Capitals Musings

In the midst of being embarrassed last night the Washington Capitals made an interesting personnel move, taking 23-year-old Czech winner Tomas Fleischmann off the first line, which consists of Viktor Kozlov and Alexander Ovechkin, and replacing him with Chris 'Captain America' Clark, Ovechkin's line-mate from a year ago. This should be a permanent move in my opinion, at least for now. Through the Caps first four games Fleischmann has no points and only three shots on goal. On the ice he looks like he's timid and lacking confidence - maybe he is intimidated playing with Ovechkin. There's no question Fleischmann has talent - he has put up better than a point per game in the American Hockey League each of the last two season (for those of you who don't follow hockey the AHL is analogous to AAA baseball) - but he isn't going to do anything productive if he's scared to touch the puck. Fleischmann's got too much talent to give up on at his age, but he would also be out of place on a checking line. The best solution for now is to move Clark back up to the first line and pair Fleischmann with Michael Mylander and Niklas Backstrom on the second line. This would allow Clark to play with Ovechkin, hopefully continuing their chemistry from last season, provide the second line with an offensively-minded player while 38-goal-scorer Alexander Semin rests his sprained ankle and drop utility man Brooks Laich to the checking line, a role he is better suited to. This also allows the Capitals to keep Brian Sutherby's toughness in the lineup, something you can never have too little of when the team looks out of place. So what to do with Fleischmann when Semin comes back? That depends on how he responds to playing on the second line. If he finds his groove there he could be promoted back to Ovechkin's line or, if the coaching staff thinks Nylander, Fleischmann and Backstrom mesh well, the Caps could even move Semin up to Ovechkin's line, giving them a lethal scoring line but hurting their scoring depth a little. Under this scenario Clark would move back to the checking line restoring the combination of shutdown defense, speed and skill the coaching staff thought they had out of camp.

If Fleischmann doesn't look productive on the second line the Caps could also consider moving him to the fourth line and hoping to get some production out of him on the powerplay, although this seems somewhat unlikely given the type of player Fleischmann is. If can't pull it together before Semin comes back from injury don't be surprised if Fleischmann finds himself sitting in the press box until another top six forward goes down for the Caps.

If Fleischmann doesn't look productive on the second line the Caps could also consider moving him to the fourth line and hoping to get some production out of him on the powerplay, although this seems somewhat unlikely given the type of player Fleischmann is. If can't pull it together before Semin comes back from injury don't be surprised if Fleischmann finds himself sitting in the press box until another top six forward goes down for the Caps.

- DMG