Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Wednesday Roundup/Bruins 3, Caps 2 (SO)

[NHL.com Recap - WashingtonCaps.com Postgame Coverage]

If you've recently watched any Caps games or visited WashingtonCaps.com or any number of other online sites where the Caps' ads are playing, you've undoubtedly heard of the "Caps Love Kids" promotion, wherein if you buy a ticket to any weekend home Caps game for the rest of the season, you get a free 10-year-old on exit (I may have the specifics of the program wrong). Not as highly-publicized but every bit as enticing is the "Caps Love Narcoleptics" promotion, on display last night at the V.C. (and kudos to the folks at Comcast for helping those of us watching at home to get the full experience by having Al Koken doing the play-by-play on the broadcast).

I really don't have much to say on this game. It was nice to see Brooks Laich and Eric Fehr score... It was also nice to see Bruins goalie Tim Thomas do a backwards somersault after the Fehr goal... And it's always nice, as a hockey fan, to watch Patrice Bergeron - an incredibly under-rated, under-sized and overly-skilled winger... Milan Jurcina again stood out on the Caps' blueline and continues to make one wonder why the B's parted with him so easily.

On the negative side of the ledger, it was not nice to see Alex Ovechkin go pointless for a career-worst third straight game and take the penalty that led to the game-tying goal (Ovechkin said of Tuesday night's game that it "was my terrible game of my whole career," which I believe is Ovie for "worst game ever".) With all the talk about Zdeno Chara lately, maybe, in retrospect the Caps should have signed him if for no other reason than that AO would never have to face him again... Another low-point last night was Alex Semin's lazy, stupid neutral-zone high-sticking double minor. He really needs to cut those out of his game.

So it's back to the drawing board for Thursday night's game against Anze Kopitar, Alex Frolov and the Kings. Perhaps it will be a big game all-around for Alexes.

Daily Awards
  • Hart: Daniel Sedin (3G, 2A, +2, 4 SOG in 5-2 win)
  • Ross: Daniel Sedin (5 points)
  • Norris: Mike Weaver (G, A, +2 in 3-2 SO loss)
  • Vezina: Curtis Joseph (28-save shutout win)
  • Richard: Daniel Sedin (3G)
  • Calder: Mike Smith (W, 15 saves on 15 shots against in 51:52 in relief of...)
  • Aiken: Marty Turco (2 goals allowed on 7 shots against in just 8:08 of work)

4 comments:

JP said...

From Elias:

"The Bruins topped the Capitals 3-2 in a shootout, but the big story was that Alex Ovechkin was held without a point for the third consecutive game. It marks the first time in Ovechkin's 136-game NHL career that he has played three straight regular-season games without recording a goal or an assist.

"Among players who debuted in 1979 or later -- the so-called "Gretzky era" -- only two players advanced further into their NHL career without a three-game pointless streak. But don't assume, based on that, that Ovechkin [was] nearing a record. The players with longer streaks: Kent Nilsson, 183 games (1979 to 1982) and Mario Lemieux, who -- we kid you not -- went 735 games into his career (from 1984 to 1997) without playing three consecutive pointless games!"

735 games. Damn.

Unknown said...

I was out of town last night and didn't see/hear the game. Does anyone know why Smokin' Al has been doing the play-by-play instead of Joe B.?

JP said...

I believe Joe B. has a contract to do Tuesday night games on Versus (he was doing Minny/Dallas).

Unknown said...

Ahhh ... I thought earlier in the season that Caps usually took priority scheduling-wise, but I'm probably wrong.