FanHouse Michael Nylander

After watching his team drop the first two games of their opening round playoff series with the Rangers, Bruce Boudreau decided he needed to make a change. Out of the lineup came play-making center Michael Nylander, and in his place fell perennial enforcer Donald Brashear.

After those two games, it was clear that the Rangers had gained something of a physical edge over the surprised Capitals. And on Sunday in New York, Brashear showed exactly why Boudreau gave him another shot at postseason hockey, first picking a fight with Rangers enforcer Colton Orr during pre-game warmups and then crushing penalty-killer Blair Betts with a borderline hit that sent him to the locker room in the first period, never to return. Later reports today say that Betts suffered a broken orbital bone and is done for the rest of the playoffs.

Brashear will have to answer for both of those actions later today, when the league holds a hearing at 1:00 PM.

After being stuck on 49 goals for two whole games, Alex Ovechkin became the first -- and perhaps only -- player to hit the 50-goal plateau this season, beating Tampa Bay's Mike McKenna midway through the first period of Washington's 5-2 win. And then he celebrated as only Ovechkin can.

Capitals 5, Devils 2: The Washington Capitals took advantage of their three power play chances on Tuesday night, converting on all of them on their way to a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. Mike Green and Brooks Laich scored a pair of goals with the man advantage just three minutes apart in the first period, while Michael Nylander picked up his second goal of the game at the 10:59 mark of the third period.

Jose Theodore stopped 32-of-34 shots in net for Washington, including 16-of-17 in the third period. The loss for New Jersey snaps its eight game winning streak, despite receiving another goal another Jamie Langenbrunner, who has now picked up seven goals in his past four games.

Thanks to a series of injuries to goalies Jose Theodore and Brent Johnson, the Washington Capitals have had some rather unfamiliar faces suiting up the past two nights. On Friday, Ted Starkey told you the story of Brett Leonhardt, the Capitals web producer who had the opportunity to sit on the bench and serve as the backup goalie until Simeon Varlamov could make it to the arena, fresh off his callup from the minors.

On Saturday, it was Varlamov's moment to shine, as the 20-year old rookie turned aside 32 shots in his first NHL start, helping lead the Capitals to a 2-1 win in Montreal. The Canadiens peppered the former first-round pick with 27 shots over the final two periods, but he was up to the challenge, keeping the game tied at one until Michael Nylander scored his third goal of the season at the 17:28 mark of the third period, giving Washington the lead.

Nicklas Backstrom also scored for the Capitals, while Patrice Brisebois tallied the lone goal for Montreal. Jaroslav Halak picked up the start filling in for Carey Price, stopping 24 shots.

One rumor we keep hearing in and around the Washington Capitals this offseason concerns the disposition of veteran centerman Michael Nylander. With the team almost $2.7 million over the cap after re-signing a passel of players and a logjam up the middle, it's hard for the folks who watch the team not to speculate as to what General Manager George McPhee might have up his sleeve to get under the cap by opening night.

Toss in the fact that Nylander's former agent, Mike Gillis, is now General Manager in Vancouver, and you have a pretty typical recipe for intrigue.

And here's something new for the mix: Our FanHouse colleague Jon "J.P." Press, with an assist from some of his readers, discovered that Nylander put his Potomac, Md. house on the market back on July 17. The discovery is just more fuel for the fire, as former goalie Olie Kolzig's departure from Washington was also presaged by a real estate listing for his home.

When you take a look at the numbers, it's clear that moving Nylander, who was imported from the New York Rangers as a free agent before the start of last season, would solve the team's cap problem in one fell swoop. Coming in at a cap hit of $4.875 million, trading the veteran center would take care of the overage and provide about $2 million in cushion going into the season -- just the sort of cushion that most GMs would like to have come the trade deadline.

But will the Caps need to move Nylander at all? The answer: It depends.

Before last night's game in Washington between the Caps and the Devils, things were looking mighty familiar. There was the sparse crowd. There were three vital cogs -- Chris Clark, Michael Nylander and Boyd Gordon -- sidelined by injury. And with the team sitting dead last in the Eastern Conference about to face a New Jersey team that had won nine of its last ten games, there were the usual diminished expectations.

But from the opening drop of the puck, it was easy to see that one thing was very different: The Caps team that showed up to defend the home ice surface -- one that seemed far less rutted than usual this season -- didn't play anything like a last place team.

The checking was tight, the line changes clean. The penalty kill was perfect. Passes were traveling tape to tape, and with the exception for a few minutes at the start of the third period, the Caps were able to break out of their own zone with relative ease, while displaying the sort of forechecking that kept New Jersey bottled up in deep.

But the most obvious difference came on the power play. At 1-for-3 on the night, it certainly was a success statistically, but what had changed dramatically from the start of the season was the way it looked.

At its most basic, you don't ask much from a power play: Hold the zone; screen the goalie; keep the puck moving along the perimeter of the zone until a scoring chance develops; and when it does, put the puck on net.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, up until a little more than two weeks ago, things weren't anywhere near that simple in Washington. Every power play was an adventure, with success for the most part coming down to whether or not Alex Ovechkin decided to impose his will and considerable skill on the opposition.

But even a superstar like Ovechkin can't score every time, and what resulted was an absolute mess where the Caps could hardly hold the puck in at the enemy blue line, never mind score. But what was on display last night was a squad that seemed to have gone back to the basics and embraced the fundamentals. Mix in some hard work, sacrifice and mental toughness, and you had a 3-2 Washington win.

The difference ought to be obvious: While former Caps head coach Glen Hanlon admitted that he was out of solutions as he was shuffled out the door, his replacement, Bruce Boudreau, seems to have installed a new sense of accountability among his charges. Unconcerned with hurting anyone's feelings, Boudreau is content to let it fly in front of the press when a player doesn't perform up to snuff, and the message seems to have gotten through to a team that was suddenly out of excuses.

At 5-3-1 since taking over on Thanksgiving Day, it's far too early to see Boudreau's elevation as a replay of the situation in St. Louis last season, where Mike Kitchen was shown the door early in favor of Andy Murray, but the early indicators are good. So good, in fact, that one might wonder why the change wasn't made sooner.

Every July, various team owners and GM's, despite their better judgment, lustily rush out to sign whatever slab of UFA meat they can catch to the biggest, longest contract that they possibly can afford.

Salary inflation? Dimishing returns? Chemistry concerns? Cap issues? Those factors mean little when a fairly good player is on the free agent market, and a bevy of other teams are vying for the same player.

So, which of these unrestricted free agent players have actually been a good investment thus far?

Chris Drury - 2007 salary of $7.1 mil (28GP 6-13-19 -2)
Despite the fact that Drury has never proven himself to be more than a pretty good second liner, the Rangers decided to fork over superstar money without a second thought. I wouldn't say Drury's production has been disappointing, given that it's in line with previous totals of his, it's just that Drury is definitely overpaid for the type of player he is.

Scott Gomez - 2007 salary of $10mil (28GP 5-16-21)
Gomez is definitely one of the better playmakers in the league, but has always had consistency and coachability issues. Again, the Rangers forked over large amounts of money for somebody who is not a superstar (he had only 60 points last season), and they aren't getting rewarded for their investment. Gomez just doesn't have the same chemistry with Jagr that Michael Nylander had, and will probably never live up to his huge contract.

Of course, it's always easy to pick on the Ranger$, so let's look at some other squads.

Given that today is supposed to be the biggest shopping day of the year, though with the financial and housing markets in the state they are in I would think that's not saying much, relatively speaking, I thought we at Fan House would take a moment to consider what the various and sundry GM's around the league would be looking for in the proverbial player mall that exists in the minds of amateur GM's, fans and, yes, even semi-professional pundits.

So, I posed the question to my colleagues, and for today's Ice Sheet, here's a transcript of that exchange (with the worst typing offenses committed by mostly yours truly edited for pride):

Tom Luongo: For Friday I was thinking that I should do a Shopping List NHL-style, seeing as the it's supposed to be the biggest shopping day of the year. Anyone got any good ideas on what your favorite team should go shopping for ?

Eric McErlain: Washington: Right wing, physical defense-man and a new head coach. [The Ed: Ding! Christmas comes early for the denizens of Mordor D.C.]

Big Earl Sleek: Anaheim: some ready-to-sign un-retirement papers for Niedermayer and Selanne, a magical anti-concussion pill for Bertuzzi, and some sort of supplement that will keep Schneider in the lineup for longer than two weeks.

J.P.: [Washington] Mayflower vans?

Jes Golbez: Not even Scotty Bowman could win with the crappy roster the Caps have. Even OJ had a stronger defense.
For the Canucks: An ever-fresh supply of replacement defensemen, continued good health for Roberto Luongo, personalties for the SedinBots, a heart for Markus Naslund, courage for Brad Isbister, and a brain for Matt Cooke.

Who's In: Dick Tarnstrom, D (FA), Joni Pitkanen, D (PHI), Geoff Sanderson, LW (PHI),Mathieu Garon, G (MTR), Sheldon Souray (FA-MTR)

Who's Out: Jason Smith, D (PHI), Joffrey Lupul, LW (PHI), Jan Hejda, D (CBJ), Jussi Markkanen, G, Petr Nedved, C (CZECH), Toby Petersen, F (DAL), Petr Sykora, RW (PIT), Daniel Tjarnqvist, D, Brad Winchester, D (DAL)

What's Changed: Life for Oilers fans has been just dreadful ever since their Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006.

Not long after that prosperous season, Chris Pronger demanded, and received, a trade. He ended up heading back to the finals with his new club, the Anaheim Ducks, and actually winning the cup. Ouch!

The biggest gut-punch, however, was the late-season trade of Ryan Smyth, the face of the franchise, to the New York Islanders. The Oilers went 2-15-1 in their final 18 games, and were spurned by Smyth when this summer's free agency bonanza opened.

This summer? It was one bit of bad news after another.

This Michael Nylander signing/not-signing story has quickly become the soap opera of the summer for the NHL.

First, reports indicated that Michael Nylander had signed with the Edmonton Oilers. No financial details were released, but nobody thought anything of it. It seemed that the Oilers finally signed an actual free agent.

Then, out of left field, the Washington Capitals locked up the Swedish center to a contract.

Obviously, Oilers GM Kevin Lowe was pissed about the whole ordeal, and now we're starting to find out that is was more than simply being outbid.

"On Sunday, July 1, 2007, Kevin Lowe, Oilers general manager, and Mr. Mike Gillis, certified agent for Michael Nylander, negotiated and agreed to a multi-year NHL Standard Players Contract, starting in 2007-08. Mr. Gillis confirmed same to the Oilers in writing," the Oilers' statement read Tuesday.

"The Oilers then proceeded with preparations to announce Mr. Nylander's contract agreement on July 2, and concurrently continued with the process of negotiating with other free agents based upon Mr. Nylander being an important roster ingredient for the future.

"However, while the Oilers were expecting the returned signed agreements from Mr. Nylander and Mr. Gillis, the Oilers discovered through public announcements made mid-afternoon on July 2, that Mr. Nylander had subsequently entered into a long-term contract with the Capitals.

Wow! I can't remember the last time something like THIS happened in the NHL. Agents don't usually bait-and-switch quite that blatently.

Without knowing the contents of the document the Oilers received, we can't quite tell if Nylander's agent agreed to an actual contract, or agreed that the money was satisfactory. I'm sure we'll find out more in the near future as this soap opera gets juicier.

I'm also sure that the NHL will 'fix' the ordeal by forcing Nylander's contract with the Capitals to stand, by hook and by crook. There is no way that Bettman will allow Nylander to go to the Oilers, nor would the Oilers want an unhappy camper on their hands.

How much is the NHL gonna pay to get out of this one?