A Satisfying Win Against Dallas

I turned on the game and the Caps were up 4-1 against Dallas on Thursday night. I couldn't believe it. In typical superstitious fan mode, I'm beginning to wonder whether I should ever watch the 1st and 2nd periods if the Caps are going to keep scoring 4 goals. They came out hard against a tired Dallas team that had played 3 games in 4 nights on the road. The Caps took advantage of that situation and got goals from Semin, Clark, Pettinger & Zednik so they spread the offense around again which is great. I'm glad to see Zednik continues to pick up his game.

But, in the 3rd period, the Caps played "protect the lead, conservative hockey" and the lead dwindled to 4-3. Boyd Gordon continues to play well on special teams and won some key faceoffs late in the 3rd to help the Caps win the game. "Protect the lead" hockey reminds me of "prevent defense" in football and I hate them both. I can remember the Redskins blowing leads with prevent defense.

Ovie had some stick trouble last night and missed another penalty shot opportunity. Is he getting mental about shootouts and penalty shots or did the stick problems contribute? It'll come back to him, I'm sure. Speaking of Ovie, he started an online space to interact with fans more. He says on the site that he's hoping to improve his English.

The worst part of the game was Jamie Heward getting slashed in the face by Mike Modano's skate. It came up high and Jamie couldn't stop in time. The picture is enough to make you nauseous. If you haven't seen it and want to, it's here at the Washington Post. The good news, also found in the article, is that Jamie is doing better than expected and there wasn't any muscle or nerve damage. Glad to hear it Jamie and here's to a speedy recovery. We want you back out on the ice, but please try the visor. Heward doesn't know whether or not he can get used to wearing a visor.

The Caps continue playing against a tough team, Buffalo tonight. They have 42 points compared to the Caps 26. I don't have high expectations for this game, but I'd like to see the Caps come out hard and skate well and if possible play 60 minutes of sound hockey. I'm tired of having heart attacks in the 3rd period when the Caps start blowing a lead.

Let's go Caps!