Pens (14-7-4, 6-6-2 Road) at Caps (12-10-1, 8-3-1 Home), Verizon Center, 7:05 pm EDT
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Simon Despres, pictured
here during his first rookie prospects camp in July of 2009, makes his debut Thursday night in Washington. The 30th pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft is expected to be paired with fellow young blueliner, Robert Bortuzzo, though late breaking news suggests him may see top four time. Despres tweets @Despres747, for those interested. His most recent tweet refers to himself as a self-proclaimed fantasy football expert, no news on his promotion to the Penguins.
Because of the injuries to defensemen Kris Letang and Zbynek Michalek, the Pens were forced to bump up Despres’ debut a little bit. Having two rookie defenders paired together against the Washington Capitals circa 2009 surely would’ve been a recipe for disaster. One would think that splitting the two up might yield better results. But Bortuzzo is a stay-at-home defenseman and the Capitals aren’t playing like it’s 1999 (or 2009, for that matter). Sorry I still remember Prince singing about 1999 in 1984.
The news on Letang and Michalek is disturbing, if for no other reason than the Pens can’t seem to stay healthy. Michalek has passed his baseline tests but is still experiencing headaches. Letang can’t even undergo concussion testing until his condition from a virus or food poisoning (as GM Ray Shero suggested Tuesday on the Fan radio) improves.
Both blueliners were sorely missed against the Rangers on Tuesday: Letang on the power play and Michalek on a penalty kill that yielded two goals in four tries.
“Our penalty kill hasn't been very good, and that's not a very good recipe for (success on the road),” coach Dan Bylsma said Wednesday. “We gave them up (Tuesday night) fairly easily.”
Bylsma no longer needs to match wits against Bruce Boudreau. The Caps coach was canned Sunday. He’s already resurfaced in Anaheim as the Ducks head coach, replacing former Penguins Randy Carlyle. Carlyle, incidentally, was one of the most competent and underrated defenseman in Pittsburgh hockey history.
Longtime NHLer, Dale Hunter, is now the chief in Washington. He debuted Tuesday, losing to the St. Louis Blues at home, 2-1. Penguins prospect, Scott Harrington, played for Hunter’s OHL team, the London Knights, and was interviewed by the Fan radio in Pittsburgh on Thursday morning. Harrington said that Hunter has helped his career. He mentioned that Hunter is a lot like Bylsma in that he looks for defensemen who are solid on the blue line first and can also move the puck.
Alexander Ovechkin likely nailed Boudreau’s coffin shut in Washington when he mouthed off after the coach benched him for the final minute of a game several weeks ago. Ovechkin ranks second in scoring with eight goals for the Caps, one behind Jason Chimera, yes, Jason Chimera. Ovie has but one goal in 12 home games, but he’s always played well against Pittsburgh. For his career, he’s got 19 goals, 33 points and a plus-15 rating in 25 contests.
For all that’s been said in reference to Ovechkin’s predictability hurting his numbers, the loss of Mike Green has hurt the entire Washington offense as much as any single factor.
The Capitals are 8-0 with Green in the lineup this year, 4-10-1 without him.
Ovechkin averages a point per game (8 in 8) with Green and has 10 points in 15 games without.
The goaltending situation in Washington was handled curiously by Boudreau. Free agent pickup, Tomas Vokoun, was universally recognized as the steal of the free agent season. But then he didn’t start the opener because Boudreau said Michal Neuvirth was playing better. Neither goalie has consistently played well. It will be interesting to see whether Hunter goes with Vokoun or Neuvirth, or if he platoons them.
But that’s enough about the Capitals. Doctoral students could do a thesis presentation on them.
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Pens GM Ray Shero spoke on the Fan radio Wednesday afternoon and had some interesting comments about the following players. I took notes during the interview and apologize if anything I wrote isn’t verbatim.
Paul Martin
- “He started strongly the first 10 games. This was reflected internally on the records we keep.”
- Regarding his poor plus-minus rating: “It does something to your confidence. Players notice it and it can affect their confidence.” (Shero added that plus-minus doesn’t account for actual individual performance on many occasions).
- “There’s a play or two a game where he (Martin) gets a hiccup and the puck goes the other way.”
Shero noted that he thought Martin played a pretty good game against the Rangers and reiterated his faith in his abilities.
James Neal
- “I have no idea what happened,” Shero said, referring to Neal’s one goal in 20 regular season games with Pittsburgh in 2010-11.
- “The Alex Goligoski trade for James Neal and Matt Niskanen happened to be a positional trade, good for both teams.” (Shero said that Neal was on a short list of players identified that could serve a need on the Pens)
Regarding Neal’s upcoming restricted free agent status: “There’s been no substantial discussion, at this point. He’s a restricted free agent. He’s a good young player who we want to re-sign.” (Shero talked about the team having other free agents coming due, but he didn’t mention Sidney Crosby’s or Jordan Staal’s situations)
James Neal $2500 fine
- “Hard to argue. There was a high stick on the play. Subban took his feet out, we accept that.”
Sidney Crosby
- “I like when he’s combative, competitive.”
Regarding the Nick Foligno incident: “That got blown out of proportion. The exact same thing happened to Joe Vitale on Tuesday by a Rangers defenseman and no one’s talking about it today.”
Regarding Ottawa GM Bryan Murray’s comments: “He’s reacting to his own player’s (Foligno) comments. (Shero had no quarrel with Murray)
Pascal Dupuis
- “Good fit with Sidney, they trust each other.”
Shero made a joke about getting the winger for Sid in the Marian Hossa deal (Dupuis, not Hossa) but the radio hosts didn’t seem to get it.
Steve Sullivan
-- “He’s always creating offense, helping on the back end, creating offense, very high hockey IQ.”
Max Pacioretty
- “Clearcut suspension, must be in control of self. Five years ago that play might’ve been okay. People might think that’s a play in hockey. Sorry, I don’t buy it.”
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PENS-CAPS Line Combos
Pens
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Sullivan-Malkin-Neal
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy
Asham-Park-Adams
(Vitale, MacIntyre)
Caps
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Brouwer
Eakin-Johansson-Semin
Chimera-Laich-Ward
Hendricks-Halpern-Knuble-Perreault
Combos as per the
Penguins’ Web site. Unfortunately, nothing on the defensive pairings, but it does look like Despres might be used in a top-four role.
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Probable Starting Goalies
PENS
Marc-Andre Fleury
13-4-2, 2.17 GAA, .922 save percentage, two shutouts (2011-12)
5-3-1, 2.49 GAA, .912 save percentage, one shutout (Away in 2011-12)
-- Did not play in Oct. 13, 2011 matchup vs. Washington –
CAPS
Tomas Vokoun
10-6, 2.77 GAA, .906 save percentage, one shutout (2011-12)
7-1, 2.34 GAA, .909 save percentage, one shutout (Home in 2011-12)
1-0, 1.92 GAA, .951 save percentage (39 saves on 41 shots) vs. Pittsburgh in 2011-12
At the time of this writing, Vokoun is confirmed while Fleury is not. Vokoun’s home record of 7-1 really stands out, though he took his first home loss Tuesday against the Blues.
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PENS-CAPS: By the Numbers
Goals For/Against
Pens 3.08-2.44
Caps 3.04-3.22
5-on-5 For/Against
Pens 0.98
Caps 0.94
Power Play
Pens 18.5 percent, 10-for-54 (Road)
Caps 20 percent, 9-for-45 (Home)
Penalty Kill
Pens 84.9 percent, 8-for-53 (Road)
Caps 84.6 percent, 6-for-39 (Home)
Record When Leading After 2 Periods
Pens 9-0-2
Caps 7-0
Hidden Stats
Washington has an 8-5 record when its opponent scores first and a 4-5-1 mark when it scores the first goal. By contrast, the Pens are 9-2-3 scoring first and 5-5-1 when allowing the first goal.
Capitals RW Mike Knuble has zero points in his past 12 games, but owns a 13-game scoring streak against Penguins. Per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Dave Molinari.
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I bought two of the Civic Arena Christmas tree ornaments yesterday. Went with the Pens logo over the arena/US Steel Building backdrop. Click
here to order.
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RINK LINKS
Caps coach Dale Hunter knew Sidney Crosby was special back in his Rimouski days, according to the
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
“He was special then," Hunter said. "We had a checking line against him. He still scored in quite a few games. But we limited him. He was so strong then. He was dominant. You knew right away he was special."
The same article mentions that former Penguins defenseman, Jimmy Johnson, was hired by the Caps as an assistant coach. Johnson was as game of a defender as you’ll ever find, but all I remember about him was the way the Flyers’ Tim Kerr used to bully him around in front of the net. The Penguins could use a Tim Kerr on their power play right about now. Man, he was tough.
Bruce Boudreau says the Caps made the right decision by firing him, the
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
“A Heated Rivalry Gets Hotter,” the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Jordan Staal had this to say about Alexander Ovechkin. "At some point, he might break out, and you don't want it to be against your team," Staal said. "He always seems to have a good game against us."
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Treasure life & Let’s Go Pens!
JT
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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