The Capitals have been devastated by the flu. Steve Eminger, Matt Pettinger and Brian Sutherby were sidelined because of illness. Brian Pothier, Chris Clark and Mike Green all played despite being less than 100 percent but all three got so sick during the contest that they are unlikely to play tonight against the Rangers.

If they can field a whole team.... latest word is the Caps called Machesney up, which probably means Johnson is so ill he can't even back up Kolzig tonight.

We shall see.

At any rate, here again is Netsrak's game thread for tonight's game, with all the links (first post), winks, kinks, and "finks" (I kid because I care) from official:

http://boards.washingtoncaps.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=46792

Sutherby warmed up tonight, but scratched again. Machesney is indeed the backup.

Kasparaitis hits Ovechkin big and clean in the slot, knocking him off his skates..... 1:55 in, the Rangers score.

Not a good sign.

Ovechkin proves payback is hell- his 3rd hit of the game, he crunches Rozsival and sends him hurting to the bench. 6:30 in, most of the action has been right in front of Kolzig.

edit: Ovie only has 2 hits creditted, so JB/Laughlin must have counted Kaspar's as the first.

Rags go on the PP with 11:25 left in the 1st.

They just showed a shot of Rozsival on the bench- still woozy, holding/rubbing his left jaw.

After the Rangers go offside TWICE on the PP, next time in Steckel with a fine poke check at the blue line to clear the zone.....

more PP, Gordon clears it....

more PP, Kolzig covers....

Kolzig blocks one again with :06 left in the PP....

killed. Good job.

hahahaha- right off a faceoff, Orr turns to Brashear, drops his gloves and stick, and...... Brashear steps over the boards off the ice for a line change.

I think they'll go at it for real in a bit.

Both Pothier and Clark (see the first post in the thread) are -2 already..... probably neither one should be playing (and Green is a scratch).

Rangers on the PP again, 2:17 left 1st.

Several good chances, but no goal.... penalty killed.

2-0 Rangers, end 1st.

Stats:

SOGs 16-5 Rangers

hits 16-11 Rangers

takeaways 5-1 Rangers

blocks 8-6 Caps

missed shots 5-2 Rangers

faceoffs 57% Caps (12 of 21)

penalties Caps 2 for 4:00, Rangers 0-0 (only good point- 2 kills for the Caps)

Caps' clock is very clean after 1 period.

Laughlin says the Caps "get a "0" on the forecheck meter" for the period.... Rangers clogging the neutral zone, just as the Devils did last night. Considering how sick the team must be, the idea that they have no legs isn't very surprising.

Sickness/injury update: Eminger and Pettinger back tonight, Sutherby still out, Green and Johnson gone tonight.

16:52  left 2nd, the Caps get their first PP of the game on a slash. Nycholat and Semin on the points to start, kept it in the zone almost a full minute. I really like Nycholat- he seems to keep his cool no matter the situation.

Killed, and back to ES. 14:50 left 2nd.

What game are they playing? Ovechkin takes a shot which bounces high off the defender.... Ovie swats it out of the air (legal height), hits a 3-hopper to Lundqvist who fields it cleanly like a shortstop!

Scrum at 11:28 left, and the Caps get a PP.

Once again, Nycholat very cool in getting the puck out of the zone...

Zubie turns it over, but Shanny trips himself on what should have been a clean breakaway....

Zubie's shot blocked with :04 left in the PP, and killed. Not much action on that one.

Caps get another PP with 7:43 left 2nd.

Rachunek on a breakaway, hooked from behind, clangs it off the post..... penalty shot.

Kolzig denies!!!

Much better work for the rest of the PP, but no results. Scrum at the bench, and this time it's Brashear and Hollweg. Timeout without knowing penalties or time left....

Brashear in the box, 5:21 left 2nd. He actually got boarded (no call), but retaliated. Now Ovie's in the box too, and the Rangers skate 5 on 4. I'll have to check this out. Locker says this wasn't a good call....

No real good work by the Rangers to take advantage, and the Caps kill it off easily.

edit: turned out to be matching roughing calls, with a second on Brashear that Ovechkin served.

1:38 PP, Rangers clear.... 1:04, save Lundqvist.... :59, faceoff outside the zone.... :34, offside Caps as Pothier can't keep it in clean.... :28, Rangers clear.... :11, cleared again.... killed.

Kaspar immediately makes it 3-0, :47.4 left 2nd.

Just as I hit "post" and they dropped the puck, a fight- Brashear and Orr. Orr gets the first shot in, they grab each other and dance for a few seconds, and then..... Brashear gets that left hand loose. Probably 8-10 unanswered solid punches from Brashear (Petty hits pipe, but no goal as I type), and Orr goes over backwards.

Brashear with a clear decision, but more takedown than knockdown at the end.

3-0 Rangers, end 2nd.

Stats:

SOGs 22-14 Rangers (9-6 Caps in the 2nd)

hits 26-17 Rangers

takeaways 7-5 Rangers

blocks 13-12 Rangers

missed shots 11-10 Caps

faceoffs 51% Caps (21 of 41)

penalties 7 for 17:00 Rangers, 6 for 15:00 Caps (Caps have killed 6:00, Rangers 8:00)

score 3-0 Rangers.....

looks about right.

Scrum at 16:06 left 3rd, but no blood no fouls.

Now Ovie draws one, and the Caps have a "Betty" for 1:12!

Ovechkin was tripped, and everone took the net out- Ovie gets up rubbing the back of his neck from hitting the boards, Lundqvist is being looked at by the trainers. Both seem ok, and stay in the game.

Rangers win the faceoff and clear....

good work by the Rags along the boards kills the Betty....

couple of clears and a save kills the rest. ES.

In three games against the Rangers this year (counting this one), the Caps are 0 for 19 on the PP.

Kind of says it all.

Wow- Shanny drops the gloves and gets Brashear's attention....

they bear hug, and now Brashear beats him down. He gets through with Shanahan, and turns around and puts Ward to the ice with a one-punch clean uppercut, too. Ward goes to the box, probably for instigating (nope- it was unsportsmanlike conduct)- he was talking to Brashear and took a poke at him with his stick.

Shanny gets the gate for not having his strap fashioned; Brashear gets it for 3 fights in a game (I think).

edit: Brashear got a "Deliberate attempt to injure" and a match misconduct- we're talking fines and suspensions again. misto reports (she's got the N.Y. feed) he also said he "needed a doctor" as he left the ice, so we might be considering  injury to insult as well. Now misto reports it is a cut.

All that and they skate 4 on 4... Ovechkin gets a great chance, but denied by Lundqvist.

10:45 left in regulation.

After the ES, the Rags got a PP of about 3:30 out of all that, killed again by the Caps.

This team gets down, but they don't get knocked out.

Hollweg goes after Zubrus, now Orr calling out to Nycholat (brave guys, now that Brashear is gone). Timeout- we'll see if anything comes of this.

Caps to the PP again. Orr went for a slash.

0 for 20.

4:38 left in regulation.

Morrisonn takes on Orr since Brashear is gone, after a cheap shot (stick and hands to the face) on Ovechkin. JB- "started to run around as soon as Brashear went on the match penalty". Orr gets 2:00 ..... for a charge? Yikes. What a terrible call.

Now Semin goes to the box for "chirping" at the refs- Hanlon pissed that there is no match call on Orr at all. The Rangers actually got a PP out of all that.

Morrisonn went for "instigating", since it was in the last 5:00.

Now Olie gets run over in the crease, and swats a Rag down with his blocker.... big scrum around his cage with 3:07 left....

Locker says "I don't think we're done yet".....

Prucha scores on a rebound at 2:37. PP goal.

4-0

hahahaha off the faceoff, Nycholat with a sweet pass to Clymer who pots one off Lundqvist's left shoulder!

4-1, 2:29 left in regulation.

A great post, from over on official:

tbm

Today, 10:10 PM Post #20

Newbie Group: Members Posts: 2 Joined: 27-December 06 Member No.: 4,879

QUOTE(BBD36 @ Dec 30 2006, 11:02 PM) QUOTE(FlyersSuck @ Dec 30 2006, 10:59 PM) QUOTE(NCCapsfan @ Dec 30 2006, 11:55 PM) Oh, our inability to win faceoffs, carry the puck, hold the puck, pass on the powerplay, setup the powerplay.....is disgusting. It is painfully obvious we have the lowest payroll. you realize half the team is injured/sick, and most of what's left is playing sick right? Hmmmm, how about that "boarding call" that Gordon absorbed near the boards, but I guess Gordon makes a little less than Briere, and Hollvig isn't a name like Ovechkin, so no penalty. GO CAPS BBD36 (in the Caps imitating the Redskins move , trading a 3rd round pick for the oft injured Richard Zednik, instead of bringing in a Peter Bondra at less money for the 2nd PP Point man, and someone who isn't too shabby in a Black Hawk jersey so far) at least it's a little more Zednik has given than TJ Duckett That wasn't really a boarding call. Hollweg caught him more from the side. Gordon, like Klepis, needs to tap into the vibe of the game and realize that when players like Orr, Hollweg and Ward are on the ice that if you stand around with the puck too long you'll get hammered. And while its clear the Caps were undermanned once Brash got tossed, Orr didn't exactly shy away from Brash prior to that. Orr's a tough cookie and he was steaming on the bench and in the box, he wanted to just hurt us anyway he could and probably felt like he hadn't done enough to send a msg back with all the running around Brash was doing. Orr did his job. He'll get suspended for the hit and rightfully so, the officials blew the call bigtime. That was a clear intent to injure. Brashear's little tango with Jagr got the ball rollin and when Shanny took up the charge the rest of the Rangers followed. With less than a minute left Hollweg was still out there throwing elbows but he had no takers. The team really misses Erskine and to an extent Bradley when games start headin down this route. This is ole time hockey, this kinda stuff happened all the time eons ago. Well maybe not eons. ">

Word is starting to leak out (various blogs, including Tarik's at the Washington Post site) that the official penalties are:

Orr- 5 game suspension

Brashear- 1 game suspension

Morrisonn- no suspension, Hanlon no fine