Three words

Let's go Caps!

THE CAPS DID NOT "WIN" THE EAST

Please excuse my yelling, but if I hear Ted, GMGM or Coach Boudreau talk about how the Caps won the East again I'm going to throw my remote through my TV.  Well, not really, since the Caps aren't worthy of causing me to have to buy a new TV.   GMGM apparently (and I say apparently because I didn't listen to his interview on NHL Live) once again, spouted the bullshit that the Caps won the East.  The Caps were the number one seed in the East going into the playoffs, they didn't win the East.  If they won the East, they would be playing in the Stanley Cup finals.  The Boston Bruins won the East and I saw them get the Prince of Wales trophy that comes with winning the East.  The Bruins should feel insulted every time someone from the Caps organization mentions that the Caps won the East.

The Caps should man up and learn how to play playoff hockey instead of pulling stupid non-existent accolades out of their ass.  They don't deserve kudos for anything.

The off season hasn't even begun and I'm already depressed about next season because the Caps won't come close to sniffing a Stanley Cup any time soon with this useless patting themselves on the back for winning nothing.  As I always caveat, I hope they prove me wrong because I want to be proven wrong...desperately.

Cardiac Caps outlast Boston for an OT win

The Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins are evenly matched teams.  Most of their games are close games and they frequently go to overtime, just like yesterday.  I'm tense watching because an untimely penalty or a giveaway to Marc Savard may mean the Caps lose But, they prevailed 4-3 although Boston also got a point.

The Caps had 1 penalty in the first period, none in the second period and then fell apart with three penalties in the third period with the score tied.  Not the time to start playing undisciplined hockey.  Boston, Zdeno Chara to be specific, scored on the last penalty.  You can't give this team too many man advantage opportunities.  The Caps were only in the penalty box 4 times last night which is great for them, but to have 3 of those come in the 3rd period is not good.  There were also a number of non-calls made by the refs which was an irritating part of watching the game.

I'm sure Boston net minder Tim Thomas wishes he had two goals back from the Caps because, on most days, I think Thomas would have had both of them.  The Caps third goal came courtesy of Tomas Fleischmann's goal off of Dennis Wideman's skate.  This happened to the Caps against Boston off of Milan Jurcina's skate.  The overtime game winner came courtesy of Alexander Semin's 80 foot puck toss.  Semin was hungry for scoring yesterday. You could see it in his face, at times.

Nicklas Backstrom's goal from Semin and Mike Green caught Thomas on the wrong side of the net.  Backstrom's on an 8 game scoring streak, his personal best a 9 game streak, happened earlier this season. He is one helluva of a hockey player and I think he flies way under the radar screen of the NHL.  Backstrom's game has developed significantly this season even though he started out slow.  He's a strong puck handler and is tough to get off the puck. He battles hard against the boards and wins more than he loses.  He's a consistent point scorer and his passes are beautiful.  His vision on the ice is spectacular, too.  His faceoffs are his weak point as evidenced by yesterday's 33% win percentage on 15 tries.  I have faith he'll improve there. He's +14 so he's defensively responsible although he has room for improvement there, too.  He is in his 2nd season so I can't wait to watch him become even better.

Jose Theodore made some spectacular saves and survived some serious flurries of activity in front of the net but should have saved the shot from Chara that forced the game to go into overtime.

The Florida Panthers come into town this afternoon.  Can I just say that I'm sick of having to be around to watch so many day games.  It makes it tough to get things done on the weekend.

Let's go Caps!

Caps beat Boston in a close 2-1 match

I'm watching the replay tonight instead of watching the game live as I was out to dinner with friends last night. I'm glad I had the opportunity to watch the replay so I could see why everyone thought John Erskine had a great game.  Erskine doesn't get a star very often and is usually the subject of intense invective from the fans on a frequent basis. Alexander Semin got the first star of the game with his beautiful game winning goal that shocked one of the league leading NHL net minders, Tim Thomas.

Random comments since I didn't see the original game:

• John Erskine clearing the crease! Yes, that is what the Caps need on defense.  Last season in the playoffs, the Flyers kept running Cristobal Huet and it was irritating.  I'm still not convinced Erskine is worth his new $1.5M contract, but damn he's looked good since he's been back from having a concussion.
• Alexander Semin's blast of a shot right past Thomas after making a couple of Boston defenders look silly was fun to watch.  Semin has some sick moves.
• Karl Alzner clearing the puck out of the zone on that final Erskine penalty kill helped the Caps out tremendously.
• Was Alex Ovechkin's hit on Dennis Wideman a kneeing?  I honestly can't tell after watching the replay?  The Boston announcers called it a hip check, but who knows.  Ovie's a big guy and when he throws that weight around at the speed he goes it's a tough cal

So, tomorrow Caps fans get treated to a 2:00 pm special against the New York Islanders on a day that is not a holiday for everyone including the other hockey fan that lives in my house. Yes, we're highly annoyed.  

Let's go Caps!

Caps beat top Eastern ranked Bruins 3-1

The Caps played a hard fought game against the Boston Bruins tonight and came out on top. They won it with the help of stellar goaltending from Brent Johnson.  It's nice when the Caps netminder steals a game for them versus me feeling like they won't win if Jose Theodore is in net.  Johnson was awarded the first star of the game and got a standing ovation at the phone booth in the 2nd for his acrobatics in denying Blake Wheeler's shot on goal. 

The highlights:

• Alexander Semin and Tom Poti returned to the ice to the joy of Caps fans and provided much needed help.
• The SOB line (Alexander Semin, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom), as it's affectionately known on the Caps message board, looked great together again.  They were credited with Ovie's empty netter to seal the game and Backstrom made the perfectly positioned tip in from Ovie's shot to beat Boston netminder Manny Fernadez on the first goal.
• The game within the game as Al Koken mentioned was Boston defender Zdeno Chara versus Alex Ovechkin.  The two apparently have loads of mutual respect for each other and they always battle hard when playing each other.  According to Koken, Chara switches sides to play against Ovie and tonight, at one point, Ovie switched sides with Semin to get away from Chara.  My favorite moment, the two of them wrestling and Ovie gets Chara down to the ice and makes a between the leg shot on goal while Chara scrambled to get back up.  Awesome to watch.
• Alexandre Giroux, 2nd star of the game, netted his first NHL goal of the season, the game winner.  It was a nice play set up by Michael Nylander who then passed to Tom Poti who tossed it to Viktor Kozlov who sent it to Giroux.  Giroux missed a penalty shot (I'm not really sure why the referees called a penalty shot was called, but whatever).  He played a good game and has a good shot.
• Tom Poti nettled Marc Savard trash talking with him all night.  It was so nice having him back.
• Karl Alzner continued playing strong with Milan Jurcina who came up with a monster hit on Philip Kessel which may have saved a wraparound goal.  Sean Collins also playing with a lot of heart, like he wants to stay in D.C.  He did have an untimely hooking call in the 3rd period, but he also laid his body out in front of David Krecji's shot on goal.
• For fans who question what Boyd Gordon brings to the Caps, it's his very effective play as a defensive forward which he showcased against Boston.  He stopped a goal in the 2nd and turned around and blasted one on net.  Okay, it didn't go in, but all in all, I saw him in the right places at the right times a lot.

The lowlights:

• With less than one minute in the second period, Tyler Sloan muffed the puck, Tom Poti didn't cover Milan Lucic on the ensuing 2 on 1 and the Bruins scored.  Ugh.  Sloan had a rough night.  The Caps were slacking off a bit in the second and it showed with that goal right.
• That is all...

Oskar Osala, the much touted Hershey Bear winger and rookie of the year in the Finnish Elite League last year made his NHL debut.  He looked nervous in the first period, but played pretty well in the second period.  I hope to see him again.

Caps play the Ottawa Senators on Friday.

Let's go Caps!

1 Point Against Boston

The Caps played a decent game against Boston but should have put it away. Laich & Fehr scored for the Caps and Semin got a shootout goal, but 2 Bruins scored on Olie so that was the end of that game. Fehr is playing good hockey and I hope that continues unlike other players that come up from Hershey to play and can' t keep it going for more than a few games.

Ovie went scoreless 3 games in a row for the 1st time in his NHL career. In the Boston game, the beast blue liner Chara shadowed Ovie all game and did a great job (as much as I hate to say that) limiting Ovie to 2 shots on goal. I'm worried that Ovie is feeling frustrated with his performance and the Caps performance and I can only hope he's not putting too much pressure on himself since it's pretty obvious the Caps aren't going to the playoffs this year. According to Tarik from the Washington Post article today, Ovie was joking around at practice yesterday so I hope that attitude stays and, of course, I'd like to see him score some goals against the LA Kings tonight.

In that same Post article, Tarik said that Pothier, Erskine and Muir have started skating with the team. That's the best Caps news I've heard in weeks although it's probably too late for this season.

Faceoff in less than 30-minutes.

Let's go Caps!