Photo credit: @davidb22307

Holtby leads the Caps on the ice for warmups prior to Game 2. (Photo credit: Chris Gordon)

It’s playoff time, which means we’re in for an inordinate amount of NBC coverage showing Braden Holtby getting all zen-like on the Capitals’ bench. But what, exactly, is going through the young goaltender’s mind in those moments?

“It’s just visualization techniques, breathing techniques,” Holtby, in a crisp suit with a purple pocket square, told me Sunday morning at Kettler Capitals Iceplex before the team’s flight to New York. “It’s just one of the things I do I try to do to get my mind in the same frame every night. It gets a lot of attention but a lot of guys do it, you just don’t see it.”

Holtby’s right about it being more widespread than some think.

“I came to the rink three hours early, I had a coffee, a stretch, and I did about 30 minutes of visualization,” Olie Kolzig told CSN Washington a few days ago. “That was the extent of my preparation.”

So we know Holtby’s visualizing; we’ve heard that a thousand times. But what does that actually mean? Well, Holtby says he almost playing a game in his head, imagining what the other team is doing and how he wants to react.

“You go over everything: certain plays, certain things you’ve been working on that you want to see yourself do correctly,” he said. “It’s just visualizing what you want to do. … Try to view yourself the way you want to be viewed.”

So there you have it: Braden Holtby spends his time before big games daydreaming.

Of course, Holtby’s pre-game contemplation isn’t his only idiosyncrasy. Braden’s Holtbyisms are well documented, but the goalie is rather terse when pressed on why, exactly, he does them. What he will concede, though, is that all his little moves (whether it’s spitting water through his teeth, tapping the posts, or flipping his water bottle into the air) help him stay focused on what’s happening on the ice in front of him and nothing more — especially during tight, stressful playoff games.

“It’s routines — everyone has them,” he said. “Everyone has their little things that they do in order to refocus and whatnot.”

“I try to approach every game the same no matter what the circumstances are,” Holtby added. “The biggest way to do that is just to focus on the task at hand and do my best to block everything out.”

GIF by welshhockeyfan

Goaltenders are like all people. They have habits and idiosyncrasies. Some are reserved, some are wild. Braden Holtby has always been more of the latter. He’s made bruising checks in juniors, slashed teammates, and his zany routines are well known. Something he’s never done, though, is score a goal. Late in Washington’s 5-3 victory on Sunday, he almost got one.

“Something that I’ve always thought of is trying to score a goal, but that’s not my first priority,” Holtby told reporters after the game. “It’s definitely not something I practice.”

With the Caps on the power play in the waning seconds, Holtby retrieved the puck from behind his net. Weaving around a Sabres player, Braden launched a shot at the opposite net almost 200 feet away. The puck looked as if it was headed towards Buffalo’s net. However, Alex Ovechkin knocked it down at center ice with his glove. Instead of Holtby’s first ever marker as a goalie, the puck ended up lazily drifting into the corner as the horn sounded. Ovi knew what he might have prevented, shrugging as he went to congratulate Holtby on the win.

This is the second time Holtby’s missed an empty net goal in his professional career. Playing with the Hershey Bears two years ago, he had a pot shot at the net clang off the post.

“That was as close as I could get,” Holtby said Sunday of the missed opportunity.

Holtby is an excellent puck handler, in large part stemming from his days playing forward as a teenager. Even when he was wearing pads, the Saskatchewan native would often spend hours shooting the puck off his basement to himself as he waited for his dad to get home.

“A lot of goalies when I was growing up that was the thing to do; they were scoring goals. Hopefully someday it happens.”

Additional reporting by Ian Oland.

You ain’t hockey-famous until you get a feature on Hockey Night in Canada. As of right now, Caps goalie Braden Holtby is officially famous. On CBC’s Inside Hockey segment (brought to you by the little blue pill), 30-dimensional thinker Elliotte Friedman gave Holtby and his family the Barbara Walters treatment.

In the video beyond the jump, Friedman talks to Holtby about growing up in Saskatchewan, following in his father’s footsteps with the Saskatoon Blades, Holtbyisms (natch), and how he keeps cool under pressure. Braden gives an affable interview, but he also talks about controlling his emotions as if he were a Vulcan. Holtby’s parents get some good screen time while rocking Caps merch (check out Braden’s dad Greg rolling his eyes during the Holtbyisms chat), but the star of the clip is Holtby’s hair.

Goodness gracious. Just look at it.

For convenience sake, I looked up those books Friedman mentions at the start. Mind Gym by Gary Mack (2002, McGraw-Hill) is a well reviewed book  about sports psychology containing “the same techniques and exercises he uses to help elite athletes build mental “muscle.”" The Greatness Guide by Robin Sharma (2008, HarperCollins) has a blurb that reads like a Joel Osteen lecture. I’m not gonna go near these books, but if you’re looking to get ahead on your studies for next semester, give RMNB a book report on either one.

Photos of Braden Holtby as a Kid

Craig Brownstein of the Puck Buddys gets you primed for Holtby vs Thomas. Follow @PuckBuddys …unless you hate smiles. You don’t hate smiles, do you?

So. Here we are. The Caps’ long, strange trip to the playoffs wasn’t easy, not by any stretch, and their first round opponent doesn’t look so easy either. We know what’s behind us – a roller coaster season of consistent inconsistency, and we know what’s ahead of us – the defending Stanley Cup Champions are big, physical, and chock full of talent. So this probably explains why hockey’s literati almost to the person predicts a Boston win for the series. We don’t put much stock in that, of course. We don’t because we’re homers. Homo homers to be precise.

We look at the Boston match up as a series of If – Then statements: If Ovi, Sasha, and Nicky fire, then we’ll be OK. If we can match them physically, then we don’t get pushed around. If our special teams perform, then we’ll have a real shot. If we put rubber on that creep, Timmy Thomas, get in his head and face, then we’ll score moar goals. If we crash the net, you know the rest. And it’s Timmy and his counterpart at the opposite end of the rink that we think this series revolves around.

That 70 Show

But there’s another big “If” looming in this series, and in this case, he wears #70. Just when we thought we couldn’t take anymore goalie drama, we lost Vokes. Then last week, in the blink of an eye, Neuvy went down. Braden Holtby stepped up huge in the Rangers game Saturday evening and all eyes and hopes in Washington rest on his shoulders. His stick, pads, glove, and blocker too, for that matter.

Our young net minder is certainly another factor that those scribes lean on when giving Boston the edge. Braden, the youngest of gun vs. Timmy Thomas, the experienced veteran who was instrumental in last season’s Cup run. And on paper, that makes sense, of course. But hockey isn’t played on paper; it’s played on ice with space-age composites, steel blades, and blood. We’re reminded of old racetrack chatter about race horses that may seem outclassed on paper. Two railbirds are handicapping a race and the foolish says, “The tote board says the 5 horse can’t win; he’s 30-1.” The wiser of the two responds, “It doesn’t matter; the horse can’t read.”

A lot of hockey remains a mystery to us, and most confounding are the goalies. And Braden with his Holtbyisms seem like even more of a riddle. His grace under pressure against the Rangers was a huge relief to Caps fans and we think he can handle the Boston drama and whatever they throw at him too. He has to; he has no choice and there’s no turning back. Neuvy is making the trip up there, but all eyes remain on the Caps’ Hershey (eye) candy. We liked what Braden had to say to the Post’s Katie Carerra on Tuesday:

I’m not really trying to focus on the playoffs, I’m focusing on making saves,” Holtby said. “The saves don’t get any harder in the playoffs. I’ve watched them since I was a kid. They’re the same type shots, same everything. Obviously it’s more intense but it doesn’t change your ability at all.

The kid has spunk. And we love spunk.

All Politics is Yokel

This is the spot where we’d take wicked potshots at Lil Timmy’s ill-mannered slight of the President earlier this year. But two C-SPAN veterans like us know better than to belittle someone’s ideology, no matter how half-baked and laughable it may seem to DC sophisticates. Lord knows that we’ve taken viewer calls from some of the best backwoods trailer parks and hippie communes in these United States. We don’t judge because we pretty much find everyone’s personal politics to be objectionable, and Timmy’s are no exception. Tea Party, Toga Party – who the hell cares; the Obama snub was just plain bad manners. What’s especially delicious is that it was the Boston media that hounded Timmy this week about the Obama snub. We weren’t even going to mention it, but since they started it.

Change You Can Believe In

And ever since Timmy dissed the POTUS, his numbers have taken a hit. Call it regression to the mean, we’re gonna call it The Obama Curse because that’s a lot sexier than post hoc ergo propter hoc. In the 20 games after he snubbed Obama, Thomas’ save percentage fell by 5% and his goals against went up by over half a goal per game. Peter will have more on that later.

But we’re not here to debate stats; we’re here to illustrate the more intangible differences between the pure Braden Holtby and the brutish Timmy Thomas. This actual photo from Bruins HQ of Thomas and bench boss Claude Julien says it all:

Everybody Dance Now

What’s creepier than Timmy haunting the TD Garden? Nothing – not even the Man from Another Place and the Black Lodge, the realm of pure evil that he inhabits, too.

Photo credit: Mitchell Layton

In March of 2011, a 22-year-old Saskatchewan native got called up to the Capitals after one of their netminders suffered an injury. Unproven and raw, he seemed at ease as he created a three-way goalie controversy on one of the league’s top teams. In March of 2012, a 23-year-old Saskatchewan native may be doing the same thing.

In his three games up with Washington after Tomas Vokoun went out with a groin injury, Braden Holtby has been stellar and ever improving as he turned a .889 save percentage in the first two months of the year in the AHL into a sparkling shutout performance in front of 18,506 fans (but who’s counting?) in one of his team’s biggest games of the year. With the Capitals fighting for every point as they try to squeak into the playoffs, head coach Dale Hunter may have no choice but to play the hot hand — even if the question was supposed to be settled when the Capitals traded away Michal Neuvirth’s competition before making the surprise signing of Vokoun in the summer.

“From my short stint in pro hockey you realize things change really quickly,” Holtby told reporters after the game. “I was ready, that’s what I’ve been working towards in Hershey all year. I’m trying to make good call-ups count.”

And Sunday he did that, making 28 stops on his way to being named the first star of the game. Particularly impressive was his series of flopping pad saves midway through an otherwise sleepy first period, prompting NBC’s Mike Emrick to burst a few eardrums.

Holtby’s play also earned him congratulatory visits in the locker room after the game from two hockey luminaries: Smokin’ Al Koken and Caps goalie coach Dave Prior.

As readers of this blog have read a mind-numbing number of times, Holtby is known for his idiosyncratic “Holtbyisms,” aggressive play, and slick — and sometimes frightening — puck-handling that stems from his days as a young forward (his dad thought goalie gear was too expensive).

“It’s great. Tomas goes down, it could be a big drop off, it could be all on Neuvy’s shoulders,” winger Mike Knuble said of Holtby’s recent play, which includes of a win against the Red Wings and a shootout loss to Flyers superstar goalie and noted tripper Ilya Bryzgalov.

“I can’t think of a soft goal,” Knuble added. “Every goal they’ve got on him as been legit. He’s played hard, he deserved what he got tonight.”

Still, Holtby was as humble as ever as he talked about his game afterwards, so much so you might think his defenseman were the ones in pads Sunday. Deep down he’s still the kid from the middle of nowhere (Canada), getting his shot in the heat of a NHL playoff race.

“If I get the opportunity, I want to play hard and win games” Holtby said. “Obviously this time of year, with the way the standings are, it doesn’t matter who is in goal, it doesn’t matter the reasons. We need wins and we got one tonight.”

Speaking to the media after the game, Hunter seemed to indicate he thought of Holtby merely as stopgap. With the playoffs right around the corner — if there is a corner — there doesn’t appear to be a goalie controversy. But perhaps there should be.

Grab a chair, pour a ginger ale, and put some soft jazz on the hifi. We’re about to take a leisurely ride through the world of RMNB 2011. Today we’ll be looking at the good stuff today, and the really awful stuff we’ll see on Friday.

In 2011 we published more than 470 articles that more than doubled (206%) our traffic from 2010. Our readers (i.e. you) stay longer on our site, view more articles (102.5%), leave more comments (119%), and correct our grammar more than ever before. We climbed above 5k followers on Twitter (mostly spam bots), and we are now flirting with 6k. We’ve got around 3600 people liking us on Facebook, most of whom are just trying to win the swag Ian gives away every game. We started a tumblelog, where almost 500 people follow our silly pictures and quotes and other stuff that doesn’t fit on the main site. We’re working on a pinterest page, as soon as we figure out what that is.

We started the Pick ‘Em Contest on Facebook, where someone always predicts an Ovechtrick. We’ve begun grassroots poster campaigns for Dale Hunter, Jaromir Jagr, and Jay Beagle. We sold a bunch t-shirts and then blew all the profit on giveaways and contests. We supported the increasingly fantastic art of Rachel Cohen and wistfully saw stat-meister Neil Greenberg sail off to brighter horizons. We raised more than $2,500 for charity. We learned the difference between “re-sign” and “resign.” We threw two parties at Front Page VA, where much merriment was had. We experimented with video and audio content, and got our game recaps posted right after the buzzer with only a small ton of factual errors and typos.

It’s been a very good year for the Russian Machine. We’re now the go-to place for the search terms “hello neuvy”, “alexander semin unibrow”, “holtbyisms”, and — unfathomably–  ”justin timberlake mickey mouse club.” We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Best of Russian Machine, 2011

(in no particular order)

The Ovechtrick

We did not invent the fictional 9-goal game (that was the NHL  promoting their Verizon GameCenter app), but we certainly covered the living hell out of it. There’s the original commercial, behind the scenes with CRL, one actor’s diary, the t-shirt, and our most-read article of the year– Neil Greenberg’s “Could an Ovechtrick Really Happen?”

Bruce Boudreau’s Exit

When Bench Boss Bruce Boudreau’s team went three-games down on Tampa Bay Lightning, we could smell the blood in the water. Our “Fire Bruce  Boudreau” article from back in April was a spit in the face of the growing mob. As this season fell apart, we ruminated on Boudreau’s bad rap. When the firing became an inevitability after the Buffalo disaster, we commissioned Max Duchaine to create a goodbye video, set to the tune of Sarah McLachlan’s “I Will Remember You.”

USA Warriors versus Congressional Scum

One of the Puck Buddys’ first contributions to the Machine was this series on the hockey game between the wounded warriors and the congressional team. We got a moving story from side of the Warriors (“Hockey was a life-saver for me”), the maniacal evil laughter of Chicago’s Rep. Quigley, and a somber recap of the game. It’s hard not to finish reading those stories without admiration for the (non-Congress-y) people involved and newfound perspective of our own gifts.

The Adventures of Ovi

Alex Ovechkin’s non-hockey-related hijinx are a bottomless font of web content. The mindless glee and mischief that Ovi takes with him wherever goes brightens up even the most dour offseason. This year we had the mystifyingly popular Russians-playing-soccer-with-their-shirts-off post, pictures of Ovi wearing what appears to be a suit and hat weaved out of pubic hair, and a the whole thing about wearing sweat pants OVER blue jeans. The entire summer was cataloged exhaustively in this timeline, assembled by Ian Oland.

The Capitals Guardian

The whole NHL Guardian project was idiotic, patronizing, and poorly executed. We knew from the start that Stan Lee’s invented superhero for our team would suck big time. So we made our own. Rachel Cohen (pencils) and Ian Oland (colors) did the art, and Peter did the plot. He’s an old guy with a Constitution cape and Washington Monument sword with the power to control traffic. Pure win.

Ovi Dances

Compared to the team’s current troubles, the spring of 2011 seems kind of quaint. But recall if you will a team that had lost its spark, and the effort it exerted to rekindle it. When Alex Ovechkin beat Buffalo and won the Eastern Conference first seed with an overtime goal, he danced like the exuberant dweeb we all know he is. Rachel captured it in her adorable artwork, and we’ve got gifs.

Sasha Cares

Ah, yes. No “Best Of” list is complete without Washington’s mercurial man of mystery Alex Semin. RMNB came together to craft the definitive document on Alex Semin, featuring the creation of Neil’s invented stat, The Sasha Index. When Matt Bradley questioned Semin’s commitment, we made up a bar graph of the things Semin actually does care about . Then Rachel designed a t-shirt and sewed the darn thing into existence.

Kanooblian

During our “Winter is Coming” campaign (spoiler: it’s the next bullet), we premiered an illustration by Mark Burrier that Knuble’s Knights promptly purloined via eBay. When Knuble fell to the fourth line and had ice time taken away, we put the righteous indignation hat on. Kvetching about Mike’s unfair treatment has become a game recap tradition, but so has going ape-nuts over his in-your-face goals.

Winter is Coming

Peter went overboard about Game of Thrones this year. It invaded his writing to the amusement of no one, and he demanded that House Stark’s words “Winter is Coming” become our rally cry heading into the season. So Ian created this photoshop wonder, and we each wrote our psyche-up pieces for the season. Chris wrote about the 2009 playoffs ’cause he’s a noob, Peter also wrote about the 2009 playoffs ’cause he’s creepily fixated on Matt Bradley, Rachel wrote about the Winter Classic ’cause she’s a superfan, and Ian wrote about Ovechkin’s first playoff goal ’cause he knows good SEO. Finally, Max capped it off with a superb pump-up video.

William Shannon’s Wish

Chris Gordon’s profile on 5-year-old William Shannon becoming a Capitals player for a day was–  by far– the best thing we published this year. Thanks to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, William got to suit up, skate with the team, school Varlamov on the shootout, ride in a limo, ride the zamboni, hang with the media, and a bunch of other stuff I wish I could do. William’s father Devin Shannon gave us additional scoop first-hand along with a bunch of pictures that melt the heart of even the most cynical fan.

There’s a lot more, but it doesn’t fit into a nice list. Check out our primer for the new season, Chris’ story on Caps fans getting psyched up in the preseason, the emergence of #AvsFailWatch, our eulogy for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Puck Daddy, Joe Beninati’s suits, our coverage of the “We are Louder” thing, and Holtby Night in Canada. Or, if you prefer, just browse around the /best-of/ tag for whatever. We’ll keep it updated as soon as we write something good.

2011 Scrapbook

Here’s a smattering of images to document the year. The photoshops are Ian’s, the original art is Rachel’s, the photos are Chris’s.

Our Shepard Fairey-styled Knuble protest poster.

The Caps are soft.

The disaster in Buffalo.

Steckelbombing Carrie Underwood.

Winter is Coming.

Crosby plays golf.

The Jagr protest poster. More on this tomorrow.

Hello Neuvy.

The Matt Bradley valentine!

Sheepvechkin Halloween.

Chris’ photo of Ovechkin getting pie’d on his birthday.

Chris’ photo of my girlfriend, Alex Morgan.

That wraps up our victory lap. And now you know what’s coming. Tomorrow will be the Worst of RMNB, and it will be very long. Carbo-load tonight.

Photo credit: Scott Audette

The Florida Panthers spent their Monday night trouncing the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-4. The Cats used five powerplay goals to fend off a third period rally from their rivals in America’s groin. By now the Panthers are probably already on their way up to Washington.

Here we go. This is the game you’ve been looking forward to. Not the rematch with Tampa, the date with Pittsburgh, or Thursday’s face-off with Jagr. You have been amped for this game: Matt Bradley, Jose Theodore, Tomas Fleischmann– all your exes are coming over for a dinner party and it’s going to be AWKWARD.

Sean Bergenheim

Before we do some creepy Facebook stalking on our former lovers, let’s size up the rest of Florida. Most of these guys you’ll remember from other teams because Florida is the Frankenstein’s Monster* of the NHL.

They’ve got Sean Bergenheim(1G, 0A, even), late of the Lightning and acquired seemingly because Florida had some money to burn. There he is at right. Good photo of him methinks.

Kris Versteeg (3G, 4A, even) is the real threat. Small for a forward, Versteeg is a growing threat at only 25 years old, and he’s probably the best forward they’ll dress on Tuesday night. No insults or jokes– he’s pretty good. But smells like cabbage.

There’s youngster D-man Dmitry Kulikov (0G, 1A, minus-two) who may become a force as he matures, but for now we’re just including him ’cause he’s Russian. And Erik Gudbranson (nil, nil, even), who did this to Steve Downie the other night and has our gratitude, but otherwise seems like a minor character in a Stieg Larsson book. Mountain of a man though.

Matt Bradley

Okay, let’s have fun now. Last season, Matt Bradley (0G, 0A, minus-1, bloodied) stood up to get some punch and when he got back to his chair, Jay Beagle was in it. Into free agency he went only to find a home in lovely Miami (is it Miami, right?). Matt Bradley probably wouldn’t have DiPietro’d out with Arron Asham, but Jay Beagle probably wouldn’t have spoken out of turn about Alex Semin. Matty reportedly feels bad about the violation of the locker room code, but let’s be real; this wouldn’t have been a big story had not so many people thought it true. Press Secretary C.J Cregg once said something relevant about this on The West Wing: “It’s the classic Washington scandal. We screwed up by telling the truth.”

After missing a huge chunk of last season due to another blood clot fiasco, Tomas Fleischmann (1G, 2A, plus-2) relocated from Colorado to Florida and is expected to have the bounceback season he deserves. We should be all just be glad that he is healthy and will be all up in our faces Tuesday night. No one tell him that we’ve replaced him with another Tomas because that would be weird.

Jose Theodore

And then there’s Jose Theodore, sporting a 920 SV% and one mean head of hair. Jose took bullets for his team on Monday night, so it’s unlikely we’ll see him dress for Verizon Center. That said, hopefully he’ll skip the baseball cap and let those bangs swing at concordant angles on the bench. Some people thought Theo was of middling talent, and some people obsess over his “I just work here” moment from a few years past. I prefer to think of him as the goalie who stewarded the team through their longest winning streak in history. He probably ain’t playing though, so screw him.

Instead, we’re likely to see rookie Jacob Markstrom. He’s 21 years-old and this could be his first NHL game, so break out the popcorn.

So what are we gonna do when the guys hit the ice? Manners dictate polite applause for their first shifts and then monstrous WOOP‘s every time they touch the puck thereafter. Let ‘em know you remember them, you love them, and you’re here to watch them get torn apart by your Washington Capitals. Give ‘em a standing O on their way back to the locker rooms, and then pity them quietly for being the Caps’ refuse.

After all, The Florida Panthers are a hair doll– a loosely bound amalgamation of scraps and leavings. With no personality of their own, they’ll mimic the habits of those around them. Like the creepy college roommate who downloads the MP3s you were playing just a day before, the Panthers pull crap like this:

You’ve gotta be kidding me. Powered by xfinity.

Who’s our starting goalie? Dunno, but it won’t be Michal Neuvirth, who is nursing a bruised foot. Will the Caps send in Tomas Vokoun with games against the Flyers and Wings later this week? Or will we see some HOLTBYISMS back at Verizon Center?

UPDATE: Naw, Capitals have recalled Dany Sabourin from Hershey.

Puck drop is a little after 7, so find out then. CSN will have the game, so we’ll probably have a Joe B suit for you.

Go Caps. The real ones.

* Note: Yeah, Frankenstein’s Monster. We’re sticklers for accuracy.

On the day that Semyon Varlamov’s bobblehead was given away to blood donors at Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Braden Holtby would not be outdone on the awesome meter. After Benoit Pouliot dumped the puck in after the referees’ whistled the Habs for being off-side, the sassy 21 year-old ‘keeper kicked the puck into the air, caught it with the blade of his stick before flipping it into his glove. Another great Holtbyism? You bet!

The top line converts, but Ovechkin is pretty mellow. (Photo credit: Lou Capozzola)

I know a special place. A magical place. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where normal men are giants, and struggling hockey teams play like they’ve never been better.  A place called Long Island.

The Washington Capitals spent the evening in that benign growth of land dangling unloved off the mainland. There they met the New York Islanders (29th in the league in… oh let’s just say everything). But the Caps didn’t play down to their competition. Instead they looked like the studs we know deep down they really are. But looks can be deceiving.

Nick Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin delivered a masterful possession that Jason Chimera finished off from the goal mouth. Backstrom then broke his 21-game goalless streak by cleaning up an Ovechkin rebound. On a rail, NYI’s Michael Grabner beat John Carlson’s coverage and Braden Holtby’s read to put the Islanders on the board, but the third period was scoreless. Caps beat Isles 2-1.

• Woohoo! We scoared first!
• Both of the Caps’ goals came from point-blank distances directly in front of the net. The NHL has the shot distances as 5 and 11 feet, but I think Backstrom’s was closer. Good crashing, boys!
• John Erskine‘s participation in tonight’s game was reportedly a last-minute decision. He played, but that might not have been the right move. Big John was on ice for 6 of the 7 Islander scoring chances at even strength, and he also caught an angry puck in the foot. I wouldn’t be surprised if Friday is another maintenance day for good ol’ 4.
• Both of the Caps’ markers came on the backs of the team’s evanescent top line (current version: Ovechkin-Backstrom-Chimera). Nick Backstrom had a goal and an assist, Alex Ovechkin two assists, Jason Chimera a goal. Expect to see this combo again.
• Alex Ovechkin himself is becoming an increasingly greater eight, earning 7 Caps scoring chances and allowing only 3 against. That Alex got only one shot on goal and still found success bodes well for this road trip.
• On the telecast, CSN’s Joe Beninati dropped the magic words, Russian machine never break(s), and Craig Laughlin mentioned Braden’s Holtbyisms. For a bunch of dudes who sit on couches, we had a big night.
• Speaking of Braden Holtby, he looked comfortable and in control in net. He blocked 24 shots, 17 of which were valid scoring chances. 10 of those came while the Caps were shorthanded. Yes, he’s still doing that wacky “I’m gonna clear the puck all by myself!” thing, but Braden was definitely our best penalty killer regardless. After a rough stint with the team a few months back, Holtby totally deserved the celebratory embrace of Matt Hendricks.
• Boyd Gordon and Backstrom were puck monsters on the face-off dot. Gordon won 12 of 14, and Backy won 10 of 14. Superb.
• The Capitals killed six penalties, which is where the lion’s share of the Islanders’ scoring chances came from. Those 10 PP scoring chances are a season worst for the Capitals. Mike Green and Jeff Schultz saw 8 of those 10 up close. If this were any team but the Islanders, this game wouldn’t have been a win.
• And it’s not as if the Caps were dominant at even strength either. The shots on goal were almost a tie: 25-24 in the Isles’ favor, and the Isles also outchanced the Caps 9-7.

Joe B's suit of the night

No one’s unhappy about the win. Seriously, we’re delighted. But there should be a measure of caution in the triumph. The Caps did play an inferior opponent, but they committed a bunch of penalties. They crashed the net, but their defense was spotty. So let’s be both grateful for the standings points and attentive to the lessons. It’s still a long way to May.

A final note: Caps expatriate/current Avalancher, Tomas Fleischmann, will miss the rest of the season due to pulmonary emboli. Even if this isn’t related to the blood clot in his leg that cost him a chunk of last season, there is still reason to worry for Flash. RMNB wishes a speedy recovery to our beloved ginger weirdo.

Ian has the reins for Saturday’s dance with the Maple Leafs. I’ll be at the Dismemberment Plan concert!

Additional reporting by Neil Greenberg, who has beat me in our last two matches of Words With Friends.

RMNB mention in D2 of The Washington Post’s Sports Section.

The Machinist is where RMNB takes a look back at the week that was.

First off, big ups to Dan Steinberg for coining our new tagline: The world’s foremost authority on Holtbyisms.

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   Not exactly flush with options for a second-line center, Neil suggests patience in developing MJ90.
3. Breaking Down The Capitals Line Combinations
   Neil Greenberg revels in the triumph of Alex Semin and bargains for more Boyd Gordon.
4. Reader Reports: Alex Ovechkin Signs DVDs at Sterling Best Buy
   The article that has inspired literally tens of people to buy Avoid Responsibility t-shirts.
5. Prospect Watch: Cody Eakin Scores OTGWG on His Own Bobblehead Night
   Would be worth it even if it was just the Cody Eakin bobblehead photo.

Game Recaps

1. Sabres 3, Capitals 2 (OT) – “All penalties are four minutes. It’s a new rule. Did you not get the memo?”
2. Capitals 6, Thrashers 4 – “an out-of-control garbage truck full of terminally ill kittens”
3. Caps 4, Sabres 2 – “Matt Bradley soars on the wings of griffins and plucks dragon teeth for sport.”

You can also read all about how the can of 12.5% ABV caffeinated whoop arse the Hershey Bears opened up on the Senators and the Crunch, but you have probably already bookmarked Sweetest Hockey on Earth, right?