No goal. (Photo credit: Mitchell Layton)

Matt Bradley drops the gloves with Cody McLeod. (Photo credit: Jacquelyn Martin)

EVEN LATER UPDATE 12/12 1PM: Per Bob McKenzie, Alex Semin has been fined for his crosscheck on COL’s John-Michael Liles, and will play tonight against NYR.

UPDATE 12/11 11:50PM: Dmitry Chesnokov heard that Alex Semin will not be suspended.

Let’s get the hell out of town. The Washington Capitals have lost five games in a row, four of them at home base. The Colorado Avalanche brought their fast-paced offense to town as Washington tried to re-awake theirs. Despite showing more effort than in recent games, the Caps failed to stop, drop, shut em’ down, open up shop.

Kevin Shattenkirk got lucky with an early goal that Michal Neuvirth should have stopped. Mike Knuble responded with his 250th career goal, a typical Knuble score from inches out. Tom Poi was woefully out of position, allowing Ryan Wilson to waltz in and score the go-ahead goal. Piling on was Paul Stasny, who converted on the powerplay. Matt Hendricks launched a comeback with a no-looker from the crease, but the home team ran out of time. Avs beat Caps 3-2.

• The Capitals led in scoring chances 25 to 13. Is this whole slump due to bad luck?
• Alex Semin lost his temper. Sasha Minor retaliated for a crosscheck by dangerously crosschecking John-Michael Liles in the back of the head. Semin earned his 5-minute major and his game misconduct. We expect to see a suspension from Colin Campbell, which would also be earned. Though, then again, extra punishment from the league is always unpredictable.

• Former Av Matt Hendricks was your player of the game. He was on ice for 8 5v5 chances for and zero against. He scored the best-looking goal of the night, and he delivered some mondo hits. Maybe he was playing hard to show up his former teammates, those ungrateful bastards. Or maybe he really is this versatile of a player.
• Hey, Tomas Fleischmann. Good to see ya, pal. How ya been? Cool. Hey, you know you contributed absolutely nothing to this game, right? The Capitals were literally ignoring you in those post-whistle scrums.
• Big ups to Mike Knuble for recording his 250th career goal. And how appropriate for that 250th to be a nasty deflection from point blank.
• Eric Fehr has been on ice for one goal for in the last twelve games. Benching is imminent.
• Alex Ovechkin played all but 18 seconds of the Capitals 5:30 ice time. In that time, the Capitals had only one scoring chance. The powerplay is still disappointing.
• Shattenkirk. No note. Just a funny name.

Joe B's suit of the night > Alan May's

That the Capitals are enthused about the game is baffling. Post-game interviews, particularly the ones with Bruce Boudreau and Mike Knuble, were pretty mellow. Well yes, the offense played better at even strength, but the power play has been struggling for far too long. Unless we can consider Matt Hendricks our new man-advantage scoring agent, this team still has a serious problem. You can’t say that this team has hit rock bottom until they start heading in the other direction. And to me, that means a win.

See you tomorrow night at MSG. Maybe the change of venue will do some good.

Additional reporting by Neil Greenberg