[AP Recap - Game Summary - Box Score - WashingtonCaps.com Postgame]Tim Thomas's ownership of the Caps and Alex Ovechkin is officially over. Mind you, it's no bum that Caps torched - Thomas was second in the League in save percentage and tenth in GAA before last night. But while he's been a big dog on most nights this season - and throughout his career against the Caps - he was the fire hydrant last night. Some thoughts on the game:
- Ovechkin's 50th was gorgeous, but his second most impressive highlight was his homerun pass that Nicklas Backstrom converted to hit the double-digit goal mark.
- Quick recap of League leaders: the Caps have the League's leading scorer, leading goal-scorer, leading rookie scorer and leading defenseman goal-scorer. Damn.
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Zdeno Chara tried to change the momentum of the game by fighting Donald Brashear when the B's fell behind 2-0. It didn't work - it just created more room for Ovechkin, who scored his second with Big Z in the box. Oh, and Brash wanted absolutely nothing to do with actual knuckle chuckin' in that bout, and why would he? Shawn Thornton was more to his liking (sidenote: two fights, one goal... a Donald Brashear Hat Trick?).
- Matt Cooke, Matt Bradley and Brash all scored (Brads twice). That's a recipe for a win every time.
- Speaking of Cooke (who led the team with four hits), here's a coincidence for you - last night he had a goal and two helpers, five years to the day after he had two goals and a helper... also against Boston.
- The Caps got an astounding percentage of their attempted shots on goal - for the game, they were credited with 34 shots on and only seven that were blocked. That speaks to how lousy the Bruins were all night.
- Sergei Fedorov rocked the faceoff circle (11-for-16), but was minus-one on the night. So was Alex Semin. Brooks Laich, too, but he scored twice so we'll cut him some slack.
- Fedorov, Milan Jurcina and Boyd Gordon were the only Caps held off the scoresheet. If you have Feds on your fantasy team, this was a frustrating night.
- Eric Fehr had a quiet three assist night.
- Nice of Claude Julien to wear team colors for the nationally televised game. He didn't look much like a jackass, did he?
- Speaking of jackasses, someone should have run Marc Savard.
- Class move by Bruce Boudreau putting out who he did on those late power plays.
Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:
On this date in 1999, Calle Johansson moved past Rod Langway on the Caps' all-time games played list when he played his 727th game for D.C. His 983 games played for the red, white and blue, black and bronze remains the franchise mark to this day.
Daily Awards
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Hart: Alexander Ovechkin (3G, including the game-winner, 2A, +3, 5 SOG)
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Ross: Alexander Ovechkin (5 points)
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Norris: Scott Niedermayer (G, A)
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Vezina: J.-S. Giguere (W, 24 saves on 25 shots against)
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Richard: Alexander Ovechkin (3G)
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Calder: Nicklas Backstrom (G, 3A, +3, 3 SOG)
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Aiken: Tim Thomas (L, 7 goals allowed on 24 shots against in just 36:30 of work... and he got pulled twice)