Holy Parade Of Penalties

Capitals 2, Devils 3
Game Summary - Event Summary

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The Washington Capitals had a rough night. Well, they had a rough third period, which ruined the rest of their night. The Capitals took five consecutive minor penalties in just under 8 minutes in the third period. The blew their 2-1 lead after two periods and drop a must win to the New Jersey Devils 2-1.

Matthieu Perreault scored the Caps' first goal of the night on a clean up job in front of the net. Troy Brouwer made a crazy power move to the front of the net getting a shot on Devil goalie Martin Brodeur. The rebound bounced out passed three Devils and Perreault chipped the rebound over Brodeur's shoulder for the tally. Mike Ribeiro scored his sixth goal of the year on the power play. Troy Brouwer had two assists and the game's third star. He also had a 10 minute misconduct at the end of the game.

The Capitals had a lot of positives through out the game, despite a barrage of shots by the Devils at even strength. They practiced the long ancient art of bending but not breaking to New Jersey for at least two periods. They allowed 30 shots on net at even strength. The Caps only fault in the first 40 minutes was misplaying the puck in their own zone on the power play and the combo of Patrick Elias (who scored) and Adam Henrique lead to a shortie for the away team.

Then the third period happened. It started with a hell of a penalty kill by the Caps when Nick Backstrom was hauled off with Adam Larsson for coincidental minors. Not long after that Matt Hendricks took his hand off his stick on onto Ilya Kovalchuk's shoulder, he was whistled for holding. Then Jay Beagle cleared the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty, but Tomas Kundratek served the time, giving the Devils a 5 on 3 power play.

The Capitals PK actually did a fantastic job killing that series of penalties off. The combo of Backstrom, Karl Alzner and John Carlson did a bang up job of blocking shots, getting into passing lanes and killing off that 5 on 3. But in the end, it was just too many penalties. Kovalchuk would score when once again the Capitals got into penalty trouble down two men. Marek Zidlicky cut into the slot and took out Backstrom's stick as the pass went to Kovalchuk whose shot finally made it on net.

It was a tough game to swallow for the Capitals. To get that far and lose all momentum from a solid second period was what did this team in. Alex Ovechkin even had a jump to his game. In his most dynamic game in quite awhile, Ovechkin broke in three times on Brodeur. But he couldn't solve the Devils net minder. The penalties in the third pretty much kept him quiet for the rest of the game.

It will be a short turn around for the boys from DC who face off with the Devils again on Saturday.

Caps Notes:

• Both of Kovalchuk's goals against the Capitals this year were game winners. The OT goal on January 25th, and tonight's power play tally.
• The Caps' power play is smoking hot. It is 10 for 23 in the Caps last eight games (43.5%). Just to compare, the St. Louis Blues have the best PP in the league with 31.7% on the season.
• Caps out-hit the Devils 30-9.

A New Record Broken

East 8, West 7
Scoresheet - Wash Post - AJC

Better late then never. After going through a couple of days in pain and finally getting my fillings replace today, I finally had a chance to sit down and watch the All Star game. So here are a few thoughts on the game.

The opening was actually pretty cool. The Hives started the festivities and played through the introductions. It was a classy move to put Ilya Kovalchuk on the starting line up, and Chris Osgood and Rick DiPietro both took goaltending starting honors. Nearly 20 minutes later we were ready to drop the puck.

Alex Ovechkin played a stand out first period, and the announcers were a bit fawning over him. Which is better than hearing Sid "the Kid" Crosby every other second. Ovie didn't fail to perform netting two goals and becoming the first Capital to three goals. Mike Gartner held that record with a mere 2 goals in four All Star appearances. Ovie was able to break it in two All Star appearances. He shared a line with Jason Spezza and Martin St. Louis.

The game started like every All Star game, a bit tentative and a little slow. But it didn't take long for the game to jump up a notch when the West made a comeback. In the second period Evgeni Nabokov stone cold stopped fellow countryman Ilya Kovalchuk not once but twice, keeping the Atlanta All Star from scoring in front of the home crowd.

In the third period the action started to get furious as the speed had picked up and the action came to a dramatic ending. The West eradicated a 4 goal lead by the East and took the lead in the third. Then Marc Savard capped a furious series of goal scoring chances with a game winning goal for the East.

Eric Staal took MVP honors. Rather stole them, Rick Nash who scored a hattrick and helped the West come back was I thought a shoe in for MVP, or at the very least former Thrasher Marc Savard with his last minute goal. But it was Staal who had two goals and an assist. It seemed to me that Nash was robbed.

Overall the game started slow, but ended great. The game was a perfect showcase for the NHL. Now it's time to move on and the Caps have a team to catch in Carolina and they can do that with a win in Montreal Tuesday night. The Caps are a point behind and can leap frog a good number of teams to end up in third. There is a lot of season left though.

Fight Fallout

So the fines and suspensions have been handed out, and the Caps take the short end of the stick. Suspended for the Caps are Donald Brashear (3 games) and Brian Sutherby (1 game). Scott Mellanby was also suspended for the Thrashers for one game.

I am surprised that no suspensions were handed to Andy Sutton or Ilya Kovalchuk. Kovalcheck grabbed Chris Clark’s face protector and shook it rather hard, in attempt to do harm. It was Sutton’s head hunting that started the whole thing. Bettman apparently didn't see any of that from his posh New York apartment.

Glen Hanlon will be fined $30,000 for doing the right thing, Bob Hartley got fined $10,000 for being an idiot. I would have liked to see Hanlon and Hartley go at it, but Hartley probably got a manicure and didn’t want to screw that up.

Japer covers the fight better than myself, plus has video of the whole episode that includes the head hunting hit by Sutton.

The stupidest quote of the night came from Glen Metropolit:

“Getting the game-winning goal in this building, it means a lot to me,” said Metropolit, who played for the Capitals last season and was acquired as an unrestricted free agent. “It proves that Washington lost a good player.” – AP

Are you kidding me? The luckiest goal in all of hockey and you think you scored that goal because you are a “good player"? I am glad the Caps got “rid” of you. That is just a dumb thing to say. Enjoy being on the goon squad.

Caps play the Thrashers in Atlanta on December 15th. It should be an interesting game as both teams will have long enough memories. Hope everyone had a good Turkey day.

Caps Thrashed

Capitals 3, Thrashers 4 OT

Ilya Kovalchuk willed this win for the Thrashers. It was a good thing too because the Capitals had plenty of opportunities to put this one away. The story really wasn’t how good the Thrashers were in this one, but how many missed chances the Caps had. The Capitals out-shot the Thrashers, out played them at times and yet they were 1 for 9 on the power play.

It certainly is not a lack of talent on the behalf of the Capitals, but maybe a lack of focus. On the power play the Caps lacked movement after being able to move the puck well against Carolina and Minnesota.

Overall Grade: D+

Caps must find a way to turn those scoring chances in to goals instead of just a useless stat. I could say that the Caps need to shoot more, but I am not sure it’s all about quantity, but rather about quality. Alex Ovechkin seems to be shooting the same shot, twenty-footer at the top of the circle, just off the boards. He is not looking his pepper self for some reason.

Wash Post has the story of the Thrashers ruining Ovie’s night. No, I was not able to exchange my coin for a free beer, but I did try. I would have rather been given something more worth while, like a miniature Stanley Cup. Oh, wait.

Caps will face the Thrashers again on Thursday, after they tangle with Florida Panthers Wednesday.