Ovie's Hat Trick Lifts Caps Over Atlanta

The Caps needed this game badly after that disgusting loss to Pittsburgh and Ovie won it for them. He's such a competitor and in games like last night against the Thrashers he shows it by tying the game with 31 seconds remaining in regulation, stealing the puck off the faceoff from the defenseman and blasting the puck past Lehtonen to win the game 6 seconds into overtime. Wow. I'm happy the Caps proved they can beat Lehtonen - this was the first time - since they have to play Atlanta 8 times a year.

Onto stats trivia - from the fan boards - the player who stands 4th on the 10-shot game list in his 2nd season is Alex Ovechkin behind only a Caps favorite, Peter Bondra, and also Jaromir Jagr (a Caps disaster) and Paul Kariya. Interesting. From the announcers last night - in his approximately 18-months of playing in the NHL, no one has scored more goals that Ovie.

My only concern about last night game is that t he overall offense - other than Ovie - seemed to be very lackluster. But, that small concern aside (it was only 1 game), I can't tell you how happy the standings made me this morning. The Caps are in 2nd place in the Southeast for today. Yeah.

The Flyers head to Verizon Center tonight. I'll be cruising around the Potomac tasting wine but I'm hoping for 2 more standings points.

Let's go Caps!