The Washington Capitals Offseason

In the Washington Capitals offseason there have been some acquisitions that are going to make the team a lot stronger, and others that raise a few questions.

Signing Tomas Vokoun to a 1 year deal worth $1.5 million is a seal, and the best thing that the Caps have done this offseason. Even though Michal Neuvirth had a great season and will be the future in Washington, he does not match up to Vokoun.

With the goalie position solidified, we turn to the other moves that the Caps made. Even though the price is a bit high, signing 37 year old Roman Hamrlik gives the Caps another solid blue-liner. And getting Jeff Halpern at a cheap price will give some added fire power to the second or third line. Trading a first round draft pick for Troy Brouwer was not a high price to pay, and neither is contract of $4.5 million over 2 years.

But what raises some eyebrows is the contract that Washington gave Joel Ward. The 30 year old right wing has never had a season with over 17 goals (2008-2009), and in his best season he had 35 points. Last year in the regular season he had 10 goals and 19 assists, nothing that screams top talent. The only thing that gives any weight to the contract the Caps gave him (4 years $12 million), is his performance in the playoffs this past year where in 12 games he had 7 goals and 6 assists and was a plus 4.

An interesting matter is trading Eric Fehr to the Jets for a fourth round draft pick in 2012 and prospect Danick Paquette. Eric Fehr was picked 18^th overall in the 2003 draft, and has not lived up to expectations if you look at the players drafted after him. Why the Caps drafted Fehr over all-star players Ryan Getzlaf, Brent Burns, Ryan Kesler, Mike Richards, and Corey Perry is beyond me, but I believe that Fehr’s value to the Caps is higher than a 4^th round pick in next years draft and an average prospect in Paquette. Hockeysfuture.com a website dedicating to evaluating prospects, gave Paquette a 6.0 C grade which basically equates to a third line forward. Now we all know that Washington traded Fehr so they could make some cap space to sign Karl Alzner which with all things included the right thing to do.

Only time will tell if the players that the Caps picked up this offseason will bring the Caps to the promised land.

Let’s Go Caps!

Sources:

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/danick_paquette

http://espn.go.com/nhl/freeagents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_NHL_Entry_Draft

Boston Bruins Win 2011 Stanley Cup

The Boston Bruins won game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, winning the Cup for the first time since 1972.

I had made my Stanley Cup prediction earlier today, stating that Vancouver would win, and boy was I wrong. The Bruins rolled over the Canucks, winning 4-0. In their victory, the Bruins set a couple records:

-First team to win the Stanley Cup and win three game sevens in the playoffs
-First team to win the Stanley Cup in a road game seven in a shut out

Looking back on the series, I have several reasons why the Bruins won.

The most obvious reason is Boston outscored Vancouver 23-8. To understand why Vancouver did not score, you only need to look at the score sheets for the series. The three best players on the Canucks: Hendrik Sedin,  Daniel Sedin, and Ryan Kesler, were held to a total of 6 points and -18 combined. Their stats are shown below.

Daniel Sedin - 1 goal, 3 assist, -5
Hendrik Sedin - 1 goal, -7
Ryan Kesler - 1 assist, -6

No team can win a series when their best players are not producing.

Finally, Vancouver lost the series because their goalie was average. Roberto Luongo only stopped 163
of 183 shots for an 89.07% save percentage. Luongo, a Gold medal winner with Canada, was anything but spectacular in the series with Boston.

No team can even hope to win the Stanley Cup with average goaltending and their top three scorers failing to contribute.

That being said, no credit should be taken from Boston. They played a spectacular series in all aspects of the game.

Now,  all there is to look forward to is next year!

My prediction for next year's Stanley Cup is Washington vs. Detroit. Washington in 6.

Stanley Cup Finals

Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals is tonight between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have not witnessed a series between two teams that has gone seven games that the scores have been so lopsided.

The Bruins have out-scored the Canucks 19 to 7, and their powerplay is operating at 19.2%  compared to Vancouver's plowerplay of 6.4%. But when the rest of the series stats are examined the numbers are relatively similar, as seen below.

Team: BOS-VAN
Shots: 204-209
Hits: 201-213
Giveaways: 42-46
Takeaways: 42-50
Faceoffs won: 196-188

The only difference between any of the games has been wether it was played in Boston or in Vancouver. The home team has won each game in this series, and I don't see it changing. I predict Vancouver wining in overtime 2-1.