Point Shots--Three for One

Back again I are after taking care of some personal business.  And first off, I know I promised an article just on Varly, but a whole hell of a lot has happened this past month.  So not wanting to fall further behind, I decided to do this one up Combo Platter style.  My apologies to Messrs. Vogel and Ball.  And awaaaayyy we go....

PUT VARLY ON A HARLEY AND SEND HIM...AWAY

Simeon Semyon Varlamov....Varly.  Gone to join Flash in the land of the mountain High. What to say?  It was fun while it lasted.  And speaking of flash, Varly had plenty of it.  I've got to say that's what I liked about him, he's got a lot of style.  By the way, the "cocky" goalie isn't exactly a new concept in the NHL. For further study, I suggest looking over the careers of Patrick Roy, Jacques Plante, and Ron Hextall.

The knock on the guy of course was that he couldn't stay healthy.  To put it in DC-talk, his approach in terms of his physical preparation was questionable at best. Which is funny when you consider that the exact opposite is the knock on Michal Neuvirth, at least as far as this is concerned.  So we had an Odd Couple of sorts for a while as a goaltending tandem, for a while anyway.

But the guy had a way about him, no doubt.  It wasn't just that he made saves or even the timing, it was the way he would make the saves.  A flourish of the glove here, a fist-pump there.  That confident (some would say overly so) attitude he had about him that said, "I don't care how many they shoot at me, I'm winning this game!"  Olie Kolzig had that...maybe in a bit of a different sense, but he still had it.

Speaking of Kolzig, Varlamov doesn't quite rank as high as the Caps' legend, now associate goalie coach in terms of all-time greats.  Still, he won one playoff series and took an eventual Stanley Cup champion to a seventh game.  That's quite a bit more than many Caps' goalies of the past have accomplished, but doesn't measure up to past legends like Kolzig, Pete Peeters, and Don Beaupre. So as far as the history of the Caps is concerned, he's in the exact middle.  Just had to throw that in there, being a hockey history buff and all.

No matter what you might think of him, he had his moments while with the Capitals.  Quite a few, in fact.  Here is a Youtube tribute made by a fan containing six minutes worth of highlights, which collectively speak louder than anything I can say.  Oh yes--"The Save" is included...it shows up at 1:55.  Enjoy...or not.

ARNOTT SINGS THE BLUES AND HITS A SOUR NOTE

So the one guy I was kind of hoping the Caps would keep during all this fuss goes and signs with the St. Louis Blues.  I said before we needed a playoff-tested veteran to help us out and I was sure Arnott was the guy.
Therefore, I was disappointed to hear about this signing.  Anyone who's followed the game knows how it works--when you're a free agent, you can do business with whoever the heck you want and I respect that.  But I have to say that this makes absolutely no sense. 

It makes no sense to me because I remember his sentiments being that he wanted one more shot at a Cup, and he felt the Caps were his best chance.  Perhaps his last chance.  Admittedly, there has been limited success, but there are a lot of true believers who believe this team is on the brink of capturing the Cup.  A lot of people outside the organization like this team's chances as well.  No links or other trickery to back my point up here, just going to simply point out that the Caps finish among the NHL's top teams by the end of each of the last several regular seasons.

Now I'm not knocking the Blues, mind you.  They are definitely one of the league's up and coming teams and should make the playoffs this year.  They made that late season trade that included Kevin Shattenkirk, a fine young rearguard.  The kind that produces points from the point and plays smart--in other words, my kind of defenseman.  And he's just one blue-chip youngster (no pun intended) that they will grow with.

But, barring a few huge moves, the Blues won't truly contend for a Cup until Arnott is ready to call it quits.  You can't tell me there wasn't some top-contending team that could have used his services.  Of course you could say that he pretty much had no choice but to leave given how the Caps were spending--on everybody but him.  I'm running out of fingers to point here.....but still.

Perhaps it may not have been as if Arnott could have named his own price, but even so, there is a dearth of quality second line centers around the league.  So much so that it was labeled the Caps' Problemo Numero Uno for two seasons plus. All the more baffling considering Arnott was seen as the answer to said problem.
On top of that Arnott would have been another perfect component to the more hardworking style the Caps will hopefully be implementing this season.  So I'll ask you the reader, was it the piece that no longer fit or did the whole puzzle change?  Let me know because I'm still trying to figure it out.


DEFICIT SPENDING IN DC?  NAH...

Going to make this one short and unsweet, but even with George McPhee's talent for maintaining the books, (he did after all intern on Wall Street for a summer) is anyone else concerned about the team's payroll figure this year?  Especially when you consider that, according to Capgeek.com they are in the hole?  If this were three years ago would they be asking for a bailout?  Could Ted Leonsis solve the government debt crisis by offering a season ticket package?  I know that would convince me of doing almost anything right now.

I jest of course.  But all kidding aside, being up against the cap ceiling has consequences.  Consequences that can doom a team's hopes for a prosperous season.  It's not as if there aren't solutions, however.  Many of these solutions seem to center around Tom Poti, he of the hard luck stories you find on 6 o'clock news.  These have been discussed in expert detail here at Japers Rink by JP himself.  I'm actually confident that it will all work out, but it's hard not to be negative when you see that minus sign in front of the cap space figure.  And with that I will quit while I'm ahead.

But not before a long-awaited joke about Jaromir Jagr that I'm sure has already been made approximately 150,000 times.  We as Caps fans don't really need to as ourselves...did it really come as a surprise that he disappeared for a while?  I know I wasn't surprised.  Go ahead you know you want to!

Free Agent Day Doings--The Rundown

Ahhh, Free Agent Day...the last bit of activity before the great big nothing for three months.

They say if ain't broke, don't fix it.  Well, maybe the Caps' brain trust figured something was broke, because they sure did make the proverbial flurry of moves yesterday.  So much of a flurry in fact that I'm still brushing the snow off the front porch.

Just going to briefly go over all the deals one by one then give the overall analysis at the end:

First and probably biggest, we get Roman Hamrlik...$7 million over 2 years.  He adds experience and so much more to a formidable D-corps.  A valuable addition to the never ending carousel of blueliners that need to be ready for duty come playoff time.

Next up we have Joel Ward, a tenacious winger with bite of a bulldog.  Although not quite like the bite of  another winger.  Four years, $12 million.  This guy's a keeper, despite the somewhat steep price.

Another big deal that didn't net a player but left us minus a goalie was the Semyon Varlamov trade.  We get back a first round pick next year and a second rounder in either one of the years after that.  This one merits its own article, if not to give old Varly a nice sendoff.

A somewhat lesser signing is a homecoming for Potomac's Jeff Halpern.  He'll be sporting a different look though as the number 11 he wore has since been retired.

And a latecomer deal, not to mention the headscratcher of them all-- Goalie Tomas Vokoun signs for $1.5 million for a year.  At least we know what he can do, and it's going to be much more than riding the bench and/or doing rehab.

By the way, Varly's short but interesting stint here deserves its own article as far as I'm concerned so you will see one eventually.

Okay, so what do all these deals mean?  More of that wonderful math concept of subtraction by addition.  This has been taken care of to some extent--we lost Boyd Gordon to the Goldwater Phoenix Coyotes.  Get yourself a nice tan, Boyd.  Darn it, now we need a guy who will win a faceoff more than half the time.

Hamrlik's arrival also means that Scott Hannan is the odd man out in the D-corps, because there's no way in hell they let Karl Alzner go without a fight.  Just so everyone knows I'm saying that and not the General Manager.

The Minuses:

The biggest loss I can see here is Boyd Gordon's faceoff ability.  It is indeed becoming a lost art as we've now traded away two centers who displayed considerable skill in that area..  But as we've all learned, it's about putting the puck in the net, something than can be done without winning a faceoff.  Oft-injured
as he was, I kind of hated to see Varly go--he had that flashiness about him that made him fun to watch.

The Plusses:

Most of these I've already mentioned--Vokoun adds instant goalie cred to a team that is considered shaky in that area--little wonder why McPhee took the deal when the opportunity came up.  I really like Joel Ward and what he can do.  Given the Bruce's penchant for juggling, you just might see him on OV's or Semin's opposite wing--wouldn't THAT be a sight?  Hamrlik is basically an older and hopefully much wiser Mike Green. I might be stretching that a bit, I know. Halpern adds veteran depth down the middle and perhaps can take some of those key draws Gordon used to do.  We even get something for the future--a potential top 10 draft pick for next year.

Even:

BUT...the biggest question of all is this:  What, if anything, is to be done about current FAs Jason Arnott and Troy Brouwer?  Personally I don't want to see either one of them go because they're both a good fit for the playoff style hockey this team needs to start being used to playing.  Only thing is, the Caps have spent almost as much as Congress in the last couple of days.  As a result, they are now a coin's throw away from the cap ceiling with barely a half million to spend.  So unless either one of these guys feels like taking a huge pay cut or another trade is made, they're gone.  One assertion is that the new Winnipeg Jets would make a play for Arnott.  Can't blame them but, yikes to have to play him six times a year and then perhaps the playoffs? While I do like Joel Ward, this makes the Troy Brouwer signing a lot less sense. Not to mention it's never easy to justify $3 million a year for a plugger, even if he is one of the best.  Maybe this is just a classic case of stocking the fridge until it's about to burst open?  Perhaps Tom Poti's poor health can provide an extra icebox and they can keep both. That would give the team 15 forwards..logjam anyone?  DJ King, get to know the pressbox very well...again.

Well, when did spending money in Washington DC make much sense anyway, huh?

PS, Happy Canada Day (late) to my friends north of the 49th!

Will Caps Fans Laich the Deal? This one doesn't.

Twenty-seven million dollars...six years.

What could possibly go wrong?

Doing the math, that works out to $4.5 million a year.  This for a guy who has the potential to provide 30+ goals a year and provide the sticks-like-glue tenacity to help keep out untold more goals in his own end.  Stuff like that is something that hasn't been seen on the Caps since one Steven Reed Konowalchuk wore the colors.

But can he deliver?

A look at the positives says yes: He's durable, playing all 82 games last year and missing only four games in the last four seasons.  He plays a solid two-way game, ranking high in several offensive categories and leading the team's surprising penalty killing unit in ice time.  He's versatile, he can play any position on any line...except the first.   And he's the glue guy when the chips are down...or is he?  I've touched on this before--if his leadership has meant something,  why hasn't the team gotten any further these past few years.  I will touch on this more at the end.

I have to admit I'm of two minds about his guy.  Before you ask--no, I do not have an agenda against him.  I happen to think he's one hell of a hockey player.  But is he REALLY worth $4.5 mil a year?  Let's compare that number with some forwards from the two Cup finalists.  You're telling me that Brooks Laich is worth more a season than the following players: Milan Lucic, Marc Savard, Nathan Horton, David Krejci, and Manny Malhotra?  And worth ALMOST as much as Ryan Kesler?  Think about that one...

What I can't stand about him is that he could stand to play smarter in the other team's end.  He has a penchant for driving past the blueline and then just shooting from the tops of the circles.  It just seems like anytime he's taking a shot, it's from the tops of the circles or from the perimeter.  Personally, I think he does his best work grinding it out in front of the net.  This goes along with what I was saying about how the team should adopt a more hard-hitting style.  Goals that are pretty make the highlight reel, but goals that are earned, truly earned by hard work, drain an opposing team's morale.  Would Laich be willing to contribute to a self-sacrificing style?

Lastly, what I find most questionable is his leadership skills.  He's certainly not lacking.  It's just you find him doing a lot more talking than most.  Sometimes he backs it up with action, such as when he scored a game-tying goal against the Lightning in Game 2.  But a lot of the time you find him doing a lot of talking after the fact.  Consider this quote from Joseph White's article at Puck Daddy, when the deal was announced:

“I think this year there’s got to be a lot more accountability amongst our players to each other, and to the coaches,” he said. “It’s up to every single player—doesn’t matter how much you make, or how long you’re been here or what your name is—to practice as hard as they can, to practice as a team, to work as a team."

Now you could say that, yes, now that he's making some serious spondulicks, he's calling himself out along with Ovechkin, Green, Semin, et al.  Well, you could say that, but in reality you can't, because Brooks Laich's leadership still isn't worth a Continental Dollar .  It just isn't.  If it was, why did the team have to go get Jason Arnott for the playoff run?  If he is truly worth the contract he just signed, why then the the trade for Troy Brouwer beforehand--who, for all intents and purposes is a younger and more intense version of Laich?

Sorry, but I think this is just another example of GMGM overpaying for what he was led to believe would be a cornerstone of the franchise much like Tom Poti. Can't blame Laich for going for the big contract when the time is ripe.  But is he worth it?  And more importantly will it pay dividends in the form of Stanley Cups down the road?  The answer to both questions is no. 

One last thing to consider--a leader often has to do something to help his team, no matter what. Looking back, Dale Hunter did it many times throughout his career.  Dale Hunter would have been worth this kind of a contract even in his declining years.  Brooks Laich isn't.  He's got his big contract...let him prove he's worth it.

Brouwer or Brooks?

No doubt all of Caps Nation has heard of the trade that pretty much made Day One of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft a Day Off.  The first pick, which was going to be the 26th anyway was traded for Troy Brouwer of the Blackhawks.

I like this trade, and not just because of Katie Carrera's point that GMGM may be able to fill two roster spots with one with this guy.  Of course that begs the question--one that I have raised already this summer.  Who is on their way out?  According to capgeek.com, Marco Sturm, Jason Arnott, Brooks Laich, Boyd Gordon, and Matt Bradley all have expiring contracts come July 1.  The numbers and the intangibles tend to speak for themselves--all but the first person on that list have earned at least a second look.  Let me spell it all out in case you're still not sure:

Marco Sturm--never seemed to get his legs under him, no pun intended and doesn't seem suited for the new hard-hitting style we need to implement.  Best bet is that he'll end up on a Western team that needs secondary scoring.

Jason Arnott--carried the team through a potential disaster in Round One but seemed to run out of gas in Round 2, but that may have been a team-wide malaise.  In any case he seems to have enough in the tank for one last run. 

Boyd Gordon--with David Steckel gone, he is the only consistently above-average faceoff man we've got.  Enough said.

Matt Bradley--has the ability to turn the game around, more with his fists than anything.  For that reason he'll probably be kept, though his playing time may diminish. Won't command a lot for salary so the savings won't be much there either.

So we're down to Brooks Laich and we're down to Troy Brouwer. To be sure they may both be kept if injuries have a part to play in all of this. But is seems unlikely. 

I mentioned before that chemistry plays a part in a team's success.  Well then consider this--Brooks Laich's vaunted leadership skills have earned raves from his peers, but have they translated into on-ice success?  Don't get me wrong I think Brooksy is a great player and a hell of an example both on and off the ice.  But if his voice really carried that much weight, how was it that things have gone so flat in the playoffs lately?  It doesn't matter if you're a great guy, you have to be something of a jerk sometimes to get your mates to wake up. I haven't heard anything about his personality, but maybe Troy Brouwer is that guy.  His 262 hits this past season sure couldn't hurt, so you know he will play with an edge.

I'll close with this, and this might spin some heads even further.  It is possible that both players are kept, just not likely.  If that happens, next year certainly somebody will have to go, even if the cap is raised again.  If you do some quick research into Brouwer's history, you will see that the he was the top scorer in the WHL (Junior leagues) in 2006. Guess who was the winner the year before? Eric Fehr, who just happens to be in the last year of his contract.  Barring a bust-out 30+ goal year I think it's a safe bet both he and his 2.2 million dollar cap-hit will be gone after this year.

Funny how things just fall into place.