall as a unit, the defense was flying to the ball on running plays led by senior LB Najee Goode and sophomore LB Doug Rigg.  At least 7 defenders were gang tackling the ball carrier all the time.  The D continues to have problems stopping the crossing routes form the offense, which is a cause for concern since Marshall, LSU, Cincy and Shittsburgh run spread offenses.  Another thing that I've always begged Jeff Casteel to do is blitz more.  Once again today, there were a lot of cover 4 and cover 3 sets, but not a lot of blitzing.  Usually in a 3 man front defense you blitz more with LB's and nickelbacks to get that pressure on the QB.  But they were the #3 defense in the country, last year, so I guess Casteel knows what he is doing.  Bruce Irvin continues to be unblockable as he had 2 sacks on the day.  Irvin seems to be only playing on the weak side as he and Jorge Wright would be lining up according to the strong and weak sides.  The starting defense included Bruce Irvin, Julian Miller, and Jorge Wright on the line.  Casey Vance, Najee Goode, and Doug Rigg for the LB core.  Travis Bell, Terence Garvin and Darwin Cook were the safeties.  And Keith Tandy and Brantwon Bowser at corners.  The early read on the D is that it will be nowhere near as good as last year's team, but should be at least a top 50 squad if they can learn to stop the short passing routes.

The team will scrimmage one more time before the Blue-Gold game on April 29.

WVU Spring Practice Update 2

Practice had the intensity of a regular season practice today, as team team did 7 v 7 and full team.  Coach Bill Stewart was pleased with the way things have gone, and didn't even mind the fact that there was a fight today.

Offensively, the group has progressed a lot form last week as there were no bubble screens thrown today.  It looks like that Holgorsen does want to get his receivers in space, as more 5-7 yard routes were seen today.  A new element that was added this week was that the crossing routes were used to open up the deep routes.  Every 3 or 4 plays a deep route would open up and Geno Smith would hit the deep route for a touchdown.  Geno Smith seemed comfortable for the most part, there were about 2 or 3 plays were Geno was caught staring down one WR, or would panic after his first read was not open.  There is a wide open competition for the first string RB spot and it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out this spring and during 2 a days.  The competition is not due to a lack of talent, but due too to much talent.  Shawn Austin came in to camp as the #1 back, but both Daquan Harqrett and Trey Johnson have made plays to show that they deserve a lot of playing time also.  In the upcoming scrimmage, this Saturday, the coaches will use a RB by committee system to see if anyone can step up even more. 

The Defense surprisingly looks like a veteran core, despite losing 7 starters from last year's team.  Bruce Irvin is still unblockable, and Keith Tandy and Terrance Garvin have both stepped up in the secondary.  All of the coaches have sang the praises of Tandy for his improvement in the offseason and his leadership on the field.  This his huge that the defense already has a leader with losing Robert Sands to the NFL draft.

The team will practice again on Friday and then will have a full scrimmage on Saturday and that's when we can tell how much this team has really improved.

Here We Go Again Caps vs Rangers

For the second time in two years, the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers will be facing off in the first round of the NHL playoffs.  The Rangers won the regular season series 3-1 by outscoring the Caps 17-7 and King Lundqvist was able to shutout the Caps twice.  The Caps lead the all time playoff series against the Rangers 3-2.  The Rangers will be without there second leading scoring Ryan Callahan while the Caps will be without defenseman Dennis Wideman with a leg hematoma, but the good news for the Caps is that Mike Green should be back on Wednesday night.  Those are the facts now here's some keys to a Caps series win.

Capitals Offense vs Henrik Lundqvist:  I'm pretty sure everyone remembers what happened two years ago, if it weren't for Sergei Fedorov the Caps would've lost another playoff series and why not because of multiple players, but because of one freaking goaltender.  Henrik Lundqvist almost single handedly won the Rangers that series two years ago and can sure do it again this year as he lead the league in shutouts, with 11, and had a GAA of 2.28, this past season.  If the Caps are going to win this series they can't let The King get hot, they need convert on almost all of there power plays and odd man rushes so Lundqvist doesn't get his confidence up.   Another strategy to use could possibly be switching up the offense with every line shift and every game to try to confuse The King.  Boudreau has done a good job of switching up the line combinations and that could also help confuse Lundqvist and the rest of the Ranger's defense.

Replacing the Wounded: It's going to be interesting to see how the Caps deal with Dennis Wideman being out and how the Rangers attack the Caps.  Most likely either Tyler Solan or John Erskine will be taking Wideman's place.  Since coming over from Florida Wideman has had a +7 plus minus rating compared to a -26 plus minus in the sunshine state.  It seems that Mike Green will be back as he took part in all of practice today and it looks like Jason Arnott is back at 100% again who has made impact on the team both offensively and defensively.  Arnott has worked well with Alex Semin on the second line and has complimented Ovie nicely on the power play since coming over from New Jeresey.

Where the F@$% Are You Semin?  Seems like I"m beating a dead horse with this one, but it has to be mentioned.  Alexander Semin has literally done NOTHING in the playoffs, last year he took 44 shots on goal and scored 0 times.  With someone like Semin's talent that is inexcusable and his playoff performance the past 3 years is unacceptable.  Here's his career playoff stat line; in 28 games he has scored 8 goals, 24 points and 28 PIM's, that means that Semin is off the ice for at least a minute every game when he should be on the ice, not good.  And there is no way that one can argue I'm being hard on him.  He has the talent to be a top 10 scorer in the league every year, but he doesn't want to play every game.  Semin will have games like in Anaheim were he'll have a hat trick and the game winning goal and then he will have multiple games were he will turn the puck over multiple times and miss shots on goal high and wide that should be in the back of the net.  Semin basically has a NBA player attitude were he just shows up whenever he feels like and that's not a player you want on your team.  If Semin continues to be a non factor in the playoffs, it's going to be easy for teams defense's just to focus on the first line as they have in the past.  If the Caps are to finally hoist the Stanley Cup, this year, Semin has to get his head out of his ass and give 100% every night this spring.

Power Play Heating Up:  The Caps have scored 5 times on the extra man in there past 4 games.  This is obviously a good sign if the power play unit can continue to keep scoring in the playoffs.  The power play was mostly dormant, by past years standards, this year as they finished 16th in the league.  Last year the power play struggled in the playoffs as the unit only scored once with the extra man, but the fact that Jarslov Halak was on fire was a huge factor.  Since Dennis Wideman and Jason Arnott  were acquired, at the trade deadline, the power play has scored more so the power play should be alright this year.

New Territory for Nuvie:  After posting a 27-12-4 record with a GAA of 2.45, in the regular season, Michal Neuvirth well be getting the start between the pipes for the playoffs.  Nuvie has had great playoff success in the AHL as he lead the Hershey Bears to the Calder Cup last year.  So the question will be can Nuvie transfer that AHL success to the NHL?  Another issue with the goaltending will be how quick  Boudreau decides to pull Nuvie if he struggles.  The past two years Boudreau pulled Jose Theodore in favor of Semyon Varlamov.  Theo could've been pulled due to his inconsistency and this year Nuvie has not shown inconsistency.  Boudreau may have to wrestle with possibly ruining a young goaltender's confidence, if he pulls Nuive, or going with the hot hand in the past with Varly. 

Prediction: This past season, the Caps had multiple highs and multiple lows.  Though it wasn't easy, the Caps have seemed to learn how to play defensive hockey with a bunch of offensive players.  Defense is the key to winning in the spring and the Caps have done that as they were ranked 4th in goals against and had the league's second best penalty kill unit.  With all that being said the Caps will still have to face Henrik Lundqvist who once again had a great year.  If The King gets hot again expect another long series, the Rangers will struggle to score goals especially without Ryan Callahan so if the Caps can keep the Rangers scoring to 1 to 2 goals a game it could be a quick series.  If the Caps go up by 3 games quickly everyone is going to be asking can the Caps finally close out a series? Only time will tell for that answer.  Overall I think this is going to be a tough series, I don't see Lundqvist cooling off in the playoffs he knows he's the biggest key for the Rangers success in the playoffs.  I'll take the Caps in once again 7 games.  LETS GO CAPS!!!!

WVU Spring Practice Update

WVU has been at it for about a week now and this morning was the team's first practice in full pads and for the most part the team looked in spring form; as Bill Stewart was not pleased with the team's mental focus as errors were made on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. 

Offensively, it was obvious that Holgerson has not gotten to deep into the playbook yet as multiple bubble screens were thrown today and surprisingly enough, there were not to many deep balls thrown today.  Many people thought that Holgerson would bring more of a vertical passing game to Morgantown, but that was not seen to much today.  Besides the bubble screens, there were a lot of short passes completed with in the 5-7 yard range.  Holgerson maybe using these 5-7 yard routes to get the receivers in space after the catch.  Tavon Austin was playing in the slot as I thought and Shawn Austin was at the RB spot, but is getting some competition from sophomore RB Daquan Harqrett as he broke through the defense for a touchdown this morning.  Another point that was very noticeable was the tempo of practice was faster than in years past due to the fast past offense Holgerson runs.

Defensively, it was obvious to see that senior Bruce Irvin had gained at least 15 pounds of muscle during the winter.  The O-line of course had trouble blocking Irvin, but most impressive to me was that NT Julian Miller has made the change from DE to NT easily.  Miller was able to control both A gaps with ease.  The secondary looked all right as the first string DB's only gave up one deep pass, but had a hard time defending the crossing routes.

Overall it's one week into spring ball, so it is way to early to be making judgments, but it's going to be interesting to see how this RB competition plays out, and who continues to step  up on the defense.      

George Mason vs VCU Who Had the Better Run?

 Both came from the CAA, both were at large bids and both "didn't deserve to be in," according to the experts.  So I'm going to ask the question which run was better? The 2006 George Mason team who had to go through the likes of Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn to reach the final four. Or VCU who beat a team from every major "BCS" conference and had to play one more game than Mason had to.  Well here's the case for both teams.

2006 George Mason: Mason finished the regular season 22-6 and 15-3 in CAA played good enough to be crowned regular season champs of the CAA.  Mason then lost in the semifinals of the CAA and seemed like the Patriots would be playing in the NIT tourney.  But the selection committee was gracious and gave Mason the #11 seed and were paired up with Michigan State, a team that was in the previous year's final four.  Led by head coach, Jim Larranaga and seniors Jai Lewis and Lamar Butler, Mason defeated the Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans 75-65. Up next was North Carolina, once again all the "experts" thought NC would easily role, but the "experts" were proved wrong once again as Mason upset the Tar Heels 65-60. Now it was on to Wichita State, in the Sweet 16, and Mason would be playing in front of a home crowd in the Verizon Center.  Mason beat there mid major counterpart 63-55.  In the Elite 8, the Patriots were once again major underdogs as they were going up against the top seeded UConn Huskies. And once again Jai Lewis and Lamar Butler willed the Patriots to a 86-84 overtime victory in front of a very partial Mason crowd.  Mason became the second 11 seed to make it to the final four only the 1986 LSU Tigers had achieved the feat as an 11 seed before Mason did it.  Mason's run ended in Indianapolis as they were dominated by eventual champion Florida by a score of 73-58.

The 2006 George Mason team has had a lasting memory in the minds of sports fans and college basketball analysts always ask the question; who will be this year's George Mason?  Underdog teams in every sport have been know to use George Mason's final four run as motivation.  There was even a rumor of making a movie about Mason's run.  One of the cooler stories was Jim Larranaga and his coaching style.  After practices, the day before games, the team would play wiffle ball in the gym as a way to relax the team and build team comradery.  That technique worked as all 5 starters on that team all had there average scoring in double figures.  Mason's has had not only had a lasting memory in the DC area, but I would say across the country because of the phrase "Who will be this year's George Mason?"

2011 VCU:   Unlike George Mason, VCU actually made it to the CAA championship game, but lost to ODU 70-65.  After that loss, the whole VCU team thought they had no chance of getting into the big dance and didn't even watch the selection show.  VCU played in the newly called "first four" of the NCAA tournament, and was paired with USC.  Almost all the "experts" picked USC to win in a land slide victory.  But VCU then prove everyone wrong as they beat the Trojans 59-46.  Lead by head coach Shaka Smart and leading scorer Jamie Skeen, the Rams were now in the field of 64 and had to take on Georgetown, who was getting there leading scorer, Chris Wright, back for the tourney.  VCU didn't care that G'town had Wright back as they dominated the Hoyas in a 74-56 victory.  Up next were the Purdue Boilermakers, and VCU was playing in front of a mostly Boilermaker crowd once again VCU didn't care that Purdue had the homecourt the Rams sent Purdue packing in a 94-76 victory.  In the Sweet 16 it was on to FSU who had upset the 2nd seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish, VCU finally ran into some close competition as the Rams won, but in OT 72-71.  In the Elite 8 it was the top seeded Kansas Jayhawks, but Shaka and company shocked the world as they beat rock chalk 71-61.  VCU the fell in Houston to the national runner up Butler Bulldogs 70-62.

VCU not only upset teams, to get to the final four, but they beat a team from every major conference something that had never been done before.  VCU also played more games than any other team in the tournament to make it to the final four and beat all but one of there opponents by double digits.  Shaka Smart was unique in his coaching style as he would always get involved in the teams practices by part taking  in drills and what not.

Overall both George Mason and VCU had remarkable runs.  Both were highly unexpected and busted just about everyone's brackets.  Mason has left a lasting impact that is still remembered while VCU went through all of the major conferences.  It is obviously way to early to see how memorable the VCU run will be remembered as and that's why I think George Mason's run was just a little bit better.  Maybe 5 years from now VCU will be remembered as well as George Mason, but for now to me, it still goes to Mason.