Washington can't be a hockey town?

I beg to differ. The Verizon Center rocked last night for the Washington Capitals in a way it never has for this hockey team. My throat feels raw after screaming like the rest of the crazy fans, wearing a sea of red clothing, for this sellout hockey game that the Caps had to win. They beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1, to tie them in points for the season at the top of the SE division.

The intensity of this game from opening faceoff to the end had my nerves on edge until Alexander Semin scored the 3rd goal of the game, assisted by Sergei Fedorov and Mike Green, at 14:28 in the second period. I calmed down slightly after that goal. It seemed like every Cap played well last night. Matt Cooke started the scoring in the 1st on a beautiful play setup by Fedorov and Green. Brooks Laich netted his 21st on a power play goal with Tomas Fleischman and Viktor Kozlov assisting. And, Alex Oveckin scored number 63 on a beautiful blind spin around rocket shot past Cam Ward. The chants of "M-V-P" rained down on the ice after that goal.

It wasn't just the scoring. This team passed well, played great defense (Tom Poti, John Erskine, and Jeff Schulz stood out to me) and played a great forechecking game. Everyone was making hits. That's what this team has to do.

Oh, and let's not forget the net minding. Cristobal Huet was, once again, spectacular in net, making difficult saves when necessary.

There are no guarantee for the playoffs here as Carolina has to stumble and the Caps have
to beat Florida and Tampa Bay or Philly or Boston has to stumble in the overall Eastern conference race. But for one night, Washington was a happy, happy hockey town! And, the future looks bright indeed.

And, the bad news from last night is that blue liner Shaone Morrison left with an upper body injury. Let's hope Mo is okay, but there are no updates on Tarek's blog.

Tomorrow night...the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Let's go Caps!

P.S. Thank you to Ted Leonsis for his holiday present to partial season ticket plan holders, tickets to a lower level game. That's where I was with my other half Jeff last night.