In the first four games of the new season, Alex Ovechkin has struggled. He’s looked lost on the right wing and had trouble finding his role in Adam Oates’ new system. Before today’s matinee with the Buffalo Sabres, Ovi had one point, an assist. The Washington Capitals went 0-3-1 during that stretch.

That doesn’t mean Ovechkin hasn’t had his chances — especially in Oates’ 1-3-1 powerplay. After their game against New Jersey on Friday, Mike Green lamented to CSN sideline reporter Al Koken,”I missed [Ovi] on a pass that was about four or five inches out of his wheelhouse.” On Sunday, Green found Ovi with a beautiful cross-ice pass to give the Russian machine his first goal on the season. It would end up being the game-winner.

Video is below the jump.

Look how happy he is.

That goal ended Ovechkin’s longest goal-scoring drought at the start of a season.

Ovi also had his second humangous big hit of the season, crushing six-foot, eight-inch behemoth Tyler Myers along the boards in the first period. Most players can’t move Myers; Ovechkin knocks him over like he’s a wet paper bag.

GIF by welshhockeyfan

Former Capital Mike Grier was honored before the game for playing in his 1,000th career game tonight. (Photo credit: Bill Wippert)

Sigh. Thomas Vanek scores the OTGWG. (Photo credit: Rick Stewart)

Without Ryan Miller, the Buffalo Sabres are not really daunting foes. The well-haired goalie had been convalescing with a hip injury for the last handful of games and returned to the Washington Capitals’ distinct displeasure. But with a stiff upper lip, the Caps entered the fray in nigh-Canada. Sort of.

Karl Alzner opened the game with a laser through traffic that found a wide swathe of net behind Ryan Miller. The second period was an unbridled embarrassment. The Sabres scored twice (a well-screened bomb by Montador and a fluke by Vanek). For their part the Capitals simply refused to play offense of any kind, offering only four shots across the middle frame. To qualify that, Jason Chimera spent four minutes in the box for a cross check that might have been overblown a bit, and Tomas Fleischmann also caught a double minor for a freak high sticking that carried no aggression.

Nicklas Backstrom allowed 7 minutes to escape the third period before equalizing with a high swat. Ten minutes later, a suspicious high sticking call earned Backy a double minor (the Caps’ third of the game). The Capitals survived another backbreaking penalty kill all the way into overtime. Things look liked they were headed towards the shootout until Thomas Vanek suckered Carlson and Holtby in sequence to score a sharp-looking OTGWG. Bummer, I know, but at least the Caps take a point home. Sabres beat Caps 3-2 (OT).

Bleh-lets.

• Kind of a bad game in general, eh?
• The Caps played the second period like it was the first. They producted only four shots to Buffalo’s 11, zero scoring chances to Buffalo’s 8. Why must there be one guaranteed bad period every game?
• While the Caps were struggling in the second period and the first half of the third, the grinders got short shrift. Matt Bradley and Dave Steckel in particular had far fewer shifts than usual.
• With Poti out (a worry of its own), Bruce Boudreau did as much as he could to limit any Tyler Sloan-related damage. Sloan trailed all defenders in ice time with only 13:20.
• 13:20 sounds like precious little until you consider than ersatz 2C Tomas Fleichmann played only 11 minutes and change. Which might be more than he deserved. Flash produced no chances at even strength. So did Eric Fehr, for that matter. Pitiful.
• The ice at HSBC Arena was wackadoodle. Mike Green and Buffalo’s Tyler Myers each lost skate edges, leading to Chevy Chase-style pratfalls.
• 

  Go High, Ovi! Ryan Miller calmly denies Alex Ovechkin coming in on a breakaway. (Photo credit: Bill Wippert)

  Nicklas Backstrom took eleven faceoffs. He lost ONE.
• Braden Holtby was the Capitals best player, a spastic puck wall until the final second overtime and that unfortunate poke check on Vanek.
• Alex Ovechkin had a prime breakaway chance against Ryan Miller in the first, but was bested. For the rest of the game, Ovi habitually bobbled the puck and whiffed on shots. To be fair, Ovi had only one offensive start in the entire game.
• All penalties are four minutes. It’s a new rule. Did you not get the memo?

Maybe the Caps play down to their competition to keep it interesting for us fans. That’s considerate of them, but they don’t need to go out of their way on our account. When the Caps found motivation in that final extending penalty kill, you’d think they had re-awoken their win-thirst. Naw. This was a snoozer.

Joe B's suit-of-the-night

At least we learned something. When Bruce Boudreau saw the same offensive inertia that you and I did, he tweaked lines. BB tried putting Tomas Fleischmann on the 4th, Johansson on the top, and Backstrom with Chimera and Semin. Only the last of those fiddles did anything of merit, but we learned that the the Caps’ chemistry may be more delicate than we previously thought.

A disappointing game and an undeserved point for an overtime loss. Here’s hoping the team that suits up tomorrow afternoon will have a bit more oomph than the team that played tonight.

Enjoy your Saturday nights, everyone.

Additional reporting by Neil Greenberg.

Schultz For Norris? Maybe next year, Sarge. (Illustration by @megHamonster)

The Norris Trophy sounds simple to award: “The James Norris Memorial Trophy is an annual award given to the defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.”

Not surprisingly, it seems the voters (Professional Hockey Writers’ Association) use how many points a defenseman scores in the season as the “offensive component” when looking for their winner. Since the 1997-8 season, only last year’s winner (Zdeno Chara) has been out of the Top 10 in Points for defensemen – and he wasn’t out by much, ranking 12th.

A defenseman’s Plus/Minus factors in to the voting as the “defensive component.” In the same time frame, all but two winners had a Plus/Minus less than 10 – Nicklas Lidstrom in 2000-1 had a +9 and Rob Blake in 1997-8 had a -3 (the only other winner of the Norris with a negative Plus/Minus was Randy Carlyle in 1980-1). And you would have to go back to when the “Secretary of Defense” won the first of his two Norris Trophies to find another winner with a Plus/Minus not in the double digits.

We can narrow down the list to who should be the finalists, and eventually the winner, if we use these two stats to guide us through the candidates (as of Apr 10, 2010):

• Mike Green, WSH – 75 points, +37
• Duncan Keith, CHI – 68 points, +21
• Drew Doughty, LAK – 58 points, +19
• Chris Pronger, PHI – 55 points, +22
• Nicklas Lidstrom – DET, 49 points, +22
• Tyler Myers, BUF – 47 points, +14

We can further narrow down the list by age. If we take out Bobby Orr‘s Norris domination from 1967 to 1975, with the exception of Dennis Potvin (who sucks) in 1975-6, no other Norris winner was younger than 23 years old. That appears to eliminate Drew Doughty (20 years old) and Tyler Myers (19). My guess is the voters also look at the award as a “right of passage.”

That leaves us with four candidates – Green, Keith, Pronger and Lidstrom – with a chance to win.

If we go back to the criteria to win, “greatest all-round ability in the position,” it is hard to ignore Mike Green. He ranks first in Points for defensemen and second in Plus/Minus for defensemen and 4th overall for the entire NHL.

Looking at it another way: Mike Green would have the best expected win% (and wins) based on Goals For and Against when he is on the ice, even with less ice time than the other candidates:

• Mike Green, expected win% .761, 24 wins.
• Duncan Keith, .559, 20
• Chris Pronger, .625, 22
• Nicklas Lidstrom, .621, 21

The lone argument that could be used against Green is that he has played against weaker competition than the other Norris finalists. However, the Caps sit atop the Top 5 spots in the NHL for Plus/Minus, so this could skew the results a bit.

If “the greatest all-round ability in the position” doesn’t include being the top defensemen offensively (Points scored), the second best defensemen in Plus/Minus (4th in the NHL overall) and giving your team the best chance to win when you are on the ice, what does it mean?

Let’s hope the voters see it through and vote Mike Green for the Norris.

Semyon Varlamov is going to have to stop being injured, to actually contend for the Calder Trophy.

The Capitals’ Semyon Varlamov has been one of the better rookies in the NHL this season, and he’s certainly in the running to maybe take home the Calder Trophy. Several of the more highly touted rookies haven’t quite lived up to expectations, which leaves the field still wide open. By the nature of these kinds of awards, the winner tends to be the guy who played over his head the most and the longest. That means that the player who is on top now can easily regress and possibly even finish out of the top 10 at the en. Also, since it’s hard to compare players at different positions, the Goals Versus Threshold numbers that Behind The Net recently added are useful to put everyone on the same playing field. A little more than half-way through the season, here are some of the top contenders.

Jimmy Howard (G, Detroit Red Wings)

15-9 with a .927 save percentage and 1 shutout

Howard’s kind of come out of nowhere to take the starting job in Detroit. His GGVT has been +13.7, with another +0.7 on the shootout, for a total of 14.5 Goals Versus Threshold (rounding). The guy has a pretty good pedigree – he holds the NCAA records for GAA (1.19) and save percentage (.954) and he was named to the 2005–06 AHL All-Rookie team – but as a second-round pick from back in 2003, Howard certainly wasn’t someone people expected to be amongst the best rookies in the league this season. While it might be a little unlikely that Howard will be able to keep up this level of performance, if he is able to he might be rewarded with some hardware at the end of the year.

Tyler Myers (D, Buffalo Sabres)

6 goals, 20 assists, +8 plus/minus

The 2008 first-round pick and 2009 World Junior Gold Medal winner with team Canada has been equally good in both aspects of his game with a +3.4 Offensive GVT and a +3.4 Defensive GVT. With an additional +0.3 on the shootout, Myers’ +7.1 Goals Versus Threshold is top amongst all rookie skaters. If the goalies are dinged due to their position, then Myers is in excellent position to capitalize.

Semyon Varlamov (G, Washington Capitals)

12-1 with a .924 save percentage and 2 shutouts

Varly has missed some time, which has cut into his value. His Goalie Goals Versus Threshold is about +7.3 currently, and he’s been very good on the shootout at +2.7. His total GVT of 10 is a little lower than his ability might imply, but if he is able to stay on the ice for the majority of the second half he might be able to push that towards 25 for the season.

Niclas Bergfors (RW, New Jersey Devils)

13 goals, 14 assists, -3 plus/minus

Bergfors was drafted all the way back in 2005, but is getting his first real time in the NHL this year. He’s been good on offense with a +4.7 OGVT, but with a -4.8 relative plus/minus and a +0.8 DGVT his defense leaves a little to be desired. A +5.5 GVT is nothing to sneeze at though.

James van Riemsdyk (LW, Philadelphia Flyers)

10 goals, 16 assists, +5 plus/minus

Drafted second overall in 2007, JVR has done a good job scoring (+4.1 Offensive GVT) and defensively (+5.4 relative plus/minus, +1.3 DGVT), with a total Goals Versus Threshold of +5.4.

John Tavares (C, New York Islanders)

16 goals, 12 assists, -8 plus/minus

The first-overall pick from last year’s draft hasn’t been a dominant player yet. Despite the 28 points and the bad plus/minus, his Offensive GVT is just +2.8. His relative plus/minus is a much more mild -1.8, and his defensive GVT is in the positive territory at +1.0. Add in the -0.5 on shootouts, and Tavares’ 3.3 Goals Versus Threshold is only just OK – and probably a disappointment given the high expectations.

Also in play:

Michael Del Zotto (D, New York Rangers)
5 goals, 16 assists, -16 plus/minus, +2.1 OGVT, -9.7 relative plus/minus, +0.2 DGVT, +2.1 GVT

Evander Kane (LW, Atlanta Thrashers)
10 goals, 6 assists, +3 plus/minus, +1.4 OGVT, +4.6 relative plus/minus, +0.9 DGVT, +2.3 GVT

Jamie Benn (LW, Dallas Stars)
8 goals, 13 assists, -4 plus/minus, +2.3 OGVT, -1.7 relative plus/minus, +0.7 DGVT, +2.5 GVT

Matt Duchene (C, Colorado Avalanche)
11 goals, 16 assists, -12 plus/minus, +2.6 OGVT, -10.1 relative plus/minus, -0.2 DGVT, +1.5 GVT