Malen und Basteln » g drought. Hornqvist doubled the Nashville l

The Washington Capitals overhauled their defence, by paying huge money to a pair of former Pittsburgh Penguins. Numbers Game breaks down the signings of Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik. The Capitals Get: D Matt Niskanen and D Brooks Orpik. Niskanen, 27, picked a terrific time to have the best year of his career, scoring a career-best 10 goals and 46 points while playing a career-high 21:18 per game. He was also a career-best plus-33, which is all well and good, but he was one of six regular defencemen (minimum 62 games played) to have a combined on-ice save percentage and on-ice shooting percentage (PDO) at 5-on-5 of 103.0 or better. An on-ice shooting percentage over 10.0% is difficult for any defenceman to sustain, but Niskanens 10.32% was the third-best of his career; basically, its the kind of good fortune that shouldnt be expected, but its not out of the realm of possibility from season to season for Niskanen. Where the puck luck really stuck with Niskanen last year, was that he also had a .928 on-ice save percentage during 5-on-5 play, so getting favourable percentages at both ends of the ice during the same year contributed to that strong plus-minus. That shouldnt diminish the evaluation of Niskanen entirely, though, because he has consistently been on the right side of the puck possession ledger, and that makes him an asset to any team that acquires him. While Niskanen hasnt typically played hard minutes, and in some years has been excessively sheltered, hes likely to face more difficult matchups now that hes the highest-priced defenceman on the Capitals roster. Signed for seven years and $40.25-million, Niskanen landed the biggest free agent contract of the year. There was probably an element of paying for the good fortune that Niskanen experienced last year, and it is a gamble that Niskanen is going to be able to live up to the money involved in that contract, but if a team is going to swing for the fences on a free agent defenceman, doing so on a guy with consistently strong possession numbers is at least a reasonable foundation on which to make that investment. Which brings us to Brooks Orpik, a 33-year-old who has made his bones as a physical, hard-hitting defenceman, registering more than 200 hits in five of the past seven seasons. The unfortunate part, however, is that Orpik in position to hit so much -- particularly in recent years -- because his team doesnt have the puck as often when hes on the ice and the problem with a defensive defenceman who is already on the wrong end of the possession game is that hes certainly not likely to get better as he gets older. For example, in the 2013-2014 season, there were seven defencemen that were over 35 and scored fewer than 20 points (as Orpik has in every season of his career, except one). Its an okay list, some useful players, but six of the seven were 35 or 36. Orpik is signed through his age 38 season and the only -- the only -- NHL defenceman that played more than 60 games without scoring more than 20 points last season was Tampa Bays Sami Salo, who has never played the kind of physical, banging style that characterizes Orpiks game, in part because Salo was always hurt anyway. This doesnt offer much encouragement that the Capitals wont have massive regrets about the Orpik signing; the only question is how soon will those regrets occur? Can he give the Capitals a couple of solid years, maybe facing lower-calibre of competition than he did in Pittsburgh? Thats probably the best hope, but its a longshot that the last two, maybe even three years, wont have the Capitals paying big money for a spare part on their blueline. Orpik is signed for five years, at a cap hit of $5.5-million per season. Big money, long term. Pittsburgh anticipated that they would lose both Niskanen and Orpik and, in addition to having an opening or two for some prospects, they also signed Christian Ehrhoff to add stability to their defence. Its entirely understandable for the Capitals to make a move to upgrade their defence. They allowed 33.5 shots per game, ranking 27th in the league, last season, so the defence needed to get better. Ultimately, the Capitals are better today after adding Niskanen and Orpik, but that should never be up for debate when committing close to $11-million annually to two players. What has to matter is how much better they are, whether the money spent is worth it and what the fall-out will be. The Capitals dont have to make any moves --- they are under the $69-million salary cap -- but they have $28,762,500 committed to their defence, according to Cap Geek. The only teams spending in that neighbourhood for their defence are Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, who have Chris Pronger and Mattias Ohlund, respectively, on long-term injured reserve. St. Louis and Chicago are spending in the $24-million-to-$25-million on their respective bluelines right now, so its hard to imagine that the Capitals maintain the status quo, leaving a hole at second line centre while sticking with the most expensive defence corps in the league. We will see what other moves the Capitals have in mind this summer but, right now, it appears that they spent a lot of money to get better in the short-term; signing deals that appear to have more downside risk because of the long terms involved. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. 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Scott reached the major leagues with Houston in 2005 and hit 23 homers or more for Baltimore each year from 2008-10. Rashaan Gaulden Jersey . - Andre Drummond had his best night on the boards.NASHVILLE -- Pekka Rinnes milestone win dealt a serious blow to Phoenixs playoff hopes. Rinne made 29 saves to lead the Nashville Predators to a 2-0 win over the Coyotes on Thursday night. Craig Smith and Patric Hornqvist scored for Nashville, which has won four of its last five. "This group, as I have been saying all year, has a lot of character," Predators coach Barry Trotz said. "Theres only one way to play, and thats play the right way. This group plays the right way." The Coyotes lost sixth straight game and hurt their quest for the Western Conferences eighth and final playoff spot. Phoenix entered the day two points behind Dallas in the wild card race. Both teams have two games remaining, including Sundays season finale when Dallas visits Phoenix. "Obviously we need help now," Phoenix coach Dave Tippett said. "Youve got to get yourself rested and ready for the next game. Well see where we are Saturday morning." Phoenix will need to finish the season at least one point ahead of Dallas in the standings since the Stars will hold the first tiebreaker of more regulation and overtime wins no matter what happens over the course of the final two games. Dallas hosts the St. Louis Blues on Friday. If the Stars get one point in the game, it would give them the last spot in the West, eliminating Phoenix. "Its not where we want to be," Phoenix defenceman Michael Stone said. "Thats all there is to it really. We didnt do enough to continue to be able to control our own fate." Smith scored the games first goal at 10:26 of the second period. After taking a pass from defenceman Ryan Ellis above the left circle, Smith skated down to thhe left faceoff dot, where he used two Coyotes standing in front of goaltender Thomas Greiss as screens and scored his 21st goal of the season with a wrist shot high to the far side.dddddddddddd Smiths power-play score snapped a 13-game goal-scoring drought. Hornqvist doubled the Nashville lead at 9:21 of the third. From below the goal line, Mike Fisher found Hornqvist in the slot. Greiss denied Hornqvists first attempt, but he poked in his own rebound for his 21st of the season -- and seventh goal in his last six games. "Fish got the puck behind the net and I saw him creeping up the wall," Hornqvist said. "I just tried to get open in the slot. He found me and then I buried the rebound." The shutout was Rinnes second of the season and 32nd of his career. He now has 162 wins, moving him past Tomas Vokoun into first place on Nashvilles career wins list. "We did a really good job of blocking shots and getting the clears when we needed to," Rinne said. "When they got the shots, I was able to see them. It was kind of back to the normal way of game playing." Rinne missed 51 games this season due to a hip infection. NOTES: Prior to the game, the Predators announced that they are partnering with former Olympic figure skating gold medallist Scott Hamilton, who will serve as an active principal for the skating centre at their new suburban rink set to open this summer. Hamilton is a Predators season ticket holder. ... Phoenix RW Martin Erat played in his 800th career NHL game. His first 723 were played with Nashville prior to his trade to Washington at last seasons trade deadline. ... Six of Smiths goals this season have come on the power play. 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