I went to the "morning skate" today, and the only ones who "skated" were Johnson (goal), Nylander (by himself for quite a while until the few others came out), Erskine (was on the ice for maybe 5 minutes and 5 SOGs, when he suddenly left- he's in the lineup tonight), Pothier (he's out of the lineup, Boudreau's punishment for that pass that led to the first goal last night), Clark, and Eminger.
Kolzig's in goal tonight.
Nice to read Michael's account of the new arena up in Jersey- I'd have gone up with the Road Crew, but decided to hold to my "not another cent until they play consistently decent hockey" pledge.
This message has been edited by reallycrowesnest on Dec 8, 2007 9:30 PM
Boudreau playing with his lines again, the starting top line is Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Pettinger... 4:00 in, the Caps have had all the better of the play, and absolutely nothing to show for it.
That goal was due to some good work by Semin, who brought the puck from behind the Atlanta net on the left, fired it to Schultz, and then paid the price for the work, crosschecked hard to the ice (there would have been a penalty, but the goal made it superfluous).
So Erskine makes a Thrash player pay to cross the midline, but it's interference.... Atlanta PP....
killed easily.
edit: the replay shows that wasn't a Semin pass, it was a shot that rebounded out to Schultz, who came in toward the goal and took advantage of the situation. Great play.
This message has been edited by reallycrowesnest on Dec 8, 2007 7:30 PM
Backstrom is now tied for 3rd in points among rookies, and 2nd in assists (3-13-16 in 28 games and one period). He's been everything we hoped he would be, so far.
The 2nd starts all Thrash, not much from the Caps.... but then, a concerted effort on a shift- Bradley gets upended into the boards, does a somersault, and come up to go off the ice- the next shift keeps the pressure on, Ovechkin tries to stuff one in, and the rebound comes out to Pettinger.....
3-0!
Then on a Caps' PP, a very hard Semin shot from in close knocks Lehtonen's helmet right off his head- you could hear it hit clearly on the TV. They took a timeout for the repairs, and now play is back on with the Caps ahead 3-0.
The Thrash get a 2MA PP for a full 2:00.... good work by the Caps, but they don't clear for over 1:20... when they do, they only get one guy changed... :12 left in the PP, the Thrash get it in.
AKoken- had the line played together before? MP- no, played with Backstrom some in camp, but hadn't played with Ovechkin in a long time
AK- well it's (the new line) working tonight! MP- (BB) shakes it up seems like every game, maybe they'll keep (us) together for a while (he was smiling and laughing when he said that).
Green (tonight's 1st star) said in the post game interview they played a 60:00 game for once- I thought they were good for about 52:00. There were a couple stretches where they just didn't bear down, but for the most part played hard.
They need to bring that attitude every game.
I also thought, unlike many on official, that it was more Nylander being out of the lineup that was the big difference (rather than the "official" whipping boy, Pothier). Dmen didn't have to hang back as he entered the Ozone, just in case he decided to circle around for half of each shift. They could jump up into the play, and it resulted in 3 goals tonight, basically the difference in the game.
