Photo credit: Len Redkoles

Guys, I’m literally rewriting this right after the final buzzer. No time for poetry. I mean freaking come on. The Washington Capitals shoulda beat the Philadelphia Flyers. They had a lead and then nuked it from orbit in the final minutes. Philly forced OT and stole two points. iwe bgiwe9w7ebciwebiwqyd k24g I haven’t seen a disaster like this since the Fist of the First Men.

This one hurts.

Flyers beat Caps 5-4 (Overtime)

• Nick Backstrom scored a pretty goal in his 400th game. Occupying the low slot, Backstrom tipped in a waist-level shot from Jack Hillen. It was also Hillen’s first point as a Cap– in his 10th game.
• The Flyers evened it up shortly after, as Max Talbot, utterly open in the slot, bulged the net on a pass from known heel Zac Rinaldo. Alzner and Green didn’t have remotely enough gusto in their own zone.
• The Caps didn’t have remotely enough anything in their own zone a few minutes later — giving Matt Read mucho space on a breakaway goal to make it 2-1.  Like Frankovic said, it doesn’t matter how good your team’s possession is if your defense keeps breaking down.
• The Flyers fans thought they had a third goal, but Wayne Simmonds powerslamming Braden Holtby a few seconds earlier kinda nullified it. Claude Giroux, whom I love, held the puck on the next face off, giving the Caps a full two minutes of 5-on-3 for them to utterly squander like a per diem in Las Vegas. The Caps are in the bottom third of teams when it comes to generating shots with the two-man advantage.
• The Caps power play was a stinky diaper (with the exception of that one in the third). I said in my halfway post that the shot generation on PP wasn’t high enough to keep the team among the league’s best, and it seems that’s happened. I’d have rather been wrong.
• The flip side of that coin is much more shiny. The Caps PK limited the Flyers to 4 shots and 0 goals over 6 power play minutes through the first 40.
• Mike Green finished serving a holding penalty late in the second. Brooks Laich saw him exit the gate and threaded him a long pass. Green glided into the Flyers zone and scored a lovely tying goal. Green has missed huge chunks of the last three seasons, and Laich came back just last week. And because it’s Philly, you should have seen this next bullet coming…
• Max Talbot took aim and laid into Mike Green along the boards. Green dodged the hit, and Talbot seemed to land awkwardly, apparently injuring his knee (although Whyno thinks Green may have cut ‘em). Lady Byng Anti-Monitor Zac Rinaldo was for some reason incensed by Talbot’s self-injury and so, naturally, he charged Green. Sometimes I wonder if Steve Downie went to the Avalanche because the Eastern Conference couldn’t withstand two of these guys.
• Steve Oleksy delivered a blistering but clean hit to Giroux in the third period. Jakub Voracek then mugged Oleksy without taking off his visor. That’s a double minor, homes. Marcus Johansson scored on the first half after Claude Giroux choked. Alex Ovechkin scored from the Ovi spot on the second half. So the power play kinda turned it around, eh?
• Ovi’s point streak is now at 8 games. 6 shots on net.
• The Flyers engineered a B.S. icing call in the final seconds. That offensive-zone draw led to the game-tying goal in the waning seconds– an eerie reversal of Saturday night and a reminder that a team who often wins by a razor’s edge also loses by the same margin.

Joe B suit of the night

This is not the recap I wanted to write. I had this whole thing about being in the playoff picture for the first time since the mid 80s, but Philly had other plans. Lots of deleting up in RMNBHQ tonight.

The Caps are now one point out of  Eighth place. We should divest ourselves of the notion that they’re gonna jockey for a lottery draft pick. It ain’t happening. That doesn’t mean this team is built to go far in the playoffs, but neither was Hunter’s crew last year, and they still gave us 14 damn fun games.

Real quick. Scenarios from best to worst: Caps win the Cup. Caps make playoffs and go deep. Caps get lottery pick. Caps make playoffs and lose early. Caps miss playoffs just barely. Caps all develop synthetic cannabinoid habit.

Tonight’s game is a good example of how this version of the Caps isn’t really going to hit either of those first two cases. I’d love it if they were strong enough to be the team to grab and sustain a two-goal lead, but it doesn’t seem likely. Losses like this happen to all teams, but only smart teams learn from ‘em.

We now enter maybe the most important week of the Caps franchise this year. Deadline is Wednesday.

You buying?

Early Morning Skate: So, the last time we were here, we were there. Filthy Philadelphia, needing a solid road win, and feeling optimistic to start. In fact, we were all, like, yay here we gowhattheflipwasthat?! and c’mon Holtbeast get it together and then yay Groooouuubsie and boooo Max Talbot grrr grrrr and ow that traffic-cone orange makes my soul weep and that was pretty much the best summary of that ugly mess of a game I can imagine.

Mmmm…tastes like Cheez Whiz

What exactly was it that happened that terrible, cold February night at the F-U Center? Where, exactly, were manimal Troy Brouwer and Captain 8 (despite being probably the best in Red on the ice that night) and John “Towelie” Carlson and the Millionaire and his wife and the nameless rest? Certainly not there to play hard, or at least battle back through a tough start. And why was it, exactly, the Lord Supreme in His wisdom didst create that dung-heap of a burg to begin with?

Now this is our idea of a hot Fly team. Really.

You see, I’d like to chalk up that bumbling bungle of a game simply to our visiting the giant spirit suck that is Philly and its moronic fans. Like to, but cannot. Yeah, there were a couple fluky puck bounces and what-not, but those things give as much as they take. No, what we saw was a failure to launch by the Capitals after a dis-spiriting start. It was not, in any possible permutation of the concept, ‘good.’

The Puck Drop: But it’s Spring, and Easter (for some) or Maru (for others) or Passover or Nowruz or we’re just going to stop this now. Traditionally, it’s a time for rebirth and renewal and rejuvenation and reloading and all that. For the Capitals’ flock, it’s once more the race to the playoffs.

For several years now, the Capitals have demonstrated fine mettle in April, much like the pale gossamer jonquils besotting the landscape, if those jonquils were angry, snarling, forechecking, glass-smashing monsters made of steel and laser beams.

In short, there’s two ways this ends. One: we leave Filthydelphia redolent of Whiz, covered in soot and chagrin; or two, you can eat me Peter Laviolette. No wait, that’s a given. Oh yes; or two, we bounce outta Barftown and kick it into grinder gear for the coming match-ups against the Canes and ugly Islanders (revenge want now) and be the team that showed up to rub Winnipeg’s nose in its own dark, dark shame. I know which one I’m hoping for.

So let’s git ‘er done.

Who’s Hot and Who’s Snot

• Let’s just get this out of the way: what is it with you and first names, Flyers? Maxime? Jody? Zac? Zac?! Fine if you’re a British boy band, but Zac? Ugh, sign two players named Herp and Derp and you’ve got a full house.
• There’s an old adage that goes ‘What comes up must come down’, which is patently untrue if you are helium or the Blackhawks or Lindsay Lohan’s legal bills. We prefer ‘What goes down stays down,’ which we just made up but will use to prove our point. The Flyers haven’t so much been stumbling of late as they have been losing, while the Capitals overall (let’s not quibble, shall we?) have been demonstrating real hockeytude across the squad. The Flyers must therefore lose, QED.
• The Flyers do have some genuine stand-outs – Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux and a Schenn or something – who can be good deal sealers. But like we saw in their recent outings with cross-town rivals the Pittsburgh Flightless Stenchbirds, the energy and kick appears bottled up in just a few players, while the Pens (and oh how I hate myself for saying this) work well together across the squad, and that was before getting Iggy. We were suffering from this dread condition earlier in the season, too, but have at least mitigated it. Which is better: a few star talents and a bunch of mugs, or a more even distribution of skill? Capitalism or soshulizms? Hmmm?
• I have it on good authority that Jesus would particularly like a Capitals win today.
• To be “fair and balanced” – ha! – it is true that the Crapitals have some players who feel a little like large leaden weights tied around our ankles while we’re trying to swim. Marcus Johansson appears to be skating with one eye scanning for the door. Jeff Schultz (who is probably among the most decent people around, so, sorry) might as well be eating Doritos out on the ice, and Mike Green…oof, where to start. I’ve seen more spunk among members of the Whitehills Senior Center’s “Jeopardy!” fan club. (If you’re reading, Mr. Trebek, I love your show!) Is this a “Tale of Two Teams” moment? “It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.”
• Conventional wisdom – which is never wrong I’ll have you know – has it that Adam Oates has at least one more good year here to show progress before GMGM hits the ejector button, while Coach Laviolette – which actually means “smelly cheese” in French, look it up – has but a few more games. Oooh, everyone’s getting a little snippy, aren’t they? I wonder what could be on people’s minds. I wonder…
• Rough trade. Is what’s on people’s minds, I mean. You know, like the trade deadlines? What…what did you think I meant? Ohhh…and on Easter Sunday, of all days. Hmmph. Oh, one last thing:
• JINX! Jinxjinxjinx. Doublejinx! There, you silly nannies, for those who believe in ‘jinxes’ we’ve just double-finger-crossed the jinx spirits and you can put your delicate little heads to rest now about the PuckBuddys curse, OK?

The Late Line:

While intubated in the emergency room following the Hinckley assassination attempt, President Reagan scrawled a note to one of his nurses. Cribbing from W.C. Fields, it read “All in all, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.” It was touch-and-go, but he survived.

On the whole, I’d rather we not have to be in Philadelphia. There should be a law against having to travel there on a High Holy Day, or a birthday, or any day with a “y”. But here we are. At least Jaromir Jagr isn’t around anymore (tee hee.)

Flyers lead early, Caps battle back, 4-3, but close, kids.

Photo credit: Elsa

Washcaps Philaflyers. Last game good. This game less good. Make words hurt so use less. Puck not in good net. Puck in bad net. Giroux make goal. Simmonds make goal. Gagne make goal. Maxbag Talbutt make goal. Ward make goal make Bryz sad. Groooooooooooo.

Flyers beat Caps 4-1.

• Claude Giroux got credit for the game’s first goal– just 23 seconds in– but it was mostly lady luck’s doing. Before the goal, the puck bounced off Karl Alzner‘s knee towards Scott Hartnell. A few seconds later, it hopped off his skate and into the arms of Giroux. I mark it down as a freak accident–but G was right to be waiting in the sweet spot.
• Despite the two goals against, the Caps of the first period really weren’t bad. They kept the possession game close. If they had kept it up, they could have won. The second period saw cede the puck to Philly with a 32-12 count of attempted shots.
• It’d be pretty cool to watch Simon Gagne get his first goal with his old club if that club weren’t the Philadelphia Flyers and that goal wasn’t scored against the Washington Capitals. But it was, and it was. So, no, hypothetical me, it was not pretty cool at all.
• 34:55 into the game, Braden Holtby got the hook, and Philipp Grubauer saw his first NHL action. Denying two Flyers shots in the first half-minute, Gru seemed up to the challenge. He stopped another barrage in the third and served with distinction during the penalty kill. Nothing not to love about his work tonight except the fact that he actually had to work tonight.
• But let’s not do the thing where we’re like “he stopped 14 shots make him the new starter!” Goalies need to face thousands of shots before we have any real idea how good they are. For now, let’s just say: “Nice [saving], kid. Don’t get cocky!”
• Mike Ribeiro committed a hooking penalty in the first and a pottymouth penalty in the third. He’s had a reputation as a hot head for a long time, and I guess these are the moments when those personality flaws let themselves out. Unfortunate.
• If the Behind the Net Shot Timeline for this game were a ski slope, it’d be the bunny slope.
• Even broken clocks are right twice a day. Even broken clocks can commit assault and battery on a 12-year-old and then get off because some dumb sports network paid him enough money to be obnoxious that he could afford a nice lawyer.
• Some nights you’re not even sure Troy Brouwer will show up to the rink: 0 shots, 1 blocked shot.
• Late in the game, Mathieu Perreault took a knee-on-knee hit from Harry Zolnierczyk, far away from the puck. Perry left the ice, apparently hurt.

Joe B suit of the night

Alex Ovechkin scored a hat trick two games ago. That was good. Last game he had zero shots on goal, but still participated in the offense. That was okay. Tonight he led the Caps with six shots and would have had more if not for a couple bad falls on rough ice. That’s still really good. Don’t believe the hype– especially when the hype comes from people who are paid to inflame and provoke instead of illuminate and inform.

Word on the street is that Edmonton’s front office was in attendance in Philly tonight. If the Caps were to make a move, whom would they move? Hard to say. Three games ago, everyone but Braden was a bum. One game ago, everyone was fantastic. Tonight was torpid overall.

Yeah, the Caps got smoked in the back half of a back-to-back while on the road. They’re gonna have to do better when away from Verizon Center and particularly when playing from behind.

It’s not gonna be all early leads and blowouts for the Caps, and they must learn to deal with that adversity. That was a problem under Boudreau’s leadership, and it seems to have survived his exit. Can Oates do better?

The Caps stink right now, so we’re gonna find our joy wherever we can. Today we find it in ex-Cap Mike Knuble, who scored his first goal as a Philadelphia Flyer over the weekend. You’ll never guess how he did it.

Crash the net.

Knuble is playing on the fourth line, or at least he will until Laviolette realizes how good he’d be for Giroux. Here Knuble is on the forecheck, grinding it out. All of a sudden: turnover. Kanoobs grabs the puck and heads right for the net for the wraparound.

Knuble has one goal and one assist in five games. He’s averaging 14 minutes of ice. His line has some awful PDO, too, so I’d expect some big things from them before long.

Happy trails, Mike. Thanks for blowing up the Canes for us.

Photo credit: Patrick McDermott

DFL. The Washington Capitals came into Friday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers in dead last place. Not in the southeast, not in the east. In the whole damn league.

Here’s the part where they turn it around.

Halfway into the game, Bruno Gervais sent a loose puck deep into Holtby’s net. Nick Backstrom tied it up with his first goal of the year, a patient deke to beat Ilya Bryzgalov one-on-one late in the second. Troy Brouwer took the lead with a brilliant near-side roofer. Wojtek Wolksi robbed Baby Schenn and put a one-touch goal on Bryz to make it 3-1. The Flyers got one back with a Brayden Schenn rocket right as the power play expired.

Caps beat Flyers 3-2.

• After two weeks of bad breaks and ugly losses, it’s absolutely refreshing to see them score two or three pretty skill goals.
• It’s a sign of how dire things are for the Caps that John Erskine is their most interesting player right now. Erskine has been his usual angry gorilla self, but now he’s quicker and oh yeah he’s scored that one time. When Erskine landed that elbow on Wayne Simmonds’s head on Friday, the fun kinda got sucked out. I think John’s best chance to avoid suspension is that he might’ve been taking a defensive posture.
• The Caps of the first two weeks saw their decent puck possession marred by bad luck. Their losses in Toronto and Friday’s game vs Philly brought a much less aggressive Caps team. The Flyers tilted the ice something mighty after the game’s first couple minutes, and though the Caps came back later in the game, they’re gonna need a more complete effort from here on out.
• Welcome to the scoresheet, Nick Backstrom! After two unlucky weeks, Backstrom was finally rewarded for his efforts. It was a great one, too: John Carlson breaks up a zone entry while the Flyers are on the line change, the puck finding Backstrom at center ice. Backstrom strides into the Philly zone, looks around and notices he’s all alone. After that, he slows down and deliberately puts a backhand deke on Bryz. No better way to start your scoring season off.
• Russian enigma Ilya Bryzgalov took an Ovechkin slapper to the ribs during a third period power play. It was Ovi’s umpteenth shot from above the right circle, and it probably hurt a bit. It’s even more probable that Bryz was taking the opportunity to buy his penalty killers a breather. Smart move.
• When people go see PSY play in concert, do they ever think, I hope he plays something off the new album?
• The Capitals improved their discipline compared to Thursday night, but it would have been hard not to do that short of some deer antler velvet spray or a on-ice Catfishing incident.
• What’s the deal with delay-of-game penalties? If it weren’t Friday night, I’d make up some numbers about how many more DOGs the Caps have had lately, but it is Friday and it’s probably a boring stat anyway. Let’s just say they’re up 5734% from last year.
• The Caps got pwned on the dot. Ribs, who is awesome, was pwned in particular, winning just 5 of his 12 faceoffs.

Joe B suit of the night

And that’s how ya do it. Even without winning the puck-possession game, the Caps won this one– due in part to increased discipline as well as some solid goaltending and fancy moves.

I know everyone is a bit jammed up over the Caps right now. Our brains tell us they’re not a bad team, but as those losses keep piling up it’s easy to get cynical. I don’t have anything profound to say about that right now except: Yeah. That’s the point.

The Game is going to test you as a fan. Sometimes you’re up, and it’s important not to be cocky then. Sometimes you’re down, and then you cannot despair. From where I stand, what matters is that we celebrate success and think hard on defeat.

Tonight was a success. Hopefully, the first of many. We came, we saw, we wolski’d. There are more bad beats coming, and definitely a few our team will deserve to lose as well. And when those happen… well, I’ll turn it over to Toby Ziegler:

We win together. We lose together. We celebrate and we mourn together. And defeats are softened and victories sweeter because we did them together.

Good win. Let’s do it again on Sunday.

Kanoooobs! With the poorly timed nose-picking. @russianmachine twitter.com/stopthehats/st…

— StopThrowingHats (@stopthehats) February 2, 2013

Photo credit: Bruce Bennett

With eight games left in the regular season and the Capitals struggling to hold onto the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, every standings point matters. So when the Caps were unable to break a 1-1 tie with the Flyers after 60 minutes of regulation and a five-minute overtime, the shootout carried high stakes.

Enter Matt Hendricks.

Dale Hunter selected Hendy as the Capitals first shooter. The Blaine, Minnesota native did not disappoint. Hendricks used his patented move, this time baiting Ilya Bryzgalov to pokecheck. Bryz missed, allowing yet another highlight-reel shootout goal for the team’s leader in penalty minutes. Video is below the jump.

Mobile-friendly video

The shootout tally was so great that it prompted Craig Laughlin to exclaim,”[Hendricks] should copyright those moves right there.” Joe Beninati, equally as impressed, observed that Hendricks “paralyzed” Bryzgalov.

Hendricks now is 6 for 10 in the shootout during his three-year career in the NHL. If I were Dale Hunter, I’m putting him in the shootout line-up from now until the end of time.

GIF

Via welshhockeyfan.tumblr.com

Photo credit: Bruce Bennett

The final game of the Washington Capitals’ ginormous road trip was a Thursday night date with the pylon-clad Philadelphia Flyers. Just like last game, the Caps came out hard, but faced a much more composed foe.

Alex Ovechkin was in hurry, scoring in the game’s first minute. Claude Giroux converted a breakaway in the second. Overtime came and went.  A coin was flipped, and the Caps lost. Flyers beat Caps 2-1 (shootout).

• As Claude Giroux broke away from a falling Dennis Wideman, Braden Holtby skated out of his crease for a poke check. It was aggressive move on the order of Ron Hextall, to whom Holtby so often gets compared. But Hextall is a legendary goalie and Holtby is still a minor-leaguer. The poke failed, and Claude had a yawning net to fill. Other than that, Holtby was a solid presence in net. 30 saves on 31 shots.
• Alex Ovechkin didn’t need half a minute to score. He’s on a three-game goal streak with 6 goals in his last 5 games. Down the stretch, there is no better asset for this team. He’s playing smart hockey too, not just bullying his way into the zone only to get pushed aside. He fired 6 shots.
• Marcus Johansson drew a crucial penalty shot in the second period. He seemed to have Ilya Bryzgalov deked, but the goalie got a stick out to end the play. It was a good poke check, but wasn’t it also a trip? Shouldn’t that have been a do-over? How does that work? Reader, please consult the NHL rulebook and provide us the booklearnin’ we so desperately need.
• Is Lenny Kravitz really Cinna? How does that happen?
• Bad luck happens. Despite tons of opportunities, the Caps got robbed over and over. Consider Mathieu Perreault ringing iron, Ovi getting robbed glove-side and then going wide on an open net a little later, and Aucoin buzzing up in front like a malarial insect. Can’t bury ‘em all– but this game would’ve been a cakewalk if only the margins had shifted a bit.
• Compulsory Jaromir-Jagr-got-an-assist bullet. Hurl.
• Happy birthday, Tom Poti, who is technically still a Washington Capital. Remember that time he was awesome in the playoffs? Le sigh.
• The Caps were so meek and reserved during the back half of this game, you’d think they were auditioning for a walk-on role in My So-Called Life. That defensive posture may have made it tough for them to create offense in OT, which is why they spent the whole extra frame in their own zone, desperately waving away the Flyer attacks as if they were swarming tracker jackers.
• Matt Hendricks in the shootout. Like mom’s apple pie, except bad ass.

Joe B suit of the night

The Caps are still in 8th place in the East, a point above any kind of virtual tie with Buffalo. They are just three points behind Ottawa now. 7th place would be pretty cozy, wouldn’t it?

That’s the end of the road trip. They took 5 points out of 10, which is way better than we predicted a few weeks ago. A win in Philly would have been a huge confidence booster though…

The Caps are a desperate team, and desperation grants focus. Their desire, nay– their hunger for standings points drove the team to play a great first period. But the retreated in the third, playing for the tie in highly unsatisfying fashion.

If only they’d embraced that hunger for the full 60, they’d be the victors.

Catch you guys tomorrow night. The Caps return home to whip the Jets. Huge game.

COME TO OUR PARTY! APRIL 7 AT FRONT PAGE! AAAAAAARGGHHHH!

Here’s Doug Johnson of the Puck Buddys with a spot of the ol’ superviolence. Pull up a chair at the milk bar and follow the Buddys on Twitter.

Here’s The Choodesny Pregamey: Viddy viddy, me droogies! Wellity wellity wellity well. A dorogoy game we face then, contra the Chepooka Flyers, is it? And in their gloopy domy on top, is it? Capsity-wapts fans, prepare to creetch yer yarbles biddy biddy well, and poddy thisity this: me droogs are well placed to land the tolchuks to the gulliwats and gullivers of any groody Flyer that skates with us.

To all the horrowshow krovvy to flow!

And Now Back To Sanity: So we – as in PuckBuddyCraig – were struck this morning, amid the fog and shadows, to invoke St. Stanley Kubrick and “A Clockwork Orange” for this pregame. ‘Cause, you know… orange. Flyers. Uh-huh.

So a dorogoy post – and game – it is. And yet, there may be wisdom here. O my brothers, cutter this well…

“But enough of words, actions speak louder than. Action now. Observe all.”

The Puck Drop: Viddy Wel

O, viddy well mi lewdies, how the Caps took the pain and hurt to the (my) Red Wings (hurrah) without any hesitation. And now, now we move from Motown to Blowtown. Philadelphia.

We’ve already discussed at length the global calamity that is Philadelphia. The momentary catastrophe. The searing fact that, should the U.S. Eastern Coast be threatened by any natural threat, Philadelphia would be the first zombie/dark box/experimental slime mold of human DNA, offered up to pointers of what went wrong with humanity. Assuming that humans actually could endure the poisonous slop that was/is/will be Philadelphia. And of course, isolate it.

Memo to Philly: you know you blow dry, or suck rachety oily with suckness, so stop pretending. Oh… you know exactly what I mean, Swan Princess.

Do we really have to say his outloud? That the Flyers are, even considering the Pens and the Ducks, THE worst, most vile de village team ever…well, smasz yer yarlballs at what we viddy? Apparently, dumdum boychicks.

Rozz Dat: Why We’re Hot

1, 2 and 3: Uh-Nuh! So here it is; everyone from the Caps organization playing ‘What comes tomorrow?’ and other contorata chumbley-mumble coming from the Puckgnoscentti.

Naughty, naughty, naughty! You filthy old soomka! (Alex and Alex will be scandalized.)

Here’s why we’re hot. Been following RMNB’s track of late? That’s why. We’re honestly tired beyond words of repeating the mouth-dry-tongued insight that comes from our RMNB overlords and commentators.

Ovi. Sasha. Orlov. Move on.

Or insert your favorite Caps player name here. Yawn.

We’ve Got This, eh?

So we’re so not pandering with silly photos of hot hockey players or RMNB graphic off-site library hotties. Because, you dogs, you don’t want to see he-men in your pics. Or do you? Really?

Admit it or not, flesh comes with awareness. Man or woman, defensive or offensive, short or tall or gay or straight; hockey can only be spelled with 6 letters.

H. O. C. K. E. Y.

And that’s what it comes down to. CAPS DEFENSE; CAPS MUST WIN OFFENSE.

Oh, Lord.

Photo credit: Nick Wass

With fewer than 20 games left, the Washington Capitals badly needed a win from the Philadelphia Flyers to stay competitive. This Sunday night rendezvous held pretty high stakes for the Caps, and the team responded with a distinguished effort. But effort ain’t goals.

After a scoreless first period, Eric Wellwood redirected an outside shot from Pavel Kubina to make it 1-0. That’s the whole story. Flyers beat Caps 1-0.

• The way Alex Ovechkin moved in to check Pavel Kubina before that first goal is a damning example of his insouciance on defense. If Ovi had his stick on the ice or his hips squared to Kubina, that would not have been a goal.
• CSN’s Chuck Gormley reported that Ovechkin missed the next 7:26. Is this accountability from Coach Hunter? If you listen to some people, that’s what cost Boudreau his job. Oh dear, this is all we’re gonna be reading on Monday, isn’t it?
• Ovechkin still had 7 shots, 6 hits, a bunch of scoring chances, and one empty net save. Let’s not blow this up too much.
• Round of drinks for the smallfolk: Jay Beagle and Dmitry Orlov  both were contributing to the offense while limiting chances against. Beagle had a few net-crashing moments, and Orlov’s slappers created some panic for Bryz up front.
• FIGHT: Troy Brouwer vs. Scott Hartnell. Go for the hockey violence, stay for the dramatically flowing orange curls.
• Jason Chimera got blown up by Wayne Simmonds in the second period. On tilt after that, Chimera got away with a slash on Claude Giroux’s writst. Then he slammed the bench door (that door had a big night) and had a hissy fit. Chimera was your only player with a minor penalty all night. The refs just sorta phoned it in.
• Mike Knuble made his return loud and clear. 4 hits, 2 shots, and one great breakaway that Ilya Bryzgalov just barely refused. That should be enough for another start. Should.
• Four shots of Jaromir Jagr. No goals. Screw Jagr blah blah blah. Our heart’s just not in it.
• Bad luck > Ilya Bryzgalov. The weirdo still got 34 saves though. Obviously, the humangous big universe is on his side.

The Florida Panthers won on Sunday. The Caps are 5 points back.

The Capitals now have a shutout problem. Even with some solid goaltending, they didn’t put up enough offense.  That makes two full hours without a goal. The “on-ice product” is pretty crappy right now. I’d check the manufacturer’s warranty.

Yeah. It seems Mike Knuble’s curse has spread to the whole team. That’s probably bad news for one of these guys…

Photo credit: Nick Wass

Early in the first period of the Flyers-Capitals game, Troy Brouwer delivered a hard (but clean) hit on Philly’s Erik Gustafsson. Gustafsson crashed into the door to the Caps bench and forced it open, which Scott Hartnell considered ungentlemanly.

Hartnell challenged Brouwer to a fight at 5:33 of the first. They spent a long moment duking up, staring each other down, and adjusting their carrot-y curls (that last one does not apply to Troy).

Hartnell connects once, but we think this one was a draw.

NBC’s Brian Engblom reported that the officials later asked the Capitals about the door opening. He reports hearing the players say,”the door was closed. The violence of the hit forced the door to open.”

Dale Hunter then told him,”It was a good clean hit. The guy tried to get to the red line, and then Brouwer answered the bell. That’s hockey.”

What did you think of the fight? Win/Lose/Draw?