On Frozen Blog

*I saw leadership skating from Sergei Fedorov in periods one and two, but especially in the second stanza.¬†He’s been strong on the puck all night, and driving his legs furiously on the forecheck. He’s cycled the puck effectively, and displayed his reknowned elite hockey smarts in all three zones. Then, at 16:03 of period two, he led in the best way possible: rifling home¬†a top-shelf bullet past Anderson to give the Caps a bit of breathing room.
*Alexander Semin is having a bit of¬†a ‘rebound’ game from Thursday. His elite awareness and vision set up Fedorov’s go-ahead goal, and he is puck possession game along and away from the boards in the Panthers’ zone is¬†allowing the Caps to slowly gain control of the game’s tempo.¬†
*I expected the Caps to take the body more tonight, in light of Florida’s hard labor in Raleigh last night. They had eight hits in period one and just five in the second.¬†¬†
*After Fedorov’s goal, the Caps skated the second period’s remaining four minutes with what I call “leader’s legs.” A tension weight seemed to have been removed from their stride.¬†
*Needing only one point tonight, it will be interesting to see if the Caps try and take the play to the ‘Cats in period three and try and secure a true comfort goal or if they skate more in zones-clogging fashion and try and just hold on.