Photo credit: Greg Fiume

Celebrating BL21's netter (Photo by Greg Fiume)

No jokes. Nothing cute. The Washington Capitals, deep into a slump, host the Anaheim adjective-less Ducks in a regular season game with a lot of additional gravity. Our hopes are high, our loins girded, our hearts full.

Here comes the arm.

Brooks Laich first marked up the board with a chip-in off of John Carlson during a first period powerplay. In the second, the oddly vowelled Joffrey Lupul put a bounce in the net– also while on powerplay. And it stayed that way until overtime, when Ryan Getzlaf escaped John Carlson’s coverage to wrist the game winner past Semyon Varlamov. Ducks beat Caps 2-1 (OT).

• Brooks Laich was the Caps best player by a mile. Scoring Washington’s only goal from within traffic, he led the offensive charge on every shift. He nearly scored the game-winner, a slow treacle from Hiller’s behind, but Ryan Getzlaf swatted it away. Laich’s 7 shots led the team, fitting for the player whose media quotes over the last few days were the hockey equivalent of FDR’s fireside chats.
• Alex Ovechkin‘s Russian Machine is not broken, but it may have been sabotaged. Ringing the post on a signature breakaway? That’s not bad luck; that’s cosmic malice.
• BBBB (Bench Boss Bruce Boudreau) did something odd tonight– matching the checking line of Laich-Steckel-Bradley up against Anaheim’s top line.
• Welcome back to the active duty, Mike Green. I see you’ve missed the game, as you were on ice for half of this one.
• The first period was a barnburner for the Caps, recording 17 shots on net. Those numbers are unsustainable perhaps, but it is certainly evidential of a focused team. The latter half probably suffered from lack of that effort.
• Who is at fault for the OTGWG: John Carlson; Scott Hannan; or Loki, the god of mischief? (Hint: we don’t care.)

Let’s not go crazy, everybody. We’re all bummed out, and Lord Voldemort is still up in the masthead creeping us out, but this will not last. This will not last. The Capitals were an offensive factory tonight, leading in shots 32 to 24 (We will update with scoring chances when Neil’s data are available), and soon you’ll see that effort manifest in a final score.

We’re gonna be alright, but we’ve got to power through the next few days of blowhard columnists and humorless humorists waxing assholic about our team. But Saturday will be on us before you know it. Up to Boston with us and onward to victory.