On a Roll at the Right Time

Don't look now but the Washington Wizards are heating up. In the past 11 days the boys in white and blue have knocked off three of the four teams above them in the Eastern Conference playoff standings and are playing as well as they have at any stretch this season.

With Sunday night's nationally televised 95-83 victory over Detroit, the Wiz have won six of their last seven and are 8-3 in the month of March with five games to go. After two weeks of watching the Philadelphia 76ers creep up on their 6th spot, Washington continues to keep Andre Iguodala and company in its rear-view mirror and last week leap-frogged struggling Toronto to take control of 5th place.

The return of Caron Butler has helped kick-start the recent hot streak, but he's not the only reason the Wizards are putting things together just in time for the critical 5-week stretch before the playoffs. The Tar Heel made it over to the Phone Booth and got a first hand view - albeit from halfway up the stairs in section 404 - of a team that's really in a groove right now.

The Wizards (36-33) shot 52.8 percent against one of the league's best defensive teams, took the lead late in the first quarter and never gave it up. They out-scored the Pistons 50-20 in the paint and out-shot them by five at the stripe (17-12).

I saw several quotes from Pistons players after the game - like Tayshaun Prince saying “We didn’t even much at all run our normal plays,” - well, whatever. Sure, you've got a playoff spot locked up but don't give me that we're just experimenting with sets and coasting into April bullcorn. (Also, you wonder why so many people prefer college ball to 'The League' - teams don't have the luxury of taking nights off there).

Essentially, the Wiz out-played the Pistons in all facets of the game. Antawn Jamison had yet another double-double (24 & 12), Caron Butler looked the best his has in any game since his return with 17 points, 5 boards and 6 assists and Brendan Haywood came up big with 16 points. Darius Songaila gave the home team 10 points off the bench and Andray Blatche showed some toughness banging with Rasheed Wallace and baiting the Big Bald Spotted One into a technical - the 13,452nd of his career...or something like that.

Lettuce Ketchup

My apologies for abandoning you over the tail end of last week and through the weekend. I was a bit preoccupied entertaining three British imports and showing them all the best spots and things about our great city (including last night's prime time matchup). So let's re-hash a few noteworthy tidbits to get us ready for the up-coming five game road trip out west.

• Wow! That was the first word that came out of my mouth when I saw the score from the Wiz-Magic game last Wednesday. Bouncing back from a 122-92 home loss with an 87-86 road win against the division leaders is one thing. But holding Dwight Howard to 3(!!!) points and 14 boards is just ridiculous. The guy is a walking double-double and yet the combination of Brendan Haywood and Andray Blatche transformed themselves into Kryptonite in Orlando. Their activity on the offense end was even more effective than their defense, as Howard was forced to ride the pine pony for much of the night after getting into early foul trouble. Great performance up and down the lineup and yet another credit to Randy Ayers' ability to coach defense.
• Gilbert Arenas was nowhere to be found when last night's tilt tipped-off (I would know, I had the binoculars in hand). Well it turns out the Hibachi was expecting to make his triumphant return in front of ESPN's Sunday night hoops national audience until the team doctor checked out Gil's knee and determined he needed one more week of rest. Naturally, Agent Zero was a little miffed - apparently more than a little - and he stormed off, telling reporters, “I’m not coming back this year.”
  
• The fact that he didn't have a sport coat to wear on the bench only added to his frustration (and was the reason he wasn't on the bench until midway through the half). It's a $10,000 fine if you show up in street clothes that don't include a coat and Gilbert has already shelled out for that one. Hard to say when/if we will in fact see him on the floor next week, but the good news is he did make the trip to Portland for tomorrow night's game - the first stop on a five-game road swing.
  
• Nick Young missed his second straight game with a bruised right thigh, leaving the Wiz with only five reserves on the bench. This doesn't sound too serious though, so expect to see the Bean Burrito back on the court at some point in the next couple games.
• One of the best moments from last night came as the Kiss Camera made its way around the Verizon Center during a timeout. After pausing on several couples, one brother & sister and a father and daughter (not everyone is into robbing the cradle), the camera locked in on former Wizard Jarvis Hayes - who had been booed all night - and a teammate sitting to his left. Hayes simply smiled and shook his head but the camera man didn't flinch. The fans continued to boo as the teammate turned away and put a towel over his head. At the last second, Hayes obliged and gave the teammate to his right a peck on the cheek. It was no Buckhantz-Chenier smooch, but good sport on his part nonetheless.
• Another highlight: Whenever a Piston would step to the line, the jumbotron operator would flash a giant DOOK (sorry, that's how we spell it) logo on the screen. Naturally, people were already booing and trying to distract the shooter but this made them bring the noise about 50-fold. I know we're in Terps territory and the Devils had just lost to WVU the night before, but really? When it's not even a Dookie at the stripe? Sure. I'm all for it.
  

Quotable

• “Our big guys really took the challenge to make it difficult for him. Not to get him bouncing around and dunking and Supermanning and all that stuff. We really wanted to prevent as many points in the paint as possible and have them beat us from outside.” -- Jamison after the win in Orlando.

Up Next

The Wizards kick-off their five-game road trip in Portland tomorrow night. On their last left-coast jaunt, they managed a single win in four games and it took a last-second tip-in against the Clips to avoid coming back with a bagel in the win column.

This time they're riding some momentum and they've got Tough Juice back in the lineup.

The two teams met way back on November 17 with the Wizards blowing out the visiting Blazers 109-90. Six Wizards scored in double-figures in that game, including AJ's 30 and 11 boards and Haywood's 17 and 10.

Portland (37-33) comes into this one having won three-of-four, beating the Clips back-to-back in a Friday-Saturday home-and-home series. And while they're record would be good enough for 5th in the East, they're 6.5 games back of Golden State for the 8th and final spot in the West.

Joel Pryzbilla had a career-high 25 points in Saturday's win and leading scorer Brandon Roy scored 23 for the Blazers.

After their stop in Portland, the Wiz head to Seattle, Sacramento and L.A. for a date with Kobe and the Lakers before finishing things up in Utah. It's a critical trip for Washington as they look to hold onto and potentially increase their 1.5 game lead on Toronto and Philly. The first three games are all very winnable and with the way these guys have been playing over the last week and a half, a victory in L.A. or Utah wouldn't be a shock either.

All photos AP/Getty by way of Yahoo!

-- The Tar Heel

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John Patterson Gets Cut

No sooner did I expound on my optimism for Patterson's return, the Nationals let him go after what they have said was a very disappointing spring rehabilitation. Even in my previous post I cautioned against the vulnerability of Patterson and his history of injury, and it is now evident that his arm troubles have had a more lasting impact than originally expected.

Patterson was 0-2 with a 7.00 ERA in nine innings this spring. Most telling however was his fastball, or lack there of, which was clocked in the low to mid 80s. This move while a disappointing one for all involved was necessary for the organization. All parties involved have remained patient and optimistic for two years, but a lack of progress regardless of the reason can't be shouldered indefinitely. I'm sure Patterson feels more let down by his current physical limitations than by the Nationals and I hope that he can regain some of his vigor that we saw in 2005. Maybe resurface again down the line.

This leaves a hole in the rotation and after a shaky Spring Training start Odalis Perez has righted the ship and pitched his way into the top spot of the Nationals staff. He will be the opening day starter against the Atlanta Braves on March 30. Manager Manny Acta has said that only Perez, Bergmann and Redding have solidified spots in the rotation and that Matt Chico and John Lannan are fighting for the final spot in the four man rotation. Clearly, after last year's experiment with inexperienced pitching Acta is choosing to use the guys that have the most innings in the bigs. If awareness and composure dictates who gets the fourth spot, look for Lannan to have the edge over Chico as he has been praised by many in the organization for being mature beyond his years.

With the rotation and the lineup becoming clearer every day the Nationals appear to be putting together a very competitive team.I expect their numbers to improve across the board in 2008 as Bowden has addressed a lot of their problem areas from last year. However, the only statistic that counts won't change as much in this first season. The Nationals are relying on a lot of potential which is good for a young team, but when each individual is a question mark, each player has less focus to devote to the team. In this first year they will look inward towards themselves in order to justify their position and their potential. This won't create selfish ballplayers, but it also won't create team chemistry needed for a playoff bound ball club. Teams that already know what they have to do and are consistent as individuals can devote more energy toward winning games. The Nationals will have to learn that over the course of the season. They will retain their fourth place finish in the division but look for them to push very close to the .500 mark all season.

- The Hokie

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Caps battle back to earn two points in Atlanta

Capitals 5, Thrashers 3

For better than fifty minutes last night it seemed like the word of the day for Capitals fans would be 'almost' and the Capitals seemed to be on the verge of almost picking up a vital road win, almost keeping themselves in the playoffs race, creating chances that were almost goals and almost catching a break as the Ranger almost did the Caps a favor by (almost) beating the Flyers with a third period comeback of their own. But by the time the final buzzer had sounded, it was clear Caps fans would have a very different word on their minds: resilient.

In the first two games of their road trip the Capitals combined to play one good period - the opening frame in Nashville. The recent mini-slump, while distressing, wasn't particularly surprising given that this team has spent most of this season clawing its way back into contention after it's horrible start to the season. Given the adversity the team has faced while climbing up the standings over the last several months under Bruce Boudreau and the way things had started to go recently it would have been easy for them to come out in the third with a defeatist attitude, accepting that while they had done well to even get in playoff contention they were up against too much this season. Instead the Capitals came out and made a statement, dominating play for the final frame and outshooting the Thrashers 23-2, and in the process sending a message to the rest of the Eastern Conference that they're not ready to give up on this season yet.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Alexander Ovechkin - 2 goals, 2 assists, nine shots, +4
(2) Nicklas Backstrom - 2 goals, 1 assist, +3
(3) Mike Green - 2 assists, +3, 7 shots

Picture of the Night
The shot chart for the third period of last night's game:



Quick Hits

• I hated to see it, but that Eric Perrin pass to Jim Slater that lead to his shorthanded goal was beautiful.


• Jeff Schultz made a great play at one point with Ilya Kovalchuk bearing down on him on a one-on-one, an indication of how much he's improved this season.


• Steve Eminger wants in the lineup bad. He seems like he's always looking to make a big and tonight he was forechecking harder than some of the forwards during the third period.


• The Thrashers laid 20 hits on the Caps last night, a number that probably would have been lower had Donald Brashear and/or John Erskine been in the lineup.


• The Capitals racked up 45 shots on the night, led by Ovechkin (9), Viktor Kozlov (8) and Mike Green (7).


• The Thrashers commentators were criticizing Kari Lehtonen for being upset with the end of the game and, to a certain extent, calling out his teammates in the post game interview but I can't say I blame him. There's no way you should see 23 shots in a one period when your team is defending a lead.


• That said, Lehtonen should have been called for an unsportsmanlike conduct minor for throwing his stick after the Capitals fourth goal (and an added ten minutes misconduct would have been appropriate as well, although since Lehtonen is a goalie it wouldn't have had an impact).


• Alex Ovechkin wasn't credited with a hit.


• Boyd Gordon's goal was his sixth this season...and his third empty netter.
  

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Caps travel to Atlanta to take on downtrodden Thrashers

Washington Capitals at Atlanta Thrashers
Friday, March 20th, 2008, 7:00 PM
Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia
TV: CSN
Last Meeting: 3/14/2008, Caps win 4-1

For a post that covers similar ground, see A View From the Cheap Seats' "Know Thy Enemy".

After the Capitals' last game it was apparent that the team was tired, likely both mentally and physically and Bruce Boudreau gave the team Thursday off from practice in an effort to help them clear their heads and come back focused. Having a day away from the rink to collect their thoughts should help the team move on after getting dismantled against Chicago. A win against a struggling Atlanta team would help even more.

There's no reason the Capitals can't win against the Thrashers who, frankly, are a bad team. Really bad. Like, getting national attention for how bad they are. Here's a look at what the Caps' Friday night opponent has done in their last ten games:

• March 2nd, 3-2 overtime loss to Pittsburgh. At the time this was Atlanta 7th consecutive loss.


• March 5th, 6-3 loss to Carolina. Atrlanta put the Hurricanes on gthe powerplay seven time, contributing to the 37 shots against.


• March 7th, 3-2 win against Minnesota in the gimmick shootout. Atlanta was outshot 39-26, but did go 2-4 on the powerplay.


• March 8th, 3-2 overtime loss to Florida. Were it not for Kari Lehtonen this one would have been close; the Thrashers were outshot 43-27.


• March 11th, 5-2 loss to Colorado. Johan Hedberg allows five goals on 23 shots.


• March 13th, 6-4 win against Calgary. The Thrashers rally from a three-goal deficit to send a tired Calgary team home with a loss.


• March 14th, 4-1 loss to Washington. The Caps dominated the Thrashers, outshooting them 37-12. Only Kari Lehtonen's stellar play kept this from being a complete blowout.


• March 16th, 3-1 loss to Florida. The Thrashers learned two things the Capitals know all to well: (1) the NHL's referees aren't very consistent and (2) Tomas Vokoun is really good.


• March 18th, 3-2 loss to Philadelphia. The score may have been 3-2, but the shots were 47-19 in favor of the Flyers.


• March 19th, 5-3 loss to Carolina. A Slava Kozlov goal with 39 seconds left made this one look a little better on paper and although the Thrashers played one of their stronger games of this stretch, actually out shooting the Hurricanes 34-33, this game was over at the first intermission when Carolina took a 3-0 lead to the locker room.

During this ten game stretch the Thrashers:

• Won one game in regulation, won one game in a shootout, lost twice in overtime and lost six times in regulation.


• Allowed an average of 35.6 shots per game against and averaged 26.1 shots for.


• Were outshot six times, outshot their opposition three times and matched their opponents once.


• Went 6 for 35 on the powerplay (17.1%), but scored powerplay goals in only three games.


• Killed just 29 of 40 shorthanded situations (72.5%).


• Saw their goalies post a combined .896 save percentage.

Simply put, the Capitals should not lose this game. In fact, it shouldn't even be close.
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Defensive Lapses Doom Banged Up Wiz

Just when you thought the Wizards had figured out how to beat the teams they're supposed to beat, they go and lose to another sub-.500 club, and they have the nerve to do it at home.

I'll admit it, the guys had me going there after coming back to beat the Clippers over the weekend. But then they go and lose to the Atlanta Hawks 96-105 on Monday and now those pesky Philadelphia 76ers are just a half game back of Washington for the 6th spot in the East.

If you're looking for an explanation for the letdown, the first stat that jumps out to you is Atlanta's field goal percentage. The Hawks shot a blistering 55.4 percent from the field. Translation: very poor defense from the home team. Atlanta also shot 53 percent from long-range thanks to new addition Mike Bibby who was 5-for-6.

Next, take a look at the bench production. After a string of very strong performances from role players - especially Nick Young and Darius Songaila - the Wizards got zilch from their reserves save for Roger Mason's 14. The Hawks bench out-scored Washington's 28-22 as Young and Songaila combined for only eight points. And what is going on with Andray Blatche? He was a real spark off the bench after Songaila replaced him in the starting lineup, but recently he's just disappeared. Sure, Eddie Jordan only gave him five minutes on Monday, but the guy has to do something in the minutes he's allotted if he wants that number to increase. Blatche would've been the perfect counter to Atlanta's slew of lanky forwards.

Next Up

Washington Wizards (33-33) at
Orlando Magic (45-24)
Wednesday, March 19 - 7pm
Amway Arena

The Wizards now must travel to Orlando to face one of the league's hottest team, and one they have yet to defeat in two meetings so far this season. The most recent matchup turned into a blowout very quickly as the Magic hammered Washington on its home floor, 122-92 on March 5.

Orlando has won 11 of its last 13 including a 104-90 rout of Cleveland on Monday. And while the Wizards would love to prove that they can play with Dwight Howard and company - if the season ended today the two teams would be matched up in the first round - their biggest concern right now might be to just get healthy.

Caron Butler returned for Thursday's win against Cleveland, but his wrist is banged up and the same goes for Antonio Daniels. Meanwhile Brendan Haywood just returned after missing one game due to a strained left patella tendon and Antawn Jamison has been playing with back pain for several weeks now.

But with the Sixers licking their chops as they close in on Washington's sixth seed, the Wiz have got to come together and continue to pick up wins. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening tonight against the Magic.

-- The Tar Heel
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Caps Gameday - Predators/Capitals Preview

The Capitals open a season-defining six game road trip against an opponent in a similar position. The Nashville Predators have taken a lot of people by surprise this season and like the Capitals they're just two points away from an unlikely playoff berth, so this game ought to be a good one as two deep and talent teams try to go on the type of season-ending run that will be needed to bolster them into the playoffs.

Washington Capitals at Nashville Predators
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008, 8:00 PM
Sommet Center in Nashville, Tennessee
TV: CSN

About the Opponent

Nashville Predators: 36-29-8, 80 points, 2nd in the Central Division, 9th in the Western Conference

Team Leaders
Goals: J.P. Dumont (27)
Assists: Jason Arnott (42)
Points: Jason Arnott (67)
Plus/Minus: Alexander Radulov (+17)
Penalty Minutes: Jordin Tootoo (83)
Fights: Darcy Hordichuk (12)

Random Predators Fact
The Predators have a little bit of the Capitals in their history: Former Caps' general manager David Poile is the only GM the Predators have ever had and the franchise's first goal was scored by former Capitals Andrew Brunette.

Random team Statistic
Predators center David Legwand was it's first ever draft choice and leads the team in career scoring with 327 points (121+206).

Keys to the Game

Washington
Get solid games from all six defensemen. The Predators are 10th in the NHL in goals and it's not because of one player, or even one line: Nashville already has four players with more than 20 goals (and other with 15) and six players with more than 40 points. A loss of concentration against any Nashville's lines could mean the puck winds up in the Capitals' net.

Nashville
Goaltending. Chris Mason was supposed to replace Tomas Vokoun, but he's been average at best. Dan Ellis has stepped up and has great numbers on the year but he's also been somewhat inconsistent. Nashville can skate, can play defense, can score and has great depth - when they get good goaltending they're really a tough team to face.

Players to Watch

Washington
Alexander Semin - for Washing to have a successful road swing they can't just rely on the Ovehckin-Backstrom-Kolov tandem to provide the vast majority of their offense and the second-best goal scorer on the Capitals Semin needs to step it up.

Nashville
Alexander Radulov - the 15th overall pick in the 2004 draft has flown under the radar a little becuase he players in Nashville, but Radulov is immensely talented and already has 24 goals and 31 assists this season to go along with his stellar +17 rating, leading a very defensively responsible Nashville team.
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Huet leads Caps to shootout win

Capitals 2, Bruins 1 (SO)

Don't look now Caps fans, but with their third consecutive win the boys in red, white and blue are just two points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the eighth seed and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference after a shootout victory over the Boston Bruins on Sunday.

While at this point the team (and its fans) will take a two point night just about any way they can get one, the Capitals showed cause for concern on two fronts. One was their inability to take over the game physically. The Capitals are one of the biggest teams in the NHL (despite that they seem to have a tendency to exaggerate their player's size), have a myriad of skilled players and were playing at home against a Bruins team that had played an overtime game less than 24 hours earlier. Simply put, the third period should have belonged to the Capitals, yet the Bruins got the better of the shot count, putting up 17 to the Capitals' nine.

The reasons were twofold. The Capitals were partly outshot and outchanced in the game's second half because they were too tentative, a fact noted by Bruce Boudreau, who said of his team's play, “It looked like we were afraid to make a mistake instead of, ‘Let’s go get them,’ and play the way we can.” In addition to being tentative the Capitals were also stymied by a relatively simple (and extremely boring conservative) Boston defensive strategy. The Capitals have too much speed, too much skill and too much size to allow themselves to be contained by a team just dropping players back into the neutral zone.

But why dwell on the negatives, especially when they don't exactly set off any alarms? The Capitals did play pretty well, Alexander Semin and Cristobal Huet both looked great and the team showed not just how good they are, but how mentally tough they are as well, picking up three wins in a row after last weekend's heartbreaking losses. The important of the confidence (and the points) the Caps picked up in their last three games cannot be overestimated.

DMG's 3 Stars
(1) Cristobal Huet - 39 saves on 40 shots (.975 save percentage); 2-for-2 in the shootout
(2) Sergei Fedorov - 1 goal, 12-20 (60%) on faceoffs
(3) Alexander Semin

Quotable

"Like I always said, coaches hate the shootout when you lose, and it's okay when you win"

-Bruce Boudreau

Quick Hits

• I'm starting to wonder if Alex Semin and Nicklas Backstrom switched brains - now it seems like Semin is passing up good shooting chances to try and dish to someone else and Backstrom is stickhandling a bit too much, especially crossing the blue line.


• Not that I think it's going on, or even that it's really possible, but if you wanted to try and convince people there was a Juventus-style match fixing thing going on between the Bruins and the NHL officials, you'd probably be able to throw together a lot of evidence from the last two Washington/Boston games.


• To their credit, the Caps did come out throwing the body around. The team was credit with 20 hits and seven players (Alex Ovechkin, Matt Bradley, Donald Brashear, Brooks Laich, Matt Cooke, Shaone Morrisonn and Sami Lepisto) had more than one. Morrisonn's four set the pace.


• Because there were only two goals in the game and both were on the powerplay, every player in the game was an even +/-.

All photos AP/Getty by way of Yahoo!
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