Some extra nuggets from the Caps’ 5-4 overtime win over the Anaheim Ducks. First, give credit to the third line of Brooks Laich, Joel Ward and Jason Chimera. That trio helped contain one of the NHL’s most explosive lines – Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, last year’s NHL most valuable player, and Bobby Ryan. Washington had most of the possession in the first period and held the Ducks’ top unit to five shots total. Getzlaf didn’t get a single shot on goal. The three had six of their shots blocked
So while Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu were fileting the Caps’ defense – especially Dennis Wideman and Roman Hamrlik – the third line at least helped keep Washington in the game. If you can call 3-0 at 8:59 of the second period “in the game”.
“They’re a good hockey team and for the first 30 minutes they really outplayed us,” Laich said. “Even though the shots weren’t that great they had the goals and we weren’t able to get one by [Anaheim goalie Jonas] Hiller. Using four lines all night really helped us.”
That’s because the Caps knew the Ducks would be tired playing their fifth game in eight days with two more left on a long road trip. It doesn’t help that Anaheim tends to roll with three lines, giving limited duty for their fourth-line guys. They had the jump early. But Bruce Boudreau – as impressed as he was with the Ducks – didn’t see any way they could keep up that pace. In the end, Washington finished with 40 shots to just 15 for Anaheim.
“Well, we knew that they were going to be on a long roady and that [Ryan-Getzlaf-Perry] line plays a lot,” Ward said. “If you can slowly chop the tree down and stay with it and put a little pressure onto them, hopefully they make fewer plays…If you keep those guys off the scoresheet, it gives you a better chance of winning, for sure.”
Wideman and Hamrlik, who have actually played together before, had a miscommunication behind the net on Anaheim’s first goal by Koivu at 9:05 of the first period. And they were supposed to be the stable pair on a revamped blueline. With Mike Green (right ankle) still hurt, John Erskine was cleared to play and paired with John Carlson, whose normal partner, Karl Alzner, was with Jeff Schultz.
“It looked like Wides and Hammer were struggling a little bit with their speed,” Boudreau said. “I was just hoping when I went down and talked to [assistant coach Bob Woods] and we both sort of met in the middle and thought the same thing at the very same time. We said ‘Well, let’s switch it.’ It was sort of a gamble in the first place with [Erskine] there what pairings were going to be. We said let’s try these and if it’s not working we’ll switch right away. So we didn’t want to get too far out of hand and at 2-0 we thought we were still capable of coming back and scoring a couple goals.”
Injury news: Troy Brouwer, who scored a fluke goal at 11:42 of the third period to cut the Anaheim lead to 4-3, was sent tumbling into the boards in the offensive zone by Ducks defenseman Toni Lydman. He appeared to land awkwardly on his right side. That’s a little scary for a player who just underwent shoulder surgery in May. Brouwer did not play the final 2 minutes, 16 seconds of regulation or at all in overtime. Boudreau had no update for us afterwards. Will have to wait until practice on Wednesday to see how serious it is, if at all.
Meanwhile, veteran Mike Knuble, sent down to the fourth line to start the game, still finished with 13:49 of ice time. Tomas Vokoun was left out to dry by his defensemen a few times and his 11 saves on 15 attempts won’t help the old save percentage. But I thought he played relatively well in the final 40 minutes given the few attempts he saw from the Ducks.
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