Here’s Doug Johnson of Puck Buddys with your pregame report. Follow @PuckBuddys.

The Pregame: Well, hello you! Pollyanna Sunshine, reporting for duty! And here’s my colleague, Peppy Miller! Rah Team!

OK, glum-dums. Tides have a way of turning. Or so Barbara Streisand tells me. Sure, watching the Capitals this season has been exactly like watching the tides rush in and out, depositing a fresh crop of flotsam and hope on the shore at high tide before sucking it all back out to sea, leaving behind dead jellyfish and despair. But…

Bring Out The Zamboni

Let’s be clear. We are not going into excuse mode, which seems to be the default for senior Caps management (despite Ted’s “Unacceptable” post, pssh.) There’s a wide gap between losing after playing hard, and just acting like losers. Monday night was an impeachable offense. Of course, we’re pointing out the merely gape-mouthed obvious here because, well, it makes us feel a little superior. That, and there appears to be a “merely obvious gap” at Kettler these days.

Shall we go on? Oh lets. Bruce Boudreau was not the problem. Dale Hunter has not been the solution. Yanking Tomas Vokoun did not change momentum. Alex Ovechkin is not going to be replaced as Captain. The 2012 Presidential election will be dreadful. Ryan Kesler needs a boyfriend. Don’t make us continue, because we will.

And yet -because what’s an argument with a yet – we still believe this can be done. We can make it to the Holy Land in April. We just have to do one thing: start acting like the team we’re haven’t proven ourselves to be so far.

Ummm…yeah. And here’s how we start. We down the Senators Wednesday night by doing a few things, and then we keep on doing those things.

Yes, this is what it’s come to. Teh PuckBuddys are giving ice advice. Suck it up.

The Puck Drop

• 

  Jason Spezza

  Oh, Them:The Senators have been Caps-like this season, just in slower motion. We’re on one game, off the next. The Sens; it’s more like on 8 games, off the next 10. Result, and trust me this is something I never thought I would be writing, ever, the Senators (31-22-8) are ahead of the Capitals 29-25-5) in conference standings. Much of the credit goes to four jokers; three we’ve previously mentioned. Erik Karlsson (or Karl Karlsson) at 12G/45A, plus-14 has totally stepped up his game of late, Milan Michalek (25G/14, minus-2) continues being a threat, and some fossil named Alffrreddssonn (20G/24A, plus-9 and ancient.) Bottle them up.

• Don’t Spezza Out: But Jason Spezza, at an astounding 27G/38A, plus-6, is prince of the Senators of late. Late’s an appropriate word, as Spezza has long promised more than he delivered. Why is he firing of late? In part because the entire Sens squad is playing open: moving the puck fast and loose, and earning its wins on the talents of a few hot players (Spezzatini has 14 points in 5 games, the jerk.) Loose is unlike a lot of squads these days, and disciplined is how they come down. Leading to:
• Hey, We Like Playing Ottawa: Loose means at both ends. Sure, they got a shut out against the Islanders (snicker) but we, and others have a way of getting lots of pucks in their nets. That, and a free-flying offense probably leaves them weaker at the D-end, which points the way to how we win this game. Besides, we’re 3-0 so far against the Senators, so we’ve got some number of theirs figured out. (And how delicious is it that Washington is eating Senators? Oh, Howell Heflin, where are you now that we need you?)
• Smells Like Team Spirit: I am likely an idiot when it comes to sophisticated NHL strategems. But even this idiot knows not to disspirit a team. We have not been playing like a team, I think (ahem) exactly because we’re not being coached and governed like a team. It’s a bit intangible, but every game-day move, line-shift and healthy scratch I see appears more about individuals than team. Wanna win? Be a team that wins. And that means fostering that team spirit – coaches.

Prediction

Erik Karlsson

Enough yippity-yap. Capitals pull it out. Capitals move pucks to goal. Capitals keep it on Offense and go up by 2 at the end of the third.

Why so bold? Because if we can’t do this – if we can’t defeat the squad we’ve already defeated three times – then we’re not a team. Meaning: it’s time for a major gut job.

Sports don’t come down to one game, until they do. Just ask Coach Boudreau. This is a game that matters muchly.

Meme Of The Night

SCOAR! Brooks Laich celebrates his game-winner. (Photo credit Rob Carr)

As we venture into the Dale Hunter era, each game reveals new layers of the Washington Capitals’ game. In Saturday night’s meeting with the Ottawa Senators, we got all of that. And as a special bonus, we got a W, the first for Coach Hunter’s NHL career.

Before the game was two minutes old, Nick Backstrom did everything right to score, a feat made easier by Alex Ovechkin drawing two Senators away. Early in the second, Erik Karlsson sent the puck through traffic and tied it up. In the third, Ovi sent a picture-perfect pass through the seam to Troy Brouwer, who converted the short-side. Milan Michalek tied it up late while Neuvirth was sprawled out. Then Brooks Laich slayed the Sens in overtime. Caps beat Sens 3-2 (OT).

• Congrats to Dale Hunter on his first win. We’ll get back to this at the end of the post.
• Here’s an unavoidable point: the Capitals are a lot less fun to watch these days. Le sigh. Gone are the days of face-off one-timers, of blazing shots and searing breakaways, of wine and roses.
• At least the guys are leveling hits like crazy. 24 by the Caps tonight, spread out pretty evenly among the team. Some of them were monsters too, including the highlight-reel Ovechkin-Greening hit.
• But hits are sugary sweets that only good boys get to have if they first eat their vegetables. In the world of this awful analogy, eating veggies means converting power plays, which the Caps failed to do on four opportunities. Boo.
• The Hendricks-Perreault-Halpern trio was bred like Orcs for grinding in the offensive zone. The Senators looked like they had been chugging NyQuil by the end of their shifts.
• Jeff Halpern won 7 of 8 faceoffs. Yeah, he’s good.
• That Milan Michalek goal puts him in a 3-way tie with Kessel and Stamkos for goal scoring (16).
• Brooks Laich, quietly celebrating his 500th NHL game, had a good one. 6 Shots, 1 OTGWG.
• Also marking his 500th game was The Great Eight, Alex Ovechkin. Ovi’s o-zone presence made Backstrom’s goal possible, and he recorded the primary assist on Brouwer’s goal. Ovi leveled a few monster hits as well. He’s still doing that move where he enters the zone, cuts to the middle, and then fails to use the defender as a screen. You know– the same one the NHL figured out in the winter of 2009. So that’s still a thing.
• Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson doesn’t even need a seat on the bench; he does everything on ice. He scored the Sens’ only goal, committed a penalty (which is no big deal against the Caps since they can’t score), and logged 26:27 ice time.
• Nick Backstrom is 7th in the NHL in assists with 18. First place is one of the weird Sedins with 21, which begs the question: how awesome would Backstrom be if the people he passed to could actually score?

Holy heck, the Washington Capitals won a hockey game! Congratulations to Dale Hunter on winning his first game as a Cap since March 20, 1999. To celebrate the win, here’s a song by Mastodon off their latest album, aptly titled The Hunter.

I’ll rearrange your face for you. . .  / I wanna break some [bleeping] glass / I wanna squeeze you ’til you’re inside out / I want it all

Cool lyrics. Would’ve been a bit more appropriate if Erskine and Konopka got into it. Oh well.

Have a great Saturday night everyone!

Joe B suit of the night, super-sized.

Photo credit: Rob Carr

Puck Buddys’ Doug Johnson takes full responsibility for this post. Twitter: @PuckBuddys. 

The Pre-Game: Interesting fact: did you know that the North American Otter (Enhydra lutris) has to eat roughly 25% of its body weight in food every day just to survive? True! Like, how many Dippin’ Dots would that be? AND that in the ancient Zoroastrian religion, that otters were considered holy beings?! So Wow, I mean like…

Oh. Oh, it’s the Ottawa Senators. Oh lolz! If you could see my face blushing.

Actually, we have enough blush, and not in an endearing way, left over from Thursday night. Although we cautioned, and predicted moments, we didn’t – and simply never ever will – go on the record predicting a Pens victory over the Caps, despite our well-shared worries. Sure, it wasn’t a blow-out. Yeah, Erskine earned himself a pelt off one of the birds, in just payment for Beags (IMHO.) And yes, even hobbled offensively as we are (and whyis that, exactly?) and with all the turmoil and blah blah go freaking tell your shrink because I don’t give a damn we kept them to one point. Whoot!  A loss by only one point!

Which says a lot about where we’re at. Too much. Too, too much, if you ask us, girlfriends.

So you leave us no choice. We didn’t want it to come to this. But frankly, Washington, you’ve given us little recourse.

The PuckBuddys are pulling the Tim Gunn Emergency Alarm, and setting the Caps rescue in motion. This Saturday, it’s ALL GAYS ON DECK!

The Puck Drop

Whoop! All menz on hand! Whoop whoop! And all womenz! Oh Snapz, it’s Rainin’ Menz N’ Wymnz! Yes, Washington, this is what you have forced us to. Teh gays are swooping in to bolster and lift up our sagging Caps, simply because nobody else seems able to help.

#Self-Promotion Alert! The PuckBuddys, makers of mischief, brittle observations, and vituperative comments this Saturday are throwing a party at Verizon Center and you’re all invited! All Caps fans & friends are welcome, but particularly the GLBT…or is that LGBT…or is it LTBTgG?…ugh, whatever, the rainbow of all of us and their friends are encouraged to come to Verizon and show off their Red! And Purple, and Pink, and Lord knows what else. Just show up in a splash of pink or purple, and get ready to get rowdy with the party boys up in 411.

Leaving us no better cue for…

Why They’re Hot

Mary, have you seen that team? Ottawa is where blah goes to die. Or at least live out its retirement on the Rideau canal. But if we must…

Daniel Alfredsson

1: “Slutty, slutty, slutty!” Oh LordaMighty, before we were even really playing, or before we stopped really playing, we met up with the Sens in early October. We largely stick by our earlier comments then. In sum: Sens = pheh. Frankly we’ve seen less gay teams in “300,” and by gay we mean G-A-Y, jerks. They’ve got some skillerz, among them (as we mentioned) Sergei Gonchar (a Backstrom-like 2G-15A, plus-3), Milan Michalek (15G-6A, minus-2) and Alfredo-son, or whatever (with a little white sauce at 5G-6A, minus-4.) Then there’s Jason Spezza (9G-14A, minus-5), a real mixed bag, but what a bag! Not like the other guys are all that mixed, if you get my drift.

Yeah, pretty much everything today is going to be a gay joke. So boo-hoo, strap in and get going, crybabies. And don’t act like you don’t enjoy it.

2: “I’m Concerned.” At 12-11-2 overall, and 6-7-1 on the road, the Sens are, like we said, pheh. There are a couple pockets of talent on this team, good for you, but we’re concerned by how many goals they give up on average, 3.4 per game. For anyone not conversant in hockey, that’s a lot. We actually think Paul MacLean can bring this team together, a la the Detroit Lions of late. But it ain’t happnin Saturday. Or, at least, let’s not let it start.

3: “Pretty Can Be Boring.” Going out on the limb that all the H8Trs will sawz-all off here. The Senators aren’t incompetent. The coaching squad actually gets it. But, for some reason, the Senators this season, and most of the past ones, continue to play “good square” hockey. Meaning: unimaginative. Technically accomplished, but failing. Which reminds us both of boyfriends past – pretty enough, but just not quite there. A team needs a spark to ignite (can you hear us now, Alex?) just like a relationship of any lasting value needs sparks to ignite the fire.

The Senators just don’t have it. The Caps need to rediscover it.

We depart from our usual disparagement of the opponents to focus on what can make the Capitals winners. And thus we give you:

Why We’re Hotter

1: “Don’t Get Too Judi Jetson.” How many times do we need to watch the plum fruits of the NHL, juicily playing for the Capitals, get cute, arcane, dry and dead in the opponent’s zone? Pass, pass, pass, pass CRIMINY just SHOOT THE PUCK you want to scream. Or, perhaps like us, you have. Capitals: we get you don’t want to waste opportunities. (heart) you for that. But can you stop getting too cute by two halves? Nobody would wear Judi Jetson’s couture these days (save for the late Alexander McQueen) and we really don’t need to see such elegant play set-up without results now. Stop being cute and start shooting. Srsly, you really need games to look a little less like practice. Or, perhaps, you need practices to look a little more like games.

2: “Go, Go, Go!” Get off your flippin’ feet and go. Period. Done. End. STOP. Really tired of saying it. I’m not paid to move like lightening on the ice, and if I were, I wouldn’t be for long. You are. We get it. We love you for your talent. Now please, please, just move the freakin’ skates and get going. I’m an old man, but it wasn’t but one year ago I was wasting 25 year olds in fitness competitions. Just do it. Grr. Arrgh. What else do I have to say? In the word of Tim Gunn: Go Go Go!

3: “Make It Work!” Two words. Jason Chimera. Seriously, do you actually see the goals he gets? How many of you are left scratching your heads, asking ‘Really? Did that actually work?’ We HEART Chimmer, and wish him moar and moar in the season. And we bring him up because he, and a few other Caps, actually seem to get this basic idea: just make it work. I don’t care if it’s a silk organza strapless (I should know what that is, but I’m embarrassed to say I don’t) number, or a dump-chase-crash choreography on the ice, each of you really just have to invest in it and MAKE IT WORK. Don’t make a slender gay man holler at you: please just pay attention to what you’re doing, perform, and make it work.

The OT and ShootOut: While we’ve taken to flight from the RMNB net, the PuckBuddys on our own are one year after hatching. It began as a goof, and has become something so many people value. Which means we have almost everybody to thank. We’ve made so many friends, among them our overlords at RMNB who, for some unknown reason, tolerate us. We’re thankful to the entire Caps Commisariat, the Caps organization, and Uncle Ted for making us welcome.

Just imagine how much we’re going to piss you off in our next year!

We love you all. Come Saturday. Come say hi. Come give us a punch in the arm. We’re open and ready for a new year.

Doug Johnson of PuckBuddys writes for Russian Machine. Tweet tweet.

Anyone who’s had the misfortune to spend time in Ottawa has had the quintessential Canadian city experience: clean, cultured, and quietly disappointing. All the maple doughnuts and Labatt’s in the world can’t hide the fact that Ottawa is as appealing as lap dance from Marcus Bachmann. Puzzlingly, everyone seems mostly OK with this… albeit in a polite, deferential way. Ottawantarians seem to take civic pride in their shared, outstanding blahness. Just look the Senators.

First, there’s that name. Senators. Yeah, it’s a hat-tip to the first Senators to hit the ice way back when, winning a raft of Stanley Cups before moving down to St. Louis (we’d rather live in Ottawa, thank you) and disbanding after just a year. But then was then: how many teams have the word “Knickerbocker”, or “Stockings”, or “Amalgamated” in their names lately? Only in Ottawa (and tiny, deluded pockets of Washington) do people equate the word “Senator” with youthful male athleticism.

Senator

Second, when we think of the Senators, the first people who come to mind are those who aren’t with the team any more. Like the infuriatingly brilliant Jacques Martin, who arguably built up a new team from near scratch and got them Cup-ready, only to be heaved out on his ass by management. Hooray! How’d that work out for you, Sens? Or Mike Fisher, the aging center who, while decent when with Ottawa, we remember mostly for being dreamy. (We hear he’s living with some banjo player down south or something now.) We would continue *cough DanyHeatley cough*, but it’s tedious.

Which brings us back around to the Senators. Boring may be the nicest thing we can say about them. We get that they’re in a rebuilding phase, and that things can get– well– embarrassing. (Like the Detroit Lions for the last… three decades.) Whatever! Being our frosty neighbors to the north, we want to be respectful. But they’re not making it easy.

Daniel Alfredsson

The Senators are off to a slow start this year; rather like the year before, and the one before that. Their home opener had moments of good hockey, and got them a W, but it’s their only W so far. (And Thursday’s collapse to the Avalanche? Someone get me a bucket.)

38-year-old fossil Daniel Alfredsson (2G, 1A, minus-6) may be a short guy, but he’s solid, and turning in some solid performances so far this season. And what does it say about your team when the old man is the hot one – both on the ice, and off. (OK, not everyone gets the whole ‘ginger’ thing.) Newbie Craig Anderson may not be all that in the looks department, but he’s doing alright in the crease. He’s not posting Neuvy numbers, but they’re still at the low end of meh (.853 SV%, 5.07 GAA, 4 GP). And it seems his groin is holding up, unlike Neuvy’s.

Nikita Filatov

Czech winger Milan Michalek has tallied 3 goals and 2 assists so far this season, all the while maintaining his Bel Ami-inspired hair. Chris Neil‘s (1G, 1A) another player to watch during the game, as would have been Nikita Filatov (although for different reasons)until he received his bus ticket to Binghamton, to play on the Sens farm team. Former Caps D-man Sergei Gonchar is in the mix, but he’s done nothing notable since leaving Pittsburgh.

There’s more players we could go over, but why bother? The Senators have just not been able to make it happen offensively (maybe it’s a Canadian thing?) and– as the Avs debacle demonstrated– they’re hardly better on defense. But I dunno, you do just feel for these guys. Perhaps it’s all the crying we hear coming from their locker room? Sorry– make that stifled Canadian sobbing.

So let’s do something Washington has never done before, eh? Let’s just make a lazy, over-paid, over-nourished group of failures feel un-naturally welcome and self-entitled while we watch and laugh at their buffoonish antics, all while being fleeced for the privilege. Unless you get enough of that on C-SPAN. Anyhow – after our first three games (frenzies) of the new season, we’re certainly due to invoke some Senatorial privilege.

Colin Greening celebrates his goal; Varly is not pleased. (Photo credit: Phillip MacCallum)

Well, where do even begin? Poor effort, non-existent offense, a goalie playing in his first game since the 20th of February and some, let’s just say, interesting officiating. Those four things combined make the blueprint for how you find a way to lose to the worst team in the Eastern Conference.

Nothing of interest happened in the first period, but there was another meaningless D.J. King fight just under three minutes into the game.

The Senators’ Colin Greening opening the scoring at 13:25 in the second frame. After a scramble in front of the net, Greening appeared to kick not only the puck, but Capitals ‘keeper Semyon Varlamov’s whole pad past the goal-line. The big wigs in Toronto took a look at it, but the play stood. 1-0 Sens.

Both teams registered eight shots on goal in the second period — with the Capitals having the best chance on an Alexander Semin breakaway — yet no one would tally.

Just over two minutes into the third stanza, Erik Condra pushed the Senators’ lead to two. After a Karl Alzner giveaway, Condra picked up Milan Michalek’s backhand no-look feed and wristed it pass Varlamov.

The real action, however, would happen just under 13 minutes into the period when Matt Bradley laid-out Patrick Wiercioch at the goal-line. Though the hit appeared to be a legal shoulder to chest hit, the Sens and referees took exception. First Ottawa’s Zach Smith jumped Bradley, forcing him to duel. Smith got the win in the ’bout, but correctly received an instigator penalty for his instigating. However, the refs called Bradley boarding, one thing the hit almost certainly was not as Bradley and Wiercioch were 12 feet from the dashers when the hit occurred. That would be it. Ho-hum. Sens blank Caps, 2-0.

• Bruce Boudreau coached his 300th career NHL game Friday night. Not only does he have the highest winning percentage amongst all active bench bosses, he has also accumulated the most victories in league history over his first 300 games. The top five includes Boudreau (184), Mike Keenan (183), Toe Blake (176), Don Cherry (176) and Dave Tippett (172).
• Despite netting the only goals of the night, the Senators only out-chanced the Capitals by one (16-15). Of the Caps scoring chances, a third of them came on their three power plays, though they obviously failed to convert on them.
• Brooks Laich was stellar, racking up four individual scoring chances while also being on the ice for seven of the Capitals ten even-strength ones. Laich also registered seven shots on goal, three hits and a blocked shot.
• D.J. King and Francis Lessard must be bros, because all they did in their fight was hug it out. Get a room.
• Early in the first period, Matt Hendricks absorbed a careless high-stick to the right side of the head from David Hale. A clear penalty, Hendricks fell to the ice clutching his noggin’. The hit opened up a cut and Hale — aware of his transgression — immediately skated to the penalty box to do his time. That’s when the craziness got underway. The four officials met by the box before suddenly Hale was asked to leave the sin bin. Hendricks, when interviewed after the game, explained that one on-ice officials initially called a four-minute double minor for high sticking. However, the other three officials overruled the penalty and said that he was kicked with a skate. O RLY? That might be one of the most bizarre sequences we’ve ever seen. Hendricks later took another high-stick, this time from Condra. The Capitals were actually awarded a power play that time. The officials weren’t the reason why the Caps lost, but they sure did made us want to throw stuff at the television.

• That reminds us… every time Ian heard Condra’s name mentioned during the telecast, all he could think of was this.
• Matt Bradley tried his best to awake the Capitals in the third period by knocking Patrick Wiercioch on his tush, engaging Zach Smith in a fight, and bleeding… everywhere. Despite swarming the Ottawa net on their next few shifts, the Capitals couldn’t capitalize on the momentum Bradley created and were shutout for the tenth time this season. RMNB reader Kirsten O. reports that this was the first time in four fights where Brads has shed red. At least Marcus Johansson has a stitches buddy now!
• Alex Semin continued his confounding behavior, taking an offensive zone stick penalty and then almost scoring on a breakaway upon leaving the box. I know we say this every game, but really, come back soon Mr. Arnott.
• Marcus Johansson went one for ten in the faceoff dot. Yikes.
• In the Caps’ past 11 games without Alex Ovechkin, the club has gone 8-2-1 and averaged 4.5 goals per game. Well, I guess we all knew that wasn’t going to last forever.
• It’s hard to blame Semyon Varlamov for Friday’s loss. As I stated earlier, he appeared to have been interfered with on one goal and at least partially screened on another. That’s on top of the fact that the Russian didn’t originally expect to start tonight, his first game in 34 days. Al Koken reports that Michal Neuvirth is ill, but not injured. Koken also says that Braden Holtby has been called and is on his way up to meet the team, though he has not officially been called-up to the Capitals. As if Washington’s goalie situation could get any less clear.
• 

  Joe B. Suit of the Night

  Joe B.‘s Suit of the Night needs to be burned, sacrificed to the hockey gods and never spoken of again.

Yes, Friday night was a lack-luster performance at the least, but the Caps (and their fans) have to block it out and move on to the next one. Speaking of which, Washington will get that chance to forget about it in less than 24 hours as they take on the Canadiens in the last game of the Caps’ six game road trip.

Additional reporting by Ian Oland and Neil Greenberg.

Jason Chimera’s bank shot off Bryan Elliott merits celebration. (Photo credit: Greg Fiume)

The Washington Capitals came back to earn a crucial win over the Ottawa Senators on a sleepy Sunday afternoon. The worst first period team in hockey, the Caps did nothing to shake off that label today. But a late-game effort kicked off by the team’s morale leader woke them up to snatch two much-needed standings points.

Only 72 seconds into the bout, Mike Fisher scored Ottawa’s only goal while Jeff Schultz wandered aimlessly behind the net. Forty six minutes later, forechecking Brooks Laich snatched a turnover from the slot, tying the game and rousing his team in the process. Forty five seconds later and just two ticks into a power play, John Carlson bombed Bryan Elliott for the go-ahead goal. And then Jason Chimera banked one off the goalie’s back for some insurance. Caps beat Sens 3-1.

• This win was desperately needed. The Capitals have a scary schedule in the next month and a half. Entering this game with only a 5 point buffer between them and 9th place, the W was imperative.
• That said, the Capitals’ win came despite an agonizingly inert opening period. They had only five shots in the opening frame, and were way too eager to let an ugly goal against deflate them.
• Brooks Laich is not the team’s captain, but he is definitely the team’s leader. He speaks frankly, never dissembling, about problems with motivation and systems. Although not a typical goal scorer, he’s the team’s most reliable forward. His tying goal in this game was perfect. He did it on a vigorous forecheck per BBBB’s instructions, he positioned himself in front of the net, and he got his team pumped up to win. You don’t need a flashy video package to unleash the fury, you just need BL21. (Bonus: adorable.)
• John Carlson‘s GWG was the team’s only power play scoring chance on 2:02 of 5v4 time. The first period’s PP did demonstrate a few changes in the system however: Alex Ovechkin was off the point, dancing in the slot, while the Mike Green and Carlson helped put the puck on target. No results from the configuration yet, but if they can get zone entry sorted out, we could see a resurgence of the Capitals man-advantage team soon.
• Speaking of reconfigurations, Bruce is trying a brute-force attack on his line combinations. MJ90 centering the top line with Knuble at wing, MJ90 at wing with Backstrom at center, Backstrom demoted down to share time with A. Gordon on the third line, and Hershey’s Jay Beagle and Matty Perreault on the second. Total chaos, but at least he’s not stubbornly sticking to what doesn’t work.
• Nick Backstrom earned his demotion. He did win the face-off that led to Carlson’s PPGWG, but he also is goalless in twenty games and was on ice for only 4 scoring chances (3 while with Ovechkin and Johansson). Compare that to the other Swede, who saw 11 of the team’s 19 scoring chances. Sad to say it, but Backstrom has disappeared into the background.
• As far as I’m concerned, Michal Neuvirth got a shutout today.

• Alex Semin has apparently been placed on IR. Apropos for the team’s cipher, his injury remains undisclosed. With Matt Bradley and Eric Fehr also out (we’re awaiting a prognosis for his shoulder/collarbone injury), Hershey’s own Andrew Gordon took the trip down to D.C. for the game. But Andrew didn’t have a great game: 0 scoring chances for and 2 against over a team-low 8:42 TOI.
• Since the losing slump, Scott Hannan has asserted himself as the new reliable cornerstone of the Caps’ D-corps. He saw 6 scoring chances for and only one against.
• Milan Michalek crosschecked Karl Alzner headlong into the boards. It could have been a disastrous injury, but Karl returned to the ice not long after. Michalek should have received a major penalty for the infraction, but instead served only two seconds of the sentence. You see, the other half of Carlzner doesn’t take that nonsense lying down. Total vengeance goal. Alzner, unsinkable, got the secondary assist on Chimera’s tally.

Joe B's suit of the night

This very easily could have been a loss. A shutout loss, on the heels of several bad beats and in advance of a daunting road trip, would have been bad news. We’re already in the process of attenuating our expectations– nay, aspirations– for this team’s post-season prospects. With the team’s best players still phoning it in, an inconsequential power play unit, and some bad injuries, the team has to go full bore from the opening puck drop. Today we only saw that full effort in the third period, once Brooks Laich (who, unless you forgot in the last minute, is not team captain) invoked it personally. Thanks to that, the Capitals are once again tied for #1 in the Southeast.

So yeah. A win is a win and all that, but there are still miles to go before the Caps can sleep. Philly on Tuesday!

Additional reporting by Neil Greenberg, whom children adore.