The Washington Capitals are steadying themselves after an 0-3 start to the short season. They have gained three points in their last two games and much credit has to go to the play between the pipes by Michal Neuvirth. Let's not kid ourselves to believe the defense has completely fixed itself. Neuvirth has been steady in goal and has quite frankly bailed out the blue line several times over the last two games. As Stephen Whyno writes, starting Neuvirth is a no-brainer. Head coach Adam Oates is going with the hot hand.
"I mean, right now, yeah," Oates said. "Hopefully you get the luxury of maybe strategizing it a little different. But right now [Neuvirth is] playing very well. And he’s getting rest so it’s not like we’re killing him right now. So he’s good."
Here is
more on the rise of Neuvirth. Neuvy himself knows that more playing time means more consistency.
“More I play, I’m feeling more comfortable. I expect me to play even better,” said Neuvirth, who will make his fourth consecutive start for the Capitals when they visit the
Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. “I mean, I’m just trying to play my game, stay on the top of the crease and be patient. Try and stay positive the whole game.”
“I know from my experience, it’s a long season and you never know. I just want to work hard every day and, if I get the chance, I want to help my team to get a ‘W,’ ” Neuvirth said. “It’s tough to go with one guy the whole season, there’s always some up and downs but I’m trying to play the same way all season.”
Brooks Laich
will be joining the Caps on the Canada road swing. Laich has not played yet this season, out nursing a groin injury. Not really clear on when exactly Laich will return to the ice.
One of the things all three coaches (Boudreau, Hunter, and now Oates)
have and had to deal with was getting Alex Ovechjkin back on track and changing things up to make his play less predictable. Ovi is an overbearing force on the Capitals and this article states he may have been one of the reasons Dale Hunter did not want to return to the bench. Regardless, Oates is set on finding solutions to Ovi's struggles of late.
So Oates took up the cause, bringing with him a reputation as an astute offensive mind. If anyone could get OV back on track, it would be the guy who spent his Hall of Fame career setting up Brett Hull and Cam Neely to succeed.
So what does Oates do? He takes the natural left winger and moves him to the right side.
In theory, it was a brilliant move that should have forced Ovechkin out of his comfort zone and into a place where he would rely on his natural creativity to keep defenses off balance.
If in fact Ovi has a personal pipeline to Caps owner Ted Leonsis, which I do nto assert here that he does, but if so, he could learn a lesson from Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. Hard to believe I said that. Snyder use to allow players to come directly to him, mainly, former RB Clinton Portis. By allowing players to come directly to him undermined the integrity and authority of the coaching staff. Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan ended that practice.
Thye best thing Ovi could do is step back and realize that his game has downgraded a bit, and perhaps, Oates may be the guy to resurrect it. Or is the ego just too big for that to happen?
Ultimately, it’s up to Ovechkin whether he changes his game or not. It wouldn’t be easy, but all he has to do is look at what Oates did for Ilya Kovalchuk last year in New Jersey to see the value of listening to the coach. It took his countryman time to adjust, but Kovalchuk stuck with it on the way to a career season.
