On this Sunday morning, your post-game analysis that barely scrapes the surface:

I would have loved to have seen a third All-Star calibre goalie in a row felled by the Washington Capitals: First Luongo, then Fleury, and then Brodeur who, prior to last night, enjoyed a 32-12-0 record against the Caps (plus four ties) and a 2.11 GAA, and posted six shutouts. His GAA elevated a tick, but the loss total did not.

Hey, at least the Hershey Bears are 5-0, trouncing Syracuse (breaking that team’s 18 game (!) regular-season winning streak) in their home opener by a 7-1 count. Oh, and Sami Lepisto had a goal and an assist, and went +4. Just sayin’.

There actually WAS a dry cut of the ice at the end of this match, for a post-game skills competition was required to settle this one. It took us but five games to get reacquainted with the shootout. And nothing was going by Marty in those proceedings last night.

This being the fourth regular season of the shootout era (can you believe it?), there exists a useful body of statistics bearing on the matter. I was surprised to learn that Alex Semin is now just 5 for 18 in his shootout career. Both my friend Russ and I would have chosen Mike Green (0-3) over Ovechkin (9-32) as the third shooter tonight. Ovechkin, if such a superstar sniper can be faulted, is hopelessly predictable on shootout attempts.

washingtoncaps.com

washingtoncaps.com

Regardless, the Caps really had no business getting even a point out of this game. From the Coach’s presser:

“I didn’t think we were really in control of the game at all. I thought we had the lead, but I thought [Brent Johnson] had the tougher saves to make than Marty [Brodeur]. I thought [Johnny] played better and he was holding us in the game. Both the third goals were deflected goals, but I thought it was one of those games where we definitely got outworked.”

“[Johnny] deserved a better fate.”

Johnson stole the show early and often last night (stopping 34 of 37). He was razor-sharp from the beginning, halting rebounds and effectively sliding from side to side. And how about that Travis Zajac breakaway save with the blocker, on a Devils second period PP?

Gabby likes to talk about playing “too cute” so far this season: its a consistent, crtitical message. It’s a phrase that Captain Chris Clark repeated as well last night post-game. But is it getting through?

Only once since the opening game of the season (which game presented too many problems to focus on just one), last Monday vs. Vancouver, have the Caps given a 60 minute effort. Looking just at shots by period in the other three games, we see that they stumbled in the first vs. CHI, and then turned it on for the final two frames (6-12-16), slogged through two miserable stanzas in Pittsburgh before getting back to business (4-5-21), and, last night, really played a only decent second (9-11-5).

Of course, without a full-on, north-south barrage of shots directed toward Brodeur, we knew that this game would be ugly, choppy. The Devils did what they do best, swarm the puck carrier, prevent that player from dishing it to an open man, and force turnovers. Not cute.

But the Caps actually didn’t fall behind early in this one. Instead, Sergei Fedorov sent a jaw-dropping pass straight up the gut, half the length of the ice, from behind the Caps blue line to the Devils blue line (just the sort of stuff that the league envisioned when it eliminated the red line out of the lockout), which Alex Semin received, and eventually buried under Brodeur’s outstretched glove. Clark said, of Fedorov’s pass, it was one of the best dishes he’d ever seen, like something out of a lacrosse game.

Uneven effort notwithstanding, this team, with all of its skill, still had a chance to win. (Remember how Capitals teams of the past were always on the other end of that, clearly out-working the opponent, and yet the Caps’ foes has enough firepower to bang one home for an otherwise undeserved point, or two?)

But they sat on a paltry 2-1 lead, and blew the golden opportunity of a five-on-three, for almost a full minute, in the third. And then the masterful cycling job of the Zach Parise, Zajac, Jamie Langenbrunner line wore down a lazy and frustrated Caps team and created the Devils’ third goal.

Its easy to pile on the Devils organization for feeding us “boring” hockey year after year, but that cycling shift, at least, was a thing of beauty.

The boys in red committed only four penalties in this game, which is a tidy sum. (Remember how former coach Glen Hanlon used to say that the team should limit itself to six power plays allowed per game?) Unfortunately, one of those penalties was of the delay of game (puck over glass) variety. Guess who?

washingtoncaps.com

washingtoncaps.com

And another Clark committed mid-way through the third, right after the team, shockingly, failed on that five-on-three. The Devils, of course, did not fail on the ensuing power play.

Speaking of John Erskine, he must have whiffed on a dozen clearing attempts during the first two periods alone. Incredibly, he still took his regular shift in the third, and one in the OT. However, he did create the GTG opportunity all by himself, carrying almost coast-to-coast before heaving the puck around the boards to Semin on the other wall. And he did earn the primary assist.

On Chris Bourque’s season debut: Coach said that he “created a couple of chances for himself,” played “feisty.” Didn’t stand out too much to me. Two shots and one hit in 11:25 of ice, 13 shifts, including three in the third period (incidentally, significantly more than Eric Fehr, who got 8:03 of ice, 10 shifts, and only two in the third).

But if you want to watch him play in a Caps sweater again, you’ll have to wait, as he was sent down to Hershey immediately following last night’s game.

A few particular negatives from tonight, aside from a general disregard of the “too cute” message:

Nicky Bäckström played a real tentative game. He not only lost 7 of 17 draws, and all four in the defensive end, but hesitated taking shots (at least one I recall right on Marty’s doorstep), and whiffed on a handful of other attempts. He did author a nice deke at the offensive blue line, which brought a few red rockers out of their seats.

Mike Vogel noted during traning camp that Clark was “still a shade off on the radar.” Well, he still is. He missed a shot wide when he looked to have had Marty beat. And speaking of Clark, the top line of 8-19-17 was ineffective. We can only hope that Viktor Kozlov is back soon.

The power play, again. The Caps generated NO shots on goal for two consecutive power plays, and blew that aforementioned five-on-three opportunity in the third. Green scored another PP goal (in the second), but it took another five-on-three chance to make it happen.

(What unbelievable quickness by Green though, to receive Laich’s pass on the back of his stick and switch to the forehand snapshot in an instant.)

Penalty killing, again. Halting 3 out of 4 Devils attempts is actually an improvement in the success rate for this team, but the one PP goal allowed was a backbreaker, and would have sealed the game if not for the fluke of a GTG by Semin (Admit it.) Who knows how long this experiment with the likes of Ovechkin and Semin on the PK squad must continue.

However, I did note that, during Brooks Laich’s penalty in the second, Fedorov, Ovechkin, and Semin were all out there killing it, and generated their own attack, completely diffusing any meager attempt by the Devils to even get through the neutral zone. I’m sure that was Coach’s idea with the experiment all along, but this is the first time I’d seen it lead to such a positive result.