Alex Semin has finally up and done it: he’s a Carolina Hurricane. I guess the Canes’ new motto is “if you can’t beat ‘em, sign ‘em.” Alternate joke: it won’t be the first time Semin has been mentioned in the context of a disaster.

It’s only 1-year, 7 mil, though, so it won’t be as devastating as a Floyd or Isabel.

Fun factoid c/o @dchesnokov:

The Canes is the team Semin scored the most points (and goals) against in his career – 45 (27+18) in 41 games for the Caps.

Which is not terribly surprising, considering the Capitals play the Hurricanes what seems like seventeen times a season. Frankly, those totals look pretty low. I couldn’t score 45 points in 41 games against the Hurricanes, but only because I’m a goalie.

On the other hand, this is making the Hurricanes look slightly fearsome. They’ve got Staal, Semin, the other Staal, Skinner, the other Staal (no, the other one), and screwing up my list, Cam Ward. I can definitely see them coming in second in the SE (which still may not be enough for a playoff berth, but we’re not SouthLeast for nothing).

Finally, as I’m sure you’re wondering, Alex isn’t set to be an Atlantic tropical cyclone name until 2016. But, as the first name on the list, we’ll definitely get one!

See what the competish has to say about this over at Eye on the Storm.

Like I said in my last post, I don’t really want to talk all that much about the Rangers, since I’m reasonably sure I’m going to have to do a big ol’ series preview post about them, and how many times can you say–

Hah! You just tried to trick me into revealing CRUCIAL SECRETS about the New York Rangers!

Anyway, happy last day of the regular season, and happy Super Saturday! Every team in the NHL is playing today, which makes it like Christmas, except your three-year-old cousin isn’t asking why you have a beer in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. Instead, it’s your friends!

I don’t really consider this game terribly important, since our seeding isn’t in our control. The game Caps fans should really be watching is the Panthers-Hurricanes game, and by “really be watching” I mean only if you have chronic insomnia. Are you kidding me? We’re likely going to face the Rangers because I’m pretty sure my intermural floor hockey team at least has a shot against the Hurricanes. And Florida only needs one point to lock down the 3 seed. Surely they can manage an overtime loss.

Today should be spent relaxing, content in the fact that we have a playoff spot, and hockey is a game of such randomness that regular season performance has very little to do with postseason performance. (The Presidents Trophy is the real indicator of the best team in the NHL, thanks to a little thing we like to call “sample size.” But it just doesn’t have that same ring to it.) And to help relax, why not take a gander at Puck Daddy’s Super Saturday Drinking Game? Look, I’ll start you off strong: one of my favorite tags on this blog is “Southleast Division!” That means chug!

The Capitals have clinched a playoffs berth! Yay!

At the expense of our new starting goaltender! Boo!

Last night’s regulation win over Florida guaranteed us the 8th seed in the East — and a first-round series against the New York Rangers. Tomorrow is Super Saturday, with every team in the NHL in action, and the results of our game and Florida’s game will determine whether or not we surpass them for the SE Div title and the 3 seed (which would have us face New Jersey). Florida faces Carolina, which should honestly be a gimme game. We, of course, face…

the Rangers.

There’s a chance we see the Blueshirts for the next 8 games. Our playoff record in the past against them has been pretty good, but they are running away with the East this season and could very well take the Presidents Trophy. I don’t really want to do a huge preview for them right now, mainly because it seems likely I’ll have write one in about two days, but needless to say this is a great team that could stomp all over us if we let them. And right now, that’s okay(-ish). We can consider this a trailer, before the actual movie starts. We just don’t know yet if it’ll be a thriller, a comedy, or possibly a horror.

And of course, the poor Sabres have been eliminated. I’ll try not to gloat the next time I run into BSF.

Now to the issue I’ve been dancing gingerly around. Former Cap (and Bavarian!) Marco Sturm ran into Neuvirth and collapsed onto him so that his left knee took the blow and bent awkwardly. He then writhed on the ground with an anguish that was felt by every Caps fan watching (and also everyone who has ever blown out their knee).

Holtby performed admirably in relief, but with Vokoun already out and Neuvirth’s future now shaky, it looks like we could go into the playoffs with the Hershey cadre of Holtby and Dany Sabourin. I honestly have no idea who is under Sabs on the depth chart, especially since Stingrays starter (and Bavarian!) Philipp Grubauer is done for the season after surgery. Olaf Kölzig is a part-time goalie coach…?

On the other end of the goalie spectrum, what the hell was up with Jose Theodore? He left after giving up 3, then came back after a commercial break. Did he eat some bad poutine?

The Capitals face the Rangers at 6:30 on Super Saturday, but games start at 1, so make sure you buy enough beer to last you through at least the early evening games!

It occurs to me that I enter an alarming number of conversations with people that an eavesdropper would be totally unable to understand due to the utter lack of context we provide. Yes, I categorize people primarily by their favorite team, and therefore require no antecedent for “we.”

You may remember my friend Buffalo Sabres Fan, whom I hadn’t seen since the day before the crucial Sabres-Caps game that we totally muffed. I ran into him again today, which was probably the best possible scenario of the next time to see him. I’ll relate the conversation below.
» Continue reading “Capitals Playoff Scenarios: A Dramatic Rendering”

I gave myself some time before attempting to respond to last night’s game, and I’m still not sure I can keep this post, as Jim Carr would say, “within the boundaries of good taste.”

There was only one bright side to me, and that was Claude Noel pulling his goalie with about 3 minutes left. I am the biggest advocate of pulling the goalie sooner. Statistically, you should pull the goalie with about 4 minutes left (similarly, you should go for it at 4th and 6 or fewer yards). But coaches are too scared to look reckless, and humans are more afraid of losing what they have then eager to get something more. And this was all undermined by the fact that they were on a 5-on-3 power play already.

Still: PULL THE GOALIE WITH MORE TIME LEFT. At least 2 minutes, so you have time to actually set something up. BE BOLD.

To be fair, I wasn’t particularly angry with this game until the end; I’m still adjusting to the fact that not every game is a goalkkake, and I’m satisfied to keep things close. Furthermore, the shootout is like breaking a tie football by throwing a ball through a tire, so losing it is unsatisfying but doesn’t really bother me.

But giving up two goals in twelve seconds? INEXCUSABLE. That ties us up with Florida again, and they have a game in hand, so… hello there, early off-season!

Huh. Looks like the Capitals respond to senseless vitriol and gratuitous pictures of sexy goaltenders who aren’t even techically involved in the game at all. We destroyed the Florida Panthers, 4-0!

And yet this enthusiasm is tempered by the feeling that yes, we’re in the position to celebrate beating the Florida Panthers 4-0. There was a time when we were fairly certain the Hershey Bears could do that.
» Continue reading “Capitals Try To Keep Momentum Against Jets”

It seems like just yesterday we saw the Florida Panthers, but I couldn’t be more wrong — it was in fact 6 days ago. Six days since we went down in ignominious defeat to the only team in the Southeast actually making the playoffs. SouthLeast, indeed.
» Continue reading “Caps Vs. Cats: Embarrassingly Important”