Op Bevroren Blog

The Caps met Montreal for the second time in three nights. Given that the early headline on NHL.com was “Habs Go for Home-and-Home Sweep,” the Caps had something to prove Thursday night. They also were seeking to avoid consecutive losses in regulation under Bruce Boudreau.

Good crowd, good ice, two streaking teams, and a crammed press box.

• The game started off with a high-stick hello — apparently the Canadiens thought they’d need to smack Ovechkin in the face with a stick in order to send a message. The only thing louder than the outrage on that hit was, lamentably, the “O” during the anthem.

• Great stuff attempt on that first power play by Laich. If only it went in.

• The RDS feed was on in front of us (pucksandbooks is yapping away with all his Hershey buddies in the house while I do the game work), and it appeared that Brashear went to the box for “rudesse,” which apparently means “roughing” in Habs-speak. We’ve seen worse infractions during a Metro ride. Especially this season.

• It was Hershey night at the Phone Booth (Josef Boumedienne and Sami Lepisto were signing autographs before the game, then watched the game from the press box), and even Coco arrived to help Slapshot with mascot duties.

• What a slapper by Ovechkin! Any harder and that would’ve taken Huet’s head off.

• Season ticket holder Pat Sajak is in the house. Although he didn’t look too enthused at being highlighted in the center ice scoreboard. What we wouldn’t give for his seats…a ceramic dalmation, perhaps?

• Thank you, lack of Montreal defense, for Ovechkin’s second goal of the night. Too bad that was immediately followed up with Montreal’s first goal of the game.

• Quintin Laing is an absolute workhorse out there, despite a lack of ice time in this game (six minutes in the first two periods). But we already knew that.

• Montreal is getting a team back in the QMJHL next season, after a five-year absence. The St. John’s Fog Devils have been sold to a Montreal businessman. Speaking of the Q league, Capitals’ prospect Mathieu Perreault is on a 20-game scoring streak!

• Courtesy of the Caps Cribs segment: Quintin Laing and his wife have the cutest little boy, who sleeps in the closet in their apartment. As Laing explains, “It’s a very big closet.”

• There are three Russian journalists in the press box tonight. The game’s first five goals scored were by Russian players, so the journalists were understandably beaming.

• Ladies, get out the stilettos — Hockey ‘n Heels is coming back in February! (Note: wearing heels is optional, and probably not a good idea if they do the on-ice shot tutorial again.)

• Brashear has had an impact on the ice tonight — and several Montreal players have felt that impact.

• And the hits just keep on coming! What a physical game this is — no shortage of glass-shaking or open-ice collisions tonight.

• Ovechkin’s first hat trick at home: through the defender’s legs, up over Huet’s left shoulder, into the cage at about 170 mph, and back out the cage almost to the blueline. He sure enjoys playing against Montreal. No wonder their press was begging him to sign there.

• Guillaume Latendresse broke up all the Russian goal-scoring with the Habs’ third goal.

• The lack of a whistle leading to Montreal’s fourth goal is sure to be a hot topic during this game’s post-mortem.

• There are hat tricks and then there’s what Ovie accomplished Thursday night: a four-goal, bash ‘em and blur-by-’em “one for the ages” (that’s Mike Vogel’s post-game quote) feat of dominance, in front of a sizable contingent of Montreal press, and ESPN’s Scott Burnside, that may go a real long way to forging the Gr8’s Hart Trophy award. Oh, and he did it all with a broken nose. That contract’s beginning to look really good!

Post-game reactions

• Comcast’s Lisa Hillary asked Ovie if Tuesday night’s disappointment fueled his outburst tonight. Not so much, apparently. “My girlfriend [I knew] was coming,” he said, beaming. “That’s why,” he added chuckling.

• Olie Kolzig: “I think I might set a record for lowest save percentage with a winning record.”

• Gabby on Ovie: “He’s an amazing person.”

• “What was going through your mind when they tied it?” the head coach was asked. “Exactly what was going through my mind was we’ve been up 3-0 four times and they’ve come back to tie it … but we’ve won every game. That’s the first thing I thought of. So I said, we’re, ok!” [press room erupts in laughter]

• More Gabby: “I thought it was a game we absolutely dominated the first 30, 35 minutes. They only had 9 shots … Coaches have always said get a hit early and get into the game, and he [Ovechkin] loves the challenges and you could see him going after Komisarek more than Komisarek was going at him. That’s a big boy, and when you play as much as Alex does, I mean, it doesn’t seem to tire him, and that’s good for the Capitals.”

• On not losing consecutive games and its meaning: “It means they can play with anybody they want … We don’t have the consistency of the Detroit Red Wings or anything, but when we put our minds to it, play the way we’re supposed to play, and when we get the good goaltending like we got tonight, we’re a pretty tough team to beat.”