Wednesday Roundup

You can give me back my belts and shoelaces now.

Nearly 36 hours have passed since Monday night's collapse (the Caps', not mine) and despite Dave Fay's cryptically dire (or was it direly cryptic?) proclamation that "[s]ome club officials are hoping it was just a game that was lost and not a lot more[,]" the sun has risen both mornings and the Caps still, so far as I can tell, intend to play the rest of the games that remain on their schedule. And I think we may have set a personal record for comments-to-posted-words ratio with yesterday's Roundup that featured clearly-frustrated and emotional thoughts that ranged from the Caps' need for depth down the middle to requests for the abolition of questionably-used pronouns.

With most in Capland feeling a little down (especially given this rainy Tuesday morning, I figured I'd throw a couple of "feel goods" out there. The first is from the Philly Inquirer and has the added bonus of trashing the Flyers while complimenting the Caps:

You'd think that given how awful the Flyers have been, the players would understand the significance of public relations. Saturday was a disgrace. Kids representing the High Five Club stood at the tunnel exit to greet the team upon its entrance onto the ice. Most of the Flyers ignored them. The only player who actually high-fived every kid was goalie Antero Niittymaki. After the game, Washington's Alex Ovechkin skated over to a young fan wearing a Flyers sweater and gave him his stick. Donald Brashear also gave sticks to fans. The Caps get it; the Flyers don't. If the players weren't told the kids were there in advance, then shame on the marketing department. If they were told, then shame on the players. This team needs to cultivate good will, not ill will.

The second collection of Caps-related kind words comes from a Versus producer still basking in the glow of Monday night's show, via F.O.R. (Friend of Rink) KB:

Alexander Ovechkin in my mind deserves any accolades he gets now and in the future. Tell me another athlete in another pro sport who would stick around 2 hours after his practice (on Sunday) to do the interview/translation for [Elbows] Malkin. And when I asked him if we were the only reason he was hanging around, he answered: "Why wouldn't I?". He's got phenomenal talent, and just loves every aspect of the game of
hockey.

I can never get enough of this stuff, especially with the borderline character assassination that followed the Briere hit. It's nice to be able to root for good players who are also good people.

Stat of the Day :

• "Jaromir Jagr had 11 shots on goal -- but no points -- in the Rangers' 3-1 win in Philadelphia. It was the 14th time that Jagr reached double figures in shots on goal in a regular-season game, the most of any active player.
  
  "Jagr is in his 16th NHL season. But believe it or not, the player who stands fourth on the list of active leaders in 10-shot games is in his second season in the league: Alex Ovechkin, with nine. Between Jagr and Ovechkin are Peter Bondra (who made his 2006-07 debut with Chicago on Tuesday night) with 13 and Paul Kariya with 12." - ESB

Daily Awards

• Hart: Jarome Iginla (2G, including game-winner 2A, +3, 4 SOG)
• Ross: Jarome Iginla (4 points)
• Norris: Chris Pronger (2G, including game-winner, +2, 5 SOG, 3 blocked shots, 2 hits)
• Vezina: Evgeni Nabokov (W, 36 saves on 37 shots against)
• Richard: Jarome Iginla, Jason Spezza, Marc Savard, Chad Kilger, Joe Pavelski, Sergei Samsonov, Chris Pronger (2G each)
• Calder: Joe Pavelski (2G, including game-winner, +1, 6 SOG, 3 blocked shots)
• Aiken: Manny Fernandez (L, 4 goals allowed on 13 shots against in 23:35 of work)