Sunday, March 16, 2008

Russians, French Lead Caps To Victory

Sergei Fedorov scored in regulation (his first goal as a Cap), Alex Semin and Viktor Kozlov each scored in the shootout, and Cristobal Huet stopped 39 of 40 shots through OT and both Boston shootout attempts to lead the Caps to a 2-1 "must win" win.

Now the Caps head out on a make-or-break six-game road trip with hope still very much alive.

When this picture was taken, Nicklas Backstrom was four years old

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man the 4 men back by Boston sure is boring.

But great game by the Caps.

I like having #91 on the team, he brings great leadership and the knowledge about winning that the Caps havent had in awhile.

If you havent watched any of his postgame interviews I suggest heading over to washcaps.com, the guy is a great interview.

Unknown said...

Heck, how about "must win" "win."

Anonymous said...

Sergi rocks, and he really seems to bring the kind of veteren leadership the team needs. His interviews are amazing.

And even though they did not score I still love Brooks and Mike. Oh, and Matt Bradley aint too shabby either.

Unknown said...

Well, Boston brought their own refs again, but the Caps survived. What a great win and we're just two out of a playoff spot!

An for once, I was happy to see the Pens win. I now need to take a shower after saying that...

Anonymous said...

Look at it this way, you werent happy to see the Pens win, you were just happy to see the Flyers lose.

Now doesn't that feel better?

Anonymous said...

Crazy how our entire shootout lineup consisted of Russians.

Unknown said...

@Kim

Well put! I do feel better now. Thanks for sharing that.

Has anyone noticed how important Atlanta is to our playoff hopes this week? If not, take a peek at their schedule.

NS said...

very stressful game to watch. starting to really hate the freakin Bruins.

nice seeing Ovie flatten Lucic

Anonymous said...

What is the deal with Florida? How come we can't shake them off? Annoying.

Unknown said...

Is there something "we" should be doing to shake off Florida? Like praying? It's not like they're beating "us."

JP said...

My theory on Florida (not just the hockey team, fwiw) is ignore 'em and they'll go away.

The Caps have too much to worry about with respect to the teams in front of them to be concerned with those behind them (Florida has played one more game than the Caps). Put another way, if the Caps fall behind the Kitties, it's because they didn't take care of their own business - they still play Florida twice more.

Unknown said...

Agreed. FLA isn't going to go all Houston Rockets on anybody.

JP said...

Tyler gets five minutes in the commentor penalty box for referencing basketball.

~Mark said...

What, no salad dressing jokes JP?

Anonymous said...

I have a technical question about the rules governing the shootout: isn't it illegal for the shooter to stop his "forward motion"? Someone told me that once. It prevents dipsy-do stuff and skating around the net and so forth.

If so, then according to Cory's report, Semin's goal should have been disallowed:

"Semin opened the shootout by coming to a complete stop in front of Boston goalie Alex Auld and surprised him with a wrist shot over his left shoulder from close range."

Anyone know the technical rules of the shootout?

JP said...

IIRC, for a penalty shot, the puck has to be moving forward (towards the goal) at all times - doesn't matter what the skater is doing. That said, they're more lenient in the shootout and allow for crap like spin-o-ramas where the puck moves away from the goal line ever so briefly.

Basically, they go with the intent of the rule rather than strict enforcement of it.

B8ovin said...

I'm just a bit upset that we once had Metropolit. I've always liked that kid.

While I might agree that Semin slowed his momentum significantly, I don't think it was egregious, and it was, from my seat anyway, beyond the laws of physics that the puck stopped moving (or even that Semin stopped).

It sure makes for a boring afternoon when two teams are so evenly matched, until the shootout, that is.

Anonymous said...

a great game if not a little sloppy on the passing front

the refs were just horid, the one that gets me the most was the diving call on ovie, I was in 403 directly above and it certainly didn't look like he was diving from my angle

I am glad to see the caps get 2 points out of that, but really boston should not have gotten even a single point out of that mess

Anonymous said...

The technical rules of the shotout follow those of the penalty shot and JP is exactly right: the puck has to be moving forward.

This is from Rule 30 Section a: "The puck must be kept in motion towards the opponent's goal line and once it is shot, the play shall be considered complete. No goal can be scored on a rebound of any kind (an exception being the puck off the goal post, then the goalkeeper and then directly into the goal), and any time the puck crosses the goal line, the shot shall be considered complete."

Anonymous said...

OMG Sergi looks like a baby in that pix! Too funny! Also as for Semin's shoot out attempt, lets face it he did exactly what Bettman and his goons were hoping creative big goal by one of the "exciting" goal scorers. If they had ruled it illegal it would have given even more fodder for the "refs hate the caps" argument!