Enough!!!!

Enough!!! At least that's what we Caps fans hope the boys in white, red, and blue will say tonight when they face the Eastern Conference rival Pittsburgh Penguins. The Caps have now lost three in a row. However, they've now lost as many games in January as they lost in all of December so it's time for them to just look at the abyss and say "ENOUGH." The last two games have been disappointing, at times the Caps have just looked "snakebitten."

They are shooting a lot but they are not scoring much. That said it's the time of year when each game starts to mean more and everyone tightens up their play. It's time for a much healthier Caps team to get things "in synch" and once again start winning. To do that they just need to tighten up the defense and crash the net more. Of course that's like saying "to make a lot of money in the stock market all you have to do is buy low and sell high." Everybody knows these things and everyone in the NHL is pretty good at both doing that very thing and keeping their opponents from doing it. Pittsburgh is 3-7-0 in their last 10 games but 2-2-0 in their last four games, last night they beat the Flyers 4-2 in regulation in Philadelphia. Now would be a great time for the Caps to win one in the Igloo and return to form before they have two days off and then they face the Eastern Conference first place Boston Bruins at Verizon Center.

There's plenty to get motivated about on both sides. Penguins fans will no doubt be complaining about Ovechkin checking Malkin again. Malkin will again pretend he doesn't know why Ovie tries to knock him off the puck all the time; and Caps fans will be hoping that he does it a lot so he doesn't score like we all know he can. The Caps who are assigned to cover Sidney Crosby will do it well and he'll keep us guessing on how he'll "get us." Will it be with great play making? Will it be with a power play goal? Or will he just get frustrated and go for the "nut tap?" It's things like this that will make tonight's game exciting and keep us guessing.

Rumours are flaying relative to the game and the subplots but both teams need a win a lot more than this "Peyton Place Stuff." My bet will Malkin hit Ovie and vice-versa, yeah; will Crosby go out of his way to hit Semin not but he won't avoid him either. Will Sidney try and score 10 goals to stick it too Semin for his off hand comments and quotes, yeah. Will Semin and Ovie try and score multiple goals to make a point to the Pens and their fans yeah they will. But in the end it will just be your usual, hard fought Caps-Pens game. There will be some shake-ups in the lineup for the Caps though to get them moving is my bet too and the rumour per Tarik.