But Erskine, after Thursday’s game, was sticking to the mantra that the fight wasn’t related to the earlier Beagle incident.

“It was just a fight, trying to get the crowd into it. We went down 1-nothing there,” Erskine said.

No argument about the sequence of events—moments before the fight, the Pens had just scored the game’s first goal, on which, ironically, Asham got an assist.  So Erskine’s explanation makes sense.

But it still seems like a too-good-to-be-true coincidence for Caps fans.  And the fight finished in Erskine’s favor, so justice seemed to be done.

No matter. Erskine insists it was about Thursday’s game.

“I know Asham,” Erskine said, then added, “Whatever happened with Beags, it happened between them.”

At another point, his statement wasn’t as absolute, but carried the same sentiment: “That [the Beagle fight] didn’t really have much to do with it.”

While Beagle holds off sending the thank-you note, take a look at the Erskine-Asham bout that was one of the better fights of the Caps’ season so far.

This Rangers club doesn’t possess the skill level up front to threaten the Caps. They badly miss Ryan Callahan, but Chris Drury is skating limited minutes, invisibly, Marian Gaborik hasn’t been a consistent scoring threat all season, and early on Friday night Artem Anisimov blocked a shot up high and seemed hampered by a bum arm thereafter (he skated under 11 minutes on the evening). Through nearly 140 minutes of hockey in this series the New York Rangers have merely a single goal against Michal Neuvirth. And just 47 shots. Friday night they mustered just 3 shots on Neuvirth in the second period, and staring at a 2-0 hole on the scoreboard and in the series, managed just 6 in the evening’s final 20 minutes.  The Rangers through two games seldom enjoyed sustained offensive pressure around Michal Neuvirth’s cage, and when they did earn good looks at Neuvy, he thwarted.

Rangers coach John Tortorella had no complaints of his players after Friday night’s 2-0 loss — “We got hurt by a [second period] surge tonight,” he suggested — but what may ultimately prove insurmountable for Tortorella’s offensive-starved squad is an inability to match up defensively with three strong Capitals’ forward lines. The Capitals in the series now have goals from their first three forward lines, and after Dan Girardi and Marc Staal, there’s a big dropoff in Blueshirt defensive reliability. On Friday night, it was the Capitals’ line of Jason Chimera, Marcus Johansson, and Brooks Laich that was the best on the evening. The unit had been coming on strong toward the end of the regular season. Friday night they announced themselves a force to be reckoned with this postseason. They are blinding fast, fiercely competitive for the puck, slick and slippery and sturdy down low. They are going to draw second and third pairing defensive units the remainder of the postseason. They could do real damage.

“We said before that we thought we had a good line and we could make a difference,” Chimera said in the victors’ locker room Friday night. “You look at all playoff series in the past and you always see third and fourth lines stepping up . . . We felt we played well in game one.”

It’s no great secret that one-line scoring is a recipe for a short stay in the postseason, and that the Capitals’ establishing two quality scoring lines — diversifying their attack — is the best recipe for preventing opponents from ganging up on Ovi and the top line. But what if this hockey club is witnessing the emergence of three quality, productive lines? Isn’t that a game-changer in the overall prospects for this postseason?

And on the back end, Scott Hannan is being Scott Hannan, John Carlson is being John Carlson, Mike Green is sharper than anyone reasonably could have forecast, and Karl Alzner is . . . emerging as a force. In the regular season he was Mr. Steady; early on this postseason he is a difference-maker in the Capitals’ end. He suddenly looks like an impact lottery pick blueliner.

Early on Friday word arrived of Dennis Wideman taking the ice at Kettler for a brief skate, after being hospitalized for fully two weeks. His head coach intimated that the much-missed rearguard could potentially play again in this series. Three dynamic lines . . . the likes of Mike Green, Scott Hannan, Wideman, and the dynamic duo guarding the back end and deftly distributing the puck out of harm’s way . . . and in Neuvirth, an early front-runner for Conn Smythe . . . dare I say it? . . .

No way.

Let’s worry about Sunday first.

But oh so suddenly, there is a mischievous vibe settling in about postseason possibilities. Philly and Pittsburgh have already lost home ice. Carey Price took battle one against Tim Thomas. Just sayin.

Washington through two games is skating with urgency and cohesion and selflessness — very winning traits in the postseason. The Caps are also taking care of the puck, especially in the neutral zone, limiting turnovers, and getting pucks deep and grinding the Rangers down with a commitment to taking the body. It’s impressive. And more and more, it seems as if this winning moment in money season is a grand culmination — of playing lots of tight hockey games in 2011, of adding astutely at the trade deadline, and most especially of getting every guy wearing a red sweater to buy into what Gabby’s preaching.

“They’ve been buying in since the middle of December,” Boudreau said of his team’s embrace of a defense-first system. “They just want to win. The important thing is that they get success. We’ve got a lot of guys who’ve won a lot of awards and that doesn’t mean anything to them now.”

Nailbiters fairly defined the Capitals’ body of regular season work in the season’s second half. The upside to all that 9:00 hour mania is how lethally composed the Caps look in tight games in April.

“It goes back to the games we played in the regular season,” Mike Green noted in Friday’s postgame, alluding to the success the Caps are having protecting leads in tight affairs. “We’ve been in this position a lot this year. It hasn’t been blowout games . . . So it’s been comforting to know that we’ve played in enough games to know what to do now.”

Green has also taken note of the change in the Capitals’ room.

“I think there’s just a different atmosphere in the dressing room compared to last year, and it goes to show on the ice.”

The Rangers need the Capitals’ help to get back into this series — Neuvy needs to let in a softie, the Caps have to start turning pucks over. Even that likely won’t be enough. It’s not an enviable position. Meanwhile, Boudreau’s disciplined believers keep reminding themselves of the futility of feeling good prior to lining up for a handshake line, smiling.

Photo by Clyde Caplan, clydeorama.com

After John Erskine and Jared Boll dropped the gloves Thursday, a quality fight’s memory got lost in the aftermath of Erskine leaving the game in the next period as an injury “precautionary” measure, according to Bruce Boudreau, which forced the Capitals to rotate 5 defensemen for the remainder of the game.

But it was a fight that earned some post-game reflection from Erskine’s teammate Jason Chimera, who got the Caps’ game winning goal in overtime.

“He’s done so much for our team that way…that’s huge,” Chimera said of Erskine and what his fight meant to the game. “It was a real spirited fight. For me, it’s one of the most unselfish things you can do for your team. He doesn’t get noticed too often, but it’s good for a team.”

It’s learned along with hockey ABCs that play gets more physical the closer you get to Lord Stanley, and fights can be the needed shot of adrenaline for a team’s bench. The Capitals, according to HockeyFights.com (a site that’s more addictive than Facebook), rank 13^th in the league in total fights this season as of March 30, with at least four potential Eastern Conference playoff opponents (assuming the Caps go to multiple rounds) ahead of them or tied: Flyers, the Rangers, the Penguins, and the Bruins. The Capitals are at 44 fights on the season, a higher total than any previous season since 2003-2004, when they had 48. Their high fight numbers are even more impressive considering the one player on their roster who fills the role of enforcer, DJ King, has only played in 16 games.

Are the Caps any good when they drop the gloves, though? Out of those 44 fights, Caps players have won 14. Ten fights were voted draws, which leaves 20 wins by opponents. Matt Hendricks, who’s been in the most fights, is 3-7-4. But at least the Caps’ high fight total shows a willingness to drop the gloves — an impressive aspect for a team that boasts as much skill as any roster in the NHL.

A few more notes from Thursday’s game:

• The good and the bad: with the playoffs four games away, Mike Knuble knows the Capitals can play better, which is good for fans who watched the team blow a lead yesterday, but not encouraging that the Capitals are still toying with their opponents rather than shutting them down. “I want us to be better, I know we can be better,” Knuble said after the Caps squeaked out a 4-3 overtime winner against 23^rd-ranked Columbus. “That’s two games in a row where teams could come back late on us in the third.” Chimera agreed: “We got to go in [to the playoffs] riding a high, instead of playing kind of mediocre.”Knuble said he thought the Caps needed to be stronger in their own end, but that, one could argue (though Knuble didn’t), came with a plausible explanation, since the Caps went down a defenseman after Erskine left the game in the second period.

 

• Speaking of defensemen, the biggest buzz surrounding the team Thursday was about a player who wasn’t even on the ice – TSN’s Bob McKenzie broke the news that Dennis Wideman was in the hospital with  hematoma, and Knuble painted a rather vivid picture of the ordeal.“He’s been firing off some pictures too, and they’re pretty graphic,” Knuble said. “It’s pretty grotesque…I think he’s pretty much high all the time to deal with the pain.” (Can we give Knuble quote of the year for this?) Knuble also said that apparently Matt Hendricks had the same injury during the lockout.With Wideman and Erskine both out, and Mike Green still out, the Caps spent Thursday’s game rotating among 5 defensemen.  Jill Sorensen asked Knuble how that changed the forwards’ thinking on what they needed to do to help out.  Knuble said everyone will have to carry more of the load and be better on the boards getting pucks out.It’s also a gap that could be helped by strong puck-handling from your goalie and can help prevent further injuries, according to Braden Holtby (from an interview earlier this year): “If you can play the puck effectively, it helps your d-men out, and it helps [prevent] injuries, especially ’cause they’re not getting hit in the corner as much.”

 

• However you want to slice and dice Thursday’s game, the end result was three very disjointed periods, with the one thing remaining consistent throughout was Columbus goalie Steve Mason’s trouble with rebounds. That ended up being his undoing most noticeably on a nifty goal by Knuble and the overtime goal by Chimera.  The first period saw only one goal by the Capitals, before the teams combined to score four goals in the second period, making it 3-2. Three of the goals came in under a minute. Columbus tied it late in the third. Boudreau said Caps goalie Michal Neuvirth was fairly blameless on any of the three goals against. “More importantly, for Michal, when the game’s on the line, he’s there,” Boudreau said.

The last time the Caps met the ‘Bolts, at Verizon Center on November 11, Alexander Semin potted three goals and two assists in a 6-3 triumph by the hosts. Friday night Semin’s hat trick arrived naturally — in just 4:29 of playing time in a second period in which the Caps’ crisp passing and razzle-dazzle distribution ended any remaining doubt about the outcome. Entering play last night Tampa had closed to within four points of the Caps for first place in the Southeast.

It’s a good thing the Caps no longer play Tampa and the rest of the Southeast division eight times each a season — contract negotiations with Semin and his agent then would get really expensive for General manager George McPhee.

Stat of the night: Semin now has three hat tricks in just the past 35 days, the fastest ever by a Cap in one season. The former holder of that honor was Peter Bondra, who had three in 60 days during the 1996 season.

Semin’s strikes were all of the highlight-reel variety — a pair of one-timer blasts from the weak side off of stellar feeds from Johansson and Nick Backstrom, and a jaw-dropping tally off a sublime feed from Backstrom again on the power play. The Swedish pivot, regaining his elite form of late, fed a seeing-eye cross-ice pass onto Semin’s tape, which the sniper whipped into the upper corner of the cage to secure his third hat trick of the season and give the Caps an unassailable 5-0 lead. It was a play impossible to defend.

Perhaps lost in all of the goal scoring prowess was the play of the Capitals’ defensemen Friday night. John Carlson and Karl Alzner kept Tampa’s top line, featuring Steven Stamkos, more or less silent. Tom Poti also impressed, with Bruce Boudreau pointing out, “You could tell his experience back there when he got the puck he made the right plays.” John Erskine scored his third goal of the season, extending his career high lamp-lighting tally. The blueline unit overall exhibited exceptional positional play and consistently limited the time and space and impact of Tampa’s high-powered top line.

It was a conspicuously easy evening for Semyon Varlamov, who earned his third career shutout and was called upon to make just 17 saves. And Marcus Johnasson recorded the first multi-point game of his NHL career, with two assists, the first of which arrived with a clean win of the draw in the Tampa zone, which Carlson promptly blasted past a helpless Mike Smith. Tampa used both Smith and Dan Ellis Friday night, but no goalie would have bailed out a work-ethic-challenged Tampa club going against a suddenly in-synch Caps’ club.

Beyond all of the scoring though, the defense stepped up in several crucial spots, none more important than during a 5-3 penalty kill with less than five minutes to play in the second period. Yes the Caps were up 5-0 at the time, but two quick scores Tampa there and Washington could have been positioned for some most unwanted third period drama. The D-corps and special teams held strong, though, and the Caps were able to quasi-cruise. And consider that the Caps were without their top defenseman, Mike Green. On the night the Caps’ specialty teams were stellar: 5-for-5 on the PK, striking twice in four opportunities while on the man advantage.

Erskine’s stellar year has been one of the pleasant surprises of the season. Last year he looked like a guy who was going to play himself off the team, but this year he seems to have that fifth d-man spot locked up. He spoke to that after the game and it is our quote of the night.

Erskine on his new-found confidence: “I think it is nice coming to the rink and knowing you are in the lineup. There have been other years where you’re kind of guessing trying to think about what the coach is thinking. This year I am just kind of rolling with it and playing.” Part of his “rolling with it” Friday night was another impressive bit of handiwork with the gloves dropped.

With one day off, the Caps will face the Carolina Hurricane’s for the second time in less than seven days on Sunday. Washington was able to pull out of their longest slump of the year and point the ship in the right direction against the ‘Canes on Wednesday. The ‘Canes have been among Washington’s toughest divisional opponents in recent years, and irrespective of the standings the two teams always play each other tough. But even an outstanding effort Sunday by the Caps will be tough to match last night’s virtually perfect three-period performance.

(But not Goat.)

Mike Knuble had, by my count, at least three quality scoring chances in tight on Henrik Lundqvist just in Tuesday night’s first period, and as all of them went unlit and uncelebrated you had this sense that it just wasn’t going to be his night. Again. He hadn’t scored since opening night in Atlanta way back on October 8. Then a pagan priest in skates named Ovi slid a puck out front in the slot in period number two, Knuble banged it home, and the hockey gods surrendered their torment of the Caps’ right wing. Joe B during his call for Versus last night noted that a good many of Knuble’s 29 goals last season came in the season’s second half.

• This game was appreciably more physical than Sunday’s with Philadelphia. It was a Tuesday night tilt in November, and yet there was plenty of mutual hatred in place. Just like you might imagine there ought to be between old Patrick division rivals. It doesn’t matter how early in the season they play, or what circumstances have otherwise influenced the teams’ general standing, the matchup is intrinsically ire-laden. It is so beautiful to behold. And so tragic we can’t more often. (Thanks, commish.)

• Mike Green’s four-game goal scoring streak ended, and I was one who believed that had he gotten one by Lunqvist last night the remainder of the week set up well for a run at his record of goals in eight straight games. Oh, well. He’s playing terrific hockey, and he’s a key catalyst for the Caps’ attack. He also acquited himself rather well in his slow dance with Brandon Dubinsky. This is a fiestier Mike Green we’re seeing this season, and we like it.

• More goats, more donkeys, too, I say: Brooks Laich, on his lunchpail tally in tight to draw the caps even at 1 in the first frame: “Any donkey can go to the front of the net and stand there with his stick on the ice.” In point of fact, Laich’s redirection of Alex Semin’s superb feed was anything but a gimme. Laich’s three points Tuesday night helped push him into the top of the league in plus-minus, at +13.

• If I were Bruce Boudreau, I’d have given the night’s hard hat to Matt Bradley. I’d probably give it to him 50 percent of the time given that he is probably the hardest worker on the team night in, night out, but Tuesday night he earned it, I’d submit, because he set up the game-winner with Nick Backstrom’s patience and skill but in a grinder’s body. And on his other shifts he did a lot of dirty work for good measure.

• Already trailing 1-0, the Caps went short-handed for a too many men on the ice infraction, and seconds later Mike Green took a hooking penalty. The Rangers had about 1:40 of 5-on-3 attack, but Jeff Schultz authored perhaps he best penalty killing shift of the season for all of the 100 seconds. Regularly he got down low on the ice to expand his reach and clog passing lanes immediately in front of Michal Neuvirth. The Rangers didn’t bring much puck pressure to that attack, but Sarge was large at a pivotal moment in the early going.

• You lie if you claim you didn’t do a double-take on John Erskine’s left-point howitzer blast past Lundqvist’s shoulder. Had to have been the most impressive tally of his life, all things considered. What a beauty. But mere seconds later Tyler Sloan produced a squelching of the joy-buzz with his ill-advised, shockingly aggressive pinch attempt deep in the Blueshirts’ end. That type of uber aggressive play simply has to be made in this league — even against an opponent’s fourth line. Better would be backing off and not allowing a Neanderthal like the Boogie Man to plod down the wing unchecked and smash a slapper past your helpless goalie.

• Defensive blunders on both sides of the ice, one by Karl Alzner on the second goal with a careless clear and Sloaner’s piss-poor pinch, are blunders of inexperience in the faster paced NHL. On the whole the Caps’ blueline has been more disciplined this season, but they also have been susceptible to miscues on some of the simplest plays. Alzner’s unforced error on Brian Boyle’s second goal was a perfect example. But I’m not sure Alzner should be singled out for a struggle of an evening. Gabby gave him more than 20 minutes of ice, and I’m one who doesn’t read a great deal into weird events transpiring on MSG ice — annually one of the worst sheets in the league. The puck was bouncing all over the place last night.

• Sean Avery was a conspicuously silent presence Tuesday evening, not getting involved all that much. That may have been where New York went wrong. Avery’s dynamic pest style normally gets Ovi and co. riled up and distracted. If Avery isn’t being a pest odds are he isn’t helping his team much.

• Referee Don Van Massenhoven was perfectly positioned for Dan Girardi’s attempt on Brooks Laich’s life in the end boards behind Lundqvist in the second period, and yet did nothing. The trailing referee — trailing outside the Rangers’ zone — made the call. How does Van Massenhoven miss that? Laich was lucky not to leave the ice on a stretcher. Van Massenhoven shouldn’t work again until the new year. Disgraceful.

1st Period

Andrew’s take:

• It is hard to make a definitive decision for or against the Av’s third jersey in this corner. It looks as if it harkens back to a more classic era but the strange color scheme makes it look like a bad Arena Football League or IHL sweater. Pucksandbooks astutely pointed out (before he went to bed) that there is a very Atlanta Thrashers look to them, which begs the question: why would you want to look anything like a largely unsuccessful franchise?
• The Caps continued their first period dominance with two unanswered goals in the first frame. They have now outscored their opponents 43-17 in the first 20 minutes.
• Both callups continued the trend of making an immediate impact as soon as they hit the ice. Birthday boy Kyle Wilson had an assist on his first shift and almost had a goal on his second. Later he added another assist. He looked most comfortable in his NHL debut. Meanwhile, Karl Alzner authored quick and accurate tape-to-tape passes and played super solid positionally. We shouldn’t be surprised by this any more, though, as Quintin Laing, Matthieu Perreault, Keith Aucoin, and Jay Beagle all were called up and had reliable if not strong stints with the team. Moreover, callups from Hershey never seem out of place, or uncertain of their assignments, in Bruce Boudreau’s system, precisely because it’s one that’s instituted organization-wide. Even the parent and affiliate practice sessions mirror one another down to the drill and minute.

Alex’s take:

• When Alex Ovechkin isn’t shooting, his passing game is *ON*. He set up Knuble’s goal completely unselfishly on a play he’d normally shoot on, just as he set up Backstrom’s two-goal game against Toronto. Looks like Crosby’s becoming a better goal scorer this season and Ovechkin’s playmaking skills are blossoming this campaign too.
• Theodore, on again, off again, on again: he looked strong last night and he looked strong against Carolina. Whatever was bothering him last month has certainly not been in his coconut much lately. Doubters may disagree, but his “poor” performances seem to include more defensive errors than we see with Semyon Varlamov in net. Do you think it’s possible that the team plays differently in front of the two goalies to any degree — even subconsciously?
• Interminable goal reviews not only rob hockey games of their flow but often halt the momentum one team is enjoying. A new glacier formed in the Rocky Mountains in the time it took Toronto to adjudicate Brooks Laich’s kick-in goal, and seconds after play finally resumed the Caps out on the ice didn’t quite seem to be moving their legs as before, and Eric Fehr went to the sin bin for holding on that shift.

2nd Period

Andrew’s take:

• While there was so much good in this period, the hit on Green just can’t be ignored. It is clear to me that Green is viewed as one of the Caps “can’t lose” players, that he’s irreplaceable. In my mind there is no question that the hit was dirty, and warrants a sizable suspension (not holding my breath for that). Koci led with a shoulder to the head, and I don’t think it was any coincidence that it occurred after the Caps were up 5-0.
• Keeping the foot on the gas was the theme of this period. Earlier in the year Coach Bruce Boudreau said the team needed to learn how to win 3-0 and not 9-0. Watching them this season, I think the way that the team wins 3-0 is by actually winning 9-0. If they stop gunning for the net or playing their elite playmaking style it seems like they get caught flat-footed and on their heels a lot.
• A tip of the victory glass  to John Erskine. The quiet big man wasted no time seeking retribution for the hit on his teammate. At the start of the season many were worried about the team’s toughness after Donald Brashear left, and there are very legitimate questions as to whether having two “middleweights” carry out the enforcing is an adequate substitute, but there can be no denying the vigilance and guts of Erskine and Matt Bradley.

Alex’s take:

• The Avs looked flat without the puck. With the puck, only a couple of their lines were buzzing, but if this was a first-place team playing tonight, that was pretty pitiful. Duchene and O’Reilly, really, were nowhere to be seen. Thumbs up to the D tonight for keeping them quiet.
• Erskine’s game really picked up in this period. Over the past few weeks he’s been one of the safest players for the Caps, always funneling the puck deep in the offensive zone and digging deep in the defensive corners. Locker mentioned his minutes were up because Morrisonn only played five minutes the whole game, but did a lot with them including sticking up for his buddy Mike Green.
• A shift for the ages: with about seven-and-a-half minutes left in the second stanza the Caps’ fourth line of Chris Clark, Dave Steckel, and Matt Bradley pinned the Avs in their own end for a seeming eternity, outhustling and out-playmaking their hosts at every turn. Ultimately they scored, too. The game was already 4-0 Caps before the goal. The effort and production on that shift seemed a microcosm of the entire night.
• Forget Flash, he’s on Fire. He really wanted to get that hattrick, and the way he was shakin’ and bakin’ made him look like he was hell-bent on scoring his third. Unlucky to not get it in the end, but if he keeps up the way he’s been playing, it’ll happen really soon, I bet.

3rd Period

Andrew’s take:

• What does it say about the Caps scouting and coaching that they can seamlessly switch forwards and d-men in and out of the front three and back two? That was a positively emergency bit of personnel movement required by Gabby in the game’s second half — they were down to just three D at one point! And they surrendered just the lone goal to the Avs. Amazing.

Alex’s take:

• When Joe B and Locker have nothing else to say about how the Caps thoroughly crushed the Avs, well . . . there really isn’t.
• The Lisa Hillary Christmas sweater back in the Comcast studio looked a heck of a lot better than the Avs’ third sweater.

There were lots of shots of mom on that screen Friday night. Appropriately so. When it comes to expressions of affection up there, we’re used to the warming and high amusement associated with Kiss-Cam — of young boys on dates kissing their girls, of silver-haired couples smiling and offering up quick pecks, the awkward and feigned ignorance when the camera hones in on colleagues instead of couples, and of course, most amusingly, the out-of-town supporter uniformed as enemy and seated beside his same-sex, same-uniformed mate. We have to have some fun at their expense! But Friday night’s big-screen affection of a mother for her player son was my favorite to date in the Capitals’ 12-year run at their Chinatown home. And I don’t see a moment trumping it any time soon.    

• John, while disappointed like the rest of his teammates by the outcome, acknowledged in the postgame locker room that Friday night was “a dream come true.” He took quick notice of the abilities among his new teammates: “These guys up here are amazing,” he said.
• The most amazing among them, Alexander Ovechkin, wasn’t so much on Friday, and in light of the fact that he managed just one shot on goal in Madison Square Garden Tuesday night, the newly repaired Russian, many media thought, wasn’t quite at full his fullest powers just yet. Bruce Boudreau in his postgame remarks agreed. “I didn’t think he was on top of his game,” Gabby confirmed. The coach however was impressed with his new defenseman.
• Carlson’s five hits led the team Friday night, and his first few were real beauties along the boards. He really plastered a couple of Habs in the early going. I was surrounded by some new media friends watching him play for the first time. I told them that the reason so many have become so excited about this kid over the past year is that he’s not a one-dimensional defenseman — he plays both ends exceptionally well. In the final minute of the first period he made a marvelous switch to the left side of the ice in instantaneous reaction to partner Tom Poti getting caught a bit out of position with a swarm of Habs hard after the puck, and his instincts and mobility then perhaps preserved the Caps’ 1-0 lead at the intermission. He blasted a point shot off the pipe behind Carey Price in period two. He made plays all night. And in losing his partner to injury, Gabby noted, the new blueliner was thrust into a five-man rotation – unenviable duress in a debut. ”I thought he played with a lot of poise,” the coach offered, “his shots from the point were accurate.”    
• The psychology of the personalized hockey sweater for a fan is something that’s long fascinated me. Why would fans — admittedly in relatively small numbers — choose to have an expensive authentic sweater personalized for Matt Bradley instead of a star play like one of our Alexes, or say Mike Green? I’ve seen a few of them among the best sellers moving about in Chinatown over the years. As I walked to the rink last night however I thought that this particular Friday night was a special one for the wearers of that grinder’s sweater. Their guy, from my vantage, entered Capitals’ lore with his heroic showing on Tuesday night on Broadway. I thought that this game had to be particularly special for those fans — a special sort of homecoming for their guy. This subset of fans — the supporters of the unsung — they are a special family within our larger family, I think. Brads had a quasi breakaway last night, and had he potted it I might have purchased his sweater. 
• “Boxing out” is a term most typically associated with basketball, but it applies to hockey as well, and it most definitely applied to last night’s game. “They did a great job of boxing us out,” Eric Fehr said afterward. Gabby, too, noted the effective “box” Montreal deployed. “We didn’t have any second shots,” he said. “Good goalies are gonna make the first save.”  Against the Rangers on Tuesday, one or two Caps’ forwards were almost always in front of Henrik Lundqvist creating traffic and disruption. On Friday night, Carey Price saw almost every Capitals’ shot clearly, and his skaters in front of him reliably cleared the puck out of harm’s way before the Caps could pounce.
• There are some aspects to a hockey game no one in media or the stands can ever be privvy to. Just seconds before the start of the second period last night Ovi skated rather near Carey Price and said something to him as the goalie, in a stretching crouch and gliding toward his cage, passed. The goalie certainly took notice of Ovi’s remarks, cause he turned his head to acknowledge them and seemed to offer a rejoinder. Then Ovi turned back to face Price and flexed a few ghost wristers right at the goalie. Wouldn’t you just love to know what gamesmanship remarks Ovi authored in that moment? 
• Did you think that John Erskine’s successful dance with Georges Laraque in the first period benefitted at all from a bit of quick start by the Capitals’ rearguard? They were jawing at each other, and both knew I think that the gloves were gonna drop, but John shook his off more than dropped them and in the same motion delivered the first round of blows with his fists. Given Laraque’s distinguished heavyweight status relative to Erksine’s, I’m not sure we would have seen so favorable an outcome absent that quick draw. I walked the long Verizon Center corridor from the team locker rooms to the arena’s exit ramp alongside Laraque. John Erskine is a big guy, Milan Jurcina even bigger, but neither instill the sense of physical marvel that Laraque does. “Sculpted pain” was the association I made in that moment, watching Laraque’s massive form move in a slow shuffle toward departure, and as funny as it sounds, I was actually careful not to engage him in eye contact, as if he’d somehow mistake me for some threat and forearm me into oblivion. But that’s how physically imposing a specimen he is. And to put an exclamation point on my silly sensibilities, as we rounded a corner toward the Habs’ bus a handful a Habs’ fans with VIP tickets screamed out his name, he smiled widely, and stopped to sign for his supporters.
• Montreal hockey and the media that follows it: a Habs player was riding a stationary bike outside the visitor’s locker room, rather hard, in the postgame, and at least a dozen members of the Montreal press had cameras, mics, and recorders shoved in tight on his exercise space, pestering him with queries. Such exercise is quite common in postgames, but every other media contingent I’ve seen affords players the courtesy of carrying off their workouts then without distraction. I guess in that market, there is no reprieve from the queries.

• It’s an astounding statistic: the Caps have led in every single one of the 21 games they’ve played this season.
• For the wrong reason there’s a can’t-avert-your-eyes quality to Matt Bradley’s fights, as he so often engages true heavyweights and thereby comes out on the worst end of so many of them, and this again happened in last night’s first period at Madison Square Garden. You watch Bradley’s battles and hold your breath that he doesn’t get hurt too badly. Bradley’s a middleweight, and he backs down from no battle, and I’d be one to suggest that his extraordinary sacrifice midway through the first period carried a significant bearing on the Caps’ play the remainder of the period and throughout the second frame. He departed the ice looking like a Halloween night massacre at the hands of Aaron Voros, and then of course came back and had strong shift after strong shift, capped by his brilliant play along the boards — directing the puck through the legs of Wade Redden, New York’s $8 million dollar man — before water bottling a beauty behind King Henrik. Officially Matt Bradley was identified as the game’s third star, but he was hands down no. 1 on my blog.

At the end of his engagement Bradley appeared to ask a linesman if he was bleeding! A Toro Voros lawnmower had ridden over his face. If you are newly conscripted in the Red Army and not quite fluent with the role that violence plays in our sport, I’d be one to suggest that the Caps may well not have prevailed last night absent Bradley’s aggregate sacrifices. Hockey requires warrior effort and sacrifice, particularly in a game between two evenly matched clubs, and last night the Caps got just that from Brads.

• Beast (Bradley) and the Beauty: I was introduced to Charissa Thompson in high definition on last night’s broadcast. Youth movements well serve hockey teams, and apparently they do so as well for hockey television broadcast teams. No wonder Ovi wanted to get back in the lineup for this game — he was interviewed by her twice last night. It’s going to be a warmer winter than I imagined.
• I call it Mike Green’s lateral ballet coiling action at the point, when the puck comes back to him with time and space and he begins his effortless, ever so agile hot-steppin toward a shooting lane, five defenders more or less helpless at that point. Sergei Gonchar was lethal on the pinch and especially on the weakside one-timer goalies never saw, but he could never butterfly across the blueline like Greener does.
• Once again I liked what I saw from Mathieu Perreault, particularly in the faceoff circle. Did you notice how MP created a terrific scoring chance in period two while carrying the puck down the right wall, with two Rangers’ defenders perfectly positioned, with a simple saucer flick of his wrists that bounced the puck dangerously across Lundqvist’s crease and among his linemates? He can make something out of nothing, which premiere playmakers tend to do. Terrific feature on MP that ran on NHL.com yesterday.

photo by Bruce Bennett, Getty Images

• Cheapshot punk Sean Avery sucker-punched Semyon Varlomov in the head in plain view of the Zebra 20 feet away, John Erskine responded as he should have, and our guy was banished to the box. A Brian Pothier penalty followed not long after, the Caps couldn’t kill both, and the game was unjustly tied. Which made Matt Bradley’s late-game heroics all the sweeter.
• The scoresheet shows Ovi with just a single shot on goal (a successful one at that), but you’d have to label it a fantastic return performance. He had 7 hits that seemed like 70 ferocious ones against skaters in blue shirts. In fact, when the Rags were seriously pressing in the Caps’ end midway through the final frame Ovi went up the ice at last with the puck and made like the proverbial bull in a china shop, stalking Lundqvist with his powerful drive wide strides, swirling back again dangerously behind the cage, and then going on a one-man missile mission of hitting Rangers who’d taken the puck away from him. They were like bowling pins falling down. The shift reversed the game’s momentum.    
• A great road game by the Caps? You betcha. They weathered an early Ranger storm, seemed bolstered by Bradley’s bravado, carried the play for pretty much the game’s middle 30 minutes, overcame some third-frame zebra malfeasance, and perservered against a quality club.
• Bruce Boudreau became the fastest coach to 100 wins in Capitals history, and the 4th fastest in NHL history. I hope he got interviewed afterward by Charissa.

“He’s playing really good,” the coach claimed. “He’s underrated — there are eight teams left in the National Hockey League, and we’re one of them. And our defense has been much maligned during the course of the year. But these guys that are playing 15, 18, 20 minutes, they’ve gotta be pretty good to be in this company that they’re playing against.

“John’s just one real competitive guy.”

The coach went on to say that Erskine has evolved into more than just a tough guy — he’s counted upon to take regular shifts and to perform strongly during them. And he is. He is also paying the warrior’s price: we caught up with him well after the conclusion of today’s game, after all of his teammates had filed out of the arena, waiting nearly an hour as Erskine received treatments for his battle scars.