Photo credit: Jonathan Kozub

Braden Holtby‘s 35-stop afternoon in Manitoba puts him in a three-way tie in shutouts (3) alongside Nashville’s Pekka Rinne and Phoenix’s Mike Smith.

I guess the first thing I should say is that shutouts, while awesome, are kind of a silly way to evaluate a goalie. Goalies don’t control the number of shots they face, just the percentage of that number they stop. That in mind, I thought we’d do a quick comparison of how these guys came to be the league’s shutout leaders.

Games Played

Shots Faced in Shutouts

So Holtby faced (and stopped) more shots in his three shutouts, and he earned them in fewer games than his elite competition. Now I’m not saying Braden Holtby is Superman; I’m just saying I’ve never seen the two of them in the same place at the same time.

NOTE: I had Rinne’s shots against wrong in an earlier version of this post.

(Photo credit: John Russell)

The Washington Capitals began their circuit of North America with a stop in Nashville with their Predators. With Mike Green still ailing and a shooting drought in their immediate past, the Caps had something to prove.

After more than 55 minutes of play, Troy Brouwer finally beat Pekka Rinne using a defender for a screen. Like 0.874325 seconds later, Shea Weber fed Martin Erat east-west to tie it back up. With 24 seconds left, Colin Wilson beat a stickless John Erskine and a sucked-out Vokoun to make it 2-1. Backstrom lost a faceoff to give Weber an empty netter 5 seconds later. Preds beat Caps 3-1.

• Goalie duels are like chess matches: boring to some, exhilarating to others.  The one demographic that universally loves these games are the goalies themselves, who salivate at the thought of a shut out. After 55 perfect minutes, in a window of 30 seconds, Rinne and Vokoun both had their hopes dashed.
• Alex Semin committed his 12th minor of the year in the second period. He’s got Zenon Konopka (66 PIMs) in his sights. On the good side of the ledger, Sasha was a prolific sticksmith, shooting 4 on net with another 4 blocked. He even looked good on defense, covering for a lagging John Erskine in one situation and generally keeping Nashville from firing. But is that enough to quell the swelling mob? I’m not sure, but we’re stocking up on pitchforks just in case.
• Pekka Rinne was making Jedi saves all night. Two beauts– one from Laich and another from Johansson– were rejected purely using sense of smell and echolocation. Rinne finished with 39 saves overall.
• The Capitals weren’t ready to play in the first period, issuing precious few shots to the aforementioned Rinne and allowing extended occupations in their own zone from the teeming Preds crew. For a while it looked like the Caps were gonna give a repeat performance of last week, but then Nashville’s superstar D-men Shea Weber and Ryan Suter took overlapping penalties. After that, the Caps finally asserted their forward presence– ultimately coming out on top in shots 40 to 31 (if not possession overall).
• According to Joe Beninati, Alex Ovechkin successfully lobbied Boudreau to get on point for the power play. All those soured zone entries and flubbed passing sequences don’t seem to be getting through to Ovi’s head. It appears that Alex still believes he will redeem himself by skating 80 feet, dangling and curling and dragging through three players, and scoring on an epic slapshot. Besides being insane, that also seems contrary to Boudreau’s basics-first, possession-based gameplan.
• Sorry to belabor the point, but Alex Ovechkin really does have a renaissance waiting for him. He’s a peerless shooter with the smarts to find the right spots. Plus, he’s flanked by capable puck carriers. To SCOAR MOAR GOALS, all he has to do is let the other guys set him up.
• Brooks Laich fired 7 shots on goal all by his pretty little self. The whole team should have been playing like that.
• Ian astutely observes that Barry Trotz keeps looking eviler in his advancing years. Doesn’t matter– guy gets a hood pass for life after coaching the Skipjacks.
• Is Cody Eakin a defensive liability? Even though he doesn’t take faceoffs, he was on ice for no defensive zone faceoffs. That’s all fine and dandy, but which goal-producing Caps sat out so that Eakin could get his cozy zone starts?

Joe B suit of the night

The Caps led this game for  28 seconds, but that’s not the story. The story is the slow start, the underperforming superstars, and the Tim McGraw song Nashville plays after goals. The Caps had two points in the palm of their hand, but they let it go. Now those two points are with another team, and the Caps are sad. Like a country song. Oh man, we gotta get the hell out of Nashville before George Strait starts narrating this.

From here the Caps are off to the Dirty ‘Peg, where Eric Fehr is expected to play [UPDATE: but he ain't]. See you Thursday.

Steckelbomb by Ian Oland.

Anze Kopitar celebrates a goal last year against the Blackhawks. (Photo credit: Harry How)

Editor’s note: You can win a 1-year subscription to ESPN Insider and a $25 gift certificate to Front Page VA by guessing Neil’s first two draft picks tonight. Check out the details on our Facebook page.

As part of ESPN.com’s NHL family, I was invited to participate in their fantasy hockey draft this past Tuesday. Just me and guys like Craig Custance, John Buccigross, and Scott Cullen.

No pressure.

Victoria Matiash has already given a bird’s eye view of the draft, but I thought I would run through my thought process on various picks and give you some ideas for your fantasy draft. Plus, you can see how I do for the season because we are making the results public.

Here were the ground rules for the draft:

Participants included, in original order, Craig Custance, Tristan Cockcroft, Tim Kavanagh, John Buccigross, Pierre Becquey, Michael Hume, Victoria Matiash, Neil Greenberg, Sean Allen and Scott Cullen. Categories include goals, assists, power-play points, plus/minus, penalty minutes, shots on goal and average time on ice for skaters and wins, save percentage and goals-against average for goaltenders. Slots to fill include nine forwards, five defensemen, one “utility” skater, two goaltenders and a five-man bench.

My philosophy was simple: grab young, healthy, talented players with upside. Let others worry if Patrick Kane would be healthy or if Sergei Kostitsyn can once again score 20 goals on less than 100 shots.

I had the eight pick. With my editor Mike Hume drafting before me (he knows which players I fancy) and Cullen having back-to-back picks behind me I knew I had to make strategic decisions.

Not surprisingly, Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, and Daniel Sedin went in the first three picks. Hume knows I think Corey Perry was no fluke, so the chances of him dropping to me were nil. That left me with Anze Kopitar (who I think will contend for the Art Ross) or Henrik Lundqvist as my first pick. Luckily for me, I got both of them.

My third choice was also an easy one: Duncan Keith. His boxcar stats may have fallen, but he is as fundamentally sound as he has ever been, and he remains my preseason favorite for another Norris-caliber performance.

My next pick caused some raised eyebrows:

Also noteworthy was Greenberg’s choice of Jeff Skinner ahead of Eric Staal. Ranked higher in ESPN.com’s projections, the captain of the Carolina Hurricanes is expected to put up superior numbers across the board. But obviously, Greenberg preferred to put his fantasy faith in the reigning Calder Trophy winner.

Fantasy hockey is about looking forward. While there is no doubt Eric Staal is a 70-point player, Jeff Skinner is (conservatively) a 60-point player who could put up over 70 points next year. So I got a player who may put up five points less or 10-15 points more than Eric Staal. In a rotisserie league with hockey geniuses it was worth the gamble, in my opinion.

I struggled with my fifth pick a little. I had Phil Kessel, John Tavares, and Loui Eriksson queued up but pulled the trigger on Kessel, thinking that one or both of the others would be there for me on my next picks.

I was right about Loui Eriksson, who I took with my sixth pick, but not Tavares, who went three picks before me in round seven.

With Tavares and Matt Duchene off the board, both of whom I think can post 30 goals in 2011-12, I decided to shore up my goaltending and took Jimmy Howard.

A quick note on goaltenders: I only considered drafting Henrik Lundqvist, Pekka Rinne, Cam Ward, Jimmy Howard, or Corey Crawford. Why? Too long to explain here, but I did some analysis on when goaltenders have their breakout season based on age and experience and these five fit the bill. I did the same thing last year and had only two goaltenders on my list: Pekka Rinne and Cam Ward.

In round eight I took Joe Pavelski, which was a solid pick there and then my first miscalculation of the draft came at the hands of Scott Cullen.

I feel Jamie Benn is this year’s sleeper. I think he has 30-goal potential and could end up surprising many people. With my ninth pick I took Evander Kane, thinking Benn would slip past another four picks. Nope.

Cullen: “I’ve been touting Jamie Benn going back to the second half of last year, when his ice time went up dramatically; he’s been my preferred pick as a breakthrough/sleeper forward since. So, by the ninth round, when I had already addressed all my positions to some degree, it felt right to take a young player that has a chance at 70 points. “

If you have a chance to pick up Benn in your league, do it.

Right now. I’ll wait.

It will be him and Eriksson that pick up the slack left by Brad Richard’s departure, not Michael Ryder. In the draft room Hume asked how many of Benn’s goals the last two years came via a Brad Richards primary assist. One. And Richards had only one secondary assist the year before that. Benn is the real deal.

I took Alex Pietrangelo after I misjudged the “sleepiness” of Benn. The D corps looked to be thinning after Dion Phaneuf and James Wisniewski were taken off the board, so I grabbed Pietrangelo. “Good for 45 points, I think he’s a solid fantasy pick.”

Next picks were unremarkable, but ones I believe have some big upside: Erik Karlsson, Tyler Ennis, Patric Hornqvist, Tyler Kennedy, Mikael Backlund, Patrik Berglund, Jakub Voracek and Nathan Gerbe.

I did have two moments of weakness where I got homesick and drafted Dennis Wideman (15th round) and Brooks Laich (20th round).

So there you have it. Be sure to check out how I am doing from time to time. Also, if you would have drafted differently or just want to comment on the draft in general, let us know in the comments.