The Caps won against the Rangers last night, but the color commentator referred to Alex Ovechkin as a "One Trick Pony".
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00:00Much appreciate everybody making the show part of your day.
00:03We got a good one plan.
00:05We're giving away tickets to the Summer of Loud Tour
00:08out at Jiffy Lube at four o'clock today.
00:11Make sure you are listening ahead of the Beltway Blitz.
00:14Danny, what's up?
00:15It was fun to see Alex Ovechkin's little trick last night.
00:18He's got this one trick that he does.
00:20It's where he scores goals better than anybody else
00:22in the history of the game.
00:24Walking down Gretzky, please and thank you.
00:26It was nice to get a W in that,
00:29one of the most famous arenas in the world
00:30up there in that barn.
00:31I don't want to see the Rangers in the postseason,
00:32by the way.
00:34They scare me.
00:35Back to you.
00:35Yeah, I mean, everyone's going to scare us
00:38at this point because the Caps will be heavily favored.
00:40They're probably going to be the one seed in the conference.
00:43A 1-8 matchup's always ominous.
00:45I don't know that there's a matchup right now
00:47on paper that I go.
00:48Looking forward to that one, that's a sweep.
00:51But yes, the Rangers are particularly scary
00:53because Igor Shosturkin, their goaltender,
00:55who you saw make some splendid saves last night,
00:58robbed Ovi with his glove a couple times.
01:00He might be the best goaltender on the planet.
01:02And when he gets rolling and get going,
01:03he isn't having the best season.
01:05Connor Hellebuck is, even in the Eastern Conference.
01:07Logan Thompson.
01:08Logan Thompson is too, yeah.
01:09Has been marvelous.
01:10But Shosturkin, if he was to get hot in a playoff series,
01:14could take it away from you just by standing on his head.
01:16So yeah, they'd be scary for that reason.
01:18And they've played the Caps tough.
01:20Certainly last night, they came back
01:23and took a two-to-one lead for much of that game.
01:25The Capitals got the late Ovi goal,
01:26pushed the game to overtime,
01:29and then got the winner from Tom Wilson.
01:30I always love when Tom Wilson, at Madison Square Garden,
01:34makes Rangers fans unhappy.
01:36And by sending them to the exits with a loss that qualifies,
01:40let's not forget that it was Tom Wilson
01:43against all the Rangers going back a few years ago
01:46after they got really mad when he basically slammed
01:51one of their best players, Artemi Panarin, to the ice.
01:53And they put out the statement that it was this awful thing
01:56that he had done and this major issue
01:59that they took with him
02:00and basically asking for his suspension.
02:02Ever since then, he's just been a thorn in their side
02:04and he lives rent-free in their heads.
02:06But last night, to score the winner against the Rangers,
02:09felt good.
02:09You just hate that for them, don't you?
02:10Like those fans that didn't want to see that happen
02:12and then it did, and they had to watch it.
02:14I think the quote, by the way,
02:16back then was, horrifying act of violence.
02:18That's what it was!
02:20Great pull by you.
02:21And then everyone got fired shortly
02:22after Tom Wilson beat up all the Rangers.
02:24The horrifying act of violence
02:25led to horrifying acts of firing.
02:26Right.
02:27It just got everybody booted from the organization.
02:31But let's talk Ovi for a second.
02:34So last night, goal number 32 on the season.
02:36He's got six in his last six games.
02:38He's heating up as he's getting closer here.
02:41This is absolutely happening.
02:42It is not a drill.
02:43Goal number 885 last night.
02:46And what I love about this is that
02:50these are important goals.
02:51It looked two years ago, even last year,
02:54when they were scratching and clawing at this point
02:56to try to fight their way into the back end of the playoffs.
03:00It looked like Ovi was going to be hunting down Gretzky
03:03for a mediocre team and middling in the Eastern Conference
03:06that may or may not be a playoff team.
03:08And with their brilliant off season
03:10and the acquisitions they've made
03:12and the coaching staff led by Spencer Carberry
03:15having been one of the best in the sport
03:17the last couple of years,
03:19they've turned themselves into one of the best teams
03:20in the league.
03:21And so Ovi, on his way to 40 plus goals,
03:25is doing it for a team that needs those goals
03:26in huge games and in big moments.
03:29I mean, he's got a ton.
03:31In fact, about half of his 32 goals this year, I think,
03:3416 of them, have come in the third period this season.
03:38He scores massive game-tying, game-winning,
03:42lead-taking goals.
03:43And that was the case again last night
03:45with them down one against a division rival.
03:48Second unit here,
03:49Monchaponti, McMichael, Frank, Chikrin, Ovechkin,
03:53and loose for Monchaponti off the draw.
03:54Loose there, and Ovechkin scores!
03:57Alex Ovechkin picks it up on the far side of the goal crease.
04:02That's goal number 885, 932 to go.
04:08He is 10 away from passing Gretzky,
04:12and the Capitals have tied it here in New York.
04:1620 games left for the Capitals.
04:19Ovi has 32 goals in 46 game play.
04:23This season, because of his injury.
04:24So if you do some quick math, Danny,
04:26he's averaging about 0.7 goals per game.
04:30If he averages a half goal per game,
04:32he falls off the rest of the way,
04:34he will still pass Gretzky.
04:35Just stupid.
04:36And last night showed that,
04:38yeah, he's not the bull in a china shop that he was,
04:41but you still saw everything on display on that goal.
04:43And let me go into it for a second.
04:45The ability to drive through
04:46and be stronger than the opponent, right?
04:49Somebody's trying to hold him up,
04:50and he's got that,
04:51I'm going to where I'd like to go, please and thank you.
04:53You're welcome to come along for the ride,
04:55but I'll be getting to this spot.
04:56Thank you very much.
04:57Then the dexterity to do a fine motor skill
05:01while you're still driving, right?
05:03While you're tightening up
05:05and pushing as hard as you possibly can
05:08to move yourself into position.
05:10Then the fine motor skill,
05:10but also the strength to break through
05:12a couple of different stick lifts and checks
05:14and things that are happening right there
05:16to deter the progress of a stick through the puck.
05:18And he's got enough touch on it
05:19to put it in the exact right spot.
05:21There it is, in a nutshell,
05:23the reason he's going to pass Wayne Gretzky
05:25for the most goals ever scored in this league,
05:27all in one play.
05:28And I know it wasn't the beautiful,
05:30you know, tic-tac-toe snipe from the office
05:32or one of the classic goals
05:34that's going to go on the career highlight reel
05:36when you look back, you know,
05:37when they do that video in 15 years
05:39when he comes back to Capital One Arena
05:41and it's like, let's remember Ovechkin's goals.
05:42You'll have the one on his back
05:43and this snipe and that shot
05:46and this, you know, bullet pass to goalie.
05:48But that to me is how he's still doing this.
05:50It's not always going to be the pretty one.
05:52It's not always going to be the tic-tac-toe
05:53or the, you know, the beautiful skating,
05:55taking on a defender, et cetera.
05:57This is how you morph and change
05:59and turn yourself from one player
06:01into a brand new player almost
06:03that's getting these gritty, grimy,
06:05necessary goals for your team to tie a hockey game
06:08when you're in a playoff race.
06:09It's remarkable.
06:10The heat map has changed for him.
06:11Yeah.
06:12And he gets the goals from in front.
06:14He gets ricochets and redirects with his stick.
06:17He also bangs home rebounds.
06:19They move them around on the power play way more right now
06:22this year than they ever have,
06:23certainly over the last 10 or 12 years
06:25in terms of him lining up at the point
06:27and taking some shots centered up from the cage,
06:30not just standing in his traditional office, to your point.
06:33But the Caps now winners of two straight,
06:35thanks to extra time, the shootout,
06:38and then the overtime win in their last two contests.
06:42What's interesting is,
06:43remember they'd lost three in a row
06:45and people were saying, oh, they're taking on water.
06:47They're hitting a little bit of a skid.
06:48Do you realize over the last 10 games played
06:50for every team in the Metro division,
06:51nobody's getting ground on them?
06:53They're 6-3-1 in that time.
06:54There's not a single team in the Metro
06:56that has been better during those 10 games
06:58than the Capitals.
06:59So nobody's gained.
07:00They're still 12 points up on the second team
07:02in the division, Carolina,
07:04and 14 up on the next team down, the Devils.
07:08They're basically running away with the Metro division.
07:10They are nine points up on anybody
07:12in Eastern Conference right now.
07:14And after last night,
07:15they have the most points in the NHL
07:18tied with the Winnipeg Jets.
07:20So if you want to get bothered
07:22by the three straight losses, you could do that.
07:23Those are the dog days.
07:24Those types of things are going to happen
07:26when you're playing with your food
07:27and you just don't have a lot on the line
07:28in some of these games,
07:30with the season now 20 games from expiration.
07:33But they're tied for the best team in the NHL right now
07:37as they barrel down the stretch.
07:37By the way, before we move on to the Commanders,
07:39I want to say really quickly,
07:40the NHL trade deadline is tomorrow, 3 o'clock Eastern.
07:45So we're just under 25 hours away from the deadline.
07:49I do not want them to do anything significant.
07:52I love this dressing room.
07:54I think this is as good a group
07:56as they have had in a long, long time.
08:00My bell's missing.
08:01So I can't say the word.
08:02There's a bell right here.
08:03It's coming to slide across.
08:05Just throw it.
08:07The brotherhood is exactly where it needs to be
08:10at this moment.
08:12And I don't want to cost anybody minutes
08:15to bring someone in here
08:16and upset the chemistry that they have.
08:18If there's a place that they could make a move,
08:20the only thing that I would sign off on
08:22is a one-for-one Lars Eller,
08:25their current third line center
08:26and former Stanley Cup champion.
08:28It sent him to Pittsburgh and he came back here.
08:30Now he's with the Capitals again.
08:32You could take him off of the third line,
08:34acquire a third line center
08:36in a deal where you just give up draft picks,
08:38put that player in with Mangia Pani and Ethan Frank,
08:42and Ethan Frank will become Ryan Leonard,
08:43their best prospect at Boston College,
08:45who's going to be their starter on the third line
08:47in the playoffs, in my opinion,
08:49because that line is giving them next to nothing
08:51at this moment.
08:52It's not like every shift is bad,
08:53but in terms of points and production-
08:54You're not getting much.
08:55Mangia Pani, a $5 million player,
08:57has been a little bit disappointing here of late.
08:59They need to get more out of him.
09:00I think you could probably do better on the trade market
09:02than Eller if you wanted to.
09:04But even that is a little bit of a gamble
09:06to tweak anything about this roster.
09:09But I would be okay with that.
09:10Otherwise, I'm not really that interested.
09:12I like Ovechkin, Stroman, Protus as a top line.
09:15I think they're excellent.
09:16I love their second line.
09:17It's their best line.
09:18McMichael, Dubois, Wilson.
09:20And by the way, P.L. Dubois has been unbelievable.
09:24What a move that was.
09:25They were right.
09:26Everyone else was wrong.
09:28He is so damn good defensively.
09:30He should be in the conversation
09:31as the best defensive forward.
09:32They line him up against the other top teams,
09:34best player night in and night out,
09:36and ask him to go to work.
09:37And then the fourth line's terrific.
09:39Right now, they've got Taylor Radish
09:41playing up on the third line to try to get more.
09:43But normally, that's Duhame, Dowd, and Radish.
09:45And that line is excellent.
09:46It's actually their third line.
09:48Everyone says they need a third line center, as I'm saying.
09:50Really, Dowd's their third line center,
09:52and they use that line thusly.
09:53But I will allow for one Smyner move.
09:56Smyner?
09:57Smyner.
09:58Super Smyner.
09:59That's how you combine the two.
10:00Small and minor.
10:00Very Smyner.
10:01I'm only accepting one Smyner move
10:03from Brian McClellan and company.
10:06But I just love this group.
10:08And by the way, last night,
10:09Charlie Lindgren, fantastic.
10:11That's your backup goalie.
10:12Yeah.
10:13He was phenomenal.
10:14He was really good.
10:15You've had goalies basically steal games
10:16with big saves, back-to-back nights.
10:18What was the name of that Orioles player
10:20that took over for Kyle Ripken at third base?
10:21Ryan?
10:22Smyner.
10:23Smyner.
10:24That's what I was trying to think of.
10:25Are you looking for Ryan Smyner?
10:26Ryan Smyner.
10:26Dunk contest winner, Miami Heat.
10:27Nicknamed Baby Jordan.
10:28Harold?
10:29Smyner.
10:30Smyner.
10:31If you're not in the major leagues, where do you play?
10:33Smyners?
10:34I think you are.
10:35Smyners, right?
10:36Low A, high A, double A, or triple A.
10:38Triple A.
10:39Smyners, yep.
10:39Smyner League Baseball.
10:41Former Braves pitcher, Mike.
10:43Smyner, went to Vanderbilt.
10:44That's right.
10:45Former top five pick.
10:47Isn't there a team mascot?
10:49I'm trying to think, remember, it's not like UNC Charlotte.
10:52But it's like an aggregator, not an aggregator.
10:55What's the word?
10:55Like an agricultural school.
10:56Oh, yeah.
10:57Where you're looking to like, you're digging in the earth.
10:59You are like, what's the thing?
11:01Would you be Smyning?
11:02Yes.
11:03Because you're a Smyner.
11:05You're the Smyners.
11:05The Smyners.
11:06It makes a lot of sense.
11:08One very Smyner move is what I will accept.
11:11Smyner.
11:12Is that crazy to you?
11:13No.
11:14I mean, why, this washing machine
11:16is cleaning clothes beautifully.
11:17Do we really need to take out the wrench?
11:19Is there any, I'm devil's advocate,
11:21because I'm agreeing with you.
11:22I'm going to triple stamp your rubber stamp, Lloyd.
11:24Is there anything to say with, anything to say with,
11:27is there anything to the idea that
11:30some of the analytics aren't as kind to them
11:31as truly, and honest to goodness,
11:33the best team in the NHL?
11:34They've been getting away with some stuff
11:36and they're not playing their best hockey right now.
11:39Right?
11:39They're not playing as well as they were a month ago,
11:40which is natural, normal.
11:41That happens.
11:42Expected, I would say.
11:43Is there anything to the idea
11:45they might actually need an injection of life
11:47to get in, to get through a playoff series?
11:49I think the injection of life is the stretch.
11:51Well, no, is the stretch in the playoffs.
11:54That's your injection of life.
11:55Right now you have 20 games left
11:57and how much of the tank are you going to empty
11:59when you've got a 12 point lead?
12:01So you're doing a little mixing and matching.
12:03I mean, you're kind of seeing it
12:04with the coaching staff and the players.
12:06Now I will say there's a couple too many careless moments.
12:09Last night they had their 11th.
12:11It's so many.
12:1111th, too many men on the ice penalty.
12:14And it was kind of just a, I hate to say lazy,
12:17but a moment where what, get off the ice, Farivari.
12:20What are you doing?
12:21And you could see, I mean,
12:22Carbs does not get that upset on the bench.
12:23He was.
12:25He was apoplectic and he should have been.
12:27Within reason, I totally get that.
12:29Like defensively, as an example, I would not do anything.
12:32Sandin and Carlson, working well together.
12:34Farivari and Roy, awesome pair.
12:36Chikorin and Van Riemsdyk, yep, tremendous.
12:40I'm not touching that.
12:41So you've got to find to me where you're going to get better
12:44without anyone in the room getting bothered.
12:47Remember when we were talking to Drew Storen
12:49and Tyler Klippert years ago about the Papelbon trade,
12:53where they go get Papelbon and a bunch of roles shift.
12:55They didn't really boot anybody that mattered
12:58from the bullpen, but everybody's job changed
13:00and they felt like they were doing pretty well.
13:02And it really ruined the bullpen
13:04and the chemistry in the clubhouse a little bit,
13:07as we would see.
13:08So why would it happen?
13:09A Smider incident.