Capitals 8 - Senators 6 Prognosis

The facts:

• 14 goals total were scored. Neither starting goaltender got the hook last night. How in the world did that happen?
• On the Washington end, the absence of Brent Johnson was probably the reason. Boudreau said he wanted to play the backup a little more. Letting in 6 goals on 22 shots (a .727 save percentage) is more evidence for that move. Maybe Olie Kolzig should come on in relief a little more like he did in Pittsburgh?
• Somewhere Ray Emery is smiling. 7 goals on 29 shots (.758 save percentage) is more leverage for Martin Gerber to grab some pine. I'm guessing when the Sens come to DC on New Year's Day, Emery will get the nod.
• There were 14 goals scored and only 52 shots on goal total. That means the goalies combined for a ghastly .730 save percentage. Ouch.
  
• The Senators are good. They're very good. They're not as good at home for some reason (12-6-2 vs. 13-3-0 on the road). Last night, they didn't look like the best team in the East though.
• The Sens will probably end up as the #1 seed in the East. They'd better hope the Caps don't crawl into the playoffs as the #8 seed because right now Ottawa has no answer for DC.
  
• Alex Ovechkin had his first 4 goal game and his first 5 point game in his career. How did it take this long.
• Ovechkin is now just 4 points behind Cindy "the Kid" Crosby. He has more assists (18) than Crosby has goals (16) this year.
• Ovechkin is now just 2 goals behind Ilya Kovalchuk for the league lead. He has 30 goals in 39 games.
• Ovechkin is on pace to score 63 goals this year.
• Ovechkin is now the leading goal scorer over the last 3 years (since he entered the league).
• Alex Ovechkin is the man.
• If you had told me before the game a Senator would get a hat-trick, I'd have believed it. I didn't think it would be Mike Fisher.
  
• 14 goals scored, Dany Heatley didn't have one. Think that might have affected the outcome?
• Little note to Michael Nylander: that is why you shoot more. Scoring two goals is fun isn't it?
• 6 defensemen (3 from each team) had assists tonight. Think they'd trade them in if they could take a couple goals off the board?
• Welcome to the new NHL: 14 goals scored, 14 penalties taken.
  
• Donald Brashear had a fight in his second straight game. He's still the NHL's middleweight champion after knocking Chris Neil around.
  
• Alex Ovechkin is the man. Why doesn't the man have a new contract?
• Niklas Backstrom is just 7 points behind Patrick Kane for the rookie scoring title.
  
• Let's not forget Alexander Semin had a 3 point night (1 G, 2 A). So did Niklas Backstrom by the same token. Backis also took 2 penalties.
• Daniel Alfredsson was 1 goal away from the trick. He made Kolzig look silly on that short-handed penalty shot goal he scored. Probably watched the shootout game against Detroit.
• Alfredsson was the only man to score in the first two periods. Oh captain my captain...
• He also had a 3 point game.
• Did I mention Ovechkin is the man and should have a new contract?
• Mike Fisher was one empty net goal from getting the full basket of goals. He had a shortie, a PP goal and an even strength goal.
• Ovechkin was just one shortie from getting the basket as well.
• One last time: Ovechkin is the man.

Bottom line: When Gary Bettman envisioned the new NHL, this is probably the game he was dreaming of. Lots of goals, lots of excitement, not a blowout, and a down to the wire game. One of the league's great young players finished the year by scoring a ton of goals (any guesses as to who it is?) while an incredibly savvy team never stopped battling. The Caps offense should get full marks for putting up the kind of goals they did on Ottawa and even the D should get a nod for only allowing Ottawa 22 shots. This game could have been a 3-2 struggle, but instead it was probably one of the more exciting games of the year.

Prognosis: Positive
Game MVP: Alex Ovechkin (4 goals, 1 assist)

Peng-whiners 4 - Caps 3 (OT) Prognosis

The facts:

• This was another case of a game where the Capitals basically dominated the game but for a few brief moments. In those brief moments, the other team managed to capitalize and drag us back down. 1 point escaped us and it wasn't because Pitt was better than we are, but rather because they scored when we let our guard down.
• Brucey's system is working incredibly well. The Penguin Scum had basically no running room all night. The homers getting on the Crosbettes made me smile. The boos from the fans were deserved, because they recognized their team was getting thoroughly outplayed. Were it not for two $#!tty deflections off Milan "Lurch" Jurcina, this game is a 3-1 Capitals win.
• Cindy Crosby was the number one star of the game. He had two assists. So did Niklas Backstrom (the number 2 star of the game). Crosby got one of his patented secondary assists (aka an "I'll-let-the-other-guy-do-all-the-work" assist). The second was on the OT winner, but it was not a set-up but rather more of a broken play that went $#!ttsburgh's way. Just FYI, both of Backstrom's assists were primaries.
• I'll take Ovies goal to Crosbaby's two assists any day. And if Ovechkin isn't hurt for most of the 3rd period and all of OT, this game has a completely different take. You can't tell me that losing him didn't take some air out of the player's sails.
• Can't hang this one on Olie. Godzilla played well in relief basically pitching a shutout until the Jurcina "goal." He made some critical stops as the game was winding down to get the game into OT.
• Brashear vs. Laraque Round 2: Laraque - 0 points, 1 fight, -1 +/-, and 9:52 of ice time. Brashear - 1 goal, 1 fight, -1 +/-, 9:31 of ice time. Brashear wins this round easily. And that was a sweet goal.
• Brian Pothier is the new Jeff Schultz, 3 goals and 4 points in his last 5 games. We gotta start breaking other defensemen's thumbs.
• The Power Play was anemic. These guys gotta learn to shoot more (looking at you Nylander) and crash the net to get the garbage goals they got against Tampa.
• The PK looked great...until the very end.
• Laich has to win that face-off, Jurcina has to block that shot. If they do either, it's even strength, 2 minutes left and the Scum is in panic mode.
• Gordon or Backstrom (both with faceoff % over 50 last night) should have taken that critical face-off.
  
• I didn't see the Morrisonn penalty and no replay was shown. If it was legit, than shame on him for allowing the Whiners to get a shot at life. I wouldn't be surprised if the refs called a ticky-tacky penalty to give Crosby another shot. Uncle Gary works his magic again.
• A 2 goal lead is always better than a 1 goal lead. The Caps have only themselves to blame for sitting back in the 3rd period and not trying to lead the knockout blow.
  
• Evegeni Malkin was a better player than Cindy was last night. He got close to scoring on a number of chances. The fact that he doesn't get rewarded for that and the Crybaby does stinks.
• The above fact might be due to the fact that the Caps defense basically gave Cindy no running room all night.
• When Jurcina dropped the girl "on his wallet" (Joe B's words, not mine) I laughed. Hard. I want to see teams do this more often. It looks like Uncle Gary's been spreading it around the league not to hit the golden child. Other teams take a lot of liberties at Ovechkin, why not bury the Kid into the ice. Well...it might be because Crosby never hits anyone whereas Ovechkin plays with more intensity.
• Could someone please tell Ovechkin if he's gonna pass to anyone, don't make it Viktor Kozlov. The guy hasn't scored a goal this decade it seems (actually it's 3 on the year, and 19 assists, but a lot of those are of the BS Crosby variety).
• That said, sit Kozlov. It helped Pothier regain what he once had in Ottawa. Maybe Kozy sitting a few games will have the same affect. And recall Laing again. That guy played with such heart and intensity, he deserves to be a regular or at least semi-regular.
• A lot of people are down on Fleischmann, but his fore checking was pretty good last game. That said, he only had 1 shot last game and has only recorded 1 point in the previous 5 games. He could also get some benefit from getting a night in the press box.
• Having Gonchar score the game winner is adding insult to insult. Having Crosby get the only assist, just makes me physically sick.
• Since Ovechkin has entered the league, we are 1-7-2 against the Scum. Does that make anyone else want to vomit?
  
• If we had this same result against any other team, we got a point and couldn't seal the deal. Since it's against the Crosbette's it just sucks because now the rivalry is under scrutiny and we have to deal with obnoxious Pens fans (who don't have that much to jeer about considering they're a full 7 *gasp* points ahead of us in 8th place).

Bottom line: my dad said last night "at least they got a point." True, but 2 points is always better than 1. The opportunity to leapfrog the 'Ning out of the basement in the East and get closer to the 8th place cut-off (we'd have been 4 points behind $#!ttsburgh rather than 7 behind Barfallo if we'd have won this game in regulation) was there and we didn't get it. Ottawa is ahead and it's another "gotta win" game. There are some games that mean more to players and some which mean more to fans. This was one that fits both bills and its stinks to let a team as hated as this one off the hook.

Prognosis: Negative
Game MVP: Niklas Backstrom (2 assists)

December 6 Word of the Day

Expectations

Tomorrow night will be the first real time that Capitals fans will get to see Bruce Boudreau's fabled "system" which won him a Calder Cup in Hershey two years ago. Boudreau has been very hush-hush about this new system, holding as many details about his system in and being as vague as possible to prevent other coaches from preparing against him (no Bill Belichick in the NHL eh?). So tomorrow night will be Boudreau's first real crack at making a stance in the NHL.

Now Capitals fans have been thrilled with the 3-2-1 start Boudreau has had (set in comparison to the 5-9-1 start) but he hasn't really had a chance to implement his system in the players. They've still been doing what former coach Glen Hanlon taught them (dump the puck, pray you get it, hit no one). Boudreau is said to have a more aggressive style, which is something Caps fans have been longing for a while. And the team has certainly been playing more aggressively and better under Boudreau than Hanlon, but there's no reason to be too optimistic.

Now, Boudreau has had some success in hockey previously to be sure. I mean he made the Calder Cup finals twice and won once in the last two years (a bit like winning the Arena Football Championship) so his resume is solid. But the problem is that Boudreau is the third consecutive coach to make his NHL head coaching debut in Washington (1 winning season in 5 years, notice the trend?). Now everyone had these same sorts of expectations when Bruce Cassidy took the reigns in Washington. And for a while we were enthralled with him as the bench-box. I mean, he was named one of DC's most handsome men (that gorgeous hair...those dreamy eyes...). But then the team started winning, Cassidy started riding the vets, and pretty soon we wanted him gone (the way his voice peakes when he insults the player's families...).

And then we had the same sorts of expectations for Glen Hanlon. I mean, after Cassidy, we were willing to take ANYONE (Randy Carlyle?). And we gave ol' Hugs a pass for a few years because we were rebuilding, we didn't have anyone on our team who could compete in the NHL (not named Alex). Finally, he answered the question that the ESPN pundits had been asking: what will he do with a team that on paper is legit? (The answer: nothing). So Hanlon was gone.
So Capitals fans before you all start nominating ol' Gabby for the Jack Adams award, remember it is early in his reign, he's getting his feet wet, and this team could regress to where they were in November. So don't raise those expectations...