Jaded? ... I'd Say Yes We Caps Fans Have Become Jaded and That Might Not Be All Bad ...

On Sunday evening the Capitals bested the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh by a score of 3-2 in regulation. It was an excellent game, the goaltending at both ends was very good. Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin had a multi-point game, a goal (his first in 9 games) and an assist and was a visible presence and team leader all night long. Mathieu Perrault had a goal and got his nose broken in spectacular fashion in just 5 shifts and 3:19 TOI. David Steckel, "the defensive forward", scored a goal, went 11 for 16 in the face off circle and was another force to be reckoned, probably reminding the Hurricanes of their former Captain Rod BrinD'amor during his 25 shifts on the ice. Both Karl Alzner and Scott Hannan looked like the "stopper defenseman" we Caps fans have been looking for in prior games this season - Alzner had four hits tied with John Erskine for the team lead this game in that statistic. The Caps came away with two points and for the first time in over 12 seasons, they have swept the Carolina Hurricanes at home - 3 games, 3 Caps victories. Yesterday's Washington Post, despite a Redskins Win the same day, had the Caps coverage above the fold - on a Monday during football season. All that and yet the follow-up to the game around town and the blogsphere is very muted. Probably because despite all those things, we Caps fans know it is only December and their's no huge reason to get overly excited about any one game or event during the long NHL regular season, as long as your team is on track to make the playoffs and this Washington Capitals Team is that. Or it could be that despite all that we know, the Washington Capitals will close out this month with an under 0.500 record for the month for the first time in 21 months and that means our expectations are basically as close to out of control when it comes to expecting a lot from the team we root for and it's stars as one can get without being ridiculous. In that I think the fan base is no better or worse than this young team is when it comes to what they expect of themselves. More on that thought later.

Tonight, the Montreal Canadeans come to town and the two teams meet for the first time since last spring when the Canadeans beat the Capitals in the playoffs. The Caps come into the game with a 3-4-3 record in their last 10 outings, not having won a game in regulation at home in their last six opportunities, and finding themselves not holding onto the top spot in their Division for a period of over a couple of days for the first time in a long time. The Canadeans come into the game with a4-6-0 record in their last 10 games and coming off a loss immediately after a blizzard in front of a sparsely populated building on Long Island; and having just dropped out of first place in the Northeast Division for the first time in a while this season. In short, both teams are good teams, who find themselves in less than entirely familiar or comfortable situations - in other words, last season aside, both these teams are motivated and should come out firing on all cylinders tonight.

Unfortunately to some degree, for both teams, no matter what happens we fans, and likely the teams themselves, won't be all that happy. In the case of both teams, the expectations are high - and that's okay. Both teams are talented and want to take the next step in their development, and in both cases that is at least a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals this year, so don't be surprised if you see a lot of grit and determination on both sides of the face off circles tonight. That said, in order to make it through an 82 game regular season and the four rounds of playoffs required to attain the ultimate prize in hockey, it's also not wrong or ill advised to find and take at least a little joy in the intermediate goal accomplishments and individual game victories along the way; and it helps to maintain both perspective and sanity for my two cents worth. It's okay to be happy as long as we don't get satisfied. It's okay to be pleased with a good play, check, or game as long as it in no way modulates the "fire in the belly" needed to stay the course and drive to the final - ultimate goal.

Tonight's game is the Capital's chance to finish the month of December with a 5-6-3 record for the month, that would feel a lot better than either a 4-6-4 or 4-7-3 record and it would also mean the Caps are well on their way to regaining the form they had during the months of October and November. In any case, they are now in a three way battle for their division and they are battling an in Conference opponent who is battling for their division lead as well. This is a game that could well matter on a multitude of levels when April rolls around and we all look at the playoff teams and seeding. I'll be there and I''l be psych'ed as always - how about y'all?

LETS GO CAPS!!!

A Two Point Night For The Caps In Montreal ...

Well the Caps raced out to a 2-0 lead in the first period before Montreal chipped away in the second and third period to take a 3-2 lead. The Caps ran into their "old friend" third period penalty trouble and that made putting this game away virtually impossible. Thankfully, the Canadiens also had an issue with penalties in the final minute and that gave the Caps a chance to tie it up on Eric Fehr's second goal of the night. Overtime ended with the score still tied and then we had the skills competition. Semyon Varlamov played excellently all night and was invincible in the shootout stopping all three of the Canadiens shooters. Cary Price also stopped the Caps first two shooters before yielding the game winner to Nicklas Backstrom. I'll have more as well as a few other musings in the morning, there are just too many other sports things to watch and think about tonight what with the numerous College Football rivalries to cogitate upon and several more games available on NHL Center Ice.

The first period tonight was pretty darn well played by the Caps the rest of the game "not so much" but hey two points look like two points in April even if they were a little ugly in November.

LETS GO CAPS!!!!

Look Towards Tonight's Game At Verizon Center Against Le Canadeans...

Tonight at Verizon Center the Caps host the Montreal Canadeans. The Caps come into the game 5-2-1 for the month of November, 6-2-2 in their last ten games and 1st in the Eastern Conference with 30 points in 21 games and a 13-4-4 record on the season. The Canadeans come into the game in 12th place in the Eastern Conference, a full five games behind the Capitals with 20 points in 21 games and a 4-6-0 record in their last ten games with a 10-11-0 record on the season to date. Other relevant record information - on the season to date the Caps are 7-1-3 at Verizon Center and the Canadeans are 4-6-0 on the road.

As for goal differential to date the Caps have 79 GF and 64 GA (+15) and the Canadeans have 52 GF and 61 GA (-9). Overall this game should be C.A.P.S - Caps, Caps, Caps! However, the Caps are wrestling with a few injuries of late and have some shuffling going on in the roster because of that. Sharpshooter Alexander Semin in on Injured Reserved nursing a wrist injury. Shoane Morrison is recuperating from a sorta concussion and will not play tonight. Milan Jurcina is likely still a scratch tonight as he recovers from a muscle pull in his leg. Boyd Gordon continues to be out with a back injury as well and goaltender Jose Theodore is expected to be a healthy scratch tonight as well. Counting Michael Nylander as being out that means the Caps have over $15M of their normal salary cap space either injured or otherwise not playing tonight. I'm not talking about it for a "capoloogist" perspective what I'm saying is that based on the salary cap and roster at the start of the regular season the Caps have players and cap space that totals over 25% of their season start salary cap unavailable for tonight's game. So even though the Canadeans haven't been lighting the world on fire of late, they will have the talent on the ice tonight needed to potentially win tonight's match ups no problem. One of the bright spots of course is that Alexander Ovechkin is firmly back in the lineup and he has always gotten "up" to play against the Habs. Additionally, some of the call ups, in particular Matthieu Perraeult has been playing quite well and it's not unusual for young French-Canadian players to "get up" for games against the Canadeans.

My classmate and ticket partner Tom has the seats for tonight's match up so I'll be rockin' the red here in Bristow - still lovin' the new TV...and really happy about it on nights like tonight.

LETS GO CAPS!!!

Caps - Zip/Nada/Nothin' - Blue Jackets 3; Gabby Indigestion Due to "Frustration" On Birthday

Well looking around the blogsphere no one is overly alarmed that the Capitals finally lost their second home game in regulation this season, even if it was to an injury depleted Columbus Blue Jackets team at the end of a long road trip. Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said he was frustrated on his 54th birthday last evening. A video is available over at "On Frozen Blog" - Coach clearly wasn't happy about a lot of things but seemed to also be still in need of time to figure out what to do about the things he saw on the ice last night. The quote about "It's going to happen sometime, unless maybe you're San Jose who might go 37-0-3..." was clearly a quote from a guy who wants his team to try and go 82-0-0 over the course of a season but knows that there will be games like last night. What kind of game was last night, anyway? From my perspective on the couch here in Bristow, I think frustrating was a good word. However, maybe not for all the same reasons as some others watching but more on that later. Here's some other rationale reactions to last night's end to the Capitals' latest winning streak.

From Nation's Capital Blog: "Although the boys from Washington didn't have their "A" game, they definitely weren't sloppy or disinterested. 45 shots is a pretty good indicator that they were getting their chances (not to mention all the near misses that didn't make it on goal). Some nights, 'ya' just don't get the breaks."

From my favorite The Peerless Prognosticator: "What?...You thought they’d go 39-1-1 at home? The Caps lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets last night, 3-0. Why? ... [See Large Picture of Blue Jackets Rookie Goalie Steve Mason stopping one of 45 shots by the Capitals on the way to his 4th shutout of the year]. ..... Later Peerless states] ... Jose Theodore did not have a poor game, just a very average one. A rebound that got away, a deflection, and a scrum in front. But it stood in such stark relief against what was going on at the other end that it had the look of a poor game."

From Puckhead's Thoughts: "...There is not much I would have liked the Caps do differently in this game, except for the bad penalties toward the end that stymied the Capitals' offensive push and allowed two BJ power play goals late in the second and third periods. Those were pretty bad penalties. ... The Caps do end a four game home stand with a 3-1 record and 6 points out of eight possible. Now they hit the road to Montreal, where confidence is abound in the Habs. ..."

From Capitals Kremlin, the headline " Worst. Birthday. Ever." says it all but the picture and sentiment is pretty cool too.

My personal reactions are mixed and I have a few more concerns apparently than others after watching last night. Sure it was a great game by Steve Mason, I counted at least three really, really good driving scoring attempts by the Capitals that normally would have gone in no matter who they were playing. Not fancy stuff but real digging down low kind of stuff with multiple scoring attempts; and yes Mason was the sole reason the Caps didn't score on those attempts. The concerns I have are in fact with the frustration the Caps displayed and their reaction to it. It seems like the Capitals absolutely felt two things that came through both of which have been covered elsewhere but bear repeating: a) the Caps felt the should win the game and b) they felt "snakebitten" from the start with the injury to Gordon before play even started. The frustration came through after the Blue Jackets scored their second goal when the Caps took some just "dumb" penalties. A normally smart Donald Brashear going off for a double minor when the team is trying to come back just shows how frustrated the Capitals were. All that said I think Caps forward, and former Blue Jacket, Sergei Federov got it right on when he was quoted in today's Washington Times as saying "It is easy to say we were frustrated, but we still have a job to do. You have to respect the opponent and work as hard as they are - if not harder." It's the highest level of the sport and on any given night pretty much anybody can beat anybody else - that's why they play the games on the ice not on a computer. Well as Coach said - good teams bounce back - how about tonight?

And from around the other league's bloggers - over at Sean Leahy's Going Five Hole there's a bizarre supposed interview with Jaromir Jagr supposedly saying he would play for the Penguin's for the NHL minimum if Mario Lemiuex asked him because he owes Mario everything. This blogger's reaction...yeah sure, why not...I'm betting the interview never happened like it was reported, but if you hit the link, you had to love the mullet, I did so I'm putting up here for you to see. No matter how silly or bad some of Ovechkin's pics look they'll never beat this one (don't get mad at me now - I love Ovechkin, especially the way he plays, but he does show up in some bad pictures, you have to admit.)

The usual hockey related silliness abounds over at The Wonderful World of Loser Domi, today they poke fun at Maple Leaf's goaltender Vesla Toskla. So that's not too original given his efforts of late, come on, be nice now everybody.

And before we look ahead at tonight's foe - the All Star heavy Montreal Canadeans, I just want to point those of you who like slightly weird blogs from brash young hockey manias over to another new blog - though not totally devoted to the Washington Capitals - that so far seems to be written by someone with a pretty good sense of humor - "Nochnaya huligana - hockey gone wild" - don't worry about the title it is written in English. Well that is if you think this blog is written in English.

VS.

Tonight's game look ahead it's simple....It's for two points in the standings and a LOT of pride, even more so than last night's chance for the Caps to show the hockey world there should be at least three Caps on the All-Star roster. The math for the second coaching spot behind the Eastern Conference All Star bench is simple - tonight's game is for it. Caps win and the second spot behind the bench belongs to Bruce Boudreau. Habs win, it's Guy Carbonneau, the last thing this year's All Star Game needs is another Canadean on or behind the Eastern Conference; no disrespect intended to the Canadeans' record or play so far this season.

The Habs are playing well and having a fine season so far. Additionally, tonight they will be playing for their fourth straight win since loosing to New Jersey in Newark on January 2nd. They won their last home game 6-2 at Bell Centre on Thursday and will be rested and ready to face the Capitals. The last time the two teams played each other was December 13th in Montreal and the Caps took that game in a closely played 2-1 win on a late third period game winner from Michael Nylander and a solid net-minding game by Simieon Varlamov, who is now back at Hershey. So far this season the Caps lead the series 2-0 having won the first game on the back of Jose Thodore's only shutout so far this season. Rest assured the Canadeans will be woring very hard for the two points, their coach's "honor" and to avoid going down 3-0 in this season's series against the Capitals. As for the Capitals, here's to hoping Michael Nylander has a great game after a night off last night, the Caps Defense got things sorted out on the flight to Montreal, and Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom, and Mike Green all get a chance to show why they all should be in the All-Star lineup and Caps coach Bruce Boudreau is the right man to be behind the bench at the All Star Game.

According to Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post's blog, neither Boyd Gordon or Sergei Federov will play tonight and Brent Johnson will likely get the start. The Habs come into the night just three points behind the Capitals and have both Philadelphia and the Rangers on their heels as well. This is a game that matters for several reasons, look for both teams to "bring it" and "bring it with their A games."

LETS GO CAPS!!!!!!!