Baltimore Sports Then and Now

Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals are off to a hot start.

It’s almost impossible to win a football game in the first quarter. There’s too much time to come back, adjust to the other team, get lucky. A team can lose a game in the first quarter though. They can put themselves in such a deep physical and psychological hole that they won’t be able to climb.

The NHL season is a little like that. Everyone has played at least 21 games out of a total of eighty two. The early favourites have been established who is the best team? That title is still up for grabs. Who is likely to make the playoffs? Well in the new NHL where there’s a point given out every time a team completes their pre-game warm-up that’s still undecided yet. Who has played themselves out of the play-offs and are likely to be lottery pick drafters, well that I can tell you. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Carolina Hurricanes and their five wins respectively are out of the playoffs, in November. It’s a neat trick.

How have the teams in the NHL done this first quarter? Lets’ take a look at teams in the Eastern Conference in the order they’re in now.

1/ Pittsburgh Penguins
GP: 25 W: 17 L: 8 OT: 0 PTS: 34 WPCT: .680 GF: 77 GA: 69

Pittsburgh has started slowly the last couple of years. This year they had the third fastest start in the league. They’ve tightened up their game giving up only 27.1 shots per game.

Fleury hasn’t benefitted from this decrease in chances. Last years .912 save percentage has declined to .904. Malkin has missed seven games so far this year and the team suffered with him out.

After the playmaker Sidney Crosby with 12 goals there’s a group of Penguins with six. Youngster Alex Goligoski has almost equaled last years offensive totals in less then half the games. Along with Letang and the veteran Skoula there seems plenty of offensive potential on the back end on the soon to be retired Gonchar.

The return of Maxime Talbot should help Pittsburgh as well. They still could use top end snipers to play with Malkin and Crosby. This team looks to get stronger as the season progresses.

2/Washington Capitals
GP: 25 W: 14 L: 5 OT: 6 PTS: 34 WPCT: .680 GF: 87 GA: 73

Washington is tied with San Jose in goals scored. Alex Ovechkin now holds the Capital’s record for most goals scored in a season with 65. Can he approach Dennis Maruk’s team record for most points in a season of 136? He’s only on pace for 88 points this year. He’s got 17 goals and 27 points in 19 games. If he manages to maintain that offensive production for his remaining 57 games he’d finish with 68 goals and 108 points.

The offense has weathered injuries to Semin, Knuble, Ovechkin, Flesichmann and Fehr and is still ticking along. Mike Green is the best offensive defenseman in the game. The goaltending has been split so far this year between Varlamov and Theodore but the youngster is slowing winning this battle. Look for Theodore not to be resigned in the off-season. In a perfect world he’d be traded to a desperate team for assets this year, but there’s no one out there that desperate. Washington is feasting so far (4-0-0) on their divisional opponents and I’d expect that to continue while Pittsburgh fights through the toughest division in hockey. Washington may win the east when all is said and done. Read the rest of this entry →