The joy and agony of watching the Washington Capitals

The joy is watching a sublime 4 goal performance by Alex Ovechkin against the Tampa Bay Lighting. He started scoring when the Caps were down by 3 goals and finished by tying the game at 19:27 in the 3rd period after Ondrej Palat scored the go ahead goal for the Lightning at 8:36 in the 3rd.  Ovie forced the game to overtime and the Caps won in the shootout. There are games when Ovie carries the Caps on his back and this was one of them, supported by his center, Nicklas Backstrom, who netted 5-points of his own.

Ovie overcame Mike Green's 18-minutes of penalties in the 1st period, ending with his 10-minute misconduct. I was happy to see Green leave the ice. He looked lazy and inept during that period and has been playing poorly most of the season, as noted in my post a couple of weeks ago. Why Coach Adam Oates doesn't cut his playing time is beyond me.

Read more at thefarmclub.net.

Let's go Caps!

Where did Mike Green go?

At age 28, in the 'prime' of his career, Mike Green is not playing good hockey this season. The two-time Norris trophy finalist struggles defensively, at the worst times, and isn't producing offensively like in seasons past. Green played well last season with 26 points in 39 games for a 0.75 point-per-game pace. His regression from last season, also under Coach Oates, is perplexing. It's also going to hurt the Caps.

Read more at thefarmclub.net.

The Caps sucked tonight in a disgusting 4-1 loss against Carolina.  Get it together Caps.

Next up, the Predators.

Let's go Caps!

Stay patient Caps

One of the more interesting things I've observed while watching the Caps play this series against the Rangers is their calmness and patience in playing their game. It's unusual watching the Caps take their game to their opponent.  That is not Caps hockey.  It is Adam Oates hockey.

Yes, they lost last night 4-3, but their play in the playoffs this year is vastly improved over the last several seasons and that's encouraging.  Last night, they looked a little "loose" as goalie Braden Holtby described their practice.  I'm not happy to hear that.  They made mental mistakes, like a too many men on the ice penalty that was eerily familiar to how the Rangers started the first game of the series and went on to lose that game.  The Caps strayed from their patient, confident game in the first series game on the road.

But, they also fought back and tried to get that last goal to tie the game in regulation.  The Caps, with Alex Ovechkin leading the charge, put pressure on the Rangers and threw pucks at the net.  Nicklas Backstrom missed the net, on a shot he'd like to do over, with about 30 seconds left in the game.

They only lost by one goal after killing penalties for 12:00 of the first 26:32 minutes.  Tough for any team to get the flow back to their game, after that, so I'm glad they kept pushing.

Regardless, much to like and, at least, two more games to watch in this series.

Some role players I've enjoyed watching:

• Steve Oleksy, the journeyman blue liner, makes things happen.  His great outlet pass to Marcus Johansson to get the 2nd goal in the first game.  He took a puck to the face and came back and played.  He started game 2 with 7 hits.  I liked watching him hound Rick Nash in game 3.
• Eric Fehr giving great hits and rubbing a guy out of the crease on what would have been a goal in game 1.  Protecting the puck under on him after blocking the shot on the PK in game 2.
• Jay Beagle busts his rear end every time he's on the ice.

And, of course, it's delightful to see the return of Game Over Green.  That was fun watching Mike Ribeiro make the Rangers shot blockers look silly by faking his shot and then passing the puck to Mike Green for the GWG.

One thing that still annoys me is the lack of shooting, at times.  This team can beat Henrik Lundqvist, but they can't shoot from the perimeter to do it.  King Henrik doesn't let those goals in his net.  The Caps stop putting pucks on net against him, at times, and that's not going to win the series.  The Swedes - Backstrom and Johansson - need to shoot more.  They both missed on perfect setup passes from Ovie  Mike Ribeiro falls prey to this, too.

Please, shoot the puck Caps.  As Gretsky would tell you, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

On to game 4.  Don't know how I feel about this one.  The Caps need to win it.  Don't get me wrong, I still don't have any expectations for the Caps this season, but I feel like they can win this series if they want it.  That's always the key.

Let's go Caps!

Taking a break with the Nats

Instead of watching the Caps eke out a 3-2 win over the Rangers to even up their playoff series 2-2, I visited Nationals Park and watched the Nats beat up on the Phillies 7-1 today.  How sweet it is when Philly fans feel pain when they're invading the home team's park.  They weren't the majority of fans, but there were still a lot of them.  Watching the former Philly, Jayson Werth, hit a three run homer to put the Nats ahead for good and inject further pain into Phillies fans made the day enjoyable.  A Caps win cemented that.

A friend of mine, Susan, was also at the Nats game.  We were texting during the game and I texted that watching the Nats was so relaxing versus watching the Caps.  After the game, we met up and she told me she had to turn off the Nats game last night because she couldn't stand the pressure.  That's how I am about the Caps, but not about the Nats...yet.

Of course, I checked in on the Caps game during the baseball game.  With two minutes left in the hockey game and the Caps up by one, I started hitting refresh on my phone over and over.  Then, my phone jumps to a different screen and I'm going nuts.  Meanwhile the guy in front of me turned around and said, "hey, the Caps won" because it was being shown on the screen at the stadium.  I felt like a complete idiot.  I was so buried in my device, I missed that.  Pathetic.

But, nice touch for the Nats to show quick highlights of the Caps game, including Mike Green's GWG.  It's been a while Mike.  Glad to see you can still score.

The Caps evened up their series against the Rangers and the Nats are still in first place in the NL East.  I couldn't ask for more on a Saturday in May.

Let's go Caps!

The role of luck in winning

Hockey fans, players, coaches, and anyone involved in the game are typically very superstitious because luck is a part of sports.  In fact, my boss happened to mention to me that he watched the Caps lose recently and worried that his bad luck as a fan of the Wizards was transferring to the Caps. I promptly told him he couldn't watch any more games live and the Caps have won every game since.  See, it's true.

Good luck plays a part in any team that slogs its way through an 82 game season, followed by an even more intense second season, and a final win to hoist the Stanley Cup.  The Caps got a little bit of luck on Saturday night by ekeing out a win against the rebuilding New York Islanders, even when no one named Alex scored.  The Caps still gave the Isles a standings point by not putting the game away in regulation.  They played a bad game so they were lucky.

The power play went 0-4 again.  The Caps lost 70% (yes, you read that right) of their faceoffs which is downright miserable.  Alex Ovechkin was held without a goal for the second game in a row. Caps were lackluster and slow and didn't looked like they cared that they were playing a hockey game.

But, the Caps did have heroes.  Brooks Laich and Mike Green, 1st and 3rd stars, respectively, won the game with Green's goal coming in the 3rd period to tie it up and Laich netting the overtime game winner one minute into the extra period.  I'll also throw in Jose Theodore as the other hero, as he's playing well in net and keeping the Caps in it, at times.

I hope the Caps bring their A game to the Philadelphia Flyers tomorrow night. The Flyers play them tough.

Let's go Caps! 

Caps stink it up, lose 1-0 to Rags and go down 0-2

I attended my first Caps game as a child in 1974 and have been sucker punched by them every year since then.  They've found every imaginable way to lose in the playoffs over the years or not make it, at all.  This game, the 2nd home ice game in the best of seven series against the New York Rangers was imperative for the Caps to win.  Instead, they put in a lackluster effort and are now down two games heading back to Madison Square Garden.   

The game was a disaster starting with the performance of Alex Ovechkin and including Mike Green, Viktor Kozlov, Alexander Semin, Michael Nylander, Sergei Fedorov, Tom Poti, Eric Fehr, Tomas Fleischmann.   The players on this team who showed up to play include Matt Bradley, David Steckel, Nicklas Backstrom and the rookie net minder Simeon Varlamov. Varlamov didn't make the only stop he needed to, but that was a 2 on 1 breakaway in his first NHL playoff game after only playing 6 regular season games. I'll give him a break on that one.  He was pretty composed for the most part and he had every right to be nervous.

Observations:

• Coach Boudreau needs to change it up.  The lines aren't working and they're not getting past Henrik Lundqvist's body in net.
• Ovie needs to stop playing like he can do it all himself.  He can't and he needs to work better with his teammates.  His 5 giveaways were 2nd only to Mike Green.
• Mike Green played horribly with 7 giveaways, 1 penalty, minus 1 hockey in only 23:44 of ice time compared to 30+ the first game.
• Surprisingly, the penalty killing unit played really well, killing off all 5 of the Ranger opportunities.
  
• The checking line played aggressively and I always noticed Matt Bradley and David Steckel for good reasons.
• Nicklas Backstrom continues to impress me in the playoffs and it's amazing how much he flies under the radar screen in the NHL. He's one helluva a hockey player and he's getting impossible to get off the puck even in the grittier environment of the playoffs.
• Henrik Lundqvist is an elite net minder and is playing the part, but the Caps need to create traffic in front of the net to get scoring.  The coach, writers and players have been saying this all season long and, yet, the Caps still don't do it because they do not have the players that are willing to do that except for Brooks Laich.  They will be playing golf in April again if they don't start doing it.
• GM George McPhee hasn't won a playoff series in 10 years with the teams he built and it's not looking good this year either.  
• The Caps are playing worse than last year in the playoffs, so far, and that's the part that is downright depressing. 

The series heads to New York on Monday.  I'm hoping to see a different team show up, like the one that gave the Boston Bruins fits this season.

Let's go Caps!

A visit to Florida nets Caps 4 points & Green into history books

What a satisfying weekend if you're a Caps fan.  Mike Green broke an NHL record by scoring in 8 games in a row in front of his father on dads weekend, a feat not accomplished since 1984 by the Boston Bruins Mike O'Connell. Oh, and the Caps won 5-1 over the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

Michal Neuvirth started in net for the Caps, the 8th player to debut for the team this season and got his first NHL win. His glove hand is something to behold.  Neuvirth stonewalled Vinnie Lecavalier with that glove and he used it often during his first NHL win.  In fact, he would have had a shutout if Caps new blue liner Staffan Kronwall hadn't been credited with putting the puck into his own net.  Oh, well, every win can't be perfect as much as Caps fans wish it so.  It was two points on the road with Neurvirth letting in 1 shot out of 32 and garnering the 3rd star of the game. Wow, nice to see the Caps have two good goalie prospects.

The Caps traveled to the Florida Panthers for a 5:00 start today less than 24 hours after that 7:30 start against Tampa Bay.  It was an U-G-L-Y game, the Caps spent 16 minutes in the penalty box, but it was a game that made Caps fans happy because Alex Ovechkin is a Capital. Not only did he score the game winner on a shot that I still can't believe went past Tomas Vokoun by using a defender as his screen again, but he ended up with a hat trick on an empty netter by clearing the puck out of the defensive zone in the last 21 seconds of the game.

Have I mentioned how much I love Alex Ovechkin?  I've been watching the Washington Capitals since 1974 and it's never been nearly as entertaining as the Ovie years.  He's the league leader in game winning goals because the guy wants nothing more than to win hockey games. Wow, just wow. He's unreal and I marvel at the fact that I get to watch him play night after night.

The other person from today's game that deserves mention is Jose Theodore, 3rd star of the game.  I've been one of his most vocal critics, but he's played great in net lately and it's been quite a while since I've complained about him.  

Bottom line....this Caps team is fun to watch. Do I think they're going to win a Stanley Cup this year?  No. Their defense is far too suspect for that (and if I have to eat those words, I'll do it gladly) but I'll be thrilled if they win a series or two in the playoffs.

The Caps have a rough stretch coming up with Montreal, Flyers, Penguins, Atlanta, Avalanche for a 5 game home stand (I'll be there on Friday for the Avs game) and at the Bruins right after that.

Let's go Caps!

Cap eke out a point against Rangers

That was a frustrating game to watch to say the least.  It was also a chippy game as both Donald Brashear and Matt Bradley threw down the gloves.  The Caps escaped with a point but the New York Rangers won 5-4 to prevent the Caps from sweeping the series.

2nd star went to Mike Green who is on an unbelievable goal scoring roll, tying the NHL defenseman record of scoring goals 7 games in a row.  He scored 2 goals in this game.  He first fired a bomb past Henrik Lundqvist on a pass from Alex Ovechkin.  The other two goals came from Tomas Fleischmann and Eric Fehr as they fed each other for goals in the 1st period. 

The Caps need to stay out the damn penalty box and Shaone Morrisonn that particularly applies to you.  He's had a double minor and a 5-minute major penalty in the past two games.  Why Karl Alzner and Milan Jurcina are sitting out the game tonight versus Morrisonn is beyond me.

Surprising stats:

• Ovie was credited with 13 hits.  Seriously?  I mean I saw him hitting a lot, but that stat stood out.
• Karl Alzner, David Steckel and Boyd Gordon played -3 hockey.
• Matt Bradley won a fight. 

It's a Florida weekend for the Caps starting with the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight and the team that is creeping up in points, the Florida Panthers.  I hope the Caps take these games seriously.

Let's go Caps!

An intense 5 minutes seals Caps 3-1 win over Florida

Shaone Morrisonn's 5 minute major left the Caps playing a 5-3 penalty kill for 1:05 following by the other 3:55 on a 5-4 to finish out the last 5:06 of the game.  To say that the Caps penalty kill has struggled would be an understatement. They've let in goals in 13 straight games on the penalty kill so this situation presented a challenge.

As the phone booth vibrated with cheering Caps fans who had just "unleash(ed) the fury", the penalty killers did their job.  David Steckel made a couple of the great clearing plays and Mike Green's 168 foot empty netter goal threw the crowd into a frenzy.  David Steckel was awarded the 2nd star of the game since he blocked 4 shots, got credited for 3 hits and won 64% of his faceoffs in addition to making the great clearing plays on the extended penalty kill.

Mike Green should have been awarded a star in my opinion.  He got the 2nd goal of the game off a beauty of a pass from Alex Ovechkin and his empty netter play at the end of the game sealed the victory for the Caps.  He's on a roll and leads all defense men in goals and points.

The bad part of the game...the first period.  The Caps looked awful and their passes were not hitting the market, at all, during that period.  But, the Caps needed that SE divisional win and they got it.  I'm glad since the Panthers give the Caps a fit all the time.

Caps head to New York to see the Rangers on Wednesday.

Let's go Caps!

Caps break Devils 8 game winning streak

The Caps took it to the New Jersey Devils tonight and got a 5-2 win on the road as a result. Improbably, Michael Nylander had 2 goals and got the first star of the night.  Nylander has had a tough year fitting into the Caps and Coach Boudreau's offensive system so it's nice to see him shoot the puck and get those goals.  The one totally fit the 'keep up the presence in front of the net and get the garbage goal' that the Caps need to do more often.  This one happened because of the rebound via Eric Fehr and Tomas Fleischmann. 

Mike Green got the 2nd star of the game for his 1 goal (a thing of beauty from Alexander Semin and Alex Ovechkin) and 1 assist in 24:54 of ice time.  He played -1 hockey and is still frequently a liability in his own end, but he's fun to watch.

Alex Ovechkin didn't score his 200th goal (hopefully, he'll do that at the phone booth), but he netted 2 assists.  The pass to Brooks Laich off his skate to let Brooksie get his garbage goal was a great play.

The Caps scared me during the first part of the 3rd period as they came out flat.  Nylander did get a goal for them to go up 4-2, but it was Eric Fehr's hard angle empty netter that sealed the deal.

The Caps play the LA Kings on Thursday night.

Let's go Caps! 

Yeah, baby, Caps beat Senators 5-1

So, that's what happens when the Caps are healthy.  They beat the Ottawa Senators 5-1.  They got Mike Green and Sergei Fedorov back tonight and it showed as those two got the 2nd and 3rd stars of the game.  Feds and Greenie both had 3 point nights.

In the weird news of the day, the Caps had to dress their website producer, Brett Leonhardt as the backup goalie after Jose Theodore got injured in practice.  He's played Division III hockey and sometimes fills in for the Caps at practice, but tonight he got his 15 minutes of fame. Simeon Varlamov rushed to the airport from Houston where the Bears were playing and got to the phone booth during the first period game to take his place on the bench.  I'd like to see Varlamov tomorrow, but I don't want to see him killed by the Habs either so my guess is Johnson will play.

Brent Johnson got the first star of the game, deservedly so, as he stopped 32 of 33 shots on Ottawa.  He looked terrific again.

The SOB line continued to dominate with Alexander Semin getting 1 goal, Alex Ovechkin getting two and Nicklas Backstrom getting 3 assists.  I like the SOB line.

Does anybody want to play this team healthy?  I doubt it.

They play the Habs tomorrow night.

Let's go Caps.

Caps hang on to beat Ducks 6-4

The Washington Capitals came out storming last night against the Anaheim Ducks and quickly went up 3-0 on two power play goals (Tomas Fleischmann on a redirect from Mike Green and Mike Green from Michael Nylander) and 1 even strength goal (Nicklas Backstrom from Viktor Kozlov) by 7:13 in the first period. The Caps power play has struggled terribly this season, but scoring on 3 of 8 last night raised their effectiveness to 19.5% and 12th in the league. The Caps ran out backup netminder Jonas Hiller after those 3 goals and faced Jean-Sebastian Giguere for the rest of the game.

Then, the Ducks scored the next two goals to make it 3-2 by the end of the first. Caps came back in the 2nd period early on another power play goal by Alex Ovechkin and added an even strength goal by Matt Bradley to end the 2nd.

Between the goals in the 2nd period, Donald Brashear and George Parros threw down the gloves and went at it. Parros, a 6'5 28-year old enforcer wrapped up Brash's left arm so he got in several good hits but Brashear came back and pounded Parros for a few.

David Steckel added to the Caps goal total about halfway through the 3rd to make it 6-2, but Anaheim didn't give up and scored 27 seconds after Steckel and added another one at the 12:00 mark. The Caps held on though and got the all important two points out of this brutal road trip where they play 4 games in 6 nights.

The highlights:

• Ovie had a 4 point night with 3 secondary assists on the first 3 goals and his power play goal in the 2nd.
• Backstrom's goal in the first came from a beautiful dodging around defenders pass by Viktor Kozlov. The top line of Ovie, Backie and Kozlov played well together last night. In fact, Ovie got the first star of the game and Kozlov the third.
• The Caps focused on getting the puck out of their zone and did it more effectively, particularly, in the first period, than I've seen in a while. In Coach Boudreau's pregame remarks to the press he emphasized that he wanted the Caps to keep the puck out of their zone during the first five minutes of the game. They did and went up 3-0. Gee, shocking...it really helps to win games when you spend less time in your defense zone!

The lowlights:

• Mike Green made the play that caused the Duck's first goal. Then, on a typical end-to-end rush by Green with his head down, he got slammed into the end boards by Chris Pronger and left the game with a shoulder injury. Don't know whether or not he'll play tonight, but the injury bug is getting serious for the Caps. It's made more difficult by not having any cap space to bring up guys from Herhsey to fill in. The Caps desperately need cap space which is probably why the Michael Nylander trade rumors are all over various hockey news sources.
• The defense and netminding, in general, is still a challenge for the Caps. Anytime a team lets in four goals it's not a good night in the defensive zone. I don't see why people continue to praise Jeff Schultz's development. He's young, and I get that he's still developing, but he drives me crazy right now. He was on the ice for 3 of the 4 Anaheim goals and, to be fair, so was Tom Poti. The shocking defensive stat of the night...Milan Jurcina wasn't on the ice for any of Anaheim's goal.
• Jose Theodore constantly makes me nervous in net. Granted, the defense struggles in front on him, but I'm just not impressed. A quarter of the way into the season and he has yet to establish himself as the #1 netminder for the Caps.

The Caps face the Los Angeles Kings tonight. The Kings are in 13th place in the West so this should be an easier game than last night's. But, it's the Caps and you can never take anything for granted with this team. Plus, I have no idea who is going to play on the blueline if Mike Green can't. Shaone Morrisonn may end up playing but that doesn't make me feel any better about the defense.

Let's go Caps!

An ugly start to a season with high expectations

I said in an earlier post that Jose Theodore was the big unknown going into this season for the Caps and I've never been a fan of his after watching him in Colorado.  Many Caps fans on the message boards wanted those of us who weren't optimistic to give him a chance.  Well, in his chance last night against the Atlanta Thrashers, Theodore got pulled after letting in 4 goals. Then, Brent Johnson looked strong for a short while until he let in 3 more goals that led to a 7-4 loss for the Capitals. Ladies & gentlemen, it's going to be a looooong season.

The good parts of the game - 

• Mike Green's two goals during a 4 minute power play. He had a 3 point night and looks good.
  
• Alexander Semin looked awesome, playing with some grit like he did in the playoffs, and getting 1 goal and 2 assists.

The bad parts of the game - goal tending, goal tending, goal tending and just about everything else.

Yes, I'm a seriously depressed Caps fan this morning and I can only hope they play better tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Let's go Cap!  

Caps persevere on another Ovie higlight goal

Alex Ovechkin netted his first playoff goal by stealing the puck from Lasse Kukkunen and turning around to fire the puck over Martin Biron for the game winning goal. Watching Kukkunen smash his stick on the ice in frustration made me smile. The Philadelphia Flyers wanted to force Ovie to play a physical game instead of scoring so he made 5 hits on them.

Mike Green played a spectacular game and my brother, Dennis, said he thought Green's second goal was reminiscent of that famous Bobby Orr goal. I told him that's not the first comparison to Bobby Orr I've heard about Mike Green. Having Shane Morrison back clearly helped Greenie. Or, maybe it's the new playoff mohawk. Sergei Fedorov made his first playoff point since 2003 setting up Greenie's first goal.

David Steckel looked great in his first game back from a broken finger. He scored the Cap's second goal in the beginning of the second period. He also broke up some Philly plays.

Donald Brashear, known more for his fists, started the scoring for the Caps on a bouncing puck off of Matt Bradley's stick. Brad's played a physical game, too, and made more than one Philly player pay, in addition, to getting two assists, his first playoff points.

Cristobal Huet, didn't have his best night, with 4 goals against, but hung in there for the win.

The phone booth continued to rock and as soon as Mike Green scored in the place went wild. For us long suffering Caps fan, it sure is nice to finally have a loud arena for our team.

The Caps played okay hockey in the first period, terrible hockey in the second period when Philly answered with 3 straight goals and then they got it together in the 3rd, scoring 3 straight goals. The Caps rarely come back from 3 goals back, but they did it last night.

This quote from Ovie in Tarik's Washington Post article says it all. "What I learned is we are a team who never give up," said Ovechkin, who looked completely drained as he sat in his locker stall answering questions. "It doesn't matter who scores, we just keep going."

Game 2 is tomorrow at 2:00.

Let's go Caps!

Caps Back in First after Beating the Rangers

So, I'm not devoting an entire blog entry to Friday night's ugly loss to the Carolina Hurricanes to knock the Caps out of first. Carolina wanted it more...enough said. But, hey, for today anyway the Cap are back on top. Beating the New York Rangers wasn't a pretty affair at the phone booth yesterday, but the Caps came away with 2 points and first place on a Mike Green overtime winner. More importantly, that was the 2nd power play goal during the 3-2 win. The Caps' power play has been hurting lately.

Olie got first star of the game and another win. I know, Olie's numbers are horrible this year, but he made some great saves yesterday and I'm glad he got first star. In fact, Coach Bourdreau credited Olie with the win on Tarek's blog.

And aside...if you read the comments on Tarek's blog, a comment from charmcitycapsfan to Tarek, "Does Semin fall a lot during practices, too?" Great question, what is up with that?

Suprisingly, the $124M man did not get a star yesterday even though he was involved in all 3 goals with 2 assists, as I was reminded by my other half, Jeff. Boyd Gordon, who tied it up off an Ovie pass with seconds left in the 2nd, got 2nd star of the game. Ovie, however, netted #47, 1 shy of his total last year and it's only February 11th. Hee, hee, hee. He's a Cap for a loooong time.

I'm not sure what was up with Shaone Morrison yesterday, but 3 penalties is ridiculous and unusual behavior.

I'm glad the Ranger's fans went home with a loss and Cap's fans were louder. The place looked pretty crowded.

The Caps got their two points and 1st place for the moment. Atlanta, in 2nd for the moment, is up next.

Let's go Caps!

First Place!

A nail biter for sure, but the Caps pull out a 4-3 win over the Flyers on the road to move into first place in the SE division and they did it by beating the Flyers...ahhh. From dead last in the NHL in November to first in early February (albeit, in a weak division), the Coach Boudreau era has arrived with a bang. There's a long way to go this season and in a division that is separated by 2 points among the top 4 teams, first place will probably change hands several times before April. Tonight though, I've got a smile on my face!

Alex Ovechkin mixed it up with James Vandermeer early in the game and ended up sitting for two minutes. Vandermeer knocked Ovie after the whistle and Ovie shoved him right back. You'd think teams would learn that when you piss off Ovie he does things like score 4 goals against you. He didn't score 4 against the Flyers, but he got his 8th game winning goal (and #in the 3rd off of his own rebound.

Caps got a beautiful goal from Brooks Laich in the 2nd period to start their offense and Matt Bradley and Viktor Kozlov both scored early in the 3rd. Mike Green had 2 assists and seemed to be everywhere. He picked up 1st star of the game and Bradley got the 3rd star. Olie also made some great saves. So, even though Philly fought back hard in the 3rd, the Caps edged out a win and moved into first place.

Great win, but I don't think I can't take too many of these games.

Caps play an important game on Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Let's go Caps!

Thank you Ted & GMGM...Ovie is here to stay

At the lowest point of this season in late November, I even thought Ovie deserved better than Washington, but Ted & GMGM finally made the necessary move firing Hanlon (and, yes, I like and respect him and am glad he's coming back to Washington as a scout) and now they've finally struck a 13-year, $124M contract, according to Tarik El Bashir's blog, contract with Alex the Great. I'm wowed by that...he's here until 2020-2021, just let that sink in. Ovie is the best player the Caps have ever had and he's only in his 3rd season. The best is yet to come (if he went from playing -19 to +6 hockey in the past year, anything's possible) and the fact that it will be here in Washington thrills me to no end. With Alex on the Cap's side, promising young stars, Mike Green and rookie, Nicklas Backstrom, and a new coach, Bruce Boudreau who has the hockey analysts wondering where's he been, the future looks bright in Washington.

I read about Ovie, before he even arrived in camp his rookie year, and then I saw him during one of the first preseason games. Like most fans, I couldn't believe this guy was a Capital. His amazing speed, great moves, hard shot, hits (a power hitting, goal scoring forward..what a combo) and sheer love and enthusiam for the game make him the most fun hockey player to watch that I've ever seen. So, thank you, too, Ovie for staying.

There was also a hockey game played last night between the Capitals and the Avs. Caps won the defensive slugfest 2-1. Much to my enjoyment at the game, two Avs fans were sitting in front of me. Since I've been subjected to Flyers and Buffalo fans when the Caps are getting their butts kicked, I admit, I enjoyed their annoyance at the Avs losing.

Hmmm...highlights from last night:

• Viktor Koslov actually played aggressive hockey. That was a change of pace.
• Olie had a good night and made some great saves.
• Sean Morrison made some spectular plays on defense last night, most definitely, saving one goal from being scored.
• Brooks Laich, one of the goal scorers and 1st star obviously continues to play good hockey this year.
• Steve Emminger, in back-to-back games for a long-time played well and was also aggressive.
• The Avs tied up Ovie pretty well all night.
• The game was a pretty boring defensive game but the third period got interesting and Verizon Center was pretty load, considering it was a Wed night game.
• The Caps got 2 points...most important.

Up next, the Flyers on Sunday.

Let's go Caps!

p.s. And thank you Caps management for the holiday ticket gift. I'm looking forward to seeing what may be an increasingly important April game in a lower level seat.

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!

I'm back on the ledge until further notice

Mike Vogel the Caps writer had a blog post the other day "Come in Off the Ledge" about fans ready to write off the Caps season after only 5 games. After last night's pathetic game against the New York Islanders, I'm staying on the ledge until the Caps prove to me that they want to play hockey this year.

The Caps played maybe 20-minutes of aggressive hockey last night against the Islanders and lost 5-2. Here's my wrap up.

The good:

• Ovie played with fire on both ends of the ice again. He deserves far better than this Caps team is giving him and it's clear to me he wants to win.
• Mike Green also showed me he wants to win hockey games. His spectacular end-to-end and aggressive playing is a huge improvement over last year and he's still a youngster. Either Laughlin or Koken mentioned Bobby Orr's name in reference to Green which shows how much he's improved.
• Niklas Backstrom, the 19-year old rookie, is showing his vision on the ice every night. His pass to Flash with an Islander on his back for the 2nd goal was impressive. He's going to be a very good hockey player.
• Matt Pettinger clearing the puck out of the zone on an Isles power play and then keeping the puck in their end on the boards with several Isles players fighting for the puck on top of him. He burned up 20-seconds on their power play.

Anyone notice that all "the goods" are from the younger players.

The bad:

• Olie had a lousy night, but I never question his motivation to win.

The ugly:

• Chris Clark, where are you, besides getting bad penalties at bad times?
• Caps power play is the most pathetic thing I've ever seen. Playing "dump the puck" and losing it isn't a winning strategy.
• Penalty kill was a strong point during the first three games, but not now.
• Motivation - the Caps don't look like they want to play or win. Hanlon & Clark, motivate this team.

The excuses - I'm tired of hearing this team will be better with Boyd Gordon and Alexander Semin. Of course they will, but if the Caps can't win a game without 2 of their players, they have no depth at all and the rebuild isn't over.

The Caps play the Pittsburgh Penguins tomorrow night. I'm not even sure if I can watch. Regardless...Let's go Caps!

The Misery Continues in Ottawa

The Caps lost 5-2 in Ottawa on Saturday night. They played better than their game against Florida, but it wasn't enough and the earlier season hopes for a playoff appearance this year are growing dimmer by the day. No one predicted the Caps would make the playoffs this year, but the team developed a reputation for being a hard working team that won some tough games and made other hockey teams pay attention. I'm using the past tense in the prior sentence for a reason...the hard work ethic seems to be fading of late and this team is nowhere near good enough to compete if they don't work hard.

The only good news from the Ottawa game was that Steve Eminger got a goal and an assist. I'll be thrilled if Eminger's game continues to improve and he finally demonstrates that he can play up to his potential as an NHL defenseman.

The worst news from the game...rookie defenseman Mike Green took a puck to the foot and left the game after playing a couple more shifts. I'm getting sick to death of Capital defensemen going out with foot injuries but I can only hope he's not out for long. The Caps defense is the worst part of their game as it is...although the offense needs to step it up, too and, of course I'm not talking about the Alex's...they're doing just fine.

In the hopes that the Caps may actually win a game if I don't watch, I will not watch the game tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Let's go Caps!