I get it, but....

Yes, the Caps are tied for first place in the Eastern conference, even without Alex Ovechkin on the ice.  And, yes, the Caps are tied for second place in the league.  So, Ted Leonsis keeps imploring the fans to 'enjoy the game' and 'relax'.  I've been a Caps fan since 1974 and I'm not in the mood to relax anymore about this town's lack of a Stanley Cup. Not when the Caps have the most spectacular player in the NHL on their team.  Sorry Ted.

I interrupt this rant to congratulate Chris Clark on his game winning goal against the injury and flu depleted New York Islanders in the 11th round of the shootout.  I like Clarkie a lot and he's struggled since all of his injuries, so I'm happy he got the GWG.  I also give Semin kudos for the spectacular game he played tonight.  His shot was on fire as he had 11 shots, 2 goals and a goal in the shootout.  Finally, I'll congratulate first star, Semyon Varlamov, for his spectacular play in net, particularly, during the shootout.  His athleticism was on display with his goal stopping splits.  Varly came off the bench to replace Jose Theodore after he let in 3 goals on 5 shots. 

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming, I mean rant.  The Caps have proven they can win the Southeast Division in the regular season.  But, who cares?  First of all, the Caps play in the weakest division in the league.  Second of all, it's only the second season in hockey that counts.  Winning the division doesn't matter in the playoffs. The score sheet starts out blank and 16 wins later through a grueling slog of gritty defensively minded hockey, some team out of 30 hoists the best trophy in the world, the Stanley Cup. 

The Caps playoff history in the Ovie era is not impressive -- 1 playoff series win in 3 played and that win came on a goal by a determined Sergei Fedorov against the New York Rangers.  Ovie himself, however, played tremendous hockey in the playoffs last year generating 11 goals, 10 assists in 14 games and playing +10 hockey.  You can't ask for much more from the Caps superstar.  I can ask a lot more from the rest of the team during the playoffs.

So, what bothers me about how the Caps are playing right now:

• The constant playing down to the level of competition (this started last season) and the inability to put inferior competition away in games.  Championship teams do this.
• The lack of defense, at times, from both the forwards and the defense.  The forwards need to back check and the defense needs to step it up.
• The stupid stick handling penalties at inopportune times.  Alexander Semin can't seem to stop himself from committing untimely infractions.  This is simply inexcusable.  He's not the only one, but I'll pick on him for now.  

Okay, end of rant for the moment.  I still enjoy the game immensely and I'm thrilled the Caps have as many points as they do.  I just want the Caps to win the Stanley Cup in my lifetime and while Alex Ovechkin is a Cap.  So, I'll end on a positive note.  

What I like about the Caps playing without Ovie - the fact that scoring is coming in bunches and from a lot of different people.  Let's keep that up Caps when Ovie comes back.

The Caps play the Minnesota Wild on Friday before heading on a road trip.

Let's go Caps!

Caps win a sloppy 7-4 game against Lightning

The Caps played a sloppy game last night and came away with 2 points against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Brent Johnson, in net for the Caps, probably wishes he had 1 or 2 of those goals back and I can guarantee you that Mike Smith, the Lightning's goalie, wishes he had several of the Caps goals back, particularly, the one where he was out of the net and Boyd Gordon took advantage of the puck that landed on his stick right in front of the empty net.

The highlights:

• The Caps got seven goals from seven different players.  That's some nice secondary scoring by the 3rd and 4th line players and the defense.
• Sean Collins played a stint in the ECHL last year and last night he potted his first NHL goal on a pass from Alex Ovechkin.  It dribbled past Mike Smith.
• David Steckel got the 2nd goal of the first period off a beautiful pass from Matt Bradley.  The puck landed perfectly on his stick and he shoved into the net.  Bradley was awarded the first star of the game for an overall inspired performance.  Brads scored the 4th goal in the second period.
• Boyd Gordon is playing great hockey.  His between the legs pass back to Bradley made the 4th goal happen.  And, he also quickly capitalized on Mike Smith's mistake to get the 5th goal of the game in the 3rd period.
• Chris Clark appears to be back in good form. He's such an agitator out there and he finally scored for the first time since November 2007.  Clarkie got the 2nd star of the game.
• Mike Green, in addition to, getting his 9th goal of the season from a perfectly placed pass by Ovie, played good defense last night.  He played +2 hockey although he did have 5 giveaways.  Ouch.  Regardless, he stopped a Steve Stamkos goal and twice made great plays knocking pucks off Lightning sticks on players streaking towards Johnson.  The second time was against Adam Hall and the refs awarded him a penalty shot on a bogus call.  Luckily, Johnson made the save.
• Alex Ovechkin got the 7th goal of the game by using Steve Eminger as a screen.  He had two assists and one goal for the night.

The lowlights:

• Alex Ovechkin's hit on Jamie Heward had him out motionless on the ice for several minutes.  Apparently, Heward has a concussion and is going to be okay.  I like Heward. After viewing the hit several times, it appears to be an unfortunate accident where Jamie was in an awkward position with his head down when Ovie hit him.  Of course, there are hockey fans all over the place looking for Ovie to be suspended, but I hope that doesn't happen.  The Lightning didn't retaliate against Ovie so they didn't think that hit was that bad either.  
• After going up 3-0 in the first, the Caps, once again, played a bad second period. The Lightning scored 2 goals within the first 2:37 of the second period.  On the second one, Michael Nylander spun around and lost the puck.  Ryan Malone capitalized on that one.  
• Apparently, Brent Johnson thought icing was being called and Sean Collins let up on the play that ended with Vincent LeCavalier getting the 3rd Lightning goal from Vaclav Propsal to end the second period at 4-3.  
• The Caps still need to play with intensity for 60 minutes, but I'm happy with the two points and the 10 wins in 11 games.

The New York Rangers visit the phone booth tomorrow night and I'm looking forward to going to that game. They'll be ready for revenge after the Caps beat them 5-4 at Madison Square Garden. Caps are 4 points ahead of the Rangers in the Eastern conference.  Let's make it 6 points.

Let's go Caps!

Thank you Clarkie!

In my "the good, bad and ugly" post, I mentioned that many people have wondered, where has Chris Clark been this year? Well, after shuffling the lines on Wed in the game against Tampa Bay, Chris ended up back on the top line with Ovie and scored two goals. We like that. We like it even more when the Caps win 5-3. Dave Stekel recorded his first NHL goal, Brooks Laich netted a goal and Ovie hit an empty netter when the Caps were protecting a one goal lead.

The power play still sucked big time, going 0-4 and dropping its effectiveness to 4 for 39 or 10% for this season. Teams do not go to the playoffs in this NHL without scoring on the power play so the Caps need to figure out the power play problem and soon!

Tonight, dreaded net minder Roberto Luongo and Vancouver come into town tonight. Luongo has the Caps number (he has my team's number in EA hockey so I can relate LOL), plus the Sedin twins are playing great hockey for Vancouver so the Caps defense will also have their hands full. But, hey Brian Pothier is a +5 for this year (yes, you read that right) so we'll see how the blue liners fare against the Sedin twins.

Let's go Caps!