A fun win after Friday night's debacle

Since the Caps beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in a satisfying 5-2 win this afternoon, I'm not going to dwell on that disastrous game against the Colorado Avalanche which I, unfortunately, attended on Friday night.  The best part of that game was hanging out with my other half's old hockey teammates.  It sounds like Coach Boudreau made the boys pay for that ugly game at practice yesterday, as he should have, so I'll let it go.

Today, however, was pure fun if you're a Caps fan since it was the Pittsburgh Penguins and the NHL's marketing star, Sydney Crosby, getting pushed around by the Caps.  The Caps chased Marc-Andre Fleury from the net after goals 4 and 5 went past him from Shaone Morrisonn and Brooks Laich not quite  midway through the 2nd period.  I have no idea how Brooksie got that sharp angle shot that squeezed between the post and arm of Fleury but it was pretty.

The Alex Ovechkin-Sydney Crosby show provided the drama to the game and my favorite moment after they jawed at each late in the 2nd was Ovie waiving good-bye to Sydney.  It was awesome.   Read more about it here courtesy of Slava Malamud from Soviet Express on Tarik's blog.  My favorite line, "What, I can't play hard against him?  What is he going to do, cry?" Ovie, we love you!

Other random thoughts:

• The Russians got the stars today, Ovie (2nd), Alexander Semin (3rd star and he played a great game and ended up with 1G and 1A, and Sergei Fedorov (1st star and 1G, 1A) who played his best game since coming back from his ankle injury.
• Jose Theodore got steadier as the game went on, but scared me to death earlier. I felt like he was pretty useless on the Sergei Gonchar goal but others said he never saw it.  I don't know, but Theo didn't even move on that shot.  After complimenting him over and over again recently, he went back to scaring me that he's in net.
• All of the Caps look far more disciplined than they did on Friday even though they took 9 penalties.  Some of the calls against the Caps were definitely questionable.
• Jeff Schultz was credited with 4 hits.  Wow, the world must be getting ready to end.
• David Steckel played his best game in a long time.  I noticed him in a good way, clearing the puck out on the penalty kill often as an example.  He played well way more than he frustrated me, which has happened often lately.
• The penalty killed played spectacularly killing off 8 of 9 penalties and spending a fair amount of time playing keep away and pursuing short-handed chances.
• Sydney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were held to 1 point, assists on Gonchar's goal. Nothing makes me happier. 

Thanks boys.  I enjoyed this one.

The Philadelphia Flyers visit the phone booth on Tuesday.  

Let's go Caps!