Halpern won't play tonight. Two Boyds have been recalled: Gordon and Kane. The top three lines will probably be:

Ovechkin Zubrus Clark
Pettinger Laich Willsie
Clymer Sutherby Bradley

If Biron plays as a forward again, the fourth line could be:

Biron Gordon Kane

... with Cassels as a healthy scratch? Why did we recall two guys if we only have one new injury?

7:00 PM EST
	Senators	VS		Capitals
	LISTEN NOW!			LISTEN NOW!

 

LET'S GO, CAPS!

WASHINGTON Capitals

Ovechkin Zubrus Clark
Pettinger Laich Willsie
Clymer Sutherby Bradley
Kane Gordon Biron

Witt Heward
Eminger Muir
Morrisonn Majesky

Kolzig
(Johnson)

***

OTTAWA Senators

Vermette Smolinsky Heatley
Schaefer Fisher Neil
Varada Kelly Eaves
Schubert Martins McGrattan

Phillips Chara
Redden Volchenkov
Meszaros Pothier

Hasek
(Emery)

Tonight, I'm forced to listen to the Senators' announcers laughing at our PK record... Grrrrrr... Kolbe, come baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!

On paper, those lines, without Spezza, Alfredsson and Havlat, don't look that impressive. Ottawa has 161 goals, so far. 47 of them were scored by those three players. They miss more than one goal per game tonight (*). We might be able to resist.

 

(*) Actually, those three players have a 1.65 goal-per-game average.

Phillips scores his first of the year, 4-on-4! 1-0 Ottawa.

First intermission.

Biron played his first shift very late in the first period, on the PP. Kane only had two shifts. Gordon spent some time on the PK, as expected.

The Senators on their fourth power play, early in the second period. Shots are 12-7 Ottawa so far.

Heatley, then Kelly to the box: 4-on-3 PP for the Caps, and a short 5-on-3 to come.

Great work by Varada's line. Eaves scores. 2-0.

Ovechkin to the box for hooking.

A personal record- left the arena about 1:00 after the 1st ended, got home with the TV screen on at 11:23 left 2nd.......

Eaves scores.

2-0.

End of second.

We don't sound too active offensively, tonight. I almost fell asleep.

We don't sound too active offensively, tonight. I almost fell asleep.

"We" aren't. 15 SOGs in 2 full periods, on a guy coming back from injury and 40 years old.....

Best thing I saw all night, was the opening shifts- Caps got the puck deep, behind the Ott goal, and Chara passed it out, only to take a big hit from......

who else? Ovechkin.

Chara actually looked around to see if he could get the guy's number.

8, Zdeno, 8...........................

oh, yeah- I forgot- AO hit another post, in the 1st. That must be at least 7 that I've seen, and I leave very early almost every game. A matter of inches, and the guy would be far ahead of the rest of the league.

Speaking of which, Kovalchuk already has 2 goals tonight (27, I believe)- just imagine if he hadn't missed all those games.

They must feed these russian guys something......

Nothing on a 5 on 3, another penalty takes them off the PP, not much of a game tonight.

A blast from the point by Biron, possibly deflected by Pettinger. 2-1!

That was Pettinger's 9th of the season, on the PP, from Biron and Zubrus.

There's already a picture of the game on nhl.com's home page:

Gotta love the fact that Ovechkin doesn't know who he's hitting. Chara who?

Empty net goal. 3-1 Ottawa.

Final score.

N54 was down for a few minutes at the end of the game.

The picture at nhl.com was quickly replaced with one of Hasek:

The Dominator is back
	Dominik Hasek returned from a minor back injury, making 23 saves in the Senators' 3-1 win over the Capitals.   The victory keeps the high-scoring Senators atop the Eastern Conference standings.  Also, the Dallas Stars host the stumbling Vancouver Canucks (in progress). ...more

Biron was named third star of the game.

" . . . while Olie Kolzig will wear a microphone during the contest . . . "


- "My God, Chara is one big freakin' dude"

- "One . . . two . . . three" What're ya doin' Olie? "I'm counting the fans . . . four . . . five . . . six"

- "Brendan . . . they didn't trade you, yet?"

- "Glen . . . I'm staying out to catch the mini-mites on ice."

- "Geez . . . is that a stick Chara has or a light pole?"

- "seven . . . eight . . . nine . . . "

___________
Play hard, shake hands, drink beer.

"LA needs two hockey teams like Switzerland needs two navies" -- Norman Chad (from "My 10-Point Plan to Save Gary Bettman from Himself")


If you've read this far, you probably could use a hobby

Highlights.

Another great goal on the PP thanks to Biron.