Caps Prospects

News and Notes

2006-11-12T17:31:00.000-05:00

Nicklas Backstrom, Oscar Hedman and Patric Blomdahl are currently on break because of the Karjala Tournament in Finland. Backstrom will be back in action on the 16th.

In the QMJHL Francois Bouchard has really been lighting it up lately and is currently 4th in the league in scoring but has played 2-3 games less than the 3 people ahead of him. He's also tied for his team lead in points. Mathieu Perreault has also stayed on his steady pace throughout the season and is just 3 points out of the league lead, good enough for second.

Maxime Daigneault continues his steady play with another win. However I am somewhat disappointed he's getting so little playing time. He's been outplayed 10-3 by Cassivi, I would assume it's time to begin preparing a future goaltender. Eric Fehr has been on fire, he's currently tied for 12 in the AHL in points. Jonas Johansson recently scored his first goal of the year, I understand he looks like a much improved player this year. Sasha Pokulok continues to be sidelined it appears with a concussion.

Viktor Dovgan recently scored his first North American point on a even strength goal.

Andrew Gordon had a decent weekend, he put up 3 assist on Friday against powerhouse Minnesota. Two of the assist were of the secondary powerplay kind and one at 4-4. He was held scoreless on Saturday in the rematch but registered a SOG and was a +1 in a 3-3 tie. Andrew Joudrey and Wisconsin lost both games to Denver this week. He managed 6 shots and finished even in the first game and two assist both coming as secondary. He now leads his team in points. Minnesota State's Travis Morin only managed to notch one assist in this weekends series against Alaska-Anchorage, however he's currently ranked 3rd in the WCHA in scoring and is the only non Minnesota player to be ranked in the top 7.

Brent Gwidt finally broke through his point slump notching an assist in each of Indiana's previous two games. Both of which came at even strength, one primary and one secondary.

Notes

2006-10-29T20:40:00.000-05:00

Nicklas Backstrom scored a goal in his previous game, stopping his two game point drought.

Francois Bouchard has an awesome game on Friday, he was the #1 star of the game with a goal, 2 primary assist and one secondary assist. One of his primary assist was on the overtime game winner.

Maxime Daigneault had a great second start of the season on Saturday. He made 24 saves on 24 shots for his first career pro shutout. He was also named the #1 star of the game in a 5-0 blowout of Albany in what was a crazy game featuring 6 fights. Chris Bourque added to his point totals with a secondary PP assist. Tomas Fleischmann scored two more goals as he continues to destroy the AHL. Eric Fehr continues his nice start to the season as he added a goal. Steven Werner has still yet to get on the score sheet but managed to get 5 for fighting.

Joe Finley was in action this weekend against Travis Morin and Minnesota State and was paired with fellow first round draft pick Brian Lee. He was even with a +2 the first game and in the second on Saturday he scored his first point of the season. A primary assist on the games first goal just under 2 minutes in. Travis Morin while being on the loosing end of both games did however have a better weekend, statistically speaking. He finished as the games second star in both contest. Game 1 saw him score a goal and add a primary assist. In his second game he scored a short handed goal and added two secondary assist. Andrew Joudrey and Wisconsin were completely blitzed this weekend with two losses, one coming 3-0 and one coming 4-1. Joudrey had an assist in the second game on Saturday.

Peter Guggisberg finally notched his first goal of the season on Saturday, a payoff from his promotion to the third line. He now has a goal and two assist in 5 games since his promotion.

Daren Machesney got his first ECHL action. He only made it halfway through the game and gave up 5 goals on just 10 shots.

Notes

2006-10-26T19:57:00.000-04:00

Nicklas Backstrom was held scoreless again. He failed to register a point in his second straight game but is still on track for the best junior season in the SEL ever recorded. That includes the likes of Forsberg and Naslund. In today's game he had a Holding penalty which cost his team a goal. Patric Blomdahl received a match penalty for 20 minutes and a 5 minute major for checking to the head in the third period of his game today.

All 3 of our QMJHL prospects are doing nicely and all 3 were selected to the QMJHL Canada-Russia Challenge roster. Francois Bouchard(RW-thank god) is still holding strong tied for 10th in the league in points. He's two points back from his team lead(Alexandre Picard-Hooper) but has played 2 less games. Bouchard was Baie-Comeau's second shooter in a record setting shootout last night that went through 15 rounds before it was settled. Mathieu Perreault is currently tied for 4th in the league in scoring(4 back from the leader) and leads his team in points. He was in action on the 24th, where he registered an assist was a -1 and had 1 shot on net and again on the 25th where he registered a goal, an assist +2 and 6 shots. He was also the #1 star of the game. While Maxime Lacroix isn't as high up in points as our other two prospects from the Q he has made improvements over last year. He's currently on a point a game average where as last year he put up .67 points a game. Currently he rest in the 67th spot among top scorers.

Mike Green scored a beautiful goal in Washington's last game. He's much more confident this year than last in my opinion. He's already taken more shots in 1/3 of the games he played last year, plus he's only taken one minor penalty and still hold a +3 which is tied for tops on our D core with Pothier and Heward. Jakub Klepis has been pretty much non existent all year, which the exception of his minor penalty’s. He only has two shots on goal, I really wish he'd shoot the puck more. He has a very accurate shot which needs to be used if he wants to stay on the roster. I have a feeling if he continues to take dumb penalty’s and not show up on the score sheet he may be on the way back to Hershey.

Semen Varlamov continues to start for Lokomotiv, he recently lost his second game by a 2-0 score and picked up a tie 1-1 in a game before that. His GAA continues to drop as he's now almost at 2 goals a game.

Backstrom: Game By Game

2006-10-25T10:36:00.000-04:00

The question of how many of Nicklas Backstrom's assist were indeed primary came about on the forums here. So I decided to do a game by game breakdown of his points for everyone since I was curious myself.

Game 1
5-3 PP Goal
Game 2
Nothing
Game 3
5-4 PP Primary Assist
Game 4
5-5 Goal
5-5 Primary Assist
Game 5
5-4 PP Goal
Game 6
5-4 PP Primary Assist
5-5 Goal
5-5 Primary Assist
Game 7
Nothing
Game 8
5-5 Primary Assist
4-5 SH Primary Assist
Game 9
5-4 PP Secondary Assist
5-3 PP Primary Assist
Game 10
5-5 Primary Assist
Game 11
5-4 PP Primary Assist
5-4 PP Primary Assist
5-4 PP Primary Assist
6-5 PP Game Winning Goal(OT)<--I'm guessing this was on a delayed penalty because it was just 55 seconds into overtime and they had the extra man on
Game 12
5-4 PP Goal
Game 13
5-4 PP Goal
5-5 Goal
Game 14
Nothing

Travis Morin Update

2006-10-22T18:55:00.000-04:00

Thanks to a reader Chris we have some detailed information on Morin thank you Chris.

Morin was on the first line both nights. The reason he's not listed as the
starter on Friday is because Minnesota State was the home team and got the last
change, so they wanted to put their top defensive line against SCSU's first
line.Morin ended up playing about 30 minutes in each game though because so many
penalties got called and he's on the top PK and PP unit. They were also running
his line every other shift for a while 5-on-5 on Friday just to try and get some
momentum going.Also, he only had the one goal, but he also hit two crossbars
this weekend, including a sweet move to beat two defenders and the goalie that
just hit off the post.

Today's Round Up

2006-10-22T18:47:00.000-04:00

Not much action for our prospects today but a few were playing. Luke Lynes and Brampton lost 7-5 to London. He had an interfearance penalty a powerplay goal and a secondary powerplay assist. Mathieu Perreault and the Titan were absolutely blitzed today 8-2. He did however manage a goal a minor penalty and 5 shots on net. Somehow he managed to finish even on the +/- side too. Andreas Valdix and Oskarshamm lost 2-1 today to AIK. He played right wing on the third line and only had a hooking penalty. Francois Bouchard lost today 4-3 but put up a goal, a primary assistand 2 PIM's. He was +1 and took 5 shots.

Today's Round Up

2006-10-22T00:08:00.000-04:00

Nicklas Backstrom scored two more goals today and put some distance on his points lead in the SEL. While Oscar Hedman continued his steady play on MODO's first defensive unit. Hedman is still scoreless but word is he is their best defender and plays in all situations. Patric Blomdahl still remains scoreless but appears to be centering his teams 4th line.

In the Q all 3 of our prospects were in action. Francois Bouchard was held off the scoreboard tonight against Rimouski. He had 3 shots, and a minor penalty and finished with a -2 rating. Maxime Lacroix was also held scoreless with a -1 and 5 shots. His team however did win. Mathieu Perreault and his team fell tonight but he did manage to have a great game. He scored the games first goal and added 2 primary assist and one secondary assist. Somehow he was held off the 3 stars list though. He won 11 of 18 draws, finished +1 and took one minor penalty.

The NCAA results are all in as well. Northeastern played Union, which would have featured two of our prospects but turned out not so much. Josh Robertson is still absent from the Northeastern lineup. I've contacted someone within the organization to see if they'll release any information on him and why he isn't playing. Justin Mrazek of Union had a tough night too after being chased from the net just 10:31 into the game after giving up his third goal and only making two saves. Denver is looking for revenge tonight. They were shocked last night 2-1 and neither of our defensive prospects played a part in the one Denver goal. Game two of the series fair much better for them and our prospects. Keith Seabrook played on the first defensive unit and registered two primary asssit on the powerplay and took 3 shots. Andrew Thomas netted the game winning goal at even strength. He finished +2 with 2 shots. Andrew Joudrey had a nice night for Wisconsin registering two assist a +1 and 5 shots in a 5-2 win against Minnesota Duluth. Both assist were primary to Jake Dowell in the 3rd period. Joe Finley was bumped to the first defensive pairing tonight with Robbie Bina but finished a -1 with 3 shots. For the second night in a row Maine beat North Dakota. Travis Morin and Minnesota State took on Andrew Gordon and St. Cloud State for the second night in a row. Andrew Gordon had a goal and 3 shots with a +1 rating. Travis Morin was moved to the first line registered 7 shots but had a -1 rating. Minnesota State won 4-2.

Hershey went to a shootout tonight but lost 3-2. The shooters were Fehr, Helbling and Fleischmann. None of which scored. The game's two scores came from Alexander Giroux and Tomas Fleischmann. Fleischmann also added a primary assist as well as Eric Fehr. Cassivi was in net and Steven Werner made his season debut tonight but was held off the score sheet.

Viktor Dovagn made his North American debut tonight, he was even with a holding penalty in a 5-4 overtime win for the Sting Rays. I expected Daren Machesney to make his debut tonight as well due to back to back games but he again played the role of backup.

The main club suffered another loss tonight, however do not fear. It's 7 games and it's only the second year of the rebuild, relax. Mike Green scored his first goal of the year and had 3 shots on goal in 16 minutes of ice time. However he made some very rookie mistakes tonight. Jakub Klepis looked the same as he has to me in every other game. Give the kid more ice time. Tonight he finished with a little over 10 minutes so I assume that's a reward for his play. Although it could have something to do with Beech getting only 7 minutes of ice time. On a bad note he did finish -2 and took a hooking call.

Brent Gwidt and Indiana came back to score 4 goals in the final 13 minutes of the game and beat league best Lincoln for a second night in a row. The final goal came with 6 second remaining and completed Mike Phillippi's hat trick to take a 6-5 lead. Gwidt was held off the score sheet and only registered with a 2 minute slashing penalty.

Saginaw's captain Patrick McNeill won today 6-3. He received a 10 minute misconduct at the end of the second period, had one primary assist and finished with a +2 rating.

Semen Varlamov played to a 1-1 tie today against Mikhail Yunkov's team. Yunkov was however the one who beat Varlamov to give his team a early 1-0 lead just 3:31 into the game.

Who's In Action

2006-10-21T14:42:00.000-04:00

NCAA Action
Northeastern vs. Union 7:05 (Josh Robertson, Justin Mrazek)
Denver vs. Rensselaer 7:07 (Keith Seabrook, Andrew Thomas)
Minnesota Duluth vs. Wisconsin 7:07 (Andrew Joudrey)
Maine vs. North Dakota 7:07 (Joe Finley)
Minnesota State vs. St. Cloud State 7:07 (Travis Morin, Andrew Gordon)

Sweden Action
Brynäs IF vs. Timrå IK 4-3 Final (Nicklas Backstrom 2G)
Linköpings HC vs. Djurgårdens IF 2-1 Final (Patric Blomdahl)
MODO Hockey vs. IF Malmö Redhawks 3-2 Final (Oscar Hedman 2PIM)

QMJHL Action
Rimouski vs. Baie-Comeau 7:00 (Francois Bouchard)
Victoriaville vs. Quebec 7:00 (Maxime Lacroix)
Cape Breton vs. Acadie-Bathurst 7:00 (Mathieu Perreault)

AHL Action
Bridgeport vs. Hershey 7:00 (Chris Bourque, Eric Fehr, Tomas Fleischmann, Jonas Johansson, David Steckel, Matt Stefanishion, Joey Tenute, Steven Werner, Jamie Hunt, Sasha Pokulok, Jeff Schultz, Maxime Daigneault)

ECHL Action
Columbia vs. South Carolina 7:05 (Viktor Dovagn, Daren Machesney)

NHL Action
Tampa Bay vs. Washington 7:00 (Jakub Klepis, Mike Green)

Swiss Action
HC Davos vs. Kloten Flyers 7:45 (Peter Guggisberg)

USHL Action
Lincoln vs. Indiana 7:00 (Brent Gwidt)

OHL Action
Owen Sound vs. Saginaw 7:11 (Patrick McNeill)

Russian Action
AK Bar Kazan vs. Lokomotiv (Mikhail Yunkov, Semen Varlamov)

Today's Games

2006-10-21T00:35:00.000-04:00

I'll be updating the statistic's tomorrow.

Our ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina String Rays played their first game of the year tonight. It was a losing effort as they fell to Gwinnett 4-2. Viktor Dovgan was absent from the line up and Daren Machesney did not get the start in goal.

Joe Finley was in action tonight against Maine and registered one shot, 4 PIMs and a +1 in a 5-2 loss. Both of his roughing penalty's came from little pushing/shoving matches with Maine players. He was also on the ice for two Maine powerplay goals, his coach seems to like using him on the penalty kill because he takes up so much space and has such a long reach. He is on the 3rd defensive unit for the Sioux paired with Zach Jones.

Andrew Gordon's St. Cloud State took on Travis Morin's Minnesota State tonight. Gordon had the game winning goal he scored while his team was shorthanded and finished +1. Morin scored his teams first goal on the powerplay. He also registered 7 shots centering the second line.

Peter Guggisberg got on the scoresheet for a second game in a row since being moved to the 3rd line from the 4th. He registered an assist and a minor penalty.

Brent Gwidt registered his first career USHL point today. The 11th overall pick of the Indiana Ice scored the first goal of the game in a 5-3 win against arguably the USHL's best team. Indiana won due to a 48 save performance by Thrashers 5th round draft pick Alex Kangas. Rumors still fly that Gwidt turned down a 100% full ride scholarship to Minnesota State Makato to play this year and another full ride to Northern Michigan for the 07-08 season. He isn't being recruited by Wisconsin(which is a shocker) as much as he'd like but has made one unofficial visit there. Michigan State and Miami Ohio are also interested in him. I'm thinking he might want to play a year in the USHL and show Wisconsin he's worth it, it seems that's where he really wants to go.

Speaking of Wisconsin, Andrew Joudrey was the #1 star of the game tonight. He registered a goal and an assist in a 2-2 tie with Minnesota-Duluth. I watched him play tonight and really like him at the point quarterbacking the powerplay. He's also an excellent face off man. I'm really hoping Washington will sign him at the end of his season. He's a senior this year and proudly wearing the "C" for defending national champs Wisconsin.

Quebec assistant captain Maxime Lacroix scored a goal tonight in a 5-2 win. He also finished with a +2 improving his team worst rating a little bit.

Brampton lost 6-3 tonight but Luke Lynes had the loan assist on Brampton's first goal. Michael Neuvirth played goal for Plymouth and got the win over Brampton. He was awarded with second star of the game with 37 saves.

Saginaw's Patrick McNeill added a powerplay assist tonight in a 5-2 loss to Sarnia. He finished the game -1.

Mississauga's Oskar Osala only showed up on tonight's losing scoresheet with a 2 minute slashing penalty.

Welcome

2006-10-20T22:26:00.000-04:00

Welcome everyone, just figured I'd create a blog for all my prospects updates/notes and what not. It'll be a lot easier for me as well as anyone else looking for information rather than posting on the message board. If anybody has anything they'd like to contribute, any news/updates/corrections feel free I'd appreciate your input.