The Caps even missed the services of Mike Green for a couple of those games, and didn’t miss a beat.

The injury bug finally caught up with them when Mike Knuble was injured Friday night and absent from Saturday’s game in New Jersey.

Knuble hasn’t been the prolific scorer that Ovechkin is, but he’s a hard worker. He wears down opponents.  He finds the open slots, controls and moves the puck well, and if he sees a few inches of daylight, he’ll score on you.

The Caps still got good pressure on New Jersey. I don’t want to take anything away from the team. They fought hard against a rested New Jersey team, and a future hall-of-fame netminder in Marty Brodeur, but they missed Knuble who plays well from in front of the crease gobbling up rebounds for either redistribution, or second chance attempts.

Hopefully he feels better soon; and with that, let’s get to some recapping.

Wednesday, November 11^th, vs. NY Islanders – :08 seconds in and the Caps were up 1-0 thanks to Alex Semin. Six minutes later the Caps were down 3-1 and Jose Theodore was replaced by Semyon Varlamov. A period and a half later, the Caps were up 4-3, and with less than three minutes left in regulation, the Islanders tied the game on the power-play and forced overtime. After a scoreless overtime period, the game came down to a shootout. The Caps elected to shoot first. After the obligatory three rounds, both teams had scored a goal. With each stop of a Caps’ shot, it put all the pressure on Varlamov, as the Islanders could end the game with their next goal. Verizon Center was on it’s feet, and in the 11^th round it was Chris Clark that finally put the pressure on New York when he scored. Semyon held his team’s fate in his glove literally as he caught New York’s final shot and ended the game with a big win and a big grin! Washington would win 5-4.

The goal that tied the record – Alex Semin’s goal in the first :08 seconds tied a Caps record for the fastest first goal of a game that dates back to March 14^th, 1987.

Note to the fans – Shootout goals do not count for season stats or hat-tricks. Alex Semin’s goal during the shoot-out was in fact the third time he had put a puck in the net, but it doesn’t count as a “hat-trick.” This can actually have the unintended consequence of icing your own goalie, as he waits nervously while all the hats are cleaned up off the ice. Thankfully; it didn’t take long for the hats to be cleared, and I think Varlamov has ice in his veins.

The Goalie of record – After giving up three goals in the game’s first six minutes, Jose Theodore was given the night off. When Alex Semin tied the game at 3 early in the 2^nd period, it became Varlamov’s game to lose. He played 57 minutes (including OT) and stopped 25 of 26 shots surrendering his only goal while NY was on the power-play. Words cannot accurately convey how spectacular he was in the shoot-out.

Friday, November 13^th, vs. Minnesota – Coming into Verizon off a tough shootout loss in Tampa, the Minnesota Wild should have been exhausted. They started off strong outshooting the Caps 7-1 in the first half of the first period, but after that it was all Washington who outshot Minnesota 32-9 over the next period and a half. Cal Clutterbuck, who torched Washington last season for two goals, got his third against the home team as he put Minnesota on the board first just 1:31 into the second period. It was the first time in eight games that Washington hadn’t notched the game’s first goal. Defenders Mike Green and Brian Pothier scored two for the Caps to put them back on top and it was Brooks Laich with the empty netter that put the game out of reach. Minnesota would fall 3-1.

Varly is Gnarly – Varlamov stopped 55 of 57 shots in the 117 minutes he played this week. He is now 11-1-1 in regular season games, and 7-1-0 this season. He has a .912 save percentage and a 2.67 goals against average in his games this year.

On the bright side – The loss of Mike Knuble comes just as the Caps are about to welcome back Alex Ovechkin. This should leave room on the roster for the Caps latest call-up, Mathieu Perreault. In Perreault’s six games he has 2 goals and 3 assists and a 22% shooting percentage.

Saturday, November 14^th, @ New Jersey – Washington entered New Jersey tied for first place in the Eastern conference. Washington was riding a four game winning streak; New Jersey had won their last eight straight. Just as the game was five minutes old, the Caps had a 2-0 lead; unfortunately it would be all New Jersey from there. Bruce Boudreau was looking for his 100^th career victory but would have to wait a little longer as he watched New Jersey score five unanswered goals over the next 38 minutes. Washington, who had played pretty disciplined hockey over their last four victories, began to come apart as they pressed for answer goals. The Caps gave up several odd-man breaks, breakaway goals, and started committing penalties that greatly hindered their come-back effort. In the end, the Caps fell 5-2 and slipped to second in the Eastern Conference.

Random Scoring Stats – For the fourth time this season, the Caps scored on their first shot of the game. For the first time the season, the Caps found themselves down by as many as three goals.

Reaching a milestone – Caps’ Captain Chris Clark played his 500^th game Saturday night.

Coming Up – The Caps are hanging around in Jersey waiting for their matchup Tuesday versus the Rangers. Then they come back for a Friday night game versus the Canandiens, and immediately head to Toronto to face former Caps Coach Ron Wilson and his struggling Maple Leafs.

New York is always a tough opponent for Washington, especially in New York, but it is looking like the Caps are going to get some high powered help with the return of Ovechkin. Having a few days off before facing Montreal should help the Caps, but the overnight flight to Toronto could make that game a little more even than it would be ordinarily.

If I’m Coach Boudreau, I start Varlamov versus New York and Montreal, and give him a break Saturday by starting Theodore versus the Leafs.

All in all, it’s been a good week for the Caps, but now I’m off to write a ‘Skins blog as they finally put together a game to be proud of this week!

C-A-P-S Caps! Caps! Caps!

On Friday night, after falling behind in the second minute of the first period, the Bears went on a four-goal run and then hung on nip Norfolk, 5-3. BEARS NIP NORFOLK

On Saturday night, the Bears bested Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, pounding out a 3-1 win, in a physical battle against the pesky Penguins. BEARS BRUISE PENS

With this weekend’s wins, the first place Bears broadened the gap in the standings, and they currently enjoy a six point cushion over the WB/S Penguins and the Albany River Rats.

In related news out of Chocolatetown, former “mayor” of Hershey, Dean Arsene received his first ever call up to the Edmonton Oilers. MAYOR WINS ANOTHER ELECTION

For all of your up-to-date information and video on the Bears, visit JohnWaltonHockey.com

Wednesday evening in Lowell, current residence of former Bear Louis Robitaille, Keith Aucoin made an immediate impact on his return to the Bears’ lineup when he tallied his first hat trick as a Bear and propelling his team to a 5-2 victory.

On Friday, the Bears were torpedoed by the Portland Pirates, 5-0, suffering their first shut out of the season.

They redeemed themselves on Saturday night when the Hershey boys mastered the Manchester Monarchs, scoring the first four goals of the game on their way to a 4-1 triumph.

The road trip was closed out in fine fashion when the Bears dunked the Providence Bruins at Dunkin’ Donut Center, with Aucoin, a former Bruin, leading the charge with a pair of goals.

After the trek, the Bears find themselves in 1st place in the East Division with 20 points, six points ahead of both Norfolk Admirals and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, both of whom will be visiting Giant Center this weekend.

For up-to-date information on the Hershey Bears, visit johnwaltonhockey.com

Seven of those goals came in a game without Alex Ovechkin or Mike Green.

Now I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself and start talking about how dominant the Caps are playing right now. We should keep in mind that the Caps scored 11 goals against a struggling Panthers team, but the fact that they were able to do it without Ovechkin does speak volumes for the depth and heart that this organization has.

It is sometimes very easy for a team to throw their hands up when their best player is hurt and start to feel sorry for themselves. The Caps started to look like one of those teams Wednesday night in a losing effort to New Jersey, but Boudreau rallied the troops and they came out fighting Friday night in Sunrise Florida where they played a nearly flawless game against the Panthers.

Without further ado; let’s get to the recap!

Wednesday, November 4^th @ New Jersey – In typical fashion, the Caps jumped out to an early lead scoring the first goal of the game in the first period. Also in typical fashion, the Caps let the game slip away in the third period. After the Devils tied the game in the second period, the Caps gave them four power play opportunities in the third which resulted in two goals for the Devils. Coach Boudreau was not happy with his team’s performance. “When you go behind the net and you put your stick on a guy you’re going to get a penalty.” said Boudreau, “Brendan Morrison has been in the league for 10 years, Semin’s been in the league for five years. These guys know this. It’s just dumb penalties.”

Chris Clark; Devil Fighter - Caps Captain Chris Clark (say that three times fast) has two fighting majors this season. Both have come against New Jersey. He found himself in a scrape versus David Clarkson when the Devils came to Verizon back in October, and again here versus Rod Pelley.

Well that was disappointing – In the absence of Ovechkin, the team turned to their other Alex (Semin) to pick up the slack. Semin tallied only three shots on goal, but was flagged for two penalties, one of which gave the Devils the go-ahead goal.

Friday, November 6^th, @ Florida – In the first of a home-and-home series versus the Panthers, the Caps played a nearly flawless game. There were a couple of moments during the first period that would have been tough on those with heart conditions. Both net minders had some near misses where the puck hovered in the crease in front of an open net, only to be swept away by a defender. Tomas Vokoun had a shot squirt through his pads and slide perilously close to the goal-line before running out of steam and stopping just short. It looked like it was going to be the Caps first goal, but it was saved by a Florida defender from going in. The in typical Caps fashion, they again scored first, but this time was different. The Caps played mistake free hockey until the midway mark of the third period when they received their first penalty (50 minutes without a penalty!). Florida scored their only goal on that power-play, but then, a little over a minute later, the Caps were called for a 5-minute major. The Caps did not allow a single shot on goal for that five minutes and went on to win 4-1.

Who’s left? – The Caps came into the game with six defensemen. By the time Florida had scored their first goal, and were gearing up for five minutes of power-play time, the Caps were down to three. Mike Green and Jeff Shultz were both injured early in the game, and Shaone Morrison was not only assessed a five minute major, but was given a game misconduct penalty and kicked out of the game. Tyler Sloan, who had been converted from defenseman to forward before the game started, was re-converted back to defender after Green and Shultz were injured, and the bulk of the Caps defensive ice-time was divided up between Poti (28:42), Pothier (25:20), and Jurcina (23:12).

Blue-Collar Heroes – For the second consecutive game, the Caps first goal was scored by Tyler Sloan. Sloan (who was later converted to defenseman), and defender Tom Poti teamed up to account for two of the Caps four goals. The other two were scored by Brendan Morrison.

Morrison scored the Caps second goal, which became the game-winner when Florida scored their only goal on the power-play. The penalty that Florida scored on was Brendan Morrison, two minutes for interference. Morrison also scored the empty netter to make up for Florida’s PPG.

Saturday, November 7^th vs. Florida – This was going to be a tough game for both teams. Florida and Washington were both playing their third game in four nights. The Caps scored the only goal of the first period, but then it appeared that fatigue, combined with their mountain of injuries, had finally caught up with them as Florida scored three goals in the second period. The Caps looked like a beaten team in the second period as Florida was all over them, but the Caps were just “playin’ ‘possum” as they came out fresh in the third period and scored a season high five goals in that period alone. This time Florida was the team looking gassed scoring only one goal in the third, but ultimately unable to stop the onslaught as the Caps rolled to a 7-4 victory.

It’s a Trap! – The Caps have built a reputation for being a team that starts early but withers late. They have outscored teams in the first period by an amazing 20-6 in 17 games this season. It’s no surprise that the Panthers were lulled into believing they had this game in the bag after outshooting the Caps 23-16 in the first two periods and leading 3-2 to start the third.

The Caps had as many shots in the third period as they did in the first two combined, and scored on 31% of them. The Caps outskated, outshot, outscored and outhit a surprised Florida team in one of the best efforts I’ve seen from this team in a long time.

Coming up – The Caps enjoy a few days off, and don’t play again until Wednesday when they host the Islanders. They play again Friday when they bring Minnesota to Washington, and then it’s off to New Jersey again Saturday night.

Even though the Caps played two great games without their star winger and star defenseman, they are hoping for speedy recoveries for both as their opponents get tougher this week.

Hopefully the fun continues, as the Caps are playing well in their absence so far!

C-A-P-S Caps! Caps! Caps!

With the wins, the Bears improved to 7-4 on the season, good enough for first place in the East Division standings in the AHL, but only two points ahead of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

AHL standing an theahl.com

In Hartford, the Bears received goals from five different players, including a pair of tallies from last year’s leading goal getter, Alexandre Giroux, and goaltender, Jason Bacashihua, stopped all 26 shots he faced to record his first shutout in a Hershey uniform, as the Bears whaled away on the Hartford Wolfpack, 6-0.

John Walton’s recap of the game on JohnWaltonHockey.com

On Saturday at Giant Center, Bacashihua improved to 4-0 on the season by stopping 23-of-24 shots, and the Bears once again diligently distributed the scoring, getting goals from four different players to repel the Albany River Rats, 4-1.

My article on the game on JohnWaltonHockey.com

The Bears return to action on Wednesday night in Lowell, facing off against the Devils and former Bear, Louis Robitaille. The Bears conclude the week with three more road outings; on Friday night in Portland, on Saturday night in Manchester, and on Sunday afternoon in Providence.

If you call yourself a Bears fan and haven’t yet order your copy of Tim Leone’s wonderful work; Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer, do you yourself a favor and order it now. I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed.

Link to Facebook page on the book

For all of your up-to-date information and video on the Bears, visit JohnWaltonHockey.com

The players have the day off today, and boy do they need it. They played three games in four nights, and I’m sure they are exhausted.

The Caps played four total games last week and went 2-0-2, netting six of a possible eight points. Atlanta was their only divisional opponent, and they won that game in regulation.

Washington is 8-2-4 for the season and currently holds a commanding lead in the Southeast division with 20 points, followed by Tampa Bay in second place with 12, and Atlanta with 11.

We got a lot of games to cover, so let’s get to the recap!

Tuesday, October 27th vs. the Flyers – The Caps have been a “strike first” team this season, but after being held scoreless in the first period they found themselves down 2-0 after allowing Philly to score twice in the second period. Washington bounced back by scoring four unanswered goals and carried their win streak to five games.

It wasn’t for lack of effort – Philly peppered the net with 43 shots on goal, but it was “No Way” Jose Theodore that slammed the door shut stopping 41 of those shots including 20 in the third period alone. Even though Theo’s career record for shots faced in a game is 47, the 43 he faced Tuesday night were the most he had ever faced as a Washington Capital.

Can’t keep a good team down – The Caps have only had to come from behind on multifocal deficits twice this season, and in both occasions they have come back to win it. The previous time was the game immediately preceding this one where they found themselves down to the Islanders. Brooks Laich scored the game winner in OT.

Thursday, October 29th @ the Thrashers…again – It had to feel like déjà vu for the Caps who had just faced this Thrasher team the previous Thursday…also in Atlanta. It had to feel like déjà vu for the Thrashers as well as they fell to the Caps again on home ice. The Caps, who knew they had to play another game in less than 24 hours tried to put this game away early so they could start resting up their players for Friday night’s game. In a classic example of why you never “look past” you current opponent the Caps watched a three-goal lead evaporate in the third period. Atlanta, being down 3-2 pulled their goalie in favor of the extra attacker. Mike Knuble had no idea his empty net goal would be the game winner (it made the score 4-2) as the Thrashers got what would have been the tying goal in the last 1/2 second of regulation, but by then it wasn’t enough and the Caps held on for the 4-3 win.

Define: “Four Point” game – When you beat a division opponent in regulation, it is referred to as a “four point” game. You gain two points in the standings for the win, and at the same time cost your opponents two points by preventing them from winning. To really see it, you need to look at the season standings. Washington held a 7-point lead in the Southeast division going into Thursday’s game. Two teams were tied for second; Atlanta and Tampa. At the end of the night, the Caps still had a seven point lead in the division (Tampa won their game), but now had a nine point lead over Atlanta.

Back on Track – After a short slump where he was held without a goal for two games Alex Ovechkin came back and scored four goals in two games including two here versus Atlanta to give him 13 goals in 12 games.

Friday, October 30th vs. the Islanders – While the Caps were in Atlanta tangling with the Thrashers, the Islanders were in Washington helping themselves to whatever the Caps had in the fridge and kicking their feet up onto the coffee table. The Caps may have had the home ice advantage, but considering that they had just finished playing a game the night before, it was New York that had the advantage. The Caps kept it close and even held the lead a few times throughout the game, but just couldn’t seem to shake the Islanders and ultimately fell to them in OT by the final score of 4-3.

THN on Ice – Our own Jake Russell was at the game Friday night posting a live blog from the press box. Click here to check out his blog and video interviews after the game.

Sunday, November 1^st vs. the Blue Jackets – Even though the Caps lost Alex Ovechkin early in the second period, they weren’t going to go down without a fight. After scoring the game’s first goal, they found themselves trailing 2-1 at the beginning of the third period. Brooks Laich stepped up and scored the game tying and go-ahead goals putting the Caps up 3-2. A short while later Raffi Torres tied it up, but the Caps regained their lead when Quintin Lang scored with a little more than three minutes left to play in regulation. With less than half a minute to go in regulation, it was Torres who brought the score even at four and forced overtime where the Caps would fall 5-4.

Sometimes, it’s just not going to be your day – Jose Theodore played a great game, but was victimized by two unfortunate incidents that lead to goals. The first of which was in the second period when Theo went behind the net to play the puck, only to have the puck take an unusual bounce away from him, back towards the front of the net and straight to R. J. Umberger who stashed it home. The second came midway through the third where Theo had his stick knocked out of his hand as he slid left to protect against the wrap-around he had nothing to defend his right side where Raffi Torres was waiting to tap the puck in on the now stickless stick-side.

Coming Up – The Caps have three games this week starting Wednesday night in New Jersey. They then go to Florida to face the Panthers on Friday, and bring them back to DC for another meeting on Saturday.

In the meantime, we’ll all be crossing our fingers on Ovechkin!

C-A-P-S, Caps! Caps! Caps!

The New York Islanders come into the Verizon Center looking to avenge a 3-2 overtime loss to the Capitals just six nights ago in Nassau Coliseum. Making his first trip to the Verizon Center is 19-year old John Tavares. The 2009 No. 1 overall draft choice is second on the team with points and goals scored. The Capitals will also welcome a familiar face back to the rink when Brendan Witt hits the ice. Witt spent 10 seasons in Washington from 1995-2006. He was traded to the Nashville Predators in the second half of the 2006 season for Kris Beech and the Predators’ first round selection, which the Capitals used to select goaltender Semyon Varlomov.

1st Period Overview:

Not surprisingly the Capitals struck first with a goal from none other than Alexander Ovechkin, who is on pace for a third straight MVP season. The Capitals did a great job getting themselves out of jams by clearing the puck from behind their own net to across the rink on several occassions. That was until the Islanders were able to capitalize off of that pressure they forced and retaliated with a goal by Kyle Okposo (his third on the season) with an assist coming from Witt.

Goals: NY – 1 WAS – 1
Shots: NY – 11 WAS – 9
Power Play Goals: NY – 0 WAS – 1
Hits: NY – 9 WAS – 4

2nd Period Overview:

The second period was a tale of two scorers. There was not much defense to be had, especially in the final minutes. The Islanders struck first with a goal from Frans Nielson to go up 2-1, Tomas Fleischmann, who made his season debut last night against the Thrashers after missing the start of the season with deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot) in his leg, delivered his first two goals of the season to give the Caps their second lead of the night at 3-2. His second came with a little over three minutes to go. Just over one minute later, Nielson closed out the period with his second goal of the season as well with 2:10 remaining to tie it up at 3.

Goals: NY – 2 WAS – 2
Shots: NY – 9 WAS – 13
Power Play Goals: NY – 0 WAS – 1
Hits: NY – 2 WAS – 9

3rd Period Overview:

The Capitals spent most of their time as they did in the first period, trying to clear traffic out from goaltender Jose Theodore’s way. This period was a battle of defenses. The contest ended in regulation as it did on Satruday night with a tied score headed into overtime.

Goals: NY – 0 WAS – 0
Shots: NY – 8 WAS – 17
Power Play Goals: NY – 0 WAS – 0
Hits: NY – 8 WAS – 6

Overtime Overview:

The Islanders earned their first victory over the Capitals since February 2008 in the same fashion the Capitals earned their win last win against the Isles Saturday night; in the first minute of overtime. This time, Mark Streit is the hero of the night for New York, who shocked the crowd by taking advantage of a puck-handling error by Capitals defenseman Mike Green just 0:53 into overtime.

Goals: NY – 1 WAS – 0
Shots: NY – 2 WAS – 0
Power Play Goals: NY – 0 WAS – 0
Hits: NY – 0 WAS – 0

Tom Poti – Postgame Interview

Tomas Fleischmann – Postgame Interview

Bruce Boudreau – Postgame Presser

On Friday night at the Wachovia Arena, the Bears fell behind early in the third period 5-2, before getting goals from Darren Reid (his 3rd) and Andrew Gordon (his 5th) to close the gap to a single goal. However, the baby Pens potted an empty net goal with 34 seconds remaining to obtain the victory.

Link to my article on the game on JohnWaltonHockey.com

On Saturday night, the Bears returned to home ice to face the Binghamton Senators, who they had already defeated twice this season in Broome County. After falling behind 2-0 early in the first period, the Bears responded with goals from Darren Reid and Oskar Osala (his 1st) to tie the game after 20 minutes. The Boys from Binghamton then scored the last three goals of the game, including an empty net goal to prevail.

Link to my article on the game on JohnWaltonHockey.com

On Sunday afternoon at Giant Center, the Portland Pirates, the top affiliate of the Washington Capitals before the Caps and Bears reunited, came for a visit. The Pirates, who registered their first road win of the season on Saturday in Norfolk, took an early 2-1 second period lead before the Bears rallied for the win.

Link to my article on the game on JohnWaltonHockey.com

The Bears return to action on Friday night in Hartford against the Wolfpack before returning home to face the Albany River Rats on Saturday night at Giant Center. Good seats remain available for that contest.

Link to Giant Center box office.

For all of your up-to-date information and video on the Bears, visit JohnWaltonHockey.com

It’s another Monday, so it must be time for another Caps Recap!

After suffering through four straight losses, the Capitals have bounced back and added two more games to the win column last week and have now won four straight. This is certainly worth celebrating, but the fact is, the Caps are still not playing really good hockey. To say their power play is not performing would be an understatement; their power play has proven to be a liability as their opponents scored two shorthanded goals while the Caps went 0-11 on the power play last week alone.

I suppose you could say the Caps went -2 for 11 on the PP.

Something else that is interesting is that Caps superstar Alex Ovechkin was rendered without a goal in both of this past week’s contests. You might say that a large part of the teams woes have to do with the slump that Ovechkin finds himself in, which could have something to do with the absence of Alex Semin on the second line.

Superstars not withstanding; the Caps have seen their B-liner’s step it up and that’s what you need from a good hockey team. Their wins may not have been pretty, but you get no extra points for style.

Let’s get to the recap

Thursday, October 22^nd – Caps @ Atlanta – In keeping with their trend, the Caps jumped out to an early lead when Eric Fehr scored on an early breakaway just 2:02 into the game. Atlanta matched them step for step in the first period and both teams went into the locker-room tied at 2 goals apiece. In the second period, the Caps victimized Thrashers’ goalie Ondrej Pavalec by scoring three goals in :88 seconds and ending his night early. The Caps’ special teamers gave up a shorthanded and a power-play goal in the third period, but the team managed to hang on and eek out a 5-4 victory.

Dialing Long Distance – Midway through the second period, Jeff Schultz got the gift of a lifetime scoring a goal from 190 feet away. As he rounded his own net, he received a pass from Caps’ netminder Semyon Varlamov, and tried to pass the puck up the ice to Mike Knuble. As far as passes go, it wasn’t a very good one and never connected with Knuble, but it skipped it’s way up the ice taking an extremely lucky (or unlucky, depending on whom you were rooting for) bounce a mere seven feet from Thrasher’s goalie Ondrej Pavalec shooting right up over his glove and into the net.

Noticeably Absent – The Capital’s “Young Guns” (Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin and Green) were each held without a point in Thursday’s game versus Atlanta (to be fair, Semin wasn’t playing due to injury). The Caps were 0-1 this year when their young stars were held scoreless, and went 1-9-1 in the few times that it happened last year.

Maybe it’s the name Alex… – With Alexander Semin out with an injury, and Alexander Ovechkin having trouble finding the back of the net, it fell to Alexandre Giroux to get an Alex on the score sheet. Giroux’s goal in the first period was his fourth ever NHL goal and it comes against the organization that let him slip away in the minors. Giroux played for the Thrasher’s AHL affiliate in Chicago for the first part of the ‘07-‘08 season where he was coached by the Thrashers’ current head coach, John Anderson.

Saturday, October 24^th – Caps @ NY Islanders – Caps’ fans who tuned in late may have been surprised to see their team behind after the first period. It’s the first time the Caps have trailed to start a game this season. The Caps struggled to find an answer all game and rotated several different forward through the Ovechkin-Backstrom line. The Caps still struggled on the power-play, and gave up their second short-handed goal in as many games. The Caps dug deep and finally found their goal scorer mentality and it was Mike Green that led the charge. Keith Aucoin tied the game up, and it was Brooks Laich that won the game in overtime.

That was ugly – This game should not have been as close as it was. The Caps came in with a 5-2-2 record to face an Islander team with only one win for the season. Senior Writer for WashingtonCaps.com had it right when he said “wins are like goals; you don’t ask ‘how,’ you ask ‘how many.’” If the Caps don’t figure out the ‘how’ and soon it’s going to be a long week.

For more Caps Coverage – check out this blog by Bosshog “Caps Steal One in Overtime”

Coming up, the Caps are bringing home the Philadelphia Flyers tomorrow night, and then it’s going to feel like Déjà vu as the Caps square off against the Thrashers (in Atlanta on Thursday) and Islanders (at Verizon Center on Friday) again.

With both of Washington’s teams facing a Philadelphia opponent (Redskins tonight, Capitals tomorrow, both televised nationally) it’s going to smell an awful lot like cheese-steak around here for the next coupla days.

Something tells me it’s going to be up to the Caps to split the difference.

C-A-P-S Caps! Caps! Caps!

THN Turning Point:
Green’s goal in the third period – it gave the Capitals life, and seemed to subsequently put the Islanders back on their heels.

Game Summary:

For two periods of the Capitals – Islanders game, it was a dull, low scoring affair. The Islanders couldn’t put them away early though, and the Caps came back with two goals in the third period and forced overtime, where Brooks Laich scored to give Washington a 3-2 victory.

Laich’s goal came just a minute into the extra period, when he crashed the net and tipped in a Mike Green pass. It was Laich’s fourth goal of the young season, and his first game winning goal; but make no mistake about it, the goal was created by Green. The young blue-liner looked like a man possessed on the rush, and carried the puck out of his own zone, through the neutral ice, and into the Isles zone; he then threw the puck at a streaking Laich, who tapped it into the net.

The win was Washington’s third overtime victory in a row in New York – in fact, it was actually the fourth consecutive overtime decision between the two squads at Nassau Coliseum. Alex Ovechkin scored two overtime winners last year, and Rickard Park gave the Isles an overtime win over the Caps back on December 22, 2007.

Early on, the Islanders took the lead on a first period short-handed goal from Radek Martinek. The Capitals got caught up ice on the power play, and Martinek made them pay on a nifty 3-on-2 pass from Frans Nielsen. New York had a 1-0 lead, and the Caps had given up the game’s first goal for just the second time in their first ten games.

It stayed that way until New York made it 2-0 at the beginning of the third. Jeff Tambellini redirected a Blake Comeau shot that was going wide, and tipped it past Jose Theodore for a two goal spread. Believe it or not, it was the first time in this 10-game old season that the Caps have trailed by two goals. Comeau’s shot came after Josh Bailey beat Nicklas Backstrom clean on a draw to the right of Theodore; the Caps were dismal at the face-off dot on Saturday, going just 20 of 66 (30%).

Less than three minutes later, Mike Green got Washington back to within one. The Capitals broke out of their own end beautifully, and hit Mike Knuble as he entered the Isles zone; Knuble sensed Green jumping into the play and laid a beautiful blind back pass on to his stick. Green made no mistake and fired a Howlitzer off the far post and in, to half the deficit to 2-1 Islanders.

The Caps completed the comeback at just past the 13-minute mark of the third. Keith Aucoin took advantage of an out-of-the-net Dwayne Roloson, and tucked the puck in on a wrap around. Alex Ovechkin was going hard to the net and an Islander defenseman pushed him into the crease – putting Roloson out of position. Aucoin picked up the loose puck behind the net and banked it in off of New York center Josh Bailey to even the game at 2-2.

After the game, coach Bruce Boudreau said that he sensed the outcome coming, “I just thought the play of the team… you could feel it on the bench that they were going to come back tonight.”

Jose Theodore had a lot to do with the victory as he fought hard and kept the Caps in the game. While he only had to face 24 shots, crucial saves early on were a big part of what allowed the Caps to storm back.

Doing so brought the Caps record to 6-2-2 atop the Southeast Division, and second overall in the Conference behind only the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was Washington’s fourth win in a row.

Notes:
The Caps had five first period shots on goal, their fewest in any first period this season… the Islanders blocked an impressive 25 shots – 10 in each of the first two periods, and 5 in the third… the Caps took just two penalties on the evening – a marked improvement in discipline… Both Ovechkin and Green logged more than 26 minutes of ice time… Keith Aucoin had the least amount of ice time for any Cap with less than 9 minutes, but made it count with the game-tying goal in the third.