According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, the Columbus Blue Jackets have traded center Antoine Vermette to the Phoenix Coyotes for goalie Curtis McElhinney, a 2012 second-round and a 2013 fifth-round draft pick.

Vermette has a cap hit of $3,750,000 and had been projected as a possible option for the Caps themselves, likely because he has a pulse and the letter “C” in his player bio, but we’d remind you that there is certainly another center on the Blue Jackets that seems to be very much up for grabs. Vermette will instead now be providing center depth to a team filling holes for the postseason, while Columbus will presumably gain some breathing room in net from the acquisition of McBackup McElhinney.

We don’t want to jump to conclusions, but this may be an indication that the  Blue Jackets aren’t going to try to make a run for the playoffs this year.

(Photo credit: Luis M. Alvarez)

Risking dropping their second straight game to a sub-par team, the Washington Capitals were rescued by none other than Jason Chimera, a healthy scratch just a game ago.

For Chimera it was sweet redemption and “especially nice” that it came against his former team, the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Despite the win, victory wasn’t easy for Washington with sloppy play plaguing the Caps throughout the night.

“We did not do a very good job tonight,” veteran center Jason Arnott said. “There were a lot of bouncing pucks, a lot of nonchalant plays that we don’t normally make … We have to clean up our own zone, it starts tomorrow with the video, and try to correct it and come up with a better effort to back our goaltender up.”

Head Coach Bruce Boudreau seemed to agree Arnott’s view that the Capitals must play better in front of young netminder Michal Neuvirth.

“The goals that went in he wasn’t going to stop,” Boudreau said. “When the game is on the line he is there. Doesn’t matter if you have five by him or one by him. He’s really good when the game is on the line, and he had to make some real good saves at the end to preserve it. To me, that is the sign of a real winner.”

The Capitals opened the scoring just 1:39 into the match when John Carlson tipped home the rebound off Chimera’s knuckling shot, which deflected off the catching glove of Jackets goalie Steve Mason. The puck ricocheted off numerous players, including Brooks Laich before Carlson got the lucky bounce. With three minutes remaining in the frame, John Erskine and Jared Boll dropped the gloves. Neither combatant landed many punches, but Boll appeared to get the better of the Lumberjack before the two went down. The Caps dominated in the first period, outshooting the Columbus, 16-4.

Midway through the second stanza, the crazy started happenin’. After a scramble in front of the net, Antoine Vermette popped one past Neuvirth. Just over a minute and a half later, however, Mike Knuble put Washington back on top when he Knuble’d the biscuit into the back of the net after a Nicklas Backstrom shot got past Mason. However, (are you noticing a pattern here) just 42 seconds later Columbus would knot it up once again when Fedor Tyutin fooled Neuvirth with a wrister. Not to be outdone for the second time in as many minutes, Arnott made the score three-two Washington after a great feed for Marco Sturm. Four goals. Two minutes and 17 seconds. Got all that? Didn’t think so.

The Capitals would hold that lead for 14 minutes and 23 seconds into the third, until Scottie Upshall held off both Karl Alzner and Sturm as they tried to remove him from the puck before rifling a wrist shot past Neuvirth. Tie game.

In overtime, well, you know the drill. Chimera chips it in and there’s your ballgame. Caps down Jackets, 4-3 (OT)

• With tonight’s two point performance, the Capitals went over the century mark for the third straight year. With four games left to play, the Capitals have 101 standings points, sitting only one point behind conference-leading Philadelphia. A month ago, if you told us that the Capitals would be challenging for first place with their top defensemen, franchise center, two-time league MVP and both of their star goaltenders struggling with injuries we would have called you crazy. But Washington has weathered the storm. In fact, the Caps have actually found their groove during that time, going 12-2-1 in the month of March, notching an impressive 25 out of a possible 30 standings points. That’s called, you guessed it, staying angry.
• The Capitals dodged a huge bullet before the game when it was announced that Rick Nash would sit due to an undisclosed injury. In eight career games against the Capitals, the Columbus captain has notched seven goals and four assists.
• TSN’s Bob McKenzie reported during the second intermission of the game that Dennis Wideman is in a Washington hospital with a significant leg hematoma as a result of a hit Tuesday by Carolina’s Tuomo Ruutu. After the game, Knuble confirmed the news, saying Wideman has sent pictures, with his leg looking like it’s out of a movie. ”It’s pretty grotesque how Dennis is opened up right now,” Knuble said. “I think he’s pretty much high all the time to deal with the pain.”
• News that Mike Green may participate in his first full Caps practice since suffering a second concussion February 25 blunts the news somewhat. That is, as long a you don’t do a Google image search about Wideman. Really, don’t do it. Don’t.
• How long will Wideman be out? Who knows? But CSN’s Jill Sorenson spoke with Matt Hendricks following the game, with Hendricks saying he suffered a hematoma during the NHL lockout and missed a total of two months.
• The entire Capitals defense was forced to shoulder an even heavier load than normal tonight with only five healthy defensemen available for the final two periods of the game after John Erskine suffered an injury. There were three particularly noteworthy performances. First, John Carlson. In Captain America’s 100th career game, he scored the game’s first goal, notched an assist and had four shots in 25:48 of ice time. Scott Hannan was also exceptional, logging a game-high 28:19, blocking six shots and dishing out three hits. Finally, Jeff Schultz stepped his game up, blocking three shots and being a plus-two in 26:35 of ice time.
• Despite playing just under six minutes, Erskine still managed to register a team-high four hits with his physical play, though one has to think that could be a possible cause for his ailment. Or maybe he suffered it during this completely unnecessary fight with Jared Boll. Most likely, we’ll never know.

• On the opposite end of the spectrum, Tyler Sloan was a minus-one in only 12:55 of time on ice. So essentially there were only four NHL quality defensemen out there.
• Per 106.7 The Fan’s Sky Kerstein, the Capitals have now won six of their last seven shootout or overtime games after losing eight in a row in that fashion earlier in the season.
• The net: crashed
  

  Per NHL.com’s play-by-play, the four goals were from 14, 12, 11 and 14 feet (from the end boards). In other words, net crashed.less than a minute ago via webJapersRink
  JapersRink

Joe B. Suit of the Night

Despite the win, the Jackets rallied three times while down by a goal against the Caps. To succeed in the playoffs you need a killer instinct, something Washington lacked against Columbus.

Four games. That’s all that remains until the Stanley Cup Playoffs. We’ll see you back here Saturday night, though it is Nicklas Backstrom bobblehead day, so we won’t blame you for heading to the game.

Additional reporting by Ian Oland and Neil Greenberg.

The Caps need for a center resolved itself a little when Tomas Fleischmann signed a one-year, $2.6 million contract a day before his arbitration hearing on July 27th. Couple that with George McPhee stating that he was prepared to go into the season with the team they have, and that makes it clear the Caps will look within the organization to fill their need for a much-needed pivot in the long term.

One of those options, 2009 first rounder Marcus Johansson, appears to need more time to adjust to the North American game, while 2010 first round pick Evgeny Kuznetsov needs another Russian spy swap to play out his 2-year KHL contract. That leaves “undersized, but feisty” Mathieu Perreault – who has had a lot of success at the AHL level with the defending Calder Cup Champions Hershey Bears.

Our question is: Will Matty P’s success in the AHL translate enough to sustain him at the NHL level?

Perreault is a quick and shifty skater who is a slick playmaker with the puck.  The Drummondville, Quebec native racked up 4 goals and 9 points in his first 21 NHL games this season.

While his lack of size may always be an issue, there is no questioning Perreault’s talent. He is potential second line centerman, whose quickness and creativity is suited greatly for the new NHL, though increased muscle mass wouldn’t hurt. (Hockey’s Future)

It seems that any review of Perreault’s play is often preceded by a form of “lacks size.” However, as Puck Prospectus correctly points out:

Small players are called “too small for the NHL” en masse, and the ones who do not pan out are held up as proof. This completely ignores the small players that do succeed in the NHL, and it completely ignores the fact that many large players don’t pan out either. Why are the hulking duds not said to be “too big for the NHL”? It’s a post-hoc rationalization; if a small player doesn’t succeed in the NHL, his size is used as a reason. But the professionals are unable to predict it before the fact.

Physical presence will always be an issue for Perreault – fairly or not. If we look at performance as an equation of Ability * Opportunity, this fact alone could reduce Perreault to a part time 3rd line center who eventually becomes a career AHLer. Also, if we observe Perry’s last 13 games in the NHL, an argument could be made that he was physically drained from going against bigger competition.

Looking at his AHL & NHL contributions we can draw some more conclusions.

Season    Age Team  Lg   GP  G   A   PTS
2008-09    21 HBH   AHL  77  11  39  50
2009-10    22 HBH   AHL  56  16  34  50
2009-10    22 WSH   NHL  21   4   5   9

What we see is Perreault’s Points Per Game drop from .75 during his two years in Hershey to .43 at the NHL level (~42% drop) while his even strength goals per game staying relatively constant (15 ES Goals in 133 AHL games vs. 3 in 21 games at NHL level). Based on Behind The Net’s study of league difficulty for the largest NHL feeder leagues, retaining 44% of AHL production to the NHL level is what one should expect.  Therefore, Perreault is at the average.

This would land Perry somewhere between 27 – 35 points for an 82 game NHL schedule in his second year, similar to the sophomore seasons of Peter Regin, Antoine Vermette, Alex Steen and David Backes. Third line centers – sure. Second line pivots for a Cup caliber team? Not likely.

Plus, since Perreault would be moving from Hershey’s 2nd line with some PP time to mostly 3rd line play in the NHL, his numbers could take even more of a hit. For instance, it won’t be often he gets to start in the offensive zone more than any other pivot except for Nicklas Backstrom against pretty weak competition.

Mathieu did make the most of his line time last year with Eric Fehr however, causing a 12% jump in Fehr’s CORSI when they were together on the ice. Making a scoring threat like Fehr better in regards to puck possession is certainly a step towards being a legitimate NHL talent. But looking at some comparables to Perreault based on his first season tempers those expectations a bit:

1. Jeff Taffe scored .90 Pts per game first two years in AHL which translated to 7 seasons at the NHL level, playing 174 games tallying 44 points – for his career.
2. Riku Haul scored .46 Pts per game first two years in AHL only to have that shrink to .14 per game at the NHL level. He played a total of 92 NHL games in three years.
3. Players like Benn Ferriero (.86 Pts/Gm in AHL -> .14 in NHL) , Andreas Thuresson (.4o -> .14) and Brad Marchand (.81 -> .05) all saw their production dwindle in their NHL debut seasons.

The fact that Perreault can forecheck and has shown spurts of being able to play “bigger” (6 points in his first 8 NHL games) says he probably has more upside than those with similar stats – even causing some to compare him to “late bloomers” like Marty St. Louis or Danny Briere. It’s worth noting though, that both of those players dominated AHL competition to a much greater degree than Perreault. St. Louis averaged 1.2 points per game in the AHL while Briere averaged 1.28 points per game – showing us a much higher ceiling for production than Perreault.

As you can see, the arguments for and against Matty P’s success in the NHL are both with merit. On one hand, we have an AHL scorer with some upside who makes a legitimate NHL threat like Eric Fehr better when they are paired. On the other we have an undersized 6th round pick (a 2nd rounder has less than a 30% chance to develop into a player who will play at least 150 games) who’s scoring droughts will be blamed for being physically unable to compete at the NHL level.

So that’s where you guys come in.  Where do you stand?  Are the stats simply against Perreault becoming a long or short term solution at center or will he be the next Marty St. Louis or Danny Briere? Let us know in the comments.