3:56 left 1st, the Caps take the lead! Ovechkin works to keep the puck, it comes to him off the right faceoff circle, and his shot rebounds out to Kozlov, who buries it!
Wow, too bad I missed that one. Not to mention that we needed me to comment the shootout.
Christensen, wide.
Kozlov, denied.
Letang hits the crossbar, no goal.
Ovechkin SCORES! 1-0. We've been waiting for this one for some time, hehe.
Ruutu scores. 1-1.
Semin SCORES! Caps win.
Congrats to Backstrom for this NHL record. He's now a solid second among rookies in points. Could end up winning that race (and the trophy) if the Caps keep doing what they're doing.
Ovechkin now leads the league in goals (Kovalchuk has been stuck at 37 since January 12, and Ovechkin scored 6 in that span and now has 38).
Ovechkin is also 5th in points, but only two points behind first place. Lecavalier, Kovalchuk, Iginla, Crosby, Ovechkin, Zetterberg and Alfredsson, all fighting hard for this trophy. Getzlaf and Malkin are not too far. Maybe McPhee made a mistake when he picked Fehr (#18) instead of Getzlaf (#19). Someone here said it then... Chris, I believe.
Standings: Caps are now second in the Southeast division, with more wins than losses, and 10th in the conference. 3 points away from 8th seed, but more importantly, only 3 points away from the division leading 'Canes, with 3 games in hand. Sounds good to me.
8-2-0 in their last 10. 16/20. Only two teams in the league did better, Ducks and Flyers, that were 8-1-1 (17/20). The Pens also had 16 points in their last 10 (7-1-2).
One of the four hottest teams in the league, man, hehe. Thanks to those two shootout wins. It was about time we won those.
I'm glad to see them taking advantage of their opportunities, but I'm still not convinced they're as good as people are starting to believe-
they beat a crippled Penguins' squad last night (I believe 2 Pens played their first ever NHL game, in addition to crosby being out).... and had to go shootout to do it; Ovechkin's first goal, I thought he shanked it, but that's what sent it high, over the shoulder; several guys didn't play up to their regular game, but good things obscured that fact (Backstrom, for one- he started out just terrible, as far as his defense went, he sucked ALL game on faceoffs, but 4 assists again and everyone says "WOOHOO!"; Green for another; Ovechkin for another- he's lucky Malkin's move put him into the boards back first, instead of feet first like Crosby went- Ovie would be out a month at least, at the speed he was going).
There was some speculation that backstrom was benched at the end of regulation last night, but Oh Come On! at official has the best explanation for what really happened:
I ran back the DVR--here's what happened. After the tying goal, Laich took one of his shifts to take a defensive zone draw. Then Boudreau shortened the bench, basically going with two lines, Laing/Steckel/Bradley and Gordon/Pettinger/Ovechkin.
Then in OT the penalties came before Backstrom had a shift. After the penalties, there were no more stoppages, and on the fly only Ovechkin, Kozlov, and Semin got in to try to score with less than a minute left.
I don't think it was a decision to bench Backstrom--an odd set of circumstances prevailed for 9 minutes and those events dictated that others should be playing.
Let's be honest- more wins than REGULATION losses....
That said, it will be interesting to see if they keep this up the rest of the way, and who gets the shaft when guys like Clark return to the lineup (most seem to think the "ger" boys- Pettin and/or Emin).
Current Topic - Game 48 at Pittsburgh Penguins (W 6-5 SO )
