Okay, raise your hand if you saw this one coming. No fibbing.
The Caps pasted a Tampa team that is the midst of a dogfight for playoff positioning, Tomas Fleischmann served notice that he’d really, really like to stay with the big club, and Alexander Semin scored a natural hat-trick in a game that was a pleasant as it was surprising.
- Though his driving the net got him a goal late in the game, Giroux digging early to get back on defense will make as bing an impression in the coaching staff’s eye, I’ll bet.
- Speaking of Giroux’ goal, while it went unassisted in the books, Pothier made a fantastic head-man pass to spring the forward. Great read, and Pothier was also sporting an ‘A’ for the contest. At one point Pothier had a chance to step up and try and intercept a Lightning pass into the Caps’ zone, a high-risk, high-reward play, but instead chose to give up the line, ensuring better positioning against Lecavalier. It stuck out to me due to its conservative nature, as that opportunity has been too good to pass up in the past. It’s a small thing, but it’s the kind of thing the ‘bad’ Caps get burned by.
- Tortorella didn’t seem particularly happy with his goalie play yesterday, going from Holmqvist to Denis to Holmqvist again, though it didn’t seem to make much difference.
- The man in the Caps’ net certainly seems to make a difference for his team, however. Washington seems to play with much more confidence in front of Olie, and the work-rate has been very high the past few games.
- I give O’Brien the decision in his fight with Bradley. He’s a guy that will certainly stir trouble up in the division for a while, and he and Bradley were woofing at each other as they were escorted to the locker rooms.
- Tomas Fleischmann was impressive, and while his goals were noteworthy, his centering feed to Boyd Gordon for the last goal of the game was probably my favorite play of his. Interesting to note that most of the game he was playing his natural left wing spot, with Semin on the right side.
- Alexander Semin. Lovely stick-handling on the second goal, and the third goal of the hat-trick was surreal — shooting one-footed, off the wrong foot, all of the heat on that shot was generated from wrist-strength. Not a lot of guys can make that shot.
- Alex Ovechkin had a strange game. Several times on cycling shifts I saw him pass up centering opportunities to hold onto the puck himself. Not sure what to make of it.
- Mike Green looked to respond to his benching, with a nice poke check early, and some decent physical play.
- Schultz was up-and-down, at one point completely eliminating St. Louis, and throwing a good hit behind the net, but after a run-in with Craig Ryan it looked like he got a bit wound up and followed Ryan out to the perimeter by the far boards. Pothier had to yell at Schultz and point out who he should be covering, and luckily no damage was done.
- Milan Jurcina had another physical game, including a mashing of Prospal against the glass. The hit of the night, however, was Ovechkin clocking one Tampa player into another, knocking both down.
Another fun and surprising game, with the puck bouncing the Caps’ way all game. It’s nice to see the team play with some pride, and win a game that most would have predicted they wouldn’t. In a season that has had more lows than highs, it a nice change.
Post a Comment