| 01 July 2009
Perhaps the most disheartening part of Alex Ovechkin's incredible shot totals is that rarely is a player standing in front of the net to reap the benefits of his machine-gun firing rate. For a player who can shoot in excess of 500 shots a season, the amount of second-chance goals created seems awfully small.
Backstrom, Kozlov, Semin and Fedorov were all guilty of standing idly by as shot-after-shot rebounded off the goalie and was subsequently cleared.
For a player whose specialty is making goalies play his shots aggressively, we can only wonder how many goals in a game the Capitals could score if someone would do the dirty work down low.
So here comes Mike Knuble, a 37-year-old right wing whose specialty is setting up camp in front of the goalie with a large 6'3'' frame.
He enters Washington with one of the smaller contracts from the first day of free agency, but fan expectations are soaring. He's already been called the Capitals "Bill Guerin," and analysts are calling for him to have the same effect Guerin had on Crosby.
“In the same way Bill Guerin helped provide ballast to a young and talented Penguins team en route to a Cup in June, Knuble has the potential to be a productive member of the potent Caps lineup (he had 27 goals last season with Philly and has six straight seasons with 20-plus goals) while adding a no-nonsense personality to the locker room.” – Scott Burnside, ESPN.com.
“Nice. That’s a professional, big-body player who makes everyone there a little bit braver, a little bit better. That’s a really nice move, good job George McPhee. They’re going to have a net presence now on the power play.” – Pierre McGuire, TSN.
"He is all business. We have watched him torture the Pens. He is a legit 25 goal scorer, and shit, he is just what your team needs." - The Pensblog.
The last time Knuble scored less than 20 goals was in 2001-2002 as a member of the Boston Bruins. That's the same time that he's had less than 20 assists in a season. 40-plus points a season over six seasons is simply incredible consistency
In 2008-2009, of Knuble's 27 goals, 22 of them came in wins, 11 of Knuble's goals came in the third period and five of them were in the last five minutes. The math is simple, when Knuble scored, the Flyers won, and that's partly because the clean-up goal is an absolute dagger.
Knuble has that knack for scoring the key goal at the key time, and the Capitals would know. In the 2007-2008 Caps and Flyers series, it was ">Knuble who scored the ">double overtime ">game-winner in Game Four.
Where was that goal scored? Knuble on the doorstep just mere feet from the goalie, batting in a rebound, with Alex Ovechkin watching. A scene that NHL teams are used to seeing and Caps fans can anxiously await cheering.
Knuble wasn't the best forward on the market. He won't score the most points out of the current free agent class, but he just might end up being the most important free agent of the bunch. With Knuble's arrival comes the chance for another transformative player to enter the locker room.
This bunch of Capital seems to make most of its opportunities to learn from veteran players. Sergei Fedorov taught the Caps how to play like veterans.
Now it's Knuble's turn to show them how to battle like one.
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