This, That and The Other Thing

Some random thoughts:
The National Hockey League could screw up a one-car funeral. They are all about fixing what’s not broken (new jerseys make everyone 9% faster!) and letting real problems wither (scheduling, television, web sites). Here’s another example. They’ve “tweaked” the official game scoresheets. Nothing whatsoever is wrong with the ones that have been used for years, so let’s “fix” them. We had long conversations with print and electronic media types before last night’s game in Ottawa and nobody we spoke with seems to like them. Way to go, Edsel.

I generally don’t have time to read message boards, but occasionally people who do send me links and I’ll take a peek. I think it’s pretty funny that not only are the Keyboard Klobberers taking Glen Hanlon to task for his preseason line combinations, they’re unhappy with his comments about the lines. I don’t see eye-to-eye with Hanlon on everything, either, and don’t expect to. But man, I’m not going to get all bent out of shape and have a hissy because he won’t play one guy with another in a preseason game.

Hanlon told us days ago not to read anything into his preseason lines, and now people are spending hours doing exactly that. He basically said he has four top six forwards set, and that he will mix and match them. And that he has Chris Clark skating with Matt Pettinger and Boyd Gordon during camp to give some of the team’s young and skilled prospects a chance to earn slots among the top six. Some guys are taking advantage of that chance, some are not. Furthermore, Hanlon said that he knows he can drop Clark back on the right side of a line with Alex Ovechkin if none of the kids step forward enough to nail down a top six spot. Seems simple to me, and it makes enough sense, too.

On defense, he’s taking a similar tack. He knows he can pair up Shaone Morrisonn and Milan Jurcina anytime and they’ll form an effective shutdown tandem that can play 20 minutes a night. But knowing that has also enabled him to split them up to see how those two might work alongside other partners. Nothing wrong with that, and it’s smart to do so now when the stakes are low.

What am I missing here? Why the outrage?

Look, I said from the time the Caps signed Viktor Kozlov on July 1 that I liked him better on the right wing. But I’m not ready to declare the season a bust and Hanlon a failure as a coach because he has Kozlov centering for Ovechkin, a guy with whom he has proven chemistry.

Hanlon noted the other day that prior to Ottawa’s Dany Heatley, Florida’s Pavel Bure was the most recent NHL player with consecutive 50-goal seasons. And that Kozlov was his center for the first of those two seasons, 1999-00. Kozlov totaled career highs in assists (53) and points (70) that season.

“They played together [at the Olympics in Turin],” said Hanlon. “We feel that he can control the play. He is a different type of centerman than Nylander. We’re giving Nylander and Semin some time to get adjusted. And I think before this is all over, you’ll see them switch around. I don’t want to get too wordy on this, but we had two power play groups that were set up. We combined a couple of them and it was pretty effective with the three Russians [together] with Semin on the point. There are lots of different looks, and that’s what makes teams hard to defend.”

Hanlon is a bright guy. If it’s not working, he’s going to try something else.

Here’s what he said on Wednesday when asked about his defensive pairings:
“What we’ve done here is we’ve got a group of combinations of four forward lines, and we might have 20 of them. Then we have a group of six [defensemen] and there might be 20 of those also. There are six [defensemen] who are going to play, but there are 10 guys fighting for those six spots. It’s just been one [preseason] game that was played, by mostly non-NHL defensemen. The only NHL defensemen there were [John] Erskine and Mike Green, previous year NHL defensemen.”

On specific players with “types” of defensemen:
“I don’t want to stereotype these pairs where you’ve got the one stay-at-home, not mobile, doesn’t get up [the ice] with the guy that can skate. We want two defensemen that can be mobile. We’re not looking for somebody to be safe. We’re looking for all of them to be smart and make right decisions with the puck. To me there is a big difference from ‘safe.’ ‘Safe’ is just sitting back and dumping pucks out.”

The lineup for tomorrow’s game in Tampa Bay will consist of fewer veterans than the one the Caps iced in Ottawa last night. We’ll post the lineup here sometime tomorrow.

One more thing. Not sure where or how this rumor about Michal Neuvirth got started, but it’s not true. Someone somewhere had it that Neuvirth was slated to start for the Caps last night in Ottawa and did not because he was hurt in the pregame warm-ups. That couldn’t be more wrong. Hanlon gave us the rosters for the game on Wednesday and when he did, he also told us that Olie would start and would go all the way.

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