Steve Eminger returns. No he still can't play defense. (Photos not by Stevie K)

I’ll admit it– wearing my undefeated Mean, Mean Russian Machine t-shirt tonight, I was a little worried about tonight’s game. It’s not as if the Ducks are a west coast powerhouse or that the Caps are missing players; it’s just that the streak has to break sometime. Why not tonight and against a lesser opponent, the kind the Capitals used to play down against.

It only took forty some minutes for the Capitals to wake up. The home team dominated the first period, but had only a 1-0 game to show for it. The second period was a sleepy affair, and gave the Ducks a chance to tie it up. But early in third period, the Caps reached deep into their bag of tricks and pulled out a game-winning goal from Shaone Morrisonn. Let me state that again: Shaone Morrisonn (0 goals in the last whole-bunch-of games) scored the go-ahead goal tonight. And that’s when the flood gates opened. Within less than three minutes, the Caps delivered two more notches. The Ducks tried to muster up some bluster with some good, old-fashioned hockey violence, but to no avail. Caps beat Ducks 5-1.

Bullets, anyone?

• For real: Shaone Morrisonn? Tonight was the blueliner’s first goal of the season. I want to award the guy some bonus points for making it a crucial one. Shaone’s 25-foot wrister danced around the knees of four or five guys before sneaking past Anaheim goalie Giguere. Wait. Was that really Shaone Morrisonn? Wow. Alright. Whatever. We’ll take it.
• Yeah, yeah. Alexander Semin scored another pair of goals and looked like a pro playing among pee-wees out there. That’s not the story. Here’s the story. @Caps_Girl, she of the “CLICK CLICK BOOOOM!”, provides this revelatory video. That’s Sasha “No speak English” Semin chatting it up with Hershey call-up Braden Holtby on the bench. The guy clearly knows the language. He’s been running a long game on the hockey press for five years now.  Bet you twenty bucks he can rap the first verse from “Ice Ice Baby.”
• Canada’s Best Defenseman Mike Green got manhandled by the Ducks. Bobby Ryan got away with some dirty shots in his bear-hug tackle behind the net. Green’s bad shoulder was smeared into the glass too many times for my taste. And while his offensive contribution was only a single assist, Green was a monster in his own zone. Green spun Ducks on breakaways and secured clears when the rest of the team seemed somnambulant.
• Russian Machine correspondent Steven Kern provided us some blurry photos from his bitchin’ seat behind the goal. Unfortunately, that goal was the Caps’ in the first and third, the Ducks in the second.  Not so much traffic there. But because the Caps scored five goals tonight, I can trade K’s ticket in for free wings at Glory Days Grill.  K, please drop off that ticket ASAP.

Tonight’s game marks the teams 207th goal of the season. No other team has 180. The Caps are tied for first place in the whole league. Washington has won eight games in a row for the first time since I’ve been potty trained. Alexander Semin has ten points in the last five games, five of which are goals. The reign of Captain Alex Ovechkin has seen only one defeat. Enjoy while it lasts, fans, because it cannot. Sorry to pee on the parade, but the Caps will have to find this same strength and greater come April and May. No time for back-patting.

Unless you’re Shaone Morrisonn.   Wow.