An Enjoyable New Year's Day but Injury Concerns

My anguish over the Caps, once again, losing to the Penguins (Olie is the only current Capital player that really understands that anguish) in a shootout is gone, replaced by the sheer joy of watching the Capitals beat the #1 team in the Eastern Confence, the Ottawa Senators, 3 times in a row. These last two were wild, shooting and scoring matches but they were fun, if you are a Caps fan. If you're a Senators fan, you are no doubt ready to kill anyone in a red, white and blue Capitals uniform. Read above, I understand.

In the 8-6 match, Ovie scored 4 goals (oh, yeah and that was after getting stiches for a cut on the thigh the night before). According to the Post's beat writer, Tarik El-Bashir, the Senators vowed to control Ovie on New Year's Day. Ottawa started that game by netting two goals right in a row. They bottled Ovie up, but Mike Green took over scoring 2 goals, Viktor Kozlov (where in the world have you been?) scored, Michael Nylander, Brooks Laich and Boyd Gordon also scored. Gordon, it's good to have you back. The Caps won 6-3. Mike Green, tied for 1st in defensemen scoring, continues to be a joy to watch. So does Nicklas Backstrom. I notice his vision on the ice even during training camp and he's becoming a good playmaker.

I don't know what Kool Aid, Coach Boudreau has the Capitals drinking, but I hope they keep drinking it. Injuries are killing the Caps. Tom Pothi isn't going to make the team trip to Boston and he's played monster minutes, 20+, for the Caps all year. He's sorely missed when he's not out there. Semin, apparently is okay, and will play in Boston.

And, thank you Caps for the upgrade to a lower level bowl ticket as a holiday gift for being a partial season ticket plan holder.

Let's go Caps!