A Wild Game Against Buffalo

The Caps won 7-4 against one of the top teams in the NHL this season, the Buffalo Sabres. The Caps got goals from Pettinger (2 for him), Clark, Clymer, Muir, Erskine and a beautiful goal by Ovie as he stole the puck from Afinogenov and used his speed to fly down and beat Ryan Miller with a shot over the goaltender's glove.

Buffalo replaced their goalie Ryan Miller with Martin Biron in the first period. Dallas did the same thing in the prior game, sitting goalie Mike Smith for Marty Turco. That doesn't happen to the Caps often. Are these teams thinking these will be easy wins against the Caps?

In the 2nd period of the Buffalo game, Ovie got ejected for a late hit on Briere as he was trying to get off the ice which started fights all over the ice and major penalties for both teams. The hit sent him crashing into the boards head first. Many people - sports writers, Buffalo Coach Lindy Rough, players etc were calling for Ovie to be suspended for the dirty play. I understand that the NHL can't allow dirty hits to happen, but I think intent plays into it, too, and Ovie has never been a dirty player even though he made a bad mistake on this one. Briere returned to play on the next shift so he's wasn't injured. As of today, the league is fining him $1,000 and he doesn't face suspension so I hope this issue is over. But, I totally agree with Rough when he says that if Ovie were the one hit, the Caps organization and fans would be accept. He's right and I see his point. I have no doubt that Ovie has learned his lesson.

In other Caps news, defenseman Jamie Heward suffered a setback during his surgery to fix his face after being slashed by Mike Modano's skate. There was apparently some cartilage and nerve damage that caused a 45-minute operation to take 5-hours. Best wishes to Jamie for a speedy recovery.

The Caps turn their focus to Ottawa coming to town tomorrow.

Let's go Caps!