Caps 4, New Jersey Devils 1
Caps continue to roll – and now they’re doing it against some really good teams. The Devils looked every bit the best team in the Eastern Conference during the first 10 minutes or so on Saturday night. They’re big, fast, move the puck well and have brilliant goaltending with Martin Brodeur. Can’t do much better than that. But Washington got some good goaltending of its own from rookie Michal Neuvirth to keep New Jersey off the board early and then scored twice in the first period. Alex Ovechkin and Matt Bradley did the honors – though Bradley’s was a fluky lollipop that deflected off a Devils player and over the top of Brodeur’s catching glove. Oops!
“I tried to reach as high as I could,” Brodeur said. “I got a little piece of it. It’s pretty weird. You don’t see that too often. It was kind of perfect bounce for him.”
No doubt. Didn’t catch Bradley afterwards. Will see what he has to say for himself at tomorrow’s 11 a.m. optional practice at Kettler Iceplex. But he’s making a living off those kinds of goals this year. How about his bad-angle score against Colorado during the recent road trip? Whatever. They all count and Bradley now has seven. He has done that three times previously in his career. And as a rookie he scored nine for San Jose in 2001-02. He also had 22 points that year – a career best. Well, he’s got 13 now so that mark is definitely in play.
Caps are 24-8-6 with 54 points – most in the NHL again, though the Penguins can jump back on top with a win on Sunday night against the Maple Leafs. Next up for Washington is Carolina (9-22-7, 25 points) on Monday night – still the worst team in the Eastern Conference. Then it’s out west for games against San Jose and Los Angeles. Pretty tough stretch here yet the Caps have shown no signs of slowing down.
Will have more on the blog tomorrow on the signing of Alex Semin to a contract extension for one-year, $6 million. At the very least George McPhee has kicked a huge distraction down the street a ways. It will now be the trade deadline in 2011 when the team will have to seriously think about trading their star winger because Semin will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of that season. But until then, the Caps get another year of Semin at a reasonable price, but without a longterm commitment. They also get a player who will be gunning for a huge payday – great incentive for any pro athlete. They also buy time to work out a longer extension, if they think they can fit everybody in under the salary cap without crippling the organization’s depth.
Semin, meanwhile, will have a ton of options after next season: Other NHL teams, going back home to Russia and the KHL without breaking an existing contract, etc. And if Semin walks the Caps have $6 million to play with in the summer of 2011 to try and add pieces. Win-win for everybody seems to me.
