Thoughts From the End of the Bar

Caps Re-Cap (2-1 W vs. Rangers)

PuckHeadEd — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:58:04 GMT

Well, the last post here taught me that there are way more folks on Fan Nation interested in the BCS and college football than there are about the NHL. This really shouldn't come as a surprise, but I was a bit taken aback by the views numbers for that last post compared to the others.

But, as I watch the Fiesta Bowl, it's back to regular programming, looking back at Saturday's massive 2-1 win over the visiting New York Rangers at Fort Verizon. Washington improved to 17-1-1 at home by rallying from 1-0 down on goals from Mike Green and Alexander Ovechkin in the second period. Green's goal was the culmination of a beautiful power play that featured slick passing and a cross-ice pass in front of the crease from Semin to Green, who had only to tap the puck past Valiquette to tie the game. Ovechkin later gave Washington the lead (and the win) with a short-handed floater from the right wing to the far post. It was a case of Washington winning a game because it has Ovechkin and the other team doesn't. Ovechkin had the goal, 9 shots, and some key hits, including one good hit for leadership, decking Marc Staal in the corner seconds after Staal had hit Semin in open ice.

That of course set up the memorable moment from the game, when Semin went all Ralphie from A Christmas Story on Staal after a goal-area scrum. Staal tried disengaging Semin's equipment (kinky) and succeeded more than he figured he would, falling to the ice carrying Semin's jersey and pad with him. Hey Mark, the Caps store sells Semin jerseys for $150, no tax, I'm sure you can afford it. Anyway, toward the end of the scrap, Staal fell to the ice and Semin began drumming like Keith Moon on crack (the living Keith Moon).

Semin was universally lampooned for his lack of fighting skills, but he got more of something in anyway. I can't say he got more punches in, because I'm not sure they were punches - but the important thing is that he stood up for himself. I've talked often this season about how Washington's stars and goalies have been getting run all season long with little consequence. Semin finally made someone pay for it - OK, he tried to anyway. And Ovechkin did his part to go get those folks that needed to get got (I heard that phrase on Gangland once).

Beyond that, I thought it was a pretty good effort for the Capitals. They held the Rangers to a mere 22 shots, and Theodore made a couple good saves. It wasn't a typical Washington game in terms of open offense, but they won it anyway and that's a good sign. Teams that go deep in the playoffs will need to be able to do that.

Nothing else really stood out. I think the only thing that was funnier than the final score was the group of 15 or so **** Ranger fans in Section 428 that got an escort out of the building by the yellowcoats with about 2 minutes left. They earned it with their douchebaggery - you know, the prep in the Yankee hat who makes sure everyone can hear him, the lardass in the Lundqvist jersey who wants to fight the whole section (including probably the other Ranger fans) but would end up looking like a mangled surfer (and a fat one at that) after a shark attack.

So Tuesday night, it's the Flyers at Fort Verizon for their first visit since Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals last year. That series, that last game, and the 7-1 loss at Philly a couple weeks back (Washington's last loss) have renewed a rivalry that was among the league's best in the mid- to late-1980s. As this AP story tonight shows.

For whatever Washington has done this season - the best 40-game record in league history (55 points, 26-11-3), the Capitals must win tonight. They need to send a message that they can beat Philly. They're the only team in the East they haven't figured out. There are going to be fights, there are going to be scrums, and the injury list will probably be a little longer after this game.

But whatever.

At the season-ticket holder party at Six Flags in October, I was in line for autographs from Ovechkin and Jeff Schultz. I congratluated them on last season, but also said, "But don't lose to those dirty Flyers."

Like I said, don't go losing to those dirty Flyers tonight.

Thoughts on the BCS

PuckHeadEd — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:30:52 GMT

I know, I know - any blogger out here on the Internet can make a case against the BCS in NCAA football. Surely, it's a great way to drive up page views and get people commenting.

But as Utah finished off their pimp-slapping of Alabama last night in the Sugar Bowl, I got to thinking (and as we know, that can be dangerous).

In the alleged national championship game, the BCS has given us the Oklahoma Sooners (12-1) and the Florida Gators (12-1). In terms of marquee value, this really isn't a bad thing. It's probably going to be a decent game, and it's probably going to draw a pretty decent amount of viewers. There should also be a good crowd. I probably won't enjoy it for whoever wins, because I can't stand either team, but it is a good matchup.

But it's not a national championship game.

Lest anyone forget Oklahoma lost by 10 to Texas earlier this season.

Lest anyone forget Texas lost to Texas Tech earlier this season.

Lest anyone forget Texas Tech got housed by Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl, giving up 47 points!

Lest anyone forget who is the one team to beat Florida this season.

Ole Miss.

At the Swamp.

(By the way, if you want to see how they did it - go to the college football section on Yahoo and you can watch the entire game).

Make no mistake, I'm not arguing that Ole Miss belongs in the title game. And you can say, well, Florida and Oklahoma are different teams since their losses and no one wants to play them now, blah blah blah. I'm betting there's a group from Salt Lake City that would love to play either one of those teams right now, but won't get the chance.

Care to say USC should win the national title after they blew up Penn State in the Rose Bowl? Was that win any more impressive than when Southern Cal blew up Ohio State in the regular season? Ohio State is a fraud that may well get blowed up again by Texas. In its two biggest games (vs. USC and vs. Penn State), the Buckeyes scored 9 total points. Just who has tOSU beaten? Wisconsin and Michigan State were the only teams they beat that were ranked at the time, and the Badgers needed 3 missed extra points to beat Cal Poly, while Michigan State just got boogeywhipped by Georgia in the WhoCares.com Bowl.

So back to Southern Cal. Sure they have one loss. But that was to Oregon State, who did prove to be not a bad team, even though they got explodified by rival Oregon in the Civil War. But who else did Oregon State lose to?

Utah.

And you can practically throw the records of Pac-10 teams out the window anyway, especially USC, given they all got to beat up on Washington and Washington State this season - the worst collective Division-1 performance in football by a state since like 1902.

Look, Utah isn't going to win the national title - despite beating Alabama, Oregon State, TCU and BYU. But I'm hoping that they at least get some votes for first in the AP poll. Nothing is going to change until people start waking the hell up.

Meanwhile, the old boy, fat cat, puffy chested, southern and midwestern poofs that run the BCS will declare their "national champion" next week.

And I'll laugh and go back to watching hockey.

Caps Re-Cap (7-4 W vs. Lightning)

PuckHeadEd — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:52:51 GMT

I missed the Buffalo game because I was out for the holidays, so we'll skip over what was an excellent two points for Washington and move on to last night's 7-4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Verizon Center.

Brent Johnson got the start in goal and I thought he was somewhat shaky, the defense more so. I hope we aren't going to get into a situation where the more of the "starting" defenders get healthy, the worse the defense gets. The possible return of John Erskine scares me to death, to be honest. If Green, Poti, Morrisonn, Schultz, and Jurcina are solid in the back six, do you really bring back Erskine into the starting six at the expense of Alzner?

The Caps have found a good pairing with Jurcina playing with Alzner. They support each other well and it seems Jurcina is the perfect style player to work with Alzner. We've seen Jurcina even become more aggressive offensively, looking for his shot more often. The fact of the matter is that Erskine is a stupid penalty waiting to happen, at least once a game. Usually because someone beats him with speed and he holds, hooks, grabs, trips, you name it to try and make up for being in bad position. With a penalty kill that has been looking up at the 80% barrier all season long, the Caps cannot afford to have this kind of player in the lineup.

It's nothing personal against Erskine, I'm sure he's a good fellow. But he's the 7th-best defender on the team right now and I hope that he isn't simply given a starting spot back simply because of contract or salary cap matters.

An encouraging sign from the game was that the Capitals got 7 goals from 7 different players, with Chris Clark netting his first of the season, and Matt Bradley and Boyd Gordon taking advantage of absolute mental lapses by Tampa Bay goalie Mike Smith when he tried to play the puck. Martin Brodeur, he ain't.

Ovechkin netted a goal and two assists, scoring on his trademark shot from the left wing where he cuts in on the defender and fires a rocket against a hapless goalie - and Smith played the role of hapless goalie quite well last night.

Ovechkin was also involved in the hit that knocked out Tampa defender Jamie Heward (former Cap). From the times I've seen the hit (I didn't see it live - I wasn't at the game), I'm not sure if Ovie should be expected a late Christmas gift from Colin Campbell in the league office. Given what we have seen with officiating this year involving the Capitals, and how players have been allowed to run Ovechkin/Semin/goalies at will without penalty, I hope not.

Double that with the league's "shut your **** about our star" conspiracy on the Crosby nut-punch a couple weeks back, and it will be interesting to see how the league handles this. No penalty was called on the play, but we've seen recently, especially in the NFL, that it doesn't really matter if a penalty was called on a particular play, the league will go ahead and assess fines and suspensions wherever they feel necessary, which I'm sure the officials on the field must just love.

I don't think Ovie made a dirty hit there. Once Heward had his head down (and you never put your head down in that fashion along the boards), I don't know that Ovie could have stopped. I'm curious how the league will view it. Heward has a concussion but supposedly no other injuries. Which isn't to make light of a concussion, because we've seen what one can do in the case of Caps defenseman Brian Pothier.

But based on past history, my guess is the NHL might not be done with their Christmas "giving."

Caps Re-Cap (4-1 W vs. Toronto)

PuckHeadEd — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 05:03:57 GMT

The Caps won, they got two points, Ovechkin scored twice, Laich scored twice, Theodore got the win.

OK, enough about that.

I want to tell you my story from Sunday.

As you probably know, the Capitals retired Mike Gartner's #11 last night. It was a nice ceremony, though it maybe lacked a little of the pomp and circumstance that you'd see in other more traditional hockey cities. And it would have been better to have more of the players on the ice with him - even they don't have their numbers retired. Scott Stevens was in the building for crying out loud, let him come down to the ice.

I am a season ticket holder, so you can imagine how much I enjoyed being there and taking in the ceremony and cheering on one of my childhood heroes growing up as a Caps fan for the last 25 years.

Yeah, no.

I was in New Jersey this weekend, visiting my girlfriend. I left early Sunday afternoon, leaving 5 hours to get to the arena (a 180-mile trip, mind you) and be there for the ceremony. That all went to hell in a handbasket thanks to traffic on the NJ Turnpike between Exits 8A and 7, and then traffic in Delaware (why are we using that state again?) that lasted 9 miles to the Delaware Turnpike tolls, where you pay $4 for the privilege of driving less than 15 miles through the state - a drive which, yesterday, took 1 hour, 5 minutes.

It also didn't help that even when the road was more open, morons in all sorts of cars from all sorts of states almost seemed like they were trying to keep me from getting there on time. Once in Maryland, an **** from South Carolina in a white van cut me off five times as I tried to change lanes to get around him, then tailgated me for about an hour. If I hadn't been trying to get somewhere, I would have let him hit me, beat him up, and gotten the insurance money crazy fast.

Instead, I got to the exit at Catonsville and decided it wasn't going to happen, so I rushed home and watched it on TV.

The moral of the story here is that people are **** stupid. You can't overestimate the efforts they will make to screw up your plans and your life.

I will get them all back somehow. Hopefully they were all Maple Leafs fans and the revenge was the 4-1 beatdown the Capitals delivered when the game commenced. Or maybe they were Rangers fans still pissed about blowing that 4-0 lead last week. Or maybe they were Lightning fans who just ... hey, they're Lightning fans. What else do they have to do but screw with people on the highway?

Many tough games coming up for the Caps, beginning Tuesday night in Buffalo, then home games with those Lightning (OK, maybe they don't belong in this list), then the Flyers and Rangers. Hard to imagine they will still only have 1 regulation home loss after that, but hopefully they get healthier in the interim and play some good hockey.

I mean, on the bright side - I missed the ceremony, but I'm not a Lions fan.

Caps Re-Cap (5-4 W in OT at Rangers)

PuckHeadEd — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 16:19:32 GMT

So given a couple days now for the game and the big Christmas Eve dinner to sink in (that's how we do it in our family), it is still pretty amazing to think that the Washington Capitals came back from a 4-0 deficit Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden to beat the New York Rangers, 5-4, in overtime, on Shoane Morrisonn's goal about a minute into the extra session.

In the first period and for a bit of the second, the Capitals were absolutely awful, looking like a team that had clearly forgotten how to play hockey. Bryan Helmer and Dave Steckel topped the abysmal list, making decisions and plays that let the Rangers enter the zone unimpeded and practically score at will. The woes of the defense (missing Mike Green, Tom Poti, Jeff Schultz, and Brian Pothier - I don't know that we can really miss John Erskine, to be honest), left the forwards often trying to cover up for them and that didn't work, as the Rangers feasted on the Ovechkin line for four goals. At one point in the game, the top line was a combined -11.

But the game also shows why the old axiom about how any shot on goal is a good play is really true. It was, in truth, Ovechkin's most harmless shot of the night - a flyer from the left wing boards that then deflected off Ranger defender Michael Rozsival's stick, and then over the shoulder of a surprised Henrik Lundqvist, that sparked the rally. It was one of 13 shots on goal for the night for Ovechkin. 13! It makes you wonder why other top scorers don't do this all the time. We have seen Ovechkin lead the team in shots on goal in 20 straight games now. Some would argue that this is being selfish. But who on the team has a better chance of scoring when he shoots than Ovechkin? In fact, who in the league has a better chance of scoring when he shoots than Ovechkin? I'm more than happy to see him taking 10-13 shots a game if that's what it takes to win. He hasn't been hogging the puck to make it happen. Teammates are finding him, Ovechkin is still looking to be the playmaker when the situation calls for it, and he's getting his shots. Perfect mix to me.

After the first period, I was ready to stuff Jose Theodore into a woodchipper. It wasn't that the three goals were all his fault - his defense, as we've mentioned, really left him for dead. But after a slight period of improvement, Theodore is back to badly overplaying everything from side to side. On New York's third goal, Theodore had slid all the way to Weehauken before realizing that the shot was coming on the rebound and by the time he had his bearings, it was 3-0. And having been lost in Weehauken before, let me tell you, it sucks.

Theodore got better late, and made a couple nice saves. But he's not a number-one goalie. I'm not sure Brent Johnson is either, but given the contract situations, you can't just send Theodore down. So Simeon Varlamov, who won his two games while with the club last week, will have to continue to work hard at Hershey. The only hope in my book is that as we get close to the trading deadline, a team with cap room is going to need a goalie to contend and we can let Theodore go and go with Johnson as the top (crosses fingers) and Varlamov as the backup. Johnson has come up big in the playoffs before (while with St. Louis) so it wouldn't be a stretch for him, I don't think, but we need to keep him healthy.

I can only hope that some of the D get healthy soon. The call ups have been good for the most part, but Helmer isn't an NHL player. I'd rather see Lepisto in that spot at this point.

All of that said - holy crap it's fun to beat the Rangers.

Merry Christmas!

Thinking Out Loud (and that's always dangerous ...)

PuckHeadEd — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:16:33 GMT

So, if you are reading this blog, you probably love hockey, and maybe you like the Capitals. And I'm glad for the Blues and Kings fans who have checked in here in recent days. Stay around a while, I like reading your opinions, even if you disagree with me.

So, if we know that you are good hockey fans out there in DC, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and cities across North America - you've probably read this from Puck Daddy today.

Crosby Punches a Thrasher Player's Jigglies - Many Times

Apparently, in Pittsburgh's win over Atlanta last week, Crosby got a 2-minute minor for allegedly (and repeatedly) punching Atlanta's Boris Valabik in the, as Joe B would put it, the Produce Section.

This isn't new to the NHL. Caps fans won't forget Dani Briere's stick work to Ovechkin's produce section in Buffalo a couple years ago. Defensemen sometimes accidentally get caught up in Jigglyville when a forward gets past them and they are holding or hooking for dear life. And hey, the league does have a penalty called "Holding the Stick."

But you will note, of course, that Crosby played in tonight's Pittsburgh game vs. Buffalo. No suspension. No major penalty. Not a peep out of the league office when the alledged star player goes south with the knuckles on an unfortunate opponent.

Fast forward to tonight, where Crosby tipped in an Evgeny Malkin shot in overtime past Ryan Miller for what appeared to be a 4-3 win for the Penguins. Hey, that's what great players do, right? Course, Crosby's stick was above the level of the crossbar when he deflected it. After careful review (including by the Crosby Powder Room War Room in Toronto), the goal was allowed to stand, the Penguins had a win, and Crosby had what should have been an illegal goal.

He's Crosby, of course.

But then think about it. Remember a month or so ago when Caps forward Alexander Semin, off to a wonderful start at the time before getting hurt, mentioned that while Crosby was a quality player, there were others, like the young talent on the Chicago Blackhawks, that caught his eye with their skills? Seemed a fair point to me. Chicago's a great team to watch right now, as western Canada has found out up close and personal lately.

Semin was crucified in NHL circles for it. How can you say anything that isn't glowing about Sydney Crosby? Why, Sydney Crosby is our Lord and Savior! If Sydney Crosby said he wanted change, he'd be elected Prime Minister of Canada!

It wasn't as if Semin said that Crosby was a bad player. And he isn't. Crosby is highly skilled and one of the best players in the league. Fair enough.

Hmmm. We of course remember Semin is now injured again - the victim of an uncalled cross-check to the small of the back in a game vs. St. Louis.

I don't bring this up to badger the St. Louis dude again. That's not the intent. That's done and dusted.

But when you see the league turning a blind eye to Crosby, whether he's scoring illegal goals or punching unsuspecting opponents in the jigglies, then you see the one player perceived to have criticized him put out of the game with an injury where no penalty was called ...

... I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud.

Looking forward to Caps-Rangers tomorrow night from MSG. Should be a great one.

Less than a week till Mike Gartner Night at Verizon Center. Can't wait for that, either. Long overdue.

Happy holidays, everyone.

Even you, Syndey. Don't punch me in the nuts.

Caps Re-Cap (4-2 W vs. St. Louis)

PuckHeadEd — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:24:17 GMT

Thoughts about last night's Caps win over the Blues while I crack open and eat some peanuts.

It was a fun night for the most part. I got into town early hoping to grab some food and a couple beers, but all the usual haunts were packed by 5:15. So I bagged that idea, grabbed some grub at McDonald's and went into the arena just after the gates opened at 6. Upon entering, I got my Ovechkin bobblehead, which is him in his get-up from the awards ceremony last year, holding the four trophies he won (Pearson, Ross, Hart, Richard).

I think Ovechkin is the greatest player in the world.

I'm glad he plays for my favorite team.

Holy crap what an ugly bobblehead.

I opened it and my cat jumped off the bed and out the window in fright.

Check out Puck Daddy's blog today about other notoriously bad bobbleheads. This one isn't included, perhaps because he hadn't seen it yet, but oh lordy lordy.

Anyway, on to the game. A mostly decent performance from the Capitals, except for the multiple power plays in the second period that were just awful. I don't know what was going on with Semin last night, but his stick was like a stone. He couldn't hold on to the puck very much at all and when he tried to make passes they were often errant. Ovechkin helped the power play stats a bit with his goal early in the third period that made it 4-1 and put the game out of reach.

Good work last night out of Kozlov to get to the net (after Boyd Gordon did the same) for Washington's second goal, part of a three-point night for the lesser-heralded Russian. Flesichmann followed that with a nice shot in tight (were you watching Michael Nylander?) to make it 3-1 seconds later.

Nylander really has lost the plot. Late in I believe the second period, he got the puck with about 17 seconds left, with the Caps buzzing in the offensive zone. He proceeded to hold on to the puck for the entire rest of the period, never passing or shooting, despite being near the goal on several occasions. I don't know what team Nylander thinks he's playing for, but his value on the Capitals has never been lower. There are too many other younger players that need ice time for Nylander to waste it skating around like he's in the Ice Capades. I've grown rather sick of it. If he has such little confidence in his shot, and he's not going to trust his teammates enough to pass it to them in tight spaces, then he needs to be a healthy scratch and that's that.

Speaking of scratches, hopefully Semin won't be one for too long after he was attacked by a St. Louis player in the third period last night. First, Semin was clearly tripped, which wasn't called because the **** referees Mike Leggo and Kelly Sutherland thought Semin was diving. As Semin got up, he was then cross checked in the small of the back, sending back to the ice, with again no call. I don't know what Leggo and Sutherland were watching, but both of them ought to be susepnded. I've gotten sick and tired of seeing teams taking liberties with our top players and our goalies - and last night was the latest and worst case - a St. Louis team devoid of talent, with no chance to win, resulting to cheap shots and stick work because they already know they are playing out a 50-game string that's not going to end with a playoff berth. The only classy part of that organization is GM John Davidson. The rest of it can fall in the Mississippi River for all I care.

Since the refs did nothing, Ovechkin took it upon himself to look up the St. Louis player, causing a fracas but no fight. Brashear later looked about to fight, but an offside whistle blew and I think he held up to not risk getting an instigator, with the Caps up just 4-2 at that point and plenty of time left. As much as I would have liked to see Brashear club the crap out of someone, not going there was probably the right move.

The inaction of Leggo and Sutherland then led to a 5-minute span of hard and at times borderline hits which all went uncalled, while they played twister in the center of the ice calling negligible hooks and making sure Caps rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov was out of the trapezoid when he played the puck. Many NHL referees, including and especially the two last night, have lost the plot with regard to how to manage a game where conflicts arise, becuase they are too caught up in trying to make sure they get every hook, trip, and hold - where in many cases, these infractions (if they are that at all) have little to no effect on the play.

Tarik reported today that Semin didn't practice, so I'm betting he's a no-go for tomorrow. Thanks Blues, Leggo, and Sutherland. Way to protect the sport.

That game tomorrow is at 1 p.m. in Philadelphia against the Flyers. It's a must-win. Not because of the standings or anything, the Caps have an 8-point lead in the Southeast still after Carolina overtimed Florida last night. But Washington needs to win this game to prove it can beat the Flyers, and it needs to win the physical battles that are sure to occur.

And they need to win to keep me from really venting my feelings on here right now.

Dustin Brown is a Cyborg

PuckHeadEd — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:39:17 GMT

To borrow a phrase from Washington area radio personality Rick Doc Walker, Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings is a Cyborg.

I'm watching tonight's Kings-Rangers game on Yahoo via the MSG feed. And it's never bad to hear Sam Rosen call a game. Anyway, in the third period with the game tied at 2, Brown has a tremendous shift a few minutes into the period, causing havoc, getting to the net, and almost giving Los Angeles the lead.

At the end of his shift, which lasted well over a minute, he went to the bench for his rest.

Yeah ... 22 seconds later, he was back on the ice for another 1:01.

Later, he was charging up the boards, taking the puck away from the Rangers and generating shots - notching 6 attempts at goal by the midway mark of the third period.

Between Brown and defenseman Drew Doughty, the Kings have two ice-time hogs that play the game hard and well and whom most teams would kill to have in their lineup.

What the Kings don't have is a finisher or two to get wins instead of losses and overtime losses at this point.

It will be interesting to me to see if the Kings keep building on these cornerstones - but watching Brown play is something else.

Caps Re-Cap (5-4 W at Islanders)

PuckHeadEd — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:35:52 GMT

First, it can be said that the Capitals did what they had to do last night. When you see the Islanders on the schedule, and you regard yourself as a good time, you need to get the two points.

The Capitals did that, despite blowing a two-goal lead in the third period and being taken to overtime on the island in last night's 5-4 victory. Washington played a pretty solid first two periods aside from penalty killing - but then were awful in the third as the Islanders scored twice to force the extra period. The tying goal was set up by an awful penalty from Tomas Fleischmann, a play where he made an unnecessary hold that just put his teammates in a bad situation on a night when the New York power play had already scored twice. Flash had just exited the box when the tying goal went in off that Jon Sim, who definitely qualifies in the "Cap killer" class of player.

In the overtime, Alexander Ovechkin was denied by both posts on the same shot with about 40 seconds left, and I had a hunch that if we got one more shot, we'd score. When the Islanders turned the puck over in their own zone in awful fashion, Nicklas Backstrom collected the puck, fired a quick pass to Ovechkin in the slot, and he ripped a nasty, off-balance, top-corner shot past Joey MacDonald for the 5-4 victory.

Among the good signs we saw were that defenseman Milan Jurcina started shooting, his laser in the second period took a deflection of an Islander defender for a goal. He's got the kind of shot that makes you think he could be lethal from the point if he was more aggressive with his shot. It can definitely lead to good rebounds if we can get people in front of the net. The first couple goals were created from hard work, and the play in the overtime was strong. You could tell they didn't want to go to a shootout - and that's a smart move because this team sucks in the shootout.

What I saw that I didn't like was some of the play from Alexander Semin. Yes, he made a great backhand pass to Ovechkin to set up the fourth goal. But I thought overall, he was a tad on the lazy side. Semin is our version of the moody striker at times. Sometimes, he just doesn't seem into the show, as it were. I think last night was one of those nights - perhaps becuase it was "just" the Islanders, or because it was in that awful barn they play in - whatever it was, I hope he's more into things against St. Louis at home tomorrow night. I thought we took some stupid penalties, and I thought someone really needed to take charge in the third period and no one did.

That changed in the overtime, as I thought the Capitals had much better jump and skated better (perhaps because it was 4-on-4, who knows), but it all worked out in the end for two points.

Washington leads the Southeast by 8 points over Carolina, who beat Montreal last night, and 10 over Florida.

Elsewhere, thanks to Yahoo I got to watch a good bit of the Blackhawks' absolute demolition of the Oilers in Edmonton. Chicago scored a 9-2 victory, outskating Edmonton all over the place and looking like a reverse picture of those mid-80s Campbell Conference finals games where Edmonton would hang a 10-4 scoreline on the Blackhawks on their way to another Stanley Cup. Chicago is a great team to watch - they are a Western version of the Capitals in many respects.

Caps Recap (3-1 W vs. Boston)

PuckHeadEd — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:49:45 GMT

So it was a fun time at Verizon Center last night, as the Washington Capitals beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1; no small feat given that the Bruins entered the game 17-2-1 in their last 20 games.

And it's pretty easy to see why. Boston is the best skating and passing team I've seen this season. The Capitals were very lucky at times last night, and have goalie Brent Johnson's outstanding performance to thank for the victory. I don't want to throw cold water on a big win - the Caps got the two points and that's the idea. But Boston had so many chances last night and most often, it was Johnson standing tall that was the only thing that stopped them.

Boston feasted on Washington's strategy(?) of not guarding the off wing. The Capitals have an annoying habit of getting unbalanced on the ice - overplaying to one side or the other. I'm guessing the Bruins saw this on film, because at many points last night, they had a wide open player at the blue line on the opposite wing when Washington either was changing lines or had overpursued to the other side. This led to quite a few 3-on-2s, which didn't create a goal thanks to Johnson's goalkeeping.

It is also worth noting of course that Washington's lineup last night was basically Backstrom, Ovechkin, Semin, Kozlov + the Hershey Bears. I admittedly don't keep up with the Bears as much as I should, and when I saw #62 Collins in the lineup, I really had no idea who he was. That said, I thought he was fairly solid last night. I didn't see any major errors. I wanted to say the same about Tyler Sloan, who definitely skated better and quicker last night. But the one time he didn't, it led to Boston's goal when Sloan failed to get to a hard-around to Johnson's left, and Lucic eventually potted one home on a quick 2-on-1. Sloan wasn't horrible last night, but that was a bad play.

Elsewhere, I thought Alzner and Jurcina were strong last night. Morrisonn was what Morrisonn is - a slowish defender who too often gets beat than has to commit a penalty to avoid giving away a scoring chance. I still cringe when he's on the ice. Perhaps that's unfair, but I gotta go by what I see.

Giroux got his first goal with the big club for the season by simply being at the net to collect a rebound. Got to like that. I thought Osala played well in his debut in that I don't think he made any key mistakes - but you could tell he was a little nervous and tentative (as he said on the postgame show afterward) and didn't get himself involved quite enough in the offense. The only thing that is going to solve that issue is games, so I think he'll be fine.

It was great to see Semin back last night. He was pretty much his old self - making moves, faking defenders out and trying to set up plays if he didn't have a shot for himself. It's a big boost to Ovechkin to have him back because now not quite all the defensive pressure will go AO's way.

I thought the penalty killers did a good job last night - more puck control when possible and good clears.

It's a good win. I don't think the Caps were as dominant as a 3-1 score would indicate (and of course the Ovechkin empty netter glorifies that, but we'll take it), but any win over the Bruins right now is good, no matter how it happens.

Washington welcomes a low-scoring Ottawa team to town tomorrow night that, frankly, the Caps should beat. Then it's off to Montreal for Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday. At least 3 points from these 2 games are a must. Carolina, second in the Southeast, plays Philadelphia tonight.

Hmm .. is it possible for a sinkhole to develop at center ice and swallow both teams whole?