[AP Recap - Game Summary - Event Summary - WashingtonCaps.com Postgame - AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Preview]
On a night dominated by the story of the most HTML-savvy goalie to ever suit up for an NHL game, the on-ice story was about a Caps team getting healthy (well, the skaters, at least) and getting real good, real fast.
A few quick thoughts on the game:
- I would have liked to have seen Ottawa get taken to task for running Brent Johnson (who was once again brilliant in net).
- The Sens twice got lucky that Alex Ovechkin misfired on one-timers from the left wing faceoff circle. They weren't so lucky the third time. What's the saying? Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me three times, our team really sucks?
- Two goals from Ovechkin. One from Alex Semin. One from Brooks Laich. A goal and two assists from Mike Green. Three helpers apiece from Nicklas Backstrom and Sergei Fedorov. When GMGM dreams of scoresheets, that's what they look like (though they probably have a couple of Ryan Getzlaf assists on them too... jokes, people!).
- The power play, after a 3-for-7 night, is now firing at an unreal 40% clip (10-for-25) over the last six games and the penalty kill, after a 4-for-4 night, has now gone three games without allowing a goal and has killed 90.5% of the shorthanded opportunities it has faced over the last five games.
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Tyler Sloan had a nice run, but it's time for him to go, and ASAP. Corsi agrees (and just look at Karl Alzner's rating for the game).
- AO wasn't credited with a single hit. How 'bout that?
- Donald Brashear had a strong game (other than the forementioned lack of enforcing with respect to Ottawa's net crashing, which comes on the heels of Boston using the Caps crease as a throughway... this is becoming a bit of an issue, isn't it?).
- Memo to Senators: when things are going well, you can pull off "the goofy mustasche" thing; when they're not, you look foolish.
- Another strong game for Milan Jurcina. Could Alzner, a kid with less than ten NHL games under his belt, be that positive an influence on an vet like Juice?
And so it's off to Montreal, where the Caps will be the national game on Hockey Night In Canada for the second consecutive week. Coincidence? Yup. But who wouldn't want to watch this team and embrace any of the storylines it's creating on a nightly basis?