Willkommen » so its hard to imagine that the Capitals maintain

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. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Hydro Flask PNW Collection Sale . Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane wanted to stay in Chicago and the Blackhawks wanted to keep the high-scoring forwards in the only NHL uniform they have ever known. Hydro Flask Straw Lid 32 Oz . Miralem Pjanic dribbled through the defence to score an extraordinary goal in the 43rd minute at the Stadio Olimpico and Gervinho added another from a rebound in the 65th for Romas ninth straight victory — ending Milans five-match winning streak. http://www.hydroflaskaustraliasale.com/o...32-oz-sale.html. The post-season, Pierce said repeatedly, is no time to panic. And the Heat, apparently, are nothing to fear. Hydro Flask Coffee Sale . -- Arizona coach Bruce Arians says there "were obviously very, very many problems" with the officiating in the Cardinals 24-21 loss at Philadelphia. Hydro Flask 40 Oz Australia . Fellow Argentina forward Gonzalo Higuain also had a brace for Napoli. And Samuel Etoo scored for his fourth different team. On a night of standout individual performances Wednesday, Schalke goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand had a game hell want to forget.WASHINGTON - During a season in which theyve already gone through two coaches and won fewer games than any team in the league, the Edmonton Oilers entered the All-Star break with a victory to savour.Teddy Purcell scored the decisive goal in a shootout after Edmonton rallied from a two-goal deficit late in regulation, and the Oilers defeated Washington 5-4 Tuesday night to end the Capitals seven-game home winning streak.Purcell beat goaltender Braden Holtby in the fourth round of the shootout after Edmontons Viktor Fasth stopped Eric Fehr.The victory was the 12th in 47 games for Edmonton and only the fourth on the road. After defeating Florida in a shootout on Saturday, the Oilers have a week to sit on their two-game winning streak.We can definitely take some positives from this, coach Todd Nelson said. It was a good character win. The guys stuck with it.The Capitals, on the other hand, enter the break mired in a three-game skid after blowing a late lead at home against a team that has endured losing streaks of seven and nine games.I said to the guys, Maybe we dont make the playoffs, coach Barry Trotz said. There are some good teams out there.Washington has earned at least a point in 19 of its last 22 games. But that was of little consolation in a sombre locker room.Its just disappointing, defenceman Brooks Orpik said. Its the last-place team in the league, but its pretty obvious that any team can beat any team in this league if theyre fully committed.Alex Ovechkin scored twice in the opening 14 minutes for the Capitals, who held leads of 2-0, 3-1 and 4-2 before the Oilers made one final push during the final five minutes of regulation.Purcell scored at 15:49 to make it 4-3, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tied it with a wrist shot at 18:53 after Fasth vacated the net for an extra skater.Derek Roy andd Nikita Nikitin also scored in regulation for Edmonton.ddddddddddddThere were a couple of times in the second (period) that I think we were thinking that theres no chance we should even be in this game, Purcell said. We hung around and found a way.Ovechkin has five goals in his last three games and 27 for the season. It was his seventh multi-goal game of the season and 92nd of his career, one short of the franchise record held by Peter Bondra.Ovechkin would have felt a lot better about that if his two strikes came in a winning effort.We had to forget about it and get ready for the most important time of the season, he said.Ovechkin put Washington up 1-0 at 1:48 of the first period, firing a slap shot over Fasths left shoulder during a delayed penalty.Ovechkin scored again at 13:58 following an interference call on Edmontons Jeff Petry. The slap shot, fired from the left circle, smashed the goalie camera that hangs from the back of the net.Held to one shot on goal over the first 14 minutes, the Oilers closed to 2-1 when Roy scored at 14:51.Jay Beagle restored the two-goal cushion at 17:34 when he deflected a shot by John Carlson into the net. It was Beagles seventh goal of the season, a new career high.Nikitin got a power-play goal at 19:56 of the second period, firing a lengthy slap shot just three seconds after Matt Niskanen was sent to the penalty box for kneeing Roy.Nicklas Backstrom made it 4-2 at 6:38 of the third period, deflecting a shot by Carlson past Fasth.The lead wouldnt last.Theres a point we gave away, Trotz said.Notes: Edmonton swept the season series, 2-0, with its first win in Washington since 2009. ... Carlson has 21 points in his last 25 games. ... Fasth improved to 4-10-2. ... Mike Green had two assists for Washington and has four in his last three games. ' ' '