Wow! What a Game; Caps 5, Canucks 1

Wow - what a great two (2) point night tonight was. It was simply a totally dominating performance by the Capitals tonight. The Caps out shot, and basically totally out played the Canucks tonight. Overall the Caps out shot Vancouver 35 - 10 tonight, however, throughout the first two periods the Caps out shot them 25-3 and out scored them 5-1 during the first two periods. Once again nobody had a bad game, and it really was nobody. Brent Johnson had a save percentage of 0.900 on the ten shots he faced; more importantly he came up big on the two or three times he needed to.

The Caps forwards crashed the net all night long; and seemed to especially relish doing so during the first two periods while Roberto Luongo was in the net. It will be interesting to see who Brooks Laich passes the "Hard Hat" too. My vote goes to Alexander Semin, not for his 2 goals, but for his great hustle and unselfish play. The coming of age of "the other Alex" could be personified tonight when at 9:30 into the third period, with two goals under his belt, and the Caps well ahead (in fact four goals ahead), Semin instead of trying to bull his way through three defenders and going for the "hat trick", the 24 year old Russian born left wing dished the puck off to Milan Jurcina who was at the point and in position to unleash a great shot at the Canucks net. If not Semin then there are several other candidates including Federov for his solid defensive play 1 assist +3, 25 shifts, 20:25 TOI. David Steckel who did "yeoman's work" at both end of the ice with relentless forechecking and backchecking. There were at least three instances where it was Steckel's backchecking that kept the slot in front of Johnson clear. Steckel was also 8-4 for a face off won percentage of 67% tonight. Finally, another great candidate for the hard hat award has to be Michael Nylander. Nylander may have played his best game since returning to the Caps at the start of last season. Nyls was +2 with a penalty shot goal and 2 assists for 3 points, had a respectable night in the faceoff circle, had 3 takeaways and more importantly was a force to be reckoned with during the 14:32 and 17 shifts he played. During his time out on the ice Nyls seemed to be in the thick of things all the time, he also refused to be pushed off the puck and had no giveaways. More coming in the morning but for now, it's just time to enjoy the auora of a second two point night in a row. This kind of fun could be habit forming.

LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!