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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Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, Fiorentina levelled on aggregate in the 14th minute when Joaquin Sanchez Rodriguez headed back a long ball from David Pizarro and Pasqual smashed home an angled volley.Detroit, MI (SportsNetwork.com) - Pavel Datsyuk and Gustav Nyquist both scored in the shootout as the Detroit Red Wings denied the Minnesota Wilds comeback bid with a 5-4 win on Tuesday. After Zach Parise missed high for Minnesota, Datsyuk was on point with his backhander as he lifted the puck over Darcy Kuempers glove and into the net. Petr Mrazek stayed with Mikko Koivu and stopped his attempts before Nyquist swerved in from the right side, caught Kuemper moving and slid the puck between the netminders pads for the win. Nyquist finished with a goal and an assist, Teemu Pulkkinen scored his first NHL goal and Jonathan Ericsson and Xavier Ouellet also scored for the Red Wings, who won their fifth straight game. Henrik Zetterberg tallied three assists and Mrazek made 34 saves in the win. Parise scored twice, Thomas Vanek had a goal and an assist and Koivu also scored for the Wild, who have dropped two straight. Kuemper made 14 saves after taking over for Devan Dubnyk, who allowed four goals on just 10 shots. Trailing 4-1 in the third, the Wild got within a goal after Parise skated behind the defense up the left side and shot the puck into the net at 6:01, then Vanek scored on a backhander four minutes later for a 4-3 game. Ericssons clear attempt from behind the net was knockked down by Parise in front.dddddddddddd Mrazek made the initial stop, but Parise knocked in his own rebound for a tie game with 6:39 remaining. Early in the extra session, Mrazek made a sharp blocker save on Parises wrister off a 2-on-1. Each goaltender made three saves in overtime. Detroit opened the scoring 9:09 into the contest on Pulkkinens milestone marker. Stephen Weiss skated up to the right circle and backhanded a pass to Pulkkinen, who ripped a shot from the slot past the blocker of Dubnyk. Seven seconds into a Detroit penalty, Koivu tied the game with a wrister through the pads of Mrazek at 13:22. The Red Wings reclaimed the lead just over a minute later on Ericssons blast from the left point. Nyquist made it a 3-1 game by deflecting Nicklas Kronwalls point shot under the glove of Dubnyk for a power-play goal 3:41 into the second. Ouellet jumped on a loose puck in the high slot and snapped a shot that was deflected off Wild forward Justin Fontaines skate for a three-goal Detroit lead at 7:25. Game Notes Parise has scored in four straight games ... Kuemper returned after missing six games with a lower-body injury ... Mrazek made his fifth consecutive start ... The two teams will meet again on April 4 in Minnesota. 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