• Big crowd tonight, both in the stands and in the press box.
• There’s a new contender for noise during the national anthem: screaming “RED” at “the rockets’ red glare.”  Oh goody.
• Lots of love for Olie- during the anthem (the ubiquitous “O” turned into “O-lie”) and immediately afterwards (“O-lie, O-lie”).
• Overheard: “Ten bucks says Olie doesn’t make it to the tribute video.”  Ouch.
• Sure enough, the tribute video is on pretty quickly after the second goal.  Very classy of the fans to give the man a standing O.  And nice touch at the end: “Olie Kolzig #37, A Capital Forever.”  Fine work by the Caps’ video staff.
• Nice job in killing off that four-minute Brashear penalty, not to mention some great short-handed chances. Only a few years ago, I would have dreaded the thought of a four-minute PK.
• The Spirit Squad is helping us clap to the organ music.  Thank you, Red Rockers.  (Seriously, though, they’re fairly low-key, for which I am grateful.  Dance routines at a hockey game seem kind of cheesy, but they’re not distracting.)
• I couldn’t tell if the Fan of the Game was embarrassed to have the spotlight on him or just didn’t care.  The eye rolls were hard to read.
• I freely admit to enjoying the “Funny Follies” clips of guys getting hit in the groin and kids landing face-first into the ground.  Good crowd-pleaser.
• More crowd-pleasing: featuring both Goat and the Horn Guy on a split screen to energize the fans.  And, of course, “UNLEASH THE FURY” is always a big hit.
• That sound was the collective gasp of thousands of relieved fans, who were happy to see Ovechkin score a goal at last.

Good, solid effort tonight- hope it continues!

I’m trying to remember the last Capitals’ game that had Alexander Ovechkin skate sub-20 minutes. He didn’t even hit 18 minutes. He went for 17:40 Friday night. It wasn’t that he failed to perform to Bruce Boudreau’s standards; rather, the coach recognized that Friday represented Atlanta’s third game in four nights, and he rolled four lines and wore down the weary Thrash. All 18 of Boudreau’s skaters hit double figures in minutes skated, including callup Sami Lepisto (who tallied his first NHL point).

If you watched the game you saw perhaps the turning point/culmination of the Boudreau strategy when two consecutive Capitals’ lines in the second period cycled the puck throughout the Thrashers’ zone with little resistance — a possession dominance interrupted only by a Donald Brashear penalty. The game-score didn’t reflect a lopsidedness of affair then, but after that display, you knew the Caps had the game.

• No one should have been mesmerized by the Caps’ shot dominance (37-12). On February 16, the Islanders outshout Atlanta 49-10. Atlanta has managed to outshoot its opponents this season a grand total of nine times. No wonder Hossa didn’t resign.

• Imagine where this Atlanta team would be in the standings without Kari Lehtonen.

• Friday night was easily Sergei Fedorov’s best game as a Washington Capital. The scoresheet shows him earning two assists, but when I suggested to Bruce Boudreau in his post-game presser that Fedorov could have had “four or five assists” on the night, the coach replied “easily.” And when I mentioned Fedorov’s play to Olie Kolzig, he reminded me of #91′s sacrifice of his body to block a shot: “I actually gave him a little bit of grief for it. I said, ‘Look man, I’ve only had eight shots in the game, you think you could let me have one from the blueline.’ He’s still got it for an old guy “

• “It was as complete a game as we’ve played,” the Capitals’ head coach said afterward.

• When I asked Kolzig if the pre-game warmups were the toughest part of his Friday night’s labor, he replied, “As a goaltender, those are the hardest games to play. You don’t get any kind of flow. You’re constantly talking to yourself — ‘Hey, stay in it, stay in it.’ Because for the longest time there, it was a 2-1 hockey game. The last thing you wanna do is let your team down.”

• Boudreau noted that Fedorov’s playing time the past three games has increased, and he reminded the media that in January and February, he was out for 16 games. “He’s starting to get in real good shape . . . so we haven’t seen the best of him,” he said.

• Of Atlanta, Gabby pointed out, “They had an emotional, come-from-behind win last night [over Calgary] , and they didn’t get in here until late, they’ll be an awful lot better when we play them again next week.”

• Gabby on scoreboard watching: “That’s all I do. I kind of wish for one team then I say no I want the other team. It’s a fun part of the year — when you’re in it, to be scoreboard watching. The biggest thing is, when you don’t play, you lose. That’s what I’ve found. There’s some many teams vying for positons that . . . hey, we’ve got a day off tomorrow, somebody’s gonna gain on us somewhere.”

• The Hershey Bears concluded the longest roadtrip in team history (9 games) with a 5-3 win over first-place Philadelphia Friday night. Only two home games on a weekend two weeks ago separated the Bears from a sixteen-game roadtrip. And the Bears are badly battered. They return home on Saturday and Sunday for a pair of games with the Manitoba Moose.

• Sports Illustrated’s Michael Farber, who just last month profiled Alexander Ovechkin and his family in the magazine, is back in the Caps’ press box following AO’s pursuit of 60. He came rather close to it Friday night, smacking a crossbar and a post along with tallying no. 57.

• While John Erskine had a better game than in Carolina, there was considerable room for improvement.
• Tom Poti continued his stretch of solid play. He’s playing as physically as I’ve seen him (which isn’t bruising, admittedly), and he’s clearly a stablizing force for the Caps. He and Lepisto were very communicative on the ice, which is what you like to happen when you are pairing a rookie with a vet.
• Speaking of Sami, I like his game, though the whistled PIMs need to come down. I particularly enjoyed his releasing from his first penalty and diving to try and check the puck away from the unawares Devils point man. The young Finn shows some solid puck-moving skills, though I’d be interested in seeing him more on the power play.
• The Caps caught a break due to the power of advertising. After Lepisto released for his second penalty and iced the puck, play was stopped for a TV timeout, giving the tired Caps a breather before play was resumed. I didn’t see which commercials ran, but I’m going to say thanks to Pulte homes anyway.
• Over heard from an out-of-town media-type: “Semin seems to be more of a hindrance than a help on the power play.” Washington’s sometimes-woeful power play can improve with work on one facet: passing. It’s not a team strength, but it’s even more notable when the Caps go a man-up. Too many low-percentage bump passes, touch passes, slap passes and flat-out missed passes make setting up in the zone a chore, much less creating serious scoring opportunities. Alexander Semin certainly is guilty of occasionally passing up a simple, smart pass in order to hold onto the puck too long, or a teammate will try to deke through three defenders instead of leaving it to the point man. The Caps’ best power play opportunity of the night was put forth by a unit that didn’t feature either Alex — just smart, simple pass creating decent to very good scoring opportunities. When D.C. keeps it basic, good things happen.
• All that said, that was a helluva goal from Alexander Semin. Not a whole lot of guys in the league who can do that.
• Matt Pettinger had a solid game defensively, but seemed to be a half-step from his usual pace. I wonder if he’s one of the fellas who has the flu bug.
• Some good hitting in the game. That’s always nice. And decision Brashear.
• Nick Backstrom has a talent for avoiding full hits against the boards, maintaining possession of the puck, and being able to continue the play. If I buy a new Caps sweater, #19 is very likely to grace the back.
• It’s cooler in the Verizon Center than it was the last time I was there. An ice-oriented adjustment?
• Quintin Laing has proved that he’s one of the 10 best forwards on the team. At least to me.
• I honestly forgot that Dainius Zubrus played for the Devils until someone brought it up about halfway through the game.
• Brent Johnson won’t hear any complaining from me tonight.
• Travis Zajac had a nice defensive game. Parise and he are a couple of nice young players.

The Caps get a point, which isn’t bad when the other team’s superstar is at the top of his game. A few pings of the iron here, a smarter pass there and things are different, but the Caps do what they need to do: turn those games in hand into a point or points, and try to climb the ladder.

• 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.”

• NBC opened its broadcast with Peter Gabriel’s instrumental “It Is Accomplished” from the Passion soundtrack–an excellent choice on many levels. Then the network returned to predictable form with Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice.” At least the network didn’t play “Ice Ice Baby.”

• There was an awful lot of smiling players’ faces on the benches in camera close-ups immediately before the game. Of course all of them were going to be diplomatic and supportive of the event in the lead-up, but in the moment, this display of enthusiasm sure seemed authentic and organic and evocative of the heart of the matter.

• The snowballing of the Pittsburgh team bus arriving at the Ralph — executed by hordes of Sabres’ fans — argued well for continuing this event in the future.

• It would be easy to pan the event on the basis of the inclimate conditions — visibility was generally poor for players, spectators, and home viewers; trainers and players dealt with a litany of equipment challenges; Zambonis were on the ice as frequently as fourth-liners; and league Ice Tech Dan Craig may as well have been in the game program as often as he was on the ice. But our sense is that the event’s overall atmosphere earned the game’s first star, and that the league scored an overtime game-winner with this idea and its general execution. The overall effect was one of a compelling Season’s Greeting showcasing sports’ most under appreciated athletes in their embrace of winter’s elements.

• In a very real sense this was a maiden run in terms of the league establishing outdoor ice quality. Buffalo’s football field is pitched at nine degrees! There was never going to be an issue with ice quality in Edmonton for the Heritage Classic in 2003 — Alberta skies were clear that night, and temps were below that of Cryogenics. The league will learn a lot from Tuesday afternoon in Buffalo, and apply lessons learned to any future outdoor engagements.

• You’re a liar if you thought in the third period, while he skated on a sheet of snow, sleet, and patched-up makeshift ice, Sergei Give-it-away-when-and-where-it-hurts-most Gonchar would escape the tied game unscathed. By Divine Intervention he did, but no sane human being would have predicted it.

• Some fantastic hitting, in corners and in open ice, and NBC cameras captured it superbly. Hockey played outdoors in snow with hatred and heavy hitting between the teams, in high definition: four unfiltered Marlboros for the OFB team, please.

• There is something special to Kris Letang and shootouts. He actually lost control of the puck twice while bearing down on Ryan Miller and still managed to beat him.

• Fitting that Sidney Crosby ended the game. He was its best player.

• The NHL’s All-Star Game continues to suffer from both an identity crisis and any sense of relevance/importance. What about taking it outdoors, and perhaps even marrying it to a regular season game between a rotation of two teams each year? Make a Winter Weekend of it all.

• The Commish, afterward: “This obviously is something we’re going to look at doing again. This is the type of event we certainly will be looking at doing in the future.” Think the league might be pleased with the results? A color photo of celebrating Pens appears on A1 of today’s New York Times.

Indoors:

• Question for the New York Post’s Larry Brooks and the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch, both of whom recently have opined that Alexander Ovechkin shouldn’t bother negotiating a new deal with the Caps and instead move on via restricted free agency to a “real” hockey market: one such market can’t be Ottawa, right, seeing as how the Sens are futile in all attempts to defeat the Caps?

• Speaking of MSM, WUSA’s Brett Haber has the title of Sports Director. He labors in Washington, D.C. It would be charitable to say that he is seldom seen in the press lounge of Verizon Center. It would be understandable by Washington MSM standards were he to have ignored hockey on his New Years Day evening sportscast and instead directed all his energy at the playoff-bound Redskins. That’s par for the course in these parts. Instead he man-loved Sir Sidney to no end, calling him the best player in hockey. We won’t call this an egregious offense but rather one of breathtaking tone deafness; in legitimate sports towns in which there is a lead athlete credibly creating dispute about such a point, the hometown athlete typically earns the decision.

• Ottawa played a shockingly undisciplined game fueled by out-of-control emotion in the determinative first period. A novice fan making his or her first-ever visit to an NHL game at Verizon Center yesterday, pressed to identify what team had spent the entirety of this decade in the NHL postseason, and winning about 70 percent of its games the past eight years, and what one hung up the gear more or less every April, would have guessed Ottawa the golfers and the Caps the savvy vets.

• Martin Gerber may not be the Sens’ solution to confidence-inspiring, trustworthy, big-stop-when-you-most-need-it postseason netminding.

• The Mike Green Express — an Amtrak Acela toward what should be an All Star selection. He’s still remarkably young, still prone to the occasional error borne of limited big-league experience, but he’s a jewel of his draft class and a lynchpin of Caps’ playoff teams for years to come.

• Little noted but imperative: Ovechkin had to execute some magical footwork to remain onside on Mike Green’s end-to-end virtuoso tally.

• Serious sigh of relief: the Caps got off the O-fer collar with 5-on-3 man-advantages.

• Think about how formidable the five-game stretch that began in Pittsburgh on December 27 looked and consider where the Caps are now: 5 of a possible 6 points earned, with beatable Boston up next.

• It’s frigid outside in Washington, D.C., early in 2008 and the city’s hockey team is hot. Expect your other-sports loving friends this week — even a few donned in burgundy and gold — to begin leaning against AO’s @ss-Kicking Express, eying empty seats within. Welcome their interest. We don’t know yet if the proverbial corner has been turned for this hockey team, but right now it feels very hockey healthy in Washington, and it feels wonderful.

Must reading:
** “Best in Snow,” Ross McKeon, Yahoo!Sports **
** “A Thrilling Snowball Effect,” Kevin Paul Dupont, Boston Globe
** “Ice Bowl Is One for the Ages, with NHL Record Crowd,” John Bonfatti and Gene Warner, Buffalo News
** “Want the ultimate outdoor rink? Dan Craig makes it so,” Scott Burnside, ESPN.com

• Great steal and stuff by Semin on the first goal of the game. Getting ahead in this game certainly will help the cause.
• Not only do the Caps get the first power play, they get the first power play goal. 2-0 five minutes into the game with the Sens not tallying a shot yet.
• Sens ring the post. Let’s hope Olie has a lucky night versus other more recent games.
• Jurcina called for the trip…. since both D were out of position and about to let a 1 on 0… good penalty.
• 12 minute mark finds Kolzig his first shot — that’s even after 1 Ottawa power play.
• How many goals/no goal review have the caps been involved with this year…. seems like every other game.
• Quintin Laing blocks yet another shot. He should not be scratched again for this reason alone.
• Beautiful AO / Poti back and forth for AOs 2nd of the night.
• Totally random and unrelated thought — what ever happened to the Mark Messier Leadership Award. Perhaps the league found it as silly as I did.
• How did I know that Victor would blow that breakaway?
• 2nd review of the night…. and lengthy, too.
• Think Chris Neil regrets picking a fight with The Donald after that beat down?
• Spezza beats Kolzig from just inside the blue line. Think Olie wants that one back?
• Wow… Fisher torched the Caps defense… and shorthanded at that. The game is slipping away from the Caps.
• 2 goals for Nylander. Nylander?
• A canon of a shot by Ovechkin for the trick — only his 3rd of his career. That cut sure didn’t slow him down. As my wife said, God help them if Ovechkin didn’t play. He now also has more hat tricks as a Capital than Puffnuts did.
• 2nd hat… this time by Fisher with Gerber pulled. I’m fearing OT.
• AO for goal number four with the empty net… turns into an icing call with the faceoff to Kolzig’s right with 1:09 left.
• 2nd try becomes 4th goal. His 1st four goal game in the NHL and the first by a Capital in barely over 7 years when Peter Bondra struck four times on 27, December 2000. Guess where? At Ottawa.

• Kolzig looked relatively sharp until the final 10 minutes of the game. This is, unfortunately, becoming a familiar refrain. A team like the Caps can’t win without solid goaltending, and they aren’t getting that, full-time. The Park game-winner was a glaring example.
• Alexander Semin, on the other hand, is beginning to look like he remembers what he used to do on a sheet of ice. This is a positive, to put it mildly.
• This may not have been the most aesthetically perfect hockey game you are going to see.Few chances, conservative play. Looked a lot like a boxing match – lots of jabs, no haymakers.
• Viktor Kozlov is showing signs, though I think we can agree his assists were of the incidental variety.
• If you weren’t aware, we’re building something together. Something special, something to…ah, you know.
• Ovechkin’s defensive development continues – he’s the weak side red line help, and touches up an icing call. That doesn’t happen before this season.
• Concerning the Fleischmann-Backstrom-Semin line, Fleischmann looks in over his head. Semin and Backstrom have puck-magnets in their sticks, and Fleischmann is relying on hard work – not his game. It’s not up to me, but I think a healthy Chris Clark would find a decent home on that line, and maybe turn around his less than memorable season. Credit to Fleischmann, though, because he goes in the corners. It’s usually futile, but he keeps going in. Props for that.
• I think Jeff Schultz will become a solid NHL defenseman. That said, someone tell me why he isn’t in Hershey. Erskine had a pretty good view of Satan’s goal, too. From behind. I’m not sure that Eminger would have have stopped that, but he would have caught up with it. The backup quarterback always gets a lot of press, so you can’t jump too much on it, but the coaching staff is seeing something I am not. (BTW, go with their eyes not mine. I’ve had a couple of beers. They just get water on the bench.)
• Shaone Morrisonn’s iffy defensive play continues. Mike Comrie robbed him after Morrisonn lost the puck in his skates at the blueline. That’s not so great. Morrisonn is solid, but for a guy who is defense-oriented, he can’t make those mistakes.
• We all knew what we were getting in Michael Nylander, but a little more effort would be nice. Nylander is still as calm as ever with the puck – maybe too calm. Wrong-siding trailing blueliners is below the skills Nylander brings. I’ve no worries about his fitness level, but for a guy you’ve signed for 4 years, you want him to be able to hold onto the puck and make plays, not hold onto it until he turns it over.
• Nick Backstrom is already a good hockey player. He’s going to be great. Quietly, perhaps, but great.
• Think Brendan Witt will fake a cross-check to Brashear again? Then complain about being punched? Guess not.
• The Caps are suffering from overpassitis. Sometimes, you just gotta shoot, fellas.
• Props where due – Green and Morrisonn collapsed very well on an Isles’ 3rd period rush, forcing a pass to a lower-angle shot.
• Mike Comrie (5’9″, with afro) trips 6’6″ Jeff Schultz. Someone look that up.
• Ovechkin is the only reason this game goes to overtime, but not just because of his goal. For a few minutes, he’s the only Caps trying to attack the Isles’ defense, going into the heart of it instead of looking for dumps. Admittedly, it didn’t work out too well, but he’s not shying away.
• Paging Dr. Prior. The Caps can’t do squat without Kolzig on his game. I know what I want for Xmas.

The Caps go into the holiday break on a sour note — the Grinch went 5-hole. Let’s all have some nogg, shake this off, and hope our gifts are filled with 2 points when we get back to it. Happy holidays, Caps fans.

• First, the bad news: Pothier fractured his thumb and is week-to-week.
• Not surprisingly, there were a healthy number of Habs fans, not to mention a sprinkling of Nordiques fans. Quebec was well-represented here tonight.
• We love hearing both anthems at a game, especially when there’s an undercurrent of Canadian singers in the crowd. But no offense to Bitsy Watson, we’re Bob McDonald/Caleb Green fans.
• Mites on Ice featured an apparent Florida feud: the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. the Florida Panthers. (The youth teams wore uniforms that looked incredibly similar to the pro teams.)
• RDS interviewed Ovechkin during the first intermission. Unfortunately, we don’t know what he said. Incidentally, during the TV timeouts, RDS featured shots of typical D.C. landmarks (the White House, the Jefferson Memorial)- with simulated snow.
• The Caps suffered from their typical second-period malaise, despite Backstrom’s goal. Giving up three goals on eight shots does not a winning game make. Either Kolzig is off tonight, or Huet is a monster; it’s a little of both, but mostly the former.
• Beautiful goal by Semin! Too bad there weren’t more of those.
• There was a special guest in Ted’s box tonight: Condoleeza Rice. (Don’t worry, she was too engrossed in conversation for most of the game to see how the Caps were doing.)
• Great use of movie clips during the game, especially the “Frank the Tank” bit from “Old School” and the dance scene from “Napoleon Dynamite”.
• Chanuck and I found out today that we’re having a girl, so his suggestion was to name the baby after the #1 star of the game. I prayed that Guillaume Latendresse or Roman Hamrlik weren’t named the star, because I wouldn’t know how to explain that one. And don’t get me started on Siarhei Kastsitsyn. Much to Gustafsson’s delight, Guillaume was named the #1 star. Nothing went right this night.

Gustafsson’s Knee-jerks:

• Reiterating a point from above, I would be very happy if Bitsy did not sing another anthem in the booth. Her over-emphasised words come out sounding just awful… “Whore the ramparts we watched….” “Hand the rockets red glare…” Our friends to the north did not escape the new renditions as we heard “Ho Canada!”.
• Miss New Jersey is here again, I guess she’s become his official Caps blogger? She seemed a bit miffed that she did not occupy the seat she had in previous games. Such drama.
• In press row, it’s hard to gain insight from the out of town reporters when they’re speaking French. A lot of good high school Latin did me.
• Seems like a sparse crowd for a game against a Canadian team (announced attendance was 12,670).
• The first period saw a beautiful pass by Green to Kozlov, who promptly fired the shot into Huet’s gut.
• Nice work by Backstrom on the goal after the feed by AO cutting the score to 2-1 Habs, however, the shots are not following… 18 for the Caps, 7 for the Habs.
• Greg Wyshynski is sitting next to me and he mentioned to me that he heard on XM that the Red Wings are an impressive 20-1-1 outside of their division.
• A negative effect of the goal judges being moved is the increased time between the puck entering the net and the lighting of the red light. I don’t like it.
• Habs 3rd goal right off the faceoff. The shot clock disparity is even worse. It’s now 22 for the Caps…. a whopping 8 for the Habs.
• Kozlov hits another post.¬† Perhaps he should aim that shot just a wee bit closer to the netminder, but away from his gut.
• The Caps certainly got their shots tonight, but the majority were from the outside.¬† They lead 37 – 21.
• The locker room after the game was barren.¬† A few players game out to speak to the media, but it was a somber mood.

After a lengthy wait, Kolzig met the press.¬† Clearly frustrated with the game, he said he’s going to take the tape of this game and throw it in the trash can.¬† He thought the team played well, but it was one of those nights where the pucks were bouncing their way and every one of Montreal’s shots was a chance that ended up in the net… one of those games as a goalie you hate.¬† “I mean look at the last goal, I make the save, the thing’s sitting between my legs and the guy digs it out and puts it in the net…¬† it was just one of those nights.”
Kolzig went on to say that they’re not playing bad hockey, but it’s a fine and they need to find a way to get on the positive side of that line more consistently.

]]> http://www.onfrozenblog.com/2007/12/21/knee-jerks-notes-caps-habs-1220.html/feed 12 http://www.onfrozenblog.com/2007/12/15/uniform-systems-we-hardly-knew-ya-knee-jerks-notes-caps-slugs-1214.html http://www.onfrozenblog.com/2007/12/15/uniform-systems-we-hardly-knew-ya-knee-jerks-notes-caps-slugs-1214.html#comments Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:56:38 +0000 The OFB Team http://mvn.com/onfrozenblog/2007/12/15/uniform-systems-we-hardly-knew-ya-knee-jerks-notes-caps-slugs-1214.html Friday 6:05 p.m.: This evening at Verizon Center I’m thinking about the lovers of apple pie. Of the men who take their pleadings for the hands of the women they love first to the fathers, for permission. Of citizens who instantly yield their seats on public transportation to the elderly and infirmed. Of men who hold open doors for women. All of these upstanding citizens, those who resist the vogue of the moment and honor tradition — today, they were vindicated: by lethal and cruel and unanimous volume did the Washington Capitals this week sh*tcan Reebok’s uniform system.
The Caps, unanimously, voted to toxic waste site what Reebok delivered to them this autumn and revert to the fabric of last season’s sweaters. The vote was unanimous. Wednesday’s game versus the Rags was the debut of the Caps’ relief from all that drowning sensation. The funny thing is, like everybody else, I didn’t learn about this until earlier today, when our own Gustafsson dug up the jewel buried in some team notes, but watching Wednesday’s game even from up high, I recall something vaguely more appealing about the team’s tops. More telling: after Wednesday night’s game, once media was allowed into the Caps’ room, I saw a couple of Caps still in their sweaters. It didn’t register with me at the time, but in every other home game preceding, the players meeting with the press in front of their lockers were always out of their uniform systems. They were too hot to remain in them. But not Wednesday night.
It’s one thing, isn’t it, for an innovation to fail merely hours after it’s debuted, but something altogether transcendently humiliating for the entire universe of its users to, by roll call unanimous, announce, “This is not fit for lining the garage residence of my canine.”
I just spoke with Nate Ewell about the timeframe for the change. The Caps made the request some time ago, because the first replacement sweaters arrived in time for Brian Pothier to try one out at Carolina on November 30. Pothier’s thumb went up that night, and two weeks later a full compliment of sweaters arrived. I asked Nate if he’d been present at the unanimous vote, the one where not a single Cap opted to retain the faddish faux sweater. He said he hadn’t been. I wanted to know if in executing the vote the players’ arms shot up so fast in support of the motion that some injured their shoulders — is this what actually happened with Michael Nylander? — or if instead they merely screamed their support for dumping the dress dreck. I also asked Nate who paid for the changes.
“I don’t know whether the league or Reebok does,” he told me, “but we don’t.”
I am also thinking about the more than 6,600 men and women, boy and girls, who signed an online petition last summer to protest Gary Bettman’s profaning of hockey’s iconic look. We at OFB signed it as soon as we found out about it, provided updates and encouragement for the tradition-honoring, and took some ridicule for not genuflecting before the altar of vulgar corporate greed. Sometimes, though, David slays Goliath.
I think as punishment, Commissioner Bettman should be required, for the remainder of his tenure, to attend those swanky, offseason Board of Governors meetings — the ones that are always held in tropical temps — outfitted the entire time in a Reebok original sweat chamber. He should have to golf out under hot desert suns with the Governors in one.
5:50 p.m.: An NHL off-ice official wearing his snazzy navy blue blazer approached me at dinner and asked if he could still secure two tickets to Tuesday night’s OFB Night at the Movies. I got a kick out of that. So he’s coming, and if you haven’t signed up yet, you should as well.
6:50 p.m.: Miss New Jersey is back blogging tonight. So far, no Christmas card, no baked gingerbread goodies from her.
7:05 p.m.: The lower bowl tonight is a lot more filled than it was for either New Jersey Monday or the Rangers on Wednesday. So too is the upper bowl. It’s good to see.
7:20-ish p.m.: It’s so feel-good here at Verizon Center this week that a pair of lovebirds pledged their future lives together in high definition in a cleverly planned out surprise for the future bride. She was playing that game of watch the fast-moving puck on the big brilliant center-ice screen, and when she identified the correct puck, instead of the screen saying “You Win!”, it said, “Will you marry me?” Just then her boyfriend moved in to the screen shot and fell to one knee. Being proposed to in such a romantic setting, the young woman had the good sense to answer affirmatively. Briefly I pondered such an arrangement between Miss New Jersey and me.
• Friday night’s game brings the very unwelcomed arrival of self-destructive penalties. Two too many men on the ice infractions, and Coach Boudreau would in his post-game remarks note that a third such penalty could and should have been whistled, but one of the officials cut the team a break.
• Still, the Caps’ first couple of power plays instill more gospel for the newly converted masses. They are wonders to behold. They remind me of precisely what I saw the past couple of seasons in Hershey. Unlike the perimeter “attack” of Glen Hanlon, the Boudreau man-up strategy slices through the four opposing defenders with constant player movement and sharp-angled set-ups, a dab of cross-ice back-door-ing, and chess games of drawing two defenders into poor positioning and exploiting wide-open weak sides. After watching the first two Caps’ man advantages, I want to propose marriage to Steve Kolbe.
• As if mental lapses with respect to penalties weren’t bad enough, Olie authors the blunder of all blunders out in no-goalie’s land. It was understandable that he moved out to try and thwart danger, but his crucial mistake — which he’d own up to afterward — was playing the puck with just one hand.
• A secondary assist on Brooks Laich’s goal? There shouldn’t have been a primary. The primary assist came from the end boards behind Ryan Miller.
• “A strange game tonight, very strange,” Dmitry Chesnokov of SovetskySport tells me. “So many miscues, so many near misses and bad penalties.” It is the least appealing game of the homestand because of these qualities. And, I would learn later in the post-game, it would be Bruce Boudreau’s least favorite. But it’s drawn, apparently, the season’s largest crowd.
• Buffalo, I suppose, has somehow made itself a rival to the Caps, absent any playoff drama this decade. Their legion of fans here the past couple of seasons seems to actually outnumber those for Pittsburgh and Philadelphia back in the day of out-of-town bus convoys to Capital Center. They boo one of the planet’s greatest players every time he touches the puck. On the one hand, you have to admire the loyalty they exhibit removed far and in many cases by many years from home. On the other, you have to pity a metropolitan economy so meager it engenders so massive a mass exodus of the natives. At Friday’s game there was even a Buffalo Sabres Club of Philadelphia contingent in attendance, so their exodus isn’t confined just to D.C. Perhaps their loyalty would be better directed at improving Buffalo’s economy, and sticking around and doing something about it.

8:35 p.m.: During the second intermission I interview Dmitry Kapitonov, a personal trainer to the Caps’ three Russians. And, it turns out, to the team’s two Swedes during his visit. He arrived in Washington around the middle of last month, to assist with the rehabilitation of Alexander Semin’s ankle but also to design and execute in-season workouts for the Caps’ Russians. The Swedes took a liking to what their Russian teammates were doing and joined in. Dmitry is departing for home on December 22. The Russians, not only on the Caps but on teams around the NHL, enjoy working with trainers such as Dmitry during the season. It’s not so much an indictment of the North American way of hockey training as it is a comfort from the home culture.

• Kolzig was devastated after the game, looking down at his skates the entire time he spoke with the media. He spoke of “gift-wrapping” two goals for Buffalo. He’s always a thoughtfully reflective athlete after games, able with his thoughts to paint a wide landscape of his team’s successes and failures from an entire game, but after Friday night his comments were focused almost exclusively on his errors and their consequences. It was abundantly clear that he thought he was responsible for the loss.
• “A lot of crap went on in the third [period],” the head coach said afterward. Ovechkin used an even saltier adjective to describe the team’s third period. Of Kolzig’s miscue, Boudreau said, “That’s an error of effort, and you can forgive that.”
• “The sense of urgency in their team [versus] our team was quite amazing tonight,” Boudreau noted.
• Boudreau on his team’s failure to seize a special opportunity: “This is our chance, this is our opportunity . . . you’ve won three in a row, you’ve started to go do something. It’s the last game of your homestand. Let’s get a run together, and a run is not three games, a run is six, seven games, and you need two or three of them during the course of a season to be successful . . . For whatever reason we didn’t have that sense of urgency . . . I didn’t think we had 19 players playing to their capabilities tonight.”

“I’ll find out a lot about a lot of guys tomorrow.”

• Asked about the too-many men on the ice infractions, Boudreau noted, “[We] should have had another — the ref gave us a break, and I think that goes to show the mental preparation of some of the guys. They knew who was up, they know what the deal is. That’s a sure sign of not being into the game mentally.”
]]> http://www.onfrozenblog.com/2007/12/15/uniform-systems-we-hardly-knew-ya-knee-jerks-notes-caps-slugs-1214.html/feed 30 http://www.onfrozenblog.com/2007/12/13/knee-jerks-notes-caps-rags-1212.html http://www.onfrozenblog.com/2007/12/13/knee-jerks-notes-caps-rags-1212.html#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:31:46 +0000 The OFB Team http://mvn.com/onfrozenblog/2007/12/13/knee-jerks-notes-caps-rags-1212.html Out at Kettler Capitals this past July during Rookie Camp, Tim Leone of the Patriot News pressed the case for Nicklas Backstrom spending his first year getting acclimated in North America under Bruce Boudreau. Wednesday’s Washington Post Express profiled Backstrom and his flourishing under Boudreau — 10 points in 10 games. Turns out, Tim was right.
I thought it was important to be at Verizon Center for all of this week’s games in order to gain a clear portrait of what a Bruce Boudreau Caps’ team looked like, their having been properly introduced to one another for more than half a month. I wanted to see them live in action and listen to them talk afterwards. Now I’m of the belief that I’m witnessing a notable turnaround in what was initially a terrible season, as well as Boudreau making an indelible impression toward transitioning from interim to unqualified Head Coach of the Washington Capitals.
Yes, that sentiment, that aura, was palpable in Verizon Center late last night. It was there because the Caps have strung together three straight wins over quality opponents; scored 14 goals in the process; done so without their captain, one of the game’s premiere playmaking centers, and one of the game’s best defensive forwards; and authored comebacks in two of the three victories.
Here is a theme quickly taking hold with the Bruce Boudreau Caps: secondary — and tertiary — scoring. Joe Motzko flirting with a hat trick? After the game Boudreau said all the right and polite things about Motzko having “good hands” and contributing to a Stanley Cup winner last season, but in the end, he’s a journeyman forward. But playing for Boudreau, in Boudreau’s system, motivated by Bruce Boudreau, Joe Motzko can hurt you. Tonight, he hurt the Rangers. As did Donald Brashear. And if you take a look back at Bruce Boudreau’s Hershey Bears, and Bruce Boudreau’s Manchester Monarchs, you won’t find rosters laden with top-heavy scoring. I’m not smart enough to be able to tell you why, basically, only Alexander Ovechkin could score under Glen Hanlon this season and why, three weeks later, everybody is scoring under Bruce Boudreau. But it’s happening.
Five goals against Henrik Lunqvist! And Steckel hit a pipe shorthanded, and Ovechkin missed on a breakaway. More musings:
• Mike Green: think Sergei Gonchar but with inordinate defensive ability. In the coach’s post-game presser, Tarik El Bashir asked Bruce Boudreau, “Just how good is this kid gonna be?” For me, the coach’s immediate expression said everything: he got wide-eyed, he smiled broadly, he looked like a child beholding the base of a Christmas tree crammed full of wrapped goodies on Christmas morning.
• Snow held up what would have been the Caps’ second goal of the first period. It was excruciatingly close to clearly passing over Henrik Lunqvist’s goal line. With the poor Verizon Center ice of a week ago, no snow could have accumulated in the crease, and the game would have been knotted at 2 at the first intermission. How could I tell? Hanging over us up in the press box, quite near,¬†are a half dozen sizable high-def TVs.
• Donald Brashear’s assist in the first period was secondary in name only. He threw a terrific check to win the puck along the end boards, then dished a beautiful, hard and flat centering pass in the slot to Brooks Laich, whose hard shot was swatted home by Motzko.
• It’s difficult to overstate how much more dynamic the Bruce Boudreau power play looks compared to its predecessor. No matter what unit of five is out there, they comport themselves with poise and the appearance of cohesion. This, too, I am noticing: a lot more “Ooooohs” accompanying a lot more near tallies from the home crowd during the man advantages.
• The Brashear-Orr slow-dance: watching it made me think that the opponents of fighting have an uphill battle insofar as arguing against its entertainment value. Orr unleashed a flurry of fury early on, most of which didn’t land, then Brashear went bombs away in blowback.
• The Caps’ first minor penalty occurred after nearly 33 minutes of playing time. More discipline taking hold.
• Mike Green’s confidence and virtuosity rushing the puck created lanes for Joe Motzko’s second goal. He could have head-manned the puck to either of his wings on the play, but instead rushed up through the open center of the ice, backing up two Blueshirt defenders. This in turn opened lanes high in the Rangers’ end, within which Green deftly QB’d and Motzko showcased his “soft hands.”
• Paul Coffey Jeff Schultz has got some serious point shot MoJo going on. Raise your hand if you thought he’d approach Christmas with more goals than Jordan Staal.
• The snowballing effect of winning: Olie Kolzig spoke after the game about there being some “fragile moments” in the third period of Monday night’s tight 3-2 triumph over the Devils. But he said the Caps applied confidence gained from that experience against the Rangers Wednesday night, when it skated a tight third period conspicuously confidently. Boudreau added that on the bench he could tell the guys weren’t content with securing merely one point, even after falling behind 2-0. This is a different hockey team, folks, badly injured as it is.
• This mini winning streak has vaulted Olie Kolzig’s career record back above .500: 286-285-63-18. Have this feeling it’s gonna stay that way.
• Early in the third period last night Brendan Shanahan pulled up shy of plastering a vulnerable Alexander Ovechkin in the far corner boards when AO had his back turned to play the puck. I had two reactions. One, Shanny knew it was AO. Two, this is precisely the type of respect every player ought to show every other player in this league in such situations. Get word to Sean Avery and the Philadelphia Flyers.
• Alexander Ovechkin was sober and measured in responding to press questions about the significance of last night’s victory. But when alluding to the team’s fans, whom he called “great,” he added, “We need support.” The brand of hockey this team is playing now and the effort it is putting forth merit many more fannies being in the stands Friday night.
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