Capital Update

The 2007/08 Washington Capitals are going to be a motley crew in the Southeast Division. They have plenty of potential to do good things, possibly (on a very outside chance) push for a playoff spot. If you were to take a closer look at the team below, you might realize that they'll need Ovechkin and Semin to score a lot of goals and get lots of help from new acqusitions (Nylander and Kozlov) to accomplish that goal. The fresh face on the block, Nicklas Backstrom is all but a lock for Washington, barring some sort of fitness or attitude problem. I'm sure the potential of lining up with Ovechkin should be enough motivation for any player to work hard over the summer, so we should see Backstrom in the running for the Calder come next Spring.

On defense, there lies quite a few question marks. Poti and Pothier have been decent offensive defensemen from time to time and should be good enough puck movers for the speedy forwards and hopefully their transition game can help the team out in the long run. Morrisonn, Jurcina and Erskine have not really made a solid name for themselves in recent years, but they have the opportunity to show the NHL why they shouldn't have passed on them before. Pool-wise, only Poti and Pothier should be considered... possibly Eminger if you feel that the Capitals will be deep enough in their scoring to warrant a third defenseman getting points.

In goal, there really shouldn't be much of a question mark on Olaf Kolzig. Kolzig, who faced an average of 32 shots a game, is a great big rock in net... when he's in net. Kolzig did miss 17 games due to a groin and knee injury, while Brent Johnson did admirably in his position. If the Caps can limit the amount of shots against and increase the shots for, they will ultimately be in much better shape to compete for that playoff spot that Ovechkin has been longing for in his short career.

Alexander Ovechkin	Michael Nylander	Chris Clark
Alexander Semin	Boyd Gordon	Viktor Kozlov
Matt Pettinger	Brian Sutherby	Ben Clymer
Brooks Laich	Nicklas Backstrom	Matt Bradley
Donald Brashear

Tom Poti	Brian Pothier
Steve Eminger	Shaone Morrisonn
Milan Jurcina	John Erskine
Jeff Schultz

Olaf Kolzig

Brent Johnson

Technorati Tags
NHL, Hockey, Washington Capitals, Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom