[AP Recap – Game Summary – Event Summary – WashingtonCaps.com Postgame]
It wasn’t quite the exorcism of recent home-ice demons the Capitals and their fans were looking for, but it was a win against a hungry division opponent fighting for their playoff life in a building where wins have been hard to come by of late. Strong special teams and another superhuman effort from Alexander Semin were enough to hold the Hurricanes to a tie in the hockey game and to let the Capitals walk away with the extra point.
While it’s great that the Capitals have not one, but two, Alexes capable of single-handedly carrying the team to victory, there’s no way last night’s effort doesn’t arouse at least some concern over secondary scoring. It’s true that the Capitals have enough secondary scoring to carry them deep into the playoffs but there’s also no reason Tomas Fleischmann, Michael Nylander, Eric Fehr, Viktor Kozlov, and Brooks Laich should tally just seven shots on goal in a game where the “Young Guns” had a combined four goals and nineteen shots.
Some thoughts on the game:
At the end of the night, despite the lack of much offense outside of the Young Guns, the botched five-on-one, and, yes, a shootout, the Capitals are one point closer to clinching the Southeast Division for the second straight season.