Good dog! (Photo credit: Brian Babineau)
Get your time machines. We’ve got to go tell the Caps from November to play exactly like this right here.
Alex Semin collected a rebound in front of the net and Alex Semin Sniped™ the first goal past Tim Thomas. Matt Hendricks got right into the crease and made it 2-0 within 25 seconds. Milan Lucic went five-hole on Vokoun to get the Bruins back in it. Marchand capitalized on an Orlov giveaway to tie the game. League MVP Jay Beagle finished off a sparkly pass from Semin. Brooks Laich scored on the PP–yes, you read that right, he scored on the PP. Boychuk scored with three minutes to go to make it a little uncomfortable. Caps beat Bruins, 4-3.
- Tomas Vokoun was brilliant early to get the Caps a good start on the game, and John Carlson was so inspired by this that he also decided to play goalie on a Bruins PP. No question he saved a goal to keep the Caps two up in the first. Ovi-goalie? You’ve got some competition.
- It was Dmitry Orlov’s very first multi-point NHL game tonight with two assists! Please take this moment to properly appreciate him, if you haven’t been doing so already. What a happy surprise that kid has been. We love him, and we don’t know what wonderful thing we did to deserve him.
- Roman Hamrtrip spent most of his glorious return to the lineup taking weird penalties and covering imaginary people. To be fair, the Bruins also spent a curious amount of time flopping for how tough they seem to think they are, but Hamrlik was certainly less than impressive. Free….Erskine…?
- What’s wrong with Ovechkin?? Nothing today, apparently. He had four shots on goal, an assist and a few fantastic hits. There were mistakes, but he was skating well for most of the game and seemed to be able to find a lot of open ice.
- Marcus Johansson took a thunderous hit from Zdeno Chara in the first period that broke the glass, but he apparently survived in one piece. He should get some kind of commemorative t-shirt for this.
- New Bruin Greg Zanon hit Mathieu Perreault in the second period the way you would hit someone if there were absolutely no rules in hockey. There was definitely some elbow action — Zanon got a penalty on the play, but two minutes is not good enough for me. Five minutes. A hundred minutes. Off with his head. I tentatively suggest a Shanaban, but really, who am I kidding? Rule 1385b. is that elbows on Capitals are A-OK.
- Coherent power play setups spotted in their natural habitat! Shhh, nobody move too sharply, you’ll startle them away.
- To be fair, the Bruins were uh, a bit shorthanded today. They don’t have anyone who looks nearly as sharp as Mike Knuble in a press box, or eats popcorn with quite as much panache, but they’re doing their best. You know what’s an even better look for Knuble, though? In a Caps jersey, on the ice. #Freed
I hate golf. It’s not interesting, it’s not hockey, and I have no interest in watching the Caps play it in April. The Caps are still in eighth place, they cannot actually fall out of eighth place until Monday, even if they tried. The better news? With one more point, they can overtake the Florida Panthers, too — and we’ll do it without a zillion loser points too, thank you very much.
Hold the fort. Crash the net. If only they’d had fans like us at the Alamo, things would have turned out differently.
