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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s hard to keep track of knee-jerk notes when you attend the game with your four year old son AND your 3 week old son.