A game-changing fight? Matt Bradley fights Paul Mara immediately after Travis Moen's fluky goal. (Photo credit: Richard Wolowic)

#Winning (Photo credit: Richard Wolowicz)

Returning to the Bell Center for the first time since the ill-fated 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Washington Capitals got a little bit of revenge Tuesday night, extending their winning streak to nine games in the process.

The game got off to a positively wild start with two goals and a fight in the first 1:48 of play. After Tomas Plekanec was called for a hooking penalty the Caps headed to an early power play. With a  lot help from the end boards, Marcus Johansson put the Caps up 1-nil as the dump-in from Dennis Wideman bounced right in front to the waiting Swede. Just 26 seconds later, however, Travis Moen tied things up on another odd play behind the net. Washington netminder Braden Holtby attempted to rim the puck along the boards but instead passed it right to Moen in the corner who fired the biscuit into the wide open net. Just over 20 seconds later the action continued with Matt Bradley and Paul Mara dropping the gloves right off the face-off in a bout that ended in a draw. At 13:23, Brooks Laich put the Caps on top 2-1 after picking up the perfect outlet pass from Karl Alzner, who was on the ice for nine more scoring chances and just one against. Whew. Another calm night in Montreal, I see.

Andrei Kostitsyn continued the back-and-forth play 3:28 into the second period, firing a wicked wrist-shot pass Holtby’s catching glove. Washington put forth a fury of shots in the remainder of the frame, racking up 19 for the period. It would be to no avail, however, and the teams would head to the third knotted up.

Johansson would strike once again at 6:43 in the final period, putting home a perfect backhand pass from Alex Ovechkin to give the Caps the lead. Just over ten minutes later, Mike Knuble would seal the deal converting on a two-on-one with Marco Sturm after Sturm delivered a perfect pass to the veteran winger. Take that, Frenchies. Caps top Habs, 4-2.

• Ovechstreak! Ovechstreak!
• Marcus Johansson‘s two goals were clutch. But it’s his skating, forechecking and willingness to shoot that’s impressed us. After chucking a game-high seven shots against Chicago on Sunday Johansson followed up that performance with four shots against the Habs. He was also on the ice for nine scoring chances for and only four against. Johansson’s confidence appears to be growing by the day.
• But it was John Carlson who might have been the Capitals player of the game. He drew the Caps first power play of the game 45 seconds in, rifled six shots at Carey price and blocked two more. He was on the ice for 14 scoring chances for — 10 at even strength — and only one against.
• Per Katie Carrera, Washington has outscored their opponents 13 to two in the third period during their current nine-game winning streak. That’s what I call a killer instinct.
• Braden Holtby gets a bullet not for his goaltending, but for his secondary assist on Johansson’s opening tally. It was the first career helper for the young ‘keeper and prompted this tweet from Caps prospect Andrew Gordon:
  

  If holtby gets more NHL points than me this year im going to be upset. Haha. I currently have a one point lead.less than a minute ago via txtAndrew Gordon
  AndrewGordon10

• Scott Hannan blocked a game-high six shots, twice as many as the next closest player.
• The quote of the night goes to Joe B.’s simile in the third period. After Holtby quickly broke up a scoring chance with his stick, Beninati said of the NHL’s reigning number one star “Holtby flashes the poke-check like a lizard tongue.” Wow.
• It appears Eric Fehr may have re-injured his shoulder just a minute into the second period after a collision just inside the Capitals baseline. After falling to the ice awkwardly he skated off the ice, seeming to favor his right side. The Capitals said after the game that he had an upper-body injury and would be re-evaluated tomorrow. Before sustaining his injury Fehr was on the ice for five chance -for and none against in 4:23 of even-strength ice time. It will be a huge loss for the Caps if Fehr’s services are gone for another long stretch of time.
• Matt Bradley gets a bullet for his heads-up first-period scrap with towering defenseman Paul Mara. After Holtby’s flubbed clearing attempt found its way into the back of the net 20 seconds after Johansson’s game-opening goal, it was Bradley who grabbed momentum back from the Habs with his dust-up.

• FYI: Matt Hendricks‘ no-goal was a goal. Someone tell the guys in Toronto to stop hatin.’ Regardless, Hendricks finished the game with five shots while registering three hits.
• Finally, Caps fans should send Pernell Karl Subban a thank you card for tonight’s victory. After Alex Ovechkin entered the offensive zone with a full head of steam the 2007 second round pick unwisely went for the big hit.
  

  Joe B.'s Suit of the Night

  Naturally, Ovechkin pushed him aside like a rag doll, found the puck in Subban’s skates, and tossed a pass to a wide-open Marcus Johansson for the game’s deciding goal. How did Subban react after Johansson scored? Immaturely. The Toronto native slammed his stick to the ice twice before pouting all the way to the Montreal bench. Subban is a great player, but he needs to grow up.

Now, it’s on to the Motor City as Washington will look to extend their winning streak into double digits. Won’t you join us?

Additional reporting by Neil Greenberg and Ian Oland.

Aww (Photo credit: our own Chris Gordon)

The quintessential 2010-2011 Washington Capitals game includes a worthless first period, so the opening frame of tonight’s date with the Montreal Canadiens was surprisingly invigorating. If only the rest of the game could have followed suit.

Mathieu Perreault capped off an extended shift in the offensive zone with a takeaway and five-hole goal on Carey Price. On the powerplay, Mike Knuble filed some paperwork in his office to give the Caps an early and pleasant 2-0 lead. In the second period, Brian Gionta launched a rocket on a 2-on-1 breakaway to put the Habs on the board. Then John Carlson’s failed drop pass led to another breakaway and another goal for Gionta. OT was exciting but scoreless, and we found our way to that old standby: the shootout.

Nick Backstrom led off, beating Carey Price but ringing iron. Brian Gionta, the bastard, scored top-shelf on Varlamov. Matt Hendricks pulled that same darn move again, but Price saw it coming. James Wisniewski’s attempt was covered by Varly. Alex Ovechkin, in a must-score situation, didn’t. Game over. Habs beat Caps 3-2 (SO).

• Semyon Varlamov does not deserve the team in front of him. Knocking down 36 of 38 pucks, Varly was nearly flawless (yeah, except that one empty net thing). If Bruce Boudreau can supplement his stellar goaltending with some offense, the Capitals might become a viable team again. Man, that sentence felt weird to write.
• Alex Ovechkin had three shots on goal. Two came in the final five minutes. That’s an awful showing, but at least we got to seem him square off with P.K. Subban a few times. In the third, Ovi stopped at center ice, letting Subban collide with him and submarining him high into the air. That’ll look good on a highlight reel.

• If you ignore one column on the stat sheet, Brooks Laich didn’t have a bad game. He was a rock on the perfect penalty kill and was one-third of perhaps the team’s best line. But his three penalties (a slash, a hook, a trip, BINGO!), robbed the team of valuable even-strength time that they would have squandered anyway. But let’s throw this out there: Brooks pulled more un-whistled penalties than any player on the ice. For a while there, he was Montreal’s cross-check dummy. I would have played him in the shootout, but that’s just me.
• 

  Hint: here's how you score.

  How exactly did the Caps’ long-suffering power play finally score? Mike Knuble went to the goal mouth as Mike Green got haughtily creative in feeding him. The worst cliché in hockey is consistently true: go to the net; good things will happen.
• The null side of that hypothesis was expertly tested by John Carlson. Graceful as kleptomaniac seagull at center ice, he gulped up a loose puck and entered the Habs zone all by himself. Late in a period in which the Capitals would only shoot six pucks at Carey Price, Carlson opted out of shooting, instead dropping back to… no one in particular. That broken play led to Montreal’s tying goal, and it exemplified the offensive meh-titude that this team can’t seem to shake.
• But hey: perfect penalty kill ain’t bad. The Canadiens definitely made them earn it.

So I have a new rule. If the Caps can’t put 10 pucks on net in each period, we’re not allowed to make excuses for them. The Caps went 9, 6, and 9 tonight. No effort means no excuses.

Al Koken suit of the night

These recaps are tedious. No one wants to relive an agonizing loss, and I don’t want to play the sanctimonious dilettante firing missives from his couch. It’s so much more fun to watch a win, to write about a win, and to read about a win. I know it’s gotta be the same for the players. If they were winning, they’d be having more fun, and if they were having fun they’d also be winning. Sounds stupid, right?

But here’s a radical idea: let’s put aside the bile for a week. You know that discussion about who’s letting you down and who’s got to go? Let’s put it on hold for a few days. It’s certainly our Gretzky-given right as fans to whine and moan about bad whistles and bad plays and bad players, but it’s not actually going to make anything better.

On my swim team in high school, we had this awful diver. He was just plain old no good. But he had the best attitude you could find in a kid. After an epic back flop and some low scores from the judges, he’d hop out of the pool with so much zest you’d think it was his birthday. And he’d do it again. So we would cheer for him like he was at the Olympics, even if it seemed a little inappropriate. Weird thing happened then: he got noticeably better over the season and ended up competing at counties, where the volume of our cheers suddenly seemed a little more appropriate.

Yeah, I’m bummed. I’m a bit angry. But February is a gauntlet laid out in front of these Caps, especially this next week: Tampa Bay on Friday, Pittsburgh on Super Bowl Sunday. So for the guys, let’s stow the bad vibes at least until it’s over. Just to see what happens.

Photo credit: Mitchell Layton

The Washington Capitals finally met their playoff pals, the Montreal Canadiens, for the first time since that awful, awful night. Recently de-Halak‘d, the Habs remain a formidable team and one that the Caps had no trouble getting amped up to face.

Hershey import Jay Beagle got on the big board first with a stunning no-look, behind-the-back, knick-knack, paddywack shot over Carey Price’s shoulder. Mike Green took a  freight train into a timing play to make it 2-0 off a Nicky Backstrom pass. The score was unchanged until Price abdicated his throne, which is like chumming the water to a shark like Alex Ovechkin. His empty netter finalized the score. Caps beat Habs 3-0.

• Semyon Varlamov stopped 25 pucks, including many nasty ones in the early minutes, to earn himself a dandy shutout. Varly looked sharp moving laterally, going to splits, getting his pads in front of pucks, and generally looking wall-ish. If BBBB’s win-one-play-one policy holds true, Varly should be your starter on Saturday in Pittsburgh.
• Did anyone enter tonight’s game expecting a performance like this out of Jay Beagle? Even if you set aside his picture-perfect goal, Jay blocked six, won 7 of 11 faceoffs, and seized upon loose pucks like a maniac. Hard hat? Hard hat.
• Two weeks ago, Eric Fehr was flirting with healthy scratches. Since then he’s come back hard. F16 had six shots, many of which from up in Carey Price’s grill, and a plus-2 rating over 13:50 of ice time.
• 60-minute game! That’s right. You didn’t see one crummy period all night. That alone is a reason to cheer.
• Early on, P.K. Subban leveled an impressive hit on Jason Chimera to establish a physical presence for the Canadien heel. Subban earned boos from the Verizon Center crowd all night, but Big John Erskine didn’t forget him either. John caught P.K. unawares with a monster hit behind the Caps goal early in the third. Yeah, it was an interference penalty, but it was also a matter of principle for the Capitals’ resident lumberjack.
• Babyface Dave Steckel scored, but the officials had lost sight of the puck and washed the goal out. Weak, refs. Real weak.
• Welcome back, Jeff Schultz. Only 13 minutes on ice, but it’s a start.
• Andrew Gordon has no stats of any kind to show for 8:22 of ice time, but he looked like a stud cycling the puck in the offensive zone and working the dump-and-chase routine like a veteran. We’ll have to wait for Neil’s input for some quantitative analysis, but I liked A-Gord’s play tonight.
• Stick penalty. Alex Semin. Sunrise. Sunset.
• Did I forget anything? Oh yeah. The embarrassingly entropic Capitals power play. 0 for 7. The Canadiens gave them no shortage of chances, and the Caps did move the puck around brilliantly, but they just couldn’t sink it. They gotta turn this around on Saturday. They just gotta.

Joe B's suit of the night

Hey anyone else noticed that all the Caps’ best players tonight were current or former Hershey Bears? Fehr, Green, Beagle, Varly. Not only did these guys win the game, but they demonstrated for the rest of the team how to hustle to win games.

Alright, that’s it for 2010. Crazy year, right? The Capitals have three days off before the Winter Classic. I’ll be up in Pittsburgh to get soaked and freeze like everyone else, Ian will be covering the game from the heated comforts of home, and we’ll have a couple surprises for you, too. Crash the net, boys. You’re ready.

Tonight, the Texas Stars upset the Hamilton Bulldogs 4-2 in Game 7 of the AHL’s Western Conference Finals. Yes, even after the Canadiens reassigned top prospects P.K. Subban and Ben Maxwell down to Hamilton for the deciding game, the Bulldogs still somehow managed to lose. After Hamilton took a 2-0 lead into the third period, Texas scored 4 unanswered goals and will now get the right to play the Hershey Bears in the 2010 Calder Cup Finals. RMNB has your schedule first and a gentle reminder to buy Game 1 or 2 tickets at Hershey NOW!

H.A.G.S. P.K. Subban

Game 1: Thursday, June 3 at HERSHEY 7:00 p.m.
GIANT Center

Game 2: Saturday, June 5 at HERSHEY 7:00 p.m.
GIANT Center

Game 3: Monday, June 7 at Texas 8:30 p.m.
Cedar Park Center

Game 4: Wednesday, June 9, at Texas 8:30 p.m.
Cedar Park Center

*Game 5: Friday, June 11 at Texas 8:30 p.m.
Cedar Park Center

*Game 6: Monday, June 14 at HERSHEY 7:00 p.m.
GIANT Center

*Game 7: Wednesday, June 16 at HERSHEY 7:00 p.m.
GIANT Center

*if necessary

Tickets for Game 1 and Game 2 of the 2010 Calder Cup Finals at GIANT Center are on sale now at the GIANT Center box office or by phone at (717) 534-3911. HERSHEY will look to become the first team since the 1991 Springfield Indians to win back-to-back Calder Cup titles.